The moment her hooves could reach, she grabbed onto the edge of the broken floor and scrambled up onto the next floor. That brief moment of struggle managed to hurt less than her wings. "Figures..." The arrow must have struck one of her wing muscles directly. The pain was ebbing to a low roar as she kept them firmly folded to her sides.
She couldn't hear Cabellaron, or his goons. They were probably off somewhere else, she figured, looting everything that caught their eye. She still had her prizes and they hadn't thought to take them from her. A little smirk spread on her lips as she started to walk. Her little white lie had done its job of downplaying what treasures she had secured.
"One piece." That was all she needed, to get out intact. She considered going back the way she came, but that led to a window, and just imagining flying down from there sent an pained shudder through her. She squinted at the floor instead, looking for hoofprints and starting to follow them backwards.
Those goons had to come in, and they didn't have wings. Where they came in, she could get out, or so she hoped. Her own clip-clops echoed off the hard stone around her, judging her. "I'm preserving you," she muttered under her breath. She wouldn't sell to the highest bidder, the impression she was rapidly getting about her new 'peer'.
A soft click reached her ears and she dove forward with wide eyes. Her hat was driven off her head, but she never heard it hit the ground, instead hearing something smash into stone. She sat up, huffing for breath as she reached up for where the hat had rested, so close to her head as it had to be. "How did those fools not run into that?"
She saw her hat, pinned to the wall. An arrow was thrust through it, its heavy stone head plunged an inch into the stone of the opposite wall. Amy cringed as she carefully worked the arrow free. "Today is not my lucky day for arrows." But she did get her hat free, even if it had a new hole. Back onto her head she set it. "Maybe I'll take this slower." As much as she was ready to go home, she had to get out first without getting into more trouble.
Was this what her friend went through regularly? Was that how he'd ended up in a hospital? Independent archaeology was far more dangerous than she would have assumed. A distant noise reached her, then a faint yelp. What trouble had the three gotten themselves into? "Not my monkey," she muttered as she resumed following the trail they had left behind. Thankfully, they hadn't been trying to be subtle. She wasn't sure if subtle was a word they even knew.
A small part of her hoped they'd do something stupid and get hurt, but she lashed out at that part almost instantly. "Be better than that! You don't want anypony getting hurt, even if they are a jerk." The part argued that if she was so sincere, she'd go check up on them. "... No, there are limits." She would not wish pain and death on them, nor would she lend a hoof to those who left her for dead.
The temple would determine their fates, combined with their own lust for treasure. It was the fairest way she had at her disposal right at that moment.
That was when she found the hole. A great uneven hole right in a wall, destroying the artwork that had been on it. "On the other hoof," she growled, imagining how it had happened. It led right outside. This was how they got in, by force. They had damaged the precious historical site before they'd even poked their ugly faces into it. Some archeologists they were! "Did they bring explosives?" Had they mentioned that? She couldn't remember precisely through the pain.
Either way, that was the exit. Freedom was right in front of her. She walked up at an angle, sliding up just at the edge of the hole in the wall and peeking out. There were no animals in sight. She could hear the sound of jungle life. She would be tradining temple dangers for jungle ones, and she wasn't sure which was immediately more lethal.
And she wouldn't have wingpower to sail over things. It was forward or back, only two options really. A.K. drew a soft breath before trotting out, leaving the temple behind. The dead would wait, she could not.
"You've looked better." There was her friend, visiting her in the small clinic she had dragged herself to. "But you're in one piece, all we can ask." He trotted to her bedside. "I told you it was dangerous... But I also told you where to go, so--"
"--This isn't your fault." She sat up a bit, wincing at the pain flaring up in her chest. "I'll get better. Besides, I did get some things."
His ears went erect. "I saw the shield." His horn glowed, gently picking up the shield and bringing it over. "Wonderful craftscreatureship. Hardly worth getting your pretty hide punctured over."
"Flattery will get you nowhere." Amy huffed as she raised a hoof to point at her backpack. "Bring that over here." The cheating unicorn did that without moving, floating it into her grasp. She soon had the small statue free. "It needs cleaning, but..."
His breath caught. "Oh... yes, that is different." His magic glowed around it as he lifted it closer and began to spin and turn it, examining it intently. "Very nice! What else was hiding in there...?" He set the statue down and looked ready to peek into her backpack.
She drew it closer to herself. "Ask a mare before you go shoving your snout where it doesn't belong. I'll turn over everything as soon as I'm out of here, but, for now--"
"--for now, you rest." He raised a hoof towards her, but it fell without a word. "You sure you're alright?"
"The doctor was quite clear, no lasting damage, just plenty of pain." She cracked a little smile. "I'll be back on my hooves soon, promise. No broken bones, just an arrow in the--"
"An arrow did that?!" he suddenly blurted, cutting her off.
"It only grazed me," she lied. "Imagine if it had gone right in like that? I'd be trying to get home with an arrow poking out of me."
"Don't even joke about that," he fretted, working his hooves against one another. "Look, I'm just happy you came back. Next time you ask for a tip, I'm keeping my big mouth shut. It'd bad enough when I risk my--"
"--It's my life." She leaned forward as much as she could without the pain getting past the point she could endure. "Thank you."
"What are you thanking me for?"
"You gave the tip." She waved a hoof at the statue laying on the bed next to her. "You had a hoof in my finding that. I'll be sure to give you credit."
"We can argue finding credit another time." His hoof came up and nothing stopped him from setting it on her and nudging her back. "Right now, you need to lay down and get some rest."
"Sure thing, Dad." She rolled her eyes dramatically as he recoiled. "I'll be fine. Now go away and let me do that sleep thing you say I need so much."
"I'll do that... just... be careful, alright?" He slipped from the room, leaving her in quiet.
She could hear ponies walking around, perhaps a nurse or two, or a busy doctor? She tried to put it out of her mind and closed her eyes. Sleep. Sleep meant healing, and she could use some of that.
She was running, soft and yet somehow thundering paw-steps behind her. It was closer, so much closer. She could feel hot breath on the tip of her tail as she ducked to the side, tumbling through branches and thorns grabbing at her.
She awoke with a yelp, the pain in her chest like a fresh stab wound. She had sat up when she awakened, triggering that pain. With a muted grunt, she sank back down, taking slow and measured breaths. "Sleep." She needed it, but would she get it?
Visions of that jungle, eager to add her to the food chain danced behind her closed eyes. If she never saw another hungry cat ever again, it would still be too soon.
She was falling, plummeting towards jagged spikes below. She could hear cruel laughing and knew without seeing them that it was her 'fellow' archeologists, taking no pity in her plight. She tried to flap her wings but to no avail, that only brought pain. "Help!"
And help arrived. Catching her mid-air, Luna brought A.K. smoothly to the ground and set her gently to her hooves. "This is a dream," she informed.
And so Amy knew that it was, blinking. "A dream? You mean you can do that?! I thought that was a wild rumor written up to sell trashy magazines."
"Neigh." Luna shook her head gently. "Your troubled dreams called to me, and I came to offer succor. You are injured."
Amy glanced down at her chest and saw her wound was far more pronounced in the dream world. Red leaked through her clothes. With an alarmed squeak, she ripped open the jacket with strength she did not normally have, revealing she had a hole right through her body.
She sank with a shivering gasp. "That's--"
"--a dream," reminded Luna. "Calm yourself, dear subject." With soft feathers, she banished the injury back into the mental space it sprang from. "Tell me what has brought this injury to your mental form. Do you bear this wound in the waking world?"
"It was an accident." Amy could feel her breath slowing. Why did she have to breathe in a dream?
"Because you expect it," answered Luna.
"I... didn't say anything."
"You didn't have to." She set a hoof gently on Amy's nose. "We are in your thoughts. You seem better."
She was, a little... "I made a questionable professional decision that had... obvious downsides. I'm in a hospital. I'll be fine, just need to rest and heal, which is what I'm trying to do."
"Then I will help." She brought in both wings, cocooning her subject in warmth. "Sleep, and recover. The night is for rejuvenation."
"Reju..." Her eyes sank closed, lethargy overwhelming her. "G'night..." She fell over, but never struck the ground. The dream faded away and she was left with a deep dreamless slumber.
Amy was sitting up, most of her pain gone. She was healing nicely, and she had a newspaper to read.
Up and Coming Archaeologist Goes Rogue!!
The story explained how the exploration of the kirin's temple had been forbidden, but an archaeologist had gone in anyway and lost their license in the process. Amy licked over her dry lips as she read on, realizing fairly quickly that had been the same temple she was just in. Cabelleron wasn't an archaeologist anymore, and if she told anyone she was there, perhaps she wouldn't be either. A protected site, in the middle of the jungle?!
Ponies were crazy, but laws were laws. Still, if he had followed them, the further damage to that precious site could have been avoided.
She glanced aside at her statue, then perched on her bedside table beside her backpack. If she brought it in, she'd have to answer where she found it. If she said where she found it...
She drew a slow breath, teeth clenched. "You deserve better than this," she whispered to the statue. "The world should see you in full shine, and know a piece of your history..." But how would she do that without getting thrown behind bars?
Had her friend known about that?! She suddenly thumped the bed with a hoof. Some tip!