Putting my spear on the ground next to me, I laid out my bedroll before settling down on it with a sigh, letting my head drop.
I had picked a spot in the outskirts of the covered area so it wasn't as crowded, but also gave me better light from the fires. Night Vision or not, writing in the dark of night, especially in the shadow of the 'tent' blocking out even the moonlight was a pain to see what you were doing.
Pulling my book out from my satchel, I set it down and flipped it to the right page before I looked around, ears turning.
Only the wind and the sound of the jungle could be hard over the constant subdurned murmure of ponies talking quietly between themselves. Nothing had attacked us yet, which was a good thing. The smaller things might even avoid us because of how much sound over a hundred ponies made when moving through the jungle.
I looked at my pen and ink.
Now for the difficult part, writing without magic.
I had done it before, I had technically learned mouthwriting before I learned to first control my horn, but I had not touched it since. I mean, why would I?
Uncorking the ink, I dipped the pen and started to carefully write.
It was slow, tedious and a bit messy, but it worked.
I could take my time, I wasn't exactly in a hurry here.
"Hey," a voice said and a bowl of steaming hot stew was set down next to my book. I blinked at it in surprise and then looked up to spot Dee standing there, a spear held beneath one wing, "Thought you were a bit too distracted to figure that food's done."
"Oh," I said and smiled at her, "Thanks.... I didn't even notice."
"I figured," she said and then frowned at me as she sat down, "You have a bit of..." she said and touched her hoof to her cheek.
I just sighed, "Yeah, I figure," I admitted, "Trying to get to writing down what happened during these few days for the book, but I'm not exactly well practiced in mouthwriting."
"Unicorns," she commented with a slight eye roll.
"Well... yeah," I admitted, "The horn just makes it so much easier."
"No it doesn't, you just need to put in the practice," she said and put her spear down, "Scoot over."
I blinked at her in surprise and did like she said, "What are you up to?"
"You talk, I'll write," she said and pulled the book, pen and ink over in front of her.
"You don't need to do that."
"What else am I going to do? I think I can fit it into my busy schedule. Besides," she said and then peered down onto the scribbles on the page before her, "I'm assuming you want to actually be able to read this later?"
I grumbled and pulled my stew closer, sniffing at it. Tomatoes and potatoes and a lot of things I couldn't really identify but it smelled amazing. Is that basil?
"So?" Dee asked, shifting her wings after I risked the first chew from the hot stew.
"I was at..." I said and then nodded as I trailed off for a moment as I thought, closing my eyes as I pictured the scene in my mind, "The brush was thick with the sounds of exotic animals and scents all around us as my new companion and I made our way through the equally thick and exotic underbrush. The heat of the burning sun above was..."
###############
Dee put the pen down and eyed through the latest page she had written, "It reads almost like one of those old travel journals," she said, "More than a modern adventure book anyway."
I nodded, "That's what I'm going for," I said and leaned a bit closer to look, "Mind, this is just a first draft, I'm going to add details and explanations and more... depth so to speak later. It's not meant to be an accurate representation of what happened, it's meant to be entertaining, to draw the reader into the world of the- okay, wow, that's not fair."
Dee blinked at me, "What's not fair?"
"How is your mouthwriting better than my hornwriting? I'm a writer, it's what I do!"
She grinned, "That's the result of endless hours of field reports and thesis writing. You get your writings printed in the end for the reader, mine get thrown out unless it's... you know, readable."
I decided to be the adult pony and stick my tongue out at her before closing the book, "Stil... thanks for the help with this. I'd still be working on the first three pages otherwise."
"No problem," she said and then leaned a bit forward as I put the book away in my satchel, "What do you have more in that thing?"
"Hmm?" I asked and then peered into my satchel, "Nothing much. An apple, some writing supplies, the journal and an adventure book."
Dee nodded, "What kind of book?" she asked with an ear flick.
"Daring Do and the Crystal Chalice," I said and pulled it out, "Have you read it? I think it's the latest one."
She grinned briefly and then shook her head, "I wouldn't say that, but I may have flipped through it before. Not really into reading those kinds of adventure books, too much like work to me."
"Yeah, I guess I could see that," I admitted and flicked one ear in thought, "I guess the inaccuracies would drive you up the walls too..."
It sure did back on earth with movie 'hackers' and how they always were portrayed like some sort of wizards in dark hoodies in a dark basement somewhere rather than somebody sitting around watching tv and eating pizza while his script worked through passwords.
"That too," she admitted and pulled the book over to herself before we both froze and quickly looked up along with a hundred other ponies, ears turning in all directions as there was a howl somewhere far away in the distance.
A few moments passed before we relaxed again and she opened it to the first page, "Share?"
"...Yeah, okay," I agreed and she shifted the book a bit so it was more equal between us.
She might have been the faster and neater writer than I was, but I was by far the faster reader.
I wasn't even sure when we started to read out loud instead of stopping and waiting to turn pages, but we took turns.
I did the narration parts and male characters and she did Daring and the female characters.
By the end, we had drawn a bit of an audience listening in on us.