The Guitarist
Chapter 4: The Orchard
I was getting very close to the orchard by now. I had kept up a steady pace walking from where I originally awoke, with my guitar in tow. I was very tempted to play a small tune as I walked as doing so always kept me in good spirits, but I was afraid to grab anyone's attention. Funny how now that I'm in a land that I don't recognize, very far from Midgard, I find myself afraid of what I might run into. Not just for my sake but possibly theirs in the event if I had to defend myself.
At this point I had realized, defend myself. Yes I must if I get into a tussle. I quickly paused my walk to check what I still carried. I remembered having a quiver of arrows with me before I arrived in this strange land, "Maybe I should load a few more of these into my guitar if need be." To my sudden realization, I still had the quiver, but all the arrows were gone. "Shit!" I said aloud. "Wait a second! I might still have..." I quickly rotated my guitar over to check the arrow loading mechanism, "Huzzah!" There was still the arrow in the guitar that I had loaded that was meant for Queen Xellie. "Oh man, its good I have on left, but... what happens if I have to use it? Geez talk about the whole one bullet in a revolver thing."
My worry about my well being became my main focus again. Only one shot to defend myself. Sure I could use the magic of my music to protect me, but I have to be extremely focused and I have to be playing the appropriate song depending on the spell I wanted. So I was really out of luck, or as the favorite expression of mine, used alot during the wars, "Man, I really am up shit creek." Saying the expression aloud, made me chuckle, considering what I've been through, this was my first laugh of the day. Come to think of it... everything so far has been a tad bit wonky here. Especially that teal colored equine I saw earlier. The thought of that equine really made me laugh now.
I had arrived at the orchard. "My these trees are beautiful, and looks like they are..." I inspected the trees to see what fruit they bore. "Apple trees! Not just any apple trees, but they carry many types of apples! Red Delicious, Granny Smith, Macintosh, Galas, Fuji and... rainbow colored?" Rainbow colored? I know that some of the scholars of my world were combining different plant species together to produce new types of fruit, but rainbow colored fruit? This had to be ridiculous. But it couldn't hurt right? I've tried some very interesting stuff back in my travels.
Something about that rainbow colored apple just mesmerized me. I had to try one, so I hopped over the fence and approached the closest tree with rainbow colored apples. I set down my guitar by the side of the tree and began climbing the tree. As I neared some of the first branches baring fruit, I began to position myself to around the heavier set branches so I could reach out and grab on of these exclusive apples. "Closer... closer... closer! Damn it closer!" I tried to reach the fruit, but it was only a few inches away, still slightly out of reach. I moved myself further away from the trunk of the tree and I was finally within reach. As my hand slightly touched I felt a slight shock come from the apple itself, but as I clenched my first to pull it from the tree, it gave me a giant jolt of what felt like electricity. I jumped back causing me to fall off the branch and land back first onto the ground.
As I hit the ground I had the wind knocked out of me and was in alot of pain. I closed my eyes and wrapped arms around my torso trying to mask the pain. "Get 'em Big Mac, and keep it down!" I heard a female voice with a country-esque accent say.
"Wait what?" I questioned. But before I got an answer I felt an extreme weight press down upon my torso as if holding me down. It was starting to crush me. I opened my eyes to see a red equine holding me down with its fore-leg, this equine was slightly bigger than the one I had seen earlier. I was surprised to notice this considering I was in an extreme amount of pain now.
"What are you doing on my farm, come to think of it what are ya?" I heard the female voice question me again. But I could not see where it was coming from. But I could not answer due to the pain. "I said why are you here and where ya' from?" I got my arm up and signaled with it that I could not talk. "Big Mac, ease up on it, but keep it in yer' sights."
The red equine just responded in kind with a simple "Eeyup." He got off of me but kept his eyes on me. He noticed that I was eyeing my guitar near the tree, so he positioned himself between me and it.
I was able to finally breathe, and I took a big gasp for air. I sat up and regained my composure. And I finally saw the source of the female country-esque voice. It was another equine, a light tint of orange, and this one had a mark on its hind quarters just like the one I saw earlier, but it was a different symbol. Three apples.
"My name is Kiniro, I'm from Midgard, I don't know why I'm here." I answered.
"What are you?" The orange equine asked.
"I'm a human male, a musician. I play that guitar, right over there." I pointed to the guitar being guarded by the red equine.
Suddenly a loud thunder clap roared over head. "Ah jeez, darn Rainbow Dash is behind schedule on that weather. Big Mac get his guitar, and keep an eye on him, we're taking to the barn, and we'll question him there. I sure ain't going to play 20 questions out in the rain."
End of Chapter 4.