//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 // Story: Escape From the Slave Market // by Apple Bottoms //------------------------------// Blue unwillingly returned to consciousness with a fast, fluttering sensation wriggling somewhere beneath his jaw. Blue figured it was another bug - mosquitoes could get the size of pegasi in the gryphon lands - and reached up a hoof to bat it away. Instead, his hoof made contact with something much larger.  “What th-”  “Ssshhh!” Came a panicked whimper from the same place on his neck, fearful and soft. Blue began to return to consciousness, very fast, because he realized it wasn’t the only sound he heard - there was also quiet talking, somewhere outside.  Blue pushed himself up onto his belly, upsetting Tilik behind him - also cowering against his side. The mosquito on his neck was Watermelon Seed, whimpering and pressing close to him. Delicate ears strained to hear the conversation happening - outside, it seemed. He thought he could recognize Silach’s voice; that would make sense, since Silach didn’t seem to be in his straw bed anymore.  “... humble member of the Temple of the Moon; truly, when I tell you it has been years since we’ve had new acolytes seeking to join - can’t I invite you to join me for some prayers? Some holy chanting? Perhaps -”  “Listen, brother,” that wasn’t a familiar voice, and Blue’s blood ran cold as he strained to listen, “we haven’t got time for that. We’re looking for a couple renegades. Pony types, like you. Seems like you’d have a nose for something like that, your own kind ‘n all?”  Now pressed tight under his jaw, Blue Cat could feel Watermelon Seed’s heartbeat ratchet up into a fever pitch, almost as close as his own.  “Constellations, no! The Temple of the Moon is open to all members! We see no difference between pony, dragon or gryphon!  In fact, it’s mentioned in one of our songs - feel free to join me on the chorus, I hope you like the diatonic scale. Mm-hmm. Ohhh,” and here Silach began to warble in a tone that sounded more like a dying seal than a holy chant, Blue thought. “Our Sister, our Mother, above us sees all/Her Gentleness bravely enduuuures/Her Goodness protects us, Her Power enshrouds us/If only you answer Her caaaaaall!/Oooohhh, Holy -”  “That’s enough of that!” One gryphon squawked, and Blue could hear several others adding their own protests until Sil stopped warbling. “We are not interested in your Temple! We want to hear about ponies! Runaway ponies!”  “Well, I’m afraid the flock is, well, rather small… I’d notice anyone who happened by, I’m certain.” Silach said, quite sadly. “Are you certain you don’t want to chant?” “NO!” The gryphon leader bellowed. “If you DO see anyone, you come straight to us, you got it? They’re criminals. They’ll kill you as soon as look at you, so - keep your distance. Come get us right away.”  “Oh, yes sir!” Silach agreed, and there was a faint sound of scuffling, as many claws and paws made their exit from the front of the collapsed monastery, where only one rotten door stood between Blue and discovery. “Although our Temple is still open to all - so if you feel that you might need to return -!”  “WE WON’T.” the gryphon leader growled, loud even at a distance, and a few of his comrades chuckled.  There was the faint sound of paws receding, low conversations between the gryphons, and they soon faded to nothing. There was a pause, and no one moved; the only sound Blue could hear was that of Watermelon Seed trying to quiet her sniffling. Then, finally, the rotten door opened, revealing Silach as he darted inside.  “The bad gryphon! The bad gryphon f-found us!” Watermelon Seed said, tearfully, as her voice began to rise into a wail. “I don’t want to go back to th-the bad place!”  “Ssh!” Silash shushed her sharply, but he seemed startled by his own sharpness. Slowly, he lowered himself to kneel beside the trio on the floor, reaching out a hoof to touch Watermelon Seed’s uninjured foreleg where she now quivered silently. “It will be alright, little one. You don’t have to be afraid. Blue and I will protect you.”  “H-How can you protect us f-from the bad gryphon?” Watermelon Seed snuffled, her voice now thick with tears.  “We, uh, well… we could kick him?” Blue Cat offered, squinting.  “You don’t need to worry about that.” Sil answered her, and Blue Cat lifted his eyebrows at him. “We’re the grownups, that’s our job. You just let us figure that out, and we will get you away from the gryphons safely.”  “And … and back home?” Watermelon asked, her bottom lip trembling. “To my mom and dad?”  “And back home,” Silach lied, which Blue Cat knew because he knew just as well as the missionary did that ‘home’ was a tall order, indeed. Still, Blue managed to restrain his dismissive snort, surprising himself.  Blue Cat couldn’t stop the sharp squint directed at Silach, but he couldn’t squint for long, because Watermelon Seed was all but flinging herself onto his neck in turn, hugging him tightly as she cried. “I w-wanna see my - my mommy and daddy again! I miss them so much!”  “I know, sweetheart. You’ll see them again before you know it.” Silach was not as uncomfortable as Blue was with the brightly colored filly, and so he soon wound the little filly up in a hug, holding her close as she cried.  She cried for what felt like a long time, although it quickly shifted from throaty sobs to a low, steady kind of whimpering. Whining, Blue would have called it, and he was halfway to suggesting a brisk cuff across the back of her head before he realized Silach was stroking her mane, and speaking softly to her. Blue was too startled by this prospect to realize how long he stared at the pair, and before he quite knew what was happening, Watermelon Seed had fallen into sort of a light doze against Silach’s neck, cradled in the curve of one foreleg.  “How’d you do that?” Blue Cat asked, at last.  “Do what?”  “Get her to stop - that.” Blue Cat resisted the urge to snap at him. ‘Do what’ - as if he was playing dumb!  “She’s a child.” Silach said, a little coldly, anticipating Blue’s sharp sarcasm; when it didn’t come, Silach had to find a better answer. When he spoke again, it was hushed, so as not to awaken the sleeping filly. “She’s - very small. She’s in a strange place, with strange ponies. She needs comfort.”  “Don’t you usually just - give ‘em a smack, when they whine like that?”  Silach looked at Blue oddly, in a way that made Blue’s skin feel twitchy. “Who told you to strike foals?”  “No one had to tell me, you just - it’s what you do. How you raise foals.” Blue Cat huffed, shaking out his cropped mane a little bit, making Tilik lift his head from where it had been resting against his shoulder.  “No it’s not.” Silach countered, and Blue Cat decided abruptly that he missed being someone ponies were scared of - he got fewer rude rebuttals like this. “Did your parents hit you?”  “Fuck off.” Blue Cat snapped, sharply that time, and pushed himself upright. The pain seared through his hip, just as hot and sharp as ever, a lancing pain that shot down his thigh; Blue Cat forced himself to stay upright, even as sweat beaded on his upper lip. “I’m hungry. What do we have to eat?”  Silach watched him, his orange eyes a different shade than before, considering him; but before Blue had to threaten him for an answer, he tilted his head towards a basket near the door. He’d been carrying that when he came in, Blue realized. “Dandelion greens. I was foraging when I saw the gryphon group moving through the forest. Lucky I made it back in time.”  “Lucky you were foolish enough to wander away while we slept?” Blue asked coldly, and he felt a little relief from the prickling under his coat when Silach glared at him, and the consideration left his gaze. “Remind me to thank you.”  “I knew the foals would be hungry when they woke up. They’re children, they can’t eat as infrequently as we do.” Silach was angry, and the prickly feeling vanished entirely as Blue made his slow, arduous way over to the basket. “Why the hell are you upright? You should be resting.”  “Resting, huh?” Blue asked as he reached his nose into the basket, chewing a mouthful of greens before he swallowed thickly. “You think we’re gonna stay here and wait to get caught by the gryphons? Is that your plan?”  Silach’s anger was clear on his face, but he didn’t answer him for a moment. “I was going to suggest that we leave at midnight. No one wants to wander the forest at night, not even gryphons. There’s water in that jug - don’t drink from the jug you animal, there’s cups in the basket.”  Blue rolled his eyes, but obliged the grumpy monk, lowering the jug from his mouth to instead pour the water into a small hoofmade earthenware cup, judging by the lumpy shape. “Just wastes time, this thing is too small to do me any good.”  “Well it wasn’t made for you, I made it for me. We may be in the forest, but we’re not savages.” Silach glared, and began gently removing Watermelon Seed from his neck, laying her down on the straw bed beside Tilik, who watched the pair with a worried pinch in his eyebrows. “How can you be so eager to get on the road? You just had an arrow in your flank just yesterday.”  “Yeah, well,” Blue Cat emptied the mug in one deep swig, and began pouring himself a second serving, “something tells me that I’m not going to have the time to heal up before the gryphons come back.”  Silach considered that for a beat, and finally offered a small nod. “I suspect you’re right. But you won’t be able to make much progress with your leg like that. Nor can Watermelon Seed; that front leg doesn’t look right.”  “You a doctor?” Blue Cat sneered.  “I’ve had to make do out here, being the only pony for miles. The last time I got sick, the local gryphon healer advised me to preen my feathers more regularly, as I had an infection of wing mites.” Silach rolled his eyes as he retrieved the basket Blue had eaten out of, portioning the dandelion greens out into four equal servings on small, lumpy plates. One of the plates, Blue noted a little grumpily, contained all of the flowers.  “You’re not doing her any good,” Blue grumbled, gesturing with his nose to the plate, “spoiling her like that.”  “Don’t you think she’s earned a little spoiling?” Silach snapped back at him, his eyes narrow as they shot a sharp glance at the burly slaver. “Dragged out of a basement with a rope around her neck? I saw those too - the rope burns.”  Blue wasn’t sure when he’d given Silach permission to stop being afraid of him, but he was trying to figure out how to rescind that permission. “And how did she do once I let go of the rope? Leaping off a moving train and breaking her legs?”  “Sprained. I think.” Sil started out angrily snapping, then had to walk it back to uncertainty. “It didn’t feel broken.”  “Glad to know the local moon-priest has given her medical clearance to travel.” Blue growled, and took one of the flowerless plates between his teeth, limping towards the crumbled side of the room.  “Where are you going?” Silach huffed.  “I’ve got to think about how the hell we’re going to get to Ponyville with six working legs between the two of us, and I’d like to eat without your tableside conversation giving me indigestion.” Blue said, voice tight as he found a big enough rock to lean against. Sitting on the floor was too hard just then, but leaning took the pressure off his leg, which even now pulsed a steady, throbbing reminder that he hadn’t been fast enough. And wouldn’t be, not if he had to try and outrun a group of archers again. He probably couldn’t outrun Watermelon Seed, at this rate. So their path to Ponyville would have to be even more winding and circuitous, and that meant wasting time. Blue didn’t like wasting time.  Wasting time or not, it looked like Blue was stuck with the moon-fancier; maybe that was for the best, he thought, idly watching as Sil tended to Tilik, bringing him a plate of dandelion greens. It looked like Watermelon Seed naturally gravitated towards whoever was closest, and she had curled into the little zebra’s side as she slept, her nose tucked under her good foreleg.  Good; that was fine, Blue tried to reason with himself. If Silach wanted to tag along until he got bored, that suited Blue just fine. He seemed to do okay with the foals, and if he could keep Watermelon Seed from running away again, then the trip would go that much faster.  If he could just keep his damn mouth shut until they hit the border, Blue grumped to himself as he chewed his flowerless salad, then that would be even better.