//------------------------------// // 17 - Decisions Made // Story: Ponyfinder: Potions and Swords // by David Silver //------------------------------// Jon spotted Zecora! Sure, he had been waiting at the gate of the city, watching other people come and go. He had frantically searched for any sign of either zebra or pegasus, and it felt like it had been forever, but there she was. She walked slowly, with a deep scowl and... fatigue. "Zecora!" he called, waving at her in the distance. At last, he stepped beyond the gate, jogging towards her. "There you are. Where's Aeorean? What happened?" Zecora sat as he reached her. "This world is full of wonders, but today we saw only blunders. He fought with bravery, and met an end most unsavory." "What?!" Jon grabbed her at the shoulders. "You're kidding. He had to be.... like in the teens at least." Not that anyone knew what levels were. "He can't just..." Zecora inclined her head faintly. "I did my best to treat his wounds. This is what happens when one leaps into feuds." "I'm... sure you did." He glanced past Zecora. He felt stiff. The same stiffness he had seen in Zecora? "Where is he?" "He was a protector of nature. To be close to it is his last wish, I wager." Her head sunk, eyes closing. "I am tired of this place. I do not wish for you to share in these fates. We must go home, this is simple fact. This is not a place to adapt." Jon threw a hand wide, not that he actually know which direction was right. "What happened to Longma?" "She left." No rhyme, no poetry, just a blunt and terrible fact. "Her presence caused this, and she took flight, bereft." Oh, there was the rhyme. Their party had gone from four to two... instantly. Right back to the originals. "Let's go back inside." He hiked a thumb back at the city he had emerged from. "Right now, you look severely tweaked, for a good reason. Let's... regather ourselves." "Perhaps the best we can do." Zecora nodded and began to plod along in no particular hurry, fatigue heavy on her limbs. "We will need to decide what we plan to." "Do?" But she did not reply. They walked in silence side by side. "I should have gone with you." He kicked a rock down the road, its bouncing retreat doing little to help. "Could have made all the difference." Zecora gave a noncommittal noise, a little 'hm' and not much more. They returned to their rooms. It was a humble inn with clean rooms. Entering, the pony, earth, that ran the bar and checked people in and out nodded at them. "Welcome back. Staying another day?" "Yeah." Jon nudged Zecora towards the stairs. "Go get some rest." Zecora did not argue the idea, plodding along past him. "Rough day." "Did you hear about the dragon?" The pony was rubbing down the counter with a rag on the end of his hoof to clean and polish. "Two of 'em! Never saw such a thing." "Yeah..." Jon took a seat, not quite ready to retire for the day. "Yeah..." Wait... "Say, are spells that bring people from the dead a thing or not?" The innkeeper inclined his hear, one ear pricking up. "Heard of that, sure. Costs enough to buy a city block. Why?" Right... The gold he had wasn't enough to... do that. "Nothing." "That doesn't look like nothing, Sir." He pushed a mug of beer forward across the bar. "Someone get hurt, when the dragons were making a mess?" A drink sounded... good at that point. Jon pushed off the table to his feet and moved to crash at the bar, accepting the mug. "Hurt as bad as you can get. They aren't hurting now." Damn it... The innkeeper hissed softly. "I'm really sorry..." It seemed to hit him. "Was it the mare?" "The stallion." "Aw, damn it. He was a chipper fella." The innkeeper thumped the top of the bar. "Why do the smiling ones go first?" "I really don't know." A sound made him flinch. It was a drop. He was leaking, just a little. "He was so excited... to have found a proper party, to adventure." "That explains that." The innkeeper gestured with a sweep of his snout at the dangling sword at Jon's hip. "Feel free to tell me to get scorched by the sun, but are you gonna find a replacement?" Scorched by the sun? That was a new one. "We didn't look for either of them. They tripped over us..." "Well, Author be smiling on you, maybe another will trip over you, if you're open for it." He resumed cleaning the bartop. "She has mysterious ways." Various gods? He could but assume so. "Can she bring back the ones we had?" "Maybe." He shrugged lightly. "I wouldn't count on that though. The story moves on, her priests say. You're still in it, being alive and all." "Yeah..." He brought up the beer for a swig. As beers went, a good beer, a good taste. A little strong... but good. "Thanks, for listening... for talking." "Hey, sometimes that's all I can do." He leaned in, propped against the hoof on the bar. "But it can help. Just, uh, don't pour it out for the departed. I have to clean that up. No offense..." The image of a thousand forlorn souls spilling their booze all over the floor, sobbing to themselves as the innkeeper sighed and got a fresh washing rag. In that moment of misery, a smile came despite it, a little chuckle. "Alright, I needed that." He took a fresh sip. "Instead, how about a toast?" "Now that I can get behind." The innkeep dropped to all fours, popping back up with his arm wrapped around the large handle of a mug clearly designed for a pony to enjoy easily. The mug was frothing with a drink. Not the same one that Jon had, he could tell from that same crown. "Let's pour one out, down our throats." "I'll drink to that." Jon raised his mug. "That's the idea. Go ahead." The innkeep shook his mug lightly. "Do it." "A toast, to friends in unexpected places. To friends lost. To friends found... Here's to hoping you're still flying high, Aeorean." Their mugs met with a wooden thunk, then both of them took a powerful swig. "I can only hope they raise one for me when my time's up." The innkeep slammed down the mug, the booze within sloshing, but not spilling. "Not that I'll be there to enjoy it. Drink for the living, they say. Now, enough... of that." He nodded at Jon. "What're you plans? Should I keep the room for you for now?" "For now." Jon set his drained mug on the bar. "I should make sure Zecora is alright." "She looked just as bad." The innkeeper slid his own mug away. "Only one free drink though. I have my own finances to keep in line." "You've already been nice enough." Jon stood with a stretching of his shoulders. "We have some--" The door leading outside slapped open, allowing a zebra with a huge cannon at her right side and a smaller but still sizable gun mounted on the left to enter. "I have my sights on right?" She went for the innkeep without delay. "Barkeep! Looking for a pegasus, brown? You see any like that?" The innkeeper winced, inclining his head towards Jon. "You'll want to ask that guy there." And so she did, turning on the spot, directing both guns at him. "Hey, human, no moving if you know what's good for you." Was he being mugged by the zebra? Crap, he actually did have coins to steal that time. "Not looking for trouble." "Good, neither am I. Tell me where Aeorean is and I'll find a better target to line up." She leaned in place, enough to cause her guns to rattle ominously, metal on metal. Jon hissed softly. "Don't shoot me just for telling you this, but Aeorean's..." What was the nice way to put it... "Dead." Not nice, but he couldn't think of a better word. "Sun scorch it to the ground." The zebra slammed a hoof down. "What happened?! Blast it. He was a champion. They're supposed to be there when they're needed." She turned a hoof on herself. "I'd know, being one myself." Another champion? Jon glanced at the innkeep who was suddenly quite focused on cleaning. "He was helping us, me and my other zebra friend." "Oh. Oh!" She advanced on Jon quickly. "You were the one with him? They said it was a human, but not much more than that..." "That's me." He offered a little uncertain smile at the zebra far too close with those dangerous guns. "I didn't know they had guns around here." "Well, just upped your caliber on that line right there. You know what a firearm is." She jostled in place, her wary expression becoming a bright smile. "Dwarves started 'em, I made them look good. The name's Sonja, and I planned to join up with Aeorean. They said he was looking for champions down at the temple." She pointed the way. The timing was both amazingly bad, and amazingly good, depending on which angle one tilted their head. "Sorry about that... I should have been with them." "Hm?" She circled around him. "Where were you? Not like Aeorean to not be with his call shotters." She sank to her haunches. "And where's the zebra? You go wandering off target like he did?" "No! No... She's upstairs." He hiked a thumb upwards. "Getting some rest. Today's been a rough day, losing Aeorean... We're--" "--in luck." Sonja nodded firmly. "Seems to me you'll need a replacement champion." "That..." He rubbed two fingers together, breath shallow. "That's a little cold, isn't it?" "Is it? Well, let me work out the aim and you can tell me if my sight's off." She raised her hooves, tapping them with each point. "He was on a task he believed in. It's not done. He would want it done. I can help get it done. If I fell over in the middle of unfinished business, I'd be grateful if a friend just came along and finished it for me. Now, to add on that, he was just looking for a friend. If I showed up before he died, I woulda joined. I show up afterwards, you want me to just forget the whole thing, leave it unfinished? Now that, the way I see it, is letting your gun blow back to spite someone else. Won't do it." "It was just today," weakly countered Jon. "Oh." She turned her right hoof to tap at her chin. "My aim was off then, but only by the barest margin. A miss is still a miss." She frowned with renewed energy. "Too late. Missed the shot, gotta line up the next. Come on, show me your zebra friend. We should get to know each other if we're going to get things done." She took a step just to stop. "What's your handle?" Handle? Oh! "Jon." He offered a hand towards the marks...pony. "Seriously, it's bothering me, no offense, but that thing you're holding there." He pointed the finger of the same hand being offered at her canon. "That thing is huge." Sonja only looked happy at his amazement. "And a right pretty girl, ain't she?" She met the hand with a hoof, waiting until he grasped it before shaking firmly. She didn't squeeze, hooves didn't do that, but she did move the arm vigorously. "Gonna be nice working with someone who can appreciate true art." "And it doesn't knock you over when you use it?" Oh, the cocky grin that she wore. "You'd think that, can't argue your aim, but I can handle this." She turned in place, pausing as if aiming at various things. "Get a respectable tempo going even. Not as fast as some others, using smaller pieces, but I shoot, things notice, real quick. Now, let's meet your friend."