Sombra felt better, at least mostly so. He didn’t feel sick, he just ached. But he was functional and he would take that. The others foals were in the craft room so they didn’t have everything to themselves. Miss Chestnut told him to stay in bed for another day just to rest, so Hope had bought a few things up. They sat together on his bed with the few supplies she had managed to snag. They had glue, glitter and a little bit of paint.
“We could put a hoof print on the front” Hope suggested. She was still sounded a little upset by his sudden illness, but the scrap book was still making her happy.
“How?” Sombra asked.
“We can paint our hooves then press them onto the front cover” she said, she lifted a paint brush in her magic and painted onto her hoof wall. Her hoof now coated in green, she pressed it onto the front cover of the scrap book. She removed her hoof and there was a green cloven shape printed onto the book.
“See” she said, Sombra took the brush in his teeth, he did the same thing leaving a much larger and wider cloven shape. There was room on the cover for one more. The pair looked over at Opal who was perched on the frame at the bottom of the bed.
(“Ah, ah no way in the North are you putting that stuff on me- GET OFF MEEEEE!”) He shouted as Hopes magic encompassed him, dragging him over. Opal wasn’t in a good mood either, as part of Sombra’s symptoms had passed over to him. The peacock wrestled with the magic uselessly.
(“She just want your footprint”)
(“IF THAT GETS ON ANY OF MY FEATHERS”)
(“If you don’t wriggle then it won’t”)
(“…Fine”) Opal stopped wriggling and let Hope paint his talons. His foot was pushed into the book which he physically recoiled, once he was released he almost instantly flew off.
(“I DID IT, BE HAPPY”) he mentally yelled. The pair looked down at the book to find the print of three spindly toes and a small dot where the back toe just pricked the book. There was only one thing missing now.
“We need a picture on the front” Hope said, she put her hoof to her chin thinking for a moment.
“I’ll go ask Miss Chestnut” she said as she hopped of the bed and trotted of downstairs. While she was gone Opal returned.
(“Where has she gone?”) he asked.
(“She went to get Miss Chestnut, something about a picture”)
(“Alright then, I am not needed to paint anything else am I?”)
(“I don’t think so”)
(“Good”)
“She already had some!” Hopes voice bounded off the walls. In her magic there were many pictures, all of them. None of them were coloured, just black and white versions of themselves. She floated them in front of him expecting him to choose which was important enough to be on the front cover. His eyes darted between them all but there was one that just drew his eyes.
He hadn’t even realised that a picture of that moment had been taken. It was the day him and Hope realised that the small oak was unclaimed by any of the foals. Sombra was laying on a branch. Left legs on one side the right on the other. Hope stood below him, she was curious on how he so easily climbed a tree. He had told her he just imagined it as a mountain, she didn’t understand. Opal was their too, sitting on a lower branch and watching.
“I like this one” He said pushing the floating picture towards her with his nose.
“I didn’t realise she took a picture of that”
“Neither”
“This will be nice on the front because it’s the only one with a full picture of Opal in it” Hope said as she taped the picture onto the front, which Sombra assumed Miss Chestnut had given her the tape. Hope held it up so he could look at the front of the scrap book. There green hoof prints and singular talon prints had dried, almost creating a flower shape, above it was the picture. For the next half an hour the pair organised the other pictures, with the help of Miss Chestnuts habit to date the pictures, they were able to put them in chronological order. Considering Sombra had only been around for a few months, they had quite a few pictures.
“You two having fun?” Miss Chestnut asked them, appearing at the door.
“Look what we made!” Hope said, excitedly holding up the scrap book for Miss Chestnut to see.
“Oh, very clever, although you may need to pack it away”
“Why?” Hope asked, she paused, then she burst into excitement.
“Am I finally getting adopted!”
“You both are”
“Really? Who by?!”
“Well, I have someone at home now to look after you-“
“YOU ARE DATING HIM!” Hope yelled as she launched herself around Miss Chestnuts neck.
“Calm down, you might have to wait a bit, its quite a long walk I want Sombra to fully recover first” Miss Chestnut told her. Hope stretched her neck back so she was looking at Sombra up-side-down.
“You can walk cant you?” she asked him. Sombra stretched his legs a little to test the muscles, they didn’t ache to a point he couldn’t bare it, they just felt tired as if he had sprinted a mile. As he could move them without much strain, he nodded.
“See we can go tonight!”
“Oh, ok, if Sombra is still good to then we can leave tonight”
-{+}-
Evening came and Hope and Sombra had packed. Sombra didn’t have much. Just his sires blanket, the preserving powder, and the silver rings that used to belong to his sire as well. Hope however had more things, but her bag was so heavy from her candles that she couldn’t carry it. They were waiting at the door while the two mares talked to each other.
“You know, for an Umbrum he’s not as bad as I thought he’d be” Mrs Drops said quietly.
“To be fair, he has no reason to attack you” Miss Chestnut told her.
“I guess so, I didn’t exactly do anything to him like mum and dad did…just be careful ok, I’m not completely convinced”
“I’ll be fine, I still work here, your going to see me everyday”
“Yes well, just go take your foals home, you’ve put so much attention to them they may as well have come from your own loins so-“
“’scuse me?”
“Just go I’ll look after the others”
“Okay” Miss Chestnut walked back over where she took the pair out of the orphanage for the last time. Miss Chestnut had Hopes bag while Sombra had a very empty bag. His legs weren’t to happy about the walking but he pushed forwards, Opal was strutting alongside him. Hope was in front of both him and Miss Chestnut happily trotting ahead, she had to wait at every corner.
The walk was indeed rather long and Sombra’s legs slowly started to complain more and more. They passed many irregular crystal homes, many had large gardens which some were left unkempt and others had neat hedge rows and blooming flowers. They kept going down long roads and the odd turn, until they stopped at a pale blue house with neat rose bushes lining the front garden.
“We’re here” Miss Chestnut said as she passed the white roses. Hope happily bounced on her hooves as her new mother opened the front door. The cool blue walls were contrasted by warm woods and fabrics on the inside. Hope continued to bounce around in her new home, while the blue stallion appeared from the kitchen.
“Just in time, just finished cooking” he said, Sombra could smell the food, it was fresh from the oven by the wafting spices and fragrances. Right now though, his legs were complaining and those plush seats were very enticing. He dropped his bag and flopped down on the sofa. He tucked his legs in to allow him to sink into the fabric.
“Are you not hungry Sombra?” Miss Chestnut asked. Sombra looked up at her then tried to move his legs, but they had already given in.
“Oh come on, let them eat on the sofa for their first day”
“Fine, just don’t make it a bad habit”
“Your so posh”
“I am not posh Cloud” Miss Chestnut told him annoyed, the couple dished out the fresh food and served it on plates. Hope had taken a seat next to him and their plates were given to them. The food was small fat triangular pastries, Sombra bit into them but was blasted in the face and mouth by heat.
“Careful bud, they’ll be a bit hot” the pegasi told him, so Sombra sat and waited for his food to cool down. Once they did he could definitely say it was the best in terms of vegetable food he had eaten, it was less boring if anything having the pastry mixed in.
After their food they were taken to their new rooms. Hopes room was relatively small again but she seemed quite happy with the better bed and proper wardrobe and shelving units. The walls however were rather barren.
“We thought you might want to decorate your own rooms” Cloud said to them, Hope dragged her bag into her room where she started to organise her candles. She put most in colour order on her shelves, her little wax burner was placed on her bedside table.
Sombra was taken up a staircase again, up through a wide square hole into the attic. Unlike Hopes room it seemed half completed. It was a circular room (due to the shape of the house being more tower like), there was a circular window that stretched out from the slanted ceiling, a painters dream view of the North mountains was in clear sight. He didn’t have much in the way of storage, but his bed was rather interesting. It was a double bed, but at its end their seemed to be a single bed adding to its length.
“I was told you would become quite a giant so…er…I tried to make some form of a giant bed but still have it fit in here” Cloud laughed to himself. Sombra jumped on his bed which had a much softer duvet then the one at the orphanage. He threw his sires blanket over the bed, everything else had to go on the floor for now.
“It’s not quite finished yet”
“That’s fine” Sombra said he rolled over onto his back. His eye was drawn to the window, rolling off the bed he found the windowsill could easily be used as a seat. He stared out to the snow capped mountains.
Sombra noticed how grey the rocks were, they were much bluer deeper into the North. The base of the mountains were disguised by the giant trees that encircled the empire. Their was a pang on his heart as he looked out into the Norths horizon, that way was home.
(“Home sick?”) Opal asked him. Sombra lightly nodded as Opal fluttered up next to him.
“I’ll be downstairs with the others if you need us” Cloud said behind him before descending down the rickety staircase. Sombra continued to stare out into mountains, aimlessly, this window was his own little snippet of his home.