A trail.
A trail? Really? Yes... yes... YES, YES , YES!
Those little birds had guided me back to a path! That meant that I wouldn't scratch my legs anymore with the wild flora, I would be able to move faster and more comfortably... But not only that. A path meant transit, people using it to go somewhere.
Yes, it meant my way back to civilization. A trail that only by foot can be traveled, it was too precarious for any kind of vehicle... maybe for mountain bike riding? For some reason, I thought about horse riding too. Well, the point is that it should be a matter of time, someone would come across or I should arrive somewhere, but it wasn't over yet. I would probably have to walk a long distance with my wounded ankle, but at least I had a clear objective. That thought filled me with determination.
The birds looked at each other, and after a little exchange in their tweet language (Tweetish?) The red one flew away following the path, the blue one stayed with me, doing the same thing they were doing before. I thanked the birds, I know they don't speak, but in this place? Who knows if they are some kind of disguised spy for the creatures’ overlord.
I followed the path for an hour or so, at my current speed, I should have walked only a mile or two at best. The blue bird was just checking me here and there to see if I was still following the trail.
Some rustling in front of me.
I stopped, tightened the grip on my stick and listened carefully. Something was getting closer from the opposite direction. If it was a person, I should have been able to see them already, therefore it should be something short enough to be hidden behind the vegetation that grew at the sides of the path. The path snaked a lot, it wasn't a straight line, the vegetation covering anything shorter than a big dog from sight.
A big dog....
Or a wolf...
I crouched, but the path was relatively clean of big stones, I just could grab a handful of dirt and gravel.
Bright colors.
There were two general ways animal survived. They camouflaged, or they showed their presence with bright colors as a warning. Something pink and yellow could be seen trough the foliage.
Bright pink and yellow? That thing sure is poisonous as hell...
The birds just were on a branch, tweeting and chirping as usual. The red one had come back. They were looking at me and at the unknown creature.
I got up and stepped back, a gasp was heard in front of me. Coming from a bend in the path, the creature came into sight. Big teal eyes looked at me, slightly worried and curious, then in shock.
It was a four-legged creature, relatively big head and enormous eyes. It had a pair of little wings, probably more ornamental or vestigial than really functional. Yellow fur, pink hair, it was really the size of a big dog, maybe a little bigger, with a head that looked the same size as a human head, really big in proportion of its body, giving it a cartoonish look.
Its legs ended in relatively big yellow hooves... An equine? Then the elements fell into place. Horse ears, horse tail and mane, fur... A miniature horse? With wings? The face was really off, it had the muzzle, eyes, ears and everything but it looked extremely human and expressive. Its eyes were looking more forwards than those of normal horses, the muzzle was short, the head round instead of long. It was off, uncanny... but... extremely adorable.
The cartoon horse looked at me in shock and stepped back in fear, scanning me with its overgrown eyes. Ok, it didn't look like a menacing creature, but I wasn't going to touch it just yet...
I relaxed and let the handful of dirt and gravel fall to the trail, I used my shorts to clean off the dust in my hand. After a few seconds, and stepping back a little to give this creature some space, and trying to show that I meant no harm, its eyes locked on my ankle.
Suddenly, the tiny winged horse lifted one hoof and put it near the muzzle. Its expression changed to one of realization, its mouth forming a little 'O'. It started walking towards me.
I stepped back, I didn't trust it yet. Then, the creature started to say something to me. It was a series of horse like sounds, but in a gentle, calming and sing-song-ish way.
It smiled brightly at me and then motioned with its hoof for me to sit down, hushing me with that weird singsong horse sounds.
“Sit down? But… why would you want me to…”
Then I realized another thing. It was carrying something strapped to its sides. A backpack? Sidepacks? I don't know, but they had little red crosses painted on the sides.
Here I was, in the middle of the mysterious jungle... with evil and dangerous creatures, wounded and hopeless. But then, a tiny winged horse brought me a med kit to save the day... Yeah, why not?
I sat down and let the tiny horse come closer. When I was going to just grab the med kit, it started to pet my right leg with its yellow hoof, looking at me with a reassuring smile and talking to me in sing-horse-ish.
“I don’t know if everything is going to be alright. It’s been pretty bad until now.” I replied.
After that, the tiny horse used its wings to open the medkit. The feathers looked as if they were giant fluffy hands, and I was sure they shouldn't behave like that, but... after the stuff I had had to cope with in this place...
As I was going to take the disinfectant from those little bags with a red cross, a yellow wing slapped my hand really, really gently, and the tiny winged horse hushed me and motioned me to not move. How did I know it wanted me to not move? I had no idea, probably body language, or her expression, or those enormous and expressive eyes, or the tune in its voice... It felt like I needed not to move and let it do its work.
I thought it was a girl... She is pink, yellow, with a sweet girly voice and butterflies painted on her flank. That 'it' was getting old really quickly so I decided to think of her as a 'she'.
She stopped, holding a little flask with her mouth, just a few inches away from my wounded ankle, then she hushed me a bit more and used a hoof to pet my leg, and at the same time, holding it firmly with the other, like if I was going to run away if she used the disinfectant. Sure, it would sting, but I'm no animal.
"Go on, girl... What are you waiting for?" I said.
She neighed softly in that sing song way
"I know it's going to sting, just do it already."
Reassuring neighs and snorts.
“No, I’m not that brave, I just know that it needs to be done. I just wanted to do it myself, if possible.” I replied.
She smiled sheepishly and poured the liquid into my wound. I tensed immediately, but I didn't make any sudden movements. Feeling me tensing a little, she continued hushing and doing what it looked like calming sounds and petting my leg near the wounded area.
"Hey, I knew it was going to sting, but I'm fine, thank you. Please, continue." I said in a calmed tone. The miniature horse's sheepish smile got more pronounced and she blushed, hiding a little behind her pink hair before continuing her job. Gee... I could have done it myself.
After a few minutes, the wound was perfectly taken care of, wrapped in clean bandages and disinfected. I stood up and used the stick as support.
"Well, I suppose I should get going. Thank you, little one. Um... one more thing... I'm kind of lost here. Do you think you can tell me where I am?" I asked. I knew she couldn't talk, but somehow it felt right to thank her and ask for directions. Who knows, maybe she could understand me. She had shown that she was really smart for an animal.
The tiny horse looked at me with a quizzical expression and then shrugged.
"Okay then... Nice to meet you and thank you for everything." I started to limp my way again, following the dirt road, feeling strangely weak. The little yellow equine following me, studying my movements for a few steps, then she suddenly put herself in front of me, cutting my way.
"What do you want now?" I asked. I felt too weak to be annoyed.
The equine whinnied and neighed in her soft nice sing song way, pointing at me with a hoof, then at my wounded ankle, a worried expression in her face, then she pointed at herself with a smile and motioned me to follow her.
"You want me to come with you?" I asked. She nodded.
"Oh... kay...?" I answered hesitantly.
So, we started walking side by side. The little equine trying to come up with a way to give me some support in order to help me walk, but she was too short for doing so in an efficient way. After trying to offer her back, her wings and her head for support, she stopped and motioned me to stop for a moment.
She started to analyze me, the way I walked and the way I limped. She circled me for a little while, her face showing some serious thinking going on. Then, out of the blue, something poked my legs from behind and forced itself in between. In my weakened state I almost fell to the ground. When I realized what was going on, the tiny horse was between my legs.
"Wha... What? What are you doing?" I asked, puzzled by that weird action.
'Speaking' in that horse sounds she used her wings to grab me by the waist and pulled down gently.
"There is no way I’m going to let you do that.” I told her.
A gentle sing song whinny.
“Really? You are way too small for that." I reasoned, but she pulled a little harder and I gave up. Then, one wing stayed on my waist, and the other grabbed my wounded leg, taking it out of the ground, then the other leg. For a moment I thought I was going to fall, but I managed to stay up.
“You are going to get hurt, I’m too heavy for you.”
It was the weirdest sensation. Like riding a mini bike, considering that I had to flex my legs in order to avoid touching the ground, but I was riding something alive, and she was struggling to stand.
“Neigh neigh, snort.”
“Does not.”
“Snort…”
“Does not!”
“Whinny neigh… snort.”
I tried to stand up, but she pressed her wings against me, preventing me from doing so. If I hadn't been wounded, tired and generally not feeling very good, I could have escaped easily from her wings, and probably if I fought right then, I could had anyways... But I didn't feel like it.
"I'm way too heavy for you, and you are way too small... this is not going to be healthy for you, you are going to hurt yourself." I tried to dissuade her... Gee, like if she could understand me, but I had that nagging sensation she could...
She looked back at me, a little frown of concentration and determination on her adorable face and then she started to walk again, with me on top of her.
“Okay, if you insist… but mind you, if you get hurt doing this, there are wolves made out of wood out there, and I don’t want them to get you too.”
“Neigh neigh… whinny snort, neigh.” She shivered and her wings ruffled, but she seemed stubborn.
“No matter how close we are. I’m still kind of a burden to you like this.”
“Whinny.”
“Okay, if you say so…” I relented to her reasoning.
She smiled and used a wing to pat my head.
My mighty steed followed the trail, with me feeling really uncomfortable about her... She was stubborn, she could've hurt herself, and whereas I always wanted to learn to ride a horse, I definitely had another idea about how it should have been, not with a little winged cutesy equine that looked like she had come out of a fairy tale. And on top of that, I had maintained a one-sided conversation, and lost it against her... and she had bandaged my wound like a pro...
Just deal with it... I wasn't resisting this weird place anymore, let it be that way then. Her little vestigial wings were like a feather blanket on my legs, helping me a little with the cold weather too.
We passed a witch hut... hmmm, this should be a swamp biome then... The witch was actually looking at us. It was a cute little zebra with golden rings everywhere. Well, that was cool, okay, not the strangest thing I've ever seen... The zebra looked nice, as long as it didn’t start to throw weird potions at us. And I was starting to get a little sleepy and dizzy.
"Is she one of your friends?" I asked the little horse.
She answered in a cheerful sing song kind of weird and much elaborated horse noises.
"Ok, that's cool. Are you okay? Should I let you rest a little? You look tired." I asked her.
She again answered in a kind of tired but determined way, and didn't stop.
The zebra waved at us, and I waved back, the zebra smiled at us and nodded. The yellow one waved but almost lost her balance with me on top of her so she just smiled sheepishly and continued.
"Really, I'm worried about you, little girl." I said, starting to stand up, but again she grabbed my waist with her wings and forced me to sit down.
The little horse and the little zebra exchanged a few horse words and then, the yellow one shook her head and walked away, still with me on top of her, leaving a slightly worried zebra behind.
After a few more minutes we came out of the forest, there was a cute little cottage covered in foliage, plants and birdfeeders. The terrain was smooth little hills and a quaint little stream of water below a little, picturesque bridge. In the distance, I could see a little medieval but colorful town, and in other direction I could spot a farm with red barns and rows of trees.
But everything was slightly smaller than it should be, and the grassy hills, and all those colors... Well, I thought in that moment that I had finally discovered where I was. I was in a hobbit town... but with hobbit horses... I had a growing headache, and the dizziness and tiredness were getting stronger. So, I was dealing with it just like that. It was sure a dream or something.
The little yellow horse opened the door to the cottage and came in, finally letting me rest in a relatively small but comfortable sofa. She sighed in relief and ruffled her feathers, also stretching a little and tested if all her joints and muscles were alright. Then, she motioned me to lie down on the couch, and I did. Now, without the feather blankets, I started to tremble a little, it was really cold now, even indoors.
The yellow little horse (And I need to give her a nickname or something) looked at me with a worried expression and then said something in her language that sounded like a question.
"It's just really cold... I need more clothes or something..." I answered. And she ran out of the room and went upstairs... Oh, there were stairs to another floor, I just noticed that. In my actual condition I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings anymore.
She came back with some blankets and put them on me, relieving some of the coldness. She used her mouth and hooves to make sure they were just fine and snug, and then she brought an old fashioned thermometer that she tried to put on me, but I took it from her and put it in one of my armpits. I frowned at her and she smiled sheepishly, then she ran out of the room again.
The headache was preventing me from falling asleep, but I had my eyes closed. I was feeling really bad in general. Shaking and sweating at the same time, my ankle was still hurting and I was starting to feel some nausea.
I felt a little gentle touch on my side and I opened my eyes. The winged equine was just there, she looked like she wanted something.
"Oh, I know..." I took the thermometer and looked at it. Instead of numbers it had some pretty funny symbols I couldn't read, so I passed it back to the girl. She looked at it with a worried expression and then she ran away again.
After some minutes, I heard some activity around me, so, I opened my eyes again, and there she was. She had pushed a little table near the couch and there was a little tray with a plate of soup, a glass of water and a tiny box with those funny symbols that she seemed to hide immediately in an awkwardly obvious way.
Then, something that blew my already obtuse mind... again.
She grabbed a spoon with a hoof.
A single hoof.
It was like she had magnets or something. The spoon just stuck to it. Maybe she was a robot after all. That would explain some things... and would raise a hundred more questions and inconsistencies...
I didn't have more time to think about it, as the equine used the spoon to take a bit of soup and put it near my face, then she started to do some funny motions with it imitating what I identified as the sound of a train...
Ok, I had survived the attack of a 'snaken', a pack of wood wolves had tried to hunt me down, I had survived a cold night on top of a tree and I was feeling sick, but right then, I knew that the thing that was most likely to kill me was a heart attack due to cuteness overload.
After a few moments of intense diabetes, heart attacks and internal 'awwwws' I sipped carefully at the spoon, taking the liquid and leaving exposed what I saw her awkwardly trying to hide inside the soup a moment before, a little white square pill.
"What is this?" I took carefully the pill with my fingers and showed it to her.
The little horse smiled sheepishly in a really adorable manner and said something, motioning to the pill, then to the little bags with a red cross and then to me again.
"So... It's medicine... Well, you could just have given it to me." I took the pill with the help of the glass of water.
The little horse sighed in relief and then said something in an encouraging manner to me. While doing so, I grabbed the hoof that was holding the spoon and looked at it carefully. The small horse emitted an 'eep' sound and pulled back a little, but not very hard and she relaxed immediately.
The underside of her hoof wasn't really hard, more like a cat’s paw, it was kind of divided in two halves that would press together to get some grip on the spoon, it was like trying to hold something just using your palm and not the fingers, it was enough to manipulate things but not as strong or precise as a hand, because I just took the spoon from her with little resistance. So, it's not magnets after all, just a trick with the weird underside of her hoof.
Yes, I figured out something and gave it a normal explanation. The small, yellow, winged, medic, telepathic, equine lifeform used a prehensile underside of a limb to hold objects. Hah! Science one, whatever the fuck this is… uh… a big number.
The soup was relatively dense, somewhere between just soup and mashed errr... vegetables, I thought, because I couldn't identify any meat in it. For some reason, my nausea went away a little, replaced by a little hunger, not much, but enough for me to want to eat at least the soup. It was savory, even though I could barely taste it because of my stuffy nose. If it was a little tasteless, I couldn't have tasted it at all, that’s for sure.
The yellow equine, and I REALLY needed to come up with a nickname for her, just watched carefully while I ate, getting closer every time I opened the mouth. She was trying to see something.
When I finished with the food, she came really close, put a hoof on my chin and said "Ah..." Softly while opening her mouth. I opened mine. She probably wanted to check something. She swiftly took a wooden flat stick from her medic bags using her mouth and used it like a doctor would on a constipated patient, pressing my tongue down with it. I gagged a little at the fact that she was sticking something in my mouth that she was holding with her mouth. She gave little taps with the stick at my teeth afterwards, and frowned a little while checking my mouth. Was something wrong?
After all of that, she motioned for me to lie down again, and noticed that the couch was relatively small for me, then she made me stand up and took me to the first floor. I limped the way there while using the equine's head for support, and then the rail on the stairs. My whole body ached and it was a little difficult to get up there, but I managed.
The roof was barely enough for me to fit inside without having to crouch. The second floor had a little bathroom and a bedroom. The equine took me to the bathroom.
I was impressed how the whole bathroom just looked like a normal one but slightly smaller and shorter, and it was a little more rustic, with the sink and the bath tub made out of wooden planks, looking like half barrels, and the bath tub was slightly longer and lower. I was expecting it to be more medieval looking, but it all looked just like a modern one, except for the slightly wooden look, and the taps were something adapted to mouth handling, there were two little faucets in the tub, with a mouth friendly lever each one, a red one and a blue one.
There was a steampunk looking artifact in a corner. After motioning me to sit down, the little horse opened the artifact, put inside some coal, poured a little liquid from a flask with the symbol of a flame printed on it. She pushed something and a fire started inside the device. Once she was happy with it, she closed the little brass door.
Moving to the tub, the equine smiled at me and sat down for a few minutes. The warmth emanating from the little artifact was really welcome. Later, she turned on the little red tap and a stream of hot water started to flow into the bath tub.
"Oh, then that was a water heater... That's so cool!" I said marveled at the little invention. It was just a little water boiler with a few pipes attached to it and a built-in spark mechanism to turn it on. A surprisingly high-tech device for a horse... And she knew perfectly how to handle it. The small amount of coal, with the help of the flammable liquid, turned to ashes in a relatively small amount of time, it was enough to fill the tub with warm water.
The equine took some of the water apart in a wooden bucket and picked some washing utensils from the cabinets. Then, with everything ready, she started to pull at my shorts with her mouth.
"Wait, what? What are you doing?" I asked, pulling up my shorts again.
Her little horse sounds were muffled through her teeth holding the cloth.
"No, please, stop! I can do this by myself." I pushed her away from me, but she didn't get it and stood there, in front of me.
"Err... alone? Privacy?" I tried to explain, but she stood there, tilting her head with a confused expression on her face.
"Out." I pointed to the door. She looked back to it, but didn't move. I sighed.
Taking her by surprise, I pushed her, her hooves slipping on the wooden tiled floor. She squeaked and scrambled her hooves, but when she regained traction on the slippery floor, she had already gone all the way through the door. Taking the chance, I closed and locked it quickly. Immediately, I could hear her distressed voice and strong knocks on the door.
"It's okay, I can take care of myself." I said, limping my way to the tub. Her desperate whinnies and neighs could be heard, somehow filling me with guilt.
"Calm down, girl. I'm just here, I'm not going anywhere, just let me be while I clean myself." I tried to calm her down, but he continued to knock at the door, her neighs now were only a little worried.
"I know how to take a shower, miss... Not opening the door." I Concluded. Her neighs turned imperative and serious, but cracking a little bit here and there, showing her distress.
I continued doing my business. The water was a little cooler than I would've liked, and the toilet a little bit too short... But man... a functional TOILET... Thank the heavens, a toilet... Meanwhile, soft knocks and horse words now and then. I answered with simple answers to let her know I was still there. That girl is a little over protective. But the soup and medicine, whatever it was, did wonders. It cleared my mind and body just enough to do that.
I took a relaxing bath for a few minutes. Using a piece of cloth and a bottle with the silhouette of a little horse with bubbles around I cleaned myself and my clothes. I needed to clean the clothes too, they were my only set, after all. I also had to remove the bandages and the wound didn't look very healthy, though it was clean.
The shoes were synthetic therefore, they could be washed, but now they were damp and I would have to let them dry. After I dried myself with some towels that were around, I tried to dry the clothes with the towels too, being that a half success. The clothes were still a little humid, but I could use them.
Dressed again with my slightly wet clothes except for the shoes, I opened the door. The little horse was there, a worried expression on her cute face. The moment she saw me, she jumped and hugged me by the waist, then she dropped to all fours and frowned at me, neighing in a serious tone and stomping lightly her right front hoof on the wooden floor. The cooler air from the outside of the bathroom took me a little by surprise and I started to shiver immediately.
"Sorry, girl, but I need a little privacy now and then, don't scowl at me like that, because I'm not letting you bath me, I can do it myself." I argued back, even though that frown and her antics were making me feel really guilty.
She took me to the bedroom. Although I was still feeling a little sick and tired, the bath added to the medicine and dinner had done wonders to me. I was a little better, so I could look around and see my surroundings.
There were wooden beams over my head, with some bird houses and nests. Also, there were some climbing plants coming inside. The nests and bird houses were empty, but it was a peculiar detail. The ceiling was inclined with the shape of the roof. Both the walls and the ceiling were painted in a faint yellow or dirty white, with the wood structure being unpainted.
I could also see two irregular windows, one of them round and the other one square with a triangle shape on top. A hearth with some wood (I thought there was another one downstairs) ready to be used, and the central piece was a bed painted in blue, with little heart shapes on top of each leg and a pink and orange plaid blanket with butterflies painted on each square. There was also a blue footlocker on top of a reddish round carpet. All the irregular shapes and wooden structures gave it an organic and cozy feeling.
The equine had three butterflies painted on her flanks... the blanket pattern matched them, that was another peculiar detail. If I gave her a nickname, I could probably use something about butterflies. Butterpink? Nah... Butteryellow? Nope, that sounded terrible. Yellowpink? Hmmm... not quite the short catchy word I was looking for. Yellowfly? Yellowing? Nah...
I sat on the bed and she started to take care of my ankle again, putting fresh disinfectant, ointments and bandages. The skill level she had with her mouth and hooves was incredible. She also used her wings now and then.
I was still shivering, and she was looking at me with a worried expression. Finally, she made me lie down on the bed and used the blankets to cover me. They weren't enough... they were really light blankets for how cold it was. Probably, the little equine didn't need it because of her coat, but I didn’t have any fur and my clothes were relatively light and now damp too. This was far better than sleeping outside without any kind of cover, so I could cope with that, but I was still shivering.
After a few moments, a little orange warm light started to illuminate the room. Turning around I saw the equine starting the fire. It was welcomed, and I slowly drifted off to sleep, forgetting about checking my phone, but I was almost sure that there would be still no signal.