Raven squirmed in the lizard's grasp, but the firewinder's metallic scales refused to budge. For a second, the beast's claws loosened, but Raven quickly realised it was only to readjust its grip.
"I... Cuh... cuh... can't let... yuh... you... go..."
Raven squirmed, his shouting muffled by the firewinder's thick scales. In its other claw, Branch's wings buzzed frantically.
"Puh... leeze... stuh... stah... stop... squirming! I... cuh... I... explain."
The lizard's request fell on uncaring ears. It sighed in exasperation as the two ponies continued their ceaseless struggle. Branch scratched and pulled at the firewinder's scales with his pockmarked hooves. Unfortunately, many of the thick plates that covered the firewinder's skin were as large as Branch's head, and equally as heavy. All Branch could manage to do was nudge the lizard's scales slightly, and Raven wasn't any better off. Still, Raven tried with all his might to escape the firewinder's grasp, holding firmly onto the hope that he and Branch could still escape.
Again, the firewinder sighed. Glowing embers floated in the air like falling petals of brilliant orange. Clearly at the end of its patience, the lizard held out the two ponies in front of it, turning its head to the side and staring both of them down with one greyed eye.
"Muh... muh... Mother... sent me... Shuh... she tuh...told me to... fuh... find you..." The reptile's sightless gaze turned towards Branch. Almost as if guided by an unseen force, the lizard stared at Branch's bag, where Skull's crystal star was kept. "I suh... saw the luh... ligh... light that you cuh... cuh... c-cast! The cruh... cr... crystal... yes?"
Branch stopped almost immediately. Raven, though still trying to wrestle out of the lizard's grip, stared at its sightless eyes with unsettled curiosity.
The firewinder smiled as the ponies' attention finally turned in his direction. "Ah... so you nuh... nuh... know abou... about Mother? Has she spuh... sp... spo... ken to you... too?
For a moment, the firewinder waited for a response from either of them. The two ponies remained motionless, their full attention on the great beast. Raven rolled his eyes as the lizard continued to wait, and pointed to the large, pearly finger that covered his snout.
"Aha, yes... I fuh... forguh... forgot. But puh... lease... don't Scuh... don't scuh... don't... scream, please."
Raven nodded, then pointed again to his snout.
"Can I tuh... trust you... not to scuh... scream? Will you puh... romise me th... that?"
Raven nodded again, more fervently. Branch nodded as well.
"Okay. Reh... remem...ber... Ruin muh... might hear... you. His ears are shuh... sharp as his... claws."
The firewinder released its grip ever so slightly. Raven gasped for air and tried to nudge away from the lizard's finger. For another moment, Raven and Branch adjusted themselves, squirming slightly in the beast's grip. However, they stayed silent, and kept their eyes firmly locked onto the firewinder. Time refused to pass as the ponies waited for the lizard to eat them,and the lizard waited for them to speak.
The firewinder broke the silence with a pained laugh. "I'm suh... prised you didn't sc... ream."
"You told us not to," Branch cocked an eyebrow at the lizard. "Were you expecting us to anyway?"
"I was... Ponies scream a lot... is what we learned. You want to... eat a pony but don't wuh... want to bother with catching it? Sc... scare them first... Screams are easy t... to follow... Scared ponies are easy to suh... catch by surprise."
Branch blinked. "That is... W-why would you ever drop that into a conversation? We're ponies."
"I know... you're puh... ponies. You... asked," the firewinder defended.
"But why would you-actually nevermind," Branch rubbed his forehead in frustration. "So you said you know something about a crystal? What do you know about it?"
The firewinder huffed, accidentally shrouding Branch in a cloud of warm smoke. "What's with the... cuh... cryptic words? I know you hhh... have the crystal. Every living... thing this suh... side of the... valley saw that... explo... sion."
"Including that winged firewinder?" Raven butted in.
"You mean Ruin? He almost certain... ly... saw it... I think migra... tion's more important... though."
Raven gulped. Had Ruin known they were following him the whole time? Well it didn't seem to matter now. "Yeah, about that. What's even going on with that migration anyway? I've never seen something like that before."
"Then you are vuh... very far from hhh... home. It happens every year... when the sun is... warmest. We walk through th... those cliffs," the firewinder pointed in the general direction of the mountains that Branch and Raven had been walking towards, "then we cross the ssss... sea of buh... buh... bones... towards the great fire moun... tain."
"What's over there?" Branch questioned.
The firewinder, in his blindness, turned towards the ravine. Raven could sense that, despite the herd's distance, the pearly lizard could still feel the vibrations of their movement. It let out a sigh that was more depressed than its usual labored breathing, and Raven could swear he saw some slight hint of despair shimmer in its eyes.
The firewinder responded simply. "Our home."
"Oh," Branch's voice quieted and, to Raven's surprise, his eyes shone with empathy. "I'm sorry if you can't go home... uh..."
"Blur... you c... can call me Blur. And as much as I would... love to return to my... home, some of us hhh... have much work to... do."
"Well that's very commendable... Blur," Branch tried to assure the titanic, fiery monster. "So who told you about the crystal?"
"Why M... Mother of c... course."
Raven and Branch stared at the lizard with througouhly confused expressions. "And who is this Mother?" Branch wondered aloud.
"Mother of... t... t... time. Queen of the ehh... eternal ssss... storm."
Raven saw Branch's eyes shimmer with wonder. "Do you mean the strandbeast? Were you really brought here by the Strandbeast?"
"Strandbeast... not a name I know... But if your Strandbeast, and my... Mother of time are th... the same creature... then yes."
Raven sighed incredulously "Don't tell me that the firewinders believe in the Strandbeast too."
"Mostly... thuh... though they sss... see her as a... monster... a duh... dangerous preh... dator," Blur chuckled dryly, as if imagining the Strandbeast as anything other than a wholly divine being was hilarious. "They even hahhh... have a name for her... Kralkeer. Truly an honor... to bear a... a nuh... name not spoken in puh... ponytongue."
The lizard, now confident that the two wouldn't run away, gently placed the ponies on the soft sand.
For a second, Raven debated making a run for it, but his curiosity kept him in place. "So you've actually seen the Strandbeast?"
"Well... no. No one has... I believe."
"So then where did you get this 'mission from Mother'?"
"Mother buh... bestowed it to me... in a dream."
The sound of Raven's hoof clacking against his forehead could be heard far throughout the dunes. "Oh brother, another false prophet with dreams of some thing?"
"Raven, have some respect for the giant, firebreathing lizard, would you?" Branch gave his partner a passing glare before looking back at Blur with undiminished excitement. "What did you see in your dream, Blur?"
"It wasn't what I sss... saw, it was what I huhh... heard. I only ruh... remember seeing sand... flying in th... the wind. But a voice spoke to me... It spuh... spoke like the sweetest of duh... delicacies, a ravenous feast for the ears. I nuh... knew I had to listen then, and thuh... that was when she told me my mm... mmm... mission!"
"Wow..." Branch beamed, and Raven feared if his smile got any bigger it'd split his face in two. "You're just like the chief back at our village, breathing problems and all!"
"Well... uh... thank you? Now, if you wuh... wouldn't mind... we must buh... be on our wuh... way."
Raven brushed the sand off of his bag and tossed it onto his back. "With all respect, you don't really expect us to go back to the terrifying, winged, firebreathing nightmare, do you?"
"Of course nuh... not. If Ruin eeh... even thinks we might be tuh... tailing him, we're all as guh... good as d... dead."
"Right... so how are we gonna beat Ruin to the mountains when he's leagues faster than us and we're way behind?"
"That's easy," Blur growled with a plainness that surprised Raven. "My kin are not ones to vuh... veer from the path most truh... trodden. Every year, they travel uh... aluh... along the rockfire ravine and toward the... sea of bones. Never in all muh... my years has that ever ch... changed."
Raven stood impatiently as the lizard spoke, waiting for a conclusion to his rambling. "Alright, so what's your point?"
"If every fuh... firewuh... firewinder this side of the marble towers is... in that ravine... they're not out huh... here in the desert, or in their dens."
"Which means?"
"Which means... I have a shuh... shortcut we can take... if you'll trust me to take you."
The expression on Raven's face gave the firewinder an answer with an immediacy that no words could hope to imitate. However, a gentle tap on his shoulder melted away his toxic leer in a second. Raven turned towards the insecticorn, his face kind but serious.
Branch spoke quietly, in more of an attempt to keep the conversation from escalating than to hide anything from the firewinder. "Raven, I think we should go with him."
"What? Are you serious?" Raven hissed. "You're going to listen to that lava spewing death machine just because it has the same religion as you?"
"Raven, what other options do we have? We can follow Ruin and the rest of the herd and end up charred by tomorrow morning, wait for them to get ahead of us and hope we don't starve before we get there ourselves," Branch motioned towards Blur, who sat patiently behind them, "or we can follow the firewinder who's clearly stated that he not only won't kill us, but also knows the way to our destination and knows a shortcut."
In any other circumstance, the look on Branch's face would've been more than enough to make Raven reconsider his stance, but one quick glance at Blur gnawing on a dented scale, still drooling lava from between his needle-like teeth kept Raven's stance firm.
He looked at the firewinder again and huffed. "Are you sure there's nothing else we can do?"
"I know you're scared hun," Branch cooed, "but this might be our only chance to get to paradise now. You heard Blur, those firewinders, Ruin, all of them are going where we're going. We don't have the luxury of waiting anymore. We have to beat them there."
"I... Well... Alright," Raven lowered his head. The last thing he expected to do on this journey was team up with a senile old firewinder, but this trip was proving much more eventful than he wished. He sighed and turned back to the great, pearly serpent. "Alright Blur, where's this shortcut you were talking about?"
"Ah, fff... fantastic!" The lizard sluggishly clapped his claws together, and his short, stubby wings flapped joyously on his back. "We'll nnuh... need to go through the tunnels fff... first, but I guarantee it'll be wuh... worth your time."
Raven stopped. "I'm sorry, the tunnels?"
The firewinder gently laid himself onto the cushy sand as he prepared to take off. "Yes, we fff... firewinders have homes of our own beneath the sand, and there's something ihhh... important there.
Blur dragged himself closer to the two ponies. "Now, hop on and hhh... hold tight."
"I'm not sure this is a good idea..." Raven worried.
Branch patted him on the shoulder as the bug pony carefully leapt his way onto Blur's back. "Don't worry dear, I'm here for you if you fall or accidentally inhale some sand."
"Oh yes," Blur blurted out, as if he had forgotten something, "you're going to want to hhhhh... hold your breath. The tunnels can ssss... sometimes be puh... pretty far down."
Raven gulped. He gripped tightly onto one of Blur's wings, and Branch did the same with the other. With a deep, raspy inhale, the lizard bored himself into the sand. An explosion of dust shot up in the ponies' faces, stinging Raven's eyes, but there was nothing he could do now except hold on. It was only a few seconds until the dust settled, and all that was left after Blur's digging was a small, almost unnoticeable divot in the sand.
In the distance, a pillar of smoke slithered like a viper up to reach the clouds.