While Spear Throw joined them on their journey, they joined him on his, as well. The stallion still wanted to meet his distant relatives and make amends. Fortunately, they were concentrated around Green Land, so they didn't have to make large detours.
Talking while paddling was a skill that took a little practice to master, and few ponies did it anyway, since every bit of energy was precious while on a long journey. Perhaps they could have afforded to take their time if they were alone, but since they were travelling with other ponies, the young pair did their best to focus and not end up lagging behind others. Once they reached their first island, though, they could talk to their heart's content.
"Ow. Owowowow. My legs. No, my forelegs," Dream Step hissed, her front half collapsing into the sand.
"You shouldn't have pushed yourself so hard. I told you not to," Spear Throw sighed.
"I'm not going to be a burden! You're dragging two extra kayaks and- owwww..." She whined.
"Dear, not only you're more... Delicately built, I'm Spear Throw. My special talent is throwing things, and I trained and honed my forelegs extensively. I could keep paddling for hours more, with twice the strain," The stallion explained, patting Dream Step on the withers.
"Ha, delicately built. Nice way to say that I'm a frail little shamare, since meditating doesn't exactly build muscl- wait. Did you call me dear?" She grinned with her head still on the sand, straining to turn her eyes towards his face.
"Uhhhh, I..." He smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.
"You two are cute together. Sea Gale was right, it is a done deal," Agate smirked as Dream Step snorted and rolled her eyes. "But really, you should get to shelter, lie down, and have something to eat. Plenty of time to talk later."
"Rrrrrrgh- right," Dream Step grunted, forcefully pulling herself off the sand with shaky forelegs.
"I'll stow the kayaks, you go," Spear Throw nodded, moving to secure their transport and cargo.
Dream Step didn't try to argue about him doing more of the physical work, just nodding silently and slowly cantering away from the shore. Following a path, she went to a set of houses where the other ponies in the group were staying, a small fire already crackling as they warmed up some food.
"Alright, well... My first northern island. The first real step into northern territory, I guess. I wonder if Spear Throw ever travelled north before," Dream Step mused as she stretched herself out on the sand.
"Not far," The stallion answered, having caught up to them. "I only visited a few of the closest islands. Technically, all of the islands are northern tribe's territory, but some of them were settled by us, way back when the northern tribe didn't exist yet. They changed hooves once they organized themselves into a separate tribe, but our fisherponies still use several barren islands as resting spots on longer fishing trips, so it didn't really feel like I was stepping into the northerner's domain."
"You're the only one here that travelled across all three tribe's territories, Agate. Could you tell us how their territories differ from the other tribe's?" Dream Step asked, digging in her saddlebags for food.
"Well, for one, there's water everywhere," Agate nodded sagely as Spear Throw snorted.
"Har har," Dream Step gave her a flat look as she chewed on a dried fish.
"What? It's a rather important feature. And it makes the northern territory quite different in one aspect. Every single place in the Thousand Isles is its own, well... Place. The sea is large and empty, but so are the southern plains, for example. And the vast majority of the plains are unnamed. You could wander there for a week, find a foraging spot, and that's all it'd be - a nameless clearing in the tundra. Here, though, every single island has a name and its own history, though those are usually only known by the locals. This one is called Curved Shore, for example, and it's the largest island around," Agate elaborated.
"Huh. Okay. I guess every patch of dry land is valuable here," Dream Step mused.
"To an extent. Some islands are so barren and inhospitable that no one's interested in claiming them."
"And the stories say that you visited all of them?" Spear Throw asked with slight disbelief.
"Oh, I highly doubt that, though I did spend several decades scouting the islands for crystal deposits. I'm certain I missed some of them, but I did visit quite a few," Agate nodded.
"Ancestors. Decades..."
"Yup. It's not called "Thousand Islands" for no reason."
"I bet you still know some history of each island," Dream Step smiled.
"Only short snippets. I visited this island during the spirit war, for example. We stopped here to trade when the westerners tried to blow the Battle Glacier away," Agate nodded.
Predictably, Agate talking about old events caught the interest of the others, and she was soon telling stories about the various islands that she visited. Fortunately for her, the northerners joined in, adding in and expanding on the ones that they knew as well. It didn't last long, though, as the ponies wanted to be well-rested for the next day. There was still a lot of paddling ahead of them.
❅ ❆ ❅
It didn't take all that long for the merchant to sell off the kayaks and other cargo, which made their journey that much easier. In the end, Dream Step and Spear Throw decided to buy the double-seater kayak after all, figuring that it was better to have something of their own rather than having to hope another merchant was going to travel in the direction that they wanted to.
Although Dream Step became relatively wealthy, wealth was often heavy and bulky, which meant that taking it on a craft as light as a kayak was impossible. She exchanged the various metals and crystals that ponies traded her for the dreamcatchers for golden nuggets and jewelry, which was far easier to transport. While gold was heavy as well, snowponies only found a few tiny bits of it in rivers and streams now and then, which meant that it had far more value to them than it did in the Empire. A tiny nugget was enough to fully pay for the kayak, the merchant entirely satisfied with the deal.
"I think we're on our own now," Spear Throw mused, turning in circles and looking in every direction.
"Do you think you're good enough at navigating to get use where we need to go? I still have to focus fully just to keep paddling," Dream Step sighed.
"Well, we do have Agate to guide us," The stallion pointed out.
"Easy there. I fly to most places, remember? And when I travelled with ponies back then, they mostly already knew where to go, so I'm not as good at navigating at sea as you might think," Agate shot him down, shaking her head.
"But if you can fly ahead and just guide us straight to another island, then it should be fine, right?" He pressed on.
"Not entirely. Have you noticed that our route wasn't entirely straight? We wove from side to side a bit?" Agate pointed out, raising her eyebrows.
"Yes...? I assumed that it was because the merchant wanted to visit some profitable trading spots," He shrugged.
"Yes, but the reason those spots were there is safety. As you know, there's all kinds of dangers in the water, from small eels to the leviathans of the deep. And over the years, the shamares with connections to the water noticed that there are regions the leviathans never appear in, probably because it's too shallow for them. Those routes were mapped out, and merchants use them to this day," She explained.
"So if we go into deeper waters...?" Dream Step trailed off ominously.
"Most likely, nothing would happen," Agate chuckled. "Those attacks are extremely rare, and compared to the slower merchant ships, kayaks are quite fast, too fast for most things to catch, if you're paddling at full speed. Still, the risk is small, but it's not zero."
Glancing at each other, Dream Step and Spear Throw shrugged, the stallion scratching his head. "Well, I'm not up for taking needless risks, even if they're small... Let's ask the locals about the safe routes to the nearest islands."
Until then, they went through over a dozen islands, but to reach their destination, they needed to pass dozens more. Fortunately, the locals were more than happy to share plenty of tips and tricks, suggesting multiple routes that they could take, depending on how much they were willing to paddle in a day.
In the end, their combined experience and the constant advice by the northerners ensured a safe and successful journey. If they had to navigate the entire distance by themselves, it would have been quite a challenge, but seeing as the whole trip was divided into little bits of hopping from island to island, it turned out to be less daunting than they expected at first. Over the course of several weeks, the pair slowly but surely got closer Green Land.
Whenever they visited the larger islands along the way, Dream Step still sought out the local shamares for her knowledge journey, with mixed results. Though she still learned the occasional minor shamaric trick here and there, most of her time was actually spent trying to teach them dream magic. Not every one of them was interested, and of those that were, not everyone had the knack, either for dreamwalking, or for enchanting. Still, she did her best, thanking those that agreed to try and learn.
The young mare knew that the main concentration of shamares was on Green Land, though before they could get there, they needed to make a few short detours. Spear Throw paddled them towards an island where some of his distant relatives lived, his ears pinned back and lips pursed in determination.
"Nervous?" Dream Step asked as they approached the shore, idly scanning the water.
"A little," The stallion admitted.
"I'm sure they're going to be reasonab- what in the world is that?!" She shouted suddenly, her muzzle curling in surprise and disgust.
Following her gaze, Agate chuckled. "That, Dream Step, is a jellyfish."
"What in the world?" She kept staring, Spear Throw furrowing his eyebrows at the sea creature.
"Heh. I remember the first time I saw a jellyfish. Odd creatures, aren't they?"
"Odd doesn't do them justice," Dream Step muttered, poking it with her paddle. "Is it supposed to be so limp? I think it's dead."
"I think it is. The waves often push dead things out onto the shore. Speaking of, we're almost here. Shall we disembark?"
"Sure, let's go," Dream Step nodded, still looking at the tentacled mass bobbing in the water.
Spear Throw brought them onto the sand, the pair jumping out and dragging the kayak away from the water. Getting their things and securing the boat, they looked around, looking for signs of civilization. The island was average-sized, which meant that there was actually some space to go around.
"So, what did you say this one is - hnnnng - called?" Dream Step asked, stretching her hindlegs.
"The Final Edge, or maybe just the Edge, if I'm remembering correctly," Spear Throw replied.
"Bit of an unusual name..." Dream Step muttered, picking a direction and cantering away.
"They thought this was the end of the world, more or less," Agate explained. "Nothing but an endless ocean to the east, and nothing but cold and death to the north. That was before the discovery of Green Land, but the name stuck."
A bigger island meant a bigger population, too, which meant that when they found the settlement, they had to ask around a bit to find their target. Getting their directions, they made their way to a sturdy-looking stone house, the dwelling partially dug into the earth, as the northerners liked to do.
A young stallion, roughly Spear Throw's age, was repairing a net while humming under his breath. He flicked his ears at their approach but kept working, expecting them to pass by. When they didn't, he raised his eyes with mild curiosity, giving them a once-over.
"Hello, strangers. What brings you to my- Hold on a moment. Spear Throw?" He asked, squinting at the other stallion.
"Hello, Fishscale," Spear Throw nodded, his expression neutral.
"And... That's the traveler spirit, right? Huh. Didn't expect you to become an adventurer or explorer," Fishscale said with some surprise.
"I'm not exactly one. I am on a journey, but I'm not planning to do that as a living," The other stallion shook his head.
"What's the journey, then?"
While the two were talking, two more ponies came out from the house, attracted by the conversation. Judging by their age, they were probably Fishscale's parents. They scanned their visitors, getting progressively more surprised with each one. Weighing the hierarchy of importance between a distant relative, a young shamare and the legendary traveler spirit, they eventually settled on Agate, approaching her with respectful nods.
"Greetings, wind rider. What brings you to our home?" The stallion inquired.
"Spear Throw did, actually. I'm not in charge of this group. Just a companion and teacher for Dream Step here," She explained.
"Oh? What could he want with us?"
"Well, he asked me about some old history and the family lines of Polaris. Spear Throw thought you were falsely claiming to be descended from his line," Agate quietly explained the situation as Spear Throw did the same to Fishscale.
"Really? Well, it's quite a journey to make just to make an apology, but I can respect the resolve. Few would take on such a task to redeem their honor," The father said, the mare nodding in agreement.
While they were talking, the two young stallions slowly began raising their voices, Spear Throw cutting through their conversation with an angry "What?!"
"You heard me," Fishscale shrugged. "I always thought your cold attitude was because you couldn't measure up to me. We northerners are just tougher than the other tribes, you know?"
"Fishscale... I could tie you in a knot if I wanted to," Spear Throw stated flatly, subtly puffing out his chest.
"Oh ho ho! Big words from a soft westerner!" Fishscale cackled, slamming his hooves together. "You best not think you can take this further than words, though, because the wake-up might be too harsh for your pride!"
"Keep dreaming, colt. I'll easily take this further than you can hope to match," Spear Throw snorted, the two stallions beginning to circle each other as the mother facehooved.
"Stallions," She groaned as the father grinned widely.
"Now now, dear, the colt has been getting a bit too big for his boots lately. This should be an excellent opportunity for him to either get some sense knocked into him, or show if he's actually worth his salt," The older stallion chuckled.
Dream Step looked at Agate in confusion at the sudden turn of events. Agate gave her a small shrug and a shake of her head, indicating that they shouldn't intervene. It was just a challenge for some hoof-to-hoof sparring, and it was quite obvious that the two young stallions weren't going to take it too far, at least not with the parents watching.
"Come on, then!"
"Yarrgh!"
The two collided with a thump, their eyes narrowed and teeth grit. Wrestling was a bit of an awkward affair for ponies, but the two certainly didn't lack enthusiasm. Breathing heavily and their muscles straining, both stallions attempted to wrestle each other to the ground.
Spear Throw seemed to have the upper hoof in that regard. Agate had seen a fair amount of such matches over the years, and she could immediately see that her companion was indeed stronger than his opponent. Fishscale turned out to be much slipperier, though, quickly getting back on his hooves after getting slammed into the ground, deftly dodging Spear Throw's attempt to put him in a headlock.
While he had speed on his side, wrestling was a game of endurance and strength. If this was a real fight with weapons, Fishscale might have won by injuring Spear Throw with swift attacks and quickly retreating, but since it was a hoof-to-hoof match, he wasn't able to do much.
The stallions kept grappling, tufts of their shedding winter coats flying in every direction as their grips kept slipping. Every time they made contact, it became more and more obvious just who the winner was going to be. Seeing this, Fishscale attempted a wild charge, which ended up with him getting picked up by the waist and getting slammed into the ground.
"Raaaagh!" Spear Throw roared, jumping on his badly winded opponent to finish him off.
"Oh my..." Dream Step breathed, biting her lip.
Agate kept one eye on the young mare as the stallions fought, observing her reactions. Even though Spear Throw was winning, she seemed to be rather worked up about the whole thing. Her entire posture was tense, she kept biting her lip and she began constantly flicking her tail, as well as breathing more heavily. Her shamaric training did impart a fair measure of discipline, so it was quite odd to see her react so strongly. Agate could only assume that she cared for Spear Throw more than she wanted to admit.
Fishscale's mother seemed to notice the same thing, giving the young shamare a long look before grinning knowingly. Noticing Agate observing as well, she waggled her eyebrows at her, glancing at Dream Step and gesturing towards Spear Throw with her eyes, to which Agate gave a tiny smile and a barely perceptible nod.
Her husband was fully focused on the fight, so he didn't see any of that. A few moments later, Fishscale finally gave up, gasping helplessly as he tapped on Spear Throw's forelegs in surrender. The victorious stallion snorted, letting him go and demonstratively dusting himself off as his opponent tried to catch his breath. Cantering over, the older stallion clapped Spear Throw on the back, grinning at him.
"Well now, that was quite an unusual greeting for a distant kin. Usually, we in the north do well enough with a simple "hello", not wrestle our hosts to the ground," He chuckled.
"Ah, apologies, elder," Spear Throw said, clearly uncomfortable. "I didn't mean to, really. And I came all the way out here to-"
"No need, the traveler spirit already filled us in. And as for Fishscale here, well, if the colt's going to throw out challenges like a stallion, he'd better be ready to throw down like one," He laughed, nodding to his son.
"I- I am a stallion! He and I are almost the same age!" Fishscale protested, getting to his hooves.
"Age does not a stallion make, son," The father laughed again as Fishscale folded his ears in embarrassment.
"Well, now that that's dealt with, how about we come inside and show our kin some proper hospitality?" The mother offered with a roll of her eyes.
"Indeed! You came here all this way for something as simple as an apology, so the least we can do is offer you shelter for the night. Really, though, this story sounds far too simple. And you have the traveler spirit with you as well! Is there anything you're not telling us?" The husband asked, gesturing them inside.
"Not as such. Dream Step here is on her knowledge journey, and she offered me to travel with them..."
"Well of course, you couldn't just let your mare go alone, could you? It's best for inexperienced travelers not to travel by themselves, especially if there's going to be new spirits brought into the world along the way," The mother chuckled as Spear Throw tried not to groan.
❅ ❆ ❅
Families tended to intermix and become large over time, same as it happened with a good fifth of the population in Sandy Shell tracing their ancestry to Polaris. Some also forgot their more distant ancestors, though, which is partially what happened with Polaris's northern descendants. It was a small boon for Spear Throw, since it meant that he didn't need to visit hundreds of families to conclude his quest.
They visited three more families on two separate islands before turning towards Green Land. Some were amused by him going all that way while others were impressed by his integrity, though it was all overshadowed by congratulations to Dream Step and him getting together, something both of them grumbled about, though not without frequently glancing at each other and immediately looking away with awkward blushes.
Finally reaching Green Land was a jaw-dropping experience for both younglings. After so many small and simple islands, the sight was stunning. It wasn't just the size, but the nature of it, too. The volcanic island appeared intimidating and alien, smoke and steam rising from the spots where lava was lurking just beneath the surface.
"Well... This certainly embodies the northern tribe in a way I can't quite put into words," Spear Throw muttered.
"It's... Rough? Rugged?" Dream Step tried, though from her tone of voice, it was quite obvious she wasn't too sure what to say herself.
"You haven't even seen the thunderbirds yet," Agate grinned. "Come on, the harbor is this way."
The harbor was impressive as well, the size and importance of the island necessitating the construction of a number of docks and piers, bigger and sturdier than what fishing villages like Sandy Shell had. All kinds of ponies were coming and going, the travelers having to navigate between the waterborne traffic.
"Where do we put the kayak? This area seems a bit too busy to just leave it on shore," Spear Throw asked with a frown.
"My family's shed. The locals have a whole bunch of them up above," Agate nodded towards the shore.
"Alright," Spear Throw nodded with some surprise.
A few more strokes with their paddles later, and the pair were disembarking and dragging the kayak onshore. As Agate expected, many of the passers-by gave her respectful nods and greetings, the spirit waving back politely while her companions were dealing with their cargo. Once they were done getting their saddlebags and other things, she led them upwards.
"This, right here," Agate pointed towards a very basic storage shed with some familiar runes carved on it.
"They won't mind?"
"No, but they will mind quite a lot if they find out you left your kayak somewhere unsafe when you could have stored it here," Agate sniggered.
"Right then," Spear Throw nodded, hefting the kayak inside with Dream Step's help.
"So I'm assuming..." Dream Step trailed off, giving Agate a significant look.
"Yup. You're staying with my family while we're here," The spirit nodded. "They'd be quite disappointed if you went somewhere else. Not like you have all that many options, anyway."
"Well, I'm sure the shamares would take me in as usual, but that wouldn't be the case for Spear Throw," Dream Step shrugged.
"I do have more family here, but inviting myself for... Probably months might be a bit much. How long are you actually planning to stay here, Dream?" The stallion asked.
"I... Hm. I didn't think about a fixed amount of time, really. However long it took to learn whatever I might learn from the northern shamares and try to teach them some dream magic. It could take months, though. It probably will, actually. Is that... Bad for you?"
"Not at all. But I do need to know these things to plan ahead. I'll need to find something to keep me busy while you do your thing with the shamares," He shrugged.
"I'm sure you'll find something," Agate reassured him. "There's no dangerous beasts on the island for you to hunt, but there's no shortage of work for a willing stallion. Now come on. Let's go meet my family."
The pair nodded, trotting behind the eager spirit. It had been a couple years since Agate dropped by, given the time she spent as Dream Step's teacher, so she was excited to meet up with them again. Amongst all the ponies she made friends with and later drifted apart over the years, this one family remained a steady rock that always stood by her, and she didn't want to lose that connection by disappearing for too long. Foals liked playing with her, adults liked listening to her stories of their ancestors and their adventures, and the elders enjoyed reminiscing of the time they were young themselves.
"Much like the other families, they grew and spread out and have kin all over the place, of course, but they still own the same house they built when they first moved into Smoky Bay, and I kept up with that branch of the family throughout the years," Agate explained as they moved through the northerner's capital. "It's been repaired, renovated and rebuilt a bunch of times, of course, but it's still there.
They call me "aunt Agate", though the foals sometimes have fun adding as many "great" as they can before getting bored to my name, even though I'm not that old. The current elders of the house are Strongback, a retired builder, and his wife Wood Chisel, a woodworker of everything, from timber for houses to kayaks. The others... Well, there's a whole bunch of them, I'm sure they'll be eager to introduce themselves anyway. Hm... I wonder how much the foals have grown... Probably a lot. Look away for a moment, and they're twice the size."
"You seem a lot... Livelier than usual," Dream Step noted.
"Well of course. I haven't seen them in a long time," Agate replied with a raised eyebrow.
"I just... Didn't expect you to be so close to them, I guess?"
"Honestly? Me neither, back in the day. When Glacier Glider adopted me, it was pretty much entirely symbolic. We didn't even live in the same place. My totem lies in Snowpitt, after all. But... Over time, it grew into something real," Agate breathed.
"That sounds wonderful."
"It is. Anyway, we're close. That's the place," Agate pointed towards the distance.
As it tended to be with old northerner family homes, the house was thick, sturdy, and reinforced to the nines. Even though Green Land's weather was much milder than elsewhere in the tribe's territory, having a secure, warm house was both an ingrained need and a status symbol for the northerners.
"KNOCK KNOCK!" Agate yelled out her customary greeting in front of the door with a grin.
Almost immediately, muffled cries of "Agate!" rang out from the inside, a stampede of little hooves approaching the door. That was followed by a series of thumps against the door and a bunch of complaining, which probably meant an entirely predictable pile-up of overenthusiastic foals by the entrance.
"Well, what did you think was going to happen?" A mare's voice rang out, the door swinging open and making the foal pile partially collapse and fall out.
"Oof!"
"Blarg."
"Stop stepping on my tail!"
"That's not even my leg, now quit kicking my side!"
"Hello, Agate," The mare sighed with a tired smile and a roll of her eyes at the foals. "Please tell me you came to take these little terrors away on an adventure, or something."
"They're still a bit too young for that, Hoarfrost," Agate chuckled.
"A mare can dream. One of these years, the dream will become reality," The mare nodded to herself. "Anyway, judging by your companions, I'm guessing the reason you didn't visit in a while is because you got dragged into yet another adventure?"
"Of a sort. This is Dream Step, my... Former student, and her stallion, Spear Throw," Agate introduced the pair.
"Student? Now that's new, far as I remember... Well, come in, then, I'm sure the others will be eager to hear what kind of shenanigans you got into this time. Get back in, you lot," She nodded to Agate, herding the foals inside.
The guests went inside, making their way to a large kitchen. Exactly a dozen ponies were having dinner - five foals, two couples, the grandparents, and an extra stallion. The foals kept chattering under their breaths despite being told to eat, while the adults just rolled their eyes at their antics. The elders smiled widely, nodding to Agate.
"Well then, our guardian spirit finally comes back! And with guests in tow, too! Won't you introduce us, Agate?" Strongback asked.
"This is Dream Step, a shamare on her journey, and her companion, Spear Throw," Agate repeated the introduction to everyone. "Sorry for disappearing for so long, but I was the only candidate to be Dream Step's teacher. And teaching takes time."
"Oh, it's perfectly fine, dear," Wood Chisel smiled. "They don't call you "traveler sprit" for nothing, after all. We know you're still going to find your way back here in the end."
"Indeed. Anyway, Spear, Dream - you met Hoarfrost, that's her husband-"
"Sharp Nose," The stallion interrupted. "Don't just stand there, grab some plates while we're talking, 'cause the introductions are going to take a while. I imagine you're hungry."
"Well, it did take quite some time to get to Green Land..." Dream Step nodded, her stomach gurgling.
"It's quite a bit out of the way from the other islands, yes," Sharp Nose agreed as the newcomers took their seats.
As usual, Agate ended up talking while the others ate, though she did take some time to poke the giggling foals in the sides. The energetic bunch squirmed and whined at her phantom pokes, but Agate didn't relent.
"I swear, I leave for a few moments, and you lot are too big to fit into your seats any more," The spirit snorted.
"You left - hehe, quit it - for two, wait, was it three years?!" A filly fidgeted, attempting to swat Agate's hoof away.
"Yeah, exactly what I said. A few moments," Agate nodded while the foals stuck their tongues out at her.
"So, Agate, got into any trouble?" One of the stallions inquired.
"No, Hook. Being a teacher was an adventure, but not the "trek through the wilds and fight monsters" kind of adventure. Still, Dream Step's pretty special. She can talk to ponies that are far away through dreams, and she sometimes sees the future," Agate explained, making many of the adults raise their eyebrows in curiosity and surprise.
"Ooooooh," The foals chorused as Dream Step folded her ears from the attention.
"You know what happens now, Agate," Strongback chuckled.
"Yeah yeah, story time. So, it all started for me when a shamare in Snowpitt told me that they had an unusual student they were struggling with..."
❅ ❆ ❅
Once Agate was done recounting the events that lead up to that point, the family were quick to reassure the travelers that they had enough room to take in both Spear Throw and Dream Step for however long they needed to stay. Both of them were happy, but absolutely refused to be treated as guests for such a long time, insisting that they were plenty capable of being lodgers and paying for the privilege. There were some symbolic protests, but the family could see and respect that the pair wanted to be treated as capable, self-sufficient adults.
It was quite late when they wrapped up, and everyone retired for the night. There was plenty more talking to be done the next day, though this time, the conversation was less one-sided, the young couple trying to learn more about Agate's family and the island.
"So, what are the ways for me to earn my keep on Green Land? Agate said that there's no dangerous animals around here at all," Spear Throw inquired.
"Mm, yes, not much use for your special talent, I'm afraid," Sharp Nose nodded. "But there's always work for a strong stallion. Logging, quarrying, mining... Plenty of ponies are building stuff on the island. Lately, some farmers have been paying well for ponies willing to bring hauls to them from the Crap Coasts."
"Crap... Coasts?" Spear Throw wrinkled his brow as the other stallion laughed.
"The name means exactly what you think it means," Sharp Nose managed to say between his laughter.
"I'm not sure what I think it means. Is it metaphorical? Are the coasts... Very poor in resources, or somesuch?" Spear Throw mused.
"Oh no no," The other stallion chuckled. "It's a literal name. Very, very, very literal. Massive, huge, wide swaths of land. Utterly covered in crap."
"...How? By who?"
"So, have you seen a thunderbird pass by in the sky yet?"
"...Oh. No, no I haven't."
"I heard they were as big as mountains? I can't imagine how much a bird that size would... Produce," Dream Step asked.
"Not nearly, no, but they still are quite large, to say the least. They hunt whales and other big stuff from the sea, so that should give you some idea about their size. For the longest time, ponies avoided them like a plague, since everyone was worried about provoking them and getting the settlement destroyed. So, our ancestors ended up sitting quietly and hiding for quite some time, the scouts not ranging out too far from Smoky Bay. When they did venture out, they still avoided getting close to the birds, but found plenty of territory away from the fire mountains they make their nests on. This island really is massive," Sharp Nose nodded.
"And the... Crap Coasts?"
"Ah, that was an exciting discovery, as the story goes. Once scouts began ranging out further into the island, they found several strange streaks of incredibly lush and fertile land. They were quite suspicious at first, since the regions looked very odd - rocky soil and sparse vegetation on one side, and then, a massive forest on the other, easily several times bigger and more impressive than the thickest western forest."
"Really now?" Spear Throw raised an eyebrow with some skepticism.
"Heh. Disbelieve all you want, I'm sure you'll get to see them yourself soon. Now, like I said, the ponies were suspicious at first, thinking it was some kind of illusion or trick. Didn't take long to disprove that, of course, but everyone still tread very carefully, fearing that they were trespassing in some kind of powerful forest spirit's abode. Shamares were brought in, but, save for the impressive health of the plants, they couldn't find any kind of powerful spirits or any other unusual things anywhere in or around the forest.
The scouts got really fired up after that, the quest to find the source of the unusual fertility becoming a challenge of sorts. With their newfound bravery, they began venturing further away from the coast, up into the mountains. Eventually, they noticed that the ground beneath their hooves was becoming oddly mucky the further up they got, which was strange, to say the least. Rain and wind tend to leave the mountainsides quite barren, after all."
"I am familiar with mountains, yes," Spear Throw nodded. "And I'm guessing the "muck" under their hooves wasn't exactly soil."
"Heh heh, it really wasn't," Sharp Nose snorted. "I am glad I wasn't the one discovering it, I imagine the smell must have been... Ripe. Anyway, they managed to map out the strange forests, and noticed that they were defined by ridges and several valleys that descended from the mountains. Between that and the discovery of the stuff that was slowly rolling down the mountain and seeping into the soil, it wasn't hard to put it all together.
The birds caught things from the sea, and brought them back here to eat. Their leavings piled up in the valleys and lower parts of the mountains, until the sheer weight of it and the occasional rains slowly washed it downwards. And the plants thrived. Fisherponies said that even seaweed and fish are extremely abundant around those coasts."
"The cycle of life, death, and nature," Dream Step nodded.
"So your tribe discovered patches of incredibly fertile farmland? That's quite lucky. We had some similar cases back home, but not nearly at the scale you're describing. Ponies found that swamp soil was amazingly fertile, for example, but the swamps themselves were too wet, so they had to drag cartloads of soil to their farms," Spear Throw mused.
"Yes, we do the same here. Farmers pay for it, like I said," Sharp Nose nodded.
"But why? If it's a forest, it should be plenty suitable to start a farm in, after some logging."
"Because no one wants to live there. For one, there are creeks running from the same mountain valleys, and the water is... Very cloudy. The soil is great and it feeds the plants, but ponies don't exactly trust the water in those territories."
"Oh," Dream Step wrinkled her nose.
"Exactly. Secondly, it's not just a gradual, even process. During winter, things tend to freeze, during spring, things thaw... Some scouts have reported observing avalanches happening occasionally during the warmer months. And the avalanches were not made of snow."
Oh. Oh. Oh, ancestors," Spear Throw grimaced as Sharp Nose tried not to laugh. "I thought regular avalanches were bad enough already..."
"Yup. There's lots of space between the mountains and the sea, but the water is still an issue, even if you're safe from getting buried in "fertilizer". So, since no one wants to risk an avalanche or get sick from drinking fouled water, ponies have been foraging for useful plants and bringing the soil back, instead. It takes some effort, but what doesn't? By the way, if you do end up going there, take a jug of water. You will get thirsty, and you will seriously regret forgetting one," Sharp Nose nodded.
"How far is the closest crap coast, then?"
"A three whole day's worth of travel. This island is quite large, as I said, which is why there's both fair pay and sizeable demand for the work."
"Hmm. I'd like to see such a lush place myself, if only for the novelty," Dream Step mused. "It's quite ironic, really. My tribe were the only ones that had any clue about farming, despite the rather poor land in the tundra. It soon caught on in the west, given the richer forest soil, and now, you northerners look like you're going to become even better at it than them."
"Hard to believe the first farmers only arrived here barely a hundred years ago or so, aye," Sharp Nose nodded. "They're becoming quite prominent, though. Their families are growing almost as fast as their plants."
"Well, I still need to meet some ponies here before getting into anything else. I have distant kin I need to talk to," Spear Throw said.
"And I should talk to the shamares before going on a trip for fun," Dream Step nodded.
"We'll go together, then, once we're both done with our initial tasks."
"Great. A fun journey to a place called "Crap Coast". Sounds... Romantic."
❅ ❆ ❅
While the lovebirds were busy with their individual undertakings, Agate spent her time catching up with her family. She didn't even accompany Dream Step to meet the shamares any more, fully confident in her former student's abilities. Given all the progress she made and the lack of knowledge in her field, it was more than likely that the young dreamwalker was going to be the one teaching the elders, and not the other way around.
Hoarfrost was all too happy to entrust the gaggle of foals to Agate's care, the youths doing their usual thing and zooming around wildly, eager to stretch their legs after winter. The spring air energized them, the foals stopping only to scratch at itchy spots as the last of their winter coats were falling out.
It was an odd relationship that Agate hard with her adoptive family. Sometimes, she sat with Strongback and Wood Chisel like a bunch of old ponies (which they were), smiling the content smiles of the retired and accomplished, watching the new generation fool around and slowly discover the world around them. They didn't talk much, and they didn't need to. Each other's presence was enough, as they had spent no short amount of time together since they were foals themselves - save for Agate, who was an old spirit at the time already. They'd share short anecdotes from years or decades past now and then, chuckling briefly and going back to watching their grandchildren.
Other times, Agate played with the foals herself, and it made her feel young again. So much so, that she sometimes didn't even notice as her form shrank and faded, only catching herself when she glanced at some adult and noticed that she was half their size all of a sudden. An unconscious transformation was a bit jarring to her, though other ponies didn't even seem all that surprised. Agate could only surmise that they got used to her shape being quite malleable, given all the shapeshifting she did, both for travel and to amuse others, or tell a story.
As such, while the family was a constant rock she could lean on, she likewise became a spirit companion to them that stayed throughout their entire lives, adapting and acting as needed according to their ages. When they were foals, they played, with Agate gently nudging them out of danger and recklessness if they got too unruly. When they were teenagers, Agate taught them discipline, both warning and amusing them with stories of their ancestors and what happened if they got overconfident. When they were older, she accompanied them on their missions, if they turned out to be the adventurous kind.
Over the years, she participated in over a dozen floewolf hunts and a few expeditions to Ice Land, though those never really got very far, the icy edge of the world repelling even the toughest explorers. Still, plenty of adventures were had, and she returned home with new stories and songs, the wanderlust eventually fading as the years caught up with the ponies. The adventurers would pass their spears on to their descendants or other kin, and settle down to watch their foals and grandfoals run around like their tails were on fire, Agate sitting by their side. And the circle spun anew.