I can see them coming. Their clanking feet against the ground, their shinning shields that gleamed in the morning lights, and the imperial seal that god awful seal that meant death and everlasting light; the serpent’s tail. I scramble to my feet and begin to barrel towards my house through our growing wheat fields, wrecking and uprooting some of it as my hastily clawed feet dig through them. I can hear the river that’s near our home, it flows off of the mountain and down into a cistern where it rushes downwards and into what seems like a bottomless abyss. By now I can see my Father and Mother just over the growing wheat that my head can just barly see over. I know that they are arguing over something because my mother has her arms crossed, while my father has his outstretched trying to reason with her.
In my hast I can barely make out their voices, “They will have to understand! They are taking me away from my family and farm when they know that it’s almost harvest season!”
“Yes, but they never do. Don’t you remember last year when we had those pests come around and they ate up our last crops? They had you almost flogged but you got away with a light flogging.” I shudder at that word, I remember the experience that Mother was talking about, and Father got away with only fifty lashes with the Cat of Nine. The metallic parts shredding through my father’s scales and ripping deep into his flesh, scaring it for the rest of his life. Even now when I shut my eye’s I can see the blood spurted out and spraying the guard in a metallic red, the guard had a twisted smile on his face that sent chills down my spine. The way that it would twitch upwards each and every time that he heard its loud snap on my father’s back. It was like he could go on and on, only after the fiftieth did the guard captain tell him to stop.
“But this time they have to over look it if we don’t make enough and some is wasted. After all we only have you and our son here to tend to the field.” He stammered out. By now I was rushing up to the porch, completely out of breath and wheezing through my gaping mouth that was almost as big as a gryphon’s.
“The-” I swallow hard and look up at my father, “soldiers are coming! I saw the imperial emblem ablaze on one of the flags!” I huff out.
My father turned to my mother and told her to get him his bag, which she does; muttering some profanities under her breath.
He knees down and looks me square in the eye, “Son, I’m going to be gone for a little while and I need you to be strong while I’m gone. Watch after the field and make sure that your loving mother doesn’t work herself into an early grave. Alright?” he’s looking at me so sternly that all I can do is agree. My mother comes out, hefting a big bag. She looks so worn out and sad, I can tell that she’s almost at wits end with all of the insane things that been happening. She gives my father a last farewell kiss and all three of us watch as the soldiers come around the bend and wait a little bit away from our house. I can see their silhouetted faces, but I can’t make out their eyes. For a brief moment I can feel my father stiffen with fear, but then I feel the strong but gentle hand of my father on my head as he rubbed it one last time before he walked off toward the soldiers.
…
My eyes flutter open as the early mornings light filters in through a crack in the curtains. It casts a long sliver of light that creeps across the floor and increases in size as it climbs over and up onto the bed where it flickers in my eyes. I grown inwardly, pulling an arm out from underneath the covers and I lay it across my face to try and block out the infernal light of the sun. I close my eyes and feel my arm pressing against them as I try to forget those eyes that are burned into the insides of my eye lids. Those lifeless and dead eyes, I think those men lost their souls long before they ever took their last breath, those imperial soldiers.
Finally dissatisfied of not going back to sleep I get up, pulling my upper body into an upright position, legs still under the covers. The cool air that brushes against my warm scales feels relaxing and is warmly welcomed as I can feel a slight hang-over flowing up from my stomach and into my brain. I stretch my arms out and yawn deeply, hearing my joints crack along with my back. I then roll my shoulders and it also has the same affect of cracking and popping.
Something rolls off of the end of the bed and clatters against the floor which cause me to pinch my eyes in pain as a throttling lightning bolt is tossed down my back and thundering booms loudly crack in my head. Slowly, one of my eyes squints open and I see the floor is strewn with different alcoholic beverages; the one that rolled off of the bed was a half empty bottle of scotch.
On closer examination this was one of the rooms, in the inn, that I was staying in, hopefully not the room that I had rented because it was in such disarray that anyone’s jaw would hit the floor from the mess that spread throughout the room. I can’t think of the people who have to clean this mess, man they must have it rough. Tables flipped, chairs spread across the floor, bottles everywhere, and my trusty knife sticking out of the wardrobe and my clothes along with, someone else’s clothes scattered through the room. Crap what did I do?
I feel a leg brush against my own. Slowly, I pull up the blankets and look under to find that there are four pairs of legs, instead of two, also, on an after note, I’m naked. I put the covers down and slowly; starting at the feet, I look up at the silhouette of the woman that slept soundly next to me. She had the blanket covers pulled over her chest and wrapped under one arm which was stretched out and it disappeared under the pillow. Gulp, How did I ever score it with this pretty wahine?
Her hair was drape out and flowed down one shoulder while the rest seemed to just snake down her back. Its glistening shine from the early morning light made it look almost alive. The bright silver at the end of her hair made it have an iridescent glow that made it look like star light. I moved a scaled hand over to try and brush away some of her hair that was covering her face to get a better look of her. Right as I’m about to move the hair away from her face I realize that she’s tightly holding something under the pillow.
My better judgment tells me to leave before she wakes up; however, my curiosity tells me to stay there to see what she looks like. Finally, my mind tells me to get dressed and leave, least I make it awkward when she does awake. I slowly move my legs off of the bed and onto the cool wooden floor which sends shivers up my spine. I smile, “Not fully drunk, and not fully sober. That’s just how I like to start my mornings.” I slowly put my weight onto my feet and sort of slither out of the bed, careful not to clatter any of the bottles together. This however proved to be a problem because there were so many of them scattered around that even with my best intentions I still clatter a few of them, sending them rolling in different directions and pinging against the walls. I looked over my shoulder only once to see if she was still asleep and to my relief, she was.
I come to my Inakaya pants first and slip them on, tying the woven belt together. Then I come to my bandages, which I then wrap around my hands and up to my elbows with the excess. My knife is next and I pull it out of the large and heavy wooden door, sliding it comfortably back into the sheath on the back of my belt. I walk over to the door grabbing my robe off of the coat rack and slide my hands into the familiar sleeves, which came down and covered up my hands.
I look back at the woman and her ever living dark hair that was flowing around in the bed. Yup, she’s still beautiful.
Pushing the door open I was greeted with two burly men and one short, round pony, all of them were wearing suits. “Can I help you gentlemen?” I nervously say. They didn’t answer but instead held up a wanted poster with my photo stamped on it and a bounty that could send you into an early retirement with a castle having every room filled with luxurious furniture’s and elegant ball gowns. “Oh, you’re here for that.” I stare at them for a little while, looking at each of them in turn sizing each one of them up, in case I had to fight.
The woman started to stir, “Come back to bed, its cold without you here.” she moaned out. At that I slammed the door into the men’s faces and ran over to the window, throwing the curtains open with their loud screeching of metal on metal; making the woman get up and look at me in puzzlement. She propped her body up with her arms and stared at me with blank, wide eyes causing the blanket to fall down to her waist. A huge grin spreads from ear to ear on my face which makes the woman look down at her nakedness; she quickly grabbed the blanket and covered herself. She had a look of embarrassment on her face, which was right next to the fact that her face was looking like a huge red cheery. We both must have met at a bar.
“And with that I bid you a fine and lovely morning.” I said as I unlatch the window open and jump out and onto the adjacent building just as the door to that room was busted in and the men rushed in, brandishing some deadly looking scimitars. They however slipped on the many bottles that where spread all over the ground. The woman also helped me by throwing a few bottles that where lying next to her at the men and shouting at them to get out. By this time I’m already jumping across to the other roofs, I’m starting to get my balance back and equalize myself on the center of the slanted roof tops.
Looking down at the curtains, that were being drawn back to let in the light to disperse the darkness that was brought upon with the previous nights darkness; the sleeping city was beginning to awaken. Ponies were opening doors to get morning news papers, while others were going out to set up their stalls at the markets square. The dark places that I liked to slither into were vanishing and I started to hear the shouts from my pursuers as they started to close in from below and behind me, though I could hear some screams from some of them falling off of the roofs.
“There he is! Don’t let him get away! Faster, faster you idiots! What am I paying you for! You’re letting him get away!” a gruff voice spat at his men. I looked over my shoulders and notice that some of the unicorns on the ground started to charge up some spells; fire, glowing blue bolts, and a crackling ball of light.
Shit this is not going to end well. I thought as a blue bolt of energy flew past my face, scorching the tips of my whiskers. I start to gather some of the strings of magic that flow all around the natural world, weaving, bending, and connecting them together until it formed a stable field around me. For added protection I weaved a magical net in the inside of the first and harder shield to add some support to it.
Bolts started to fly faster towards me as the spells where forming faster in the horns of the unicorns, blue bolts hit the bubble and warped around it, some of the mana that was used to cast the spell seeped through the barrier and I gathered it by sweeping it into a small pouch that glowed with the added mana. Can never be too carful with mana droughts randomly popping up and mana just disappearing at the most inconvenient of times, it can really kill you.
I’m coming to the edge of the town and I can see the deep chasm that surrounds the whole city from marauders and bandits. CRACK! I look up at my shield and see that it’s starting to break and dissipate back into the air. Seeing that my defenses where almost gone they start to get more invigorated sending bigger bolts of magical energy careening towards me. After two of those the shielding burst like a bubble. Fried lizard anyone? Well if you don’t like that them how about a soup of lizard? Didn’t think so. I jump onto the last house and dive off of it into the chasm, looking down I can see the Serpent River just below me I make a wonderful swan dive and splash into its murky depths.
…
The earth ponies where the first to arrive at the edge of the town where the Lizard had jumped. They looked at each other and began to argue over who would go after him. After a little while some of the humans caught up to the ponies and panted out where their target went. They filled them in and they also joined into the argument.
“You should go! After all you where arrived here first and were out of breath.”
“No! Why should we go after we did most of the tracking and information gathering, and you did nothing but sit back and watch!”
“Well, you can’t always rely on use! After all were the soldiers and you’re the scouts.”
“SHUT UP! All of you! You all failed! Because of you all, we won’t be having anything to eat for a while! And do you know why? Because no one was brave enough to jump into a river after him!” The voice spat out, causing all of the others be silent. They all looked up the at the back of the group and notice the little pony and a burly Griffin. Scars ran up the side of his neck and onto his face swirling at the top of his eye brow. A brand was burned into the center of his forehead. His mere presence demanded respect and anyone who didn’t show it, was his next meal. “I want everyone here to spread out and find where that little deserter went. Talk to bandits, I don’t care who you have to bribe with information, just find me that lizard!”
“Yes sir!” they all shouted and scattered in every direction. After they all had left the little pony said to the Griffin.
“That went well, now as I was saying-” the Griffin grabbed the little pony by his neck and housted him up and eye level with him.
“You’d be dead if not for your position in the guards. You best remember that Snips.” The Griffins eyes where burning into the little ponies and he began to shake, which caused a grin to appear on the Griffins face. Dropping the pony to the ground to get the message from him.
“Yes, I’ll remember that in the future,” he said rubbing his neck, “the new shipments of spices are due to arrive in a few days, also the guards have moved out of the northern district of the planes.” A big smile gleamed in the morning sun which show cased the razor sharpness of his beak
“Excellent, this is very good news. However, the spice shipments arrival ahead of time will have to accelerate our plans.” He glanced at the pony letting him know that he could leave which he took without hesitation and galloped away. “It will only be a little while longer my love, wait for me.” The Griffin looked up into the sky with a longing look that told the world of his sadness. “Yes, only a little longer.”