//------------------------------// // Good Morning // Story: Advent Redemption // by alamais //------------------------------// Gideon woke again, feeling much improved. Damned thirsty, though. He flexed his fingers and toes, and found only a slight numbness in a couple of fingers--hopefully nothing permanent. Looking around, he found that his rescuers were all asleep. He very slowly eased himself from under his 'blanket', and stood up, feeling more stable than expected. It was chilly in the room. He examined the winged creature, noting it was a clear mixture of avian and mammal, and was sure it had to be artificial. Who would create such a thing? As he stood over it, it seemed to sense he was no longer there, curled itself up more tightly, and began to gently snore. He looked around, finding they were on the ground floor of a circular stone building, or perhaps tower. The dim light came from the embers of the fire, as well as three small globes on the walls. There was a wooden door, behind which he could periodically hear a howling wind, and spiral stairs going upwards. The place was obviously ancient, and in some disrepair. He noted some barrels underneath the stairs, and quietly made his way over to them. On the way, he paused to examine the blue creature--person, blue person, he reminded himself, these are all people. She was asleep on a bedroll, cape pulled around her body, drooling slightly. Her hat was lying off to the side, and its absence revealed a strange, spiral horn emerging from her forehead. She twitched slightly, and murmured, "more applesauce," then smacked her lips. Gideon shook his head, and went to the barrels. One was filled with water, and he grabbed the ladle hanging from it and drank greedily until his thirst was satisfied. He noticed other barrels had apples, some sort of grain, and what appeared to be gravel--he pondered the apples for a moment, but wasn't hungry yet, and they looked rather withered anyway. Glancing around again, he noticed a bit of sunlight was showing through a small, high window. Considering the howling storm outside, it was probably later than it seemed. He grabbed a chunk of wood from a small pile next to the barrels, and returned to near the winged person. After setting the wood near the center of the embers, he sat on the floor between Blue and Wings, waiting for someone to wake up. *** Trixie woke to the crackling sound of the fire starting to rebuild. Strange, I'm usually the first up. It must be Tev, I can hear Alouette snoring. She stretched, and sighed, cursing the thin bedroll, as she did most mornings. Opening her eyes, she saw all three Canids were still out on the floor. Rolling her head upwards, she saw the human, sitting next to her, with his hooves--er, hands--held out towards the fire. He glanced over, and raised an eyebrow before looking back at the fire. She rubbed her eyes, and then pushed herself into a sitting position, yawning. She looked at the human for a while, then moved to sit closer beside him, feeling him look at her out of the corner of his eye. She spoke softly, "so... Good morning, then...human." He seemed surprised at something, but responded, "good morning...miss." She blushed a little at the term, no longer feeling like such a young filly lately, then cleared her throat. "It's Trixie. Trixie Lulamoon." "Gideon Wyeth. Nice to meet you, Trixie." He sounded tired. "How do you feel, Gideon?" She tilted her head, "you were well on your way to being an icicle when Tev brought you in." Gideon shrugged, "I'm generally okay." He shook his hands a bit, "a few of my fingers feel a bit off, though." "I could check them over, if you like." She turned to him, and beckoned with a hoof. He looked over, appearing skeptical, "um...alright." He turned to face her, and held his hands out. She cast a quick medical scan spell, and he stiffened. *** Gideon was surprised when Trixie's horn started to dimly glow, but even more surprised when he felt power wash over him. It felt like when he was using his own powers, but less focused, more like a wave passing over him, and then it shifted to concentrate in his fingers. The glow of her horn faded, and he let out a breath he hadn't noticed he was holding, "what was that?" Trixie looked at him curiously, "just a bit of magic. Your fingers will be fine as long as we keep you out of the cold for a while. It's just temporary damage." He stared at her for a moment, then nodded, "thanks." She nodded back, then glanced at the window, and stood up. "Well, time to start the day." He watched quietly as she used her 'magic' to levitate more wood onto the fire, and then picked up a large pot and a flat griddle. She took what appeared to be a frozen slab of meat out of a box, and put it on the griddle, then paused, and looked back at him. "The books don't say, do you eat meat?" "Ehh..." He looked dubiously at the hunk of flesh. "Sometimes, but not right now." She nodded, and placed the griddle on the embers. "The Canids don't need it, but griffons get sick without at least a little every day." A gruff voice spoke up, "it is not that we do not need it, but rather, we can make do with what a pony eats for a long time." Gideon and the--apparently--'pony' girl looked over at the new speaker. It was definitely the person who'd carried him through the snowy waste. Trixie just nodded, and said, "good morning, Tev." The 'Canid' nodded, and moved closer to the fire, sending glances the human's way. The other two Canids were starting to stir. As they rose, Gideon noticed that only his rescuer had a horn on his forehead. Though it was different from Trixie's he wondered if Tev was also capable of magic. Trixie continued with breakfast preparations. She filled the pot with water from the barrel, and added a large amount of the grain, then set it on the fire. She took up several apples and a knife, and quickly cut the apples into the pot as well, eating the cores as she went. Finally, she sat back down. *** Trixie stirred the porridge, and tried not to stare at the human. Gideon still looked tired, and was peering at the fire, thoughtfully. She flipped Alouette's meat, and heard shifting, as the griffon started to wake to the smell. "Good morning, Alouette. It's almost done." The griffon rose up a bit, and yawned hugely. She shook herself, glanced at the human, and then at Trixie, looking apologetic. "Um, sorry Trix, but I need to run outside and change stones, first." Trixie rolled her eyes, and with a long-suffering tone said, "couldn't you have done that yesterday, before the horrible storm rolled in?" "Didn't need to, then." She grinned back, then waited. Trixie sighed, and looked at the door, using a bit of magic to open it, while keeping a forcefield in the doorway, to block out the storm. "Hurry up, then, cooking meat is bad enough, but burning meat smells awful." The griffon trotted out the door, and was gone for about a minute, before coming back and shaking a small snowdrift off of her feathers. "Phew, really going out there." Trixie closed the door, as Alouette moved over to the barrels, and quickly swallowed a couple of clawfuls of gravel. The griffgirl then wandered back to her place near the fire, snagged the meat off of the griddle, and started eating. She glared at the manner-less featherhead for a moment, but then moved the griddle off the fire, and started to serve out the porridge. She served the human first, and when he said, "thank you," she felt a little dizzy from the shock of politeness. The Canids were their usual taciturn selves. They ate in silence. Alouette finished her meat, then the remainder of the porridge, as usual. Gideon finished second, eating with what Trixie thought she recognized as a military precision. When everyone was done, she levitated the dishes away, and then looked at Gideon. "So." She glanced at Tev, to see if he was going to take the ball, but he just wiggled his eyebrows at her. When did I get assigned to play leader? "Well everyone," she motioned to the human, "this is Gideon Wyeth." Gideon nodded at them, and spoke up, "I've gathered you're Alouette," he nodded at the griffon, "and thank you for warming me up." The griffon smiled shyly, saying nothing, which made Trixie raise her eyebrows. So a human is what it takes to make our griffgirl subdued, eh? Well I guess if anything would... Gideon looked over at the leader of the Canids, "and you're Tev..." Another nod, then he looked expectantly at the other two Canids. Tev spoke, "they are Sif and Sef. Brothers, and generally even less likely to talk than I." Gideon nodded his acknowledgment, "well Tev. Thanks for the lift here. I thought I was doomed, well...to be an icicle," he smiled at Trixie. Trixie felt a very slight blush come to her cheeks, ah, for the days when being the center of attention was a daily thing, and simply said, "well, I'm sure you must have questions for us?"