Chapter 1: The Worst Day of the Rest of Your Life
You know sometimes you have a dream about being in school, in class and the teacher asks you to hand in an assignment that you didn’t know about, and you get that horrible feeling of dread in your stomach that manages to stay with you even after you wake up and realize, hey, I finished school two years ago!
...
You don’t get that? Right no schools, well that’s one new experience the Followers can give to the wasteland.
That was pretty much how I felt when I woke up except I couldn't remember the dream, or even when I had fallen asleep. I knew my name. I knew who I was. I knew that I had left Canterlot on my mission, but I couldn’t remember what had happened between then and now, there was just a blank space in my mind.
It was at this point I became aware of several important facts.
One: I was in cave of some sort with a fire burning near the entrance.
Two: My entire body felt wrong from my horn to my hooves. Sort of heavier but more delicate like I had just run a marathon until I had collapsed from exhaustion.
Three: There was something around my neck that felt heavy and was choking me slightly. My front and rear hooves had been bound together and my wings had been tied back too.
Finally, there were three ponies sitting around the fire talking about me.
"We should just leave it, those things always creeped me out. Not to mention they're dangerous," said one of the earth ponies, a green stallion with a yellow mane.
"Yeah, ever since the bomb went off, these things have been going nuts all over the place! They're too dangerous to try to control," said a red earth pony mare. What things were they talking about? The bomb? I remembered an explosion. What was going on?
"You're idiots, the pair of you!" yelled the third pony, an orange unicorn mare with a black mane, "We're wanted ponies, easy prey for prey for bounty hunters mopping up the last of the army outside Fillydelphia. We need something that can buy us protection, and this guy is priceless!"
"Why? Because he’s the wrong colour? Or because he got an extra large helping of crazy?" Wrong colour? O Goddesses! Had my mane spell worn off! Bucking Hell!
...
Yes, I said buck instead of fuck, I've never been good at swearing, don't judge me.
"Because he's a HE, a male, a stallion! Don't you know anything? That's why the goddess worked with Red Eye in the first place! He promised to make stallions for her! They’ll pay good caps for him!"
Okay now their talking about me like I’m some prized stud! Which... Was actually kind of cool and a little bit kinky but I had other plans, it was time to intervene.
"Or you do what any sensible decent pony would do and let me go before you get in real trouble" I said in the calmest voice I could manage.
The trio exchanged surprised glances as they realized I had been listening to them. They got up from the cave floor and moved to surround me in a semicircle. It was only then I noticed just how odd these ponies looked, for starters they were filthy, covered in dirt with greasy manes, and wearing equally dirty barding which seemed to be made of heavy cloth with metal plates riveted on. Some sort of improvised combat armour? Were these soldiers? Well that made things easier. Another thing was they seemed kind of small for adult ponies but they defiantly weren’t foals. Another weird thing to deal with. "I am Private Broken Thorn of the Canterlot Royal Guard. I am on a special mission for the Princesses. Release me at once!" I said in my most authoritative voice, which was only slightly spoiled by my desperation showing through at the end.
The trio stared at me with mixture of shock and confusion then burst out laughing. They looked like they might fall over until the red mare signalled then to be quiet., "Told you, completely fucking crazy. Off him now before he tries something." I sat completely stunned, they were talking about killing me so casually! What had I done? What should I do! Were they Zebra spies? Or deserters? Either one could be dangerous.
"Now now there's no need to be hasty," said the orange unicorn. " I'm sure we can come to an understanding, " she said giving me a large brittle smile. Nervously I smiled back.
"Now let's set some ground rules" she said leaning closer then she brought her hoof around and smacked me in the face.
I'd been hit before, pummelled in training, smacked by my parents or teachers for misbehaving, but I’ve been hit never like that. To just have pure violence dumped upon you while helpless for no reason is a terrifying thing! But I didn't get scared I started to get angry.
"We. Own. You. Understand? Feel that collar around your neck? It's a bomb that will go off if you so much as breathe without our permission, understand! Slave!" the unicorn screamed into my face.
She levitated a device with a red button on the top in front of my face.
"See this? It's a dead switch. If I release the button, it sends a signal and bomb takes your head off. If I die, it goes off. You run, it goes off. You disobey, it goes off. I GET BORED, IT GOES OFF! Do. You. Understand?" She finished with look of savage glee. She was actually enjoying this!
I heard that some ponies could be obscenely violent, from stress or fighting the war but this was ridiculous! I was a soldier, a fellow pony, we should be on the same side!
But if we weren’t on the same side, if this was the enemy...
I was a soldier of Canterlot, I’m not going to take this lying down! Time to show them that they should fear me. I gave them my best cheeky grin and said, "So when my head isn't exploding it’s not doing anything?"
The unicorn frowned for moment as she tried to make sense of what I said but it gave me all the time I needed. I fired up my horn and blasted the device with a concentrated ball of magical force shattering it into pieces. Needless to say I was quite relived when my hypothesis proved right and my head didn't explode, no device to send the signal, no explosion, a rather floored design really.
"We'll now that that unpleasantness has been dealt with I think I shall just leave on my own" I said casually turning my head and firing three more shots shredding the ropes to free my hooves and wings before turning back to find something being pointed at my face.
Two round metal tubes that had been welded together and mounted on a wooden handle.
It was a shotgun!
I barely reacted in time jerking to side and down then forward under the gun towards the unicorn levitating it slamming into her chest with my shoulder and driving forward with my wings.
With a sickening crunch we slammed into the wall, I staggered backwards winded from exerting myself. I still felt strange, my body seemed to protest strongly yet give into my demands, why? What had happened? Was I poisoned?
I turned back to the two ponies expecting them to surrender now that their leader was incapacitated. It was only then that I saw they also armed.
...
Yeah, yeah, I know. It seems stupid not noticing the weapons or that I had a gun pointed at my head, but I wasn't always the most observant pony.
Turning my back on them was also a pretty dumb move.
...
Yes I was a trained soldier, that means it usually pretty clear who’s trying to kill you! I wasn’t used to dealing with complicated situations.
The mare was drawing a sub machine gun from a holster on her neck while the stallion drew a machete from a sheathe on his side. "Don't!" I screamed firing a shot at the SMG, at least that was my target but this sort of spell requires a bit of thought and I wasn't thinking at all.
The shot ploughed into her eye killing her instantly.
I stopped, stunned. I'm not a killer! I've been trained to fight with hooves, weapons and magic but I never tried to kill a pony! I was supposed to fight Zebras and the odd criminal! Except... These ponies wanted to kill me for whatever reason, that made them enemies right?
Drifting into thought cost precious moments, the remaining stallion had decided to run, bolting out of the cave entrance.
"Wait!" I shouted. He turned back to look at me with a look of terror in his eyes... Then fell off a cliff.
I ran outside into the almost pitch black night, above the moon and stars blazed giving enough light to the cave entrance was on wide rock ledge with a gentle slope to right descending to the ground. It was far enough or rather too far for a pony to fall. I didn't bother looking over the edge to see him, I just couldn't handle this! Two ponies dead by my hooves! I was supposed to protect ponies not murder them! How did it go so wrong?
Wait. What about the unicorn mare? I had only run her into the wall right? She should just be knocked out. So when she came around she could... try to kill me for killing her friends.
Okay, okay, I told myself, keep it together. You're a member of the elite Guard! An Soldier! A master of magic! You can handle one psychotic mare. Then, I could move on to more important things.
Like the mission...
The scroll!
I had put it in my jacket pocket but I wasn’t wearing my jacket anymore. Had one of these three taken it?
I walked back into the cave to check on the mare with my head full of new purpose. My mistakes didn’t matter, I had to get the message to Twilight Sparkle. I checked on the mare, she was definitely dead. A pony’s head shouldn’t contain that much blood.
I grimaced at the task ahead of me and started searching the bodies for the scroll.
They had some stuff on them. Ammunition for the shotgun and SMG, some tins of food, a large bag of what appeared to be bottlecaps, and finally a shaving mirror.
Well just because I was now a triple murderer who was about to fail his mission is no reason to look like an idiot while doing it. I flipped the mirror opened and examined my mane.
Oh Goddesses it was worse than I could possibly imagine! It was long and flowing and so very, very... arrggh!!!!!
I cast my illusion spell, then cast it a few more times just to be certain I didn’t have to look at THAT again.
I opened my eyes and saw my mane in the mirror. It had returned to its usual dark red colour, though it was still very long. How long had I been out?
I picked up the machete in a magical grip. It was covered in dirt and grease but had only a few specks of rust and a good sharp edge. Whoever that pony had been he at least knew how to take care of his weapons. Look like he used it a lot too.
A few minutes work had my mane cut down to a the usual short length I preferred, out of my eyes and ears, easy to tuck under a helmet.
I was about to close the mirror when I caught a glimpse of something in the mirror that seemed out of place. By my sides were to large feathery limbs.
Suddenly I realised what was strange about my body that had been bugging me since I woke up, this wasn’t my body!
My wings had been tied back when I woke up! I had used them to charge the unicorn with more force I had ever used!
...
Okay missing that is pretty stupid but checking for new body parts is not something anyone does when they wake up. Missing body parts perhaps but not new ones.
...
What? What about Hoofington?
...
Shut up! I’m telling the story! Wait your turn! Anyway...
I had wings...
WHAT THE BUCK!?!
I staggered around in circles trying to get a good look at them with the mirror, until I realised I could just spread them. They were massive almost reaching from one side of the cave to the other, it was then I realised why the ponies had seemed so small, I was huge! In fact with my white coat I looked a lot like...
I whipped the mirror around to my flank to get a look at my cutie mark. Luna be praised, the same iron horseshoe suspended in red magical glow was there. At least some things never change.
I brought the mirror back to my face to look at my horn. Yep, still cut short. I was definitely me, I was just twice my size and had sprouted wings.
I collapsed to the floor gasping for breath as the world spun around me. What had happened? Was I dead and this was Tartarus? Had my memory been erased by the Ministry of Morale? Had the Ministry of Arcane Sciences conducted some experiment on me? Had I achieved enlightenment and risen to godhood?
I slapped myself lightly with my hoof. Focus! Whatever happened you still have a mission to complete! The scroll might be on the body of the other earth pony that fell off the cliff, but it’s too dark to head outside to check, so I would have to wait until morning.
I also needed food and water. I had little of that here but I didn’t feel hungry or thirsty, or sleepy for that matter. I should settle down, get some rest and save the food for later.
"Hey there! Have your guys... Oh." Said a feminine voice from the entrance to the cave.
I turned and saw standing at the entrance to the cave a strange creature with the head, wings and front legs of an eagle and the hind quarters of a lion. A perfectly normal look for a griffin, I know, but this one was black. Her beak, her feathers, fur, tail and legs were all completely coal black. I had never seen a griffin before in person but I had seen pictures and read about them, so I knew she wasn't normal.
I also noticed one black claw going for some sort of compact machine gun at her side. I was starting to notice a pattern here, people carried weapons, then tried to shoot me. What the hay. But this time I was ready. No more killing, I needed answers!
I fired up my horn and reached out with my magic, wrapping the griffon in a telekinetic field and throwing her into the air. She made no sound beyond a gasp for and continued reaching for the gun at her side.
"Enough!" I shouted. I reversed the direction of my telekinetic grip and slammed her into the floor then continued pushing ever bit of her down.
"I don't want to fight you" I said walking forward and picking up her gun in my mouth and placing it out of reach. It was a strange sort of gun, it had a vaguely rectangular shape and thick barrel. It also lacked the firing bit I had seen on pony guns, instead it had small curved trigger, clearly a weapon meant solely for griffins.
"I don't want to fight you, I just want to talk. I know griffins have fought for Equestria and can promise you will be compensated for you time." A mixed look of confusion and annoyance crossed over her face as if being immobilised by me was just an embarrassment. Finally, she relented and twitched her head in a nod as much as my magic would allow.
"Okay, I'm going to let you up now, don't go for the gun I'll hold onto it for now." I released my magic and took a few steps back then settled down in a seated position.
She raised herself to a seated position so her eye level was the same as mine. Her build was about the same as mine, bigger than the average pony but normal for a mature griffon.
"Aren't you a bit pale for an Alicorn?" She said.
I laughed. I couldn't help it, she was right! I looked just an Alicorn, even if I didn’t feel like one.
"Yes, I know, strange times. My name is Private Broken Thorn of the Canterlot Royal Guard. I’m on a special mission for Princess Celestia. I was on my way to Maripony when there was an explosion then I woke up here. Did the Zebra’s attack?" I asked
"Zebra attack? When was this?" She said with a look of confusion. Unbelievable, you think being a mercenary she would have noticed Zebra’s attacking the heartland of Equestria.
"It doesn't matter." I said trying to hold back my annoyance but honestly what could I expect from a griffon. "I just need to know want is the state of the war? And how can I get to Maripony?"
A look of confusion took over the griffons face "Well... From what I've heard, the Enclave has gone back above the cloud level. Filydelphia is mostly in one piece except for the outer wall, that got levelled by the megaspell. The Steel Rangers and what's left of Red Eyes army are fighting over the factories or scattered and on the run. That's all I know." She said then folded her arms and nodded, as if that explained everything.
"Ok" I said hesitantly as I tried to make sense of her words. Who were the Enclave? Her words suggested they could fly so were they Pegasus or gryphons? And this Red Eye again, a zebra general perhaps?
"But what about Canterlot? Is it under attack? Are the princesses fighting? I can't imagine them sitting around doing nothing."
I noticed various expressions passing over the gryphons face as she tried to process what I had said. Did I have the same expression when she answered my questions?
"Er... Do you mean the Princesses Luna and Celestia?" She finally answered
"We'll yes, they are the only princesses in Equestria aren't they." Was she simple?
The gryphon continued to frown then suddenly her face resolved into an expression of enlightened horror. "Mister, you mentioned an explosion?"
"We'll yes, a pretty big one, it knocked the train I was in off the rails." I was suddenly doubting the reliability of this mercenary’s information. Surely she couldn't have missed an explosion like that? It was huge, it might even have been a...
A megaspell... My stomach suddenly turned over until felt like it was crushing my heart.
"And when do you think these bombs fell?" She asked carefully.
"What do you mean think? It was this morning, or yesterday morning! Sometime then!" Confusion threatened to over whelm me, how long had I been unconscious inside that cave?
"Mister... “She said with sad pitying look on her face "The bombs fell over 200 years ago. The Zebra’s used Balefire bombs. Equestria was destroyed and the Princesses died in Canterlot"
I couldn't breathe.
They actually did it, like doomsayers said they would.
A Balefire apocalypse.
Equestria destroyed...
Luna dead...
Celestia....
"NO" I shouted, "THATS NOT POSSIBLE!!!" I screamed leaping to my hooves.
Bright light caught my eye, outside the sun had risen.
I ran out the cave ignoring the surprised griffin to see the verdant green plains of...
Green plains of...
Green...
There was no green, just endless sandy browns, burnt blacks and light earth reds as far as the eye could see. An endless wasteland.
Only two things could do this, balefire and time.
That blank space in my memory, how much had I forgotten? How had I survived?
Two hundred years. My family had to be dead, and everyone in the guard, they wouldn’t have stopped fighting to the bitter end, but you can’t fight a balefire bomb.
"I missed the war, and we lost." I said aloud.
"I'm sorry for your loss" the griffin said from behind, I turned seeing she had retrieved her weapon.
Was she going to shoot me? What did it matter? Everyone I loved was dead in a war no living soul remembered. Why should I keep living?
I shut my eyes and waited for the shot.
Except...
I felt sick, alone and heartbroken but...
I didn't feel like this was the end, or that it should be. A part of me within my grief was still working to keep going, to figure out my next move.
Did I have something to live for?
The scroll... Lost, but something like that would have been protected by powerful spells to make sure it delivered its message.
The mission... Twilight should be dead of old age even if she had survived the bombs, except she was the most powerful unicorn in generations. She might have found some way to cheat death.
Equestria... Was ashes, but I had already seen that there were still ponies out there surviving. They probably didn't have much to live for, but ponies always seem to find a way to keep going.
How had I become an Alicorn? Was it some miracle or a curse? I wanted to know.
I REALLY wanted to know the answer.
Perhaps there was something out there worth fighting for.
Somehow I had already survived two hundred years. I must have had a reason. Besides I wasn't the sort to break a winning streak.
No time for dying yet.
I opened my eyes ready to unleash magical death on the griffin but found she had holstered her weapon and was looking at me expectantly.
"Sooooo... You mentioned something about compensation?"
Oh dear "Err... I don't really have anything to give you, my country seems to have been destroyed"
I said dumbly. Wow. Smooth. Civilisation destroyed, millions dead and I'm making jokes.
"That's cool, that's cool. You're lost, disoriented. You say things you don't really mean." She said dismissively, "but you’re a stallion right?"
"Errrr... last time I checked.” I was still a stallion, right? I thought I was a stallion, but given the other changes I had been through, I couldn’t be certain of anything. I briefly looked between my legs to my rear. Yep definitely a stallion, that unicorn mare seemed hung up on that too.
Ohhhhh dear, I don’t know whether to be happy or worried if THAT was the sort of thing was what she was talking about.
...
No I hadn't much. There was always some fooling around in the guard but I was never good at chasing mares.
...
Well yes, I certainly learnt a lot once the mares started chasing me, now shut up!
The griffin nodded with a slight smile on her beak. "I think we can come to some arrangement," she thrust a claw towards me. "The name's Scarlet, mercenary".
"Scarlet?" I said placing my forehoof in her claw and shaking while looking the entirely black griffin up and down.
"Yes. Scarlet" she said sternly while squeezing my hoof slightly too tight. “Just, Scarlet."
"Ok, just call me Thorn" I replied meeting her gaze.
"Sure thing Thorn! Now that's out of the way I think it's time for breakfast!" She released my hoof and turned back into the cave past the fire. She stared at the bodies of my captors seeing them for the first time.
"Err should we do something with them, it's not really healthy to leave bodies lying around. Unless your into that sort of thing! It's cool, I've worked with raiders before!"
I stared at the bodies of the ponies I had killed trying to come to terms with what I had done.
"No, we should bury them; it's the least they deserve"
"We'll that's nice, I guess." Said Scarlet as she rolled over one of bodies and started rummaging through the pockets on their barding.
"What are you doing?" I asked confused.
She looked up at me and sighed "You got a lot to learn, mister. This is the Equestrian Wasteland; you take what you can get, whether it’s from dead friends or dead enemies. Understand? It's all about survival."
"All right, all right" I relented under her barrage. She had a good point. For one, I still had this bomb collar on and I needed the key to get it off. I stated rummaging through the unicorn mare’s barding with my magic.
After thirty seconds of work, I had attached the most sturdy looking saddle bag to my rear and packed it with the food I had found earlier. I also found the key I needed. I unlocked the collar and threw it to a far corner of the cave.
"Keep it," said Scarlet from the other side of the cave.
"Why?" I asked.
"Might be useful," she replied.
"I destroyed the detonator."
"Still might be useful," she replied sharply. I guess that settled it.
I looked down at the shotgun, SMG, machete and the ammo for the guns.
Guns really weren't my specialty, but I still felt off, I wasn’t sure about my magic. Best to keep my options open. I picked up the holsters for the guns off the bodies and strapped them on. The thought of wearing dead ponies clothes was repulsive, but I could bear it. I drew the line at wearing their barding however, it didn’t look too solid anyway.
I went outside to the cliff edge and looked down to see the third pony at the bottom of the cliff.
I levitated him up to eye level while trying not to look at him. He was a real wreck. I hoped he died quickly. I riffled through his pockets to see if he had the scroll, but he had nothing on him at all. I slipped the sheathe for the machete off his shoulders and onto my own then set him down on the ground next to the other two Scarlet had dragged out of the cave.
“Stand back.” I ordered, I looked down at the ground and fired up my horn. I reached out with my magic and seized as much of the earth as I could and heaved it upwards. The earth exploded upwards. That was too easy! I was always good at magic in general but my telekinesis was never that strong. Was this body making my magic stronger too?
That was Awesome!!!
I checked that line of thought and composed myself, this was a burial after all.
I reached out with my magic and pulled the three bodies into the hole, then gently lowered the earth back into it. It was so easy it was almost laughable. If this was how much my telekinesis had improved, then what would my other spells be like?
Once we were done, Scarlet directed me to sit opposite her around the fire with a can and fork, both slightly rusty, in magical grip.
"Are you sure THIS is healthy?" I asked sceptically.
"Of course my little pony. Now listen up you’ve got two hundred years of history to catch up on, but first I want to get some facts straight." Her tone was annoyingly cheerful. I got the impression she was enjoying knowing more than me. It must be a rare occurrence for her.
I told her about how I lived in Canterlot and worked as Royal Guard. That interested her for about five minutes. She only really wanted to know if I could fight. I told her about my mission for Celestia, that certainly impressed her. I was amazed that even two hundred years after her death she was still worshipped as a goddess.
"You really admired her, didn't you?" Scarlet asked when I had finished a rant about how great Celestia was.
"That's... Not quite it. How many ponies can really make a difference? With her power and influence, Celestia could affect the entire world! But rather than use the world for her own ends, she always tried to make things better for others. I knew I could never do something like that on my own so I wanted to help some pony who could. It's all I ever wanted." Wow, I don't think I ever opened up like that before.
Scarlet didn't seem to appreciate this though, in fact she seemed a little shaken.
She was interested that I didn't remember anything between the bomb and waking up it the cave, but didn't comment. Then it was my turn to ask questions.
She talked for hours, about how some ponies survived in underground shelters called Stables, and how ponies left on the surface became wild and savage raiders.
She told me about Red Eye, and how he revived Filydelphia industry through slavery...
...About the goddess and her army of Alicorns and promises of unity.
...About the Great Pegasus Enclave who abandoned the surface and shut away the sky.
...About the pink cloud that killed the Princesses and turned Canterlot into city of nightmares.
...About the Steel Rangers, once Equestria's finest soldiers, who became hoarders of technology, and who called themselves knights while killing anyone who got between them and their goal.
More than once I felt sick but managed eat a couple more cans of food. I interrupted only to ask a few questions. Scarlet seemed to know a lot about the wasteland, bar some specifics. There were two questions she couldn't answer that I was determined to find answers to.
"So the goddess made unicorns into Alicorns? Like me? How?"
"Nobody knows, just really powerful magic, I guess. The thing is she could only make Alicorn mares. Even unicorn stallions got turned into mares. You sure you don’t remember any of this?" She raised her eyebrows, at least I think they were eyebrow. It’s hard to tell when everything is the same colour.
“No, I remember the bombs falling then waking up here.” I replied glumly.
“Well from what I heard they all went pretty crazy when the goddess died. Thing is, they're still looking for males to breed. Could be a great opportunity?” she waggled her eyebrows at me and winked.
"Moving on.” I said angrily, becoming a breeding stud for a bunch of insane magical abominations was... Okay I admit it was an interesting prospect, but I had better things to do.
The other question was a bit more complicated.
"Who the buck is this Littlepip?!" When Scarlet started talking about some of the more recent history of the wasteland, I had trouble believing her.
"One little unicorn couldn't do all that! Beating the Enclave AND Red Eye! Clearing the sky? Killing a dragon? No pony could all that!"
"Well she did have help." Scarlet muttered indignantly.
"I'll believe it when I meet her and ask her myself, I'll find out if she's such a hero then."
"Good luck with that. According to DJpon3 she's stuck up inside the SPP control centre behind an impenetrable shield with... Nothing much to do." Okay bit of a lame joke but I think Scarlet was starting to warm up to me. I gave her my warmest smile.
"Then maybe she'll appreciate a visit, help relieve the boredom."
"R..right." She said nervously, okay apparently my smiles are creepy, don't do it again. “Anyway we need to talk about how you’re going to pay me back for this info and saving your sorry arse.”
What?!
“You did not save me! I barely stopped myself from killing you! And as for your info, I could have gotten that from anypony!” She seemed rather stunned by the rebuttal; did she expect me just to go along with whatever she said?
“Well, yeah... I haven’t saved you... yet. You just try setting out into the wastes without a guide! You wouldn’t last a day!” She responded indignantly. She did have a point, I needed a guide.
“Alright so what did you have in mind,” I relented.
Scarlet ruffled her feathers and composed herself again. “Near here is an abandoned Stable. I couldn’t handle it on my own, but the two of us should be able to manage it.” She said happily. “We go in, get the water talisman, and anything else we like, then sell it for a fortune so you can pay your debt! Easy!” She finished triumphantly.
It made sense as a plan, in a world filled with radiation a clean source of water would be invaluable however...
“So how much could you sell the water talisman for?” I asked conversationally.
“Depends on how desperate the buyer is for water. Could be thousands of caps.” Caps not bits, I mused now that was interesting.
“No deal,” I replied.
Scarlet's jaw dropped, “But, but why! It’s a good plan! It could make us thousands!”
“By the terms of the agreement it would make YOU thousands, you would get the reward and I would have my dept paid, several time over it would seem.” Scarlet looked suitably embarrassed that her petty scam had been figured out. She wasn't a very good negotiator.
“Okay, tell you what. You travel with me for a while, teaching me what you can, we go get the talisman, we find a buyer and split it sixty, forty. Deal?”
Scarlet glanced at me suspiciously, “That’s sixty for me and forty for you right?” Amazing! She could learn, maybe this wouldn't be so hard after all. I nodded.
She thrust out a talon, “Then it’s a deal!”
Notes:
New companion! Scarlet, griffin mercenary.
Race: Griffin
Coat: Black, for now.
Traits
Finesse: Your attacks show a lot of finesse. You don't do as much damage, but you cause more critical hits.
Tagged Skills
Unarmed
Survival
Sneak
SPECIAL
STR 8
PER 9
END 5
CHA 1
INT 5
AGI 9
LCK 3