Shard woke up from her slumber and the first thing she noticed was the large reindeer pressed against her back. She turned her head and raised and eyebrow, his mouth was open and there was a little trail of drool dripping out of his mouth and he snored. This was her first time sharing a bed with anyone and it was weird, she tried to slip out, but that was near impossible. She thought for a second then had an idea, she cast a small intangibility spell and it allowed her to slip out of his grip, but as she slipped from the bed, she remembered her broken leg, but she couldn't stop herself from slipping out of the bed. She landed with a loud thud and she gasped in pain before she felt anything, but no pain came.
She waited for the pain and when it didn't come, she looked at her leg, the gauze was still there, but it was no longer broken and thats when the memory of her dream came back. The slaughter of the Umbra Tribe, the rape of its women, and Luna appearing before her and fixing her leg to stop the war. It was enough to make her gasp in surprise and fall backwards against the bed. When she hit the bed, the thud must have awoken Nix because his head shot up and as he saw Shard panting next to the bed, he placed a hoof on her shoulder and she turned to him, her expression was less then happy. Shard looked at Nix and at seeing his concerned expression, she broke down and started crying, she had to save a village she'd only been in for two days.
Shard felt a hoof brush her mane, she looked up and saw Nix, he looked truly concerned and it was clear how much he wanted to help, but Shard knew there was nothing he could do. It took her a moment to regain herself and once she did, she picked herself up and one more tear slid down, but thats all she'd allow, she needed to speak with Tarandrus and find out what exactly his plan was in the instance of war. She slipped out the door and Nix followed shortly behind, she gave no time for him to catch up or anything, she saw the giant hut that Tarandrus lived in, she pushed the door open and she regretted it.
Shard saw the chief and some unknown female, they turned to her and Shard closed the door, pretending she hadn't seen a thing. She had to wait for a few moments before the female exited the door before her, the female mouthed "Thank You" and left to go back to her home. Shard took this as a sign that she could enter and, this time more cautiously, pushed open the door. Tarandrus stood in the center of the room, his expression told her that he wasn't happy and she was more or less, happy the he was unhappy.
"What is it you want Pony?" he said with clear disdain in his voice, she was so close to laughing at him, but she wisely suppressed the urge to do so. "I came to ask you some simple questions about the Umbra Tribe" she said as if it were truly innocent, but she really needed to know. "What kind of questions" he said, a grin appearing on his face like his tribe was perfect, just because he lead it. "Well, I was wondering what your tribe would do in the instance of war" she said.
"What does that mean?" he said
"Just what I said"
"Which is?"
Shard groaned "Like, say an opposing tribe invaded, what would you do?" she said, her hoof pressed against her face. "We would face them head on and kill them" he said with plain boredom, like it was a simple question with a simple answer. Shard looked at him, was he insane, stupid or both, "What kind of a plan is that?" she said with a face of shock. "Just what I said" he said in a poor mimic of her voice.
Shard frowned, she hadn't expected this from the chief, he was acting like a child, "Whatever" she said and left the hut where he lived and stomped back to Nix's hut. The wind picked up and Shard shivered, the snow was awful, she pulled her wings tightly to her body. All the Deer wore cloaks and Shard had nothing to help keep her warm. She saw everything a moment ago, but now the wind and snow had picked up so much that Shard couldn't see the hut. she squinted her eyes trying to find it, but it was useless so she kept walking, hoping find it.
Only when she didn't reach the hut after a few minutes did she realize that she'd probably wandered past it "Buuuuuuuuck" she groaned and made a U-turn when she noticed a large and blurry figure behind her. She thought it was one of the Deer looking for her and sighed "Hey, I'm over here!" she yelled and the shadow seemed to approach fast and she felt better, til the she finally noticed the lack of antlers and how much larger it was then a Reindeer.
"Um, whos there?" she yelled worriedly, but there was no response other then the howling of wind and a weird growling and then it clicked; Predator. Shard pulled open her wings and tried to appear larger, she wished she had Jade Candle with her now, but that was just wishful thinking. Shard could see it continued it's advance and she could make out white fur now, Polar Bear, masters predators of the snow and ice.
Shard gulped, she could only think of one thing to do now, try to be brave and confront this predator, sure she'd probably die, but whatever, she'd probably die before she successfully reached Equestria so, whatever. She stretched her wings wide as possible and began to force her horn to glow as bright as possible, she charged the bear. It grew closer and closer as she charged and with each second she grew less sure of what she was doing. She stopped before the creature and it stopped in front of her and stood on its hind legs.
Shard flinched as it let loose a loud roar, it was terrifying and when the bear lifted a paw to strike her she shielded herself with her wing and prepared for the blow. The blow never came and when she peeked from behind her wing she saw the bear was slowly fading from existence and turning into a dark blue cloud. When the bear had fully disappeared, Luna stood before Shard "Luna, what are you doing her?" she said to the older mare, "I came to test your combat abilities and I'm sorry to say, are lacking" she said and shook her head.
"What, why would you need to do that?" she said, she really didn't know why Luna would need to do that. "Because, if your to save the Umbra Tribe then you'll need to learn to fight and defend yourself" Luna said "Now, I shall take you under my wing and I shall teach you to fight in time for the invasion".