//------------------------------// // Where oceans should be, land resides. // Story: Umbreka // by Armanico Vita //------------------------------// The sun struck mid-sky, pouring its warming gaze about the forest. By the time they reached the campsite, morning had finally passed on along with the cool air it accompanied. Humid air met with their exhausted bodies, and with sweat drenched coats they pulled into camp. Their hooves struck against the heat-encrusted dirt, cracking deeper blemishes in the otherwise beautiful land. This forest followed this same pattern day by day and night by night. By noon the ground dries and hardens out. By midnight it spreads itself thin and softens into mushy dirt. It was earlier that Fluttershy learned of how nature in Boletaria has learned to take care of itself. Without the Pegasi around to keep the weather in check, nature began to take over. Like the vines and weeds at the overgrown cabin she last visited, nature has learned to care for itself. In comparison, it reminded her a lot of the Everfree Forest she lived by and also of the lands she traversed following the end of the Equestrian borders. Weird as it may seem, she has grew accustom to the leisure she found in worrying about that one less aspect of life. The questioning had finally ceased as the ponies dispersed, each had their own job to do around the camp. It had become habitual for them, packing up and moving on to the next stop just to set up camp yet again. They did so without ever being ordered and without the slightest detest. Their drive was found in what they hoped for, to see their home again. Every day for six months they repeated their days, just as the forest repeated its pattern. Dawn to dusk they walked, only stopping to set up when their path becomes shrouded by the dark, invisible to their naked eyes. Usually they took it easy, taking their time to pack up made it certain their energy was saved for the day's endeavor. But now, their home was a day's worth of time away, enough of their morning already wasted out of curiosity. Knowing this only served as fuel for their determination to make it back by nightfall. It was important they didn't take their time now. Banter and Glasseye were the first two to begin. Being the biggest of the group, set out to do the heavy lifting. Fueled by motivation, both ponies stood at the back of the carts, hastily throwing things into an unorganized, miscellaneous heap. Sonnet squashed the last embers of the lingering campfire, the last remains of their trash being tucked away in an over-the-shoulder bag while Ironhoof checked around the camp, uncertain of finding any unwanted stowaways among them. Pastel ushered Fluttershy to follow him, leading her towards the smaller of the two masses of ratty cloth they had set up. Its insides held gifts of bandages and medicine, and like promised, Pastel fixed her wing up. The time he took was much less than that of Sonnet's attempt. A brown bottle, wrapped snuggly in it's lime green label and unknown to her, he poured its contents out over her raw flesh. It burned her wound as an antiseptic would, she figured that's what it had been. He went straight to work, fixing up her wound as any physician would, and just as any normal physician, he filled in the time with his own chatter. He had questions of his own, but didn't want to press her any further. Friendly, idle chatter would suffice. "I hope you know how brave you are for traveling through the Darkroot alone. Most ponies aren't as lucky as you, walking away with nothing more than a broken wing." He pressed a splint against the length of her wings, tying it down and dressing it up. He touched everything up on her wing, tightening the wrap together and leaving the tip open to breathe in the fresh air. "Uhm. . . Why do you say that? I don't. . . what's wrong with Darkroot?" She was afraid to ask, knowing the answer could be something she didn't want to hear. Pastel saw her uneasiness and decided to play things off. "Oh, you know, just that forests can be a dangerous place when you're by yourself at night. Now that I think of it, being alone in the dark can be just as scary no matter where you go." It was a good move. "Oh no, I'm far from being brave, sir. I can be quite the opposite at times." Warming up to this group wasn't going to be so bad. Her voice grew less shaky and she began to ease up. Talking with them individually was easier than being bombarded by an entire group. "Haha well you definitely don't seem it. Just a little shy is all, nothing wrong with that at all." he said with jest. Like Sonnet, he spoke in a soft tone. Everything he said was light-hearted and friendly. It was this that made them easy ponies to get along with. He thought back to a few hours ago, when they first found her. There had been a flame, being different than most flames he accompanied on his travels. Similarly, it was hot, but stretching out more so than any fire he built, it heated the entirety of the forest like a miniature sun. A small glint reflected from around her neck, catching his eye. She wore a mysterious, gold ornament around her neck, easily differentiating her from all other ponies on the outskirts of Boletaria. Shockingly, she bore a striking resemblance to those residents of Vinheim. "Yeah I agree, but I wouldn't say I'm so much as afraid of the dark as some of the things that can be lurking inside of it. You may not believe me, but I've actually been to worse place than the forest." She cringed at the thought of the nest she had stumbled upon. "There was a place not far west of here inside of the forest and it was one of the most beautiful places I had seen in weeks." She recollected the past, a recent happening of her journey. "Beautiful? In this part of the forest? No way, the only thing you'd stumble upon here is poison ivy and a bad cold." He joked with her. What once was genuine concern had now fallen victim to the stallion's japes. Pastel continued wrapping her along the path down her wing, leading into her torso. Finishing with the bottom layer of gauze, he held the splint to her fracture, ready to bind the two. "You really only experience something like this in the few caves unexplored by miners or adventurers." Fluttershy closed her eyes, recalling the day she spoke of. "The walls were lined in gems, hundreds of tiny stars twinkling as I shined my light on them. It was a serene place. If I listened close enough, I could hear my very own heart's beat as it kept in tune with the stray beads of water dropping from the ceiling." Pastel sat there, nearly finished with his job, connecting her wing with its adjacent body and wrapping her chest up tightly. He continued working hard, wanting to do the best job he could, but also keeping an ear on what she had to say. This story of hers was interesting, and he wanted to know how it ended. "Peaceful as it was, I didn't expect to find the danger I did at the end of the tunnel. It wasn't a cave that I stumbled upon, it was a nest, and the quarray eels living there weren't too happy with me treading around their caves." She continued on with the tale. At points, he would stop and ask her a question. To better help him, she crudely illustrated her story on the dirt floor. The ground was her stage, and her etchings were the props, the setting, and the cast. She was no professional, but this kind gesture of hers received no complaints from the gazing stallion. When he asked what an eel was, she drew it. Its long, slender body encompassed a large area around her. She let her self carry on a bit too much with her artistic integrity. Leaving out the important things like sharp-edged scales, and teeth like razors only confused him more. After sharing a nervous laugh with herself she smudged out the picture and started over, redrawing it only ever-so-slightly scarier. By the end of the story, all that she traversed had been drawn, and then mostly smudged out when the tunnels began collapsing. "And there I was, at the top of the shaft." She placed her hoof down, the rounded print representing her. "I was extremely lucky to make it out of there alive." She would like to believe it was luck that seen her through, but she knew who deserved to be credited for her survival. "That escape must have given quite the rush!" Pastel applauded as he wound the dressing around her again, making a tightly-fit bandage undergarment. "So, if you don't mind me asking, how did you manage to break your wing in such a way? You look as if you had been mangled, your wing itself was riddled with bite marks by the time I got to check it out." That part of the story Fluttershy had wanted to keep secret. She hid that single detail under lock and key in hopes of dodging the question; so far, it was just a small accident of nature in their eyes. But here Pastel was, asking for the grim ending of the adventure she had just shared. She for one was not a fan of these darker endings, but as life has come to show, they are the most realistic way to finish a story. Her intention were not to hide the truth in order to make herself seem more brave, courageous and daring, like the main character of Rainbow's favorite series of books. She had wanted to make herself seem of use. She didn't want to be classified as weak yet again. "Well. . . it happened when I was. . ." she paused herself, throat drying up in the swelling heat. She bit down on her lip. "You don't have to tell me, if you don't want to." he reassured with a smile on his face, one that you see all the time from at a dentist office. "You're free to leave if you want to, I just finished up properly." He stood himself up from the sleeping mat she resided on and walked towards the exit, ready to leave. "No wait, I'm just a little shaken from it, and maybe a little nervous too." Pastel slowly turned himself to face her, his attention having been caught again. "I thought I was safe at the top of the tunnel, most of the eels weren't able to make it past the collapsing tunnel. Just as I took off my goggles and began to settled down, I was taken by surprise. One of them latched onto my wing and would not let go. It wanted to drag me back down there with all of its friends." she recalled being stuck in the fish's maw, no choice but to rip herself out. "I was locked in between the tiny gaps in his teeth, forced to break myself and pull what remained out." She sputtered as if the words were sour lemons. The two ponies resided in silence, her story causing an uneasy tension. It was uneasy for her to choke those words out, and it was even harder for him to hear her struggling. "I'm sorry, I probably shouldn't have asked you retell something like that." He was overridden with the guilt, feeling like he had overstayed his welcome. "I always hear these terrifying stories other ponies have to tell, but I've never really experienced anything for myself. I'd like to think I'm lucky for never having to experience any of the things I've heard, but I can't help but feel my life is too boring. Well, at least you're safe with us now, feel free to walk around if you please." He turned around, ready to leave the canvas home. Just before his exit, his head turned to face her, still bearing his same welcoming smile. He still had something left unsaid. "Don't worry about feeling like a bother to anyone, if you have anything you want to say, just come find any one of us." With nothing else on his mind, Pastel opened up the tattered flaps, filling the room with the outside's humid air. The heat replaced his presence, filling in the spot he stood as he disappeared back into the world. Fluttershy waited around a little time longer after she was left to her privacy. In these moments she watched over the exit, checking to make sure no one else would come visit her. Once she was certain the tent would be barren of company, she let out a sigh of relief. For the first time in hours, she was finally alone, left to contemplate her situation. Pastel's words lingered around her thoughts, ". . .if you have anything to say, just come find any one of us." It was true, she still had many things left to say, questions of her own she still needed answered. How they managed to find her was beyond understanding. Traveling west to where her coma-induced body lay was counterproductive to their southward pursuits. Then she remembered something. She was still carrying her saddlebag, it had been left untouched by Ironhoof's group. The pouch of gifts Celestia gave her stared back, gleaming at her with its pleas. Her curiosity was been piqued now, the pouch was calling for her, waiting to be unwrapped as if it were a present. There was something festering inside of her, an itch that was in dire need of a scratch. She pulled it off of herself, showing no haste in unlatching the bigger of the two pouches, the one stamped with the sun. The top flipped open only to be greeted by an awful mess of assortments that her backpack has became. She flung her head back, flinching in disgust as a sour wave of odorous air swelled out of the bag. Her hoof worked wonders at blocking out the smell tickling at her disgruntled nose. With her available hoof, she raised the bag onto her lap and peaked inside. The bottle of antiseptic had been smashed inwards, an accidental result of her crushing blow. It lay open at the bottom, what little remained leaked out of the fractured bottleneck. At the very top of the heap lay a red mass of flesh, bruised, and battered from the beating she took back in the forest. Fluttershy reached into the disgusting bag, pulling it out and continuing to sift around inside of the strewn mess. Like the apple, the rest of her accoutrements were drenched in the undesirable liquid. The last of her life's fuel turned no longer edible, her bread soaking in the medicine like a sponge. She sifted through the top, still disgusted as she pulled out the reserve of bandages she was saving for later. Lying below the cluttered mess of spongy wrapping she found what she was looking for, her map. She pulled parchment out, by the tip of its corner, holding its sogginess away from her. She shook it dry, letting the liquid drip off. The watery stains left into the paper had, for the most part, washed out its image. Still then, she managed to see what was waiting for her at the eastern edge of the map. There was no other lands recorded to be east of Equestria, just a vast expanse of water, and yet here she was. This whole new province unknown to her until just recently, something Celestia happened to leave out of her motivational speech. She rolled the map back up again, feeling odd at this discovery. She must not have traveled out this far herself, royal duties must keep her stuck inside her castle at all times. It could be possible she didn't know. She tossed these ideas around inside of her head, looking to give her princess a plausible excuse. There must have been a reason Celestia left that part out. Perhaps this little endeavor of her was something unexpected, it could have been that the princess didn't expect it to stretch out this long in time. If only, she thought, if only I could fly better, maybe then I would be done with this all. I don't want to be out here, this far from my home anymore. She lacked the motivation to continue on. Her morale had been destroyed along with her body, and the trail she found in the cabin earlier was probably useless to her now. The time she lost while walking was tremendous. The eel's spite ripped through her flesh, it had effectively anchored her to the ground. Celestia's guide, the Element of Kindness that hung from her neck, was the only thing she believed to be certain in her life up until now. It's her last connection to the pony she held dear. The princess told her its piercing beam shoots in the direction of the wearer's desire, of what they deem important. For Fluttershy, the beam pointed in the direction of her best friend.