-Winter-
I was being hunted.
My left wing crashed against the topmost branch of a tree, knocking it's green leafyness down and me along with it. I landed with a wet thud in the rain-soaked mud and slid through it like it was some sort of thick melting ice cream. The sludge immediately layered its icky self between the folds in my feathers and the smell was nothing like ice cream. One of winter's few remaining small and sludgy snowbanks suddenly ended my slide and my food-related thought. My stomach grumbled loudly at the dwindling image of the frozen dessert, which was probably the most random thing I could think about when I was about to die. I glanced up to see the outline of a figure quickly slashing it's way through the curtains of rain towards me. The outline of my pursuer. Looking to my left, I could make out what appeared to be a thick length of trees a couple of hundred feet away. If I could make it to them, they could provide me some cover at the most, and would slow the pegasus by making her land at the very least.
With my head spinning and my left wing protesting in pain I stood up and attempted to run toward the treeline. All I was able to pull off was an odd looking, one-sided shuffle, which most definitely made me look like some sort of drunken beggar to the pegasus. With the quickest glance back I could already make out the color of her coat and mane. I looked forward to see that the trees appeared no closer than before.
Well... Crap.
As quickly as I could, I turned around and faced the pegasus charging me head on. I could tell by her gold-embroidered armor that she was one of the elite soldiers of the Equestrian Aerial Squad. Her kinds' normally blood soaked armor gleamed from the downpour's violent washing. I drew my two silver daggers strapped across my chest and attempted to flair my wings in a last stand of ferocity, but stumbled instead as my left hind leg gave out and my left wing crumpled in agony. I let out a yelp of pain before quickly clamping my beak shut and my wings gently across the sides of my body. I realized that this wouldn't even be a fight, much less a fair one.
The pegasus was only a few dozen yards away, and her long pointy glaive was fast approaching the center of my soon-to-be disembodied heart. I lowered my head, raised my blades, and saw a large dark blur tackle the pegasus out of the sky and into the cold muddy earth below. A scream gargled out of the pegasus's throat before being quickly cut off by a silent swish of a golden short sword. My savior paused for a moment, let out a brief sigh, and sheathed his weapon. He turned to me and with a flap of his powerful wings landed a few feet from me.
"Yo, hombre, how are you holding up? Did that little devil get you?"
I let out a pained laugh and attempted to stand of all four of my legs. My left leg felt wobbly so I turned to see it bending at an odd angle. A wave of darkness washed over me, and I decided to sit down to have something to keep me from floating away. "Yeah, and I'm perfectly fine, Darius." I replied to the gryphon in a serious yet slightly sarcastic tone.
"What is it this time, another bruised rib? You know that..." He cocked his head curiously before warily eyeing my injured hind leg. His tone became more serious "Are you alright? What is it?"
"It's... " I looked to the west and listened for the sounds of battle. I heard none, so we must have won for us both to still be alive. "I should be fine as long as the battle is over and no more Equestrian soldiers come this way. I know I won't be able to fly outta here, but I may be able to suffer through walking if I had some sort of splint."
"Yeah, we whipped their butts into Tartarus today! At this rate, the war should be over in only a couple of months." Darius looked towards the treeline that I had failed to reach. The excitement in his voice faded away. "I'll be right back with a splint," he said softly. Then he was gone, his pure black coat dissipating with a flash of gold into the rain-soaked black of night. I sighed and clenched my teeth against the pain and waited.
.-*<><*><>.-*
The midday sunlight was shining down brightly through the thin branches of the trees above. I looked up at the grey boughs and wondered at the few remaining leaves that still clung tightly to the tree. A sudden cold wind ruffled my feathers and sent a small shiver down the length of my spine, and I watched as the black and shriveled leaves blew violently through the air and out of my sight. I stopped and shrugged my saddlebags further up onto my back, hoping in a vain attempt that they would give my shoulders some extra warmth. With each new week the weather just gets colder and colder. I thought sadly. This year's winter was already frigid compared to the warm wet one of last, and it was starting to worry my homeless self. The thick layer of snow that blanketed the ground crackled under my hindpaws as I continued on my way.
The trees slowly dwindled in number as I went, and eventually I left the forest behind me in exchange for the empty, snowy, and windswept plains of the lower lands. The sun was on its way down in the west when I heard the noise of a scuffle ahead of me. I stayed low and crept up the side of a small hill to my right to get a better view of what was happening up ahead. As I reached the top of the hill and peeked over, my eyes were drawn to the center of the conflict.
There, I saw a middle-aged mare in a white cloak brandishing a thin knife over a small bundle of something. To her right lying in the grass was the bloody body of a gray stallion; most likely the mare's husband or brother. I counted four other ponies wearing a ragtag mixture of ripped cloth and worn armor circling the mare in the middle. Bandits! I cursed silently in disgust. I drew a golden shortsword and a silver dagger strapped across my chest and clamped my one good wing against my side while the other hung limp. Tossing my saddlebags off my shoulders, I hastily made my way down the other side of the hill as silently as possible.
"You! What kinda goodies do you have in that bundle?" said one of the bandits who I could make out through the tall grass as either a unicorn or an earth pony.
"It's nothing you'd want! Now leave me alone!" the white-cloaked mare retorted as tears streamed down her face.
One of them jumped wildly towards the mare, shouting, "Is it gold? It's gold, isn't it?!"
His sudden outburst was met with a small slash across the muzzle. Yelping, he quickly jumped away rubbing his snout.
I decided to make my move and lunged towards the pony closest to me. I came down on his head with my short sword, hearing his skull cracking, and followed up with a second swing from my dagger for good measure. My sudden appearance left two of the remaining bandits stunned, but the last one, a unicorn, drew a set of throwing knifes and chucked them wildly in my direction before backpedalling away.
I ducked two of them and felt a third one pierce my bad wing. I cringed as the pain raced down my wing, but then I launched myself into the air driving my sword into the heart of one of the stunned ponies. By the time I pulled the sword out the second pony regained her composure and wildly slashed her longsword toward me. I back stepped, letting the sword's momentum carry the pony into a defenceless position, and then moved in and knifed her in the throat. The dagger-chucking unicorn looked at her fallen comrades and then turned tail in an attempt to run away. I yanked the dagger out of the gurgling pony's throat and chucked it into the back of the unicorn's head. With the bandits dead, I turned to see the mare's white cloak quickly turning red. She moaned slightly as I eyed a long dagger sticking out of one of her hind legs. It appeared to be one of the knife-chucking unicorn's.
"No, get away," she said as her eyes widened. "Don't touch me or my foal!"
I looked down to see a small head peek its way out of the bundle of cloth. The foal looked in my direction with its small and questioning eyes. The mare attempted to stand up with the foal and run away, but quickly tumbled back into the hard ground sending the child into a fit of tears.
"Please! I won't hurt you!" I pleaded with the mare taking a small step toward her. "You've been struck by a dagger, and that leg is probably broken. Please, let me help you; I have some supplies in my saddlebags. Just let me go get them."
"I said get away you filthy gryphon!" she shrieked as she attempted and failed to stand. This is going to be a long week. I sighed and quickly made my way up the hillside to my bags. I rummaged around in them for a dozen seconds looking for bandages, a bundle of cotton, and a few choice healing herbs. I made my way back to the mare.
I feared the worst when I found the mare motionless at the far side of the small valley. She had attempted to run away from me and had collapsed in a heap. I ran to her as fast as I could, cursing her for her stupidity and recklessness. She has a foal to think about, and if she kills herself over an insignificant thing like race... I was a few feet from her body when I saw that her sides were shakily moving. She had passed out, and was still somewhat alive. I gingerly removed the dagger and cleaned the wound as carefully as possible. I looked to the west to see the sun's last rays disappear behind the horizon. I looked around and noticed that a small snow storm was blowing its way in. I sighed, curled up around the mare and her child, and gently rested my right wing over their bodies, protecting them from the cold outside my wing.