Travels
"How are there so many trees out here?" Cato asked, looking around wide-eyed.
"I don't know, I've never been in the forest before..." Eldon replied, a tone of awe carried through his voice. It wasn't the total darkness he had expected, the moon shining defiantly through the branches and illuminating parts of the ground. New leaves were forming around in the branches, giving him what he was sure was enough cover from the search teams he knew would come.
"Do you know how to use a spear?" Cato asked, poking at the weapon where it was tied to Eldon's saddlebag and cringing as it swung slightly and clipped his shoulder.
"Ah! I didn't think it'd be that sharp!" Eldon cried out, cursing under his breath in words that Cato neither caught nor understood.
"Sorry! I didn't mean-" The little griffin started, before he was cut off.
"It's fine, better we figure that out now than when it really matters." His older brother responded, stopping briefly to touch at the small cut. It wasn't anything serious, at least.
Cato shifted, shimmying down Eldon's back slightly until he found a more comfortable position on his more muscular (and therefore less bony) flank. "You ever thought about what it would be like to be fat?" Cato asked, making Eldon suddenly burst out laughing.
"No, not really." He replied after he'd begun to calm down. "It's just extra weight to haul, it can hardly be a good thing."
"Yeah, but think of all the food you'd get to eat if you were fat." The smaller griffin replied, his thoughts clearly focused on food they didn't have.
"I don't think being fat goes along with having food to eat."
"Oh yeah?" Cato replied indignantly, claws extending from his paws slightly and scraping against Eldon's flank. "The only fat guy I've ever seen was the one that started telling us that stuff about how well the five year plan went, and that the populace as a whole is better fed as a result."
"You know that that's garbage, right?" Eldon asked, his brother making a huff of confusion.
"But he said-"
"Yeah, the only reason you can believe him is because of the fact that you don't remember what things were like five years ago." Eldon paused, reaching a talon back towards his saddlebag before he gave up and huffed in annoyance. "Reach into my left saddlebag," he instructed, watching the smaller griffin carry out the order, "and find something that looks like a little book."
"Ah! Here it is, I think," Cato replied, pulling something out. "What about it?"
"Look through the pages. I kept track of the price of meat and my wages, and they pretty much stay the same. Get a little worse, even." Cato didn't respond, and Eldon took the chance to continue on. "That's one of the reasons I hate those guys so much. It's not really the labor or the lack of food, so much as it is the fact that everything's exactly the same as it was before the stupid revolution. The only difference is that we get a lot more pep rallies, and we get lied to about how much better they're getting."
"So Equestria won't be like that?"
"I-" He stopped, looking at the ground. He couldn't say for sure that it wouldn't. "No." He replied, ignoring his own qualms. "I'm not saying that it'll be perfect, but it won't take much to be better than this place."
"What did it say in your book?" Cato asked, his voice cracking slightly in fatigue. "About their leaders?"
"It's going to sound stupid when I tell you." Eldon mumbled with a sigh.
"You said it was nonfiction, it can't be that bad." The smaller griffin replied, giggling slightly.
"Their princesses are like gods, and apparently they move the sun and the moon."
"Yeah right, they say that about the ministers' emotions and the weather!" Cato laughed, catching himself and quieting down.
"Yeah, well I can't disprove that one, or the thing about the princesses really. For all we know it really could be. But the people- the ponies, I suppose, live under a diarchy and elect their own mayors for towns. They have a volunteer army, and one that apparently keeps to itself, so I've heard. No guards roaming the streets or anything. It explicitly states these things, because it talks about the Griffin Empire right afterwards and compares it. There was this undertone of disgust in his writing, like he couldn't begin to understand how somebody could be cruel enough to rule a country like the king did."
"But you know he wasn't just a guy toting up his own stuff? The same as they do here?" Cato asked, making Eldon chuckle.
"I guess I can't be sure, but honestly, it's still better than-" A stick broke in the forest and they both went silent, looking around in fear. It was probably a good time to mention the fact that griffins had extremely good eyesight... in the daytime. When it came to sight, the eagle half had seemingly won out, leaving Eldon with little to no night vision. At least what he could make out kept the same hypersensitivity to movement that cats had.
He stood still for several more seconds, looking around nervously. They couldn't be after him already, he'd only been out for a little over an hour. Maybe they could have found out about the body and the hole in the fence, but even then Eldon had taken the guard's armor. He craned his head around, looking at the plate of metal that protected the front of his shoulder. The serial number staring back at him would delay them a few minutes, even if they still had the tattoo to go back on.
Cato didn't have a brand like they had started doing recently, thank god, but he had received his tattoo years ago, back when he had turned fourteen. Eldon began to walk again, following the markings on his forearm with his eyes. LB-422-C, his label as a member of the grand old Griffin Empire. Griffin Republic, silly him. He had only needed this under the new government anyway.
Another stick broke, but Eldon ignored it. There was no way they had found a griffin, figured the cause of death and the griffin killed, and then sent out a party after him already. If he was lucky, as he so rarely seemed to be, the griffin may not yet have been found.
The whole system that ran this country was like a huge machine. It worked really well doing the same tasks and keeping itself running, but as soon as something happened that it wasn't prepared for, it seemed to almost need to stop and reboot. Either way, that still only left him with a few hours.
"How well are you concealing your tracks, bro?" Cato asked, peering over his side and onto the ground.
Damn, he'd hardly thought of that. His head snapped downward and he let out a sigh of relief, looking behind him a short ways at the packed dirt. It hadn't rained for a few weeks despite the beginning of spring, and it was becoming hard to tell that he had even passed through. Better safe than sorry, he thought, making his palms as flat as possible to try to eliminate the claw marks. It wasn't very comfortable, but it didn't slow him down. "They're concealed enough. It won't be that easy to find us."
"I hope so." His brother responded, fear creeping into his voice. "On second thought, I don't really like it around here so much." He seemed to draw back into himself a little, his voice quieting as he finished.
Eldon nodded, "I'd probably be worried if you said that you liked it."
Cato was silent for a while, the soft taps of Eldon's talons and paws the only sound coming from the pair. The forest, of course, was alight with ambient noise. An owl cooed, a bat rocketing above their heads as Cato looked on. He hardly knew what to call things out here, considering how little life made residence in the cities. There were rats, bats, and all other manner of vermin that could inhabit such a place, giving it that little extra layer of horror.
There was one thing the government seemed to pity the griffins about, which only happened under specific circumstances, and was only what Eldon had heard through rumors. Rabies had gone rampant a few years back when raccoons had begun to take part in the foraging alongside the rats. That's the only time he'd heard of a government official looking remotely sad for something, when they had to kill a griffin that couldn't think to do more than bite at them. But that wasn't really the government, that probably just resonated with a part of griffin nature that even the government couldn't interfere with.
From what he could tell, and that wasn't much, griffins had been a race of honor. That was based off of a book that he assumed to be fiction, but it was better than any other assumption he could make. It made sense, really. Griffins never really broke when they were working, and Eldon was fairly sure that it was pride more than stupidity or naiveté keeping them like that. It really explained why rabies was so saddening, it was probably one of the least honorable things that could happen, taking away one's control over their own body.
At least they could offer any last words before a griffin was publicly put to death, and for many of the others that were caught for lesser crimes, their last words were all posted for loved ones and otherwise. It was a sick practice, but from what he could see the government didn't really try to censor what the griffins wanted to say. Too bad that was literally the most agreeable policy they had, especially given the fact that the griffin was under the effect of that syringe seconds later.
Eldon shook his head and looked up at the moon above him, finding the thought strange that it could be the same one he saw through his bedroom window every night. He felt like he was almost in a different world, so full of life and beauty, even at night when he had trouble making out large rocks. It was just- such a strange feeling, to finally be free like he was.
That was a stupid thing to think, he didn't want to jinx himself already. But given the brisk trot that he'd taken most of the way, he'd etched out a fairly large lead. Even beyond that, he knew he was heading in the right direction. Astronomy, despite the fact that it was probably the most useless thing he could possibly know before now, was also the thing that was allowing him to navigate.
He only recognized a few constellations off the top of his head, but the end of Dólve's paw pointed him north, to where he hoped his destination would be.
"Bro, can we set up camp already?" Cato complained, tired of being jostled around on Eldon's back.
"I don't want to stop until I have to," he responded, "They'll be able to find us more easily if we stay close by, because they'll have to search less ground beforehand."
Cato groaned and Eldon rolled his eyes, shoving a talon into his saddlebag and pulling out a blanket for the young griffin.
"Just put this under you then, and stay quiet." Eldon murmured.
"I can't help it if I talk in my sleep!"
"Shh!" He covered Cato's face with his palm, slowly dragging it down in annoyance. "Just go to sleep, I'll wake you up of I need to."
"What if we get attacked?" Cato whispered, looking around nervously. "I don't want them to find us."
"Listen," Eldon began, breaking into a trot again. "If they do, you're going to pull the string attaching the spear to my saddlebag. That'll untie the bow, and then I'll grab that and throw it or whatever you do with spears. Probably throw it. then I'll pull out the knife, and try to see if I can get in a few more hits. But when that happens, you need to run and hide."
"What about you?"
"If I win," which he probably wouldn't, "then I'll come find you. Uh... safe word. We need a safe word. Beef? No, too obvious..."
"Mushrooms!" Cato yelled, before Eldon's palm slapped into his mouth once again.
"Be. Quiet." He said slowly, making sure even the little griffin could understand.
"You're. No. Fun." Cato replied, making the elder griffin wonder if he had really thought it would just be a straight shot to escape at this point.
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"Rookie?" Joel asked, taking a turn through an alleyway. He'd finished his beat by now, and had decided to turn back to look for the guy. He was always lagging behind like this, complaining about how much he hated guard duty. It'd been kind of nice with the silence, but by now the novelty had been replaced by a feeling of nervousness in Joel's gut.
"You there?" He asked, watching a rat scuttle across the area the lantern lit up. He sighed, moving slowly along until he came onto the street where the rookie'd split off initially. Joel had a kind of annoyance towards Rookie, but it wasn't as if they hadn't developed a friendship despite that. 'Course, being stuck with his squad mates 24/7 pretty much decided his friends for him.
He reached into a satchel hanging around his neck, pulling out a slice of beef and chowing down. He didn't really feel that hungry, but it seemed to help the feeling of uneasiness in his gut. The griffin peered down another street as he exited the alley, picking his talon up after a step as it landed in something sticky. He followed the trail around a corner, his eyes meeting the source and freezing.
It didn't take his mind long to focus past his shock and onto the shiny crimson neck of the rookie. His mind drew a blank as what his next course of action was. He'd felled dozens of griffins and zebras alike, and here he was, just staring.
Obviously he was just seeing things.
Rookie couldn't be dead, he'd been in the military almost as long as Joel had. A curious side of his brain kicked in, and he reached a talon out to set down the lantern. His talon went to the other fallen griffin's neck, pushing in and checking for a pulse that he knew he wouldn't find. Joel felt his throat bunch up, but forced the feeling down. He wasn't going to get emotional over this, he thought as his eyes began to burn with rage.
Or maybe getting emotional was a good thing.
He wanted to kill the griffin that'd done this. Actually, he wanted to keep them alive. After all, what was the fun if they didn't scream a little? Joel couldn't care less about the laws that whoever'd broken, or for what reason. He reached down and closed Rookie's eyelids, before he placed two of his claws to the fallen griffin's forehead and closed his own eyes, reciting something under his breath. The kid deserved some sort of death rite, after all this.
He walked calmly off, only making it a few steps before his emotions got the better of him. Joel let out an roar of total rage as he pivoted on a talon and bucked over a trash bin, the sounds continuing to echo through the town even when he'd stopped to regain his breath. This fucker, whoever he was, would pay, and he would make sure of it.
He would avenge Rookie, and if a few heads had to roll in the process, so be it.
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"Why won't you light, fire?" Eldon asked the inanimate pile of sticks, making another strike of his knife against the flint, trying to get the bit of wood shavings he'd scraped from a tree with his talon to light.
All of a sudden, he had light! He leaned down, shielding it from wind, and blew on it a few times. The fire took, expanding through the branches as he stacked some rocks around. This was one of the few survival skills he knew, from lighting the fire in his house every day. And what a job it had done, he thought proudly as he lowered Cato to the ground. The younger griffin was fast asleep, murmuring something unintelligible as he hugged against his blanket.
Eldon looked around, the partially hollow trunk of the biggest tree he'd ever seen providing ample cover as it grew up above him. As if to shield him further, there was a circle of the things to cover up the hole on one side, all growing upwards into the darkness.
He'd hardly imagined that things could be like this, different from the bits of meadows and woods he could see from inside the fence. It angered him a little when he realized just how little he knew, and how much the government had kept from him. Something made the noise of a blunt object against wood behind him and Eldon spun, his heart already beating as his talon found the knife on his second try.
Eyes looked at him in the dark, before walking a little closer and tilting to the side. A deer walked out of the mist and into the firelight, continuing to stare at him with those little beady eyes. Eldon had never seen any deer outside of dusk and dawn, and even then they had been from a distance. But this was a lucky sign. It meant that it was nearing dawn, and that he had gotten far enough from the city to keep the deer from being as afraid of him.
The animal had long since gone out of favor for hunters, it was tough to take down such a fast animal. That sounded stupid, after all, what was to stop griffins from flying after them? But trying to shoot a bow from the air while in motion was a shaky plan at best, and realistically didn't have much of a chance at success. Even then, the meat was meager and of a less controllable quality than with cows. Those things though, wow. He'd seen pictures of them when the government had been saying how much larger the cows were than last year blah blah blah, and those things were monsters of complete, succulent deliciousness.
Eldon sucked up a drop of drool, shaking himself free of his thoughts. If it was dawn then, he'd really need to get moving soon. He had a hard time not resting more than he already had, but on some level he really didn't want to stop. His legs hurt and his back was starting to do the same, but the alternative, even if they took hours to catch up, was inconceivable.
At the very least, he'd diverged from the trail a couple hours ago. He'd rested then, trying to ignore the sounds of life that filtered around him. He'd tried to find ways to keep them from tracking him as easily, and for a while he'd not known much he could do. What he'd come up with, after a fair amount of thought (though he wasn't proud it took him so long), was simply to fish out some of the smaller pads of armor from his bag and tie them to his paws and talons. That seemed like a stupid idea, really, but given the fact that his divergence had been over mostly wood chips and leaves, it hadn't left much of a trace.
Hopefully that would throw off the griffins for a while. He'd also, and he felt quite proud of this, gone and stepped in a patch of mud down the path. The transfer to armor feet had been somewhat tedious, especially with the mud, but he'd checked his tracks and found nothing--that he could see, anyway. The trackers that would come after him would surely find his trail again, he just hoped that he had wasted more of their time than his own.
The fire gave some dying crackles as Eldon covered it with dirt, smashing the ashes into the ground as best he could without burning his palm. He picked up his stuff again, carefully replacing Cato on his back as he let out a sigh. He needed sleep, and he needed more food than they had. As soon as the thought entered his head he knew there was no ignoring it, and Eldon quickly pulled a hunk of dried meat from his saddlebags, gnawing off a chunk and washing it down with water. He drank greedily, knowing that water was much more replaceable than food was. And even if it wasn't, trying to make it last would hardly be a good idea. He knew the dangers of thirst, one of the many things he picked up from the mines.
A bird flew through the foliage, chirping happily as it buzzed through the branches. Eldon stared after it, watching the bird stop to hover, wings a blur as it dipped its beak into a flower. Whatever it was, it was kinda creepy. His mind shifted to a world where those things drank blood instead of nectar, and an involuntary shudder ran the length of his body.
He began walking, occasionally taking bites of food as he walked. The sunrise illuminated the sky, and as soon as Eldon got into a clearing he looked back, staying close to the far side. A smoke signal rose in the distance, its dark colors turning red as they rose to join the other clouds of a similar color. Another puff rose, and Eldon squinted his eyes. They looked far away, but they had definitely come this direction. And the fact that other griffins could fly didn't really aid his position.
He simply turned and continued, spreading his wings once again. A few feathers fell out, and he sighed happily. It wasn't commonplace for griffins to molt this early in spring, and yet he was. It wasn't really defiance, but it felt like he was laughing in the face of whoever ruled with these.
Eldon picked up the feathers one by one, stowing them carefully in his saddlebag. Whether or not they were cut, they still had some value to him. Feathers were supposed to be of sentimental value, at least when it came to the primaries. Of course, stashing anything was against the law, and he'd figured that that was one rule not really worth breaking. Well, not more than a little, anyway.
So now, since the first time his father had told him to hold onto the primaries of his early childhood, he held more shed years later. Sure, they were cut, but they still meant something. Eldon reached backwards, pulling out two much smaller feathers from his saddlebag and smiling. One was his, from the year Cato'd been born. The other one was from his brother six months after that.
Eldon stumbled, trying to correct the movement and failing as his face met the ground a moment later. Cato rolled onto the ground, eyes opening as his talons flailed around at an unseen enemy. "Where are we?" He asked after a few moments, his breathing no longer audible as he began to calm down.
Eldon pushed himself off of the ground, spitting out some grit. "I don't know. Closer, I'd assume."
The kid looked around for a few moments, taking in his surroundings as Eldon tried to calculate the beneficial effects of passing out at this particular time. His vision blurred for a few seconds, as he wavered back and forth. Walking had instilled the monotone that made noticing pain and discomfort somewhat hard. He'd just ignored it without knowing, been on autopilot, kinda. Or just been too much in fear to give it any thought.
But now his limbs were back to aching, and he could hardly think of more than to lie down and sleep for a year or so. He was still afraid, but now he was worried that he might just pass out when he didn't want to, and that would just make things worse.
Eldon sighed, pushing the thought out of his mind for a few minutes. Not sleeping would just hamper his ability to do anything of use later, but the one thing he didn't know was the length of time he could realistically go without getting some shuteye. Without much more thought he found a bush that looked like it could hide him and set Cato down.
His eyelids drooped. "Cato, listen. Wait about an hour, less if you hear anything, and then wake me back up, alright?" He mumbled, watching the smaller griffin nod his head, his eyes displaying the fact that he was clearly not fine with the idea. "And if you hear anything that isn't natural, don't make noise when you get me up. It's really not safe for me to be awake that long and expect to be able to fight someone if I need to."
"Y-yeah, alright." Cato replied, taking off his saddlebag before he assisted his brother in doing the same thing. The larger griffin simply collapsed, groaning as his muscles protested the sudden lack of repetitive movement. His eyes were immediately shut, his mind still ablaze with worries and snapshots of worst case scenarios.
But that seemed to wash away within seconds, his thoughts ebbing away into the darkness that immediately enveloped his mind. Ambient noise from the forest blended into whispers, and he was thrust into dreamland.
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"Eldon, wake up!" Cato whispered hurriedly, pushing at the griffin. "Eldon!"
The griffin didn't move.
"Come on, come on!" he continued, still receiving no response. He panicked for a moment before he pushed on his brother's wing, spreading the feathers and hurriedly finding one that was cut. Cato jerked his talon away, ripping the feather from the sensitive tissue as he slapped a talon over his brother's mouth.
Eldon rolled over immediately, eyes flashing around as he let out a barely contained yell into the palm over his mouth. He shot to his feet, slapping on the saddlebags as voices yelled in the distance. He looked around, grabbing a fallen piece of beef to shove into his mouth. It was faster than trying to pack it away and better than leaving it, that was for sure.
"Do you ever shut up!?" A rugged voice yelled, followed by some clanging noises and yelling. "Nobody is going to save you!"
"No, I didn't- you can't do this!" A feminine voice shot back.
"You were trespassing onto griffin soil, pony!" He spat, as Eldon stared silently through the leaves of the bush. He had apparently slept near a road, and as much as part of him wanted to run away from any hint of griffin activity, he stayed stuck to where he was.
"Somepony, help!"
"Some- what?" Cato whispered. "That sounds ridiculous."
"Shush, if they were bringing her- at least I think it's a her." He craned his head, trying to get a better look down the road. They weren't that far away, as a couple of griffins pulled along a cart that seemed to be made for the sole purpose of caging something.
"Eldon, come on, let's leave before they get too close."
"No." He said, as his brother's eyes went wide.
"What?! If they find us they'll kill us!" Cato whispered as loud as he dared.
"Yeah, but if we get that pony out she'll be able to show us the way back. Deem us friendlies." Eldon replied, as he pushed a leaf out of the way to get a better look. The pony, as it turned out, was a shade of beige with a mane that was so red he doubted her ability to blend in with anything. It was a wonder that she wasn't eaten by something before she was captured.
Of course, this was nothing new. Ponies came in every once in a while, to face some sort of punishment for spying. Eldon never really understood how they hadn't started a war, but it didn't really look like those little pony things could kill something. The picture on that book had left Eldon thinking that they were bigger than he was. That would make sense, because then predators would have to fear a kick from something like that. Maybe they still did have to fear kicks, but that mare was smaller than he was. Not by a whole lot, but she didn't have wings or claws of any kind.
Eldon picked up his spear, staring at the three griffins and pony as they began to pass. One of them was pulling the cart, so that left him mostly defenseless. That left the other two first. He had the element of surprise, so he could for sure take one out.
"Wha-" Cato trailed off, staring between Eldon and the cart. "You can't be serious."
"I am."
"You can't fight, what makes you think you can take these three on?" A tear dripped down his face, making a wet spot on the ground below. "You can't- you can't do this and leave me alone." He finished, his voice cracking.
Maybe Cato was right, maybe there wasn't a reward worth the risk. Or maybe this was the thing that would put them into the green.
A couple of the griffins conversed below, as one broke off and headed straight towards Eldon. The griffin grabbed his brother, putting a palm across his beak to keep him from making a noise. The guard stopped, staring at the bush for a moment before he walked a little further away and pulled off some parts of his armor. He began to relieve himself, and Eldon's decision suddenly became a lot easier. He let Cato down and crouched, his claws leaving his paws and digging into the ground as the feathers on his neck prickled and his body flooded with the cool feeling of adrenaline.
He pulled the knife free of its sheath, gripping it tightly. Eldon whispered something akin to a prayer under his breath, making sure his footing was sound. Then he pounced.