//------------------------------// // The dream and the journey // Story: The Adventures of Charm Feather, In Just Me, and possibly her Chronicles. // by R-A-B-G //------------------------------// Chapter Four He steps near the enchanters table as he focuses the mana needed to enchant items, they formed like they were suppose to and the mana entered the item, then the gem turned to glittering dust and flowed onto the item turning said item into a glimmering source of light, in vain hopes that it finally worked, he smiled... and for a second it did... then the item disintegrated. TINK With a sound of breaking crystal the whole thing falls apart, with a frustrated yell Zach slammed his hands onto the table as frustrated tears form in his eyes as for the hundredth time his enchanted item again breaks on him. “Why...” he whispered. “Why... can’t I do this?” he said a bit louder this time, taking a breath he pulls his emotions back into control, or else he might start yelling. “Why won’t anything work?” he whispered now feeling useless as all his effort is wasted... all of Leone's efforts and funds wasted, that hurt’s the most, his friend Leona had put time and effort into his education when she didn’t have to do so, but still she wouldn’t take no for an answer as she did everything she could to help him, and she won’t give a reason as to why. And he tried... he really did, he kept trying even when the mana started rejecting him, by blowing up in his hands, to the point he started breaking fingers, of course he went to the healer’s to fix himself, they always scold him for going too far. Enchanting seems to be the only thing that seemed to work for him, or at least it feels that way as every time he tries he could actually feel the magic flow into the items as intended, it was the only thing that made him feel amazing. But the bonds could never hold together, they always shatter in the end. “Why can’t I do magic!” he yelled starting to lose himself in his emotions. “If every human on earth had this problem it’s no wonder why we turned to science.” His shoulders slump as he was feeling he should just give up. ‘Are you really going to give up?’ a mysterious voice asked within his head. ‘You are developing so very well; please don’t give up my friend.’ The voice as Zach has observed sounded female. “w-who are you?” Zach ask in fear, afraid of a daedric prince is haunting him, as he didn’t hear any good things about them. ‘yo-you can hear me?’ She asked as if in disbelief and a little bit of hope. “U-um yes I can, who are you?” ‘I-I can’t remember anymore’ She said as she sounded dejected about this. ‘but I do know what I’ am.’ She said now feeling happier about this fact. ‘I am a spirit guide, I’ am born when you are born and I’ am meant to help you in your journey in life, I remember when you were a child on how you always used to speak to me with childlike wonder and curiosity, but when you went to the doctor’s office you just... stopped... speaking to me... I can’t even remember the name you given me...’ She said as she explained quickly as Zach listens closely. After a minute of not saying anything she started to lose hope that Zach could no longer hear her, she always dreamed of speaking to him again, she had been trying to reach him for years but soon she just sort of... just... faded, she tried to keep her sanity by speaking to herself as she watched him in his daily life. Within Zach’s mindscape a solid purple skinned, with blue pulsating veins, stood a female woman with long misty and wavy hair reaching her torso, but her eyes are the most eye catching thing on her as they were brilliant silver, but her eyes threatens to tear up, as the prospect that she lost her chance to finally speak to him again. “A spirit guide huh?” his sudden voice caused her to gasp, she looked up to see a sort of distorted image of him floated in his mindscape, one she never thought she would ever been able to see in her life, and it is finally happening to her. “Ho-how?” was her only response as his form is now grand in comparison to his old one he had on earth, his life style here in skyrim had improved the slight pudgy human, although she won’t admit it she would miss his pudgy gut. She put a hand onto her mouth, now that Zach had heard her thoughts and is now fully focusing on her she now has a voice to speak with; one she had never thought she would ever have in their shared life times. “I’ am doing meditation and focusing myself.” He said as his form slightly wavers but strengthens as he focuses more. She ran at him and given him a large hug, although his form wavers again he couldn’t help but share the hug, since Leona is big on hugs for some reason but he got used to it. Since he won’t lie she is a hot brunette and his mind is weak. “So... um yea although I may be enjoying this hug, we are still relatively new to each other.” He said as the hug drawn out longer then was comfortable to him. She pulled back away from him as if he was on fire. “oh right sorry” she said as she straightens her hair and dust at herself as if she had seen dirt on her. “well let me introduce myself, I’ am Zechariah, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” He said politely as although he couldn’t do much at the moment he thought his body to smile warmly to her which she returns. “Hello Zach it is nice to meet you, but only you can give me a name.” She said as her smile grew as Zach looked like he was concentrating. ‘Is ... Is he going to give me a name?’ she thought with hope. “You know... I guess I should give you a name... hum.” he ponders looking at her as she was almost dancing as she jumps from one foot to the other in over excitement. “hum... how about... Eve? Does that sound good to you?” he said smiling as she practically started cheering by screaming out in joy. “Yes yes yes!” she repeats as she jumps around him in utter joy, she then jumps right in front of him and starts shaking his hand causing his form to waver again but he still held on. “Hello Zach! My name is Eve!” she calls out now hugging him again. He couldn’t help but smile at her childlike nature as he fears he has to pop her bubble with the next question he was going to say. “Alright calm down calm down, we have business to discussed” - Dream ends. Charm wakes up and stretches like a cat, enlisting some satisfying pops in her stiff joints, she sighs as she observe the deconstructed camp as everything was packed away, the two magical tables were buried with runes to shield the area to prevent wear and tear from the weather, the two saddlebags are full of food, spare bedding's, ropes and potions of all types all labelled of coarse for Rarity. Looking at the trees Charm could see the morning sun starts to peak the top of the trees singling the new day had started. “Time to wake up the princess...” She muttered to herself although Rarity dropped the attitude she still has a hard time waking up this early, she started to utilize her magic to fight her advances off now, that made Charm proud as the battle is quite fierce. Taking a the infamous poking stick in her newly winged appendage she reaches out and pokes Rarity with it, this of course didn’t do a thing as she turned away from the offending poking and returns to snoring. Sighing Charm inhales deeply then screamed at the top of her lungs, now let’s think this over ever since Charm has gotten her new body everything is new to her even the sensations on her fur, now Charms new voice is rather high pitch and young when she meets new pitches her voice breaks slightly as they hadn’t mature enough, so with new voice she abused them to their full capability for this task, this of course worked flawlessly as Rarity bolted awake, then not upon seeing any danger glared at Charm who was grinning innocently. The challenge has been issued and Rarity took a hold of it in full, by ripping a good sized chunk of dirt and throwing it at Charm. With great ease Charm side steps the dirt clog then another and another as this is a morning routine by now. “Your aim is improving; at this rate we could actually have a use for this.” Charm taunts as Rarity now started swinging sticks and rocks in vain to actually hit her as Charm playfully and easily dodge. But it was bound to happen, Charm isn’t a expert or a master in combat, so a dirt clog finally hit her knocking her to the ground, looking up from her perspective Rarity was grinning evilly unlike a cat that had just cornered her pray and was about to do horrible things to it before it died. Gulping, Charm smiles nervously. “G-good job, you got me, so maybe um... you should put those away, preferably away from Me.” she said nervously as the dirt clogs started orbiting her in large numbers. “Oh I don’t think so.” Then all the dirt started falling towards her as Charm was buried in dirt and mud. Walking away in victory as charms head pokes itself out of the mud pile Rarity heads over to her saddlebags to get some food before they embark on their journey. The early morning was crisp and misty as a slight draft waves through the clearing causing the two fillies to shiver slightly as they go through their morning procedures. It was about four hours of waking up; breakfast and hiking through the forest, the forest was full of bugs of all types as they were deflected by Charms bug repellent potion, they haven’t encounter anything but the odd trap pools, Charm seems to stalk the forest with great ease as Rarity was jealous of the fact she is having trouble duplicating her friend’s moves. Rarity shudder as she looked at the trap pools remembering the memories of her encounter and being slightly angry at herself for not realizing it was a trap; the signs were clear as day now that she knew what to look for. The whole clearing was the trap, the whole thing was ominous there was no grass around the pool as the plant sucks all the nutrients in the soil killing off any other competition, the leafs act as a sort of false grassy ground the pools are perfectly round as which should clue in it was a trap but she just ignored it all, for the silly notion of bathing, Rarity was disgusted at herself. ‘How could I fall for the obvious ploy’ Rarity thought as she stares at the inviting watery pools in the clearing. ‘Isn’t it obvious? It’s because all I cared about was for a bath.’ She turns away and gallops to catch up with Charm as she was ahead. “Hum...” Charm ponders aloud catching Rarity’s attention. Not saying anything she watches as Charm looks at the odd blue flowers as she throws one of her potions into the patch, it smashes on a rock throwing up some strange liquid on the plants; a large portion of the flowers goes up in smoke as the flowers turn black and gray. Smiling Charm continues through the dead flowers, not knowing what happened Rarity asks a question. “What was that all about?” she asks in a whisper as to not attract any creatures to their location. “That Rarity... was a trap plant.” She said not turning to Rarity as she scanned ahead for any possible death traps. Gasping Rarity turned to the dead plants they just passed threw in horror at the fact they just went through one. “I’ am not sure on what it does... but I wasn’t going to take a risk for it to be deadly so I threw some poison to kill them.” Charm said Sighing in relief she continued to follow Charm as she walks into some bushes and walks into them. When Rarity manages to squeeze herself out of the bush and into the next clearing, she hears Charm gasp, looking at Charm she sees she is staring at something so following her gaze, she too gasps at an old castle that expanded before them. It was an old run down thing some parts of it has fallen apart from time and neglect, whole towers collapsed leaving nothing but rubble, walking up to it Charm stares at it with awe, but shaking from her gawking she turns to Rarity. “Know anything about it?” Rarity shakes her head in the negative as they proceed into the old castle. “oh well, anyways we need to get through to the other side of this here castle.” sighing she returns her gaze forward as they marched into the old castle keeping sight of anything that will fall on top of them. It was a good hour before they managed to find a way out to the other side of the castle, to find a very old rickety bridge to pass through. Testing the bridge for its stability, Charm smiles nervously as she marches to the other side with no problem, flying over to Rarity she surprises her by hugging Rarity’s back with all four legs while positioning herself with her chin on Rarity’s head and her belly on her back, Rarity could feel Charms hot breath making her feel embarrassed about the situation she found herself in, after dispelling the notion that Charm was this forward she noticed she was lighter as Charm was using her wings to make them both weight less she understood what she was doing now. With Charm on her back flapping her wings every so often they both made it to the other side just as the bridge decided to give up by breaking down, Rarity sighs and gives a smile of gratitude to Charm. “Next time you wanted a hug all you got to do was just ask.” Rarity said causing Charm to blush now noticing how that would have looked. It was now noon and after making across the bridge Charm pulled out some food and started eating, while she did this Rarity takes a rest as her hooves hurts from the constant pounding from the rough terrain. ‘argh I need to exercise more.’ Rarity thought as she rubbed her hooves of their pain. ‘Hmm... The snowberries don’t taste as good as they use too.’ Charm noted mentally as she was eating. And it was true they use to taste amazing now they lost their flavor, ‘must be from the constant consumption of them.’ Charm thought as she takes a bite out of a slightly rotten apple. Sigh, ‘I missed fresh apples.’ She thought in disappointment’ as the apples taste was less than satisfactory. After lunch the two set out again, this time they came upon an abnormally dark clearing as the trees blotted out the light even during the day. This is where they encounter trouble as timber wolves started coming out of the shrubbery in great numbers. Standing tall Charm goes into a battle stance by crouching slightly low to the ground with her wings flared as they sparked in ethereal fire and lightning, she stands on guard in front of Rarity in case everything goes downhill. Rarity on the other hoof has harden over the week from constant attacks from monsters nightly, of course she always watched and was given tips and advice from Charm, but this time with determination in her eyes Rarity stands tall with her friend with her horn aglow in magical energy as she picks up many types of potions and poisons from her saddlebags. The two shared a look to each other, they nodded then glared out at the timber wolves with determination, Charm starts the fight off by opening a stream of fire in one direction and using her other wing she unleash a constant downpour of lightning, this had the effect of causing the timber wolves to scatter into cover, unfortunately the ones peppered by fire weren’t too lucky as a good chunk was taken out by the fire. Rarity using her telekinesis flung a potion labelled plant killer poison out at one timber wolf, causing it to yelp and whine as the poison hissed causing large chunks of bark on its hide to become sickly in brown and black chunks this was an exhalant distraction, as the wolf whines and yelps Charm would dispatch a stream of fire ending the wolfs suffering, this continued for a good minute of fighting as the two covered each other’s backs. Already the pack was slowly being thinned out as there famed regeneration isn’t as affective when fire is introduced into the mix, the two fillies created a death circle around them as the bodies of the timber wolfs lay haphazardly around them. Sensing that they couldn’t get to the fillies the wolf pack backs off as they retreated from the losing battle. With the battles end Rarity starts breathing heavily as her nerve of being in battle for the first time starts causing her legs to shake uncontrollably. ‘Charm has to face this every time?’ Rarity thought now seeing her friend in a new light as she looks at Charm who seems stoic and compose as she looks out into the thick forest for any other signs of danger. ‘... I should take up smoking...’ was Charms thoughts. ‘How could Leona fight so much without becoming an alcoholic I’ll never know.’ Charm thought as she tried to calm her franticly beating heart by looking out into the forest too as to keep her mind occupied. Once the two managed to get some resemblances of control they kept on their journey to Ponyville. The unexpected but planned battle was short and sweet, but their unscheduled rest to compose there nerve took a half hour as the two rested, upon their finished rest they made up for lost time by galloping out of the dark clearing... only for Charm to bump nose first into a steep Cliffside as she was looking behind herself to see if Rarity was still behind her. “... owie” Charm said as she lays pathetically on the ground with Rarity trying but failing to hide her snickering, after some embarrassingly long time to get back up Charm sits up rubbing her snout to make sure nothing is broken. “Ar-are you ok?” Rarity said as she smirks at her. “or is this a situation requiring a healing potion?” this time Rarity couldn’t help but start laughing uncontrollably as Charm stared nonplused at her... only for it to break as she giggles a bit. “Ok ok so yea that was funny and all,” Charm said smiling as Rarity was still on the ground laughing shaking her head Charm whistles loudly catching her attention. “All done now?” said Charm all serious with a tiny smile, Rarity smiles at how her friend can take some teasing such as this with grace she nods which caused some purple strand to fall onto her face, she corrects this by blowing it away with a sharp breath. Charm looked at the cliff she whistles in wonderment. “wow pretty steep should be easy enough.” Taking out thick vines she tugs on them with her wings to make sure they are sturdy enough for the task she has in mind for them, and with her wings and vines in hoof she flies to the top of the cliff where she ties a strong knot to a tree. She then flies back to Rarity who is keeping watch at the bottom. “Alright if you’re up to it we could take a risk today, if we climb this cliff we could take a day off our journey as this is a big obstacle to get by, because if we were to walk around it, it’ll take a day or two to get around it. So what’ll you choose?” ~ Elsewhere ~ The search has been going on for a week now, ever since Princess Celestia heard about the fillies disappearance she sent out a platoon of royal guards in hopes to fine the lost filly, they found tracks of the filly leading to a large cash of gem stones, but the same tracks wondered over to the Everfree forest, that’s where the fillies hoof prints start to fade from time and other animal prints start covering them, unfortunately the search had to be called off after a week had past as there was no way a filly could survive this long alone in the Everfree. “I hate this part of the job.” Captain Iron Shield said as he and a royal guard escorting him, the two walk up to a house, it was not a really remarkable house two story probably two or three bed rooms, one master bed room with kitchen and one bathroom, the norm for Ponyville “What do you mean sir?” The guard asked as the two near the building. Feeling that talking about it would help him feel better at what he was about to do he answered rather than reprimand him for speaking out of turn. “Telling parents, and wives that somepony they loved maybe dead or is dead.” Captain Iron Shield said. “This is the hardest part of the job private armour.” He said to private armour whose ears went down at the horrible feeling that must be to see that. ‘He is a good kid. he is young, but determine a little on the naive side, but he will grow out of that soon, he would make a wonderful captain some day.’ Captain Iron Shield thought to himself as the two finally made it to the door, stepping forward Iron Shield knocks on the door in hope that it’ll end soon. The door was answered by the stallion of the house, a male in his mid twenties he has what is growing on for him a mustache, his coat is white and mane brown, and seems to be wearing the a awful shirt that clashes with everything. “Good afternoon sir, I’ am Guard Captain Iron Shield of the Royal Guard of her majesty Princess Celestia, I’ am here for the... report of the current status of the young filly Rarity.” The Stallion grins in hope that they had found her and was bringing her back but the grave face that the Captain was wearing told him another story to which he pieced together on his own as tears already started to form in the corner of his eyes. At that moment his wife stood behind him to hear the rest of the news. “I’ am afraid we could not find her due to the fact she had wondered into the Everfree forest where we had lost track of her, we had to call off the search of the filly as it would seem the forest had claimed the young one.” The captain said gravely. The wife wails in horror and shock, as she had broken down in sobs and none intelligible speech at the news, the stallion holding his own composure, even thought he was about to do the same, he thanked the two and shut the door. He ran to his wife and hugged her not allowing her to suffer this alone, and the two cried for their lost little Rarity. But they prayed and hoped for her continued survival. ~ In Canterlot ~ Princess Celestia just heard the news of a young filly’s possible end and even though it was none conclusive she couldn’t risk the pony power to send more out there to at least find the body so the parents have something to bury, behind her throne Twilight Sparkle just heard the news of a little filly who got lost in the Everfree and prayed she would be safe. ~ back to our heroines ~ Rarity felt the sudden need to get home as soon as possible, using her magic she tighten her saddlebags straps and hooked the bottom straps tightly, then doing the same to Charm who jumped at the sudden movement on her underbelly, after that she went and got some rope then tied it to the two of them, even though Charm couldn’t hold her up for long she hoped it’ll be long enough to prevent her from falling to her death. “I need to get home as soon as possible Charming, I... I can’t explain it but I must.” Rarity said to Charm who nods and with determination took flight as Rarity started the perilous journey up the Cliff side. Chapter ends... Bad news followed with the feeling of a lost loved one. Two parents and one filly prayed for the protection of the one they loved and a complete stranger. Two fillies in the forest with fire in their eyes risk life and limb for the journey home. The mysterious spirit, the human turned pony and the lost filly Rarity. Two of the same body, friends with the filly, only the filly only knows the one side.