Chapter I: A New Plan
The day goes on. The usual, getting out of the bed is the hardest part of the day, at least my day, should I be complaining? Maybe I should, that’s all I can do about it, I'm nihilistic.
Sure, its midday by the time I wake up, I have no idea from where I picked this habit. Sometimes I get to bed and keep staring at the ceiling and then I check the clock – 4, 5, 6 a.m. – and there are times I don’t sleep at all.
Lunch time, I need the sustenance, I go to the kitchen, open the fridge and look inside, I grab the quick cooking pasta package, open it and proceed to cook and eat it.
“Human fuel…” I say after finishing my tasteless meal.
I take a quick shower, brush the teeth and then get dressed. Looking myself at the mirror I see: plain white shirt, dark blue pants and white sneakers.
“I hate this…” A look at the bathroom mirror says it all. Every day is the same. Picking my backpack with the essentials I leave the house on my way to the bus stop, instead of the usual harsh midday scorching sun, I was met with a cool breeze and an overcast weather.
“Just the way I like it.” True, I avoid the sun whenever possible, a 15 minute walk to my destination.
Does it have to be like this? Probably. The bus is on schedule, as always – 1 p.m. – the waiting doesn’t bother me at all. I tend to… turn off, for large periods of time and my body goes on auto. Last stop, my stop – 13:50.
What am I doing? School of course. 8 hours of lecturing with 3 breaks of 10 minutes. Nope, good luck body, I’m off. Then the rest of the day is spent scribbling notes, hearing, socializing and eating.
“Hey man, you alright?” One of my classmates asks me.
“Yeah…” A lot of thought was put into the answer.
“You look like shit!” He remarks.
“Thank you.” I say with the most sarcastically tone a human can make.
I go pretty well with everybody, I’m just reserved. A small wheel of my classmates form around and the small talk starts. I simply nod or shake my head in answer for anything directed at me.
The day goes uneventful. We say our goodbyes and handshakes, it’s almost midnight.
I get to the bus stop and luckily my ride is ready to depart. I get on, I pay it and I sit down. Leaning my head against the glass of the windows and closing my eyes, I try to have a moment of peace. Just to be interrupted.
“Greetings.” A deep male voice says.
“Good night.” I say as I start to open my eyes to look at his face. Strangely enough, I’m unable to focus, just a black splotch. I ran my hand across my face and notice I’m not wearing my glasses. Not going into my backpack to pick it.
I hold my hand in front of his; he acknowledges it with a handshake. He almost seemed… content.
“You do feel a bit, tired, if I may say.” A stranger, taking notes on me, on an empty bus, things will go to hell pretty fast.
“Yep.” I simply nod, not taking my eyes a second from him.
“Is something wrong?” I really hope he isn’t into me!
“Just tired of my normal average life.” Where this answer came from?
“If you were given a new choice, would you start anew?” He's creeping me.
“Sure, would be a nice change of pace.” Yes, one more day at this and I would probably suicide.
“If you were given a choice, where would you go?”
“Anywhere,” I try to think on a few places on top of my mind. “Azeroth, Tyria, Sanctuary, Tamriel…” Hope he gets the clue that I’m mocking him and scram.
“Beautiful names, what would you seek on your journey?”
“Peace, I would hate to find myself into another world just to be killed in a few days. It would be disappointing.” I nod in confirmation to my answer.
“You do look resourceful.” A compliment, he screams rape.
“Ok 'friend', what’s the catch?” My tone switches to a more aggressive one, I’m a bit resourceful, but avoiding conflict is a better choice.
“The 'catch' is you should wake up now that you’re out of danger.”
My vision wasn’t blurred at all, it was him or whatever it was, the shadows around him crept over me, no struggle, no movements, no feelings, and then… nothingness.
I rise as the sun raises, a good habit of mine, I don’t have the luxury of wasting the daylights at the Frozen North.
The small hut that I currently reside doesn’t belong to me; it’s more of a medical clinic of the little village, Northtrot. The bonus is, I’m paid to guard the place through the night, my employer is the local town doctor, who is also happens to be the town mayor, Searing Blaze, a respectful guy, don’t know why ponies even try break in, he told me the last guy that tried it got scorched by him and had to stay in the clinic, he’s short tempered.
A few minutes later and he barges in.
“Morning.” Grumpy.
“You too.”
“No one tried anything last night?” He starts to check the cabinets, no complaints.
“Nah, it was cool.” I stand and stretch my back, making some bones crack; it doesn’t bother him at all.
“Good,” He picks some bits from his bag and places them at the desk. “hiring a griffon to stand guard here was the best decision I made, the townsponies are beginning to have second thoughts about getting in.”
I walk up to the desk, count the bits and place them into my bag. “Nice.”
“I’m fair, as long as you keep in line.”
“Sure.” I nod to him.
“Don’t you have to do your things? You know very well how some of those ponies look at you when you bring your food into town.” He’s right.
“Yeah, we aren’t in ponyland anymore, they can suck it up.” I smirk at him.
“Fair enough, you’re done for the night.” He shakes his head and starts to write at papers he grabbed from the desk.
“See ya, Sear.” I turn around to the door and make my way.
“Good game, Gilda.” Just as I close the door, I hear a laugh behind it.
I take flight as soon as I’m out of the clinic, from the air it’s very easy to see the town, about 15 huts with chimneys and an inn, which is carved on the side of the hill. The locals are mostly earth ponies and pegasi, there are only 2 unicorns, Blaze being one and the other is the innkeeper, Snow Blanket, the inn also has 2 permanent residents, Dig and Dug, employed diamond dogs, explains why she was the most welcoming of the town towards me.
Hunting in the snow is no easy task, not only most creatures have a white coat able to blend with the surrounds, but the cold winds make it hard to keep the flight. Snow offered me shelter in return for getting some hunt for the dogs at weekends. I do my daily hunt on the hopes of getting something, once in a while I manage to get big prey and stay at the inn for bigger times, mostly I end up with a hare or two, enough to keep my skills sharp and my belly full.
Spotting something in the snow, I slowly descend into the plains, just a mound of snow to hide me from my prey. Apparently it’s half buried into the snow, probably dead, but I’m not the one to take chances, I collect my breath and get ready to a sprint…
I burst from the snow top at an extreme speed ready to pounce at my prey, a small distance away and it’s not even aware of me, definitely dead. I make my leap. A soft thump, no sound of breaking bones or even a small squeak of pain, whatever I hit felt like cloth. I ran my claw against the object, it’s definitely cloth, and I start to dig around just to see whatever treasure I’ve found.
I keep digging when suddenly I hit something, the smell of blood, whatever is down there I’ve decided to be more careful, no animal would know what to do with fabric or even wear it, perhaps a cargo animal, unlikely. Then I unearth it, an almost fur less white skin with the wound I inflicted upon it, a superficial scratch, even more carefully I start to dig around it.
A few minutes later I finish it, it’s almost completely covered in clothes, the head and upper paws being exposed to the cold, the place where I pounced is a kind of bag strapped on its back. As for the features, unlike anything I’ve ever seen, way bigger than a pony, long forepaws with stubby claws, probably the same size as a diamond dog or even taller if it isn’t hunched like them, below the waist it’s completely covered and the hind paw is covered in something, can’t figure out. A big patch of fur covering the head and a smaller covering the face, it’s nose is very different from a muzzle, almost like a beak, but not sharp, the nostrils are underside instead of the end, the mouth is a small gap after the nose, the skin there looks the same as lips on mammals, the eyes are shut, can’t make anything out of it, the less alien features on it are the eyebrows and eyelashes.
I lean closer to it. It’s alive, but shivering, the cloth isn’t enough to keep it warm for this place, what do I do? I start to pace around it, the breaths are getting weaker as well as the shivering. I’m not leaving it alone to die in the cold, but where should I bring it? Snow Blanket! She’s the only one that won’t freak out on it.
I try to pick him through the chest, but the bag is on the way, I try to remove it, the paws are between the stripes of clothes that hold the bag on its back, easy. I start to pick him up, more careful than what I do with my prey, it’s lighter than I expected, probably a pony in weight, I imagined something this big should be heavier.
When I’m about to take flight I remember the bag, I could pick it later. Having a better idea I put the bag on its chest and put the paws between the slings. Ready, I pick the creature and cargo then take off.
Arriving back at the town, I land at the inn’s door, it’s still early and most of the townsponies are asleep or in the fields, no idea of what they can plant in the snow. I lay the creature down and start to drag it inside the inn, the bell’s rattling makes its noise as I push the door open.
“Morning Gilda, I see you had lu –” She stops mid-sentence to see me dragging the “hunt” inside.
“Can you give me a hoof?” I say intoning the “hoof” part.
“Dig! Dug!” Goddammit mare! No need to yell!
I hear the two dogs making their way to the main hall, heavy stomps at snail pace. Both of them arrive at the same time, they are never apart.
“Yes mom?” They say in unison… forgot to say, Snow is like their adoptive mother, she told me she had found them both a long time ago and took them under her care, yeah, she’s one of a kind.
“Can you dears help Gilda with this poor animal?” She says in a motherly tone.
“Food?” Snow and I shake our heads in answer to him; Dug needs more food for his brain.
*Slap* Dug was hit on the back of his head by his sister, more for berating than hurting, I bet he only felt a smack. “Mom said help, not eat.” Dig is stronger, smarter and bigger than Dug, the little fella is probably still growing.
“Don’t be so harsh on your brother,” She scolded her. “put it in the room next to mine, I’m sure there is nopony there.” She levitates a key from her key-set to Dig.
“Yes mom.” They leave our sights towards the chambers.
We stay stuck in an awkward moment, not knowing what to say to each other.
She finally broke it. “Do you think it’s sick? The poor one doesn’t seem to be in any shape for anything.”
“Aside from sleeping while being buried in the snow, I think it’s fine.”
“Sleeping in the snow? Don’t you think it fell there?” She has a point.
“Probably, you should talk to Searing. I haven’t found anything for me to eat; fruits and veggies won’t sustain me.”
“Good idea. I’ll leave now, better go to him. Bye.” She left the inn at a hurried pace.
A small laugh leaves me as I go outside. I take flight back to my task, find some meat. But not in single moment I stopped thinking about Snow’s guest, whatever it may be.
End of Chapter I