//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 Day 325 // Story: Not What I had Expected // by Frosthowl //------------------------------// The chilling wind was finally gone after another night of trying to stave off the cold of winter that was making its way through the holes in the house.At least the snow hadn't settled in yet, which was the only good news that I could wake up to. As I put my feet on the ground, I immediately started to shudder from the ice cold floor. "Fuck my life..." I said as I put my feet down on the ground despite my body feeling like it was tearing itself up from the inside from trying to resist the cold floor. I made my way towards the mirror and looked at my reflection. A scar on my nose could be seen, a parting gift from a nice timber wolf that wanted to fight over my dinner. A thick layer of a beard covered up most of my face with a warm coating. Though I did not like how it looked, I never did..."Fucking Arab!" I said to myself, as I couldn't stand myself having a Jihad beard that looked completely ridiculous. I stared into my own hazel eyes and pondered on how everything went so wrong...I could still remember the innocent eyes of a child, still beaming with hope, but instead all that was staring back was the scarred stare of a boy who had barely reached adulthood. I put my hands together and cupped them as I pulled up dirty and used water to wash offmy face and to wake me up a bit. There was no coffee, no eggs and bacon, no sandwich, but only clean rain water that had been gathered over the night on the table. Luckily it was cool and very refreshing. Now that “breakfast” was over, I immediately put on my worn out shoes and a blanket I found in the trash to make a poncho. Before I opened the door, I gave a long sigh and pulled off the sorry excuse of a door, leaning it on the wall, leaving an open square where it used to be. Unfortunately, I never learned how to install a door properly; it usually broke off since I didn't have any metal to attach it to. After a few months I gave up and just let it lean against the wall, letting a heavy amount of chilling wind blow through my house. Next to my “door” was the dull axe which I had...borrowed from a lumber mill outside of Canterlot walls. "Let’s get it over with..." I spoke as I started making my way toward the wild part of the Everfree forest. I didn’t care if a pack of wolves wanted to make me company behind my back while I chopped down wood to both use, sell, and burn. In fact I wouldn't mind if they would offer themselves as easy wood for my fireplace. But nonetheless, I carried on. After about an hour of chopping with a useless axe that would have been put to better use as a makeshift hammer, I started dragging the heavy trees back to my horrible excuse for a house. Sweat began to pour down my entire body. I had been doing this everyday, not only for an intention of profit, but as a way to keep my body from freezing up from lack of circulation. Eventually I arrived home after I had cut down three medium sized trees that. My body was aching and my stomach was growling like a ferocious tiger’s. I dropped the axe and let go of the tree. I took a quick pause and sat down on one of the cut down trees to regain some of my strength. "Hard work never goes unnoticed." I said, trying to cheer myself up. *** The halls echoed in the dark dungeon I couldn't see my hands in front of my eyes and I was starving. I hadn't eaten for weeks and I was slowly losing consciousness. Every time I woke up, I saw the bowl of water and hay in front of me. I tried to call out to the guards to change the diet, but I could barely breathe, let alone cry out for food. "Is this how I die...?" I whispered to myself as I began to slip out of consciousness. I was not ready to accept death, and in fact, I could feel tears flowing down from my left eye to my right and dropping to the ground. However, before everything went dark, a powerful light broke its way through the dungeon, blinding me. I tried to look away, but was unable to move my head fast enough, and suffered from the agonizing sting of the light. However, thankfully, a big shadow was blocking off a good portion of the light that was burning my eyes. "Guards!" A feminine voice called. The sound of hooves were heard rushing towards my cell and I could barely make out what was being pointed at me. "He-lp...me..." I cried out as loud as I could, but not loud enough for anyone to hear. "Guard! Why has the creature not been eating?" The voice demanded. "Your majesty, I suspect that it might be sick." The male voice answered. I saw how the shadow was staring at me. I was hoping that it would give me something edible. When I tried to eat the hay last time I threw up a few minutes later and had serious stomach pains. Like I was being disemboweled. "I'm going in!" The feminine voice spoke as a blue glow opened up the gate and made its way towards me. I couldn't raise my hand to keep the feminine shadow away from me. "St-ay...away..." Once again, it couldn't hear me. *** I woke up in shock and hastily grabbed the axe that was placed next to me. I quickly scanned my surroundings. With cold sweat upon my chest and a heart rate that accelerated from 70 beats to 180 in a flash, I went from asleep to fully alert, in case someone or something was watching me. "Fucking hell..." I said to myself as I started to calm down. "Can't even get five minutes of shuteye before being tossed into the meat grinder!" I complained out loud. "Well...Better get started before Korvax arrives" And with that, I started to strip the trees of their branches. Thankfully, this was the easy part, before I had to chop it into several stumps and continue cutting it down to be made as acceptable firewood. After half an hour of chopping and cutting, I was finally finished. I went behind the cottage to grab the horribly constructed wagon and started loading the wood. I let loose a deep sigh before putting the rope on my shoulder and began to drag the wagon with my entire body, struggling to keep balance and not slip on the ground. Another 30 minutes went by and I found myself going through the southern exit of the forest, far away from pony civilization and closer to the border of minotaur planes. Along the road, I could see a caravan of minotaurs and goats tented up in a circle. As I approached their encampment, I could see Korvax coming to greet me midway. "Ahh, Aran, good to see you again friend!" He said with his malicious smile, as always. "Spare me the bullshit and just give me what I want, there’s enough firewood for your caravan to use for two weeks and still be able to sell some of it to the gryphons." Korvax gave a low chuckle. "What? Not in the mood to make fun of my broken horn today?" He said, trying to remind me that I still owed him for the drinks and for smashing his head in the tree the last time he tried to screw me over. "I've gotten at best twenty minutes of sleep this past week and I haven't eaten in four days, just spare me the chit-chat and give me my fucking dinner already…. Before I break the other horn as well." Korvax snorted at my reply. "Very well." He snapped his fingers and one of the other minotaurs came with a bag that was leaking blood. He presented the bag to me and I quickly snatched it out of his hands. I opened the bag to check if the venison was still fresh and not a week old. "I thought we agreed on two! This is one piece!" I said closing the bag and facing Korvax again. "We did, but you forget you still owe me for ruining my trailer. It cost quite a lot to repair it and I have to be able to make a profit from these. You know how the system works. Trade, sell, buy! I take these to the gryphons, they either pay or trade. I had to buy this from a trader just at the border of Gryffindar, and since I had to repair my trailer, you lose out on the second piece of venison." I clenched my hand into a rock-crushing fist. "You son of a bitch! You were the one that threw the first punch!" I stepped closer to Korvax as he stood defiantly against me with confidence brimming in his eyes. "What are you gonna do? Kill me? You know that if I'm not around, nobody or rather, nopony will dare to trade with you, and then you'll eventually starve." He smirked, knowing that I wouldn't dare harm him. "FINE! But if you try to hassle me again, I will break off the other horn and shove it up your ass!" I said, and turned my back on the backstabbing merchant. I rolled the bag onto the cleared wagon and quickly started making my way back into the forest. I didn't want to spend another second with the one horned asshole. Besides, I had other business to attend to. I returned home after another half hour of dragging the wagon. I quickly put the bag in the kitchen, thanks to the cold winter air, the meat would stay relatively fresh. I had the rest of the day off, but I didn't have much to do anyways, so I decided it wouldn't hurt to try my luck and go fishing, as well as setting up some more rabbit traps. Everyday was hunting day due to edible food being rare, and with the Pony guards in Ponyville keeping me from buying or trading digestible food, I didn’t have much of a choice unless I was willing to murder them and catch the eye of the law. I am already lucky enough to be left alone. I made my way to my drawer, where I had put my well made recurve bow and a dagger I...liberated from a guard when I escaped from Canterlot. I left my cabin and started making my way to the more populated part of the forest. After living there for almost a year now, the wildlife, including the prey, had abandoned my part of the forest. On one hand, I laughed at the fact that nature fears me, as it should, though it’s a pain in the ass to go further and further to find any game close to my house. Also, I had put up several warning signs, painted with blood, to keep the local pony population away from my cabin. If any of them come to my property, they'd been warned...and thus become a month's worth of food that I wouldn't pass up on. However, no such luck so far... Eventually I arrived at the river docks where I had a prepared net already waiting for me. Ironically, the same net that was used in a vain attempt to catch me, is now my best buddy in the world. I usually would get a fish or two every time I would pull it out. But when I pulled it up, it was mostly trash... No bonus meal today. I sighed, I was getting frustrated with how everything was working against me today. Working hard, hoping I would get two pieces of venison and maybe a chicken if I played my cards well, but Korvax really had me on thin ice. Personally I wouldn't mind killing the bastard and eating him; after all, he was still half cow. But just like he said, I would eventually starve without him during the winter when most of the animals were in hibernation. I threw the net back into the water and made my way to the lively part of the forest, hoping to catch a rabbit or a beaver. *** "Scootaloo, yer sure it’s a good idea to go and find the monster? Didn’t yah see the warning signs?" Applebloom asked her friend as they walked into the abandoned part of the forest. "Come on you guys! Don't tell me that you’re a buncha scaredy-ponies? How else are we gonna get our Cutie marks in capturing big scary monsters?" "I'm with Applebloom...I don't think this is such a good idea..." Sweetie Belle said as she kept glancing behind her shoulder. Unbeknownst to the fillies, their scent had started to draw the outside timber wolves into Human territory. Ignoring his markings, they followed their path to easy prey.