//------------------------------// // Aleera, The Winter Wolf // Story: Angel of Nature // by Shadowfire Angel //------------------------------// Angel of Nature Ch 2 Everfree groaned as he came to. The first thing that came to mind was that he was no longer wearing his cloak and even though he was laying face down in the dirt, he could tell he was in a forest. He rolled over and noticed something odd and familiar about this forest. He slowly got to his feet as he prepared himself for what or whomever he may face. Thankfully, a short distance away lay his bow. He quickly, but silently, made his way over and picked it up, welcoming the feeling of having his bow in his hand. He gazed travelled over the beautifully handcrafted, black bow. It was made from Ebonise, a rare type of wood he found in a world he was tasked with watching over and this particular world, where he found the wood, had seemed to take liking him. The bow had been made to be a recurve bow. The limbs the string was attached to, curled like a snail's shell. The bow handle was made of soft leather that seemed to massage the hand of whoever held the bow and the string seemed glow and pulse whenever he touched it. The string itself is magically enhanced and is attuned to his thoughts. On the note of being attuned to his thoughts, whenever he willed it, a magic arrow would appear, nocked on the bow and all he had to do was draw and fire. The arrows themselves could range from various things. From fire arrows, to cold arrows, to dark arrows etc etc. The final detail that Everfree's eyes trailed over was what looked to be several small, brown vines, wrapped around the bow with tiny leaves hanging off of them. All in all, the whole bow was beautiful and he would never want to part with it. A flash of light brought him out of his daze as he saw not to far away lay his cloak that had been removed and strangely enough...one of the winter wolves he had saved... He again made his way over quickly and silently. He bent down and picked the cloak up and quickly putting it, welcoming the feeling of warmth again for without his cloak, Everfree felt naked and bare even though had a simple molted green and grey t-shirt and darkish brown breeches. His cloak was pretty much the same as his shirt. When he finished clasping the cloak on, he flipped the hood and brought over his face so the shadows hid his entire face expect for his mouth. The cloak was woven from materials that are usually used to make cloaks and like his bowstring, was magically enchanted to protect him. The protection in question was a magical like shield that he could activate at will but the shield wasn't very strong and would usually collapse after a few hits or from one massive hit. He bent back and observed the wolf. It seemed to be asleep right now but this one was familiar. Normally, he doesn't get attached to wildlife, but this particular wolf had caught his attention. She was kind, generous, honest, loyal and above all, a good leader to whomever followed her. He ran his gaze over quickly and noticed nothing special, she was the same albino white winter wolf he remembered from long ago, and if he remembered correctly, her name was Aleera (Pronuced A-lee-ra). He snapped back to reality when he heard what sounded like running coming in his direction and at the same time, Aleera started to stir. Though luck seemed, to be on his side as Aleera woke up quite quickly. "Ugh, what happened?" She growled. She opened her eyes and looked around and when she the cloaked figure in front of her, she quickly sprung to her feet and growled aggressively at the figure but when she noticed the beautifully crafted bow she would recognise anyway, she stood down. "Everfree?" She asked cautiously. The figure nodded without hesitation and lowered his hood to reveal it was indeed Everfree. Aleera was beyond happy as she had completed what she had set out to do. It was all thanks to that Angel that helped her when he said he would send her to where Everfree was along with his cloak. She trotted over to happily to which he bent down and ruffled her lightly before scratching her behind her ear, making her sigh happily. "Good to see you too, Aleera. Now I would like to stay and catch up but something is coming this way." Aleera's eyes perked up as she listened and she to heard something coming their way, albeit louder than last time signalling whatever it was is getting closer. She quickly looked around and saw they were in a forest and quickly scaled a tree and from there made sure she was hidden. Everfree moved so he was not too far away from where the creatures approaching were. He assumed whatever they were running from something because he heard something shout out about something to someone saying that whatever was after them couldn't be too far behind. The creatures burst through the bush and revealed they were Changelings. Everfree quickly reached out and pulled them to where he was hiding and told them to be quiet if they valued their lives. From out of the same bushes revealed more Changelings whom ran straight past them before spotting and looking around before heading off in a random direction. Everfree forced him and the Changelings to wait a whole minute and Aleera obviously knew as well as she was lying perfectly still. After the minute passed, he slowly eased his way out and then waved his hand for the others to come out once he was sure it was safe. "Now that that's done. Do you two Changelings mind telling me what you are doing running?" The Changelings glanced nervously at each other. Even they had heard of the Angel of Nature and weren't quite sure what he would do to them. "We're running from the Hive." One of them replied. "Mind explaining why?" The Changelings glanced at each other once more and seemed to have a silent conversation among themselves. Once done, they nodded to each other then back at Everfree. "First let me tell you we are. We are obviously both part of Queen Chrysalis' Hive. This here is Princess Morphia and I'm just her personal bodyguard." "Stop be so modest, Veredon. Plus I'm not a princess anymore." Morphia replied with a sigh. "Continue." Everfree said with a roll of his hand. "Right, well recently, I've been with Chrysalis most of the time learning about being a 'Queen'. I don't want to be one and I don't want to control a Hive, I just want a normal life and so does Veredon, we decided to run away together. We have been on the run ever since." Everfree nodded to himself slowly with his eyes closed as the pondered the situation of the two Changelings in front of him. Though as he was thinking something clicked in his mind as he looked around the forest momentarily. "This is the Everfree Forest right?" "Yes, it is. Why?" Everfree slowly started to chuckle before it turned into a laugh. "Oh you sly little..." He said while laughing. He knew the forest looked familiar and so did the Changelings. The minute he stopped to think, it all became familiar. Aleera, who was sitting next to him, looked up at him curiously. "Everfree, what's wrong?" She asked. Everfree looked down at Aleera with a grin on his face. "You remember that story I told about the world I went to, the one where I food the wood for this bow?" He asked, holding his bow up. Aleera nodded. "Welcome to Equis, Aleera." He said waving his arms wide, "and it would seem the Archangel use some ancient magic that has never been used before." "Which is?" "I believe it was something along the lines of 'Praeses, Alea, Fero' and if I remember the translation correctly, it loose translate to, 'Protecting another, I bring this forth.' Obviously, the Archangel sent me here because a number of problems are going to arise." The two Changelings had been chatting to theirselves to give the two some privacy and too catch up, but when they heard what Everfree had said... "Are you the Angel of Nature?" Morphia asked. "Was but I have a feeling I've still retained my powers." Everfree replied. "Well, then I can tell you know that you might have to deal with Chrysalis again." "How so?" He asked fearing for the next words for what they might be. "I believe she once told me that she was planning another attack against Canterlot." Everfree had dealt with Chrysalis once already in the past when she had impersonated as Princess Mi Amora Cadanza, or as she preferred Princess Cadance but thanks to Twilight being persistent, they were able to stop her. Everfree himself knew that Chrysalis was impersonating the Princess but at that time he was following his oath and couldn't interfere. Sure he was berated by the ponies for it but they understood. "I guess we head to the nearby Ponyvillie and look for Twilight Sparkle, or maybe I should say, Princess Twilight Sparkle." And with that, Everfree turned towards the direction of Ponyvillie and started walking. He knew the forest well, after all, he use to live in it and it was named after him despite it being more violent than him. The other three all looked at each other before following after him. This going to be interesting, Everfree thought.