//------------------------------// // The Lerris Chronicles, Five // Story: Odrsjot // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// The Noble Jury has seen many a sky on fire. We've survived cannonfire, brushes with battleships, boarding parties, and chaotic dragon minions. Parked here for four days straight in one of the quietest, most serene valleys in the world? I think we're the most tense that we've ever been. Each day feels like an entire week of adrenaline packed into a gray sunrise and an even grayer sunset. Every hour looks and feels the same. Quite frankly, I don't know how the villagers of Lerris cope with it. Granted, the ponies who live here don't have nearly as much on their minds. They're not thinking about losing some of their closest friends. They're not thinking of the frigid trip waiting just beyond the mountains. They're not thinking about all manner of nebulous enemies preparing to leap at their jugular just an ocean away... or closer. Why are ponies like us so drawn to travel? We could very easily have found someplace in Ledomare to have hidden away. Between Floydien's guile, Pilate's intelligence, and Roarke's experience, we could very easily have discovered a hiding spot from the forces chasing us. But we didn't resort to such an act, did we? No, we flew on. Why? Because we were led, inspired, and motivated by a pony who has been "flying on" for far longer than us, having survived even greater odds and encountered uglier enemies. Am I blaming Rainbow Dash for the tension of this crew? No, mother. I owe her my life, and I'm glad to be rid of all the landscapes behind me. Still, I think it's one thing to emulate the pegasus. It's another thing to be her. I dread the day that we all find out that we simply cannot follow her for the same lengths that she has left to travel. Maybe that's the reason for the tension. I'm not entirely sure. All I can do is keep these ponies well fed and hope that my supplement for their stomach will somehow find its way to their hearts... "The what?!" Ebon gawked, making a face as he dished out pasta onto Josho's plate. "Yeah, I know." Rainbow nodded from where she sat reclined in her seat of the Jury's mess hal. "Doesn't sound very fierce, does it?" "I've heard of the 'Legion,'" Josho said, spooning up some noodles the very moment Ebon trotted on to give Floydien his serving. "They're a group of mixed species who took up mercenary jobs along the Southern Shore. But the Lounge?" His face twisted in confusion. "Doesn't ring a bell. And I'm a soldier who's seen many bells cracked." "Mmmmmf!" Props finished slurping up a noodle and chirped, "Maybe it's nothing to be afraid of! From the sound of it, they're probably a bunch of super talented minstrels!" "Heh..." Ebon glanced over his shoulder while dishing out more pasta. "Only you, Propsy." "That's enough, sailboat," Floydien grumbled. "Whoops! My bad..." Ebon trotted down the table. Eagle Eye dabbed his muzzle with a napkin and looked up at Rainbow Dash. "Who told you about them?" "Who else?" Rainbow shrugged. "The... er... 'Lerringtons.'" "Hey, I like that!" Ebon rang. "Mmmf... You would," Josho belched. Eagle continued. "Well, I was speaking with a spouse of one of the rice farmers." "Oh?" Ebon glanced over from the kitchen doorway. "When? I spent the first day here with them." "Right." Eagle nodded. "And while you were busy getting your hooves muddy in the fields..." He paused to shudder, then continued. "...I was getting to know the local color." "Did it involve sewing at all?" Josho droned between bites. "That... it..." Eagle turned beet red. "No!" He cleared his throat and looked back at Rainbow's end of the table. "Anyways, turns out one of the mares who lived uysed to travel around a lot. When she heard that the Jury was heading east, she mentioned a mysterious group of fliers who regularly pull over ships that try to make the crossing over the Frozen Sea." "What do you mean 'pull over?'" Rainbow Dash asked, eyes squinting. "You mean they board airships?" Eagle shrugged. "She didn't say. Only that they wore masks and were really, really creepy. She described them as traders, but these don't sound like any normal merchants that I've heard of." Eagle glanced at the rest of the table. "Could be this 'Lounge' that Rainbow was talking about." "Yeah..." Rainbow tapped her chin in thought. "The locals mentioned something about freaky masks too..." "Maybe they're Xonan border patrol?" Ebon asked as he trotted back out of the kitchen. "I bet they'd be super anal about who gets to cross over into their territory from the east." "Nah, this 'Lounge' isn't ponies," Rainbow Dash said. "That's about as much as the ponies around here could tell me." Ebon blinked. With a look of concern on his face, he raised his hoof to speak— Eagle Eye inadvertently interrupted him. "There was something else the mare said. About the Frozen Sea and the air passage over it." "Yeah, what?" Rainbow asked. "She said that the few creatures who have passed over spoke of... well..." Eagle shifted where he sat. "Of something in the snow." "'Something?'" Rainbow's brow furrowed. "What kind of a 'something?'" "Oh great." Floydien rolled his eyes. "More glimmer." "Sounds like a long, perilous trip, whatever the case," Josho spoke up. He took a sip from a goblet and looked at the others. "Could be easy to hallucinate whatever." "Yeah, but according to this mare, tons of travelers all spoke of the same thing," Eagle stated. "It was something 'large and ominous in the blizzard'." He gulped. "Like a mountain appearing out of nowhere. Some ships that came out of the Strip of Flurries didn't start by themselves. There were entire convoys that set out from the lands to the east, and... well... not all of th-them survived the trip." "What, they crashed?" Rainbow asked. "Got captured? Exploded?" Eagle shrugged. "She didn't say anything more after that. We... uhm..." His ears drooped. "We resumed sewing." Silence... and then a creepy whistling sound. Josho glared aside. "You mind, blondie?" Props snorted back a giggle, cleared her throat, and dug through her pasta. "Sorry..." Ebon hung his head, staring dully into the floor. "Did a kitchen utensil die or something?" Ebon looked up. "Huh?" Rainbow had turned around in her chair and was speaking calmly to the stallion. "You look down in the muzzle. Everything cool?" "Heh..." Ebon smiled nervously. "Thanks for your concern?" Rainbow gave a devilish smirk. "Why wouldn't I be?" Ebon glanced at Eagle Eye, then back at Rainbow. The pegasus blinked. "Can I tell you something?" he said. "Yeah. Sure." He trotted closer and spoke in a quiet tone. "It's... just something Roarke had said to me, is all..." "Roarke said something?" Rainbow stared. "...to you?" "Yeah yeah..." Ebon rolled his eyes. "Anyways, she's been building up this mega-super-death suit thingy lately..." "Pfft. Totally." "And I was all 'Well, what are you paranoid about?' And she gave me this attitude that amounted to 'Why are you not paranoid?'" "I'm having a hard time imagining those words coming out of her mouth." "Well, I'm paraphrasing." "Ah. Go on." "It's just that... I feel like she knows something that the rest of us don't." "Like what?" "Like..." Ebon shifted uncomfortably. "Like... our business at Seclorum's camp isn't entirely done." "In what way?" "Do I gotta spell it out for ya?" Ebon bit his lip. "Those... things that you saw, Rainbow..." "Oh... those..." "Yeah. Those." His burgundy brow furrowed. "Giant, buglike equines who could change into anything at a moment's whim? Who's to say that they couldn't spring a trap for us anywhere?" "Well, all the best to be on the lookout, then." "But not everypony is as brave as you, Rainbow Dash!" Ebon leaned in to whisper. "Nor do we have wings. We can't all be everywhere at once." Rainbow whispered back. "What are you getting at?" "What... wh-what if the ambush has already been sp-sprung?" He gulped. "And what if... what if one of those things is a pony in this village?" The pegasus sat in dead silence. So Ebon went on. "Or... what if... what if those creatures are some of us?" Rainbow pursed her lips. She glanced silently at the rest of the table. Eagle Eye picked daintily at his food. Floydien nibbled at his plate with gently twinkling antlers. Props hummed to herself while drawing a schematic for an engine part next to her plate. Josho scarfed as ravenously as she could. "That..." Rainbow gulped. "That would suck." Ebon winced as he murmured, "I think it's about time you had a talk with your Searonese friend..."