"Nova,"The voice of my dear friend Maximus shook me from my prayer, I
looked up from the shrine and at him."sorry, but the Sarge said its time to get moving."
"OK,"I said getting up."I was done anyway."
With that me and Maximus left the small temple to the Counsel of the Draconiqui
and made are way to the well-kept fort on the hill over looking the city, it was not our
final destination but it was our next stop.
After a short climb we made it to the top of the hill that the fort was on and met
our squad just out side the gate, already formed up and ready to move out.
"Well, good of you to join us."The Sarge said, a bit of impatience in his voice.
"Sorry Sir,"I started as me and Maximus came to attention."I lost track of time."
"At ease,"The Sarge said dismissively."we best start moving though, the sooner the better."
And with that we all started off down the road, marching in a strait column of
two side by side, which made the column only three pairs long with the Sarge in the front
alone.
The good news was that the day was cloudy and the sun didn't shine down on us
and add to the torment of marching, and the road was well kept, it was for the most part
smooth and had very few stones, but the day had some bad news as well, marching was
never easy, even with thick cloud coverage we all quickly worked up a sweat, then there
was the leather straps, every time I took a step the straps would tighten and tried to give me
a nice friction burn.
But even with the slight discomfort of being attacked by leather the march was not to
bad, the day grew old and finally night came upon the land of the griffins, so we pitched
our tents and called it a night.
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"Wake up,"I heard as I was shaken from my sleep, to find that it was still dark
out."some ponies out there."The voice I now recognized as Maximus said.
"Are you kidding me,"I whispered in a annoyed tone."your not scared of the dark are
you?"
"What, no of course not,"Maximus said."I heard something."
"It was your imagination,"I said dismissively."go back to sleep."
As soon as I finished saying that I saw a shadow just at the corner of the tent, it
was massive, at least two times bigger then me, it looked like a bird head on a lion with
wings. I had to force myself not to gasp when I realized what I was looking at, I had read a
description of a Griffin in the newspaper but it did it no justice, then I saw that in its talon
it held a sword, held high waiting no doubt for his comrades to get into position so
they could kill us in one quick attack, I had other plans.
Instantly I drew my sword that lay at the end of my bed roll with my magic and I
thrust it through the fabric of the tent and into him, earning a shocked scream from him
just before he died, this drew the attention from the others just long enough for every pony
to draw their own weapons and have a chance to defend themselves.
A small battle took place, the Sarge was being attacked by two of the powerful
winged beasts while the others all engaged their own, me and Maximus joined Fire Ball and
Swift Steel in their fight against their attacker and with the strength of four ponies the
single Griffin went down.
As soon as the Griffin hit the ground we split ways, Fire Ball and Swift Steel went
toward the Sarge and the Corporal who had dispatched his attacker and was now helping
the Sarge with his two, while me and Maximus went toward Ice Heart, but by the time we
ran at full speed across the small camp it was to late, Ice Heart had already killed the Griffin
and we were of absolutely no use, Fire Ball and Swift Steel however might as well of saved
the Sarge and the Corporal.
"Well,"The Sarge started after a couple of seconds after the battle."pack up, we are
moving out, and we are not stopping until we get to the fort."
Shaking are heads, all of us in agreement, we set out to complete the task, it was a
good thing the day was not hot because if it was we would never have made it past the
camp perimeter before collapsing in exhaustion, but the march became harder with each
step.
'The pony body was not meant to take this kind of punishment,'I thought to
myself.'at least no pony was hurt.'
And we marched all night clear into the morning, but 'Thank the gods,' I thought
as the powerful form of a massive fort came into view on the horizon.
"Fort Masser,"The Sarge said."finally this trip is over.
We all quietly mumbled are agreement and then stared toward the pillar of hope
just a mile away.
My happy thoughts were cut short by a sudden roar of musket fire to the right, and
a sudden pain exploded in my flank, right on my cutie mark.
Through squinted eyes I saw a small group of Griffins and Pegasi trying to reload
their weapons as fast as they could, but we all had a shot ready.
"Aim,"The Sarge yelled, and even with the pain in my flank I lifted the gun into a
position so I could look down the sight."Fire!"
*Bang*
My weapon screamed as it fired its deadly ball of lead at the enemy, by some
stroke of luck we managed to hit half of them leaving only three Griffins and one Pegasi.
Again the Griffins raised their weapons to aim at us, but we had something they
did not, not even the Pegasi had it.
"Fire magic at will!"The Sarge yelled as loud as he could, and we all instantly
dropped our muskets and fired a magical blast before they could fire another shot, and with
that the last of them fell to the ground, dead or dieing, and at about that time three squads of
reinforcements came from the fort.
"They were fast."I said surprised at how fast they made it.
"Are you all alright?"One asked.
"When we're inside the fort,"The Sarge started."then we will be alright."
And with that done we slowly made are way to the fort, finally out of this mad
and wild land.