//------------------------------// // Chapter 8: A Hard Days Night // Story: The Fire and Embers // by Tamara Bloodhoof //------------------------------// Chapter 8 A Hard-Days Night Step by step I walked down the mountain, my feet beating a steady rhythm on the stone. I felt torn between uneasy tiredness and hopeful adrenaline, my body unable to find a balance between the two. I knew I was staying awake for far too long, but I wanted to put some distance between the mountains and me, if only for my emotional health. ‘Sleep isn’t your enemy you know.’ “But sleep isn’t my ally either.” I sighed, looking at the thin forest below. “Besides, I’ve been up for longer before.” ‘Yes, but you’ve never been under this much pressure before either.’ “So I should sleep while I know that there are crazy dogs and an insane griffin who would be more than willing to kill me?” I asked increduosly, not believing that my conscious would tell me such a thing. “Why do I want myself to die?” ‘It would just be better to sleep a bit, even for a few minutes.’ “No, end of story, I’m not going to bed yet. Okay dad?” I asked, a hint of venom seeping into my voice as I said the last word. I didn’t get a response after that, and the silence was both a touch unnerving and relieving. I didn’t know when I had gotten so chatty with myself, but most of my ideas were either helpful but poorly timed or else completely bonkers. Still, it gave me some time to think as I walked and that was more than I had gotten for a while. First off I needed to learn how to fight. Sure, I was a dragon, but I’d never learned any martial arts or special forms. The best I’d gotten was a self-defence class when I was fifteen, and all that had taught me was how to stand and throw a good punch. Besides, after seeing the Diamond Dogs and the Griffin fighting each-other I didn’t really feel like I could stand my ground in a fight against them, scales or not. Therefore I wanted to find a town or city that I could learn at least the basics at, and considering how I’d seen roads and such when I was on top of the mountain there had to somewhere for me to learn. Second I needed to find a library. I didn’t know anything about this place and that could easily spell death for me. I’d picked up only a few video games thanks to my dad being so very controlling over my free time, but I had played a game called Final Fantasy IX, and when I landed the airship on a little island I had immediately found enemies who kicked my ass. I kept reloading my file, but I had wandered so far away that Zidane couldn’t make it back to the ship, forcing me to restart it from the beginning. If this world was anything like that, then wandering into the wrong areas would lead me to be in so far over my head that there wouldn’t even be a possibility of survival. Besides, I could also learn more about Gaia and possibly even find a way to go back home. Third and finally was income. I was in a world I didn’t know, in a country where I knew none of the rules and with a finite amount of food to sustain me. If I couldn’t find a job then I could get arrested or executed or so many other things it wasn’t even funny to think about it. When I could truthfully say that all three of these things were taken care of I would be able to focus more upon what was going on and what happened to me. ‘May I suggest something?’ “What would that be?” I groaned, waiting for some fortune cookie nonsense like usual. Goddammit myself, stop confusing me! ‘Why not pay attention to where you are going?’ I blinked a couple of times before I actually registered what she had said and looked around, stopping dead in my tracks. I wasn’t on the mountain anymore since I couldn’t feel stone beneath my feet, but I wasn’t in the forest either. Doing a quick spin I saw that I had already passed through the forest. It was surprising that I had walked for so long, but when I looked up at the sun it was only a third of the way through the sky, not even midday. “Wow, I set a pretty good pace.” I whistled, smiling at the stroke of good fortune. ‘Just make sure it doesn’t lead off a cliff.’ “Way to dampen my spirits me.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The day seemed to be dragging on forever. Again and again my feet sank into the sand, and again and again I pulled them back out to keep plodding forward. A breeze blew across my face, bringing with it a fine sea mist, drenching my scales in the water that sparkled only a mere few feet from me. I had finished crossing the plains a while ago, and now I was stuck in what looked like a never-ending expanse of beach, the sand stretching as far as my eyes could see. “If you are done with your hissy fit, I could do with some conversation.” I muttered, unsure how I was supposed to apologize to my own mind. ‘We didn’t raise you to be like this, you should be grateful that I even listen!’ “Are you kidding me!?” I shouted, not bothering to keep my voice down. Why did I have to have such a sense of sarcastic humour? Nobody had ever told me this before, but I was exasperating! ‘I thought you wanted me to be your dad!’ My mouth opened for a moment before I zipped it shut again. I was shouting at myself which wasn’t entirely unheard of, but I was shouting at myself while simultaneously arguing with my own consciousness. If I could have found any possible sign that was better at proving my slowly slipping sanity then it would have to be rather amazing. I didn’t have the energy to waste on petty squabbles anyway. I could tell I was running out of steam, and it wouldn’t do to fall unconscious out in the open like this. ‘Do you just enjoy being an ass me?’ I asked, to curious for her reply to leave it completely alone. ‘Do I have to even bother responding to that?’ At this point I simply gave up, instead opting to focus solely on getting out of this sandy wasteland and finding a warm place to sleep. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The sky had finally gone dark around an hour or so ago, and I could feel the weariness in my very bones. I had been up for the longest time in my life. Over thirty hours had passed since I woke up yesterday until this moment, and I’d experienced the most painful moments of my entire life. I didn’t know how or why I was still walking, but I could still sense my legs moving, nearly trudging along the ground. ‘Go to bed, take a nap, just sleep!’ ‘I…I don’t wanna…’ I thought, unable to even speak anymore, too exhausted to move my lips. Every part of me ached, and the hard stone beneath my feet did nothing to help my poor feet. ‘Haven’t…reached…’ ‘No, you haven’t reached your destination, but if you work yourself so ragged how will you do anything?’ I wanted to groan at the logic being used against me but what came out was a small whimper. I couldn’t truly see in front of me anymore, and darkness or not, I knew that my body was on auto-pilot since long ago. What I was walking towards or where I was didn’t matter anymore. The only thing that mattered was the tantalizing promise of sleep once I had reached…somewhere. “Halt, who goes there?” came a voice, obviously masculine. A couple of small clops sounded in my ears as something started to slowly come closer, a source of light, probably a torch, in its grip. “You are out past curfew and the gate is closed, what do you want traveller?” asked the voice, the pitch deep and steel underlining every word. Whoever it was knew how to don a cloak of confidence, and it was the first voice that I had heard in a long while that didn’t frighten me to some degree. I kept walking towards the light, trying to form a word in response to his demand, but only a horse croak escaped me. My eyes seemed to have gone blind in their half-lidded state, but when I finally saw him I vaguely noticed its whole body lurch away from me in either disgust or pure disbelief. It was a pony, a stallion most likely, garbed in some sort of uniform and wielding a torch in one of its fore-hooves, a look of distrust on his face. By now I didn’t care how he looked at me or what he looked like, a uniform meant I had reached civilization of some sort and I finally muttered a simple word as my legs gave way beneath me, asleep before my head hit the ground. “Finally!”