//------------------------------// // 16. Interlude. // Story: Orchestrated Chaos // by ReFro //------------------------------// Sometime early fall, I think. Two days after my run-in with those wolves. 2:27 P.M. Dear Diary, Guess what? I have my own diary now, isn’t that great?! How you ask? Well, after I so foolishly ran into the forest a few days ago and got this nasty gash on my leg, I was taken back to that clinic in town again. I don’t want to bore anyone that happens to be reading this with my second stay there, but I will just state that, thankfully, my stay was brief this time, in and out within a few hours, just as the sun was coming up. The nice nurse, the very same one that liked to detain me with magic, cleaned and wrapped up my leg before talking with my new family. She recommended that they should get me a diary to jot my thoughts down or to just doodle. I guess she must have seen some of the writing in the drawings I did during my last visit here. And wouldn’t you know it, on the way home we stopped by a local bookstore, and I got to pick one out my very own diary! Either way, I am very thankful to Pa for saving my life that night and to now have something to pour my thoughts into instead of keeping them locked inside of my head. I have a diary again! Yay! I don’t think I will be wasting the diary’s paper on my silly drawings though. Besides I only have this crude, chewed up pencil and nothing to color with. Where’s the fun in that? And the reason for the pencil being all chewed up? Well, it seems all the non unicorns write holding a pencil in their mouth. In. Their. MOUTH! Talk about being non-hygienic, yuck! In fact, I am getting grossed out by just looking at all the bite marks on it as I write this—with my hoof, thank you very much. I don’t care if it does take longer to write this way, I refuse to put this, or most things, anywhere near my mouth. Well, that took longer than expected... I felt the need to go wash the pencil a few times before continuing, but when I went outside to the well I saw that some of the chickens had escaped the coop, and Granita was trying to herd them back into the pen by herself. Feathers and dirt were flying everywhere as she hollered at the rampaging chickens, chasing them around the yard like a madmare. It was quite comical actually, though I did help her corral them back in the pen after I stopped laughing long enough to catch my breath. Oh man, there is never a dull moment around here it seems. Anyways, I have been slowly adjusting to my new life here, learning the in’s and out’s of this world as much as possible from the safety of the farm, though I’m sure I am just scratching the surface. It’s been pretty rough at times too, and I still get the sudden urges to run off at times, but no way, nope, never again. I don’t care how hard that voice in my head yells and screams at me to leave, it ain’t happening. But thankfully, I have learned to kinda keep it at bay. The voice and headaches tends to pop back up together whenever I get depressed and think of home, almost as if it feeds off of negative emotions, but the ones in particular about my home and family are the worst. It’s sorta odd the way that works, and I will have to look further into it, but now my headaches have almost ceased altogether. That right there is a huge blessing, you have no idea. Oh! I have also been learning to communicate through a mixture of crude sign language and the ponies’ native tongue with the help of Sew, or Ma as she seems to want to be called. She has been helping me learn everyday so far this week, pointing out objects and telling me their names. I only know a few words so far, but it hasn’t been too difficult to pick up. The hardest thing is recreating the funny sounds. Ma started with the family and I first, along with showing me that all older ponies had those tattoos on their flanks. I think she called them cutie marks, but I have no idea why they have them... I don’t know why, but they all call me Melody for some reason. I mean, it’s a nice name and all, but it’s not my name. I keep repeating Chloe to them whenever they call me that, hoping they get the hint, but they seem dead set on Melody. I get the feeling they just can’t pronounce my real name correctly. As for the others, there was Sew who had an old timey sewing machine for a cutie mark, her daughter, Granita who had an apple pie on her flank, and last but not least, Pokey, or Pa who had a picture of a large acorn and other smaller seeds on his. Pa turned out to be really nice and very kind to me, even after the whole barn incident and running away into the woods, which they later told me were called the Everfree. I was also told several times to never go in there again. Hey, you don’t have to keep telling me that, I got the point after the first time, thank you very much. But Pa was nowhere near as intimidating as I thought he was when I first laid eyes on him. Man, that was scary that first time though, having to tilt your head all the way back just to see his face...zeesh! It’s all good now though, and I like hanging around him, even if he doesn’t talk much. I just feel...safe with him next to me I guess. I am doing my best to learn as quickly as possible so I can talk with them on a normal level, instead of feeling like a baby, always have to point and say a word two or three times before they understand it. It’s quite frustrating to say the least, and by the time I can properly communicate, I fear that it will be too late for Gennie. All I can do is pray that she is alright... I swear I will do all that I can to find you, just please be alright. Now that I have composed myself again, I can continue without getting the paper all wet. The cut on my leg feels much better now that the infection has past, you should have seen it on first day, all pus filled and turning nasty shades of bright yellow and green. No idea why I wrote that out, eww. And just my luck, there is no eraser on this pencil, so I will just... cross that out and pretend I never wrote it in the first place. There! Anyhow, the bandage should be coming completely off when I go back to see the doctor again in a couple days and hopefully score some more of that sweet, sweet candy he has stashed in his pockets. Too bad I didn’t get to see him this time, but Granita had one that she gave me. I wasn’t sure where she had acquired it from, but that act of kindness earned her a big ol’ hug, which seemed to make her happy as well so, win-win! Wow, there are so many new things that I want to write about, but I have been sitting at the table now for well over three hours according to the cuckoo clock on the wall. Since I am still fumbling to legible write these words, it is kinda of a pain to continue, and my wrist is pretty sore at this point. Looks like I am getting kicked off the table anyways, Ma is starting to set the table for supper as well, and I need to help her with that, so tootles! ~Chloe Griffin~ P.S. - I am writing this in English for my own privacy mostly, and for the obvious fact that I don’t know how to write in the ponies’ language yet. [/hr] The next night. 1:41 A.M. Dear Diary, I can’t sleep. I was hoping that the nightmares would pass after the first few days, but they continue to haunt my dreams, robbing me of precious beauty sleep. For the past three nights it has been the same thing over and over again, wolves. Huge, snarling, Chloe-eating wolves. Cold sweat and shivering uncontrollably, sometimes screaming a the top of my lungs. That is how I am waking up after each nightmare. I want it to just stop. Since I sleep in the same bed with Granita, which I am still getting used to, but she is warm and soft, like a big heated pillow, my nightmares wake her up as well. She was freaked out the first night as she tried to figure out what was wrong with the screaming, trembling filly by her side. I wish I could explain it fully to her that it is just a bad dream and nothing to really worry about, but that is a bit too advanced for my knowledge to properly convey to her yet. Even after repeatedly waking her up, she was always there for me, holding and rocking me gently as she whispered soothingly into my ears—even though I am twenty-six years old and fully capable of handling this kind of thing on my own, it was nice to feel loved like that, and her actions worked wonders at easing my mind. She is quite awesome, like that older sister I never had, but always wanted. Thankfully, I didn't wake up her up again tonight. The poor mare has a lot on her plate during the day, and I feel terrible that she was woken up in the middle of the night these past few days. I was able to slip out unnoticed as soon as I was jostled awake by those incessant beasts again. I pray that by writing this down and facing my fears that it will help ease my troubled mind. A good night’s sleep is all I ask! I better try to get back to sleep before I wake someone up from the candlelight. Here’s hoping for a few good hours of rest at least. ~Chloe Griffin~ [/hr] Evening after the checkup at the clinic. 7:33 P.M. Dear Diary, Good news! The dreams have calmed down considerably. I still see the wolves out there, but they can never seem to reach me anymore. Pa always shows up before they can which is a huge relief and has made it so I can sleep soundly most nights. I think Granita is happy that I am not waking her up anymore either. She seems less cranky in the mornings as well, but don’t tell her I said that, hehe. Granita took me to the clinic today after breakfast and it went...okay. I learned that the doctor’s name was Dr. Charts… Seriously? At first I thought there were pulling my leg, but nope, that is his real, honest to goodness name! He took the bandage off my leg as we talked a bit. It surprised him at first that I could understand a little of what he was saying and could talk back in small words, but he quickly got over it. He tried asking me a bunch of different things, but I had no idea what most of the words were that he spoke, so that didn’t go on for very long. Feeling around my chest, he pushed and poked with a hoof after a quick magical scan, asking me if it hurt anywhere as he did. I told him no, it all felt fine. He looked pleased at that fact and moved onto the cut on my leg. There really wasn’t much for him to look at there as it had mended nicely back together after the infection went away. Even though I wasn’t in pain anymore, I still have a faint scar across my chest and will probably have a matching one on my hind leg now too. I just hope I am lucky enough to never collect anymore of the set. After I passed the check-up with flying colors, Dr. Charts gave me another piece of candy for being so well behaved. Hey, don’t look at me like that! I really like these things! While I was happily sucking away on the delicious morsel, he and Granita talked for a bit as I tried to make sense of what they were saying. It was something about a letter and going somewhere to meet someone I think. The next part was that they were still looking for my parents. I spoke up at that time in the conversation, trying to tell them that they were not going to find them anywhere. I think they took that the wrong way, because the next thing I knew, I was being hammered with questions along the lines of ‘who killed my parents?’ and ‘did you kill your parents?’. I was more than a little shocked at these accusations but kept my cool and very slowly explained that my parents were fine, just that they wouldn’t be able to find them because I was a long way’s away from home, and that no, I didn’t know where home is or how to get back to it, and if I did, I wouldn't be sitting here right now in his clinic. He kept pressing on for more and more answers, all of which I either couldn't understand or was unable to properly answer. That whole ordeal was really stressful and caused me to think back to home, sending me into a downwards spiral of depression as another headache came on strong. With the politest growl I could muster, I told them that I didn't want to talk anymore and asked if we were done because I wanted to go lay down, now. Granita picked me up, setting me down on her back as Dr. Charts gave me a sympathetic nod and smile before we said our goodbyes. I was glad to be out of there and back at my new home where I could relax, and if I was being honest, I never wanted to go back there again, especially if Dr.Charts was to push me to tell him everything about my past. I wasn’t ready to do that yet, nor could I do that yet, even if I wanted to. It would just confuse them even more at this point. Dammit, I need to get my mind off of all this, I’m going to go see what Pa is up to outside. ~Chloe Griffin~ [/hr] October 2nd. 8:04 P.M. Dear Diary, Wow, has it been over two weeks already? Time just flew by with so much going on it seems. The past two weeks were harvest season for apples trees around here, and this family lives, eats and breathes apples. No joke. That may sound crazy and might come off as no big deal to some, but don’t be fooled. There were hundreds and hundreds of those trees to harvest! Each one containing dozens of shiny apples to pick. The whole family worked together as a team to bring down each and every apple too, all within that small two week’s worth of time. The way they did it was simple mind boggling as well. No machinery was used at all. The only things that were used was a brand new wagon that came in the day before the harvest, several large baskets and lots and lots of horsepower. (Pun intended, hehe.) Ma and I would set out the baskets under the trees while Pa and Granita would buck the side of it, and this is the ridiculous part that I have no idea how to explain other than magic I guess, and all the apples would fall into the empty baskets. Not a single one of them missed and hit the ground! I have to admit, it was a very nice setup, but I still can't wrap my mind around how it actually works it. I am not strong enough to help out too much with the harvest, but I did what I could and it was still very tiring work. From about five in the morning till seven or eight at night we were all out there collecting apples. I have never had to work that much in all my life, but at least it is all over now that to barn is full, giving me some much needed free time to relax. I miss music, and I really miss my cello. Almost forgot. I finally got to see pegasi! It’s amazing to watch them fly around and move the clouds and everything. I would love to meet one personally one day, maybe they could ever take me flying if I asked hard enough, hehe. ~Chloe ‘Melody’ Griffin~ P.S. - There has been an orange stallion about Granita’s age coming around to see her quite a bit and she has been staying out late with him more and more. She won’t tell me anything about it and tries to deny it all, but I will get to the bottom of this mystery stallion! [/hr] October 8th. 11:31 P.M. Dear Diary, Holy shit! That’s a mental image I will never get out of my head! I knew those two were an item, but I never expected to catch them in the act like that! Note to self: never sit on that hay bale again… eww. If I was a real filly I would be scarred for life. ~C. M. Griffin~ [/hr] October 19th. 6:49 P.M. Dear Diary, Tomorrow is the day I have been dreading since I got here. I made a promise to tell the family all about my past when I was able to articulate it to them correctly. I will tell them exactly how I got here, all about Gennie, my family, who and what I was before they got to know me as a little grey filly called Melody... Man, this is going to be rough day tomorrow, and I pray that they will believe me and not think that I am throwing their kindness out the window with ridiculous lies. I am just too nervous to concentrate on writing tonight, so wish me the best of luck. I have a feeling I’m going to need it. ~M. Griffin~