//------------------------------// // Ch.11 The Desert part 1 // Story: The Epic of a Diamond Dog // by Ravencrofte //------------------------------// I awoke with a start. It was the silent, blue time just before dawn. A thick mist hung in the air. Drops of moisture clung to my nose. A scan of the surroundings and a sniff of the air told me that I was alone. With a long sigh, I laid my head back down. Yet my mind did not relax. Shadows lurched just beyond the damp haze that surrounded me. A form drew close. The grey abyss parted, and Rapid River stumbled out. He collapsed on the ground before me. My sword was still lodged in his body. I froze. Even as he drew his last breath, the dog extended his paw towards me, a smile slowly spreading upon his lips. His eyes glassed over in death. I stared at the corpse until it dissolved into nothing. The mist slithered and swirled. Next, Blood Bath appeared, and I nearly bolted. He wore that crazy, manic grin. His paws stretched out to encircle my neck. Before he could reach me, he too turned back into a grey, formless cloud. I lay there, gasping, staring fixedly at where the two forms had vanished. Sweat rolled down my back despite the cold. My paws twitched, my mind telling me to run, to flee, to get away from...something. Kitty Hawk shifted beside me.         She stretched out, her little hooves prodding me in uncomfortable places. A loud, long yawn echoed from under the blanket. Task accomplished, she pulled in all her limbs, drew herself up, and buried her head into the fur of my belly.         I exhaled the breath I didn’t realize I was holding. My heart was still pounding, but now it was easier to ignore. The rush I had been feeling was slowly starting to fade.         A swell of anger overtook me.         This was pathetic. Here I was, a warrior, a defender of my clan, and a proud descendent of my ancestors, laid low by memories. These feeling of terror and fright were for those who had no honor!  Out here in this wilderness, I would stand strong.         Yet again, the icy fangs of fear started to nip away at my resolves. I took all my feelings and mashed them into a single, tangled ball before shoving them deep down inside. Suddenly, my limbs felt stiff and heavy, as if I had been running all night. Shifting slightly brought a flare of pain from my side that coursed through me like frozen lightning. Half my body was cold with sweat, and the other half felt sickly and sticky, with the fur matted together in clumps.         I needed a bath. With supreme care I extracted myself from Kitty Hawk and the blanket. My injured paw throbbed the moment it touched the ground. I cringed and walked, slowly, to the river. No matter how bad the pain was, my head  was always held high.         Soon I stood at the water’s edge, overlooking its great expanse and the opposite shore. The river chugged along, slow and steady, ever constant. Clear, clean water swirled before me. I stepped into its depths. Instantly the freezing water bit deep. I inhaled sharply, but pushed doggedly onwards until the water came up to my chest. My lower extremities were soon numb with cold. I retrieved a large, flat stone from the river bottom and began to scrub vigorously. Around me, the water turned pink as the dried blood came out of my fur and was carried away by the river. I scrubbed myself until my paws ached with the effort. Then I added river mud and finally immersed myself fully in the water.         When I emerged from the water, I was shivering but clean. My wet fur clung to my sides. I weighed twice as much as before. A good shake got rid of most of the water.         Kitty Hawk was awake when I returned. She greeted me with a sleepy smile from the warm depths of the blanket. Her pout when I packed it away was almost comical.                  There was no camp to attend to: last night we had gathered everything that we could salvage and left the death behind us. The night had enveloped us in her veil. I had led the way, going parallel to the moon. Only when the pale eye was directly above us did we finally stop. Kitty Hawk, who already was having difficulty keeping her head up, fell asleep as soon as she laid down. I had drawn the blanket over us, and together we had slept safe, sound, and warm.         We ate our breakfast as we walked. The sun was rising high, disbanding the mist, and opening our horizon to a thin haze shimmering in the distance. Kitty Hawk rode on my back. She was humming to herself some cheery, fast-paced tune. Occasionally, she would tap along with her song, drumming the notes on my body. I rolled my eyes. Why did I even put up with this?         Suddenly, pain burned through my wounded paw and cut a path up my arm. I gasped, my jaw working out a silent scream. The initial wave passed, and the throbbing set in. The culprit proved to be a sharp rock. I glared at the offender with all the pent-up fury from this morning. It was bad enough that my paw hurt with every step, and now this! An inspection only revealed a thin cut and a few drops of blood. Gingerly, I placed it back on the ground.         “Are you ok?” asked Kitty Hawk as she tried to peer over my shoulder. I could hear the concern in her voice. Those words caused something inside of me to cringe in guilt. “I’m fine,” I growled, and instantly regretted it. Trying to reassure her with a false smile did little to erase the frown on her face.         “I can get off and walk,” she offered, and she made to dismount.         “It’s ok,” I said. In truth, she hardly weighed more than a sack of stones. I had carried far heavier loads. Kitty Hawk didn't press the issue, but the concerned look remained. I returned to watching the ground pass under my paws, with a greater emphasis on what lay buried in the dirt; each step was a painful reminder. Only a few more days until we reached the border of Equestria. That was, if my mental map was correct. We would know soon enough; I would be proven correct if we spotted a desert off to our left before nightfall. Tomorrow, we would walk to the gorge, the furthest boundary of the empire. From there, another day’s walk would bring us up to a forest and the land of ponies. But if we stayed inside the borders of the empire, would the mystics try and kill me again? Not again, oh please not again. The cut on my side still burned. Sooner or later, they were going to be successful. What if they employed poisons? What if I slowly died out here and left Kitty Hawk all alone? What if a predator found her? What if she starved to death? It would be a mercy to…. “Gah!” With a vigorous shake of my head, I attempted to dislodge that line of thought from my brain. We were going to make it. We had to. Or at least she would. I would give my life to make sure that happened. “Look, Ember!” said Kitty Hawk, shattering my thoughts. She was practically bouncing on my back, pointing over my shoulder at a line of light colored hills in the distance. “The desert,” she squealed happily. “That’s the way we came from Equestria.”                  “You came through the desert?” I asked, studying the landscape off to our left with great interest. We were closer than I thought.              How far had we traveled last night?         “Yeah. We crossed through there. It was really hot, but there was a super nice desert pony who was with us.”         “There are ponies living in the desert?” I had always been told that the place was only inhabited by dark spirits. I had been planning to avoid the desert at all cost, but if there were ponies living there...                  Kitty Hawk was nodding enthusiastically. “Yeah! They live in these great big tents and move around a lot, but my dad gave one of the ponies some bits, and he lead us to the other end; I think we came out somewhere up ahead. Then we crossed the river and continued south.”         I watched the desert, thinking, calculating. Maybe….maybe they would accept payment from a diamond dog. The jewels in my pack are as valuable as any currency. I wonder… And a bird fell on my head. It was a crow, its small black body rigid in death. Yet there was no visible wounds. I stared at it in confusion, and then up to the sky as if it would generously give me the answer. A twinkle in the sunlight was only a momentary warning before another form crashed to earth just off to my left. This one was a hawk. “Ember!” shouted Kitty Hawk, pointing off to my right as yet another dead bird. And then another, and another. Dead birds rained down around us. I turned and ran from the death, straight to the river, seeking shelter under a tall tree. But even the tree was dying: its leaves were rapidly turning from green to red and gold. “Ember,” said Kitty Hawk, but this time in a painful whimper. I turned and looked at her. She was wilting before my eyes: the color and luster were draining from her fur and feathers. Patches of grey appeared across her white coat. She pulled her limbs in close and began to shiver despite the heat of the day. And then she was silent.         For a moment I thought she stopped breathing. I leaning in close, placing my ear right next to her lips. Only the faintest rasp could be heard as she drew breath, and even that sounded labored. “Kitty Hawk. Kitty Hawk!” I shouted, near panic. It was like she couldn’t even see me: her head lolling to one side, eyes staring off into the distance. Not knowing what else to do, I hugged her to my chest. I felt her tiny heart flutter inside her chest. The world darkened. A chill swept through me, biting through my fur and to my core. I exhaled, and watched in horror as the breath escaped in a cloud of vapor. Thin strands of frost spider-webbed their way across the ground. And then it ended: the light from the sun returned with a blazing intensity and a wave of welcomed heat. Kitty Hawk came alive with a sudden jerk. She gasped, desperately seeking to fill her lungs. Then a scream escaped from within her, a long, deafened cry. I hugged her closer, even as she thrashed wildly. “It’s ok, it’s ok,” I said. Instantly, she stopped struggling and went limp in my arms. Her scream was replaced with a terrible sob. “What happened?” “I don’t know,” she cried through her tears. “I just felt so...wrong, like everything was leaving.” “It’s ok, it’s ok,” I said, rubbing her back reassuringly. Looking up, I found an endless parade of dead things floating in the river. “Are you going to be ok?” I asked, turning to look back at Kitty Hawk. She sniffled, wiped away her tears with a hoof, and nodded. I gave her another hug for good measure. A large shadow passed over us. I turned my eyes skyward and gaped at the great black bird, or what looked like a bird. It lacked any sharp features, the body seamless and constantly shifting. I took note of a distinct lack of flapping from its wings. The bird in question circled us three times before landing a stone throw’s distance away. Now closer, I could see that its body was a writhing mass of black flames surrounding a semi-solid purple body. It looked at us, but it had no eyes to speak of. The bird kneeled in the dirt, and from its back slid a figure dressed in full armor. I instantly recognized him and growled. Scrap only looked back with a contemptuous grin on his face. “Ah, Ember, don’t be like that. I’ve only come to kill you and take your pony back to the capital.”