Ghost Lights
Chapter 17
We were both worn out and slept very restfully that night after our long training session. The next morning was less than pleasant for both of us. I had it easier, I think. There was some stiffness with soreness and aching, but nothing I couldn't handle.
Azure did a number on herself, though. She was in a lot of pain from sore overworked muscles. She slept in later than me, for once, and I could tell before she even got up that she wasn't in for a fun day. She turned repeatedly under her blanket, trying to get comfortable and not succeeding. This went on for a while. When she finally gave up and rolled out of bed, she winced and cringed as soon as her hooves hit the ground. She gritted her teeth and sucked in a deep breath, bracing herself for whatever came next.
Just watching that hurt me. I sympathized. In my time, I've overdone my share of workouts and paid for it. Most of those were probably not as bad as yesterday's, though, with the hours it had been drawn out over.
"You should probably try to lie down and take it easy for most of today," I told her.
"Hurts to lie down," she mumbled tiredly.
"Does it hurt as much as standing?" I asked.
"... No," she admitted. "Good point."
"Walking around and stretching out a little bit from time to time might help," I added. "But nothing too intense. Be careful. You're probably going to be pretty tight after a beating like that."
"Yeah, that's how I feel." Azure nodded. "It's mostly in my back. It hurts to bend it at all."
"Well, that's not surprising, muscles there play a big part in flight," I said. "You worked the heck out of some things you've probably never really used very much in your life before you had wings."
"Tell me about it," she responded miserably. "Took a lot of energy out of me, too. I'm starving. I need to go get some breakfast. You gonna be heading out today?"
"No, I don't think so," I answered. "I kinda feel like taking it easy myself. I'm pretty sure I can afford one day of downtime from doing scouting flights."
Azure nodded and slowly walked outside to forage for something to eat. I knew that at least that wouldn't be too much for her. Thanks to the wetness of the area there's a lot of grasses and other appetizing plants growing close enough to the wall that she wouldn't need to go far.
While she was gone I paced a little bit inside and stretched out my legs, my back, and my wings. I was pretty stiff myself and it felt good to loosen them up again.
I felt bad for Azure and wished I had something to help other than just telling her to take time resting. I rummaged through my things on my half of the barracks building and dug out the first aid kit I'd brought. I doubted it would have what I was looking for, because I didn't remember seeing anything that would probably be useful for this when I was packing, but it was worth checking just in case.
No, no luck. Bandages, antibiotic cream, medical tape, alcohol swabs... aloe and lidocaine gel for burns and scrapes... even some sunscreen and a can of insect repellant... no painkillers, though.
So what now?
I pondered and considered alternatives and realized after a moment that there was still a particular possibility I could try.
I headed outside and looked for Azure. I found her grazing on some soft young blades of grass not far away and I walked over. "You know, I think I'm gonna take a short flight after all," I told her. "Just to... check on something. You gonna be alright here for a little while alone?"
She nodded in acknowledgement, but didn't say anything, still chewing on grass.
"Okay. I'll be back in not too long." I jumped into the air and took off, heading northeast.
I flew for a couple of kilometers until I found a small stream running lazily along, down from the mountains and meandering in the path it had cut through the rocks and soil until it eventually fed into a lake a long distance away. I followed its course for a while, looking along the banks for trees, hoping to come across a particular one I thought the presence of plentiful water might allow to grow. I was pretty sure I remembered seeing at least one of the type I needed on a previous flight over this stream. Before too long I found it, with its distinctive thin and elongated spearhead-like leaves and a large trunk that sent powerful roots out to tap the liquid in the ground. It was a great old willow tree, with heavily figured thick bark, just the thing I was looking for.
I landed next to the tree, there on the stream's bank. It was massive and tall, ancient looking. I felt a sense of hesitation, a feeling like what I was about to do to something so dignified and venerable was insolent and shameful. Nonetheless, for Azure's sake I steeled myself and went ahead anyway.
"Sorry about this," I told the tree, "but if you could see the way my friend is feeling right now, I'm pretty sure you'd understand."
Feeling thoroughly silly with myself for apologizing to a tree, I turned to face away from it, reared up my hind legs, and bucked it with several hard kicks. It took a little bit of doing, not having that special kind of earth pony strength and talent for it, but I managed to get what I was after. Some chunks of bark tore loose, hanging on by thin shreds, and I was able to rip them off. After I had a sufficiently good-sized pile of bark fragments gathered up, being sure to take the wet, fresh, live material from the lower layers and not just the dry dead outer stuff, I flew back to the stone barracks building.
By the time I was back, Azure had finished eating and she was inside, laying down again and reading a book. There was a small table in the middle of the room, which I set the numerous pieces of bark down on.
Azure looked over from reading, regarding the tree bark a little strangely. "What do you have there?" she asked.
"Something I think might help," I said. "Willow tree bark. It might not be the best tasting thing, but if you chew on it, it--"
"Has natural aspirin in it!" Azure interrupted excitedly and finished my sentence with a grateful smile.
"Yeah." I nodded. "Exactly. Pain reliever and anti-inflammatory. It seemed like what you needed."
"Why didn't I think of willow bark? You're a genius!" Azure exclaimed. "I could kiss you."
"It's just something they taught us in scout training, and please don't," I said. "It's really not necessary."
"Yeah, yeah, just a figure of speech," Azure said, dismissing the notion. "But seriously, thanks." With that, she levitated a piece over to herself and looked at it, a little hesitant at first. After a second she stuck it in her mouth, bit down on it, and began to chew it. After seemingly deciding that it wasn't too terrible a taste to bear, she returned to reading again.
The book Azure was reading from was the one with the black cover not marked outside with a title. She seemed very interested in particular sections of it, having left four or five different bookmarks sticking out of its pages at various points. Once again, curiosity about this book pulled at me. When somepony is reading something that seems interesting, there's always that sort of temptation to ask them what it is. However, I've realized it's probably the wrong impulse most of the time, because when considered from their point of view, if it's interesting enough for reading it to be the most important thing to them at that moment, somepony else coming along and distracting them with questions about it is most likely an unwanted interruption. Besides, what I could gather was that this was a book on magic, very advanced magic, a subject I don't have even a beginner's understanding of, so I doubted it would mean much of anything to me.
For these reasons, I left Azure alone for the time being to enjoy her book and her willow bark. Not exactly feeling in top shape myself and with nothing much else I planned on accomplishing, I laid back down on my bed to try to rest and continue recovering. There was soft rain falling outside now, and the gentle sound of the drops formed a soothing background that lulled me into shutting my eyes.
I napped on and off for about an hour, drifting back and forth over that line between mostly asleep and half-awake, until finally I wasn't very tired anymore. I got up, then twisted and arched my back and stretched, loosening myself up again. I felt very pleasantly refreshed.
Azure was still reading. While I'd slept, she'd chewed on more of the willow bark.
"Is that stuff helping?" I asked. "Do you feel any better?"
"I do!" Azure nodded. "It's great. I mean, I'm not great, yet, but... you know. Less in pain."
"The soreness should go away after a couple days," I said.
"Do all pegasi go through this to learn to fly?" Azure asked.
"No. Just the silly ones who don't know when enough is enough," I said with a slight smile forming.
"Worth it," Azure responded defiantly. "Captain Dash says pain is just weakness leaving the body."
"Right." I rolled my eyes. "That sounds like her, but I'm not sure it's the advice you wanna be taking before you're ever even off the ground. The fact is that learning to fly isn't the safest thing in the world. I don't want to scare you or anything, but not every pegasus makes it. Most do, but... there's always that chance that something could happen. It's the ones who push themselves too far too fast who have accidents."
"Well, there's a risk in anything you ever do, that's just life," Azure said. "Besides, I'm not a foal, I'm not going to do stupid things."
"I know," I responded. "You're older, and more mature judgment is a plus, but at the same time, age is part of what I'm worried about. Not being a foal also works against you because foals are lighter and more resilient. They don't break things as easily when they do make a mistake. There's a reason we start early."
"It would be ideal, but I don't have that luxury."
"No, you don't." I shook my head. "Still, there's no reason to rush more than you should. It's never too late and we can work with the situation we've got, but not until you're back to one hundred percent again. I'm not going to let you get hurt, especially not out here in the middle of nowhere."
"You're right," Azure said. "I guess I just... well, I mean, with Captain Dash being Princess Twilight's partner for so long, she's been the biggest pegasus role model I really ever had, and I guess I just kinda admire her attitude, you know?"
"It's understandable. Keep in mind, though, she was an Advanced Combat Flier. Those pegasi are kinda... a little bit crazy, so they say. There are stories."
"Heh. And Dash said unicorns are the crazy ones," Azure mused.
"We're all special snowflakes of crazy in our own ways," I said, and laughed a little bit. "I don't speculate on who has it worse."
"Well, my money says Dash is right," Azure mumbled. "Unicorns are all nuts."
The comment surprised me. "What? Why would you say that?" I asked.
"... Nevermind," Azure said very quietly, turning away from me and focusing again on her book.
I left her alone and didn't follow up on it. I picked up the journal laying near my bed and wrote in it for a while, recording the recent events and putting down some of my thoughts about them.
After I'd written as much as I wanted to for the time being, I noticed that the sound of rain had subsided outside. I hadn't eaten yet that day, so I decided it would be a good time to put away the book and take a walk to find some lunch. A couple days ago in a wind-sheltered area I'd found a small patch of some clovers that had grown in thick with a pleasant lemony flavor in their leaves, and bloomed with small, tasty, slightly sweet flowers. Around here, that was a nice treat. I was pretty sure there were still some left and thinking about that made me hungry. I thought I'd bring some back for Azure, too, to make things easier for her.
I started to set out, walking towards the door.
"Hey, Sunburst?" Azure's voice called to me as I was leaving, just before I got outside.
"Yeah?" I stopped and waited.
"That willow bark was a great idea. It really works," Azure said. She paused and her next words were hesitant and soft. "So, uh... I just wanted to say... thanks for taking care of me."
"Well, of course," I replied and smiled back at her. "All we've got out here is each other. If I didn't help you, who would?"