“You must hold still,” Chert said as he pushed the long metal needle through two flaps of skin and then drew the thread through them. Reaching out with one hand, he placed it upon Garlic’s back and tried to reassure the twitching earth pony.
“I think he still has combat nerves,” Fogwalker said as she stood guard near the crackling fire they had started. She glanced around, taking note of the quiet, and watched as Sunrise Surprise added another piece of dead wood to the fire.
“The other wounds have stopped bleeding and have scabbed over just as I said they would,” Chert said as he once more pushed the needle through. Chert heard Garlic hiss as he pulled the thread through the flaps of skin he was sewing together.
By the fire, seated upon the forest loam, Sunrise Surprise adjusted her glasses and then looked at Fogwalker. She took a deep breath, started to say something, failed, and then cleared her throat. After a small whine escaped, she said, “I completely froze up back there. I was terrified.”
Fogwalker snorted and tossed her head back. “That’s what civilians do. You haven’t had extensive combat training. Your response was normal. In time, you’ll learn to react. Meanwhile, you have us to protect you.”
Grunting, Garlic’s ears perked as he jerked his head around to look off towards the woods to his left. “Be… mindful… of… timberwolves.” He turned his head and looked into the woods on his right. Letting out a whinny, Garlic turned his head to look at Chert. “That was some kind of shooting. How did you get so good?”
Chert minded his careful stitching. He paused his work for a moment, looked up at Garlic, and then he said, “My tribe had to defend themselves from large predatory birds called rocs. They are swift flyers, they have thick hides, and stiff feathers. They have weak spots, the eyes, under their wings, a small downy place where their hind legs protrude, and these weak spots are hard to hit. You either learn to shoot or you die. I was young when I killed my first roc.”
“How did you kill it?” Garlic asked.
As Chert continued his stitching, he replied, “With a sling. My first shot missed. My second shot struck it in the eye.”
Throwing another log onto the fire with her magic, Sunrise Surprise looked over at Chert. “It sounds as though your species evolved natural aim.”
Pausing his work once more, Chert shrugged for a moment. “I have no idea what that means.”
Sighing, Sunrise Surprise fluttered her wings. “Never mind. It isn’t important now. I’ll give you a book about it later. Just keep stitching.” The alicorn stared down at the now roaring fire, unaware that it was reflected on the lenses of her glasses and giving her a somewhat ominous appearance.
“Almost done,” Chert said as he secured one more stitch.
Overhead was a million stars and for a brief moment, Sunrise Surprise felt a sense of worry that she might fall off of the earth and tumble into the endless expanse of stars. It took a moment, but the feeling of vertigo passed. To her right, the fire crackled and popped, it was warm on her hide. On her left, the cool night air settled into her pelt. She turned her head to look at her wings, a small soft sigh escaping as she did so.
She could fly. It was possible. With time perhaps. The very idea was terrifying however. To be up there with the clouds in the endless expanse of sky. Right now, just going up too many stairs was enough to cause problems, but wings held the promise of flight.
“You should be getting some sleep.”
Chert’s voice was full of worry. Whipping her head around, Sunrise’s glasses almost slid off her nasal bridge. Chert was standing guard a short distance away, taking first watch now that the sun was down.
“Princess, really, you should be getting some sleep,” Chert insisted.
Knowing that she could talk to Chert about almost anything, Sunrise allowed herself to speak her mind to her companion. “I can’t stop thinking about what happened today. How can I be a princess if I just freeze up at the first sign of trouble? What if I had to protect my subjects?”
Chert’s expression changed, but Sunrise didn’t know what he was feeling or how to read his face in its current contorted state. Sunrise huffed, scooted a little closer to the fire, and felt her muscles all twitch when she heard what was sure to be an owl in the distance.
A tightness in Sunrise’s barrel appeared, the first sign that tears might be coming. She took a deep breath. “I’m so afraid Chert. Garlic got hurt… I feel like it might be my fault. If I had used my magic, I might have protected him somehow. But I am terrible at magic.”
Nearby, Garlic snorted. Fogwalker was using his neck as a pillow and the pair were pressed together. Looking at them made Sunrise feel an aching feeling of longing, the sense that something was missing in her own life.
“Sunrise… you are being too hard upon your self. Garlic’s job is to prevent you from getting hurt and today, he did his job. In time—”
Unable to help herself, Sunrise interrupted Chert, feeling rather guilty about it as she did so. “Don’t speak to me about time. What if there isn’t time? What if Garlic had been killed today while I stood there trying not to widdle myself? We’re not promised time. I may not have time to get myself together and learn as I go.”
Her companion’s expression changed once more. Anger? Sunrise wasn’t sure. His face was… different from her own. She saw Chert raise his hand and point his finger at her.
“Look, I cannot allow you to do anything foolish. If you get the bright idea to go charging off into battle and you get yourself hurt, I will be most upset with you. When trouble happens it is your place to stand near my side where I can cut down our foes before they reach you,” Chert said.
“Chert, that is the problem! You three have to defend me. You three have to protect me. I can’t seem to do anything for myself… I just get to stand there and watch as you three scramble to save me because I am useless.” As the first tear fell, she took off her glasses and Sunrise swiped at her face with her wing, the feathers that brushed over her nose almost causing her to sneeze as she did so.
Watching as Chert approached, Sunrise Surprise saw him kneel down and lay upon the ground with her. She felt a gentle tug upon one ear and then a hand with long slender fingers was placed beneath her chin. She felt her head lifted and she looked into Chert’s eyes. They were green with little flecks of gold them and they glittered in the firelight. She saw Chert’s fingers in her vision, and then felt her mane being lifted away from her face.
“What are you doing Chert?” she asked.
There was no reply. Just two arms around her neck and then she felt her head being cradled against Chert’s chest. One of Chert’s hands was stroking her neck. Very much against her will, Sunrise Surprise felt herself calming down. She drew in one deep shuddering breath and then released it a few tiny huffs at a time, some of them slipping out as little squeaks.
With her ear against Chert’s chest, Sunrise could hear his heart beating. She relaxed a little, allowing her head to rest in Chert’s attentive embrace, and then tried to think of something to say. The silence was too uncomfortable to allow to continue.
The night no longer felt so scary. The hooting of owls and the sounds of critters in the trees no longer seemed so frightening. Sunrise Surprise felt a strange new feeling that she couldn’t identify. The silence no longer seemed so bad. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
As the stars twinkled overhead and the moon continued its endless trek across the night sky, Sunrise Surprise slipped off into slumber.
The road through the Skunk Tail Woods was dry and dusty. The morning was cloudy, the sky dark. The weather here was wild and uncontrolled. Fogwalker led the way with Garlic half a length behind her. Chert and Sunrise walked side by side. It had been a quiet uneventful morning so far. The only excitement worth nothing had been a family of skunks that had crossed the road.
As the companions continued, they saw many things. Webbing in the trees; evidence of giant spiders that lived in the woods. The birds flitted about; a good sign that there was no trouble lurking. As nice as the day appeared to be, nopony let their guard down. Idyllic moments had a way of lulling one into a false sense of security, both Garlic and Fogwalker had been trained to be extra wary during such times.
Silent, saying nothing, Sunrise Surprise thought of little else but her failure as she walked.
It was the middle of the afternoon when the rain began to fall. It started with a pleasant sprinkle. After a while, it turned into driving rain. About an hour of slogging through the mud, the rain turned into a torrential downpour.
It became difficult to even see, much less continue forward. The road became a bog that threatened to swallow them. It was easy to sink down to a half a leg deep and difficult to pull out. Chert was having to pull and tug on Sunrise to keep her from becoming stuck.
The pleasant trip had become a miserable experience.
“We need to take shelter from the storm. I have a feeling it is going to get worse,” Fogwalker said. As if to emphasise her words, lightning flashed and then thunder crackled.
“Where do we go?” Garlic asked.
Her eyes completely covered by her sopping mane, Fogwalker replied, “I have no idea.”
Knowing that Sunrise was going to be angry with him, Chert decided it was time to say something about her struggle. “Sunrise isn’t strong enough to keep going to through the mud.”
“Put her on my back,” Garlic said.
Mortified, Sunrise tried to glare at her companions, but found that she could not see them through her water covered glasses. “No! I’m muddy!”
Speaking with a patient voice, Garlic said, “The rain will wash the mud away.”
“No!” Sunrise was soaked, miserable, and exhausted, but she had her pride. The sting of being completely useless in a crisis was now compounded by completely useless in bad weather. Unable to stop it, a whimper escaped her lips.
“Wait, stay right here… I see something just off the road, I’m going to see what it is,” Fogwalker said. When she was done speaking, she spread her wings, flapped a few times, kicked her way free of the mud, and took to the air.
Sunrise watched as Fogwalker flew overhead and then a short distance away, weaving in and out between the trees. “She stayed in the mud with us. She could have flown overhead and saved herself from the horrid muck.”
Always a stoic, Garlic stood in the drenching rain and looked at Sunrise. He stuck out his lower lip, allowed it to fill with water, and then had himself a cold refreshing drink. He snorted water from his nostrils and then shook his head. “Pegasi are loyal.” He paused, thought about his own words, gave himself another shake, and then said, “I have a loyal wife.”
“I can see Fogwalker… sort of. There is some kind of dark shape in the little clearing off of the road in between the trees,” Chert said as he peered over at Fogwalker. “It looks as though a tree fell over on it on something, whatever it is.”
As Chert was watching, Fogwalker came streaking back to the group.
“I found a travel wagon! One wheel is broken, and the roof is damaged from a tree that fell upon it, but if Sunrise can use her magic to fix it, we’ll have a place to take shelter,” Fogwalker reported.
Lifting her head high, Sunrise Surprise realised she had a chance to redeem herself by helping her companions. “I can try!”