//------------------------------// // The Future // Story: The Eastern Campaigns // by Lord of Naught //------------------------------// Chapter 2: The Future --- Black Thunder took a sip of the drink, grimaced, then took another one anyway as the final memories of what happened rushed through: He had departed the Hall of Winds unchallenged and made his way to the nearest bank. There he had withdrawn a small amount of money from his account, and went thence to the nearest barracks. After formally going through the process of resignation, and asking that the severance pay be sent to the Sleipnir temple where he’d met Golden Brand, he finally departed the capital. He ended up spending the night in a nearby forest as there were no clouds to sleep on or enough moisture to make a decent sized one, and he had no wish to spend money at an inn. He had been sleeping on the strongest looking branch of a tree he could find, and praying that his species’ tendency to live in the sky and dance with the clouds would give him some protection from the cold. At some point during the night he thought he felt something warm being placed over him, but he drifted back to sleep. In the morning he found a single, storm cloud blue feather with a hawthorn leaf charm in autumnal colors strung to it by a chain of some milky white metal. The former he reverently stowed in a pouch within his cloak, and the charm he hung about his neck. From there he had wandered his way aimlessly down the ancient roads until he came upon the no-name town the Red Diamond guild operated out of, and signed up promptly. Pay was by commission (after the guild expenses skimmed off a hefty cut), the co-workers were mostly unsavory, and the quarters were worse than anything he’d had to put up with back in the military. There wasn’t even a forge he could access to make better equipment for himself and the rest of the guild. But at least the room and board was free, and the guild did get a decent enough amount of work despite rumors about it. At least that’s how it had been for a few weeks, but work had dried up as of late, and now there was nothing to do but sit around and hope for a job. So naturally when the door opened and a peach and blonde unicorn stallion walked in, one who was dressed as only a wealthy merchant could be, everyone sprang to their hooves instantly, trying to look their best. The merchant looked about, noticing the casual demeanor of everyone in the room, mixing with the desperate looks they were all giving him. He frowned for a moment before raising a hoof and asking, “This is the home of the Red Diamond Guild, correct?” The barkeep nodded, saying nothing. “Good. I am the leader of a trade caravan currently headed to Philemos. As I’m sure you all know, being mercenaries and what not, that the road there has a bad reputation for being a common hunting ground of bandits. I and my caravan are in need of protection.” There was a scramble as the mercenaries rushed to display their various weapons and armor, trying to show they were more than capable of defending traders against bandits. All but Black Thunder, who just chuckled quietly and managed a sip of his drink. A simple guarding job didn’t usually pay too much, and the merchant looked like he’d go for quantity over quality. The stallion trotted over to the closest member and, without a word, looked him dead in the eyes. The young colt leaned back slightly in surprise, disconcerted by the sudden attention. The merchant turned away and did the same with another member, this time muttering as he moved on. Black Thunder quirked an eyebrow but kept quiet, thinking it was none of his business what the merchant went for, but silently praising him for reviewing his choices. A door upstairs opened, and an obese griffon poked his head out of the office. “Oy,” he shouted in a mockery of the Itallion tongue, “what the ‘ells’ goin’ on down there? Why’s it gone quiet? You lot better not be slakin’… oh.” The guildmaster waddled out of his office, rolls of fat jiggling with every step. “A client? Good afternoon sir, I be Red Diamond, master of ‘dis ‘ere guild.” The stairs creaked ominously as he made his ponderous way down them and went to shake the merchant’s hoof with his own greasy talon. “‘Ow can me ‘an me boys be of service to a gentlestallion such as yourself?” The merchant was speechless. He looked down at his peach hoof wrapped in the meaty grip of the talon, and then at the rest of the griffon’s appearance. His ears had turned backwards to try and avoid hearing the voice any longer. His face still peeled back in shock, he asked, “Are you cockney?” The griffon blinked, pausing for a moment. “Yeh?” he replied, almost sounding unsure of his answer. “What about it?” “Ahem...” The merchant stole back his hoof. “It’s nothing, I was just surprised to find someone of your… variety in a place like Roam.” He turned away with a small twirl. “Anyway… I am here for some protection for my trade caravan. I’ve already taken a good look at everyone here…” Everyone in the room suddenly felt a little more awkward. “and have found none up to the task. Do you have anyone with a fair amount of experience?” “Well,” said Red Diamond as he started sweating nervously, “they’re all pretty talented, I think.” “And I appreciate that, but I mean someone with a fair amount of experience. Somepony - or griffon - who knows how to defend from multiple skilled combatants at once, who can react quickly during a sudden twist of events. Do you not have someone like that...?” Red Diamond was looking worried now. His eyes darted about the hopeful faces filling the room. “W-... well…” The merchant strolled away to a particular side of the room. “I mean, I could always just take a random mercenary off your talons, if you would prefer?” He looked at the pegasus sitting alone at his table, staring into his fried drink. A few moments passed. “This one will do… for instance.” Said pegasus looked up from his drink in surprise, and then slowly unfolded himself from the seat, causing everyone but the bartender, who just snorted and went on cleaning a mug, and the merchant himself to take a few steps back. “Me, sir?” Black Thunder asked with a head tilt. “Why pick me out of so many others?” “Why indeed?” the merchant replied, his amber eyes still transfixed on the pegasus’ own. They looked violent. He turned back to Red Diamond. “At any rate, this one here is my choice.” he brought out a bag of gold bits and plopped it in the griffon’s talon. He then patted his side, beckoning Black Thunder to follow him, which the pegasus did after gathering up his meagre equipment from the table. “A pleasure doing business with you!” he exclaimed as he made for the door. “W-wait a second!” Red Diamond cried. “A-are you sure about this? About that guy?” “I’m always sure of my choices,” the merchant replied, giving the griffon one last look before he and Black Thunder exited the tavern, closing the door behind them. Red Diamond slowly looked down at the sack he had been given. It felt weighty, and sure enough as he opened it, it was full of golden bits. His eyes went wide at the sight. “How much is one damned pony worth?” Black Thunder glanced back at The Greasy Spoon as its front door closed with a creaking thud, wishing to himself with a shallow hope that he would never have to see the disgusting excuse for a tavern again. The wealthy merchant looked as though he felt the same way, giving a small kick as he set off away from it. While The Greasy Spoon was indeed worthy of such ire from the two, the rest of the town wasn’t much better - it consisted mainly of small, old wooden homes and buildings that might have once been charming, but now looked nary a few steps away from falling down. The place was well on its way to becoming a jumbled up slum of broken walls and makeshift rooftops. And, rather fittingly, the most expensive thing to be seen was at its inhabitants’ hooves and claws; the Imperial-maintained cobble path running down its lonely main street. “A dirty little place, this,” said the merchant, looking around at the old, worn buildings. “Not a modicum of self-worth or expression to be seen.” His winged companion just shrugged, replying, “It’s just a little wayside place on the road to be sure, but the ponies and griffons here are good folk. The odd traveler needing a few hours rest and a resupply can get it here before continuing on to the crossroads.”  Black Thunder pointed with a wing to one of the assorted rooming houses that made up most of the town; a cheap place that was doing its best to look welcoming past its deteriorating facade, and with the other wing a meagre shop that sold the bare essentials for long travel, as required by Imperial mandate. “Gelfan may be small, but it has some measure of pride. It’s the only way to keep our spirits up between being a source of ‘road taxes’ for the odd wandering soldier and target of a bandit attack.” “Hmm, true, true. Perhaps it does have one or two redeeming qualities to it.” The unicorn ducked to the ground all of a sudden, his eyes locking onto one of the small stones that made up the road. “This road is one of them. Such lovely stones they chose for it, I really can’t get enough of cobblestone roads!” He bent back up and caught the pegasus giving him an odd look. “How about you, stranger?” “What about me, sir?” The merchant glanced between his new friend and the road a couple of times. Again, he ducked down, though with a slightly less manic expression on his face this time. He tapped a hoof against one of the round stones. “I like this road. So many stones, all different shapes and sizes and all of them slightly different colours. Individuals, if one were to look at it from a certain angle.” He rose. “I find that animate individuals are the same- ah, that is, actual people. Not rocks. Although even that is up for debate in some circles.” Black Thunder muttered something under his breath that sounded like, “Unicorni,” rolling his eyes heavenward briefly. “If you say so sir,” he responded in Itallion again. The unicorn stopped and looked back at his chosen warrior, who flinched as if expecting a reproach. “What I’m trying to get around to asking you is… what is your name, stranger?” “Thunder, Black Thunder,” the pegasus responded warily. “Just another sell-sword of little consequence.” The merchant smiled for a moment. “‘Black Thunder’,” he repeated, as if playing with the words in his mouth. “What an interesting name.” The pegasus quirked an eyebrow again. “Pardon? Why so?” “Well, it’s an interesting name, is all. ‘Black’ means ‘deep’ while ‘Thunder’ commonly refers to chaos and a rapid lifestyle. And if I remember correctly, the two together mean ‘Swift Death’... a Transylvanian combination, I believe. Am I correct?” asked the merchant, puffing out his chest with child-like pride and an eager look on his face. “Well,” Black Thunder began, shifting his cloak unconsciously, “essentially, yes. My father is of an old family from Andreal, the Whitemanes I think. He did tell me something to that effect once, so I suppose you are correct.” “Haha, marvelous! I am somewhat enthusiastic when it comes to names, call it a hobby if you will. Yours is quite a name, and that alone coupled with something like ‘Whitemane’? It sounds to me like we’ll be getting along grandly!” The merchant suddenly clocked himself on the forehead. “Oh, all this talk about names and people and yet I haven’t even told you my own! Dandy Sight is my name.” Black Thunder’s eye twitched at that name, though he had no idea why. “An honor sir. Again, thank you for hiring me, the Red Diamond guild needs good patronage.” Dandy nodded. “As I noticed. Not a single one of those so-called mercenaries had that… look in their eyes. They’d never seen battle, or known pain…” His eyes slowly settled on Thunder’s own. “Unlike you, my friend, though I will leave your past out of this if need be. You are only here for a single to-and-from mission, after all.” “Hm, to be fair,” Black Thunder responded, “they’ve all seen some form of violence. Be it in the form of a bar fight or the occasional duel, or even some bandit raids. It’s just that our guild master tends to be… how do I put this politely… a skimmer and a cheat.” Dandy Sight nodded in agreement. “And one can only wonder how he managed to get an accent like cockney into a language like Itallion.” Black Thunder found himself doing a double-take at the words that had just fallen out of Dandy’s mouth. They quickly drifted from his mind, however, as something told him to ignore them for his own good. “We’re just some nigh-nameless backwater guild that takes what we can, in both jobs and members,” Black Thunder continued. “Hence the number of greenhorns. Those of us actually ‘lucky’ to get onto a bandit fighting job almost always end up dead, and Red Diamond keeps the whole profit.” Sight shook his head, scowling. “Shameful. Odd, too, I never noticed such a motivation in his eyes. Then again, Griffons have always been a bit more difficult for me to figure out…” Something came to Thunder’s mind. “You’re clearly a wealthy merchant, Mr. Sight. Am I the only one to be guarding you?” he asked. “I imagine you have a sizable stash of money and merchandise in your caravan, but on my own I’m not enough to defend it from an equally sizable horde of bandits. I’m not that good, no matter what you think of me. Why didn’t you hire more members?” “Indeed. Certainly a fair question. Fear not, my associates and I are all somewhat capable,” Dandy replied as the pair reached the edge of Gelfan, passing through the wall of sharpened tree trunks that served to defend the town. “As for why I only picked you…” He shrugged. “I felt that you were the best choice for this journey. As you mentioned, the rest are greenhorns and I have no need of meat shields.” The two left Gelfan and Dandy Sight’s favourite road turned into a dirt path almost immediately. Flat plains of grass stretched on as far as the eye could see, save for a few mountains in the distance and forests to the west. Before those, thankfully, stood Dandy Sight’s caravan. It was a fancy thing, made of strong-looking wood lined with gold, with large, metal wheels of griffon design. The caravan was made up of three connected carriages, at the front of which sat a pair of aurochs, resting near the harnesses and playing chess. Several ponies of all kinds and the odd griffon walked around the camp inspecting crates and doing other odd jobs. Black Thunder took all of this in and nodded in appreciation - a healthy sized private caravan by all rights. Dandy Sight patted Black Thunder on the shoulder before trotting ahead. “Come along, I’d like you to meet my merry band of associates.” Dandy pointed to a griffon busy loading crates of merchandise onto the middle of the caravan. He looked to be well-built, even for his kind, with a pallid grey coat of fur and golden feathers. “Ostlo Marble. A very perceptive Griffon I happened across in Mexicolt. He was the first member of my crew, and he’s understandably loyal to a tee.” “Mexicolt,” Black Thunder said as he quirked an eyebrow. “That’s a long way from here, very long.” “Indeed it is. Not the furthest my family has travelled, mind you.” Dandy then pointed to the pair of unicorn mares sitting at the front of the train, the reigns of the two aurochs resting on their respective laps. They were both reddish-brown of coat with long, dark-grey manes. “Turban Right and Turban Left, two sisters I picked up on a trip to Izraiule. Relatable and positive, very devout followers of Sleipnir, mind you. Don’t bring up religion unless you have a couple of hours to spare. One for each of them, of course.” Black Thunder again nodded appreciatively. The folk of Izraiule were among the toughest of the tough in the Old World, having been fighting off hostile neighbors for centuries. The fact they were Sleipnirians didn’t hurt matters either, as some of Izraiule’s greatest heroes had bore the Great Horse’s mark. As Dandy went through the rest of his crew, the total coming to eight, plus him and Black Thunder, the pegasus noticed an odd pony walking towards them from town. Quickly, he moved into the pony’s path and dropped into an odd relaxed crouch, his left wing wrapped about his blade’s hilt under his cloak. “Stay where you are and identify yourself,” he called out. The pony was a unicorn with a dark, forest-green coat and a mane of brown, mixed in with a lighter shade of green. The clothes he wore were what made him odd; a brown, wide-brimmed hat, similar to a cowcolt, and a trenchcoat of the same colour going down to the tops of his hooves. The stallion stared daggers at Black Thunder with blue eyes, occasionally glancing to the caravan and its owner. “I said identify yourself, unless you can’t speak!” The unicorn saw the look on Dandy Sight’s face and let out a chuckle through the blue bandana covering his mouth. “Replaced me already, Dandy?” he asked. Again the pegasus’ eye twitched. “Haha, you can stand down now, Black Thunder,” said Dandy, lounging back against the side of the front car. “This is my other ace, so to speak. He’s been with me for almost a week now.” “Silent Woods.” The cowcolt bowed, coming to a stop before the pegasus. Slowly, Thunder relaxed his stance and nodded in return. “Black Thunder. Sorry about the challenge, but I hadn’t been told about you, and you look rather out of place. Sound it too from your accent. Where are you from?” “Englade,” Silent Woods replied. “I’m a Bounty Hunter, currently taking a few days off to protect this silly fool.” He motioned to Dandy, who had vanished into the caravan. The merchant reappeared again and tossed a coin to him. “Have a gold piece for not abandoning me to die yesterday!” “He gives his money away like candy,” Silent continued, pocketing the bit with a smile all the same. Thunder had to chuckle at that, shaking his head. “If he’s like that, I feel sorry I’m just doing a one time job with him,” he commented as he sat himself on a nearby crate. “Sleipnir knows I could do with a decent pay, I need to buy a house, or at least a forge. This guild-issue armor is little more than glorified tin.” He rapped a hoof against his cuirass to demonstrate, producing a hollow clanking sound. “Cheap crap. I’ll be lucky if it stops a mundane arrow, let alone a spell or sword.” Silent Woods glanced at the armor, if it could even be called such, and nodded. “I’m guessing that you’re the mercenary Dandy went to the Red Diamond guild for, am I right?” he asked. “The same,” the pegasus replied with a nod. “A real diamond in the rough, or so Mr. Sight seems to think.” He gave a shrug. “Really, any of them would have done. At any rate…” Something clicked in his mind. “Hang on a moment. You speak my tongue beautifully for an outlander, so I know it can’t have been a mistake. Did I hear you say he came specifically for me?” The unicorn smirked in response. “In a way, yes. He has… a way with sussing your kind out. Maybe you’ll see why during the trip, maybe not.” The grey pegasus turned to look at his employer with a frown, his wing unconsciously straying towards the hilt of his gladius again. “Yes… yes, I suppose we will.” And perhaps, Black Thunder thought, I’ll learn how you found out about me.