When the cockatrice left, Derpy started to breath again. She cautiously stuck her head out of the bush and looked towards the direction where the cockatrice went. It was gone. Probably nearby, but still gone. She made an attempt to stand up and get out of the bush, which ended with Derpy landing on the ground outside the bush gasping in pain. Finally, she looked at the timberwolf. It was still laying down in a lax pose, but it was looking at Derpy in a curious fashion.
"You don't see many pegasi in here, do you?" Derpy couldn't help but ask. The timberwolf only continued to stare. It probably didn't speak pony. After another moment of awkward staring, the timberwolf finally stood and walked closer to the bush.
"So..." Derpy started, "now what?" Derpy wasn't quite sure what to do next, and the timberwolf probably had the same feeling.
"Please tell me that you have some idea of what--Woah!" Derpy was interrupted by the timberwolf sticking it's head under Derpy and heaving her over it shoulders. Admittedly, it was not entirely comfortable to be on the back of a creature made of many sharp pieces of wood. Derpy groaned and rolled into a more comfortable position on top of the timberwolf.
Then, the timberwolf began walking.
Derpy didn't know where it was walking to, but she assumed it had a good idea of what it was doing. Hopefully. After a long period of time, Derpy broke the silence.
"Are you a male timberwolf or a female timberwolf?" The timberwolf stopped for a moment, but then continued walking.
"Do you even understand pony?" The timberwolf continued to ignore Derpy.
"I'm essentially just talking to myself here, aren't I?" No response.
"Okay. If you understand what I'm saying, growl." The timberwolf actually started to move slightly faster at this, like it wanted to get this over with as fast as possible.
"Am I annoying you?" The timberwolf actually growled at this. Derpy didn't take a hint.
"And now you growl. And here I was thinking that you didn't speak pony. Or maybe you're just growling because I'm annoying you." The timberwolf kept silent.
"You need a name. I'm done calling you 'that timberwolf.' So... how about I call you Timber?" The timberwolf didn't respond, which led Derpy to believe it had no objections. "All right. Timber it is."
After another ten minutes of walking in silence, Derpy gave an apologetic sigh. "Thank you. For helping me." Timber stopped walking and stood still.
"If you didn't come to rescue me, I'd be dead. I don't care that you don't understand me. I don't care that you're probably-"
Derpy never finished that sentence, for she was interrupted by barking. The barking of other timberwolves. Ones that probably weren't nice. Derpy remained silent as she started to hold her breath again. Timber looked around to see if it could find the source. Although she couldn't tell where the noise was coming from, she could hear it getting closer. The barking came to a sudden stop.
"Is it-" Derpy was interrupted by Timber growling in an attempt to keep her quiet. Everything that happened next happened in an instant.
First, the barking started again, except that it couldn't be more than a few meters away. Next, a rustling in a bush behind Derpy indicated that the other timberwolves were moving towards them. Lastly, Timber started running at breakneck speeds in the opposite direction of the bush.
The sudden speed nearly caused Derpy to fall, but she managed to latch onto Timber with both hooves just in time. Barely. Although her good foreleg held on pretty well, her injured one barely held on at all, and certainly wouldn't keep her from falling off all on it's own. It started hurting way worse, but Derpy ignored the pain and looked behind her. There were a lot of timberwolves chasing them. Derpy counted eight.
Derpy brought her attention back to Timber. It was moving fast. Real fast. It seemed determined. Determined to get away. Derpy then pulled her left eye away from Timber to look in front of her to see what was up ahead. A rather large and thorny bush was. Derpy flinched and prepared to go through it when Timber jumped over the bush, evading it completely as if it was a small stone. Derpy heard a yelp from one of the timberwolves as it crashed into the bush head on. Although they were now lagging behind, the timberwolves were still chasing. Derpy gave a soft whimper and closed her eyes while taking deep breaths.
She felt a jolt go through her body as Timber jumped over... something again. She heard a splash nearby, indicating that a timberwolf probably fell in a river. That was probably what Timber jumped over. She could hear their barking getting closer as the timberwolves began to gain on Timber. She felt another lurch as Timber changed directions. Derpy finally risked a peak behind her. Six timberwolves. She didn't argue with the fact that two were missing. They probably lost one at the bush and one at the stream. If only Timber could lose the rest of them, things would be much-
Her thoughts were interrupted by Timber tripping over an unseen branch and rolling across the ground. Everything was a daze as Derpy was thrown off it's back by the sudden change of momentum. Stunned, Derpy once again expected to see a bloodthirsty timberwolf looming over her, getting ready for the kill. Instead, she saw all six timberwolves looming over Timber, who was in the process of reforming it's leg, which must have broken when Timber tripped. Derpy's mind raced for a solution to why they weren't trying to kill her. Maybe they weren't hungry? Maybe they wanted to try out cannibalism? Maybe they-
Derpy mentally slapped herself for her ridiculous train of thoughts. Although she didn't know why, the timberwolves were after Timber, not Derpy. But that was not what mattered at the moment. What mattered was that Timber was in danger and she could save it.
"Hey!" She shouted at the top of her lungs. All timberwolf eyes, including Timber's, were on Derpy. "Leave Timber alone!" Derpy then, clumsily, but somehow successfully, stood up. Although standing up with a broken foreleg was hard, it was not impossible. Although it was impossible to put any pressure on it at all. She ended up leaning to the side slightly in her effort to avoid touching the ground with her hoof. She leaned over and took hold of a large broken branch that was laying on the ground with her jaws. She scowled as threateningly as one could with a broken leg, wing, and a lazy eye. Only one of the timberwolves seemed swayed by her unintimidating glare. But even that one started to walk towards Derpy in annoyance and anger for distracting them. They all growled as they prepared to charge.
But they were promptly interrupted by the sound of somepony triumphantly clanking metal.