//------------------------------//
// Ole! 
// Story: Azure Flame 
// by Silver Page 
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It was another warm day out in the countryside of Toro, the towering edifices that were the Crookback Mountains providing a little shade for the figure who was walking around a small stream, gathering firewood. The figure was a tall, bipedal, muscular being, with tiny little hooved feet that seemed too small for their larger upper body. This particular being, a Minotaur, was about to get her world thrown upside down.
“Stupid old bull… ‘Go get the firewood, Dixie!’ ‘Don’t spend all your money at the bar, Dixie!’ ‘Stop poking that bear with a stick, Dixie!’ I wish something could just, I don’t know, happen!” With a frustrated groan, the female Minotaur swung her axe, splitting a hefty log in two.
“I thought Rangers were supposed to go out and do things, like solving problems and hunting wayward zombies, not sit on our flanks and wait for problems to come to us!” She sighed, shaking her head.	“Well, I can at least join the Logger’s Guild with my new-found wood chopping skills if this doesn’t pan out.”
“Uunnghh…” Off in the distance, and carried by the wind, a low groaning reached Dixie’s ears, causing them to twitch. She looked up, mid swing, confused. She’d heard something, something she’d only heard once before. Worried, Dixie sniffed the air. Underneath the smell of dry foliage, wood, grass, wild flowers, dirt, oak and pine trees, there was another scent… wet mud, grime, blood, and rot… the telltale smells of an Undead. Dixie drew in a shocked breath. It had been a decade since anything had managed to get past the magical barricades of Tambelon, and even a single zombie could be dangerous to a small, unaware group of beings. Slowly, Dixie began to creep away from the woodcutting area, and into near the stream, keeping all her sense strained to catch a trail leading to the escaped undead. A few feet away, near the tree line, shapes moved, casting shadows. Dixie gulped, tightening her grip on the axe. 
‘Oh Ancestors! There’s more than one! But I have to be brave! I’m a ranger now, not a scared calf!’ Drawing closer, she prepared to strike.

“Uunnghh…”
“For the love of Azure Flame’s aunt’s shiny flanks, can you stop groaning like that?” Creepy asked, too exhausted to put enough venom into his demands. 
“So tired… so dirty…” Slim whimpered, his hooves dragging through the foliage. 
“…Did you just use my aunts as an expletive?” Azure asked, looking sideways at the Donkey hitpony. 
“…Maybe. I agree with Slim, though not the delivery of the sentiments. I’m so weary. I’ll be glad when we finally reach civilization,” Creepy replied, his coat matted with dust and filth. In fact, all three of them were covered in muck. 
They’d awoken from their sleep mere inches from the underground path that had lead from Tambelon’s cisterns up to the surface. A tingle of magic had swept through them on the way up, likely the defensive spells that prevented any of the burrowing zombies from digging their way out. Following the rather narrow pass, it led the trio all the way up into the edges of the Crookback Mountains, right outside the Thorn Wall that isolated that blighted kingdom. The next part of their escape was to cross those mountains and head east into Toro. 
During the climb up through the underground tunnel, Azure informed Slim and Creepy about what the mysterious voice had told him to do. The Minotaur and Donkey agreed to head to Ti-Bit, with only a bit of reluctance. Their inquiries into Black Phoenix had led them to nothing but pain and trouble so far, and they were all willing to try it from a different angle, if necessary.
After four days of careful travel, the trio had made it through the steep cliffs of the Crookback, and were in a valley forest that Slim had told them was a well-known nature retreat in western Toro. When Azure had asked why the Minotaurs built a vacation spot right at the border of an Undead kingdom, Slim had shrugged, and replied, “I suppose that’s the thrill of adventure. Or something.”
Tired, dirty, hungry, and thirsty, the group of friends were nearing their wits end.
“Uunnghh…” Slim grumbled again, causing Creepy’s ears to twitch.
“Slim, what did I just say?” Before Slim could give a snarky reply, a loud battle cry split the relative silence of the woods.
“Die zombies!” A massive shape cried, swinging an axe at them.
A shrill, girly scream echoed through the forest.


“Again, I’m really sorry for attacking you like that,” the female Minotaur said, passing out cups of tea to the three recently cleaned travelers. They were all in the nearby Ranger lodge, the males having come back in from using the small shower system in the back. The bipedal cow had introduced herself, after many apologies, as Ranger Dixie. 
She had not chopped any of them to pieces after leaping out, mainly because they began crying and talking all at once. Their babbling had been nonsensical, but still coherent. Zombies can’t talk. Zombies can’t shed tears. Those were some of the first things a Ranger learned this close to Tambelon. And it was thanks to these quickly recalled facts that Dixie hadn’t accidentally become a murderer.
“It’s not your fault, Miss Dixie. We were extremely gritty and grimy, and Slim was making those misleading sounds. It’s completely understandable for you to have mistaken us for zombies.” Azure took the cup gratefully, smiling as he let the aroma ease his mind.
“Tru’ dat,” Slim said around a mouthful of slightly crusty bread. “Still, I never would have guess you were a soprano, Creepy.”
The Donkey blushed, looking away. “I thought we agreed to never bring up my less than masculine screams of terror.”
“We did, but its comedy gold, and blackmail silver. Or something like that. The point is, we’re gonna milk it for all its worth,” Slim said, taking a gulp of his tea.
“Well, now that you’re all cleaned up, what do you plan on doing?” Dixie asked, taking a seat herself. The chairs were proportioned for Minotaurs, so while she and Slim sat comfortably, Azure and Creepy had their legs dangling awkwardly over the edge. Still, they were better than sharps rocks to rest on, and quadrupeds weren’t going to complain about the hospitality. 
“We’re heading east,” Azure said, sipping at his drink. “A sky-ship or a train would be the best to use.”
“Well, there are lots of trains that run down at the village at the base of the valley. It’s where the tourists arrive and leave from,” Dixie offered, looking at the trio before her, and unconsciously edging away from Creepy. She may have been a junior Ranger, but she did have training, and she could tell there was a lot that her guests weren’t telling her. And as much as she didn’t like to admit it, they gave off a weird vibe. Not a dangerous one, but definitely strange. 
They said they had gotten lost in the mountains. Highly likely, but there weren’t many towns along the edge of the Crookback Mountains, thanks to old fears and older memories of Undead spilling forth from the passes once more. Their state of dishevelment was also a sign, because they were caked in more dust instead of mud or dirt, which would be normal on someone who had gone through mountains instead of a forest. As such, they either had to have become extremely lost and wandered from the extreme north or south where any other mountain based settlements were, or they had come from beyond the Crookback themselves. And that raised even more questions. The powers that isolated Tambelon from Gaeum ensured that access to the cursed country was almost impossible, and there were few paths that allow a being to skirt the Thorn Wall safely.
Still, all she had was suspicions, and besides the discomfort she felt whenever she looked at the Donkey for too long, they didn’t seem up to anything obviously bad.
So, do you have money for tickets?” She asked after a pause. The looks the males shared with each other answered that easily. They quickly got into a huddle.
“Crap! I just realized we don’t have any money!” Azure whispered, panicking.
“How could you forget that, Azure?!” Creepy demanded.
“Well, we left our luggage in the hotel back in Prance, but we got kidnapped at the mansion…”
“They better not have pawned my stuff,” Slim grumbled.
“Worst case scenario is that it’ll be investigated as a disappearance, and they’ll probably trace some of the items back to me, I mean ‘Blueblood,’ back in Canterlot,”Azure said. “That means it’s likely both Black Phoenix and my Aunts will be on our tails sooner than later.”
“How can you be so sure?” Creepy inquired.
“Tracking spells, obviously. There was enough of our personal belongings that they could form an empathic link with them and use a tracking spell to find us. And Tracking spells are only intermediate difficulty magic, so a group of skilled Unicorns could catch our scent, in a sense,” Azure explained.
“While I don’t have a plan for being magically followed, there is one solution to our money problem I have,” Slim said after a moment of contemplation. “We can take a train to Grandine, and I can get some money from my house!”
“That’s right, you mentioned you have family there!” Azure exclaimed, smiling. Things were looking up!
“Better than nothing. But how will we get the tickets to reach Grandine in the first place?” Creepy pondered.
There was a pause.
“I’ll pawn this,” Azure said, taking off his glasses. "I was hoping to save it for another time, but we need the cash now." The two looked at each other in confusion.
“I don’t think you’d get more than a bit for those tacky frames, Azure,” Creepy cautioned.
Azure Flame said nothing in response, instead he carefully dismantled them with his magic. With the twist of a tiny screw, the plastic frames fell apart, revealing thin wires of silvery-grey metal; pure platinum.
“Always have emergency supplies,” he said, reassembling his glasses after removing the platinum.
“You hid precious metals in your glasses?!” Creepy hissed, trying not to raise his voice and be overheard by Dixie, who was still sitting at the table, looking annoyed at their secret conversation.
“It was my babysit… I mean, friends, idea,” Azure explained. “I don’t really need glasses, and having some sort of emergency cash is always good. Plus, would you ever check glasses for a secret compartment?”
Slim and Creepy exchanged looks with each other before shrugging in acceptance. Satisfied, Azure turned to the junior Ranger.
“Miss Dixie, is there a pawn shop anywhere in nearby town?”