CHAPTER NINE
RIVER OF MEMORIES
Rush drifted silently in a sea of absolute calm. It was so quiet here, peaceful; all of his worries and cares simply didn’t exist anymore. He waved his hand through the air and watched how it created ripples in the colourful, starry air around him. He wasn’t one for musing on much more than his life in the hills and the repetitive task of collecting reeds, but here, it was like the whole of creation was spread out around him and he was just…there, floating amongst the twinkling stars and galaxies.
In his mind he knew he should be frightened by this strange experience, but all he felt now was the all pervading sense that all was right, everything would work out. He smiled; if this was death, then he welcomed it with open arms. It wasn’t so bad really, at least he wasn’t cold now and all those aching joints had gone at last.
Looking around himself, he began to see images, frameless pictures floating unsupported in the air about him. Some were familiar, others not so. What were they? Rush reached out for one and found that simply by ‘willing’ himself to move, he could propel himself forward with ease. He stared at the picture before him; the figures upon it were moving. How was this happening? It was like he was staring through someone else’s eyes, through a window into another world. Rush looked closer. Images the likes of which he’d never seen showed a forest, dark and foreboding, covered in snow and…there! Yes! There was something running, shouting, and then suddenly he found himself looking at the form of a brown coated horse…no, not a horse, the word came to him…’pony’.
She somehow looked familiar; he couldn’t quite put his hoof on it either. Why was she running? She looked so scared too, as if something was chasing her. He could see the determined look in her large violet eyes; her mane and tail, almost as white as the snow through which she ran, flowing out behind her. The mare’s panniers were secured to her sides, their weight hindering her slightly, but she was fast; nothing could catch her, not even a pegasus. Voices, shouts rang out through the forest,
“There she is!”
“Dammit she’s quick!”
Shifting her weight from side to side, she could jink between the trees without slowing. It was a technique her father had taught her. He hadn’t thought his daughter would follow in his hoofsteps, but he’d been wrong. Dad would be proud of her…if she could escape, and by the goddesses she would!
An arrow whistled past her ear, disappearing into the snow bank. Goddess damn them, they were really pissed this time! Dodging down a shallow gully the mare tried to shake her pursuers, using the thick canopy and darkness to help conceal her escape route. All she needed to do was reach the cavern entrance and she’d disappear like morning dew in the sunlight.
Her hooves pounding through the snow, she grinned to herself; it wasn’t far now, the cavern was just around the next bend.
She never saw the net until she was tangled hopelessly in it, her headlong charge cut short in a mass of legs and rope. From out of the shadows at the back of the cavern, a stallion appeared, his white coat and blue eyes virtually glowing before her. She sighed, closing her eyes and smiled,
“Hello Sparky, we really ought to stop meeting like this you know. If ropes were your thing, you really should have said.”
The soldier looked down at her sadly, “Lets stop the pretence shall we Willow?”
The mare looked up at him and shrugged, “Aw, but we were having so much fun!”
“You were maybe.” He turned away for a moment, his voice lowering, “You never thought for a moment about what you were doing to me, did you? How you would destroy my career…destroy me?”
“Sparky…I”
“Don’t call me that! My names Silver Spark, I am an officer of her majesty’s Royal Guard.”
“Oh bully for you!”
He leaned down and grabbed her head with his fore hooves, staring into her eyes, “It was all just a game to you, wasn’t it? Toying with my feelings, using me, lying to me. You did all of that, just so you could…” his voice trailed off,
“Was all just a lie Willow? All of it?”
The brown mares smile disappeared as she closed her eyes, “No. Not all of it. I’m sorry Silver, but it’s what I do.”
“’It’s what you do’”, he repeated levelly.
Silver Spark gestured to several other white coated ponies behind him, all armoured alike and carrying wickedly long spears. He looked away sadly, “This is what I do…”
He addressed the soldiers, “Bring her to the wagon, carefully. Don’t hurt her.”
“Yes, Sir”
Silver walked away, unwilling to watch any further, “Willow?”
“Yeah?”
“I loved you, you know. I still do.”
She sighed, “I know. I’m sorry…”
“So am I”
The scene faded away into the starry background. What the hell did he just see? Rush shook his head, ponies? Talking ponies? He would have laughed only…only it felt ‘right’, like this was the natural order of things, as real as cutting reeds, making roofing materials or mending your house. That was real, that was reality, but this?
He had to know more.
Propelling himself to the next picture, the scene was dark once again. Yellow lamplight flashing past in a blur, the thunder of hooves echoing down the corridors, through a door and the heavy thump as it was slammed shut and barred. Shouting and banging from the pursuers made her back away, staring it, her heart hammering in her chest. She lifted her prize and smiled, watching how the light through the tall windows caught its intricately carved surface. It was a beautiful piece in itself but it was what was inside it that intrigued her the most. Willow hadn’t been able to open the thing, but she could try that again later. Her client had paid well for this, but there was no harm in having a little peek was there?
The crossbow bolt clipped her mane, embedding itself in the door. She froze.
“Care to tell me how you got out this time?”
Captain Silver Spark sat on the short flight of stone steps, casually reloading his crossbow.
Willow’s heart skipped a beat despite her attempt at calm, “A lady doesn’t kiss and tell, Sparky.”
He stood and levelled the crossbow at her, the glow from his horn bathing the room in its blue glow, “I knew you’d come here. All the other exits are blocked, but this…you don’t know even where it will send you, do you, Willow?”
The brown mare shook her head, “No. But where there’s a will there’s a way my old dad used to say.”
“I have to stop you, you know.”
“I know.”
Willow placed the box on her back and started walking toward the stone archway.
“Don’t! Willow, please!”
Silver aimed the crossbow at her, as she continued her advance, “I’m going Sparky. Shoot if you have to, but I can’t stay here.”
“For the goddess’s sake, Willow, please, just give yourself up. I’ll speak to them on your behalf, they’ll be lenient.”
Willow kept walking, “Lenient?” she smiled sadly, “You know that’s not true Sparky. You and I both know what they do to thieves here; especially ones who steal from the princess.”
The Captain stood between the mare and the steps, placing his crossbow against her brow. Willow leaned against it,
“Can you do it, my Captain? It would be so easy you know, just a little twitch of your magic and all your problems will simply…‘disappear’.”
For a moment she actually thought he’d shoot. She’d played him, used him to gain access to the most secret areas in the castle and he’d followed her like a trained puppy. It had been all too easy, so easy to bend him to her will. She’d done it before, many, many times before. This time though, there was something different. It was his eyes, those big blue eyes. There was warmth in them, a kindness that was so much more than what those other stallions had wanted from her. She wouldn’t have minded, he was a handsome fellow after all, but he’d never so much as touched her. Silver had only ever been the perfect gentlecolt; polite, kind…loving.
That was until that night she’d drugged him and they’d…
She shook her head. Business was business, no matter how she obtained her goal, right? Willow closed her eyes. When she was younger, she’d dreamed of meeting somepony like the Captain some day, and she finally meets him like this. What a bloody foolish world; goddesses she hated it.
“Willow…”
She looked up at him, tears trickling down her cheeks. She could so easily fall into those big blue eyes of her Captain, into his embrace. In another world, another time…
The crossbow clattered to the floor as she flung herself at him, grabbing him in her forelegs and kissed him. He was resistant at first and then embraced her, the two holding each other for a moment Willow would remember, always.
“I’m sorry Sparky”, she whispered.
With a dull thump, his eyes rolled up into his head and his body went limp. Gently, Willow lowered him to the floor, her tears falling like rain onto his face,
“I love you too”
She stroked his mane and placed a kiss on his forehead,
“Remember me, my love”
There was a splintering crash behind her as the soldiers finally broke in,
“There she is! Grab her!”
Willow reared up before the silvery light of the portal. Laughing, she let out a loud neigh,
“See you later, chumps!”
With a burst of light, the brown mare leapt through the portal and into the unknown.
Rush trotted over to the next picture, he wanted to see what happened to the mare, to Willow. All his focus was on her now. Who was she?
The image was a dramatic change from the last two. It was a forest again, a woman with dark brown hair and brown eyes, stumbling through the snow. She was cold, shivering and clearly frightened. The world around her was so strange, so alien to her. The woman lifted up her hands and stared at them as if she’d never seen such things before. There was crash and shouting, horses hooves thundering through the trees all around her. She sheltered behind one as a group of soldiers charged though the trees, flowing around her like a river around a rock. Swords flashed in the moonlight, the shouting, screams and neighing so loud they made her put her hands over her ears and close her eyes.
As suddenly as it had started, it stopped. The woman looked up at the armoured warrior standing over her. He took off his helmet and reached down to help her up. Silently, she looked into his eyes and nodded, allowing him to help her onto his horse and slowly, the two of them rode off into the night.
The scene changed.
The woman lay propped up with her back against a pile of pillows, several other women standing around her rushed about with towels and bowls of steaming water. She was in pain, sweating and crying out through gritted teeth. Her white shift had been pulled up around her waist and was sticking uncomfortably to her. The woman shouted and swore, encouraged by the others to give one last effort, one last big push. With a loud scream, her efforts were rewarded with the gurgling cries of a newborn. It was a boy. One of the women deftly cleaned him up and passed him to the exhausted mother. Like her, he had a mop of dark brown hair and big brown eyes that took in the world around him in wonderment. She looked down into his little scrunched up face and smiled, tears filling her eyes,
“I think I’ll call you…‘Rush’”.
The images winked out of existence, leaving Rush floating in the starry void, his mind a swirling mass of confusion and disbelief. Willow…his mothers name was Willow, she had named him. The pony was also called Willow, but the two couldn’t have been the same, surely? Of course not! How foolish.
“Rush?”
A feminine voice drifted to him through the starry void, making him turn around to find its source. There was no-one there, had he imagined it?
“Rush? I’m going to going to bring you back now. Please, don’t be afraid. Everything is going to be alright.”
He twisted and turned, but still couldn’t see anyone, “Who are you?” he called, “Where am I?”
The voice came back, gentle and calming, almost motherly, “You don’t need to worry about that, dearest Rush. You’re safe, now. I’ve done what I can to heal your body, but I can’t keep you here too long or you could lose yourself. Follow my voice and come to me.”
“I don’t understand!” he cried out, his heart beginning to race.
“Shhh, its alright my dear Rush. Listen to my voice, let your mind and heart follow it back, back to your own self. You are safe now, let go of your fear. I will protect you.”
Rush didn’t know what the voice was talking about, but he knew in the deepest part of his heart he could trust her. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to reach out to the voice as it began to sing. The voice sang of warm days in the summer, the sun in the sky and the lush grass of the meadows. The water was fresh and pure, the breeze gentle and kind. Birds sang in the trees and the goddess called to him, bringing him home. Home…
He awoke with a start, coughing and gasping for breath. It was dark, save for the light of from the low fire and a single lantern. Rush felt a surge of panic, he was on the floor in his hut, how had he got here? Oh gods!
“SNOW!” he yelled and tried to sit up. Looking about himself wildly, Rush’s heart was in his throat, where was she? He had to help her!
A slender white leg reached out and gently pushed him back down, “Shhh, hush now. Rest, close your eyes and sleep.”
The voice was so soft, like the lightest down. Rush could feel his heart rate slowing, his vision blurring,
“Snow…”
He felt someone stroking his hair as he drifted off into sleep,
“I’m here little one. Rest now, I’ll still be here in the morning. Let all your pain and fear fly away as you drift into the land of dreams…”