Chapter 8: Silver lining
***Isaac's mind***
"That's better now isn't it. Now you get to sit back and relax while I do all the hard work" The shadow Isaac said as he walked around the now chained Isaac. When Isaac had lost control of his body again he didn't have a chance to run this time as the evil creature had been waiting for him and now had almost full control of his mind. "Now where were we before that interruption. I believe it was how you made one of your friends an outcast who can no longer speak because of you." The evil Isaac chuckled as he opened up another window into one of Isaac's memories. "Breaking you will be fun"
"You wont break me"
"Sombra said the exact same thing a thousand years ago, he only lasted a few days before he gave up. You however, I doubt you will be nearly as strong willed"
*** 1 year 3 months ago***
"gah, my head feels like it's been smacked with a baseball bat" Isaac said as he rose up from a crudely made table. Looking around Isaac noticed that something was off as he remembered the caravan he was working for had been attacked, and he was no where near where it was. Panic began to fill him as he realized he had no idea where he was either and that the attackers may have taken him for god knows what. As Isaac began to panic the door opened to reveal a zebra who looked surprised to see Isaac, and then the strangest thing happened she bowed and started to speak some other language that Isaac couldn't understand. "This probably wont get an answer, but do you know what happened to everyone" The zebra was surprised by Isaac speaking before she spoke again.
"You speak the pony's language"
"Nah shit, Now if you don't mind answering the question because I don't care for stating the obvious"
"Of course oh great one. The others that were with you are in the other room"
"Thank you, but why did you just call me, oh great one?"
"What do you mean? You are-" Before she could finish the door was thrown open by Luca who was in her normal disguise having a heated argument with another zebra before she turned and saw Isaac.
"Thank chrysalis you're ok Isaac. These zebra don't seem to understand that you might freak out by waking up in a place you don't recognize"
"Don't give them too much crap Luca, they were probably thinking I was dangerous or something" The other zebra were looking at Isaac perplexed by the conversation that was going on. Isaac began walking over toward the door to which the zebra that was arguing with Luca bowed. "Um, Why is he bowing"
"Before I was interrupted I was going to say that you are the great one."
"Still doesn't answer my question" Luca facehooved over the fact Isaac was this dense to what was going on.
"They think you are a god Isaac"
"Well I may look weird but I don't think they see me as a god Luca" The zebra that had been bowing began to rise and leave the hut in a hurry for some reason. The other zebra that walked in when Isaac woke up however spoke,
"You are the great one correct, bringer of prosperity and knowledge"
"The only kind of knowledge I got is how to piss off people by just existing, and as for that prosperity bit I wont even begin to tell you why that is wrong" The zebra looked at him for a minute in thought as what was essentially god in her eyes just said he was not in fact god in any sense of the word.
"I think you broke her Isaac" Luca said as the zebra in front of them had a glazed look on her face and her left eye seemed to be twitching rather uncontrollably.
"Reminds me when you got us hired on the caravan and the head guard saw me. Did he ever realize that I wasn't an animal because I swear he acted like-" The zebra shook it's head to clear it's thoughts of everything that just happened before looking up at Isaac.
"You really are not the great one are you?"
"Yes I am, watch as I shoot rainbows out my hands and shit solid gold bricks" Isaac then began stretching out his hands toward the zebra making a 'pew' sound as he did.
"Obviously we were mistaken. The great one wouldn't act so-"
"Rash, childish, crazy, I've heard them all...um...I don't think I got your name"
"My name is silver and I am the shaman of this tribe"
"I asked name not profession, but I guess I kind of have to thank you though don't I"
"You could start by not being so rude toward me"
"Sorry I'm kind of rude to everyone, just ask Luca" Isaac motioned to the Pegasus disguised changeling in question. Luca wasn't paying attention to the conversation at all and was instead looking at the various masks and bottles that filled the room they were in. Luca jumped however when the zebra tapped her shoulder to ask her if he really was like this all the time.
"It's mostly around new ponies actually, give him time and he will grow on you"
"I just thought of something. Silver why are you the only one that has spoken to me directly. The other guy didn't exactly say much to me other than bowing in an attempt to kiss ass" Silver sighed before beginning,
"I also serve as the translator for my village so he probably went to tell the others you speak pony"
"How could you miss that? I mean I literally was traveling with several ponies." Silver just shrugged and went over toward a few bottles before pulling on down and tossing it to Isaac who popped the top and chugged the brew. Isaac made it look like nothing but on the inside he felt like he just chugged vomit mixed with raw sewage that were blended together in a rat's stomach. However being the man Isaac is he didn't show any hint of it tasting that bad, I'm serious. "oh god, that was the most fowl thing I have ever had to drink."
"It may be fowl, but it will help your headache and cause your scars to heal faster" Silver stated before walking back over to Isaac with a staff in hoof before she hit one of Isaac's legs.
"Gah, what was that for"
"Reflexes" Silver stated before smacking his other leg which of course was working fine. Luca was sitting in the corner with a smug grin over what Isaac was being forced through to ensure he was fine. Isaac noticed Luca grinning before giving her a one finger salute to which Luca responded with,
"Thanks for the offer, but I can do much better than you" Both Isaac and Luca smiled at the fact they could joke about this sort of thing and it not go anywhere after all they were only friends.
"What offer? He just stuck out that appendage. Does it mean something?" Silver was genuinely confused by this as she had never been around Isaac and his various gestures with his hands. Luca was actually the only one that had learned what they all meant because she'd watch him use them for specific situations.
"Nothing" Isaac said before Luca could say the actual meaning. He didn't think it through though since Luca still went on to say,
"He wants to fuck" Silvers eyes widened and her face turned into a deep shade of red that would make one think she was in fact a lobster. Thankfully for Silver there was a knock at her door so to get away from this situation so she went to let whoever it was in. That wasn't a good Idea since the entire village had come to see what they thought was their god in the flesh. Silver tried to shut the door so that Isaac wouldn't be trampled by the sheer amount of zebras wanting to meet him, however they rushed in before Silver could do anything. When all of the zebra entered the room they were met by the sight of Isaac and Luca staring at each other.
"You going to be rude and not look at them?"
"You're their god thing, so you should look away"
"You wont win that easy"
"Why are we having a staring contest anyway?"
"I don't even know." The two broke eye contact to finally look at the rather large crowd of zebra that were just sitting their waiting for Isaac to say something to them. "Alright, what do you want?" He asked the crowd who all started to whisper to each other. Silver started to translate what he said to their language so they could communicate. A zebra in more decorative attire which really only meant he had a hat on instead of nothing started to speak to Silver who again translated rather hesitantly.
"They want you to perform a miracle for them"
"Brilliant, I'm not who they think I am so they're probably going to kill me"
"That might not happen, I was raised with many of them and I didn't try to kill you when you said you were not the great one"
"Congrats you have more faith in others than I do." Silver than attempted to try and explain the situation to her tribe who all looked at her with shock and anger. That anger however wan't directed at Isaac but instead it was directed at silver who they all started to move toward. Isaac began to realize that she might have given the wrong impression of what she meant when saying Isaac wasn't their god so he tried to get them to stop by making various motions with his hands. The tribe however saw these movements as him urging them on to deal with the non-believer in the only way they knew how. Isaac and Luca kept on trying to get the tribe to stop in any way that they could until they finally reached the center of the tribe's land where they had a small stump covered in blood. Silver was speaking insanely fast in her native tongue to try and get them to stop but these zebra didn't want to hear any of it as the one who was dragging silver pulled out a dagger.
"Isaac we have to do something" Luca said in a urgent voice which Isaac answered with,
"I'm thinking, I'm thinking." Silver was forced down by another zebra that had been part of the mob that was going to kill their shaman. The thought that this might be a mistake crossed several of the villagers mind's since Silver was the only one of them that had any medical training, however she tried to deny their god who was in the same room as her. Just before the zebra brought down the dagger Isaac yelled "STOP" which caused many of the zebra to freeze at the sudden outburst from their god, they were doing this in his name so why wouldn't he be pleased by this. The tribe realized their mistake when they remembered their god didn't want non-believers killed that'd be horrible.
"I think you did it Isaac" The zebra that was holding Silver down was now prying open her mouth so that they could remove the ability for Silver to spread her lies among the village . "...or not" Isaac wasn't able to stop them this time as they cut her tongue off before he could say anything. The crowd cheered at the fact they just cut out the tongue of someone who did nothing wrong because of Isaac not wanting to be viewed as a god. The crowd looked up to Isaac not to see him pleased by their actions but rather they saw him with a mix of horror and anger in his face. The zebras seemed to grow smaller as they made a path for Isaac that led straight to the zebra who was slowly bleeding out from her mouth. When he got to her he scooped her up into his arms and carried her back to her hut because he remember their being a torch there that Silver could really use right now.
Isaac didn't want Silver staying in that place after all of that so he offered to let her join him and Luca on their little adventure to which she hesitantly agreed. After they left the tribe had a surprisingly large amount of accidents happen almost as if they had angered some deity in the universe.
***Back in the cave***
Silver was walking beside everyone as she considered everything that had happened since she joined Isaac and Luca on their adventure. She didn't blame her tribe for what they did because they didn't want to believe that they hadn't found their god yet and just denied it. She was still angry of course but as time went on that anger dissipated to only a minor thought in her head. The more she thought the more she realized that if she had the chance to go back she wouldn't because even though Isaac could be dense to certain situations he always cared about everyone that followed him. After all everything that has happened to them has had a silver lining.