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// [25] 7th Hematite, 222 
// Story: My Little Fortress: Shadytrails 
// by PersonalGamer 
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7th Hematite, 222

Fargo walked out of the large meeting house, and looked around. He couldn’t see a damned thing in the dark as he’d just gotten out of the light of the building, but he didn’t let that stop him and he began to walk into the dark. After his run in earlier with Shooting star, Fargo learned to keep his shield and halberd out at all times. He was going in the direction that he remembered as being the location of the workplaces. 

Shooting Star had been sleeping, but the shuffling and rustling of the Griffon leaving have woke her up. Curious about where he’s going so late at night, she grabs her crossbow and snuck out of the building, stalking the Griffon to see if he’s going to try and steal anything.

The griffon kept walking into in the direction he started off in, his eyes slowly getting used to the dark. He held out his weapon, and held onto it as tightly as he could as he walked around. Whenever he heard a noise, be it the rustle of something in the distance, or even the wind his head would dart directly to wherever it originated. He’d slowly pick up the pace of his walked. The mare was too far behind him for him to be aware of her yet. 

Shooting Star wasn’t sure what he’s doing, darting into bushes like that. Maybe he’s hunting mice? or practicing something? It’s very strange. She’ll keep watching for now.

He just kept looking around for anything, before darting his head right towards the direction of shooting when he heard some bushes rustle. He’d pause for a moment before walking again, finally nearing the work spaces. 

Deciding that sneaking up on him was the perfect way to get stabbed by a halberd, Shooting Star opted instead call out to him, from a safe distance. “Hey Fargo! What are you doing out here in the dark?”

Fargo would jump suddenly and look around behind him. “Ah, eh... Hi there!” He swore he’d heard that voice before from someone in town, and it was too dark out for him to make out who it was in the distance. 

Now that he’s alerted, Shooting Star can trot over to him! “Thirsty in the middle of the night?” She asked, friendlily.

“Oh no, no.” He was a bit anxious as she walked up to him, but relaxed some once he saw it was a pony he knew. “Someone needs to watch this place at night is all.” 

“Oh! So you can see in the night with those eyes! Griffons can see in the night, right?” The mare asked.

“Yes, but it takes a little while to get adjusted to the dark.” He said, before looking around for a moment, before starting to continue talking to her. “We’re half cat after all...” 

“No wonder. . I wouldn’t be able to see anything on my cloud in the dark like this.” The Guardsmare said. “Soo, when do you plan to sleep? You can’t guard all day and all night, can you?”

Fargo frowned for a moment and paused for a moment. “Ehm... well, I do plan on going to sleep eventually.” He kept silent for a few moments. “I only need a little sleep to get by.” 

“You need enough sleep, though. A hungry and sleepy soldier in combat is a dead soldier, after all. That’s what they taught me. They said that it’s important to keep yourself healthy and able to be alert at any moment’s notice, not be alert at every moment.” Shooting Star said, reciting what she had learned. 

“If you don’t have someone looking into the night, someone will walk through that door in the meeting house unnoticed, or walk off with the the tools in someone’s work space, or any number of things under the veil of night. You and I are not a soldier here, you and I are guards. Someone must always be on watch so they can yell for the others.” 

Shooting Star think on that, and nods. “Huh, that’s pretty reasonable, yeah. I still have doubt that there’s actually anything so far out here other than some wild boar, though. I’ve been here since we started and haven’t even seen a thing!”

“I realize that things must be slow here, but our job is to keep this place safe, and I plan on keeping it so. it’s better to be too safe when you aren’t in danger than too vulnerable when you're in danger.” 

“Well said!” The accompanying mare nods with a bright friendly beam. “How about we guard in shifts? I’ll go sleep on a cloud tonight and make sure it doesn’t float anywhere, then you wake me up a few hours later when it’s less dark so you can go sleep?” She suggested.

“Yes, yes that might work.” He said, smiling a little as he thought about it. “Lets do that.” He was surprised it was this easy to get people to work in shifts. Last time he tried to get something like this  going was with lucky lands, and someone got killed so... “I’m glad to have someone I can work with here.” 

“Well, it’s a small community. We’ve only got each others, and there’s strength in cooperation after all!” Shooting Star beamed, before spreading her wings to lift off. “Well, I’ll go take a low cloud. Give a hollar if something’s wrong and I’ll cover you. When it’s time for shift change just fly up and look for me, I won’t be that hard to find. Alright?”

“Yes, alrighty. Hope you have a good night’s while you are up there.” 

With another smiling nod, the Pegasus flew up to her favourite cloud.