42 days since the Nameless One’s escape
16 days since the fall of Traxti City
Early evening, Nearing the south arctic
Eternal Beats yawned. The air was beginning to chill, numbing the soreness in his wings from the week long flight. Legacy Chaser didn’t appear to not be as affected, though, she still was slowing down, just like him.
“Isn’t it suppose to nearing summer in the southern latitudes?” Legacy Chaser called back to him as she noted some ice and snow on the ground
“In two weeks time…” Eternal Beats looked down to see the same snow and ice as Legacy Chaser. “Let’s land so I can consult the charts.”
A few moments later the two of them landed in a patch of withered grass. Eternal Beats spread and smoothed out the mentioned chart. He placed rocks on the four corners to keep the chart in place.
“If I’m reading theses charts correctly we are in this area.” Eternal Beats tapped the chart with a claw.
“Section E7…” Legacy Chaser pointed out.
“According the notations snow and ice would unusual for this area at this time…”
Eternal Beats pulled out a scroll and quickly wrote down the information and sent it off in his neon blue flame.
“How long do you think before we get a response?”
“No idea…” Eternal Beats carefully refolded the charts and put it them away. He then pulled his guitar from his back and began to idly play some songs. He would have preferred to play his ocarina but it was too cold to play it. That and he needed his mouth to not be obstructed when the reply came. He had a tendency to zone out when playing.
As he started played a song that Pinkie Pie sent from a pony artist, if he remember correctly, named Sapphire Shores, he heard a moan. He turned to see that Legacy Chaser had her tail high and was twitching as if in the throes of mating. Eternal Beats face burned in embarrassment and shame. His playing had done this. To his clanmate and sister. She wasn’t his mate and he shouldn’t force this on her…
“I-I-I’m Sorry Legacy Chaser.” He sheepishly apologized noticing that Legacy Chaser was no longer moaning or presenting. She seem a bit confused. “I… I’m still trying to figure out how much and how my instruments have changed…and… and it seems...”
“No… No...” Legacy Chaser shook off the sexual stupor that she was in. “keep playing... I need to build up a resistance. Especially if you need to use that against the wendigos.”
“Great… I don’t want weapons of mass music…I just want to be able to play just to play not to have a purpose persay. Weapons... music should never be about that… or used like that...” Suddenly, Eternal Beats didn’t feel like playing. With a tired sigh he put back his guitar and curled up to get some sleep.
Legacy Chaser put a wing over as much of him as she could. “Remain strong brother. We all need your... laidbackness... Most of all you need to remain true to yourself.” Soft snoring was the only response she got. She slide up next to him keeping the wing over him and went to sleep herself.
Eternal Beats awoke with the feeling that he was receiving mail. A puff of fire later confirmed when it coalesced into a scroll. He slowly got up and inadvertently disturbed Legacy Chaser apparently she had fallen asleep trying to comfort him.
“I take it you got a response?”
“Yeah.” Eternal Beats unrolled the scroll and held it open so she could read it along with him.
He of Music
It would be extremely rare for ice and snow to be that far north at this time of year. It’s unlikely that there will be any wendigos in the immediate area given the amount of ice and snow indicated by your message. Hopefully, it’s just one of those once in a hundred years late season snowstorms.
Keep me informed of your progress and let me know asap if you spot any wendigos. Indicate the location and number spotted if possible.
Stay safe.
Secondclaw.
“Hmm… I was not expecting Soul Fire to answer.”
“Aren’t wendigos ponified snow demons?” Eternal Beats slowly nodded.
Eternal Beats was fully aware that Soul Fire was the Alicorn Keeper and given that the Wendigos part of his duty he would have an invested interest in what they were doing. But he also had become extremely busy as of late, dealing the aftereffects of the alliance between Equestria and Hourglass. He would have figured Golden DragonHeart would be the one answering to help ease the burden a bit.
“He is a sexy alicorn, isn't he…” Eternal Beats facepalmed. While he was dwelling on the whys of Soul Fire contacting them over Golden DragonHeart it was clear she had dwelt on something a bit lower then he.
You have only met one in your life how who you know what is sexy in alicorn? Eternal Beats sighed. “It’s getting late we should find shelter.”
“Feather or leather shelter?”
Eternal Beats rolled his eyes. Her teasing and sexual innuendo had started to shift since they talked four days ago. But as far as he could tell she had not asked him yet… “Practicing on how you plan to seduce him?”
“I... uh…” Legacy Chaser stuttered. A smile then grew as a sensuous thought came to her. “Are you saying you are jealous? That you would prefer to sing my praises?”
“Low blow.” Eternal Beats growled in annoyance. “That was a low blow.”
“That can be arranged.” Legacy Chaser twirled a claw around Eternal Beats’ ear frill.
I flew right into that… A shudder ran up and down his spine when Legacy Chaser claw touched his ear frill. Legacy Chaser giggled and took off before Eternal Beats had the chance to recover enough to complain.
He of Music suddenly could feel a drop in the ambient temperature. It could be from a storm coming in from the direction opposite of the overhang of outcropping they were using for shelter. However the possibility of it being wendigo caused was reason enough to wake Medallion.
“Medallion…” He of Music whispered harshly. When that didn’t work he licked her ear.
“Are you offering?” Medallion smiled but didn’t open her eyes.
“No.”
Medallion's sharp tail smacked He of Music’s tail, hard. “Hey!” He of Music managed to suppress the roar of pain.
“Don’t lead a girl on like that!” Medallion snapped. She yawned and got up. “What’s the problem?”
“Hopefully, nothing, but…”
“It could be wendigos…” Medallion finished.
“Yeah...” He of Music turned from Medallion and gazed outwards.
The sun suddenly dimmed causing both dragons to tense up. Snowflakes began to fall down fast from the sky and the temperature dropped again. The sounds of howling wind entered their ears. Neither dragon could see any evidence of wind which told both what they had hoped it wasn’t.
The light around them dimmer further. Out in the further developing storm He of Music could see a least dozen red eyes. “Do you see what I see?”
“Six maybe more wendigos…” Medallion's eyes narrowed a growl growing in her throat. “You have a plan?”
“Let them get close then we blast them with combined fire. Hopefully that will thin the ranks of the herd. Before our fire attacks go out we take off in opposite directions and with any luck they will split their forces and come after us.”
“Then take out each others wendigos?”
“Yeah…”
More red eyes joined in and the sounds of howling wind chilled more than the air. Both dragons gulped as dread began to fill their hearts. The words of their First and Second Claws soundly filled their minds.
“A dragon’s fire is more then enough to destroy them.”
“Wendigos may be weak against our fire but they are still formidable in groups.”
“Wendigos have a chilling effect not only on the environment but on hearts. Whenever one confronts them one has to guard their heart from the dread that they will try to instill in anyone attempting to challenge them. Let your inner fire grow but not to the point of rage. You are clanmates you protect each other.”
“For Hourglass.” He of Music growled feeling his inner fire grow from his resolve for his clan.
“For Hourglass.” Medallion agreed.
The dragon waited for what seemed like an eternity for the stalking wendigos to get close enough. Neither one did anything but stare forward not letting the mass of wendigos intimidate or distract them. The howling became deafening but still they waited. The pack soon became impatient and lunged forward.
With a nod the two dragons let loose the largest flame they could produce. Before the fire has a chance to faded away they took off in opposite directions. Four wendigos went after He of Music while two went after Medallion. He of Music turned back towards his clanmate. Both clanmates locked their gazes for a second before they broke off. He dived under her then let of a large plume of flame. Unfortunately the two wendigos only scattered from the flame and didn’t appear to be any less for wear. A whinny of pain told him that Medallion had managed to hit at least one.
They pressed on the attack while trying to avoid the ice breath of the demons. He of Music large frame meant that he got hit several times but he was able to keep his flying steadier in the swirling winds. Medallion was able to avoid most of the attacks because of her smaller frame though the winds did give her trouble once or twice. Before too long only two remained.
Medallion roared in pain and anger. She spun around mid air and destroyed the wendigo responsible for icing her tail. He of Music slammed into the final wendigo and slashing it to pieces before taking it out permanently. Both hovered for a moment breathing hard and panting while checking for any wendigos remaining. The storm was oddly not letting up. From what they were told about wendigos, with the herd being defeated it should have meant that the storm would dissipate but that didn’t appear to be the case. Hopefully, Sentinel would have the answers. Both, however, were too tired to keep flying so they descended to take shelter under the overhang.
“Damn those snow demons.” Legacy Chaser blew some of her pink flame onto her tail, trying to warm it back up. “How can cold breath feel hot!?”
“No idea... just rest. I’ll take the first watch.”
“Thanks.” Legacy Chaser blew a long stream to warm the rock below her until it was cherry red. “Ahh...” She groaned in contentment as she laid down on the now warm rock, her tongue rolling out in pleasure. “This feels soooo good.”
“Are you trying to make me envious?” A tired giggle came from her in response. In truth Eternal Beats was envious he rarely ever got a chance to really warm his scales. He didn’t want to accidentally burn any of his birds from his scales being too hot. If Pinkie Pie was to be believed, Fluttershy could be scarier than Soul Fire if something or someone hurt her animals, and while the birds were now his if she found out that he didn’t take care of them properly...
“We need to get a lava pool in Hourglass.” She muttered as she fell asleep.
“Yeah, we…” Eternal Beats looked back and noticed that Legacy Chaser was asleep, “...do.” Eternal Beats chuckled then pulled out a scroll to let the Hourglass Clan know what transpired and that Soul Fire suspensions seemed to be spot on. So much for getting home soon to see his new instruments.
Hours went by with no response. This was concerning for the drake but he trusted his clan leaders to figure out what to do. It was most likely that Soul Fire was memory walking on his knowledge of wendigos. Given how much memory to sift through it could be a while. Didn’t make the waiting any easier.
He of Music peered out into the blizzard. He was sure he saw movement out there. Something that was not wendigo, too solid. Hopefully whatever it was it was not hostile. The fight with the herd of wendigo had exhausted both Medallion and himself and he wasn’t sure they would be able to fight again. A shiver inducing roar rang out.
Medallion instantly woke and sat up. “Was that what I think I heard He of Music?”
“The roar of an angry dragon,” Medallion joined He of Music starring out trying to see anything. “Yep. The question to whom or what is the dragon angry about?”