“So,” Seri breaks the silence as she turns her head to look at me. “You’re Jay?”
I blink and give her a side glance. “Ah, right... I didn’t properly introduce myself. Er... Ourselves.”
We’re inside the forest now, Seri and I following Reykan who’s leading the way after a quick visit from our little panther’s little watering hole near the edge of this forest to relieve my thirst. True to our swan companion’s words, the storm really did became stronger, but thankfully, the gloomy forest shields us from most of the rain and gusts of air. The treetops are swaying with the strong winds, creating loud and constant rustling noises that accompanies the howls of the wind and the occasional roar of thunder. It’s still cold, but I guess the three of us have already grown used to it to take little notice... Eh...
I return my attention ahead, staring at Reykan. “My name’s Jay.” I point at our feline companion by bobbing my head forward. “The little guy who tried to kill us earlier is Reykan.” I see Rey’s ear twitch, but he didn’t say anything as he turn around a tree, Seri and I following him close behind.
I blink. Huh... Rey mentioned about cockatrices living here... If so, then I’ve yet to see statues of—
“Nice to meet you two,” Seri says as she nods her head, breaking my train of thought. “So, are you here to see Twilight?”
I nod. “Yeah...” I furrow my brows. “And no. I’m not here to court her.”
“Bleahk,” Reykan bleahks, shivering, probably not from the cold air. “Gross...” He throws a disgusted glare at me. “Is that really why you wanna see her?”
I roll my eyes. Sheesh, and here I thought at least one of those I meet wouldn’t pair me with Twilight. “Rey, I just said no. And pay attention to the road ahead.”
He blinks at me as his front paw steps on a shiny rock on the ground. “What roa—whoa—!” Aaand he slips. “—oof!”
“Told you,” I say after a snicker.
Rey quickly stands back up on his four paws and sticks his tongue out at me before he continues walking.
“Squee~!” Seri suddenly squees with a wide, wide beaked grin and with twinkling eyes. “You two look so adorable.”
...And I’m suddenly paired with Reykan.
“I’m not adorable!” Reykan throws her a glare. “I’m fearsome!”
“Oh, of course you are!” Seri says as she leans her long neck forward to nuzzle the shivering panther’s cheek and lower jaw, making our feline companion to stop walking. “When you’re older, but right now? Oh, you’re so adorable! Squee~!”
“Ja-a-a-ay?” Reykan throws a nervous look at me. “I-I don’t like being nuzzled.”
I stick my tongue out at him.
“Can I eat her now?”
“Eek!” Seri quickly jerks her head away from him.
I smile an amused smile. “Well, at least you now know what to say to make her stop nuzzling you.”
Reykan frowns at me as his ears twitches. He blinks and looks back to the direction we are heading.
Seri and I look ahead as well, and not too far ahead, we see a brown figure emerging from the trees. The familiar figure stops and turns her head to look at us, her emerald eyes blinking.
I arch an eyebrow. Is that—?
“Jay?” she calls out. Yep, her voice definitely sounds like the deer I met a day or two ago. Sienna, was it? “There’s a panther right in front of you!” A pause. “...And a swan standing beside you.”
My arched eyebrow arches even more. “...So I’ve noticed.”
“Oh!” Reykan suddenly chirps. “I remember now!” He looks at me with a smile. “That’s the deer you were with a day or two ago!”
I blink at him.
“Can I eat her later, too?”
“What?” Sienna gasps, taking a dainty step back.
I shake my head.
Reykan pouts. “Aww...”
Seri chuckles. “That’s what you get when you hang around us non-meat eaters.” She turns her head and smiles at me. “Isn’t that right, Jay?”
Reykan pouts even more.
“Hang...around?” Sienna mutters under her breath. How I heard it from the violent rustling of leaves up above, I’ll never know.
Seri then turns her head to look and smile at the deer standing ahead of us. “Hel—”
I quickly put a hoof on her twitching wing and push it firmly on her side.
She looks at me and gives me a blank blink. “Oh, right...” She smiles sheepishly before turning back to the deer. “Hello!”
I sigh as I bring my hoof back down... Great...just what every hero in every adventure story needs... A couple of misfits as his adventure buddies... Drum roll... We have a tough and innocent meat-eating panther cub, a sweet and clumsy swan, and the return of the trying-to-be-independent deer who moved out of her herd. And to complete the set, a human-turned pony who’s neck and hoof are slightly bleeding... Joy... If I ever get back home, I’m gonna write this adventure of mine on FIMFic... Sigh...
“Jay...” I hear Sienna call, a lot of concern and fear in her voice. “There’s a panther in front of you! Why aren’t you running away?”
I shrug. Damn, I still can’t believe I can shrug as a pony. “He’s taking me to Twilight.”
She arches an eyebrow and then shakes her head. “I know love can drive anydeer do crazy things, but,” she glares at me, “asking a panther for directions?! That’s just the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!”
Seri nods in complete agreement. “I know, right?”
“Totally!” Sienna shouts.
Reykan turns to me with a confused look. “...What is she talking about?”
I let out a sigh. “...Rey, you can eat them now.”
The two females gasp in unison.
Rey’s eyes twinkles. “Really?!” He blinks, the twinkles fading. He then furrows his brows. “You really don’t mean that, do you?”
I give him a tired smirk.
Reykan grumbles, glaring aside. “...Can we continue going to Twilight pony now?”
I nod my head.
Reykan then moves forward, towards the frightened deer. He immediately turns, ignoring the deer who gives him a confused look. She then throws that same look at me and Seri as we follow our little panther.
“Jay?” she calls quietly.
“Hm?” I hm without stopping.
“Jay...!” she hisses as the distance between us grows. “Why are you...?! Why...?! Gah!” One second later, she’s walking nervously beside me—damn, she’s fast—her head hanging a little low as she nervously eyes the panther. “W-why are you still following him?”
“I could ask you the same question.”
She gives me a side glare. “I’m serious! And I’m not following him... I’m following you!”
I frown at her. “So am I.” A pause. “The serious part, I mean...”
“What if he’ll lead you to more of his kind?!” she hisses quietly, still glaring at me. “I’ve seen a few panthers around here just before this wild storm showed up!”
I arch her an eyebrow. “...Why are you still here then if panthers scare you?”
She opens her mouth to reply, but no words come out. She closes her mouth, but her glare intensifies.
I roll my eyes before I turn to our swan companion.
She’s smiling at me. “So, who’s she?” Seri looks at the deer walking beside me with a sway of her long neck. “She looks pretty. I love how green her eyes are.”
“She’s Sienna.” I then turn back to my deer companion. I might as well introduce her to the others. “The swan’s name is Seri. The scary and adorable panther—” I notice Reykan shiver from the corner of my eyes. “—is Reykan.”
“Please don’t call me adorable, Jay,” Reykan quietly says, his ears drooping. “B-because I’m not...”
Seri chuckles merrily, earning a groan from our little panther.
“You didn’t answer my question,” Sienna hisses.
I roll my eyes. “You didn’t answer mine, ei—” I cut myself off with a roll of my eyes. I turn to Seri. “Are we heading to Twilight?”
Seri blinks at me and nods her head. “Well, yes. Actually,” she says as she turns her attention ahead. “We’re already—”
“We’re here,” Reykan suddenly announces, stopping at the edge of the tree line.
Sienna and I stop walking and look ahead.
“Twilight!” Seri calls as she waddles on dead brown earth, heading towards a big, tall and leafless tree in the center of this dead clearing. “I’m baaaaaack! And we have guests!” she calls out against the howls of angry air and rustling leaves.
I’d like to look at my surroundings, but my gaze is locked on that giant dead-looking tree. It...kinda resembles the Golden Oaks Library...minus the windows and the green leaves. There’s a big hollow on the base of the tree, covered by a makeshift door made of some kind of wood.
“Jay?” I hear Reykan say as I hear his muffled pawsteps approaching me, and Sienna’s stabby footsteps backing away from me. “Why are you just standing there?”
My heart is racing, and I don’t know if it’s because of excitement, or nervousness. Probably both. Uh...nervouscited?
“Jay?”
“He’s zoning out,” I hear Sienna say.
I ignore the sounds that I hear as my mind starts going overdrive once again...
Twilight can help me.
No... No, she can’t! She’s different!
But what if she’s not?
But she doesn’t study advance or whatever magical nonsense in this world!
But I thought I told myself that even if there’s a zero point zero zero one percent chance that she could help me, then—
A black and wet tail taps my muzzle. I blink and my eyes cross as I stare at it.
“See?” I hear Sienna say. “I told you he was zoning out.”
I shake my head as Rey’s tail moves away from me and I turn my head aside to see Sienna snickering at me.
“Love does that to anydeer.”
I frown at her. “I thought you’re scared of pa—”
“Then I’m glad I’m a panther and not a deer, then.” Reykan interjects. “But... Jay’s a pony—”
Sienna suddenly gasps, earning my and Reykan’s attention. “You’re wounded!”
I blink, suddenly feeling the numbness around the wounds on my neck and hoof. “Uhh—”
“Hold still,” Sienna commands, leaning her head forward and aiming her two little stubs on her head at me. Her two stubs glow a faint green light.
I blink. “Uh... W-what are you doi—” I jolt and shiver as I suddenly feel a strange feeling around my neck wound.
Sienna hisses as she glares at me, the already faint emerald glow around her head stubs dimming even fainter. “I said hold still!”
I throw her a glare of my own. “What are you even doing to me, anyway?”
She lifts her head up to give me the full force of her glare. “Healing your wound. What does it look like I’m doing?!” she angrily shouts at me, making me take a step back. She once again leans her head forward and aims her two little stubs at me. “Now hold still!”
“Yes ma’am,” I say before I close my eyes shut. And then I feel that strange tingling sensation around my neck. It’s...really freaking weird and my instincts are telling me to move away. But I try my hardest to ignore those urges, to stay still and to try and focus on the strange sensation instead.
Despite the coldness of the weather, I feel a soothing warmth around my wound. I can’t really describe what’s going on, but I’ll try anyway... I feel like these strange tingling sensations around my wound are like...stitching my wound close? That’s the closest comparison I can think of at the moment. I feel the many and tiny needle-like stabs sewing my wound through the soothingly warm feeling. It’s...freaking weird. It doesn’t feel painful, just...weird. Soon, the tiny stabby feelings stopped and is replaced by the feeling of something, or tiny somethings coming out around my wounds, making me wince from how strange it feels.
“Done,” I hear Sienna say as the warm and tingling sensation slowly disappears from my wound, and I slowly open my eyes in time to see her lean her head back and looks at me fully. “A bite wound...” she says as she turns her head to look at Reykan who has an awestruck look on his face. “With four fanged wounds...” She glares at him. “...I wonder from whom...?”
I carefully lift a hoof to rub my neck where the wound...was once was. It’s...completely gone now, replaced by pony skin and fur. “Wow...” I breathe out. She healed me! “Thanks, Sienna.” I want to smile, but I frown instead as I see her still glaring at Reykan. “And uh, it’s not really his fault. Really...” ...Because hunting and killing is natural for predators like Rey, right? Sigh... This is a messed up world...
She quickly shifts her glare at me. “He bit you! And you’re saying that it’s not his—” she stops, the anger in her eyes fading as she stares at my raised hoof.
I blink, extend my raised hoof forward so I can take a better look at it. “Oh... Yeah... I got wounded here, too.”
Sienna sighs as she aims her faintly glowing stubs at my hoof. “Hold still...”
I stare at my green-glowing hoof wound as I feel those strange tingling sensations again. The green glow is actually making me see my healing wound clearer though. I see my wounds slowly closing as the needle-like sensations tingle around my wounds. After my wounds are completely gone, I see brown fur growing out of the newly-healed skin, covering the wound completely.
“Cool!” Reykan suddenly chirps as the emerald glow disappears from my outstretched hoof. He smiles a wide and excited smile at our deer nurse. “I didn’t know that a deer could do that!”
Yeah, neither did I. Then again, I don’t really read the pony comics, so who knows what the deer are capable of doing.
“It was just a simple healing spell,” I hear a familiar female voice behind our little panther, making my mind go blank as I see Sienna turn her attention away from me to look at whoever was standing behind, or in front of Reykan (if he already turned around after hearing her voice). “But ordinary unicorns will probably take a year at most to cast such a simple spell.” A pause. “Maybe a healing spell is a natural spell for the deer kind that anydeer can learn, just like a levitation spell which is a natural spell for unicorns.” Another pause. “Oh, gosh! Where are my manners?!” A shuffling of hooves. “Please, please, come inside! We’ll continue once we’re all inside and after I cast a quick drying spell on you all.” A pause. “Um... Why is your pony friend over there standing still like that?” Another pause. “I don’t see a cockatrice around.”
“There are cockatrices around here?!” Sienna shrieks in fright, and she then dashes towards...somewhere, probably inside the big dead tree if Seri’s faint and startled yelp is anything to go by...