Daring-Do and the Leaf in the Wind

by Sylvian


Arabian Nights.

Arabian nights are, Daring decides, much like Arabian days. They are vastly empty, the near endless expanse of sand dunes and empty sky giving the desert a feeling of solitude. It would be comforting if not for the lack of shade from the baking heat brought down by Celestia’s Sun during the day. The nights were no better, the blissful reprieve that Luna’s Moon rising brings from the heat is short lived as all that heat soon vanishes, the desert becoming near freezing.

From where Daring is beneath the covers of her cot, she cannot help but shiver, the cold snaking its icy talons beneath the sheets no matter how close she pulls them. She can stand all kinds of weather, from the sticky nigh uncomfortable atmosphere of jungles, to even the scorching heat of the desert’s daylight. But the cold? This freezing, bone chilling, teeth chattering cold? No, this she cannot stand.

Scooting backwards Daring bumps into the only other source of heat in her cot, the only reason she hadn’t fled this place and declared this whole expedition a lost cause. That reason pulls her closer in his sleep, nuzzling gently against the back of her neck and into her mane before signing contently and returning to whatever dreams he had been having.

Daring blushes deeply at Leaf Wind’s actions, a wing going out unconsciously to hit him softly on his stomach. He snorts and rolls over in his sleep, Daring scooting up against his back to at least share in his warmth.

Sighing she settles down into her pillow and pulls the covers tighter around herself. If not for Princess Luna’s insistence on them coming here, Daring doubted she would be out here, natural curiosity aside. But then, there were lots of ancient ruins out here, and Leaf and she had been talking about exploring some of them…

No, no. This cold is not worth it! Once she is done with Luna’s task for them, she is getting back to civilization, and wrapping herself up in a big, fluffy blanket and hiding under it for a month! Shivering again, Daring wraps her arms around herself and curls into a ball. Why, oh Celestia why, had she agreed to this…

Leaf rolls over again and curls up around her, even in his sleep doing his best to assist Daring as he always does. Though you’ll never hear her say it out loud, especially where Leaf can hear, she really did appreciate this. Appreciate him, for all the work he did in assisting her, all while also doing work for his father on collecting and cataloguing rare reagents. Not to say that her line of work did not tie into his. In fact, she is pretty sure she was helping him just as much as he helps her. Yet, he didn’t need to be with her on her adventures, she was perfectly fine on her own, in fact she had often turned away help offered by many others, stating she works better alone!

But Leaf? Leaf stuck with her anyway, proved himself useful, proved that she did need help sometimes.

Scooting back against the warmth that is his body, a heavy blush forming, Daring is thankful Leaf is still fast asleep. If he were awake, he’d tell her this is yet another time that he has proven she needs his help.

Closing her eyes Daring does her best to get some sleep, her blush remaining, knowing that the task ahead of them will require her to be at least somewhat rested so as to not make mistakes.

“Well, what treasure have I woken up to?” Leaf’s voice comes from behind Daring, and she instantly stiffens. Slowly opening one eye she finds Leaf’s face smiling down at her. So much for resting. “I don’t know, Double-Dee.” He continues as he raises an eyebrow. “You look pretty all curled up under the blankets. I should suggest to Luna that she should send us cold places more often!”

“Don’t you dare, Leaf,” Daring says, pulling the covers up over her head. “Do that and I swear the next time you get caught in another giant pony-eating plant, I’m not pulling your plot out!”

“Hey, it was one time, Dee,” Leaf says with an exaggerated sigh, “and I needed some of its sap for my father! I could’ve gotten myself out. Eventually.”

Daring waves a hoof at him, “Yeah, yeah. Now, tell me it’s actually time to get up, and you’ve not woken me up early!” Leaf shrugs and gets out of bed, and Daring shivers, scooting into the spot he was just in because WARM.

“Yeah, it’s about an hour before the sun will crest the horizon,” Leaf replies with a smirk as he grabs his vest and pulls it on. “The dashing master adventurer find something she likes under the covers?” Daring quickly reaches out from beneath the covers and makes a lewd gesture at him.

“Bite me,” she growls, causing Leaf to chuckle as he crosses to the entrance of their tent.

“Oh, such language! What would your fans say?” He looks over his shoulder and smile, “The great A.K. Yearling asking a degenerate like myself to bite her? Oh, the gossip columns in the Manehatten Times would sell like hotcakes!”

“Just go get the campfire started already!” Daring moans as she collects all the blankets and just about wraps herself up like something she’d dig up in an Eqyntian tomb.

“By your command, Master Explorer!” Leaf says over his shoulder as he opens the tent flap and goes out, a blast of cool early morning air coming in and robbing what little warmth had been inside. Daring, now alone inside the tent, curses Luna for sending them here for the thousandth time as she shivers.

After a bit, Daring’s head emerges from beneath the blankets, the soft glow of the campfire outside instantly drawing her attention. Going back under the covers she reaches out with one arm and grabs her vest, pulling it on beneath the covers slowly so she can gather her courage before venturing forth.

Once her vest is on, she takes a deep breath, and shoots from beneath the covers like a light gold lighting bolt, grabbing her helmet on the way out. Leaf, for his part, doesn’t miss a beat as she dashes out, simply holding up a bowl of blissfully warm oatmeal in one hoof for her to take as she hurriedly takes her place next to him on a camp stool.

The oatmeal, along with the fire, thankfully stop any shivering before it can truly start so she is spared anymore of Leaf’s sarcastic remarks. They eat in silence for a bit, the crackling of the campfire the only sound in their desolate surroundings. Or, well not so desolate, as Daring looks around while eating she remembers they pitched camp in a small oasis. The reason for it is of course sitting in the pocket of her vest in the form of a map she had copied from a book that was sitting in the tent.

This oasis is one of the, unfortunately few, landmarks they had been able to find from the nearly thousand year old map. Of course, the map is useless without the book, so she is stuck lugging around the massive tome with her. Finishing her breakfast, she pulls the map out of her pocket and unfolds it so she can look it over again by firelight.

The map in question, even the one in the book, is a copy of a map drawn by cartographers during the height of the Ancient Equus Empire that shows cities and road networks that Daring knew no longer existed. However, whoever had written the book the map was in had also provided a detailed account of a path leading into the desert, along with landmarks that would eventually lead to what the author had called ‘cradle of life’ or something similar; ancient Arabian was sometimes rather hard to translate.

Looking up, Daring opens her mouth to ask Leaf to grab the book from the tent, only to have it handed over to her, albeit with a smirk that just oozes ‘See, I know what you want’. Rolling her eyes Daring takes the book and opens it up to where she left off, specifically a passage that talks about a structure near what she hopes is this oasis.

“I think I am going to go stretch my wings,” Leaf says as he stands up, extending his wings and rolling his shoulders, “That cot you have us on is tiny.” He looks to her with a smirk. “If not for the company on it, I’d almost say it’d be unbearable.” Daring sighs and waves a hoof at him.

“Right back at you, Leaf,” she says absently. “Go fly around if you want, but keep an eye out for the structure we’re looking for. If this book is right, it shouldn’t be too far.” Leaf smiles and chuckles with a nod.

“Alright, I’ll go off and give it a look.” He then winks as he crouches down to take off, “And I am so glad you think I made good company in bed.” Daring looks up quickly, but only catches Leaf’s retreating silhouette. Grumbling that she didn’t mean it that way, she returns to studying the book’s clues.

Meanwhile, Leaf circles lazily as he climbs upwards over the desert. He can still see Daring hunched over the book they had procured, at great danger due to an angry librarian, at the Royal Canterlot Library. Of course, to get it they had made a small step-stool out of apparently priceless books. But they were unharmed after they were done! Honest!

Focusing back on his task, and not just the admittedly amazing feeling of stretching his wings, Leaf scans the surrounding area in the pre-dawn light.

Stopping and hovering in place, Leaf narrows his eyes as he spots something in the distance. It looks to be a structure, but it is partially buried in a sand dune, which would clearly make it invisible from the ground, but from the air Leaf is able see it clearly. Vaguely he can remember hearing Daring talk about an ancient way-station somewhere near the oasis, that it was the next marker on the trail. Perhaps this is it!

And, if not, it is still a ruin, and it’ll cheer his friend up and distract her from the fact that they’d been out here for three freezing nights and scorching days already. Admittedly, he wasn’t enjoying it any more than she was, but Luna had asked both of them. Both of them! Usually it was only Daring that got asked to go on these adventures, he just tagged along. Nope, not this time! This time he was here not just to back Daring up, he was here to ply his skills at the request of an Equestrian Princess! That, along with the admittedly warm company in bed at night, had made this bearable.

Circling back down, he notes the pink hue starting to form on the distant horizon and makes a quicker landing than he plans, the need to get the camp packed up before they lost the shadows growing more urgent.

“Hey, sun is coming up!” he says as he lands near Daring, who has by now extinguished the campfire and has a lamp sitting next to her, “We need to break the camp down.” Daring looks up from the book and frowns, closing it quickly.

“Damn, I had hoped we had more time,” She starts over towards the tent, “I’ve not been able to figure out where to go from here…”

“Good thing I took that flight, then,” Leaf says with a smug satisfaction. “I saw some ruins not that far off, if we hurry and break camp we can be there as just as the sun rises.” Daring stops with the tent flap halfway open and gives him a raised eyebrow, followed by a warm smile.

“Well, looks like I’ll have to forgive you for your earlier remarks,” she says as she goes inside, only to emerge a moment later with her saddlebags, book now inside it. “I mean, you’re proving vastly helpful this trip.” Leaf sticks his tongue out at her as he finishes collecting the cookware and starts to put it in the bag he had gotten it from.

“Yeah, yeah, love you too, Double-Dee,” he says with a sarcastic grin and a wiggle of his eyebrows.

“And moment ruined,” Daring says with a sigh as she puts her saddle bags down near where Leaf is before going back into the tent to start pulling the stuff inside apart and packing it up.

They break camp quickly, the items inside the tent quickly packed and stored away and the tent itself disassembled in record time. Before long, they’re trudging over a sand dune towards where Leaf saw the ruins. In the distance, the first rays of sunlight are cresting over the distant dune covered horizon, causing the two adventurers to move faster lest they get caught out in the open.

Yet, even at the pace they set, which is quite breakneck considering the fact they’re carrying all their supplies, the sun has come halfway over the horizon by the time they’re climbing the dune to get inside the ruined structure. They make it to an acceptable entrance as the first rays of light start to bath the desert in true sunlight, casting long shadows along the ancient weather worn walls inside the ruins.

Once inside, Daring wastes no time, instantly unhooks her saddlebags and grabs a lamp from one of the pouches. The lamp doesn’t illuminate a great deal of the room, but what it does reveal makes Daring smile.

“Its another map!” She says excitedly, “This must be the way station, or at the very least a crossroad marker!” Daring instantly rushes over and starts looking over the map, a happy smile on her face.

Leaf simply chuckles and takes off his own heavy saddlebags and sits next to the entrance. This isn’t his field, the ancient writings and scriptures and stuff. Sure, he had picked up some old languages and such from spending so much time with Daring, but he couldn’t even make heads or tails of the book they’d procured.

Show him a plant, though, and he could identify it in his sleep! Could tell you where it is from, what it was useful for, and it if was edible. Honestly, they’d relied on that last one a few times out in the jungle on trips that lasted just a bit longer than their supplies, a fact he was quite proud of.

As he sits, the sun starts to rise behind him, his shadow growing longer as the room becomes better illuminated by the growing light. Before long, the entire wall opposite the entrance, save for a pony-shaped shadow, can be clearly seen without the need of a lamp. Daring takes notice of this and quickly puts her lamp down next to the wall map she had been studying and going over to sit next to Leaf. She pulls the book out of a saddle bag, and the copied map out of her pocket, and puts them down in front of them.

“This looks like the map in the book, but...different.” She leans her head to one side, a hoof on her helmet so as to keep it on her head, “It’s obviously older, but is it the area we’re looking for?” Leaf shrugs and looks to Daring with a smile.

“Well, get closer, and I’ll get out of the light.” He stands up and walks out of the doorway, sitting his plot down next to the saddlebags, “If it is, we’re one step closer to our goal.” He winks, “And you that giant fluffy blanket for a month.” Daring shoots him a flat look, but doesn’t deny it. Instead, she goes over towards the wall, her shadow growing smaller and smaller with each echoing hoof-fall.

Leaf watches her as she starts examining the wall, a small smile growing into a broad grin as he watches her easily navigate the ancient carved texts and images. Clearly, she is in her natural element, and the passion she puts into it could hardly be called anything less than a love. Of course, Leaf had yet to see her look at anything else like that, though sometimes when she looked at him, he swore he could see a spark of something…

“Ah-ha!” Daring exclaims from the other side of the room, “I think I’ve got it!” She turns and gestures with one hoof for Leaf to join her. As he does she points to a place on the large mural-map, “I think this is where we are,” The area she points to seems to be a small town, not all that much unlike Ponyville or even Apploosa. “If I’m right, then this is where what Luna sent us after should be.” She points to another place, this one seeming to be a valley or enclosed area that looks almost like a large park or nature preserve. “It is unfortunately not close,” Daring says slowly, “but if we really push for it, I think we can make it before the worst of the heat takes hold.”

Looking over her shoulder, Daring frowns, the sun almost fully risen and the air outside is already starting to shimmer with heat.

“We’d best hurry then,” Leaf says with an equally worried frown. Daring nods at this and crosses back over to the saddlebags, Leaf right behind her, and casts one last glance at the mural and silently prays to Luna she is right.

Pulling her helmet down to shade her eyes Daring leads the way back out into the desert, the heat instantly assaulting her hooves and body. While not as unbearable as the cold at night, Daring cannot help but growl as each step leads to more hot sand beneath her hooves. And this was only an hour into the day, it can only get worse.

And worse it got indeed.

The map had been quite accurate except that it was also old enough that Celestia herself had to have only been a twinkle in her mother’s eye when it was put on the wall, so the lay of the land had changed, and what could have been a few hours worth of a walk back during the days of the Equus Empire, was now more of a trek through dunes the size of Canterlot Castle, with the only shelter from the sweltering sun coming early in the day when the dunes cast long shadows between each crest. As it became obvious that they would not reach their destination before the sun hit the area in the sky where no shade would be available, and the heat would rise to the point that their hide would tan -- and not in the good way -- Leaf pulls out robes he had procured from locals back in the port town they had arrived in, and offers one to Daring. Putting them on adds a few minutes to their journey, but they become sheltered from the sun, though the heat still assaulted them to no end, and it was worth the delay.

By the time the sun is at its peak, they have reached what looks to be an expanse of rocks jutting out from the desert sands -- a few dunes even going to far as to almost reach the peak of a few of the rocks -- with an opening in the general area of where they had been approaching from. Neither of them are too keen on remaining in the sun much longer, so without a word between them they both make towards the opening, their minds and hearts set on at least finding some sort of shade, water if possible!

Once through the entrance, which is perhaps no wider than two ponies side-by-side, they find themselves in a world quite unlike what they had experienced outside. For starters, the very air is different, a sweet almost honey-like scent drifting on the breeze, filling their scorched lungs with fresh and noticeably cooler air.

The ground is also different, a soft carpet of grass, and even moss, is everywhere except for a path that leads directly from the small entrance towards what looks to be a massive building in the center of a verdant green oasis. It seems to be made out of highly polished stone -- much like the Castle back in Canterlot -- perhaps marble or granite, with high arching windows currently open to make use of the light breeze that is slowly drifting through the area. This must be the library, but it is in pristine condition, especially for something that well over a few thousand years old!

Daring looks to Leaf, who looks over at Daring, both of their faces frozen in an expression of disbelief.

“We...should get over there, make sure it isn’t a mirage,” Daring says slowly, Leaf nodding beside her as he looks around.

“Yeah...though I would like to look at some of these plants,” he says slowly, his eyes drawing to well tended rows of flowers and bushes, someone clearly was maintaining this place. “Most of these don’t grow here! Some of these don’t grow anywhere anymore!”

“You can stop to smell the roses later, Leaf,” Daring says in a serious tone, “We’re here on a mission. Besides,” continues with a smirk, “I am sure there are more inside, and you can most likely get closer to them inside, and in a controlled environment, too!”

“You just want to get out of the sun,” Leaf says with a pout.

“Don’t you?” Daring replies as she starts forward, flicking her tail in his face.

“Yeah…” he replies, his eyes fixed on her before coughing. “I mean, you’re right, the controlled environment sounds better than out here.” He follows after her, his eyes wandering over all the plants, even spying a few animals. “Besides… I want to meet whoever has a hoof in keeping this place so well maintained…” Daring simply nods at the statement, her eyes fixed on the large wooden doors that must lead inside. She is also interested in whoever is keeping this place running. Perhaps they have the answers they’ve been sent to find. Perhaps they can answer some of Daring’s own questions.

Stopping next to the door, Daring looks to Leaf as she places a hoof on the door, her companion nodding to her as he does the same. As one they push, the massive door sliding inward on hinges that make the door feel as light as air.

And as one, they step inside, eager to continue their strange journey.