“You don’t talk much do you, can you at least make some sort of noise?” Trixie asked her little companion, trotting beside him as he continued dragging her carriage and looked at her with a questioning look on its face. But it remained silent and after she said nothing more after a few moments it looked back forward, no longer able to occupy itself with juggling rocks as it had thrown the rest of them into the trees earlier.
Sighing she looked back ahead, she was used to traveling by her lonesome but when there was somepony or rather something else with her she’d like to think it’d talk. Or make noise. The only noise it made so far was the sound of it dragging her cart across the rocky ground. It was sort of unnerving but was offset by the way it looked, non-menacing in every way. Minus the whole super strength thing it had going on. But as long as it used its strength to help her out that was fine with her, she had in one day managed to cover four days worth of travel.
Looking up though she could see the sun starting to go down which meant they’d have to stop soon, because while the path was well marked she wasn’t willing to try it at night. Not to mention her aching stomach which had yet to growl at her somehow despite not eating in a while. She magically poked her companion to get his attention and then started to pull off her yoke, which took him a few moments to realize what she wanted and eventually let go of the yoke. Rolling her shoulders, to stretch her muscles, she smiled at him and gave a nod, knowing he wouldn’t understand otherwise.
Turning to her carriage she went to the door and opened it up so she could magic out two bricks she often used to make sure her carriage didn’t go rolling anywhere. Meanwhile he just watched from around the corner and went slightly wide-eyed as the bricks came out enveloped in her magic. She placed the two bricks under the front wheels and kicked them to make sure it was secure. It was a bit early to go to sleep though so she didn’t go inside her carriage yet, opting to sit on her steps instead.
He watched her for a few moments before walking over to her and sitting at the bottom of the steps head leaning back against the bottom of the step, despite there being a spot next to her. She idly watched the trees off the trail move with the wind, a peaceful rustling coming from them. It was different. But nice, compared to her usual routine of walking till the point of collapse, this time just until it got darkish.
A growling stomach interrupted her and set her companion on edge, his reaction being to immediately stand up and whip his head around in circles. She giggled a little bit at his reaction making him look at her instead, a snarl that was there for an instant, just as quickly gone and replaced by his more curious face. Somehow he realized the sound had come from her stomach despite being startled by it.
He looked at her stomach then back up at her and back down again. His head moved back and forth several times as if it was thinking, reminding her of a bobblehead before it shrugged and turned around, to look down the trail. A slight crack noise and an explosion of rocks later and he was gone, leaving her to wonder how he just did that, before leaning back on her seat of steps. He was probably able to take care of himself if he was able to do that and drag her cart like he did, plus it was something she’d seen him do already so it wasn’t too surprising.
So she looked back at the trees and ignored the pang of hunger in her stomach, not wanting to degrade herself to eating grass. Time passed as she sat there just enjoying the movement of the trees, the sun slowly going down behind them, and the moon coming up behind her, probably anyways as she couldn’t see it thanks to her carriage.
After about five or ten minutes when she was getting ready to turn in for the night until she heard a slight whistling noise. She looked around trying to place where the sound was coming from, ears flicking to help her place the sound. She didn’t have to look for long though as the ground exploded once again, sending her screaming and scrambling back up her steps, slamming against the door. With her heart pounding in her chest and blood rushing through her ears she became part of the door as much as was possible the dust slowly moving in the night wind.
The wind was barely there but it worked ever so slowly to move the dust that was kicked up, just to reveal the thing that had scared her was none other than her companion with a bunch of apples tucked in his arms. His head once again cocked to the side at her in confusion, resuming its normal orientation after he shook it and grabbed one of the apples he had in his arms and handed it over.
A small smile played upon his lips, just there for a moment, before dissipating back into its usual placid expression. All the while the apple he was holding just stayed in front of her waiting for her to take it, as if it was the most normal thing for him to come flying out of the nowhere like that.
She would have kept thinking like before but she was tired and hungry so without questioning she just levitated the apple out of his hands and to her mouth, happily taking a chunk out of it. He sat back down at the bottom of the steps, seemingly content. Her lip twisted slightly at that, it just didn’t feel right. He helped her pull her cart, killed a cockatrice that was threatening her and got apples for her… though where he got them would probably be questionable.
Her leg moved to poke him in the back to get his attention. He turned to her with an irritated face and she just patted the space on the step next to her, another smile appearing. She smiled too as he scampered up the steps to sit next to her and laid his head against her fur, his hairless and warm skin feeling weird against hers. Sitting together she realized something.
She started calling it a he without even thinking about it.