A hawk fluttered over the pinewood treetops, soaring on thermals and searching the gaps in the trees. It flapped twice, picking up some height as it scanned the needled floor for movement. A vole, a mouse, anything would do. Autumn was coming and game was scarce already. It let out a sharp cry, hoping to scare some creature into exposing itself.
The bird heard a loud crack, like air ripping apart and looked down. It saw a momentary flash of white drawing near before mind-shredding pain overwhelmed it and the world spun into an unrecognizable smear. It let out a sharp cry and tried to flap, but jolts of pain tore through it with every movement.
It hit the ground with a hard thud, bouncing once before laying mostly still. Its one functioning eye spun around wildly for a moment, trying to figure out what was going on and what had happened. That lasted only a moment before it saw black fangs closing in on it and the creature knew no more.
The Bandersnatch whined loudly as it tore a chunk off the downed hawk, chewing noisily. It gobbled the piece down and grabbed the rest of the bird, tilting it's head back to swallow the creature whole. It extended its long, green tongue to lap blood up off the ground, whining desperately in hunger and frustration for a second before coughing up a burst of feathers. A meal as small as a hawk was barely worth the energy it took to grow the dart that hit it. It mostly just re-awoke the gnawing pain in its gut.
The hulking beast whined and snuffled around, searching out further scents for more creatures it could hunt down and eat. It followed the urine stink of a mole to its burrow but chose not to dig under the tree for it. The Bandersnatch then found a shed snakeskin and trailed it to the serpent that dropped it. That creature was easy to finish off but it was incapacitated for a few agonized minutes as it was wracked with poison. Eventually that passed and the creature stood up and was back on its way.
After almost a full morning of rabid, starved wandering, the Bandersnatch picked up a scent, something wet and fetid and rotting. It perked up and squealed at the scent, snuffling the undergrowth and nearby trees for the trail. It knew the smell, loved that smell. The smell meant food and lots of it.
Eventually, the creature picked up the scent and went sprinting off down the path, plowing through brush and light trees to the source at the peak of a hill. To most, it would look like a furrowed clearing with young trees peeking through the piled soil. To the Bandersnatch though, it was a bounty of sustenance. It dove towards the nearest, chomping down and tearing it free from the ground. It cracked through the outer layer of bark to get to the green, pulpy wood inside and scooped it out with long, probing licks.
As it tore into the trunk, the plant let out a long whistle, like a howl of agony. As it did, the other plants in the grove joined in, twigs and chips of wood gathered near their roots lifting up in an attempt at defense. The pieces of wood bounced harmlessly off the sides of the Bandersnatch.
The giant beast let out content little whines and chirrups as it ate its fill. The marrow-wood was both delicious and sustaining, filling its gullet and abating the painful gnawing in its stomach for the first time in days.
After a few minutes of gorging itself the Bandersnatch heard a warbling howl nearby. It looked up and saw a glowing eyed beast drawing near, barking and howling as foaming sap leaked from its maw. It was quickly joined by another, and another. The Bandersnatch kept an eye trained on them as they gathered at the edges of the grove, but it was too hungry to simply stop eating.
As more and more of the timberwolves gathered, they grew more restless. Old, old instincts told each of them just how dangerous the creature on their hill was and urged them to flee. That was at odds with their other purpose, to reproduce, for the shoots on the hill were young heartwood, the central pieces that would someday become timberwolves themselves.
Only when the full pack had arrived, more than fifty in total, did their protective instinct override their old fear, and they broke into a collective charge at the huge monster, howling and foaming with rage. The first of them dove onto its limb, chomping hard on the foreleg. The Bandersnatch snapped at it, taking off most of the thing's shoulder and hauled its leg back, dragging the thing underneath it so it could shred it with four claws. Many others sprang forward to latch onto its flanks, hoping to bear it down with weight. They bit and tore at the beast's flesh, ignoring the lacerating razors that bit into their wooden bodies.
The Bandersnatch stumbled and cried out, shaking and writhing. A large one dove at the creature's neck, hoping a vulnerability lay there, but the Bandersnatch had strength enough to rear up despite the dozen or more wolves that hung from it. It came down on the wolf with an open maw, closing over most of the creature's chest and chomping it to pieces.
As more and more timberwolves piled on it, the Bandersnatch dropped to one knee. Desperate, it cried out and tensed every muscle along its sides and back, making every sharpened hair wave to rigid standing. In that second every timberwolf hanging from it died, each one pierced by dozens of razor sharp quills, sheer coverage piercing their heartwood. The Bandersnatch relaxed its hair and shook, flinging off pieces of pierced wolf to litter the clearing. It snarled and licked its blackened teeth, trickles of blue slowing as it healed from so many incidental wounds.
The remaining dozens of timberwolves rushed forward, slashing at its limbs as they dashed past. One of the wolves got lucky and latched onto its cheek, tearing and pulling at the prickly flesh. The Bandersnatch whined and whipped its head, sending the creature flying with a goodly sized chunk of its face. The Bandersnatch took that and the other hits gladly, not caring about small injuries. Within moments, the meat of its face was knitting back together.
For every three wolves that darted in for a strike, one was either caught in its jaws or swatted apart with a claw. When a wolf fell to the ground broken, the Bandersnatch would dive into its piled mess, instinctively sniffing out its heartwood to gulp down immediately or to simply break it out of sheer malice. Within minutes, their numbers had evaporated from a legendary pack of fifty able, fully grown timberwolves to a mere ten cowering creatures. Faced with their situation, the creatures broke and ran, retreating down the hill with their tails tucked.
The Bandersnatch was not willing to let them go so readily. It broke into a sprint after them, chirruping and warbling. The timberwolves glanced over their shoulders in panic and started shedding plates of wood to reduce their weight in an effort to pick up speed. The Bandersnatch chased anyway, it's hunger fired up. I leaped off a fallen log and spun in the air, cracking its tail forward to launch a spray of murderous darts at the fleeing timberwolves. One was struck and had its leg shattered. It rolled to the dirt and looked up in time to see the Bandersnatch descend on it, breaking it fully and tearing out its heartwood.
In the time it was eating, the rest of the timberwolves managed to put some significant distance between them. The Bandersnatch quickly and easily caught their trail and set off on the hunt. It snapped its jaw and lashed its tail eagerly, hungry for a fresh pursuit and the feeling of running down helpless prey.
It followed the trail to the river and crossed quickly. It reached the opposite bank and started snuffling around to find the smell of its prey once more. Instead of the fetid reek of Timberwolf breath, it picked up something unexpected: sweetness greater than any berry and rosepetals, with notes of churned earth and sweat as an afterthought. Alongside it was a trail of metal, oil, and blood with a layer of urine over it.
The scent struck the Bandersnatch like a wall. It flopped to the ground, eyes wide in panic. It half-remembered a fight, a hoof-thing and a hand-thing that called to it. It remembered attacking and being beaten back. It remembered fighting more, attacking with hit-and-run strikes that had let it defeat enemies for centuries and being foiled by a burst of color. And it remembered leaping, scrabbling its claws on stone and then falling so very far..
More than anything though, it remembered pain. It remembered the terrible pain of a flashing thing that sliced through its thoughts, hacking away memories that would only ever grow back enough that it would know their absence. It remembered the agony of forcibly regrowing a foreleg and then fighting on it immediately. It remembered falling so far and shattering on the rocks, only returning to life when it bobbed along the surface long enough to breathe again, and then the long struggle to shore and the painful wait to recover enough to move.
All this came in a flash to the Bandersnatch's mind. It stood breathing hard, glaring about, looking for something to express frustration on and settled for a large rock. It clawed and bit at the stone, gouging it deeply and tearing off chunks.
Minutes later it snuffed and sneezed, its fury vented as it looked along the river bank. Off in the distance, it could make out the specks of civilization, buildings and roads, long-abandoned but still standing. It knew that hoof-things and hand-things built such places and crudely reasoned that must be their destination.
It crooned one last time and started along the trail at an even gait, not hurried. For this, the Bandersnatch intended to take its time.
* * *
Raj grunted as he booted down the rotted door to the riverside house. Pinkie bounced inside and scanned around, a second later calling back, “Nothing here, Rajy.”
“Alright, move on to the next one,” he grunted as he trudged towards the next house, stepping gingerly over a puddle of water thick with scum.
Raj was not fond of this city, he decided. Griffons were not effective civil engineers. As they got into the city proper, he found that the buildings crowded together into dense clusters, and in many cases, they actually leaned and ground against one another. He assumed some of it was due to time and shifting soil, but it was still bothersome.
Also, he could scarcely go inside any of them. Pony architecture favored, for some odd reason, high roofs and vaulted ceilings, making only doorways difficult to navigate. Griffons seemed much more austere with their buildings, keeping their ceilings low and spartan. A strange trait for a race of winged creatures, but it meant that he had to go into a full crouch to fit in the peasant dwellings they had encountered so far. It alsomeant Pinkie was serving as their urban spelunker.
They stuck to the waterfront, raiding buildings that had either collapsed into the river or were looking to do so. They'd spent most of the early afternoon looking in them to no avail. Thus far they had only managed to find a faded painting, a jar of blue liquid, and...
“Look at this neat rock!” Pinkie cried as she bounced out of the most recent hovel holding a piece of carved stone in the shape of a griffon's head.
Raj looked down at it, thought for a second, and nodded. “Yep, that's a pretty cool rock all right.”
Pinkie grinned before shoving the statue in her mane. “See? Not a total bust.”
“No, it was. Anything less than Troll's Beard is a total bust, Pinkie. Let's keep going.”
Pinkie's grin faltered “Has anyone every told you you're a bit of a buzzkill, Rajrishi?”
“Hey, you're calling me Rajrishi now. Progress.” He turned and stared out across the river, looking at the other half of the city spread across the opposite bank. “Think we should search the other side too?”
Pinkie shrugged. “Nah, probably not any different.”
“Yeah. These buildings aren't right. They're mostly wood, not stone. Their roofs are collapsed, they have windows, and animals live in a lot of them.”
“Like that skunk that sprayed me?” she asked oddly cheerfully.
“Yes, like that skunk. Precisely like it.”
“So, we just need to find stony, uninhabited buildings without windows. Well, that's easy. Featherkeep!” she exclaimed with an excited hop.
“The castle?” Raj asked, looking down the river at the black line that ran over it. “Oh right... the castle. Wow, that's actually perfect.”
Pinkie grinned again. “See? Auntie Pinkie always knows just what to do!” She started hopping down the street towards the squat castle.
“I'm gonna hold you to that.” Raj worked his way up the collapsed street to where the ground was still solid.
The miles to Featherkeep passed quickly. As they got deeper into the city, the buildings became more intact, gaining height and detail. Ivy crept over every building and statues hung over street corners. Shoots grew from cracks between, cobblestones and full grown trees split the street a few times every block.
As they got nearer, they began to appreciate just how big Featherkeep was. The walls of it stood at a hundred feet tall on each shore, despite centuries of crumbling, and dipped low directly in the center of the wide river, the stone and bricks holding it together sagging under its own weight. The bridge built into it that spanned the river was almost an afterthought, low and flat enough you could hear the water flowing beneath. The entire structure drooped in the center, the river flowing over the bridge and out a gutter on the other side.
“This is perfect, Pinkie,” Raj said with a satisfied nod. “Thank God this place was built so poorly.”
“Yeah, it's really considerate of the Griffons to be so poopy at castles. Let's get inside.” She pressed her shoulder against the gate, but it refused to budge. “Or not.”
Raj was going to say something pithy, but he stopped when he heard a warbling shriek, far off. He snapped his gaze towards the city and saw a cloud of birds flying up in a panic.
Pinkie's pupils went wide and she lowered her head. Her eyes darted back and forth nervously. “Was that...”
“You have got to be kidding me,” Raj said to himself and drew out an ax.
A full block away, the wall of a house burst out, spraying splinters and grit onto the street. Along with it came the long low form of a massive white creature that snarled and spat. It let out another cry and started tearing along the ground, claws rending furrows in the cobblestones.
“Oh, you have got to be kidding me!” Raj repeated, shouting this time.
“Window!” cried Pinkie, pointing a hoof at a hole cut in the wall over the gate. Most of the glass in the metal lattice was still intact. “Help me!”
Raj lowered down and Pinkie hopped on his shoulders. He heaved upwards and Pinkie sprang off his shoulders, getting the height to grab onto the ledge. The whole time Raj stared at the oncoming beast, one white-knuckled hand gripping his ax, and the other flexing nervously.
Pinkie punched the glass out of the window, cutting her hoof a bit in the process, but she voiced no complaint. She hauled herself up and rolled her weight into the crossbars, popping them out with a clank and then a loud clatter as they hit the floor on the other side. She spun around and lowered a hoof.
Before she'd even fully gotten around Raj jumping up to meet her. The Bandersnatch had come so close he could see the pulsing in its eyes. He grabbed hold of hoof and she rolled back, dragging him up and through the opening.
Neither had the presence of mind to arrest their fall, and they flopped bonelessly on the stone floor as the gate buckled inwards, cracking loudly.
Raj sat up, rubbing his shoulder and groaning. Pinkie rose to her hooves with a groan and mumbled, “I landed on my butt again. Why do I keep hurting that?”
The gate bowed again, a snarling shriek echoing through it as the Bandersnatch threw itself against the door. Raj shook his head and tucked his ax back in its holster. “That isn't going to hold. We need to move.”
The two of them trotted through a high entryway into a passage off the main hall. Raj shouldered the door shut and barricaded it with a chair. Pinkie whispered, “That's not going to hold either.”
“Thanks, Pinkie. Very helpful.”
“How did it find us?”
“Hell if I know. It's a giant pointy, undying wolf older than civilization. Who knows what kind of evil bullshit it has going on. For all I know it sprouted wings and flew here.”
“What're we going to do, Rajy?” she asked.
Raj didn't answer right away, instead standing up to survey his surroundings. It was a surprisingly large chamber off the main hall. If he had to guess, he'd say it was a ready room or cloakroom based on the wall hooks and the chairs and a table pushed into corners. A narrow staircase ran up a wall and dog-legged across the chamber, connecting to a passage leading further into the castle. It was the first instance he'd seen of a building in this city that made use of its inhabitants’ wings.
“This place isn't designed for something of that size. We can dodge it, stay around it. As long as we're in the castle, we have the advantage,” Raj declared with confidence.
The main gate exploded inwards, and the Bandersnatch howl in victory. Without a word, Pinkie leaped to her hooves and rushed up the stairs, Raj close behind.
Pinkie was proven right a moment later when the Bandersnatch's face burst through the flimsy barricade. The thing struggled a bit and hissed up at Raj as he negotiated the narrow staircase. The Bandersnatch struggled a moment, drew back, and rammed again, hitting the frame of the door with its shoulders.
“Crap!” Raj shouted as the stairs shook, costing him his momentum as he had to crouch to stay on the path. Pinkie spun around and reached out to steady him, oddly sure on her own hooves.
He looked down to see the Bandersnatch draw back and plow in again, shattering through the wall and angling on the pair. It crouched down, legs coiled up like springs.
Grunting, Raj jumped forward, wrapping Pinkie in his arms as he dove for the entrance. He skidded through it, gliding along the floor on his arm and back. Behind him, the Bandersnatch blew through the staircase, scattering mortar and brick across the chamber. The creature shrieked in frustration and pain.
Pinkie stood up and shook dust off herself. “That thing's going to destroy the castle if it keeps up like that.”
Raj coughed and sat up. “Okay, change of plans. We're killing that thing.”