The unicorn remembered helping the Pea away from the cave after she’d collapsed in the sunlight. It looked like she was covered in deep red ink, not blood. He had heard stories about how Lepurics can kill you even after they die, Pea's reactions validated his fears.
Pea woke up in a state of panic, saying that her skin burned like it was on fire. She smacked and scratched at her chest and neck where the lepuric’s blood had congealed until he got her to a babbling creek.
When she saw the water she pounced to it and splashed water onto her skin. She picked up handfulls of moss and scrubbed at the blood, trying to get it off to no avail. The moss quickly wilted and turned brown from being in contact.
Two days had passed in the log house. Pea lay in bed with a fever and the unicorn stayed by her side to help feed her and keep her clean.
She groaned and smiled, looking at him. "Have you eaten today?" her voice cracked.
"You need it more than I do," he said, "I'm still young and I’m used to hunger. You need your rest, Pea," he commented with a knowing look.
Pea sighed, "Shit. I'm getting old, aren't I?"
The unicorn chuckled, "You're still as active as most broncos in their prime, saying you're 'old' is poppycock."
Pea looked down at her arms that lay across her belly. She weakly pulled them up and looked closely at the exposed coiling inside. The blood from the Lepuric was still moist and was gumming up the joints in her limbs. She wiggled her fingers with difficulty. The unicorn gazed at her artificial body parts with curiosity.
“Hey Sparky, can you do something for me?”
“Sparky?” he asked curiously.
“Yeah, you left me in the dark like a spark,” she mused as his expression fell.
“My first name is Sparky?” he said plainly, “Fine, it’ll work, I guess. Mother called me Light before I was sold, so I guess it works,” he said looking up in memory.
"Can you do a favor for me?" Pea asked.
"Anything, just name it."
Pea lifted her left arm out. With her right hand she found a latch around her armpit, she opened it and began twisting a rod inside. There was a clicking sound, like resetting a clock, until the metal arm fell to the floor. The Unicorn stared dumbly at her unattached limb. He looked up to see she was now focused on her legs.
There were rings halfway up her thigh very similar to barrel rings. They had vertical notches she un-clipped them like locks on a suitcase. It was tedious but she finished one leg then stopped. She stared at her right leg and bit her lip.
"It's been awhile since I've taken off my back legs..." She said quietly, "I hate it.”
She twisted the metal part of her leg and tightened her whole body from the shock wave of pain. After sliding it off Sparky saw why; where her natural thigh ended was a cap full of holes and recoiled cords.
There was a plug at the center which he realized was her femur, outfitted to being the anchor for her prosthetic legs. She repeated the process with her left leg. Once done, she rolled the two legs off the bed, they landed with a loud clatter of metallic noise.
"I need you to wash these for me," Peal croaked, "Make sure every bit of gunk and crap is cleaned out of them."
The Unicorn cocked his head to the side. "What about your right arm? Surely it needs treatment also?"
Pea pulled her only limb close to her. "When you’re done with the others come back for this one."
"But we're safe here," The Unicorn chuckled, "what are you so worried about?"
The mare's eyes burned back at him, "I'm keeping it!"
The Unicorn was terrified to see her that angry and shied away. With a nod he levitated the three limbs up and quickly carried them out of their room behind him. Pea calmed down once he was gone and laid back comfortably.
Sparky rushed downstairs, on his way out he saw Gunter carrying dust coated bags over his shoulder and a pickaxe. Sparky noticed that the crazy look in his eyes was now something different… almost lifeless.
Shaking this off the equine darted off with the limbs in a magical tow. He kept his quick pace, not wanting to be alone too long he headed to the same creek where Pea washed herself. After two days the place she was had been stained, where lush green grass had been was a dead brown spot.
Using his magic he levitated some water from the creek.The water soon became rusty from the lepuric blood.
He grimaced and tossed the water to the side, away from the stream. There was a big splash and a faint hiss from droplets of the tainted water hitting the foliage nearby.
He continued the process until the water had cleaned the limbs to the dull metal they might have been before he met her.
He began his return back to the cabin, his mind in a tizzy. He knew just being around that thing was appalling, touching it's blood was dangerous, but what about Gunter? That mine had Lepuric blood soaking into the rock and it's body still lay there ready to rot.
What kind of damage would it do to the rock. What about the metal in that mine? The Unicorn was lost in thought.
If he had been paying attention to his surroundings he would've smelled the stranger quicker.
With a rustle of nearby brush, Sparky’s ears perked up in surprise. There was a humanoid figure behind it. The figure stood up, towering over the unicorn at almost eight feet tall. The limbs were long and powerful like an ape's, even the face was more primal than a man's with a pronounced lower jaw.
His red-tan skin had chalky white markings over his chest, arms, and face. His head and back was covered with many pelts and feathers. This was no ordinary orc, but an orc shaman.
The Unicorn had finally met an orc; or it finally found him.
"Horn horse, whose legs are those?" the orc asked in a shirt grumbling voice as he gestured the metal arm and legs.
Sparky's knees trembled at the orcs imposing stature. He lowered the mechanical limbs and his horn glowed brighter. "D-don't take another step closer. Th-these belong to m-my mistress."
"Don't try us. Old man in the house of wood will die." The ape-like beast’s words were slurred by massive black rotted teeth. "You and metal horse, be food for orcs."
Sparky’'s ears picked up the quiet footsteps of more feet. He glanced to his sides and saw more orckind surrounding him in a large circle. The shaman raised a hand to point at the small equine. The rattling of tiny bones jingled ominously on his wrist.
The shaman's sunken grey eyes bore into Sparky's. "The old man will die after three times the sun has set. When he dead, we will take his house. If you are there, we skin you. If you leave, we find you."
Sparky’s features trembled with fear from the shaman's threat.
He heard the gruff laughs from the other orcs surrounding him. He drew Pea's dismembered parts closer to him.
The shaman bared his teeth. "Run, little horse. We will be watching, waiting."
Sparky turned and he fled, weaving through the orcs that surrounded him without impediment, careful not to drop his cargo. His hooves beat against the detritus covered ground as he galloped back to safety.
Pea was restless.
Her eyes grew heavy and she drifted to sleep, she didn't want to dream, so she remembered.
At first it was blurry.
Nothing more than smeared colors, birds, and a landscape she couldn’t identify. The birds soon became black, eventually becoming vultures.
She was standing was a hill as an old smell came back to her nostrils. It was one she hadn't encountered for years but could never forget. It was the smell of a battlefield a day after, the stench was a banquet of death and spent gunpowder.
A grunt came from behind her. "Come back to camp, the fight is done."
She looked back and saw Rochi. His right foreleg was in a splint. In his aqua eyes was an icy look as he asked her. "You really can't leave it, can you?"
"I-I was just getting some fresh air," Pea had said.
"I'll be damned if this filth is fresh air," Rochi said before he spat to the brown grass they stood in as he limped up to her.
She noticed his armor, small iron plates tied together over tough leather, it had been stained with blood. A green bandana was tied around his bald head covering a head wound.
Looking out at the field he coughed as his face pained from the stench. "That's quite a new smell, isn't it?"
"The smoke," Pea inhaled, "the smoke from the guns you've been making."
Rochi laughed and smiled grimly. "Yes, it's amazing, isn't it? Almost makes the air bearable."
"Not when the other side was using them too,"Pea said quietly, "the same ones you made."
Rochi grinned, showing what teeth had left. "We are mercenaries, Pea, what do you expect me to do to get a profit?"
Pea swallowed hard. "I've cut down many men; many equines like us. But those rifles you've made..."
"What the fuck am I supposed to do?" Rochi hopped and stamped with his good hoof for effect, "our trade is death,” he said loudly, “we're paid to kill, Gravel. I'm trying to make so we don't have to run into the pits of tartarus with of a mouth of swords, can't you understand that?"
"Then they'll just spit lead at us then, what after that?" Pea glared at the stallion, "We’ll be weighed down with armor so thick that a bullet won’t break, just so a bigger gun will be made to break it."
Rochi's anger ebbed. "Yes, but it's progress. Do you think that the world will be stuck like this forever? Sticks and stones with some magic to hurl them at each other? Someone's bound to change something,"
"Yeah, like that centaur, Belial," Pea grimaced, "he and his cult are the reason this whole damn war started."
Rochi limped closer to Pea. "He may have started it, but I, we, will end it."
Pea snapped awake as she listened.
The sound of hooves against wood grew closer. She relaxed to see Sparky in the doorway, the look on his face however, was anything but calming. He had an anxious look in his shifting opal eyes.
"You look worried," Pea mused, "I've been asleep for what, two days?"
"T-three," Sparky said, "three days.”
"No wonder I'm so hungry," she chuckled. She used her arm to prop herself up. "So, how's the sword and Gunter doing?"
"That is what I came to tell you, after I was aware you were awake," He gulped nervously, "your sword is finished, but the blacksmith, Gunter, is dead."
Pea sat up in shock. "What?! Did something kill him? Who did it?!"
Sparky took a reflexive step back. "H-he didn't eat or drink for three days… Once your sword was complete, he went for a walk, came back, and just dropped over dead."
"Come on," Pea said moving her body, pointing her limb stubs at him, "I've got to get to the bottom of this, hook me back up."