//------------------------------//
// 9 - The Escape 
// Story: Ponyfinder: Roots of Stone 
// by David Silver 
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They sprinted as one through the claustrophobic service tunnels of the arena, galloping past a few humans that startled at the sight of them, but didn't respond fast enough to bar their way.

Tree Hugger softly huffed as she ran, clearly unused to such physical labor. "Do we... know where we're going?"

Fast suddenly turned to the side, but didn't halt her motion. She slid right into a door and battered it down with her side. "Humans build certain places with familiar patterns. So, yes, I hope."

Maud jumped for Fast, tackling her to the ground suddenly as a mace swung over them both where Fast had been standing a moment before.

"Found them," reported a man in a full suit of metal plates in a rough shout. "Moving in." He had a small metal shield in one hand, and that mace in the other hand, clearly ready for a real battle.

With Maud and Fast sprawled on the ground, Tree panicked a moment, then got a quick idea. She focused on the green energy as she intoned. She wasn't saying any particular prayer. She just made meditative noises and waggled her forehooves in the air as she slowly stepped back. She made all the fuss and furor of casting some kind of spell. Perhaps a more skilled person of arcane training would see through her ruse quickly.

That man was not one of them. "Stop right there!" He jumped over the prone figures of the recovering ponies and rushed for Tree. She squealed as he made a mighty swing of his mace for her face. She fell over backwards in an artless flail. The man adjusted his swing and battered her chest with the sound of a bone snapping. Her wail was sharp as she curled on herself in misery.

Sudden clopping steps prompted him to turn, but he didn't finish the motion before Fast crashed into him, lance first. She drove it deep into his side, forcing him to collide with the wall.

Maud slipped up between Fast's legs and began battering at the man in a dizzying tornado of crushing strikes. A final blow to the face should have knocked the man unconscious, but instead it just knocked his helmet off, revealing blonde hair, and that the man was a woman.

She took the moment of surprise to bring down the mace at Maud. She couldn't land the blow on the agile martial artist, but it forced her back enough to backpedal, stepping over the prone and miserable form of Tree Hugger.

Fast raised a brow. "Do they know? Women do not often serve in human armies."

"Shut up!" ordered the human female. "They don't need to know."

Fast cracked a soft smile. "They don't. We're leaving. You were overpowered." She gestured to the fallen helmet. "Good luck, sister."

The human reclaimed her helmet and didn't stand in their way. There was an understanding between them. One Maud didn't entirely understand, but accepted. She moved instead for Tree Hugger. "Are you alright?"

Tree slowly rolled to her good side, and pushed to her hooves. "I'll be... alright... I feel like... we just need a moment... to rest..."

Fast scowled. "I don't like the sound of that rasping. Can you carry her?"

Maud slipped beneath Tree and became her mount swiftly. Together with Fast, they moved beyond the door, to the stairs upwards beyond. They curved sharply, but otherwise didn't stop them from scrambling up them in a hurry. They reached doors on the way up, but Fast rushed past each one in turn, so Maud kept following her, until they arrived at the top. Fast threw open the door, revealing the walkways that ran along the top of the amphitheatre.

Fast rushed out, but crept down, keeping herself beneath the level of the parapets there. "They won't expect us to flee up here."

Maud nodded as she followed, glancing down at the street far below. "How do we get down?"

Tree sat up a little and pointed. "There. Go there..." She was pointing to a building nearby with vines growing across its stone walls, the church. Fast nodded with quick agreement and hurried for it. Tree began a spell in earnest. "Long and supple, soft and grasping, vines don't let us fall too fastly!" The green rippled over her body, and dimly across the wall. "Ready..."

Fast tilted her head back at Tree before nodding. "Time for faith." She suddenly jumped across to the vines, though she doubted their ability to support her. Despite the doubt, they suddenly grasped for her and held her to the wall like a worried parent. Maud landed moments later, and began to walk down the wall slowly. The vines clung and held tenaciously, but didn't stop her, just slowed her, and prevented her from falling to the ground until she stepped off smoothly.

"This way," came a hissed whisper.

They all looked to see a common human male. One that Maud recognized. It was the man she rescued from the bandits earlier. "Hurry! Before they see you." He waved at them to come inside a small building. Maud hurried to the man and vanished into the dark of the house. There wasn't time to ask her about it, so Fast followed, and the door was closed quickly behind them.

The interior was lit by a few candles. It looked similar to Paul and Flint's house. He nodded softly. "Rest a spell. Thank you. I didn't get a chance to say it before. You saved me from those fiends. You're made of good stuff, uh, sir?"

Maud tilted her head at him, but didn't correct him. "Thank you."

Her voice was a bit of a hint. "Oh gods! I didn't mean any offense, ma'am."

Fast held up a hoof. "Enough, thank you. We need a moment to recover... Why don't you go right in front, do something, play a game. If anyone asks if your house has been disturbed, you tell them that it hasn't, send them along."

The man bobbed his head. "Right, right, good idea, miss. Just knock if you need me. Uh, don't make a mess." He quietly left, leaving the ponies to their peace.

Maud carefully set Tree to the ground. "Are you alright?"

Tree took a raspy breath. "Nothing... some rest... won't make right..." Her form flashed the green of magic, and suddenly she went still, limp, and relaxed. A little smile spread across her snout.

Maud tilted her head, then looked to Fast. "Your name is Fast Shadow?"

Fast nodded. "A pleasure to meet you properly. What was your name? Maud was it?"

Maud nodded. "Maud Pie." She pointed to Tree. "Tree Hugger."

Fast cracked a soft smile. "A name most befitting her profession. Do you know what spell she used? She's sounding better."

It was true, the rasping was getting fainter and fainter by the moment, and Tree looked truly relaxed and becoming whole. Fast shook her head. "I wish she'd cast it on us."

Maud tapped her chin. "If she could, she would... I think. I don't understand magic."

Fast chuckled softly. "Make that two. I know how to fight a spellcaster, if I have to. I know how to fight beside one, and to protect one, but that doesn't make me understand what they're doing. Your friend was very brave, calling attention to herself. Weavers of magic very often have frail bodies."

Tree Hugger suddenly sat up, healed and fit. "I'm, like, totally fit, sister."

Maud moved over to Tree Hugger and leaned in, pressing an ear to her chest. She seemed entirely recovered from the hammer blow. "Should we go?"

Tree frowned softly. "I want to help you two... I feel like I'm down to just shakes in my bag. Before we split, we should find... an oak tree, or some berries. Yeah, that'd work."

Fast tilted her head. "You've not led us astray so far. I understand, druid Hugger. I've been healed by the freshly picked berries of druids before, and that sounds delicious and well-needed right now. You've used many spells, and even the gods only allow so much of their power to be wielded without a full night's rest." She moved for the door slowly. "Don't feel bad about it. You have both proven yourselves companions worthy of bearing the title."

Tree smiled brightly at the compliment. "Far out! Nice to meet you too, Fast Shadow, even if we totally met in a gnarly way. Let's promise to never go fighting each other, alright?"

Maud looked to Fast. "I don't understand her half the time either." That seemed a relief to Fast, and mild irritation to Tree Hugger. "But I agree with her."

Fast nodded. "Right, no more fighting against my fellow pony. Your appearance... It reminds me of something... Something so long ago..." She frowned softly. "I apologize, some parts of my life are too distant to recall."

Tree tilted her head in confusion. "What? Are you, like, immortal?"

Fast licked over her lips. "In a sense... The priests of The Author said I was not allowed to rest. I am a part of her story. I'm always there, somewhere. Remembering past a normal pony's lifetime, that's basically impossible." She glanced to the door, then back at her new companions. "Put that aside for now. It won't help us escape. We need my supplies. I have a mission, one I hope I can get your help with, after we're out of this Sun Queen forsaken town...

Maud blinked softly. "Sun Queen?"

Fast made a soft shushing motion and slowly pulled the door open to look around before she slipped out in a dart. Maud and Tree followed out, and soon they were headed out of the town, towards the large manor they could see. It was slightly higher up than most of the town. "The better to defend it," claimed Fast as they veered off to the side into a copse of trees. Her eyes swiftly spotted a bushel of honeysuckles and pointed to it. "Does this work?"

Tree Hugger moved up to it swiftly, considering. It was good enough. She softly neighed as she reached for just the perfect ones. "Fill their bellies, soothe their pains, make them all right as rain." With about six honeysuckle buds in her hooves, she held them out. "Here."

Maud took one and chewed it softly. "I prefer rocks." Despite that, she forced down two more blossoms, and looked a little better for it. 

Fast took her portion without fanfare. "Thank you, Tree? Do you prefer Tree, or Miss Hugger? Druid Hugger?"

Tree tilted her head slightly. "All of those are righteous... What's a druid?"

Fast recoiled a little. "You. A cleric of nature. One who worships the order of the world itself, and is empowered by it. You are a textbook definition of a druid."

Tree Hugger gave a soft nod. "Far out... I guess I am. I prefer trees."

Fast shrugged a little. "A druid can have their favorites, no harm in that. Enough of that. I am a warrior, and without my tools, I am naked." She turned her eyes to Maud. "You are... a brawler? Perhaps a monk? A martial artist of one stripe or another, and very talented at it, may I add. If you had pinned me in a corner, I would have been at your mercy. Speaking of that..."

Maud suddenly spoke up, "Shouldn't we be going?"

Fast paused, then nodded. "Too right. We can discuss this more after we're putting this place behind us."

As one, they turned back to the manor.