Applejack finished packing her tent and sat still, appreciating the silence. When a moment passed and no sound came to be, she started worrying. She glanced at Winona, whose ears were erected. Silently, she unbuckled her bags and stood.
Minutes passed and nothing happened.
She put her bags on again and walked, wary of the silence, closer to the crevice's border. The only life in sight was a fox peeking out of a hole, which disappeared immediately after their eyes met. She gulped and backed away from the border.
-º-
A twig snapped.
Applejack turned, her heartbeat a mile a minute.
Another twig cracked.
There was a tingle.
Many somethings ran away, not caring for silence.
She walked backward, too afraid to take her eyes off the amber light that could be guessed through the trees. Winona watched her without understanding.
The amber light faded, and after a moment she kept walking.
A few minutes later, another twig was broken.
-º-
What Applejack felt when something jumped at her was, she noticed in a wandering flash of worry, dangerously close to relief.
The path she was taking was bordered, at a side, by a small stone wall twice as tall as she was and covered in vegetation. There was an indistinct shape standing in it, but the one falling to her was more concerning.
She didn't have time to think much, so she took the most obvious option: holding a hoof upward awkwardly, in the way of the flower wolf's face.
She almost fell under the weight of the impact, but managed to stay on her hooves and then, feeling more than a bit of pleasure at the release of nervous energy, punched the flower wolf in the head while it was still trying to get its bearings, then unbuckled her bags.
She was vaguely aware of Winona and a wolf jumping at each other, but too distracted by a second falling wolf.
Birds, she thought.
She moved out of the wolf's way and, in the instant in which gravity hadn't quite figured out what to do and it stood in its face, bucked it.
Attack from above. Attack when in a small space.
They are trying to hunt us like birds.
There was a feeling of strain in her hindhooves, which was probably related to the wolves being heavier than she was.
Do they even know how to hunt anything else? Only birds would be big enough to sustain them...
The first wolf seemed to be coming to its senses, so she hit it in the head again and then yelped away when another wolf, this one closer to her size, jumped from the grass.
One of her hind hooves fell in a hole and bent, thankfully, in the direction it was supposed to bend. Still, it left her in an almost biped standing position, her belly exposed.
The wolf jumped at her again, and all she could do was put an arm in its way. There was a red-hot pain in it for an instant before the wolf was jumped at by a bloodied Winona, and-
-and everyone except for Winona stopped when there was a tingle.
A wolf yelped briefly before its throat was torn out, which made everything start again.
"Oh" said a vaguely female voice.
Another wolf jumped over Winona, aiming for her neck.
"_ate, alw_ys l_te"
The ember wisp appeared in the wolf's face.
"Go"
The wolf, its face contorted in terror, fled. The others only spared the wasp a glance before escaping too.
"_ways l_te, _ven to..." the ember seemed to turn to her despite having no face "_hat w_s it th_t I was la_e fo_?"
Applejack was too busy trying to process what was happening to answer.
"_h, ri_ht. The hag_ns, __e hagens..." her voice was constantly interrupted by clicks, similar to something small and hard hitting glass "the h_gens attack__ you, right?"
Applejack nodded, then remembered she had a mouth.
"Why are you following us?" she asked. Her last follower had been a monomaniac.
"I _m?"
"Yes"
"Oh"
Another loony. Great. She turned to see Winona's state.
"_nd __o are y_u?" Applejack didn't answer "F_rgive m_ forg_tf_lness, Nanda said _ am..." the wisp fell silent for a while "I forg_t wh_t she s__d"
Winona had many small wounds, enough to be dangerous if she hadn't been eating properly, but the forest provided abundantly. Still, it'd mean a lot of blood lost...
She patted her in the head distractedly and poured half a bottle of disinfectant in her bite wounds, then put the bags on again and Winona in her back. The dog tried to hop off, but after being held in place by a firm hoof for a moment fell still. Once everything was done, she walked on.
-º-
Hours later, she found a small area with stone ground, some grass growing in the dirt of its cracks. There was a spring in it.
Applejack tasted the water to make sure that it was safe, then filled her canteen in it. With that done, she put a generous portion of her remaining disinfectant in a plate and forced Winona into the small spring. She scrubbed the wounds with disinfectant and water carefully, reopening some wounds.
The wisp still followed them, making her own conversation.
"..._ut if __e d__r..."
Applejack ignored her. They'd need somewhere to sleep safely, and the wisp would probably forget any promise of keeping rocs at bay.
-º-
It was hours later, when sun had gotten dangerously high, that she found a small area with bushes high enough to hide the tent.
She armed it, ignoring the wisp's chatter as she did so, so she didn't notice it when, after sunlight illuminated her eyes, the wisp fell silent.
A moment after pony and dog had fallen to sleep, the wisp floated around the tent in confusion. She had seen eyes like those, somewhere, long ago...