Morning broke beautifully, the dawn cutting between two distant mountains and slicing straight down the valley to shine into the cave.
“Yikes! I had no idea this cave was facing east. Give it a rest, Celestia,” Brûlée said, throwing her hooves in front of her eyes.
Blinking, Brûlée cast her eyes over the gryphon. Ava had covered her face with a wing and gone back to sleep. Her body slowly shifted with her breath, revealing soft white down under the mottled brown and white feathers. Her powerful leonine back legs twitched slightly as she dreamt, and her tail flicked nervously back and forth.
Just yesterday, Brûlée would have seen a creature like this as nothing but a dangerous predator, one of the monstrous things you find in the wilderness. Now she saw... what? A friend? A kindred spirit?
She’d never made friends quickly or easily, either at home or among the other students. Could it really be this easy? Just a few short hours, a few secrets shared, a few tears shed? Was that really all it took?
She stood slowly, careful not to disturb the sleeping gryphon, letting feeling seep back into her legs with a slow tingle as she sidled out of the cave.
Brûlée demurely lowered her tail, and turned with barely a glance behind her. In the last two days she’d had to get used to doing her business outside, but still felt ashamed each time. She couldn’t help but imagine somepony just round the corner, seeing her do something unseemly, somepony who would tell stories... but of course there wasn’t. There were no other ponies within miles of this place.
She trotted back into the clearing, feeling a faint blush under her hair. Ava had woken up and was standing outside the cave, stretching her legs and wings. She looked infuriatingly bright and well rested. “Hey there! I thought you’d run off.”
“No, just...” Brûlée indicated behind her with a hind hoof. She didn’t imagine the gryphon had ever encountered indoor plumbing.
Ava nodded. “Sure. I’m going to have some breakfast before we head off. You should do the same if you can. It’s no fun flying on an empty stomach.”
Ava stuck her head in the cave and dragged her bags out with her beak, pulled the rabbit from them and started tearing it into strips with her beak and talons. Brûlée watched the bloody show for a few moments, horrified to realise that the gryphon actually had a line of sharp little teeth inside her beak, a sight that was sure to give her nightmares.
Her doubts came back, hard. She had no reason to trust this creature! Sure, it would be embarrassing to break her promise, but was that really worth the risk of travelling with a ferocious wild animal?
“Wild animal.”
That’s exactly what Gosling had been called. She was reminded of Ava’s tears the night before – tears not for herself, but for a brother she loved. She’d rushed to defend him, and was devastated to have let him down. It had been a mistake, and seen by the ponies of that town as evidence of how wild and dangerous Ava was; but to Brûlée it was the opposite, proof that Ava did feel love, just as surely as a pony.
Logic insisted that a creature would inevitably return to its nature, regardless of how much it stood to gain from not doing so. Logic told Brûlée not to trust Ava, not to stay with her any longer than necessary, not to give her a chance to show her true nature.
Logic be damned.
Shaking her head to scatter the stray thoughts, she cast a glance over the undergrowth. Trudging through it last night, buffeted by the rain and wind, had obscured her sight; all she’d seen were bushes and ferns. Looking at it now, she could see at least a few tufts of wild grass, mixed up with all sorts of other plants she couldn’t identify, and all of them decorated with shining drops of dew. Normally she’d be hesitant to risk eating something unknown and potentially poisonous, but right now she had little choice. She was starving, and it would be foolish to travel without eating something.
Ava sailed down through the trees and landed next to Brûlée.
“There’s a stream up ahead. Head left a bit for a place you can cross it more easily.”
“Thanks,” Brûlée said, turning left as she carefully threaded her way through the branches and roots. She was walking through a muddy puddle, getting even more mess on her legs, but that balloon had long since sailed. The bright morning sun was drying her off quickly, even filtered through the trees. “Without you I’m sure I’d just be going round in circles all day.”
“That’s okay, I’m not in a hurry.”
“How far did you say that town is?”
“At the speed you’re going? We should get there by nightfall.”
Brûlée paused to take another bite of grass and wild flowers with a dressing of fresh rain and dew. There was some wild garlic mixed in there, adding a sharp aromatic tang. She chewed thoughtfully, wondering if there was any way she could incorporate that savoury bite into a dessert without it being disgusting.
Ava looked thoughtful. After a while she asked, “Are you really going to make enough food for hundreds of ponies?”
Brûlée shook her head and swallowed. “You mean the competition? No, I’ll only be cooking for a small panel of judges. Three or four ponies. They’ll be the ones to decide which of our dishes is better.”
“So it doesn’t matter what the rest of the town thinks at all, just if the judges like it, right?”
“That’s right, but it’s still a show. We’ll be expected to perform for the crowd,” said Brûlée. “We have to cook dramatically.” The thought of it still hung over her.
“So, who are these judges?”
“Er... I’m not really sure yet. Probably the mayor for one, he never says ‘no’ to free food. And Rum Truffle said I could pick one of them, to keep it fair. I’ve no idea who I’ll pick though.”
They walked a little further, and Brûlée caught sight of the glimmer of a stream ahead.
“You know,” Ava said with a mischievous grin, “there probably aren’t many ponies out there who know what sort of food a gryphon likes.”
Once Brûlée caught on, she was stunned. She stopped walking to stare at Ava. “Are you suggesting...”
Ava nodded. “I can spare a few days. And I’m curious. You’ve been talking about these things you make, but I still have no idea what they are. So why not let me come with you and be one of the judges?”
“But wouldn’t that be... cheating?”
“Not at all. I promise to try them both and pick fairly. You can even hide from me which one is yours, if that helps.”
Brûlée started laughing.
She was hungry, and thirsty. She’d gained any number of scrapes and scratches from pushing her way through the forest. She was dishevelled, caked with mud and dust and tears and blood and, yes, gryphon snot. She had no clothes, no tools, nor a single bit to her name. The next pony she met would probably run away screaming. But despite all that, with the sun warming her flanks, a friend by her side and a plan ahead of her, this morning felt good.