//------------------------------// // Chapter 26 // Story: A Filly's New Hope // by Mocha Star //------------------------------//         The flight was longer than Nova had expected it to be, and an hour later she felt her body losing weight.  She gasped and flailed wildly as her body left the cart for the longest second of her life.  “Hey, slow the descent; the nibble is too light.”         Laughing amongst themselves the gryphons opened their wings, held them firm, and glided several feet before slowly flapping again.  “Almost there, let’s get in and count our bits.”         “Vacca, silence, I’ll hold your spot on the cart, check the area.”         Vacca saluted Rild and let the cart go, flapping away and going below the cart and Nova’s line of sight. “Hrmph, if she finds anything I’ll eat my next molting,” Klinn grumbled as he maintained altitude.         “Behave, Rild.  She may save your life in battle someday.”         He scoffed at Klinn. “What battle?  These are pony lands, I have battles with constipation that are worse.”         Nova snickered. “Silence, nibbles or I’ll start with your tail before we touch earth.”         Klinn sighed dismissively at Rild’s comment. “Don’t fret, little foal.  We don’t eat ponies, only the bad ones,” she winked.         It did nothing to calm Nova’s trembling as she slid to the center of the cart and felt the staff against her rear leg.  She leaned back and grasped it in the crook of her fetlock, pulling it to her chest.  She held it tightly and began to weep.         “Oh great, now what’s it doing?”         “Hush, Rild, it was just taken from its family.  Show some kindness; they’re herding creatures, they need each other.”         “And we live by the flock, we’re strong enough to be alone.”         Klinn growled and the cart wobbled. “Not from hatching.”         “Maybe not you,” Rild pivoted his grip on the cart and began to slow his flapping, lowering them, “but I was born a true warrior and no pony is going to prove otherwise.  And no gryphon, for that matter.”         “Perhaps, but when I give birth to our first young,” Klinn said sternly, “will you leave, like your father did to you?”         “Again with my family legacy,” he grumbled, “if its a male, then yes!  It’s part of tradition to let him grow into an alpha on his own.”         “That’s a stupid tradition!”         “And staying is stupid!”         “I hope a male never hatches from one of our eggs, then!”  Klinn’s shout echoed around the hilly plains and, as Vacca returned to the arguing couple her look was somber.         “The coast is clear of sentience.  Um, would you like a few moments…”         “No, Vacca, he was just being a minotaur head again.”         “Chimera tongue,” he snapped back to Klinn.         The cart lurched and Nova held tighter to the staff before the gusts ceased.  She trembled and whispered a silent prayer before she felt a blunted talon poke her side.  “Horse, it is time to leave the cart.  We have to unload.”         “Vacca, it’s a pony; A female, I think.  Just roll the cart into the cave.”         Vacca snapped her beak. “It’s a shelf, gravel for brains.”         Rild appeared from the darkness of the crevice in the hill suddenly and wrapped a claw around Vacca’s neck, slamming her beak into the cart.  “You do not speak to my mate like that, understand?”         Vacca groaned and pushed back, opening her wings and throwing Rild back.  She spun quickly and swiped at him with her talons, ripping feathers from his chest and lunging at him.         Klinn moaned in a long tone of frustration. As the duo of gryphons bit, scratched, clawed, and growled at each other for nearly thirty seconds before Rild threw Vacca from the shadows.  She opened her wings, breaking just outside, spitting to the ground and landing.         “Rild, if you’re going to fight, make it a good one,” Vacca hissed as she turned to the cart, gripped it, and began pushing it into the crevice.  “You’re lucky I’m your hatchmate, or you’d be dead,” she grumbled to Rild as she passed him.         “Yes, last of the litter, the runt,” he growled to her as he began to walk out, “push it into the tunnel, or cave as some call it.”         “Shut it or I’ll muzzle you while you sleep,” she threatened as she pushed it into a hollowed out tunnel in the back.         Nova’s whimpering drew Rild’s attention.  He looked over the cart as it passed and rolled his eyes at the filly before she entered the darkness.         “Where are we going?  A-are you going to roast me and eat me like a nibble?  Is a nibble a gryphon meal or pet?”         “Silence, pony of purple.  What is your name?”                  “G-Grape?”         “Are you seriously asking me?” Vacca asked as the tunnel slowly lit by shimmering gems.  She grunted as she pushed the cart over a bump and into a large chamber full of camping supplies.  The walls had scratch marks across them and the dirt was clay-like. A single hole in the ceiling of the chamber let a trickle of sunlight in.         “Can I play with the clay walls?” Nova asked.”         “No.”         “Can I play in the dirty floor?  I’ll wash up after, promise.”         “No.  Get out,” Vacca ordered as she stopped the cart against a far wall.         Nova scampered, crawled, and finally hopped from the cart and looked around the room. “This place isn’t too big.  Am I gonna be here long?  I gotta pee.  Where’s the out house, or do you dig holes?  Why isn’t there a fireplace?  It’s chilly in here… What’re you doing?  Why did you take the cart with our stuff?         “Where are we?  I got this staff and it’s really neat.  I can spin it like a master, wanna see?”         “Kalxo’s sake, do you ever shut up?”         Nova gasped. “You shouldn’t say that, it’s a mean word and makes for hurt feelings and you don’t make friends hurting feelings.”         Vacca face clawed. “Here,” she reached and pulled the tarp off, tossing it over the filly who giggled and ran in small circles until it covered her.         “Ah!  Help, the monster got me,” Nova giggled as she rolled under the heavy cloth covering, “ah-ha!  A weapon to fight it with!  Take that, and that, and one of… these,” she shouted, sending waves through the fabric as she fought an imaginary creature.         Vacca looked over from unloading a case and chuckled. “I hope this was worth it.”         “Me too,” Klinn said as she entered the chamber, “or else we’re going to the meeting spot empty clawed.  You know how he hates us showing up broke.”         “Yeah, and I’ve always been ready to peck one of his eyes out,” Vacca replied as she unloaded another crate. “What’s even in these?”         Klinn slid her talons into the lip of a crate and tugged it open with ease. “A farmer selling his food.  How quaint.”         Vacca snickered. “At least we won’t have to eat the horse.  Oh, it’s name is Grape.”         “How quaint.”         “Yes, and I could use some help unloading so,” Vacca gestured to the cart.         “How quaint.”         “...Really?  You’re gonna play that game?”         “What a quaint question.”         “Ah-ha!  I found your lair of dastardly meanies!  Take my friendship hugs of doom,” Nova shouted as she lunged and grabbed one of Klinn’s rear legs from under the tarp.         “And that’s the end of that,” Klinn giggled, “I’ll go see Rild, finish your tasks and keep an eye on ‘Huggie’ here.”         “Huggie,” Vacca laughed, “I like that better than ‘Grape’.”         “Whatever, call it whatever you want, just get it done and I’ll reward you with first bite,” Klinn said with a slight bow, then she kicked her leg free from the ‘hug of doom’.         “Gah, the hugs of friendship is useless against your meanie-ness!  Grackkgh… I’m dead now,” Nova whispered as the tarp lay still, save for the slight movement of her chest as she panted for air.