It was the chirping of birds that woke Daring up. The exotic birds that resided in the region created noises far different from contemporary birds in Equestria. Daring was familiar with the indigenous life, having traveled to the region extensively. The steady din of jungle activity seemed to intrude on the blissful ignorance that was unconsciousness, but once coherent though patterns began to form inside Daring's head she realized that she could rest no longer. Daring groaned to herself, and tried to move her hooves. She was laying in a pile of dirt, and the mud had caked on her vest and over her legs and flank. She stood up on all four legs and felt the mud peel off and drop in places. Daring looked back, and saw the dirt sticking to her side and decided to brush some of it off with one of her front hooves.
Daring knew that she looked disheveled and dirty, but how she appeared was really the least of her worries. What was the most pressing on her mind was her location and how she should obtain some nourishment. Daring could see from the orange-hued sky that it was sunrise, and the pangs of hunger were starting to affect her. She had spent a lot of energy the previous night, and if she wanted to try to do anything to find where the other had been taken and attempt to help them she was going to need to replenish that energy. She knew she had materials to make a fire, but what with the gryphons being hostile after all and (for all she knew) still combing the area for her, a fire would only serve to give her location away.
Daring knew that she could rely on some wild-growing vegetation and fruit for some breakfast, but she was going to need to find some clean drinking water as well. She had a canteen that still had water in it, but it wouldn't last her past midday. She would have to try to locate somewhere to replenish clean water over the course of the morning.
The archaeologist pony took a tentative step forward, which was followed by a few more. She made her way carefully through the wet fronds and ferns and soon was on her way. She kept moving in the direction she had previously been going before she had passed out during the night. The macaws crowed above her, and the jungle ambiance seemed ever so audible to the pony as she walked alone through the woods. Daring squinted, and looked at a small tree directly ahead of her. The leaves contained what looked liked an oblong sphere covered in brownish scales. If Daring knew her local flora right then that fruit was an aguaje. It was with great relief that Daring flew up to the lower hanging branches of the tree and plucked one of the fruits with her jaws.
Daring landed on the forest floor and proceeded to scrape the brown scales off the fruit with her bottom teeth. Underneath was the yellowish meat of the fruit, which Daring gladly dug into and ate. It wasn't a whole meal, but at least it was something to start off with and put energy into her system.
Over the next hour, Daring managed to find several other types of fruit. She felt full enough and energized, but took drinks from her canteen as sparingly as possible. Until she could find a place that had clean drinking water or had the opportunity to make a fire and boil some, she would have to make the canteen last. The pony reached another small hilltop from which she flew over the cover of the trees briefly to see what was ahead. To her surprise, she saw a number of interesting things.
First and foremost, she saw a rising column of smoke about a half mile ahead of her current position. She didn't know whether it was indigenous ponies or a Gryphon camp, so she felt slightly uneasy about rushing to investigate. Farther beyond that she could see the unmistakable sign of a set of ruins. Pillars and stone rested on top of a set of waterfalls that Daring saw in the distance. As far as she could tell, there had not been any sites marked out on their maps that had waterfalls below them. Perhaps this was a site that nopony knew about?
Daring decided to proceed with caution. She would swing towards the source of the smoke, but making sure that she kept quiet and stealthy in case it was Gryphons or a hostile group of indigenous. There was the off-chance that it was simply a friendly pony tribe, but with the situation she was currently in she had no desire to make that gamble.
****
After several minutes of clambering over large tree roots and weaving through thick vegetation, Daring was within sight of the squat huts arranged in a circular order around a worn clearing within the dense forest. Daring kept her head low as she observed several of the villagers galloping around in an excited fashion. The pony she saw was murmuring something in the tribal dialects to some form that Daring couldn't quite make out.
The archaeologist pony stuck her head out to see around the side of one of the straw huts. She could make out the form of the pleading pony who began crawling on his belly at the feet of something else. Daring withdrew her head quickly when she saw what it was, eyes widening. She gulped, for she had just seen an armed Gryphon soldier with his gun drawn and pointed at the defenseless villager. Something was wrong here, she could feel it.
"Answer the question, schweinhund!" shouted the soldier in a harsh voice, and Daring could hear the click of a gun. The stallion on the ground sounded as if he was making some kind of crying noise, and weeping. Whatever information the Gryphon soldier wanted, he didn't sound as if he knew it. Daring, as scared as she was of being discovered and blowing all chances of rescuing the others, had a sudden feeling of anger. What gave that bird-brain the right to barge into a village and demand things from them?
"I asked you vhere ze mustard colored mare is being kept. You have thus far refused to answer my questions. If you do not stop zis insolence, then I vill be forced to unload the contents of zis firearm here into your skull. Begreifen schweinhund?" the Gryhpon demanded. Daring's blood boiled. She may have been there now, but the local ponies had no knowledge of her existence so far. For the Gryphons to go and demand she be turned over when she hadn't been present was a brutal tactic, which made the mare furious. If one had been able to observe Daring they would have seen her eyes furrow and her teeth grit as she listened to the words escaping the Gryphon's beak. Daring reached into her bag, and fastened a small chain around her hoof. Her muscles tensed up.
"I no know!" the pony on the ground wailed, attempting to speak in very broken equestrian english. The Gryhon clicked his tongue.
"Very well, you had your chance. Auf Wiedersehen," said the Gryphon. He raised the rifle to the head of the pony, aiming the muzzle right between the stallion's watery eyes. He pulled the trigger, and the air resounded in a large CRACK sound, and then the gun went off.
The stallion shook for a moment, eyes winced. He heard a loud squaking sound above him, and then a crunching sound. That was followed by a thump, and by then he was convinced that he did not have a hole through the middle of his head, and his eyes fluttered open.
To his surprise, the stallion saw the gryphon laying on the ground in front of him, eyes clouded over and head twisted far too much to the side to be alive. The limp body of the soldier lay below the form of a golden yellow pegasus dressed in a vest and some kind of a pith helmet. The pegasus offered out a hoof to help the stallion up, which he accepted carefully.
"Are you hurt?" Daring asked, and then shook her head. She'd need to try to translate her questions. She knew some of the root languages that tribal dialects sprouted from, perhaps she would be able to communicate with that. Daring translated her question for the stallion to hear.
The other pony's eyes lit up when he heard Daring speak. It wasn't exact, but it was comprehensible enough. He nodded, and showed her his left front hoof, which was bent at an odd angle. Daring winced when she saw it. It was clearly broken, and she wasn't well equipped to deal with it.
"One moment," Daring said in the local language, and took off her bag. Rummaging through it, she was able to produce a bit of cloth that was supposed to be an attachment that went over the back of her pith helmet on particularly warm and dry days. It was warm, but the humidity prevented it from being necessary. Besides, it would serve this suffering colt better.
Daring scooped a couple of strong sticks up from the ground beneath her. They were long, one of them longer than the leg and the other just about the same length as the leg itself. Perfect. The pegasus set to work, breaking off a small piece to use as a cross-section and lashing it to the very bottom of both sticks with her emergency baling twine. She propped the skeleton of the splint up against the non-injured leg of the stallion, who had laid down on his side. Daring adjusted the length to match up, and then set to work attaching the splint to the stallion's injured leg.
"Look out, this may hurt for a moment, but this will keep your weight off the leg until you can get better help," said Daring. She proceeded to lash the fixture she had made onto the leg of the injured pony. She ripped her cloth apart and used it as a softer material in places where it had to be tight around the stallion's coat. The splint would make the leg essentially longer than the others, and would prevent the stallion from putting too much pressure on it. It wouldn't make it heal, but it would keep it from getting any much worse until it could heal on its own or until he could get better, more experienced help.
The stallion blinked, looking at the splint. He looked up to Daring, and nodded. Daring smiled back. She packed up the extra cloth, and took a small sip from her canteen. There had to be some fresh water in this village, perhaps she could ask for some. Daring turned to look at the stallion, who was testing out the splint and looked relatively relieved. Daring was slightly aware of other ponies who were beginning to poke out from around buildings and observe.
"Do you have any water?" asked Daring, translating her statements once again. The stallion appeared to have understood, for he motioned over to a small wooden container that had a amount of water. Daring gladly went over to it and refilled her canteen. The bubbles of air escaped from it, and were replaced with water. Daring screwed the cap back on, and looked back towards the stallion. To her surprise, she was met by several other ponies wearing tribal regalia, including a very tall mare who wore some kind of a ceremonial headdress made with brilliantly colored macaw feathers.
The mare spoke to Daring in the local language making gesticulations with a hoof every now and again and nodding as she spoke. Daring had to strain to be able to understand. What she got was words like "thank" and "honored" and "gift." She was under the impression that the tribe was offering their gratitude for having killed the one gryphon aggressor that had stumbled upon their village. Daring offered a few word that roughly meant "your welcome" and "no problem". The mare smiled to her, and produced what looked like a golden pentagon. She held it out with two hooves, presenting it to Daring. Daring raised her eyebrows, and held a hoof to her chest.
"For me?" she asked, a look of surprise covering her face. The mare nodded. Daring took the pentagon and respectfully placed it into her bag in a separate pocket from her regular junk.
"Thank you," said Daring after translating the statement, "but what is it for?" In response, the mare took a step back, and spoke rapidly in the tribal dialect, too fast for Daring to catch most of. She did catch the motions that the pony was making, which looked similar to somepony that was climbing a mountain, and then placing a key into a keyhole, only larger. The mare finished by making a large pushing motion with both front hooves before returning them to the ground and standing back on all four legs. Daring nodded, getting a slight idea of what she had meant.
The relatively peaceful background noise was suddenly conflicted with yelling and screeching, which sounded as if it were coming from angry eagles. The noise was off in the distance a ways, and Daring knew what it meant. Gryphons.
The villagers looked about them and went away as quickly as possible, the stallion in the splint hobbling off as fast as possible. Daring's eyes narrowed as she was left as the only pony left in the center of the clearing in the village.
****
SCREEEEEEECH
The vehicle came to a stop in the center of the village, swinging its front end around and kicking up a spray of mud with its tires. Daring's eyes widened as she saw several uniformed gryphons leap out from the back of the truck, while another two came out from the driver's and passenger's compartment. The pony clenched her teeth and bolted for the side of one of the huts, trying to stay out of site. She pressed her body low to the ground and peered slowly around the corner.
The gryphons split up, and were lead by one larger officer who was barking commands. This particular gryphon was bulkier than the others, and had a much deeper bottom beak. He glanced about as his subordinates went through each and every hut, dragging the tribal ponies out of them by force. He didn't really seem concerned with the unnecessary force and borderline brutality they were using. If anything it seemed like he condoned such activity. Daring's eyes narrowed as one of the gryphons drew near. She crouched just out of site as he threw open the woven grass curtains that acted as an entrance into the hut she was standing next to as a way of concealing herself.
The soldier entered the hut, but came out a moment later without much success. Apparently there were no innocent tribal ponies to harass in that particular hut. Of course, Daring knew that none of this was about the villagers. It was about her. It was her that they wanted, and that was their justification for turning the place upside down.
The gryphon stuck his head around the side of the hut for a brief moment. His bright yellowish eyes narrowed as he scanned the tree line beyond the huts. A drop of sweat dripped off from the white feathers around his face, landing on top of Daring's pith helmet. She looked up, and saw that the soldier was right above her. Unfortunately, this motion attracted the gryphon's attention, and he started in alarm. His beak flew open as he was about to yell out to his comrades, but a swift jab with a hoof knocked the sense right out of him. The gryphon's head flew back, and the momentary advantage was more than enough for Daring to spring up from her crouched position and pounce. In a moment the pony had pinned the beast to the ground, and repeatedly slammed a hoof into his face. The soldier attempted to regain himself, but each successive blow reduced him until he was senseless and twitching on the ground. Daring let out a low breath, and dragged the unconscious gryphon around behind the hut.
"Where ist Gottlieb?" the leader of the group yelled. Several of the soldiers who had returned from the search with little to show for it stood in the center of the village shrugging. This didn't please the larger gryphon.
"Why are you all standing around with your claws up your.... grrrrr," growled the leader, looking angrily at his soldiers. In response they straightened up and looked about, trying to seem busy with the search. The leader shook his head, causing his forehead feathers to tremble. He turned to look at the tall mare in the ceremonial headdress with a look of disgust.
"Where ist that little pony?" he demanded. The mare was tall, but she did not reach up to the gryphon's full height, especially not when he stood on his hind legs. He looked at her with contempt on his face. One could almost see him tremble in frustration. His eyes bulged, and a pulsating vein could be seen beating at his temple beneath the edge of the black officer's cap. The leader suddenly lashed out, grabbing ahold of the mare with both sets of talons and shaking her roughly.
"WHERE IS THAT PONY?!" yelled the gryphon. The mare couldn't understand any of the words, whether the gryphon had chosen to speak equestrian english or his own language mad no difference to her ability to comprehend. Her inability to answer the question and her refusal to cooperate angered the leader further. He raised a talon into the air and seemed poised to lash out and strike at her face when a voice came through the air that made him stop.
"Let her go!" was Daring's plea. The mare stood in front of a pile of logs that were being cut and smoothed for use by the villagers, and was sitated slightly above the village center. In this position she looked down onto the proceedings, and therefore looked down on the gryphons from above. There was a commotion of excited screeches and yelling before the leader answered her.
"Dr. Daring Do? You are wanted by the Gryphony Archaeological Regiment for trespassing on a site claimed-"
"I don't care!" Daring yelled back defiantly, "it's not your land, so don't give me that bull! You have no right to come here and disrupt our digging efforts just because you guys decided to bring a bunch of armored-"
"Halt die Klappe!" shouted the leader, drawing a pistol out from his jacket pocket and bringing it to bear on Daring. The others did the same, and Daring now found herself to be in quite the predicament with several guns now fixated on her.
"If you please, Dr. Do," said the large Gryphon. Daring took a look around her. She could see no way that she could bolt into the thick brush before they opened fire. Plus, even the brush couldn't protect against bullets. Daring considered throwing the towel in. After all, they would have to take her to the others. Perhaps they would be able to work things out, after all, this all had to be some kind of big misunderstanding. But what if they meant much worse? Yes, she was in the worst of snags right now. Daring took a step down the short hill before her leg caught on something.
That was it, a snag! Her hoof had caught on a rope system that had been used to tie the logs together while they were being stored at the top of the hill. Daring looked down the hill and grinned for a second. She knew exactly what she would do.
"Alright, I'm coming down," Daring said. She stepped with her other hoof this time, and then with the caught one she gave a sharp tug. Almost on cue the rope snapped and the logs began tumbling down the hill. The big gryphon's eyes bulged suddenly as the logs rolled down with furious speed, slamming into several of his soldiers. Some were able to escape, but many more found their tails, legs, or wings trapped underneath one of the heavy wooden logs. Daring took to the skies in the confusion, wings giving her the flight necessary to put more distance between herself and the gryphons. She heard screeches and confused yells below her, and amid the din she thought she heard cheering coming from the mouths of ponies.
****
Daring laid low for a short time thereafter, but she had quickly made up her mind that it was in her best interest to keep on the move. After a show like that, it would be likely that the gryphons would be after her in much greater force. She had to keep moving. The incident also convinced her of another thing: she couldn't go and just bust the others out. She was going to have to hide herself until the gryphons had stopped looking for her.
This left Daring with a few options. Either she could hide away in the jungles and attempt to conceal herself in the dense vegetation, or she could attempt to find another set of ruins and find a secluded place. By this point, Daring was more willing to try the latter. The pony landed among a patch of ferns in the dense underbrush below the treeline. She took out her canteen and took a sip, looking around as she did so.
I need to find somewhere first of all, Daring thought to herself. Hearing the distant sound of gunshots and screeching, Daring pressed on. The wooded tangle of underbrush seemed determined to hinder her progress as she mounted a hill. She was sure that if she could continue to explore new territory she could eventually find somewhere safe to hunker down until the gryphons had abandoned the search for her. Struggling through the difficult brush, she succeeded in reaching the very top of the hill that had just been before her, and now looked out over what lay next.
Ahead was a river. Not the main river, which was wide and heavily traveled, but a much smaller one. This one cut through the jungle wildly, meandering through hills and dropping down waterfalls. The water moved rapidly, and gurgled in a white froth in places. Daring's eyes followed the path of the water as it flowed down, disappearing around a bend. She moved backwards up the river, looking as far up as she could. Her eyes rested on a steep waterfall, churning white and roaring with the sound of falling water. Funnily enough, though the waterfall came from the river itself, another portion of the water was flowing sideways at the very top, mixing in with the other water from the river and falling down the waterfall. This miniature waterfall seemed to be coming from a structure carved into the side of a rock wall, where the earth had been eroded away many years ago.
Daring glanced about. To her, it was worth the risk of exposure to check this out. She took off, zipping over to this structure by flying over the river and up the waterfall. She hovered in place next to the stone wall, flapping her wings steadily as she inspected it. It seemed to match most of the other work from the time period. Exposure to the elements had resulted in what had once been stairs being only a few broken steps left on a flat surface, next to the torrent of water alongside it. Inside the rock wall was darker, but it seemed to be some kind of chamber.
Daring battled with herself for a second. Should she go into the wall and try to hide there, or should she move on? A resounding banging sound that was either some kind of gunshot or the sputtering of a machine from the direction she would have fled made Daring suddenly very uneasy. They were planning on intercepting her up ahead, it seemed. The prospect of further fleeing seemed unlikely, so Daring decided that hiding was the only viable option for the time being. She took a few deep breaths, and flew into the chamber in the side of the rock wall.