Chapter 10. Remnants of an Earlier Age.
Grata, staring at the shifting, swirling glow of many hues down below, raised her crest in admiration. “What is this? It is lovely. I have never seen anything like it.”
Rahak watched it intently as well. More grimly, he replied, crest flat, “I have. It was during the Slaver Rebellion. This is a remnant of Non Equine combat magic. What I saw was not this big nor so soft seeming.
“Doctor Do, have you any notion about this?”
Daring Do nodded, eyes tearing, biting her lip to hold back sorrow. “You are right, Rahak. You are looking at the remains of two deadly Non Equine magic detonations. If you look closely, you can see fragments of runes in the glows. They are still randomly combining and breaking apart.
“This is still active fallout from the last action of the Second Nightmare War. How do I tell Princess Luna? She is still devastated by the destruction that she wrought.”
Awed, Grata and Rahak realized, “That was over two thousand years ago. How could it possibly have lasted so long?”
Daring Do stared down the declivity as she said, “Ponies still find active battle runes from the Nightmare Wars. Usually, if a pony survives the encounter, Princess Luna is called on to safely break the runes. This sort of thing will last as long as the runes themselves exist.
“I have assisted in cataloging the antiquities while they were being recovered from a few of those old war sites. Some were just refuge bunkers. Others were far more dangerous.”
Grata, her crest set in command, stated, “We camp here, tonight. Tomorrow, if you feel it safe enough, we will descend into the bowl. It has just become a matter of the utmost importance to find whether Ours is an Ancient Race or the youngest.” She gestured at the fallen Sunlord way marker. “It could be either one. No matter what we find, the Empress MUST know.”
The night itself was uneventful. The next morning they began scouting for a way down. The way that they did find was not a safe one. They chose a part of the steep slope that had a lot of brush that seemed solidly rooted.
Securing a rope to the axle and stabilizing the cart by lacing it around the whipples, they eased the cart as close as they dared. They fastened the rope to the stoutest of the brush and payed it out as they worked the wheels free of brush.
It was slow, grueling work. It took until mid afternoon to get the cart to safe ground.
Staring back up to the rim, Daring Do remarked, “That was pretty bad. I am afraid that getting it out of here will be worse!”
Rahak was stretching and flexing. “I am sore in places where I did not even know I had muscles!”
Daring Do found a grass patch and started grazing up her missed lunch!
Grata proved that being close to royalty did not weaken her hunting ability. She caught two rabbits in only three pounces. It took Rahak four.
Returning to the cart, Rahak noted, “We are not alone down here. Over near the rabbit warren there is a recently made trap. It had a rabbit caught in it.”
Grata asked, “Did you leave it for the trapper?”
“Of course I did. It would have been wrong to steal another’s dinner because I am hungry.”
Grata agreed, “It would also be a bad way to introduce ourselves to whatever lives here and set that trap.”
The took the cart down to the small lake at the bottom of the bowl. Looking up, they could see many Eagles circling gracefully in the tricky winds. As they watched, one swooped, breaking its dive at the last moment, claws raking into the water. With powerful wing strokes, the Eagle lifted a big trout from the lake and flew off to perch in a snag and eat its bounty.
Daring Do had maps out and was studying the Eagle’s Vale. She was shaking her head. “These maps are ALL wrong. This upper crater does not show as more than fifty or sixty meters deep. I have to wonder what else is wrong.”
They were just settled in for the night when there was a voice speaking out of the darkness.
“In ein cornin ba hue?”
Daring Do sat up with a jolt! Pausing to bring something to mind, she replied haltingly, “Nat ein cornin na os.”
The voice replied, “As goot. Ein cornin na goot.” Plaintively it asked, “In nympha cam matunein? Matunein sa mussin eir nymphes.”
Daring Do’s brow furrowed with concentration as she requested, “Spak un lessin fastenin. Ik non unnerstan.”
The speaker from the darkness paused.
Grata asked softly, “What is that language, Doctor Do?”
Equally quietly, Daring Do whispered back, “It is Early Middle Equestrian. I never thought to hear it outside of the Philology Department of the Royal University. The pony speaking this is completely fluent.”
Out of the darkness came the voice again, practically weeping. “Nymphes ba ein sider. Twan nymphes cam matunein? Pras spak sa.”
Grata, crest up, suggested, “Invite the speaker here, Doctor Do. Perhaps we can sort out what she means.”
Daring Do nodded and invited, “Ein cam blazin. Unnerstanes ef efforte.”
“Ein es afearit. Eques ba afearin ein.”
“Unnerstanes, eques ba afearin nat.”
With only the slightest rustling of the brush the speaker appeared. It was all dark. Its body was covered in chitinous plates. Its horn was stunted and, though straight, seemed zig zag because of holes in the sides of it. It had holes in its legs and almost filmy but tattered mane, tail and stunted wings.
When it spoke, fangs were plainly visible. “Eich afearin nach? Ein afearin nach.”
Daring Do patted the ground next to her and replied to the changeling, “Afearin nach nat. Cam seatti ma sidn ba os.”