Freedom of Choice

by Awakened One

Chapter VI: Ready for Action

Chapter VI: Ready for Action

Igor

Day 1

Woken up in the middle of the night by screams, it’s Bright, I quickly put my pants and rush to her bedroom. As I get inside I hear the sounds of objects being toppled and throw.

“What is it?” I shout as I enter the room.

I see her cornered into the room, she yells and points to below her bed. “Rat!”

I scan below it in search of the invader, a small brown mouse. In a frantic attempt to grab it I push over the bed, Bright jumps on top of the bed, I quickly launch my hand across the floor. I restrain it with my right hand, the animal doesn’t even react to me; it would expect to be crushed by a pony hoof and not to be picked by “whatever” I am.

“I got it!” I lift the mouse with both hands, trying to restrain and not crush it.

“Throw it out!” She runs to the window, opens it and backs off to the top of her bed.

It understands what I’m about to do and struggles in my hand to no avail, it bites me. I yelp more in surprise than pain and launch it through the open window.

Not thinking about anything else I rush to the bathroom to clean the wound, a small and deep cut in the back of my right hand. I open the tap, grab the soap and try disinfecting the wound.

“Are you alright?” I don’t notice her moving behind me.

“No, the sucker bit me.” I sigh.

The blood stops seeping from the wound. She carefully grabs my hand and inspects it. She stops looking at it and opens the mirrored cabinet. She picks something with her hoof and places it on the wound, a band aid. I laugh.

“What?” She asks.

“You’re treating me like a child.” I shake my head.

She blushes. “Anyway, thank you for… throwing it away.”

I nod and dismiss her with a wave of my hand, I move back to my room, when I’m ready to take my pants off I notice Bright looking through the door’s edge.

“Yes?” I ask.

“Do you mind if I stay here?”

“The house is yours, I can go to your room.” I make my way to her room.

“No!” I turn around. “Please stay, I’m scared…”

“Rats?” I cock my head. She nods. “Fine, you can stay in the bed, I’m used to staying awake through the night.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t mind it, now go sleep.” I point to the bed with a smile.

Day 2

After finishing the breakfast, Bright goes on to do the house chores, Gilda goes take her morning flights, I go outside take a morning breeze beneath the tree and Crystal approaches me.

“Hey Igor, I need your help to pump water to the house.”

I scratch behind my head. “Lead on.”

We go to the backyard, the place where the orchard is, we move a few more seconds and then we reach a manual water pump with a pipe leading to a huge water tank suspended by crystal legs.

“Grab one of the cranks and start pumping it, I’ll do the same to the other.”

I do as he says and he starts doing the same thing to the other side, pull up and push down.

“How long will it take?” I ask him.

“30 minutes if you don’t waste your breath.”

“For fucks sake.” I mutter to myself.

Time passes by.

“Stop that.” He says.

“Stop what?”

“You’ve been muttering curses for the past 7 minutes.”

“I’m already helping you, isn’t that enough?”

“You’ll lose your breath.”

“Fine…” I say in a monotone voice.

A few minutes later I notice him staring at me. I nudge my head towards him, unable to say anything, he just shakes his head and I do the same.

“Done…” He says. I let the handle go and slump to the ground. “At least you stayed silent.”

“Time.” I say between ragged breaths.

“Almost 20 minutes, you shouldn’t have overexerted yourself. I had to keep up my pace with you.” He sits down and smiles.

I take a deep breath and exhale. “You underestimated me!” I say in a playful tone.

Day 3

The sun is setting. I’m taking a walk around the house, just stretching, time passed and I became bored, nothing to do. I have to get rid of some objects I’ve brought here, better pick them. I pick the papers and plastics from my backpack and move far away from the house.

I walk a sizable distance from the house, I start to dig a small hole with my hands, once it’s big enough I start to pour the objects I carried from there. It’s a good time to try the drill technique. I pick the piece of wood and place it at the fire pit and hold it with my left foot, the drill comes in second.

I start to spin the stick on top of the soft wood, the friction does the work and some smoke starts to pour from the wood, the embers collect on the top of the wood, I place the stick aside and pour the embers into the fire pit. There it is, fire.

I move away from fire while keeping my gaze at it, not wanting to smell like smoke when going back to the house. I wait a few more seconds and the fires die out. I move in and nudge the ashes with a twig, nothing left. I close the hole and go back to the farm.

“Hey dude, what you were doing?” I look up and see Gilda, she lands besides me.

“Getting rid of some objects, nothing important.” I shrug.

“I saw you playing with fire.” She says with an accusing tone.

“It was just paper.”

We walk a bit more.

“I’m curious, mind telling me what are you planning?”

“I’m leaving.”

“Come on! It was just a question!”

I sigh. “I should’ve been clearer, what I meant to say is ‘I’m leaving the Crystal Empire’.”

“Oh that… why?”

“Many reasons, I can even make a list.”

She chuckles. “Alright then, do you have a place in mind?”

“Something Falls to the south.”

“Neighagra Falls.”

“That one, have you been there before?” I ask her.

“Just some tourist point, if you want to see the waterfalls that is. Nothing else remarkable.”

“Anyway, I’m just waiting, so I’ll be leaving just after picking my things.”

Arriving at the farm we go inside the house. Bright and Crystal were waiting for us for dinner, as usual by moonrise. We sit at our places and slowly savor the meal.

“Do you mind me going with you?” Gilda asks, in response I give her a stern look that suddenly turns into a smirk, I nod. “You’re crazy.” She gives me a hearty laugh.

Crystal turns to me. “Going where?”

“The waterfalls by south.”

“Any reasons?”

I grunt. “Yes, many reasons, one of them is royalty.” They all turn to me. “What?”

“What did you do?” He asks me again.

“Nothing, and I mean it. I just don’t want to get involved in ‘politics’. Bite me, I have no idea why someone would ‘volunteer’ to be a ruler, sounds too sketchy to me.”

Bright speaks. “I thought you were leaving be–”

I interrupt her. “Not that, you’re a good perso… pony, while my time here has been enjoyable, I really wish to leave, there isn’t anything holding me.” I say the last part with relief and can’t help but smirk at the situation.

Day 4

It is midday, Gilda and I wait for Crystal, he too asked me to travel with us. We’re silently waiting for him. They both walk outside, they talk for a bit, he hugs her and leaves. I just wave my hand to her and she waves her hoof back. We three leave.

---

Crystal

Igor looks at me. “It seems I’m not the only one needing some time for myself.”

“I assure you I won’t be of any burden.” I tell him.

“No worries.” He waves his hand to me. “Since we’re going into the city, you two could buy whatever you need and then we’ll be ready to go.”

“What you’ve got?” Gilda asks him.

“You have no idea how cheap food is around here, got 10 pounds of peanuts for me. Toilet paper, I don’t want to risk using leaves, not yet. Water bottles. You know, the basic.”

“Why would you need so much peanut?”

“Protein and I love peanuts.” He stifles a laugh.

“I have everything I need.” I tell them.

We arrive at the Crystal Empire and walk through the crowds, this time our visit was much shorter since Gilda knew what to buy, with bags full we went to gather Igor’s orders.

The clothing store, we go inside, the cling clang of bells alerts the owners of our presence.

Sew, as always, is the one to greet us. “Welcome back! I assume you’re here to pick your garments?” Igor nods. “Right this way.” They both move to the back of the shop.

Gilda looks at me. “Taking a vacation huh?”

“Yes. It will be a unique experience.” I tell her.

“Yeah. Can’t skip this one.” She gives me an inexpressive look.

A few minutes later and they’re back. I look at the human, covered in black, from head to… feet, yes, that is the word. And another word to describe him: intimidating. Until he unmasks and drops the hood, he is always looking calm.

“I’ve never wore anything so comfortable. What is it?” He asks her.

“It is linen, as for the process of making it that way, is a secret.”

He turns around and looks at the mirror, moving swiftly the cloak swerves with his moves, it covers his shoulders going about two hooves above the floor. He moves his arms in every possible position, a simple shirt, covering his neck to waist, arms completely covered. The only noticeable thing on his pants are the two protruding bag like pockets, he paces around and raises his feet to his shoulder level with swift kicks.

“Yep, no restraints and completely flowing. That’s how all clothing should be.” He adjusts the gloves, they cover each of his fingers separately, and boots, going half hoof below his knee level. “Did you really use linen for everything?” She nods. “What did you use for the soles?” He scratches the back of his head.

“Rubber, why?”

“Tree rubber or the other kind?”

“Tree, what is the other kind of rubber you speak of?”

He sighs. “More plastic.”

She lightens up at this. “You have to tell me more about this material you use.”

“I don’t know how it is made.” He shakes his head. “There isn’t much, the main problem is that once it rips, it’s over, better throw it away and buy another one. To sum up, it doesn’t even compare to this.”

She smiles at the compliment. “Glad it’s up to your expectations.”

He turns to her and smiles. “Glad to make business with you.” He gives a small her bow, putting his hands on his back and chest.

“It was our pleasure, haven’t seen my brother so excited about work in quite a while.”

“You both did good work. On top of it, you even had some fun.” He picks his backpack and we leave the shop. Next stop, the blacksmith.

The looks on the citizens around the streets has changed: fear, respect, curiosity.

I turn to him. “Better not put up the hood and mask.”

“I know.” He shakes his head.

We enter Forge’s shop without ceremony. He’s sitting at the counter and brightens up at our sight.

“Welcome! I’ve been waiting for you!” Surely he was.

“So, how did it go?” Igor answers him.

“It went fine… 2 days ago! Really, I expected you to come yesterday.” A bit of disappointment.

“Sorry, couldn’t do. Anyway, can I see it?”

“Oh sure, this way.” He motion towards the back of his shop and we follow him.

I’ve been here before, but Gilda and Igor haven’t.

“Ha! That’s exactly what I expected.” Igor says. He moves around and nudges… everything: armor scraps, plates, poles, cutlery and general tools. “Interesting.”

“I need keep the front of the shop clear, but here” He moves his hoof around, displaying his shop. “is where I get creative.” He grabs the commissioned tools from the weapons hack. “Here, can you tell me more about it?”

Igor doesn’t contain himself and bursts in laugh. “This is so funny. Is there any place where I can get a good swing?” He holds the weapon with his left hand.

“There is the backyard. It’s closed from prying eyes.” Again we follow to him through another back door. The huge place is normally used for testing his creations, a few archery targets and some training dummies.

Igor places down his backpack and holds the weapon with both hands this time, swirling it and changing hands he knees down. “The punch line: an equine crafting a weapon designed to take down cavalry.” He thrusts the weapon forward and motions it upward.

“Cavalry?” I ask him.

He holds it for a second and places the butt on the ground. “A mount, on my species case horses. The concept is pretty simple, much like spears but more versatile, they were more for defense against charges, attackers. The regular design has a hook, for taking people from the mounts, or a hammer, better against armored foes, instead of the second axe blade. Strike, slash and stab. I prefer it this way.” He places his hand on the axe blade.

Forge wrote down everything Igor said. “So it would be more effective against offenders?”

“Yes, simple isn’t. The catch is, you have to stay on your hind legs to make full use of it.”

“I noticed that.”

“I’ll have plenty of time to improve my skill with it.”

“Almost forgot! Here, take this.” He hands him a sharpening stone.

“Got it.” Igor tucks it on his backpack, it’s starting to look stuffed.

We all go outside.

---

Igor

The walk through the city will be a problem. I sigh. Remembering to no put my hood and mask up my walk was a breeze, except for the few guards that were paying more attention to me, but none seemed to intervene. I’m just making my way out.

A few minutes and we’re outside the city, I turn back to take a look.

“It would make a nice postal card.” The sun hits the Crystal tower at the center and glitters the small buildings that surround it. I look the other way. “And grasslands as far as the eye can see.”

Both Gilda and Crystal look at me, I return the look to their eyes and nod. I support my new acquired weapon on my left shoulder, the backpack strap won’t let it become sore. The wind blows behind me and sun is high at my front.

“Let’s go.” I put my hood and mask on. This will be quite a trip.

End of Chapter VI

Author's Note:

And so... it begins.