Gilded Vengeance

by DenyTheWitch

Chapter 7

I hurried along through the forest, I needed to get away from that tower before the ponies showed up, now I was walking along looking straight ahead, my mind a train wreck of thoughts and emotions as I tried to get away from that blasted tower and into the forest, eventually the inevitable happened and I tripped over one of the many roots sticking out of the ground. I fell forwards into a rather conveniently placed ditch, which only added to the amount I fell as I crashed into a ditch full of roots and rocks. "And that's what happens when we don't look where we're going!"

I promptly ignored my inner psychopath as I painfully stood back up, my arms and legs covered in bruises and scratches, still I took advantage of the situation to try and take stock of where I was and came to a rather immediate conclusion, "I'm lost."

Kinda obvious that this would have happened with me just running off in a random direction, and it was rather worrying for how long it had taken me to lose my shit after, well. "After we killed Lightwing."

"SHUT UP!

Lightwing hadn't deserved to die, but, she'd needed to, she'd seen me, they couldn't see me, they'd hunt me if they knew about me, if only to recapture the escaped human, and I wasn't ready for that, not yet. Didn't make it any easier.

After I'd shot her I'd had to drag her body into the tower itself, if she was just found shot outside the whole courtyard, peo-ponies would get suspicious, so after dumping her body on the ground in the tower, and ditching the lance alongside her, I tossed in a primed scorcher orb and then ran in a completely random direction away from the tower. Now you may be wondering why I'd throw away a perfectly good lance like that, but really, it wasn't going to be much use to me, I wanted light equipment and that lance would only slow me down, well there's that and the fact that I'd used it to kill Lightwing.

"It was necessary, she'd needed to die, she'd seen too much."

"I KNOW THAT!"

Then stop moping about it, right now we need to focus on getting to a safe distance, your mad stumbling could be tracked through this forest by a five year old!" I begrudgingly admitted that my inner psychopath was probably right, I hadn't exactly been very subtle in my flight, "understatement of the century."

"I get it, I messed up, now shut up or help me think of a way out of this!" I'm not ashamed to admit that the silence that greeted me gave me a small sense of satisfaction. Still, I needed to lose this painfully obvious trail I had left, and quickly if I wanted any chance of staying away from these ponies.

I set off once again into the forest, this time making some effort to make my tracks herder to follow, stepping as lightly as possible and making a few twists and turns. But they would know that something had got away and there was still a good chance that they'll be able to follow these newer tracks, I just needed some time. "Time? Time for what?"

I was about to respond when I heard it, a small gushing in the distance, I grinned before rushing off towards the sound, "time to find some water."

"WHAT! This is no time for a drink break! We need to get as far away as possible!" I ignored the inner psychopath before bursting through the foliage to see it. It was a large river, at least twelve metres in width, and who knows how deep, but hopefully deep enough. I stopped to take off my boots first, enjoying the soft dirt under my bare feet before stuffing them into the backpack. The rushing water was much louder now, the current of this river seemed to be quite fast, but I had always been a strong swimmer.

"Swimming? With the load you're carrying? We could very well drown!"

"I never planned on it, besides it would lose the trail, no tracks to follow, and they may have guessed that I'm a human already, and if they assume that then they'll also assume I can't swim and drowned in my escape attempt."

I didn't wait for an answer, sticking anything else at risk in the water into my bag, wrapping up the maps and books in the boots and hat, before slipping my bag on again as I took my first step into the water, wincing as my feet where suddenly subject to the bone chilling sensation of cold water. "This isn't going to be fun." I walked further into the water, the cold rising up at a rather alarming rate, I couldn't have been three metres off from the shore and already the water had come up to my stomach. I bounced my shoulders up, making sure the bag was strapped on firmly, before turning right and trekking along the river itself with the current.

I had to place my feet carefully, the stones beneath where smooth and slippery, while the strong current constantly attempted to pull me along further, and more than once I almost fell over when I came across a small drop, and had to go around, bringing me closer and closer to the shore, after about ten minutes of walking I moved up much closer to the bank, the river had gotten wider by now but still seemed about as deep, if not more so, and with more and more of those drops I couldn't risk falling in, I'd probably survive, but all the maps and books would be ruined. My inner voice had been mercifully silent this whole time allowing me some time to think.

"That should have lost them, and with the gauntlets any tracking spells should be negated, do they even need other magic to function? Probably should have looked into that a bit more. Still now I need to figure out my next move, I need to find someplace safe to hide, preferably in this forest, perhaps a cave somewhere. I hope these books will have covered all that I need to know about survival, though I doubt it, might have to watch out for..."

"Quiet!"

I froze, my breath slowing, as I listened out. I could hear the running water, and the rustling of leaves, the chipring of birds, nothing out of the ordinary. "Listen harder!" Wincing a bit at that piece of illiteracy, I nevertheless continued to wait and listen. I was abut to ask what exactly I was listening out for, when I heard it, the dreaded sound of hooves.

"SHIT! How'd they find me!"

"That doesn't matter, there doesn't seem to be many of them, we can take them."

While I was inclined to agree with my inner psychopath, the risk was too great, so I instead set off further along the river, while wading in deeper into the water. "Get out of the water right now, if we get caught in the water we'll be sitting ducks!"

"Shut up!"

"They're getting closer! GET OUT OF THE WATER!"

"I SAID SHU..." At that moment my foot descended into a much deeper drip that I had anticipated, causing me to stumble forwards, before it came to a rest on a rather slippery stone, and, combined with my already loose footing and the increasingly strong current, the inevitable happened. I slipped forwards into the water.

My face slammed into the water before I was almost instantly submerged, water filling into my open mouth, climbing up my nose, and causing me to shut my eyes. I felt my body tumble about in the water, my limbs flailing about, and I managed to smash my hand against what I think was the riverbed, but it could well have been the shore for all I knew. I opened my eyes but couldn't see anything, by back felt heavy and strained, and my lungs where burning. I managed to control my flailing and desperately began paddling to what I think was the surface, as the current continued to push me along.

I managed to break the surface of the water, gulping the sweet, sweet air, only to plunge back down into the depths almost immediately afterwards. I was doing flips and twists, as the current got stronger and stronger, I continued to flail about, somehow occasionally breaking the surface of the water, but only long enough for short gasps of air. My lungs where on fire and the bag on my back seemed to get heavier and heavier. I don't know how long this patter lasted, perhaps just a minute, though it could have been half an hour for how it felt.

Suddenly I felt myself collide with something, fortunately it was shoulder first so I managed to avoid banging my head on it, after shaking of the dizziness I grabbed the rock, yes I think it was a rock, and righted myself, struggling to hold on to the slippery surface against the current.

Finally, after a few agonising moments, I burst my head out of the water, and kept it there, taking long gasps of air as the burning feeling in my chest sapped away. I just sat there for a while, probably a few minutes before my brain finally managed to start taking in some of the area around me. My eyes where shut as I was there so I just listened beyond my own breathing,, I could hear the rushing water, though it sounded louder than it should have thundering even. Tentatively I opened my eyes and HOLY SHIT!!

Just beyond the rock, was a god damm waterfall, a WATERFALL! I didn't see any waterfalls on the map! If I had missed this rock by just a few metres I could well have gone over the edge, and plummeted to a very watery death, that's if whatever rocks where down there didn't slice me up first.

"How do you know there're rocks at the bottom?"

"Because karma that's why!"

"Don't be ridiculous, if there were anything like karma we'd have missed the rock!"

I didn't answer that, choosing instead to take a look at the rest of the area, the drop of the waterfall had many more rocks jutting out of the water, and it the ripples and rapids where any indication, there where many more beneath the surface. Looking around I could safely say that I was still in the forest, there where rather orderly lines of trees lining the banks, with smaller bushes and patches of grass sparsely scattered between them. I couldn't see very far into the forest but from what I could see I was currently alone.

"Better get out of here before that changes."

"And how, exactly, do you think you're going to do that?"

"Well we can't stay here, that's for sure!"

Still, he had a point, I couldn't just swim my way to the shore, the current was too strong and I was still too tired, but there wasn't anything connecting this rock to the shore from what I could see, the other rocks at the edge of the waterfall where all rather spread out from each other. But I couldn't stay here for much longer, the bag was still weighing me down quite heavily and my hands where beginning to grow numb again from the water, then I had a crazy idea.

I glanced at the closest rock, judging the distance as best I could, before crouching into the rock, and then jumping off, I made quite a bit of headway before the current pulled me back towards the water fall. My ever helpful inner voice decided to voice its complaints right about now, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!!!" I ignored it for now, as I was pulled back towards the waterfall, right into the rock I had been aiming at.

I slammed into the rock with an uncomfortably familiar feeling, scrambling about with my hands scrabbling about the rock before finding purchase yet again on some rough slabs jutting out from the sides. Talking a moment to catch my breath, I looked over at the bank, it was still far, but at least it wasn't as far as it had been before. "Whelp, time for some more excruciating pain." And with that I jumped again.

<-------------------------------->

I don't know how long it took me of jumping over and over and over again to reach the bank, much longer than I thought it would have, since as I'd went along I'd had to take longer breaks between jumps, but finally I reached a point where I could plant my feet on more or less solid ground, at least as solid as ground under water can get, and crawled my way back up to dry land.

As I lay there, gasping for air, my inner psychopath, who's been seeming decidedly less psychopathic lately, decided to voice his displeasure at my actions. "YOU IDIOT! Do you know how close we'd have come to death there? Just one misstep, one wrong footing, one missed jump and we'd have gone over the edge!"

"Well how exactly did you think we were going to get out of that mess?"

"I wouldn't have got us in this mess in the first place!"

"Sure you wouldn't have, its not like you where just as surprised as I was when the ponies caught up to us."

"Well I wouldn't have gone in the water with a backpack loaded with books and maps in the first place."

Then the realisation hit me with all the grace and subtly of a freight train "OH SHIT THE BOOKS!"

Ignoring further shouts of condemnation and condescension from my inner psychopath I quickly jolted upright and tore open my backpack to reveal, much to my dismay, the soggy piles of books and maps. Desperate i pulled open the covers of the first book I could, and saw black smudgy, soggy pages, a quick search revealed the same situation for all of the books. All of that valuable knowledge, gone, all that preparation for nothing, I would probably starve to death out here now.

"How did this happen?"

"Well, when paper gets wet, it..."

"I KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PAPER GETS WET! I just want to know how all this shit ended up happening to me, what'd I do to deserve all this crap?"

That seemed to shut him up, for however long that would last, but I would relish it while I could, given there was very little else I could relish. Sighing, I decided that I'd spent enough time moping around today, time to try and make the best of a bad situation. Throwing the books and maps into the river after making sure there was nothing salvageable left in them, right now they'd just weigh me down and they'd be a nice trail indicator is someone discovered them, not that they'd be able to do much with those piled of soggy paper but hey, I like to be thorough.

Then, picking my backpack up again, I headed off into the forest, best find some place to sleep before it gets dark after all, though it didn't seem like it was anywhere near afternoon yet.

Then, as if just to spite me, the sun began to rapidly make its way towards the horizon, casting ever longer and longer shadows across the forest floor.

"Seriously, what'd I ever do to deserve this?"

Not wanting to go trudging through the forest all wet in the dark, I decided to turn around and go back to the river, the trees looked thick enough to support my weight, what? You thought I was going to sleep on the floor? Heck no, there was a reason I'd brought a rope besides all the other more obvious ones.

Getting back to the river, I made my way along searching for just the right tree, eventually settling for one a very comfortable distance away from the waterfall, with some decently low hanging branches and very thick ones at that. I was no expert but I reckon this particular tree was near a hundred years old!

Placing my backpack on the floor, I sifted my way through what remained, pulling out a few wet apples and a very wet piece of rope. I munched on the apples with relish, my stomach reminding me of how hungry I was. And let me tell you those where the best apples I'd ever eaten, I made my way through what was supposed to be around two days worth of apple rations, which a small part of my mind chastised me for, and warned me to be careful on my food, before the rest of my mind crushed that thought brutally and efficiently, before driving me to eat three days worth of rations in spite of the other part of my mind.

Throwing the cores into the river when I was done, I slung my bag up on one of the low hanging, but still decently high branches, before slinging the rope over my shoulder and climbing up the tree. Now I'm proud to say that I've always been a good climber, I was pretty light, and quite flexible, still, I didn't climb trees that often, so it took me about three minutes and four more attempts before I got to a branch that was both strong enough to support my weight, and still a reasonable distance from the ground for me to feel safe, probably about six metres up.

I flung the rope around the rather thick trunk, now that took a few tries, before I finally managed to get it all the way around, then I sat myself down on the branch, and tied the rope around me. Heh, now all I needed was a bow and arrows and I'd be just like that Cadnace person, or was it Cadmus? I don't know, but my sister loved that movie, and there goes what little good mood was building up before.

Sighing I got myself in a comfortable position, or at least, as comfortable as one can bee while sitting in a tree, and closed my eyes. Sleep overtook me nearly instantly.

Author's Note:

I give a detailed report on why this took so long in a blog post

Comments

[Distorted Flare]

Yeah don't like it. Killing the mare was kind of shit so I am done with this story now

[nighters]

I might not like the mare being killed but she would have told them and ruin everything probably would of been glad to help and relived he dead and wouldn't feel to bad since he was a human a dangerous derange human that needed to be put down by the gaurds this story got it dark tag for a reason

[DenyTheWitch]

4995884 That would probably be for the best as I don't intend on this story getting much brighter. Sorry you don't like that though

[Distorted Flare]

4996185 Not your fault mate it is merely a conflict of likes. I wish you the best