Ch.1: Of Bird-cats and Bull-men.(Revised)
After stumbling through the snow for what could have been hour, or even a day, Sia was beginning to think she would have been better off had Cassandra killed her. She couldn't feel any of her limbs, and her hands and feet had started to shift colours, something she knew was a bad sign. Still, staying where she was wouldn't solve anything, so she pressed onward.
While her body wandered through the snow, her mind wandered as well, namely over Cassandra’s actions. The woman's actions, while different, made sense in a way. People who actively raided and assaulted people without reason were, in general, a bad lot. They would kill you for a cap without hesitation. But how many might have Cassandra killed or 'punished' who hadn't actually raided, and only did things that allowed them to survive? Did she also kill the people that had traded with the Legion or slavers and raiders simply on principle?
What could drive someone to so mindlessly follow a path without fleshing out all the facts? Was it just something that had carried over from when Cassandra had to fight to survive, or was it something else?
A sharp pain in Sia's chest brought her out of her musings, and a faint feeling of warmth brought her eyes down to her chest to see the barbed shaft of what appeared to be a extremely thin spear poking of her about two centimetres up from her right breast. Wincing as a cough erupted from her throat, she also couldn't help but notice small flecks of blood fly from her mouth as she fell to her knees.
"Haha, got the stupid mutt! Iron Claw, you see that fucking shot! Hell yeah!"
Faintly, Sia was able to recognise that the voice was coming from behind her. She attempted to turn and look but instead fell onto her side, sending a jolt of pain lancing through her wounded torso. She only just barely felt something wrap around her tunic and lift her up.
"Yea, Breeze," came a sneering, barely understandable voice, "But this one ain't no dog, yous dumb shit. Don't knows what this ones is, maybe we should just eats it."
Sia's understood that well enough and feebly lifted her left arm to attempt to grasp at the claw that was holding her. The thing holding her spread its beak open and laughed in her face as she struggled and wheezed.
"Get.. away from... m… me..."
The first voice suddenly chimed back in, sounding slightly more worried.
"Shit Iron, that's no Diamond Dog in looks or how it sounds. Maybe we should take it back to the camp, show it to He Who Fly's True."
Another pained cry was torn from Sia as a claw grasped the shaft that was still sticking out from her back and snapped it off.
"Alright, but you're carryings it, 'M justs gonna finds food."
As Sia began to fall from consciousness, she felt the odd sensation of weightlessness just before her eyes closed.
"Wake up!"
Her eyes fluttered open and Sia was brought back to reality by a painful slap across the face. Her head ached and every breath she took felt like someone was ramming a knife into her lungs. Forcing herself to focus, Sia found herself tied to a pole in the middle of a camp filled with what appeared to be numerous bird creatures that had been crossed with old world cats. There were also a few more brahmin-like things milling about.
"Good, you have recovered enough to be at least somewhat useful. Now, tell me, what are you?"
I've been tied up… for another interrogation… what the fuck, Sia thought to herself as her situation settled on her. "I'm a human being. From… well, not around here."
The thing interrogating her reached down a gripped her chin, forcing her to look at him. It was then Sia realised what she had been talking to. It was similar, head wise, to a Brahmin, but more closely resembled that of the bull the Legion used. The head was set on a ridiculously muscular body. All Sia could think of was that this thing could probably kill her with a twitch of its fingers or step on her if it was more convenient.
"That is obvious fool. Now, you aren't a Dog, your teats are set too high," the large beast droned as he poked Sia roughly in her left breast, the woman only just now noticing that she had been stripped completely nude, "And this down here tells that you are obviously female, also, you have no fur, which is peculiar."
As she felt the thing’s hand slide over her stomach, the blushing Sia couldn't help but feel sick. She’d seen raiders toy with women like this before raping them. With a snarl and using as much energy as she could muster, the woman kicked out at the bull-headed creature. Her heart froze in her chest when it grabbed her ankle and jerked her leg up, inspecting her foot and leaving Sia dangling from the chains on her wrists and the grip on her ankle. It also made her feel incredibly exposed and tears began to form in her eyes.
"And toes. Not many things have toes here. There are dragons, gryphons and hippogryphs obviously, but really its more claws. Then the Diamond Dogs have their toes. But you, you have fingers and toes, no claws," the creature rambled, dropping Sia's ankle and moving its other hand to twist her head and mess with her left ear. "And these are tiny. Don't seem like they'd be much use. Your teeth tell you're omnivorous, but they are pitiful as well. Are there more of you here?"
Looking down and off to the side, both out of fear and shame at the fact that she was being publicly examined while nude, Sia shook her head.
"No, I am alone."
"Good," came the beast’s reply as he reached back and then suddenly slammed the top of his clenched hand into Sia's stomach, causing her to scream in agony, "Then no one will miss you when you're gone."
Moving it's hand away, the bull-headed creature left the young woman's karambit embedded in her stomach.
"Iron, you brought it here, go dispose of it's body. I have no need of it."
"Come ons friends," the gryphon cackled maliciously as its eyes locked onto her and it gestured to a few other gryphons. "Let's goes have some funs with its before wes kills its and eats its!"
The toll taken on her body from being shot with an arrow, dragging herself through snow and having just been stabbed left Sia unable to do anything more than jerk feebly, and even then it sent pain lancing through her chest and stomach. As the gryphons lifted her and began to carry her off, she noticed that the ground was craggy and steamy, and that she could see a mountain in the distance. Neither of these were native to the Wastes, and it made Sia question if she was even going to die on Earth.
The 'ride', as it could roughly be called, took maybe ten minutes of the gryphons flying before they dropped her on the ground. One of them immediately pinned her still manacled hands above her head while two others grabbed at her legs. The fourth, Iron, just grinned wickedly.
"We's gonna enjoy yous plenty of ways 'fore wes kills yous..."
Adrenaline began to pump through Sia's body as she realised exactly what the gryphon’s plan was. She had accepted the idea of dying, and was in enough pain to be okay with it happening, but she was not going to let herself be raped first. Jerking her hands free of the gryphon, she wrenched the karambit free of her stomach with a pained scream before slamming it into the nearest taloned leg she could find. Instead of actually achieving anything, Iron simply hefted her off the ground by her throat and launched her five feet away where she hit the ground hard, stopping the breath in her lungs.
Rolling to her stomach, Sia attempted to rise only to have Iron wrap a claw around the back of her neck and cackle evilly as his hind claws latched onto her calves and pushed her legs wide open. Without any warning, the claws suddenly retracted, and Iron rolled off to the side with a muffled thump.
The entirety of Iron's beak had been smashed and the gryphon's eyes were lifeless as a large bipedal creature, similar in appearance to a Deathclaw, stepped over the corpse wielding a wooden club. It stared down the other three gryphons before throwing itself at them with a feral growl.
While two of the gryphons attempted to take on the new comer, the third, holding Sia's karambit in it's un-wounded claw, locked it's eyes onto the woman. As it propelled itself forward with it's wings, Sia found herself wishing more than anything she had the tomahawk back to defend herself with. Just as the thought crossed her mind, she felt a weight in her hands and, upon looking, realised she did indeed have the tomahawk back.
Rather than question the inconsistencies, Sia gathered all of her strength and swung the small axe into the oncoming gryphons neck, killing it instantly. Repressing the urge to be sick, Sia instead turned her eyes to the newcomer and his adversaries, or adversary seeing as one gryphon was laying motionlessly on the ground already.
She watched as the second gryphon made a faux attack, then chucked his sword at the bipedal creature before attempting to fly away. A heft of the biped’s club and a solid throw quickly brought the gryphon back to the hard ground where it was quickly finished off by tearing claws. As the newcomer cleaned his club and claws, two more creatures, the same as the newcomer, rose from the ground. One immediately moved to Sia's left, where it removed a cloak and wrapped it around the by far smaller human.
Sia felt her heart and hopes swell as she realised that these new beings had just saved her and clothed her. The original newcomer, a being that stood about five feet taller than her, bent down and pulled away it's cloak's hood to reveal a somewhat fearsome canine face with a kind expression in its eyes.
"Don't fret lass, we're here tae help," it said kindly, proffering it's right paw/claw in a standard greeting.
Sia made to take the paw and shake it, but her right shoulder's wound twinged, and the muscle contracted and pulled causing her stomach wound to twinge as well. Sia's eyes became unfocused for a moment before they closed and she fell forward into the creature's arms.
"How d'ye think the lass is gonna fare, da'?" whispered the voice of the dog-man that had initially greeted her. Sia did not know their exact plans, and while they had helped her, she was too scared to let on that she had awoken.
"Ah'll tell ye fer the last time, laddie, the lassie'll do fine, Ah'm sure. She's malnourished, exhausted, has been shot through the chest with an arrow, has some scratches on the back o' 'er laigs an' was stabbed in the gut. Not tae mention her emotions are probably fucked tae 'ell an' back, but tha's nary here nor there til she awakes. Go eat, son."
Sia listened to the pawsteps of her rescuer recede before chancing a look over at the other dog-man still in the room. He, she believed it was a he anyway, had his back to her and seemed to be working on something.
That meant he wasn't paying attention to her, and for the moment Sia felt that was best. Looking down at herself, she found that her breasts and pelvis had both been covered with a loose tunic and there were poultices on both her chest, leg and stomach wounds. So on the plus side was the fact that they understood basic modesty and had treated her wounds.
Roving her eyes around the room, Sia noticed that there were many medical charts and tools laying about, and that they had been trusting enough to leave her karambit next to her on the desk. Reaching over slowly, Sia lifted her karambit from the desk, not noticing the twitching ears of the creature that shared the room with her until he spoke.
"So, yer awake, how abou' tha'."
Eyes shooting wide open, Sia pulled herself up against the wall, knife at the ready as she attempted to stand on the bed but failed miserably and was forced back to her former position by a blast of pain.
"Don't ye fret," chuckled the creature as it turned, yet remained seated. It was still a foot or so taller than Sia would be standing. "Go ahead an' hold on tae tha' blade iffen it makes ye feel safer, but nary a one o' us is gonna harm ye provided we havnae a reason tae."
Nodding, and trusting the kind 'smile', at least Sia thought it was a smile, she lowered the knife and ask the first thing that came to mind.
"Where in hell am I?"
The beast let out a roaring laugh at this and brought up a paw to wipe his eye.
"The Tauth Clan Burrows o' the Tuath Clan Diamond Dogs lass, just north o' Equestria. By the by, seems m'lad Amais was righ', ye've got some fight in ye after all."
Sia took a moment to think over what she'd been told. She hadn't ever heard of a place called Equestria, had never seen bull-men or bird-cats either. The 'Diamond Dogs' were also something she'd not ever seen before. That coupled with the odd portals led Sia to one understanding, that she was no longer on her own world. Before she could say anything else, her stomach rumbled, and the diamond dog met her gaze with a raised brow.
"Ye sound like ye could use some vittles lass. Up ye get, Ah'll take ye tae the mess hall. Th'name's Glic." offered the diamond dog as he stood, holding out a friendly paw.
Sia hesitantly reached out and grabbed a couple of the long fingers before attempting to rise, and even once she had she felt extremely nervous. Glic had an easy two or three feet on her hands down. Casting a cautious glance up, Sia was met with that same kind smile as Glic nodded.
"Righ' then, let's go an' see iffen we can find mah lad Amais. He's the one tha' found ye and saved ye an' hasnae given me a lick o' peace tryin' tae see if ye'd make it. Ah'm sure he'll be more'n happy tae see ye up, an' ye should probably thank 'im tae."
Glic led Sia over to a door, and it was this moment that Sia realised that where she felt short in her old world, in these burrows she was practically a tiny child. As if sensing her fear and worries, Glic placed a comforting paw on her shoulder and kept smiling. As the door came open and Sia was greeted by the sight of a number of Diamond Dogs. Some wore tunics and others just opted for patterned skirts like Glic. Many of them looked up from their business at the woman and took a moment to flash her smiles while either waving or nodding before going back to their respective work.
"Everyone seems..."
"Friendly, lass?"
Sia nodded, "I was going to say nice, or happy, but yes. Where I come from the only people that smile are the one enjoying a good meal, or coming out of a close call alive. And nobody was friendly. You Diamond Dogs seem...different."
Clearing a way down the hall for her, Glic nodded, "Tha's because, as Diamonds Dogs, we are different. Any one o' us ye'd see further south would be a slobberin' mess tha' would screw ye or kill ye. Disgustin' fucks s'what they are. The Tauth Clan prides itself on bein' honourable, s'just tha' most dinnae bother tae say hi tae us an' expect us tae be no better than the mutts down south."
"I think I can understand what it's like to have the wrong types of people give everyone an impression of who you are. Um, did you want to know my name or business by the way?" Sia questioned, not necessarily minding the nice treatment, but confused by it.
"Iffen ye feel like sharin' feel free, but Ah'm no worried abou' it. Amais said ye were bein' harrassed by those cultist fools. Ye pissed 'em off, so your nary a pal o' them, which means Ah've no problem with ye bein' a pal o' us," shrugged Glic.
"Oh," Sia said, blinking, "Well, I'm Sia, and, well, I don't actually have plans, I'm just trying to find a safe place to be."
"Well lass," Glic started as they neared a large door with music coming from the other side of it, "if ye can tolerate the music and the obnoxious lot, ye've got yerself a safe place here in the Tauth Burrows."
Pushing the door open, Glic ushered Sia inside where a large number of Diamond Dogs were singing, dancing and all around raising a ruckus. It would have been downright scary if they weren't smiling. As it was, even the smallest was about a foot and half taller than Sia, so she still had a bit of trepidation as Glic led her through the throng of Dogs until a voice, louder than the rest, was heard in the middle of a ring of Dogs.
"-she's fightin' 'em off the whole way, Ah'm tellin' ye! Vicious lil spitfire's only the size o' a wee bairn as well, but she's takin' nary a bit o' fuckin' lip. Rips her own blade righ' out o' 'er stomach and chibs one o' th' buzzards in the damned claw. But tha's no' all! Lass gets thrown abou' two metres an' hits the crags, and one of the nasty blighters tries tae mount her, jamming 'is claws intae her laigs. Ah buggered 'is napper up real quick with mah Hackit Stick!"
As Glic and Sia made their way to the front of the crowd, the woman realised the one talking was none other than the Dog that had saved her. Just as she realised this, he noticed her and grabbed her up, quickly setting her on his shoulder.
"An' here the braw an' bold lass is! Let me tell ye all, after all tha', she still gets hersel' up ontae her feet and axes one more right south o' 'is napper! Ah finished with mah own pair, so when Ah turned as saw 'er as-laat 'Shit lass, ye dinnae choose tae fuck aroun', no?' so give 'er a round iffen ye've got the heart fer it, cause this'uns a true survivor!"
As Amais finished his tale, most of which Sia got the gist of, but didn't fully understand, the large, even for his own kind, Diamond Dog lowered her down to sit on the side of a table as he took a chair next to her, putting them at about equal height
"Glad tae see yer back in th'land o' th'living lassie." Amais grinned, sliding his plate of fish toward her and nodding.
Sia's head spun trying to catch up and decipher exactly what Amais had just said, and he seemed to recognise it, because he chuckled and spoke again, only slower.
"Ah'm sure Ah'm a wee bit hard fer ye tae understand, no? Dinnae worry yerself tae much, an' Ah'll try an' keep it simple for ye."
"Uhm, thank you, and for more than just slowing down your words, but...for everything I guess. I..." Sia started, but stopped as her breath hitched, stopping her words. In response a large, yet soft, paw came down and rubbed her back softly. Looking up, Sia found Amais looking at her, simply smiling with eyes that read of understanding and compassion, two things she hadn't seen in anyone other than her father.
Her father, who was dead... and she, who had been nothing but alone and faced insurmountable odds, only to have this Diamond Dog save her. She didn't even know if there was a good reason for it other than because he could. Her throat clenched as her eyes stung and the next thing she knew she was sobbing into Amais' very soft furry chest.
For his part, Amais was unsure of what to do, but settled for lifting the young woman up and carrying her out of the mess hall and back to the medical room. She didn’t even notice that she was moving during said trip and by the time he lay her down on the cot again she was asleep once more. Amais looked down at her for a moment longer, concern in his large eyes before he stepped outside to find his father waiting for him.
"Ah've got the lassie back intae bed, she's geen it yaldi all the day Ah'm sure an' seems 'bout done fer the day." explained Amais.
Glic simply nodded before speaking.
"We havnae a clue how safe she actually is tae have aroun', remember tha' laddie. Til we know o'erwise, Ah'm holdin' ye responsible fer her, do ye ken?"
With a decisive nod, Amais closed the door all the way and stood guard to ensure Sia would get a full night’s sleep.
Stats
Page generated in 0.037 seconds
Total duration
1,013 users online
2,625,027 hits today, 2,454,720 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
4010570 Well if came from the standard approach of being the Courier, Wanderer, Ulysses or Graham then it wouldn't be my trademark out-of-the-box approach silly.
Let's see if I can keep your attention, no?
And I know I'm going to enjoy this story. I've yet to read past the description and chapter titles.
4055204 Well, I try
I was informed to come here.
I'm here now, there's no need to worry.
4055402 Hahaha, nice, yeah, I just found out Ed put me on both a blog post /and/ a tumblr post.
Isnae bad and is a damn site better the some of the shite I see sometimes, but I never liked raiders, I think its alright that people try to make characters out of am, but to me they'll always just be another bunch'o bastarts who need a good bit a metal in the head. good luck regardless.
Brought here by Ed himself...
I've concluded that I love this story so far.
Liked, favorited, followed.
Also, some of my thoughts on this story... I thought that Ethan, Twilight and Cassie were going to be part of the story due to the story description, but, thats fine, because I really enjoyed your story set up. I'm also interested what you're going to have as the main storyline, and what our favorite snarky badass, his equally badass wife, and his also equally badass-partially-cyborg-pony companion are going to do about the random Wasteland human that disappeared into Equestria.
Accent is difficult to understand; but a good aspect of characterization.
4055504 Doesn't help when they attack you on sight and just talk about rape and pillaging.
4055504 unless they are spies waiting to be put on watch so they can do the metal-in-head work for you.