The Epic of a Diamond Dog

by Ravencrofte

Ch.12 A turn of Fate part 1

It was some time in the early morning, that stretch of purgatory between night and dawn when the world is coldest. The moon had long ago gone to bed. Even the stars were turning off one by one. A thin line of orange stretched across the horizon in a malicious smile, promising another hot day.

The only down side of the night was its freezing bite. My breath rose up in a puff of fog and flittered away. I shivered involuntarily underneath the blanket.

Beside me, Kitty Hawk stirred in her sleep.

We had spend two days in this desert: two days of hunger, two days of thirst, two days of having our hides branded by the sun. Each movement was a chore. Pain was a constant companion.

Somewhere deep inside, a part of me wished that it would stop. It would be easy to just stay here, let the sun cook us yet again; just wait to die. We had no food and little water. Could we still make it? Maybe, but it would be so easy just to give up and die.

Yet, as I huddled under my impromptu shelter, freezing under the thin blanket, looking out into the wasteland of sand and bitter night, I knew I could not. Not yet. The little bundle under my arm said I couldn’t. Somehow, we had to make it.

“Life is hell,” said a little voice in my head. I had to agree with it.

The faintest of breezes slipped under the blanket and chilled my tortured hide. The sun would rise soon, and it promised another murderous day. It was time to get up.

I started to rise, only for my legs to remind me how much they hurt; my left shoulder doubly so. Every limb was stiff and sore, cramped tightly. The deep muscles screamed. I opened my mouth in a silent cry of pain. Then I was on my feet. A few steps helped loosen my joints.

There was a loud yawn, and Kitty Hawk poked her head out from under the blanket. “Good morning, Ember,” she said, blinking the sand from her eyes. Those eyes traveled up to the sky and beyond to the stars. She let out a groan before pulling herself to her hooves. “Ember, why are we up? The sun hasn’t risen yet.”

“Exactly,” I said. “We need to get an early start before the heat gets very bad.”

Kitty Hawk didn’t seem too enthusiastic with this news. With a shudder and a shake, she rose to her hooves and kicked the blanket off. With a sigh, she came to stand beside me, head hanging low.

Poor girl had been doing a lot of walking. I would have let her ride, but it was too painful with my sun burns.

“Did you sleep well?” I asked.

She nodded her head. With a weak smile, she stuck out her tongue. “Yep. I dreamed of a big lake, and swimming, and there was snow cones and everything.”

“Good,” I said and tried to copy her smile, but my cheeks hurt too much. The next moment I was fighting off a yawn. It was a good thing that at least one of us had gotten some sleep.

As I packed away the blanket, I caught Kitty Hawk looking longingly at the sky. Her wings fluttered at her side.

Suddenly, there came a growl. I looked at Kitty Hawk. Her stomach repeated its call. She smiled sheepishly.

“Sorry,” I said. “There’s nothing to eat.” Guilt and shame coursed through my veins. I was responsible for her. I should have made sure she was taken care of. And here I was, failing at my duty.

“I know,” she said with a smile. Somehow those words made me feel even worse.

“That’s not true,” reminded a little voice. “There’s a nice juicy pony right in front of you.” My stomach growled. “Just one little bite,” continued the voice. My tongue flicked across my pointy teeth.

A jolt shot through my body. It was enough to snap me out of it. Quickly, I slammed the door on those dark thoughts. This was Kitty Hawk I was thinking about. She wasn’t some rabbit or deer. She was young, innocent,“So juicy…”

“When are we going to get home?” asked Kitty Hawk, completely unaware of my struggle.

I thought about her question. It helped to suppress my darker desires. “If we can get out of this desert soon, maybe three to four more days.”

That was a big if: if we could find water, if we could find our way out, if no major landmarks stood between us and the land of Equestria, if we didn’t get lost, if we didn’t die, if, if, if... There were a lot of if’s.

And to what end? To hand her back over to other ponies and say “goodbye”. I had come to care for her, to be her guardian against the world. What would I do if I didn’t have her by my side?

Kitty Hawk interrupted my thoughts with a loud burp. “Can I have some water?” she asked.

I pulled out our canteen. It was depressingly light. Kitty Hawk took a big drink before handing it back to me. I took a small sip, just enough to wet my lips; there was so little left. The canteen went back into the saddle bags.

Then we were off.

____________________________________________________________________________

It was so hot I could have cracked an egg and cooked it on my face. The heat was continuous, relentless in its assault. The hot sand baked our undersides. The sun continued its murderous onslaught from on high. I was panting heavily. Each step was a chore.

My coat itched in the most annoying of places. I looked over at Kitty Hawk who resembled a dirty puff ball. The poor kid looked downtrodden in her fur and feathers.

A dribble of sweat stung my eyes. I wiped my forehead with the back of a paw. It only ground sand into my fur.

I took a short drink from the water skin. There wasn’t much left. I shook the skin to get an answer. The skin told me that there was only a mouthful or two left. My body told me that I shouldn't be shaking things with my left arm, as it was still swollen from our harrowing escape. I offered the water to my charge.

Kitty Hawk gleefully took the water. She tipped it back with one wing and emptied it contents. I packed the skin away.

“What’s that?” asked Kitty Hawk, pointing off to a point in the distant. I summoned the energy to bring my head up. All I could see were slithering snakes of heat.

“I can't see anything,” I replied. “What does it look like?”

“A grey bulge on the horizon.”

“Sounds great,” I said wearily; talking hurt too much. “Lead on, I’ll follow.”

She did just that: scampering ahead on her little legs, wings held straight out on either side. Reluctantly, I started after her.

A slight embankment nearly tripped me. My paws fought for solid footing, and up I went. The shifting sand only made a half-hearted attempt to impede my climb.

The top held a surprise: concealed between twin ribbons of sand was a continuous sheet of sandstone. It was wide enough for three dogs to walk side by side, snaking out behind and stretching on into the future. As least the road wouldn’t shift with each step.

I raised my head and spotted Kitty Hawk getting further away. Strangely enough, she seemed to be following the road. I trudged after her, head hung down, watching the movement of my limbs. The right paw moved forward one step. The process was repeated by its doppelganger. The third paw copied the examples of the first two, and finally the fourth paw followed suit. The process restarted with the first.

“I found it,” said Kitty Hawk, and I had to suddenly stop myself from tripping over her. “What do you think?” With one hoof she gestured in front of us. I raised my head.

We were both confronted with a mass of shimmering semi-solid air. The mass slowly curved away in either direction, forming, from what I could see, into a giant bubble.

“Can we go through it?” asked Kitty Hawk in her infinite optimism. “I want to see. I want to see.” I watched her nearly bounce with excitement. It was nice to see that her enthusiasm had returned.

“Sure,” I said, the sun sapping away any energy to argue. It wasn’t like we weren’t going to die soon without water or hadn’t eaten for days. In fact, it would probably be easier to just roll over and die.

Kitty Hawk had other plans. “Let's go,” she said, grabbing my paw and practically dragging me to the bubble.

And then she was gone.

If I hadn’t been watching her closely, I would have missed it: a ripple of air momentarily marked her location and then was still.

“Stop! Kitty Hawk, come back!” I shouted. There was no reply. “That little…” I began but stopped. My jaw worked back and forth, teeth grinding together in frustration.

Magic was the worst. If it wasn’t being used to distract or actively kill me, it was the perfect trap to separate small, exploratory ponies from their protectors. When I found Kitty Hawk, she was getting a stern talking-to. How many times would I have to say, “Don’t go touching anything that glows, sparkles, or is obviously magical,” before it finally sunk in?

After taking several a deep breaths, I clenched my eyes shut and pushed forwards. There was resistance. I pushed harder. The substance flexed. I put one paw in front of the other, forcing my way in.Then the resistance gave way and I burst out the other side.

My first shock was being smacked in the face by a large leaf. The next shock was the feeling of water pouring down my front. A gasp of pain escaped from my lips, followed by a sigh as it soothed some of the burns and blisters across my hide. Pushing the leaf aside, I found myself on the edge of a jungle.

A sticky, humid heat plastered my fur down. The foliage towered up in solid slabs of greenness. Such giants played hosts to forests of vines, flowers of every color, and hordes of critters that slithered, scrawled, and flittered through the canopy. The dirt wasn’t dirt at all, but layers upon layers of dead plants. The only viable route through the mass was a small path with waterlogged wagon ruts.

My attention instantly zeroed in on the water. I plunged my head in and drank greedily. The water was dirty and mixed with bits of plant, with tiny critters that flicked across the surface, but had never tasted so good. Strength returned to my body with each gulp. I finally stopped when my stomach threatened to burst.

A shriek echoed from deep in the jungle. “Kitty Hawk!” I shouted back. No one answered. I cursed myself for leaving her alone. Scrambling over the underbrush, I nearly tripped but caught myself. Leaves, vines, and thorns grabbed at me in my headlong plunge through the underbrush. I moved around trees, under and over logs, blasted through shrubs and dared anything to stop me. Another shriek came slightly to my left. I corrected course. The tree line broke, and I found myself on the edge of a small lake.

I frantically looked around for my charge. “Kitty Hawk! Kitty Hawk!” I called out. There was no answer.

She surfaced closed to shore, treating water. “Ember,” she said when she saw me, and paddled over.

“Are you hurt?” I asked as she pulled herself from the lake.

“No, I’m fine,” she said, water dripping from her coat. “The water feels so good.”

I took a deep breath and collapsed on the ground. It was Kitty Hawk’s turn to rush to my side. “Are you ok?” she asked.

“Yes, just tired.”

I looked around from my lowly position, taking it all in: jungle, water, and wildlife. Here was everything we needed to live, concealed right in the middle of the desert. It was almost a dream.

“Ember, can we stay here?” asked Kitty Hawk.

“I think that is a great idea,” I replied.

“Can we have a fire?”

“Absolutely.”

“And tell ghost stories?”

“Sure.”

“And, and…” I could see the ideas whirling just behind her eyes.

I cut her off. “Kitty Hawk, whatever you want, we’ll do it.”

Kitty Hawk’s smile was so wide I was afraid it would split her face.

Comments

[REDACTED99999]

Good to see this story alive again.

[xbox432]

Really enjoyed the story, not often we get a good D Dog story. Curious to see where you take this, will he stay with Kitty or become some sort of envoy to the ponies? At the very least he can warn them not to cross over into D Dog territory due to how the Empire feels about them.

[SentientHydra]

Loving the revival!

[Black--Soul]

Cant make heads or tails out of this barrier biomes.

Fantastic chapter!