Fallout: Equestria: A Cut Above

by Wirepony

Chapter 4: Claw's Well That Ends Well

Fallout: Equestria: A Cut Above
Chapter Four: Bat Cave!

I'd like to take a moment to thank Arcane_Scroll, the mad genius responsible for Fallout-Equestria.com, the IRC crew on #Falloutequestria, and specifically Volrathxp - it's his fault this chapter wasn't posted three days ago! All thanks to Kkat, Dan Shive, and Somber.

The shocked reactions of the other people eating in the cafeteria puzzled me – everyone I knew liked a good steak, and fried tunnel rat, while not exactly a delicacy, was a welcome change from the increasingly greasy molerat steaks and preserved bundles of grasses I had brought from home. In the hush, I looked around, paying attention to the contents of plates. Aside from the four griffins, including the one that had dished chow out for me and Engineer, every pony present had purely vegetarian plates. Engineer was staring at me with his beak gaping open in shock, so I gave him a shrug, cut a chunk of brahmin steak, dipped it in the egg, and slurped it off my fork.

The murmur of conversation picked back up slowly as I worked through the solid meal in front of me. Blinky seemed quite pleased with the cattails, and gnawed his way through almost all of them before passing out face up on the table, his belly distended and round. I was chasing the last legovers of egg around my plate with the last of the cattails when Engineer nudged me. Looking up, I spotted Brick coming in the door from below, a small smile on his face. I waved, and Brick tossed a nod my way. I returned to my plate, and had just slurped down the last of the cattail when Brick sat down across from me and Engineer.

"Looks like we're about ready to go in tomorrow morning. I've talked to the Eggheads, and they'll be ready right after breakfast." Brick announced, drawing attention from everyone in the room. "We're going to be taking the Tribal, Egglebert to keep an eye on him. HQ Squad will be me, Gnash, Windy, the tribal, and Egglebert. Squad one will be Jimstone, leading Todger and Frybread. Squad two will be Squirt, leading Kettle Bell.. and Burns."

Around the room, ponies and griffins were reacting to the list of names, most of them muttering comments to their neighbors, except for one pony, brown with a spotty dark red mane, who jumped into the air shouting. "Wooohoo!" and hoofing at the air. The dark blue unicorn sitting across the table from him facehoofed, and the burly orange female unicorn patted the blue one on the shoulder, grinning widely. Brick grinned at Engineer, who was just finishing off his own steak, and hoofed me on the shoulder.

"Get some sleep tonight, kid. Tomorrow's going to be fun. Stick with Egglebert, here, and he'll get you dossed down." Brick made to get up, but was interrupted by a dark grey griffin with a shockingly red breast, sliding onto the bench next to him.

"You know I've got your back, boss – but do you think Squirt can keep Burns from turning us all into cinders?" The griffin – Windy, I assumed, asked. Brick settled back onto the bench and snorted a laugh.

"Yeah, Squirt bitches, but he's got Burns on lock. With the kid here, we've got enough close-in fighters that Burns shouldn't need to even fire up his roaster." Brick said, getting back to his hooves. He clapped the griffin across the shoulders. "Introduce yourself to your squaddies. I'm gonna go shake down the armory for some AP ammo for that cannon of yours."

And with that, Brick was gone. I waved at the griffin, who waved a taloned foreleg back at me.

"Well, Brick hasn't fucked up big that I know of, so what the hell." Windy said with a shrug, before reaching across the table. I met her fisted talons with my hoof. "I'm Iron Gale – call me Windy."

"I'm Wicked Cut, my friends call me Wicky. This lump is Blinky." I added, poking the comatose molerat with a hoof. "What sort of cannon do you use? How do you lug a whole cannon with you?" I asked, smiling across the table. Windy stared at me, her beak gaping open. Engineer reached across the table, and gently closed her beak. Shaking her head, Windy shot a look at Engineer.

"Tribals." She said, disbelief etched on her face. "I use a .50 calibre recoil-stabilized anti-material rifle with one of the most advanced pre-war optical targeting systems in existence. I can shoot hairs out of your tail from far enough away that you'd never hear the gun fire." Windy said, shooting a glance at Engineer. "Why the hell are we bringing some ignorant tribal along on this fuckarow?"

Engineer laughed. "Because the kid's got chops. He faced Four-claw on the wall, with backup from the Big Bird, and kept his head. The way he moves, he's a fighter, but he still treats even littles like Main Spring with respect." Engineer bragged. Tapping his beak, he added. "And the first thing he did when he got into the bathroom was to scrub like he needed it."

Windy accepted this with a grunt, considering me evenly. I shrugged under her scrutiny, uncomfortable. Nothing Engineer had said was untrue, but I didn't see what the big deal was. Who didn't like to stay clean? Shaking her head again, the griffin rose to her feet, pushing off of the table. "I'm gonna go talk to the boss about this. I gotta figure out what's going on." Tail swinging lazily behind her, the grey griffin strode out of the room.

"I have to admit, Engineer – I'm curious, too. You guys haven't even seen me fight." I said to the raggedy griffin, who was considering his plate.

"Well, kid, we're Talons. Some of us, like Four-claw, and the griff who had you pinned down outside the gate, know the score. Windy's damn good, a regular Hoof of Celestia, but she's not a fighter..." Engineer trailed off, gazing blindly at the ceiling. Shaking himself out of his fixation, he continued, looking me directly in the eye. "It sounds kinda silly, but she's not truly a Warrior. Brick gets into the whole 'Path of the Warrior' mysticism thing when he's drinking, but there's really something to it." The griffin finished, rising to his feet and grabbing his plate off the table. "I'm not one, but I can certainly see it." he finished, heading back to the food counter.

I pondered that, idly pushing tunnel rat bones around my plate. I didn't consider myself a "Warrior", or even a warrior, for that matter. Warrior mysticism was something that had died away shortly after we had crossed the mountains. There wasn't much call for the 'steel of the brave' when the lion's share of available work was hauling rubble or sweeping. The peculiar and abnormal way the raider plague had affected us didn't leave us with the mindless urge to violence that seemed so common in the Wasteland. With the safe space to breathe that we had found in Our Tacksworn, the warrior cult had just gone away, leaving a handful of brands and pierced ears behind as its only legacy.

I was too young to join the warrior cult before it faded, and what little I'd learned of it was never that attractive. There wasn't any honor in battle – not against the animals and zombie ponies we'd wiped out clearing the town. My battle in the Wasteland, against the three raiders, hadn't been much better. The warrior cultists were all about the glory of steel meeting steel – I didn't see how there was steel against steel in a scrawny pony with a shovel getting his neck broken by a bad landing.

Not much glory, either. Shovel Pony had been malnourished and naked and crazy. Hitty Pony, while not exactly malnourished, wasn't quite right. His bulging muscles hadn't looked healthy. I wasn't a doctor, like Big Bear, but that hadn't been a healthy pony. Shooty Pony was mutch the same – while he hadn't been as scrawny as Shovel Pony, he had had open sores on his legs and flank. How could there be anything good gained from fighting such sick creatures?

I snapped out of my meandering thoughts to see Engineer – Egglebert, I guess, sitting across the table, calm and amused. I smiled back at his surprisingly expressive beaked face, and looked down to see my plate gone. I grinned sheepishly, and Engineer shrugged with a gaped-beak griff grin. "You were thinking hard, didn't see a reason to disturb you." Engineer offered, and climbed off the bench. I snagged Blinky up, and deposited him on my back, drawing a sleepy grunt from the molerat. Waving a loose gesture at the door off to the left of the one we had come in, Engineer led me through new hallway, which led the long way around the cafeteria and kitchen. Making a final turn, the hallway extended on, opening four doors on the right and ending at an elevator.

Engineer sauntered down the hallway, the leather stump of his hindleg thumped on the floor as we made our way down the length of it. The first door had a wing crudely scratched into it, and deep scratches . Engineer pushed the door open, leaving a fresh set of scratches on the edge, and I peeked inside. Two curtained bunk beds on either side of the room had foot lockers at their feet, and another pair of lockers at the end of the room. One set of curtains rattled open, and the black and tan feathers of Hellen stuck through the opening. Her eyes focussed on Engineer, shot over to me, then shrunk to pinpricks. I started backpedalling, but she pulled her head back inside the curtain and slammed it shut. I heard banging and squeaking, and saw the bunkbed shivering, as Engineer shut the door, laughing. We proceeded to the next door, which had a crude claw-sketch of a shoe on it.

Engineer pushed this door open too, and the same layout met my peering eyes. A glow of magic shot one of the curtains open, this time, and an unfamiliar unicorn peered out, his pink mane contrasting nicely with a purple coat. His face twitched in the beginning of a smile, and he waved a short chop before swishing the curtain closed again. The third door was blank, and locked. Engineer tapped it, and said "Armory.", then continued on. The last door was blank as well, and revealed another pair of bunk beds, these empty with the curtains pulled back. Engineer stumped his way into the room, dragging one of the footlockers around to rest on, before waving a wing at the bunks.

"These were setup for the reinforcements, but those guys won't be here for another week or so. You might as well use one."

I decided on the bottom bunk on the right. They all looked the same, barring minor differences in curtain color. The mattresses were surprising, clean and firm. I loaded my armor bundle into the footlocker at the foot of my chosen bunk, and after a moment of consideration, set Blinky down beside it. I left the lid open and came back around to the bunk. Hopping onto it, I rolled around until I had made myself comfortable, ending up kneeling with my chest propped on the provided pillow, which was also clean and firm.

"How'd you guys get all this... Stuff?" I asked, settling in. Engineer met my question with a quizzical expression, head tilted to focus on me with one eye. "I mean, the mattresses are clean, you have pillows.. pillows!" I expanded, waving a hoof to include the whole building. "Even the walls are clean, and the lights work." I levelled a hoof at Engineer. "Reveal your secrets!"

Engineer laughed, a griffin grin stretching his face. "We got lucky, and we worked. The Talons and the Collegiate have been here for three months, now. With nothing to do but patrol and clean, we've got almost the entire compound like you see it. We got lucky, too – most of the supplies were still sealed in their original shipping crates."

"So, this place was never fully brought online." I mused, clambering off of the bunk bed. "And it isn't a water plant." I stated. "I found a journal just north of here – had some information about this place in it." As I dug through my saddlebags, pulling out the journal from the tiny lean-to. I passed it off to Engineer, and clambered back up on the bunk, stretching out on the almost disturbingly comfortable mattress.

Engineer clicked his beak as he read, swiftly working through the journal while I luxuriated in the comfort of the bunk bed. Finished, he slapped the book shut and jumped to his feet. "I gotta go see Brick. This changes things. Stay here." he blurted, uncharacteristically brusqe, and almost bolted out the door, kicking it closed behind him. I blinked at the door, the drowsy comfort of the like-new mattress chaining me to the bed more effectively than actual chain, and drifted off to sleep, warm, clean, dry, and comfortable. It felt almost sinfully good. As my eyes drifted shut, I heard a grunt and molerat mutterings from the foot of the bed. I cracked my eyes and stretched a hoof down, scooping Blinky up and tucking him against me. We drifted off to sleep, secure and comfy.

Secure and Comfy went away with a big hurry when I woke up to talons digging into my throat. My eyes flew open and I stared at the pinprick pupils of an infuriated griffin, right in my face. I had apparently rolled onto my back in my sleep, and the light body of the griffin from the food counter had me pinned. I could feel the talons on my throat, but as I awoke further I felt a hot weight on my sheathe, and the pinpricks of claws digging into my belly just ahead of it.

"Good. You're awake. Move, and I'll gut you. Talk, and I'll gut you."

I pissed myself. Lunch had come with a glass of clean water. I had drank my fill during my bath, and I had not had a chance to pee since. The hot urine sprayed under her foot and splattered, the stink filled the room, and suddenly I didn't have a griffin on top of me.

"Ahhhhhh!" I screamed, thrashing my limbs as I tried to roll off of the bunk bed. It seemed to sum up my thoughts on the whole matter, so I repeated myself as I realized I hadn't got control enough of my sleep-addled body to get around to shutting off my pee stream, and had just splattered urine all over my face. I clamped those muscles down, and made a more organized thrashing of my legs to roll me out of the bunk. I ran out of scream as my hooves touched down on the floor of the room I had been assigned, and I drew a great surge of air into my lungs.

"Raaaaaaagh!" I roared, turning the crouch from my landing into a lunge. I charged the door of the room, which was hanging open, and banked around into a sprint down the hallway. Hellen's dark brown tailfeathers flashed out of sight around the corner at the end of the hall, and I poured the power on, the flashes of pain from forced shutdown of my pee spurring my anger. The roar of rage I had started out with settled down to angry grunts and the rush of heavy breathing as I rattled down the hallway. I slid around the turn, bouncing off the wall just as Hellen disappeared into a small door on the left. "HELLLEN!" I yelled, lunging forward again and surging through the same door.

Inside the door was the kitchen area, all silvery countertops and cupboards. Hellen waited at the end of the long room, brandishing a pair of knives clenched in her talons. I snatched a knife for myself on the way down the room, and turned my lunge into a rearing tackle. My heavier weight bounced the griffin off the wall and lost her knives for her. I flexed my hindlegs, slamming Hellen into the wall, and stunning her. The pinprick pupils of the griffin were darting from side to side, now, searching for a way out. As I laid the back of the blade against her neck, I heard the distinctive 'ka-chunk' of a shotgun cocking.

Everyone froze. Time itself seemed to stand still, in fact. I had a foreleg across Hellen's feathered chest, and I could feel the quivering heartbeat underneath the feathers.

"Ok, noone move a muscle." The calm voice of Brick rolled through the kitchen. "Wicked, I'm going to take the knife now. You will let go of it." Brick continued, and as his magic field tugged on the knife, I relaxed my jaw, allowing the handle to slip from my teeth.

"Look at the blade, boss." Engineer's voice said from behind me. I startled, snorting a hot blast of breath into Hellen's face. She flinched back and then lunged forward, snapping at my face. I pushed her away with the foreleg on her chest, bouncing her off the wall again, and the shotgun went off. The sound, in the confined space of the kitchen, was ear-shattering, and I pushed completely away from Hellen, toppling over. Engineer's tattered talons caught me, and the griffin dragged me back away from Hellen. Brick was right in her face now, his shotgun smoking slightly less than a hoof away from Hellen's head. Engineer helped me up to my hooves, and I flopped back down onto my rump, sitting on the hard floor as Brick stared down Hellen.

"Hellen Back. You are going to sit there. You are not going to move. If you move, you will be going back to Shattered Hoof in a bucket. Nod once if you understand." Brick stated, the words falling out like individual stones, thumping into the tense silence. Hellen nodded, a single jerk of her head, down, up. Brick nodded in return, then stepped back, towards me and Engineer. The shotgun never moved as the magic holding it changed color, and I glanced up to see Four-claw standing on the other side of the counter, watching Hellen alertly. A pair of frag grenades lazily circled above his head.

Brick turned to me, then, drawing another shotgun from his barding. Engineer's grip on my upper foreleg tightened as his boss drew near, and I went crosseyed tracking the huge muzzle of the shotgun as it floated up to rest gently against my face, directly between my eyes. "Wicked Cut. Do not move, except to speak. Answer all of my questions truthfully and completely, or you will be executed. Nod once if you understand."

The shotgun floated away from my head, and I nodded once, a short jerk of my face, just like Hellen's. The shotgun stayed right at the tip of my nose, and I couldn't look away from it. The hole in the end of the barrel looked big enough to curl up and die in. Engineer coughed, quietly, and I couldn't help it, I started shaking. It looked like this was going to be the end of me, in some compound on the edge of a salt sea, noone from home ever knowing what had happened to me, and Our Tacksworn failing, rotting away into a raider nest or just fading into nothing.

My dark maundering was interrupted by a shake from Engineer, who had transferred his grip to my shoulder. Blinking, I focussed back on the now, and Brick's voice swam into sensibility in my ears. "-plain exactly what the fuck just happened." He finished.

"I woke up, Brick, and she was on top of me, and had her talons in my throat, and a claw on my belly." I responded quickly, my voice quivering. "I freaked out, and pissed myself. She got off me, and I chased her. We got to the kitchen.. and.. well." I trailed off awkwardly, staring at the shotgun.

Brick grunted. "OK. What were you planning to do to her?"

"I don't know. I didn't want to kill her, I still don't know why she h-hates me. I never even talked to her.!" I blurted out. My shaking was getting worse, and Brick had pulled the shotgun a hoof or two away from my face, though it was still pointed at me.

"He did have the back of the knife on her, not the blade" Engineer pointed out quietly. Brick grunted acknowledgement.

"Was that by accident, boy?" He rumbled.

"No sir." I replied. "I figured it would scare her without risking killing her. I would've stabbed her if it came to that." I said. Brick grunted again, and poked me in the nose with the shotgun.

"You gonna stay put?" He asked.
"Yes sir" I hastened to reply. Brick nodded, turned, and walked back towards Hellen, taking his shotgun with him. My shakes broke, and with a sigh, I slumped in Engineers grasp. Feeling drained, I watched as Brick walked towards Hellen, his shotgun bobbing at his side. As he floated his shotgun up to her face, Four-claw pulled his back and withdrew to block the entries to the kitchen.

"Hellen. You will answer all of my questions truthfully and completely. You will not move except to talk. Nod once if you understand." Brick opened, his voice calm and even. Hellen nodded again, jerky and abrupt, then froze.

"Did you go into Wicked Cut's bunk and put your claws on him as he described?" Brick asked. Hellen twitched, but froze again as the shotgun aimed at her slid forward.

"Yes sir." Hellen got out, her eyes rolling back and forth as she focussed on the shotgun uncomfortably close to her face.

"And did the following events take place as he described?" Brick asked. The evenness and stability of his voice was starting to scare me all on its own.

"Yes sir." Hellen replied. She was actually starting to sweat. Brick blinked, then stepped back.

"Lift the foot you used on his belly." Brick commanded. Hellen lifted her right rear foot, and Brick leaned forward to sniff at it, the shotgun closing in on her eye as he did so. Hellen froze completely, not even breathing. Brick pulled back and eyed Hellen evenly. "Stay." He commanded, and strolled back to me. Reaching out a forehoof, he knocked mine apart. Engineer's claw tightened on my shoulder, but I didn't move a muscle as Brick leaned between my forelegs and sniffed at my underbelly. Pulling away from me, Brick made a face. "Yup, that's the same ponypiss."

With a sigh, Brick returned to Hellen. "Why." was all he said.

I sat transfixed on the floor as Brick loomed over the seated griffin. Hellen had no way to win, no way to possibly fight her way out of this, and she was not happy. Her quivering wings and darting eyes contrasting with the solid calm that Brick exuded. "I asked you a question, Hellen." Hellen spasmed, her wings popping up and forward, her back arching down. Brick's shotgun slammed forward and hit her face, just above the beak, with a boney thump. Hellen collapsed, her wings falling limp and her crouch turning into a loose sprawl on the floor. "No." Brick stated. In a way, his glacial calm was more terrifying to me than any of the times I'd been yelled at, more threatening than any of the times I'd been in a fight.

Once, when I was younger, I had been bitten by a ghoul, bitten badly. The undead pony had scooped a chunk of flesh out of my hide that contained half of my cutie mark. The next week of my life was defined by laying in a bed, bandages and healing powders over my wound. Thanks to Big Bear, my hide had grown back, and as the crater filled in over time, my cutie mark had reappeared. It was like something surfacing from inside me, and the slow progression of it back to 'normal' was terrifying. This was worse, but at least it should be over quicker.

Hellen's beak flopped open and closed a few times, her eyes rolling in her head like they'd been cut loose, before stabilizing. Hellen stayed flattened out on the floor, her eyes locked on the shotgun barrel floating over her head.

"He's going to get Gnash killed. I wasn't even going to hurt him. I was just going to warn him." She ground out, the stillness of terror replacing her earlier quivering. Brick sighed, a short chop of sound. "I know, boss, I know, but he's just.. so.. "

Hellen trailed off, closing her eyes. Brick waited in the silence and the stillness, then stood back, his shotgun holstering itself on the brief harness he wore. "Four-claw."

"Sir?"

"Convert the extra room to a lockdown. Cut a food slot. Put her in, lock her down. Hellen."

"Sir?" Hellen said, relief in her voice.

"Stay in lockdown. Don't cause trouble. You're leaving back to Shattered Hoof as soon as we're all out of the complex downstairs. Engineer will fly back with you as an escort."

"Yessir."

"When he gets there, he's going to report that you are medically unfit for extended duty, and need your implant repaired."

"Yessir."

"Now git."

"Yessir." Hellen replied, then slowly gathered her sprawled limbs under her. Eyes on the floor, the griffin practically crawled after Four-claw, who led her back out of the kitchen the way me and her had originally came. Engineer released his grasp on my shoulder and I slumped, nearly ending up sprawled on the floor myself before I got my hooves under me. I shook and stretched, then looked over to meet Engineer's intent gaze.

Engineer blinked and shrugged, looking away. I straightened to see Brick approaching, the same placid expression on his face. Sitting in front of me and Engineer, Brick sighed, longer and deeper than earlier, and wiped at his face with a forehoof. "I hate drama. I hate stupid youngsters who think the 'no fraternization on mission' rule doesn't apply to them." Brick grumbled. "You OK, kid?"

"Yessir."

"Don't sir me, youngster, I work for a living. Go get cleaned up, get some more sleep. Use the pony bunk, tell 'em I said to take Four-claw's bed."

"Ok, Brick. Thank you."

"Don't thank me kid. I'm just the wing of Justice here." Brick tossed over his shoulder as he walked out of the room. Engineer patted me on the head, and followed.

"Go wash up, kid. Sleep well."

I heaved a sigh and wandered off the other direction, past the counter and down the stairwell I had used earlier that day.

The lobby was dimmer than earlier, most of the lightbars dark. A dim grey glow came in the closed front door, and I heard voices murmuring behind it. Ignoring them for now, I nosed open the bathroom door and proceeded to use the bathroom. Washing afterwards, I heaved a sigh of relief. Four tiny red marks on my belly were all the damage I had taken downstairs, and my throat, while having larger marks and some bruising underneath my coat, had no major injuries either. I dried off with another of the amazingly soft towels, then tossed it in the bin inside the linen closet.

Cleaned and dried, I left the bathroom and moseyed my way back towards the stairs, suddenly tired. The voices from the front door, however, peaked as the door swung open, nearly smacking me in the nose. I stopped the door with a forehoof just short of my nose, and the dark brown form of the cheering unicorn from the cafeteria backed through.

"Look, Springy, I know you want in, I know! But the boss makes these calls, and you know his mind as well as I do – not at all!" The unicorn chattered, before waving. "Now I gotta get sleep – I've gotta be sharp to burninate tomorrow morning." He said, turning to leave. Seeing me peeking around the corner, the unicorn stopped. "Hey kid, you the tribal boss is bringing?"

"Yeah, I'm Wicked Cut." I replied, stepping around the door, which the unicorn knocked completely open with a casual kick. The door stuck open, and I glanced in the entry hallway to see the trim greenness and fuzzy short mane of Main Spring. Her mane didn't hold my attention this time, instead I found myself fixated on the grim expression on her face.

"You'd better not disappoint Brick tomorrow, 'Wicked Cut'" She said angrily, stomping forward. "That's my slot on the team you're taking, and if you mess it up, I'll be furious!" She finished, thumping a forehoof into my chest.

With a gusty sigh, I plopped to the floor. "Main Spring, you have no idea how tired I am of hearing that. Though I have to give you credit for not trying to rip my belly open." My blunt statement startled the greeny-grey mare, who dropped her forehoof back to the floor, looking closer and seeing the marks on my throat and glancing down at my belly.

"Woah, Springy – someone got a piece of that guy." The dark brown unicorn added. Offering a hoofshake, I met him with one of mine. "I'm Burns, in case you didn't get enough awesome in the chow hall earlier. I'll be burninating things for you tomorrow."

"Wicked Cut, I hit things with a stick, really." I replied. Main Spring leaned in with a forehoof, parting the hairs on my neck. I stretched my head to the side to expose the worst of the bruises, and she jerked her hoof back as if stung. "Hellen thought about the same thing, though she was worried about Gnash." I explained. "I guess you could say.. she had a point." Groans met my pronouncement, and I grinned at the horrified expression on Main Spring's face. "It gets worse. After I woke up to talons around my neck, a couple seconds later I noticed one of her hindpaws set up to claw out my belly.. I guess I just had to notice her claws after my pause."

Burns clamped a forehoof onto his forehead and fell over laughing, while Main Spring glared daggers at me.

"Oh goddess Celestia, save me from funny males." She huffed, and turned, whacking the door with one forehoof. As the door swung to, she sauntered back to her post, hips swaying. As the door closed, I looked over to Burns, who had an eyebrow up and a very interested expression on his face.

"Intreeeee-guing." Burns offered, and I shrugged in response. Burns chuckled and led the way, and we trotted back to the stairs and the horseshoe door. Burns pushed the door open, then looked over his shoulder at me. "Where are you supposed to crash?"

"In there – Four-claw is making a lockup for Hellen, so I'm supposed to take his bunk."

"Huh. You'll have to tell me all about that. You get the top bunk" With that, Burns pushed through the door, snatching a saddlebag off the top bunk with his flickering red-orange magic and sliding the bottom curtain open. "Tomorrow, though – g'night!"

I shook off a sense of stunned weirdness. Between the bizarre day, my interrupted sleep, and the adrenaline rush of the attack, I was wiped out tired and feeling very off kilter. I found myself staring at the foot locker at the base of the bunk. There was something in a footlocker that I needed. It wasn't that foot locker either. At the moment, the thought of not-that-foot-locker was incredibly difficult. I stood, leaning against the doorframe with my knees locked, staring at the footlocker that wasn't the right footlocker. A cough snapped me out of my daze, and I craned my neck around to see Four-claw, my saddlebags, my armor, and Blinky cradeled in his magic.

"Oh!"

"Yeah, I figured you'd need these, and you don't want to go in there." Four-claw replied. I grabbed Blinky, who chittered and grunted. Four-claw draped my saddlebags across my back, and set the armor bundle ahead of them. "Get some sleep, kid. Tomorrow's gonna be real interesting." He said kindly, and turned back to the far room.

"Thanks, Four-claw. G'night."

With that, I made my way inside. I tossed Blinky up on to the top bunk, and set my bags and bundles on top of the foot locker. I clambered up to the top bunk, and stretched out on the like-new mattress. Of all the things I had found here with the Talons, fresh clean bedding was the best. My throat ached a little, but that wasn't enough to keep me from my interrupted rest. I stretched out and gathered Blinky under my forelegs, and the grumpy molerat nipped me and bitched, before curling up into a ball of hide, and going to sleep. I had just enough time to smile at the wrinkly little critter before the black wing of sleep knocked me over the head and claimed me.

---

Footnote: Level Progression: 78%. Should have done better on that Nerve challenge, son!

Character Profile: Four-Claw

Four-claw: Male unicorn, 'Pine Green' (almost blue grey-green variant) coat, white mane and tail, blue eyes. Light green magic field.

Four-claw was inducted into the Talons at a young age, and his nickname was derived from his ability to handle four seperate items at once – in combat. Cutie mark is a grasping talon.

Perk: Strong Grip. You cannot knock something out of Four-claw's magic field.