Daring Do and the Eyes of the Demon

by PegasusKlondike

Freedom

The zebra warlord chortled over this conquest that had harried his forces, brought expansion in the west to a halt and threatened to dismantle his army by seeking the same artifact as he. The scarred face of N'dutu peered up from the bound pegasus, glancing at his cavalry commander with a grin. "You have done well, Grimhide. Perhaps you are more useful than I believed. Bring our prisoner inside, and we shall see what kind of a reward I can grant you."

The gnoll stood from his kneeling, grabbing the bound and gagged pegasus by her binds. Dragging her inside the plush tent, the ground changed from the hard stone of the rest of the encampment to a soft, silk carpeting. Overstuffed pillows lay in large heaps, covered with zebra and pony mares wearing wispy veils, swooning from the effects of the drugs that lay in bowls all around them. Heavily armed and armored zebra and gnoll guards stoically stood interspersed throughout the massive, castle-like tent, ready to fulfill their duties without a second thought.

N'dutu sat back on his throne carved from the ivory of hundreds of elephant tusks, the trio of cats that had accompanied Grimhide taking their places around him.

N'dutu glanced down at the pegasus mare that was still bound and gagged. "Cut her loose."

Grimhide laid back his ears, a pony he had worked so hard to capture being set loose. Withholding a shake of his head, Grimhide laid a sharp claw on the ropes and sliced them all loose. Daring rubbed the feeling back into her hooves, stretching out her wings and taking the gag out of her mouth.

"My ally warned me of you, Daring Do. What he failed to mention was the haunting beauty that fights with the ferocity of a lioness and the cunning of a leopard." The warlord nodded approvingly at the mare, maybe he wouldn't have her killed quite yet.

Daring felt the blood starting to circulate through her legs and into her wings. Shakily standing, she felt Grimhide's clawed paw clamp down at the base of her neck. "What's Ahuizotl's price? What is he making you pay for his knowledge and his help?"

The warlord leaned back in his throne, contentedly scratching the panther's head with a hoof. "Once I am finished with the Eyes of the Demon, he may have them. But I do not see myself not needing the Eyes for what I have planned, little pony."

Daring tried to take a step forward on her shaky legs, but Grimhide's grip on her neck tightened. "You'll never get away with this. Evil begets evil. And I've seen the evil that you put those innocents through." Rearing forward, she lashed out with her back hooves and bucked her gnoll captor in the stomach. Doubling over with pain, the gnoll let go of her neck and fell onto the floor.

Spreading her wings, Daring leapt from the floor and winged her way to the ceiling of the tent. Almost instantly one of those bolas expertly wrapped around her wings, pinning them to her torso. Falling back to the floor, Daring groaned as she looked up. N'dutu hadn't moved a muscle, a low chuckle shaking the warlord.

Several gnoll and zebra guards surrounded her with their swords and spearheads only inches away from her body. The warlord rose from his throne, walking over to his prisoner. Tracing a hoof along her chin, Daring spit at the zebra's hoof. "A sweet little pet bird, with the attitude of a cobra. I have been reading about Equestria, and you know what I have heard, Daring Do? That you keep little birds as pets. And what do you do when your little birdie tries to fly to freedom?"

With her hooves held down and her wings held outstretched, Daring tried to bite the warlord's hoof as he once again touched her face. N'dutu leaned down to her face, baring his bright white teeth in a wicked smile. "When a little birdie tries to fly away, you clip her wings." Looking up, he nodded to the gnolls holding her wings.

The brutes began to cackle, grabbing tufts of golden feathers and ripping them out. Daring screamed at the pain, with each feather came a small chunk of her flesh and a trickle of blood. Biting her lip, Daring held back the tears of pain as the gnolls tore away her feathers. Letting go of the pegasus, her captors threw her on the ground in front of the warlord. Reaching a hoof to her wings, she felt the stinging pain and the dampness of her own blood.

Quivering with the anguish, Daring looked back up at the warlord. "What do you want from me?"

"Many things, little bird. Your beauty is enchanting, maybe I shall keep you as a concubine, held to my service by your craving for my drugs. But you could also provide me with endless entertainment in the arena. But first, little bird, I want to know everything you know about the Eyes of the Demon." Glancing over to his servants, N'dutu barked orders. "Wewe hapo! Nileteeni kinywaji cha kweli! Sasa!"

Bowing to their master, the zebra servants ducked into another area of the tent, in a short minute they returned, bearing a small glass vial on a pillow. Inside sat a dark, oily liquid. Bringing the vial to their master, they bowed as he took the vial from the pillow. "The Drink of Truth, a concoction that is forbidden by most tribes. Three drops can make a pony tell the utter truth when asked any question. But, thanks to my efforts, most of those tribes do not exist anymore," the warlord said as he uncorked the vial.

Grimdhide, having recovered from Daring's assault, grabbed her head and wrenched open her mouth. Daring struggled in his grasp, screaming as the warlord walked closer with the vial. "No! NO! NNOOO!" Holding the dropper over her mouth, the warlord squeezed three drops onto her tongue. The potion tasted like acid in her mouth, and the gnoll clamped her muzzle shut to keep her from spitting it out.

After a minute, Daring's head began to fog, she felt as light as air itself, floating in a sea of slowed time. Grimhide let go of her, and N'dutu began his interrogation. "Where are the Eyes of the Demon?" he asked from atop his ivory throne.

Somewhere inside of her head, she fought against the drug, losing ground with every second. The warlord scowled at her resilience, then asked again. "Where are the Eyes?"

Her own mind wept as her lips opened, trembling she whispered, "On the path of eternity, past the Everguard."

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On a bluff overlooking the warlord's compound sat a zebra mare, wearing the flowing red tunic and ankle bracelets of the most powerful tribe in Zebrica. She worried not about being seen, it was joke amongst her tribe that N'dutu's warriors were likes babes bumbling in the bush, always too caught up in their own hooves to properly take in their surroundings.

She and her group of warriors had been following that band of miscreants led by that gnoll for a few days, trailing them out of sight. Strange though, they believed that band had been one of the slaver parties sent out to raid a village, but they only took two prisoners before turning back. And before they could assault the caravan, they made it safely into the small city springing up in the savanna. Nothing to do now except watch and wait.

The mare's ears perked at a sound drifting in on the dry breeze, carrying over the plains. Screams of anguish, coming from the huge, garish tent at the center of the compound. She wondered what horrors were being done in there, what poor soul was being tortured for some scrap of information.

A hoof touched her gently on the shoulder, the mare coming back to the real world with a start. The hard face of her own brother looked down at her, motioning her to come back to cover with the rest of the warriors. The mare nodded, but before she went, she folded her legs and faced towards the setting sun, sending her prayers to Yeye to help the tortured soul inside of that city.

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The soft crackle of torches and the background din of night insects greeted Daring as she awoke. Her mouth felt like it was on fire, and her back rested against a hard wooden pole. Her hooves were bound behind her back, and a throbbing ache came from her naked wings as well. Across her tent, Timur lay tied similarly to his own pole, his head drooped onto his chest.

The flap of the tent swung open, and to Daring's surprise Grimhide walked in bearing a bucket of water with a ladle. His step seemed to carry more of a swagger, his shoulder adorned by an epaulet laced with ivory and gold. Seemed like he got a little promotion for bringing her in. Turning to the guards outside, he gave a few commands. "Leave. I need talk to prisoner."

The guards nodded and took their leave for the evening. Grimhide closed the tent flap and set the bucket down. Scooping out a ladle of water, he splashed it on his own head, letting the cool water run down his back. Smiling with the delightful coolness, he sat down across from Daring on a stool. "So, pony tell alpha everything. Almost everything." His single eye drifted over to the unconscious zebra whose wounds were beginning to look septic.

Daring panted from her thirst. "What do you want from me?" she croaked.

The gnoll scooped out another ladle full of water, taking a deep drink. Dropping the ladle back in the bucket, he smacked his lips at the apparent tastiness of the simple water. "No get me wrong, it good thing that you no say who he is. If N'dutu knew, he kill him and me for not telling."

"Why do you want him? Keeping him alive is defying your alpha, something a creature like you doesn't do." Daring recalled this creature's similarities to a Diamond Dog, a few of whom she had known closely.

Grimhide nodded. "Pony smart. Zebra give challenge to me, one of us must die by the other's claw in honorable fight. I could kill now, but no honor come of it."

Spooning out another ladle of water, he held it up for Daring to drink. Sticking her muzzle in, she drank deeply to rid her mouth of the horrid, burning aftertaste of the truth potion. Tossing the ladle aside, Grimdhide grabbed the bucket and tossed its contents on the unconscious zebra. The splash of water brought Timur to in a fit of coughing and gasping. Tossing aside his bucket, Grimhide strode over to Timur, lifting his face with a paw. "Zebra feel better? No?" He dropped Timur's head, walking back over to Daring. "He going to die anyway. If he stay here, that is. If, somehow, pony escape and take zebra with her, zebra more likely to live where he get good medicine. Good medicine and magic like tribes to north have. It be disaster if pony knew that her things being kept in N'dutu's tent, in potion room. But, no can happen." The gnoll turned on his heels and strode out of the tent, closing the tent flap behind himself.

Walking away outside the tent, Grimhide nearly leapt out of his skin when N'dutu stepped out of the shadows to confront him. "What were you doing with my prisoner?"

Caught, Grimhide tried to think of a lie. "Making sure she no hide weapon, very thorough." He held up his claws and wiggled them, faking a smile.

The warlord's eyes narrowed. "Very well. I have a gift for you in the stables, General. That nandi you always admired is now yours." The gnoll snickered in delight. Ziesha, one of the finest mounts in all of Zebrica, all his! Eagerly the gnoll bounded off for the stables, and as he ran like an eager colt, N'dutu turned back to the tent. Out of the shadows melted the form of the panther. The warlord nodded to the cat and pointed to the inside of the tent.

Silently the cat obeyed, padding into the tent and laying down in front of the pegasus, watching her with golden eyes.

With one of her great enemies laying in front of her, Daring came close to panicking. But the cat simply watched stoically. Timur still maintained a murky consciousness, moaning and groaning at the pain of his injuries. His eyes fluttered open and looked at Daring. "Daring...I'm sorry."

"No, I should be sorry, Timur. I failed us. I told him everything, everything about Equestria and about the Eyes. He's going to win, and I think after he is done with Zebrica, he's not going to be finished."

Timur's head slumped back down, and Daring wept silently at her failure.

**************************************************

She cried quietly for hours, helpless for what the warlord had in store for her. Even if Grimhide was trying to help her, he would stop the second Timur died of his wounds. Struggling against her bonds, the panther laying in front of her would growl and occasionally swipe at her with his claws. So she gave up, for the first time in her life, Daring Do despaired.

Letting her head fall to her chest, she managed to close her eyes and rest. What seemed like hours later, a pained roar startled her awake. The panther had also fallen asleep it seemed, but something had woken him up. The cat stood up, tail swishing as he searched for his unknown assailant. Hackles raised, he sniffed for any sign of the attacker. Calming down, the cat sat on his haunches and began to lick a paw as if nothing happened.

Daring's eye caught a small flicker of movement behind the panther. A little brown rat scurried out from under a mat of straw and scampered over to the big cat's tail. The rat went unnoticed by the cat, until he sank his minuscule teeth into the cat's tail. The cat screamed at the sudden, stabbing pain at his tail. Twirling around to kill the little rat, the panther missed him by inches as he tried to swipe the rodent with his claws. The rodent ran out the tent flap, the enraged panther following close behind.

"What in the two Hells just happened?" Daring asked herself. But the spectacle was not over yet, more rats scurried out from under anything that could conceal them, running over to her and Timur. Daring's free back hooves tried to brush them off, but the rodents began to climb on her and Timur. "Get off! Go away!" she shouted. A rat climbed up her chest and to her face, placing a diminutive paw on her lips as if to silence her. Looking down at the little rodent, she noticed its eyes tinged with a small glow. Behind her, she heard the quiet sounds of the rats nibbling at her bonds.

Understanding hit her like a hammer, these rats were helping her. Her hooves came loose as the rats finished gnawing through her bonds, moving over to Timur they did the same for him. Rubbing the feeling back into her hooves, Daring stood up as the rats chewed through Timur's bonds. Finishing with him, the rodents all stood on their hind legs and looked at Daring. All their eyes glowed with some strange type of magic. "Uh, thanks," she said to her furry saviors. They gave a chorus of squeaks before dispersing back to their hiding places.

Swiftly moving over to Timur, she cradled his head as she tried to wake him up. "Come on, we can get out of here. You just have to get up," she whispered to him.

Timur groaned as he came to, his eyes fluttering open. "Leave me, get out of here."

"I ain't leavin' you. Now come on!" She lifted her guide up as much as she could, throwing him onto her back. With Timur slung over her shoulder, Daring trudged her way out of the back of the tent. Keeping to the shadowed alleyways, she moved him across the city as quietly as she could. Coming close to the front gate while dodging guard patrols, she noticed an entire company of soldiers standing guard at various posts in front of the gate. There was no other way out, and no way of getting through unseen.

Cursing her foul luck, Daring decided she needed a distraction. Setting Timur behind some crates and barrels to conceal him, she began to scour the alleyways of the sleeping city for any way of creating a big enough distraction. With a start she found herself near the warlord's tent, and a sudden urge to retrieve her supplies came to her. Walking over to a tiny tear in the tent fabric, she peered inside. Somehow, she had glanced right into the warlord's alchemy room, spying her pack and her helmet in a pile by the table. Sticking the tip of a hoof into the tear, she quietly widened it and tore a hole large enough to crawl through.

Slipping inside, she fell to the floor with a thump. Staying down to make sure nopony heard her, she crept over to her supplies, pulling on her jacket and strapping on her pouch. With a loving caress she placed on her helmet. "Did you miss me? Mama missed you, yes she did," she crooned to her beloved helmet. Plucking the concealed feather out of the band, she tucked it into her pouch.

Creeping back to the hole she had made, the light of torches began to glow through as some guard patrol came around. With her heart in her throat, Daring spun around and left the alchemy room, diving into the first open tent flap in the massive castle of a tent that presented itself. Closing it behind herself, she sighed in relief. Turning around, she spied a gigantic table covered in parchment and tiny figures. Looking over the massive table, she got a look at the warlord's campaign plans.

Vaguely she remembered N'dutu asking her questions about Equestria for hours, and now she knew why. The bulk of his forces lay positioned at the edge of Din'Jaro territory, but after they conquered that, the documents stated that they would take Tashim and all of the airships there. And once they had the Eyes, the next target after all of Zebrica lay under N'dutu's hoof, was Equestria.

"He doesn't want Zebrica, he wants the world," Daring whispered to herself. Equestria had a powerful army, but they were few, and in the face of such an artifact as powerful as the Eyes of the Demon they wouldn't stand a chance. Daring's heart froze as she thought of all those ponies in Canterlot, innocent and weak, slaves under a Zebrican warlord's lash. All the more reason to stop him here and get to the Eyes first.

Tearing herself away from the map, she crept to the edge of the tent. Lifting a portion, she peered out for any sign of guards. The coast was clear, and Daring slipped out into the night. Keeping to the shadows, she tried to think of a way to distract the guards at the front gate long enough to escape.

The bellow of a creature from the arena pens clouded her mind. If only all those animals would shut up! Wait....oh Daring you sly devil. A smile spread across her face as she began to run towards the pens, a plan forming in her mind.

Reaching the pens in a few short minutes, she hid in a feed trough as a pair of zebra guards passed by. Poking her head over the rim of the trough, she looked at her options. Row upon row of cages, aviaries, pens, paddocks and stables all contained the deadly creatures that formed the backbone of N'dutu's army. Creeping up to the first cage, she grabbed the latch in her hooves and put her shoulder into it. Shoving with all her strength, she undid the bolt, pushing the door open slightly. The wrinkly, gray elephants that sat inside slept peacefully, but she would change that soon. Moving on to the other cages, she opened the latches and pushed open the doors. A few of the more inquisitive creatures poked their heads out, confused about their sudden freedom.

Having undone every latch and opened every door, all the creatures needed was a little coercion. Stealing all the lanterns and torches that she could find, Daring began to hurl them into the cages, lighting the straw on fire. A shout interrupted her work. Peering over her shoulder, she spied an armed group of zebra guards and warriors running towards her with spears drawn. With a smirk she threw the torch in her mouth into the open cage behind her. Ducking out of the way, the kasai inside roared in rage of the flame, charging out with hundreds of other enraged creatures as they tore apart anything that got in their way.

The patrol of guards stopped dead in their tracks, spinning around to run from the charging kasai. All around herself, Daring could hear the various beasts go on a rampage, roaring, trumpeting and shrieking as they tore apart the camp. Hundreds of zebra voices screamed and shouted. The fires in the pens began to spread to the camp. If this utter chaos didn't distract them, nothing would. Daring ran back towards the front gate, not bothering to be stealthy about it. Rounding the corner of a tent, she barely dodged a rhinoceros as it charged past to ram a slaver wagon. Many of the tents and small buildings around her burned, and Daring ducked into the alleyway where she left Timur. Shoving aside the crates and barrels, she found her guide safe and sound where she had left him.

As she shouldered her guide, a bellowing grootslang tore through burning tents and tossed zebra warriors with its double set of tusks, coming straight towards her. Swinging its massive head, its tusks caught at least a dozen of the warriors trying to subdue it. Daring scrambled as fast as she could to get out of the way, narrowly avoiding getting Timur and herself crushed into jelly as the beast's tusks whistled over her head.

Looking up to the gate, her heart soared when she noticed it completely devoid of soldiers, but at the same time her heart did a flip, sinking as she realized it would take ten strong ponies to push the damn thing open. Screaming her frustration, a roar sounded behind her. Turning around with the zebra on her back, Daring spied something that looked like one of the tyrannosaur skeletons in the museum given flesh. The kasai slowly stalked closer to the pegasus, huge teeth bared and drool dripping to the ground below. The beast stopped and began to shake its head, flailing its stumpy arms towards its own skull.

Opening its eyes, they glowed with some kind of strange light. Lowering its head, the beast charged past Daring and rammed the gate, digging its claws into the ground and using a shoulder to push. Pushing with all its strength, the kasai tore the gate to splinters, forcing its way through the debris and out into the night. Daring sat stunned. "Okay, things just get weirder and weirder around here," she squeaked. With Timur on her back, Daring trudged through the debris and into freedom.

*****************************************************

From atop the bluff not too far away, the Din'Jaro raiders witnessed every event of the arena beast escape and the flattening of the warlord's camp by his own beasts of war. Spying a solitary figure zipping between tents and opening the cages, they knew Yeye had shown her wrath through this stranger.

After the kasai destroyed the front gate, followed by the strange pony bearing some burden, the raiders agreed that she was worth investigating. Wordlessly they left their hiding spot, melting into the bush to tail her. And if the spirits smiled on this stranger, she would survive the test of the sun and the grassland. And if she survived the test of the land, she was worth talking to.

****************************************************

"HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN!?" screamed N'dutu to the row of his commanders and generals laying prostrate before his throne. It had taken six hours to corral all the beasts back into their cages, those that they could recover anyway. Over half of their beasts of war had escaped or had to be put down in their rampages, hundreds of soldiers lay injured or dead and half the encampment had burned to a crisp.

The beast master, the zebra who managed the arena, lifted his face from the floor. "The cages had been opened great lord, the beasts escaped and rampaged in a great horde."

The warlord sat back on his throne, fuming at the loss of his shock weapons. "What of my prisoner? Has Daring Do been found?"

Grimhide stood from his prostration. "No master, pony escape. Most likely cause of disaster." There was a certain smugness to his words that made the warlord grind his teeth in rage.

"Find her, and this time cut off her legs! I want Daring Do alive when I tear out her heart." His generals and commanders bowed before shuffling their way out of the tent. Rubbing his hooves against his temples, the entrance of the panther made his eye twitch. "I do not know if you understand me, but when I tell your master the depth of your failure to stand guard over a tied up pony, he will let me cut off your skin as a new rug!" The cat dejectedly stalked over to his side, ears laid flat and head hung low in shame. The naked tail of a rat hung out the corner of the panther's mouth.

The warlord felt like killing something, plain and simple. Just grabbing a spear and running the next creature that came through that curtain through the heart. That should take the edge off. He decided that he would do it, and hefting a spear, he hurled it at the servant zebra that walked through the curtain. The servant's eyes opened wide, jumping out of the way at the last second. "My lord, I have good news! With it we cannot lose!" screamed the servant as she hid behind a large pillow.

N'dutu refrained from hurling a second spear, dropping it to the ground. "And what is this good news you have brought me?" The mare emerged from behind the pillow, shakily walking over to unfurl a scroll in front of the warlord. It was a map of Zebrica, and labeled on it was a pair of points.

"We know where the Everguard are, my lord."

The scowl on his face became a chuckling grin, this terrible loss had just become moot. With the Everguard in sight, the Eyes of the Demon were within his grasp. "Call my generals back in, we march the army north!"

*************************************************

The sun had risen and seemed to beat mercilessly on Daring. Trudging forward, she wearily placed one hoof in front of the other as she went northward on the savanna, keeping the rising sun to her right. Behind her in the litter she had rough fashioned for him Timur moaned and groaned, he was dying, but that was no excuse to quit. Something out there had trusted her enough to give her a second chance, and no way in Tartarus was she giving up that easily.

The locusts began to chirp around her in the tall grass, the heat of the day bringing out the worst of the bugs. The dry air seeped into every single spot on the pegasus, drying her sweat as soon as she shed it. Even though she had drank much last night, her tongue felt as dry as sand.

With the scorching heat of the sand coming through the hard sole of her hooves, Daring lurched over to an acacia, dropping her charge as gently as she could in the shade. Leaning her back against the tree, the scratch of thorns jabbed her sore and naked wings, causing her to whimper in pain before laying out flat on the soil. She needed water, and that was one of the many things that she had stupidly left behind. Cursing her own lack of planning, she curled up and slept fitfully through the worst of the day's heat.

When Daring awoke, the sun had set and the noises of night predators surrounded her in the distance. Licking her dry lips, Daring wished for even just a cup of water. All her possessions, all her wealth and her homes across the world she would trade away for a sweet touch of water. It took all of her strength to get Timur's litter strapped onto torso and every step was torture as she trudged through the cool darkness, always heading northward.

From just outside her field of view, eyes peered at her from the dark, glowing eyes that reflected back the pale light of the moon. Some would bound away, others would simply close and be gone. Whatever they were, they terrified Daring. She rarely felt fear, but here every shadow and sound was completely unknown and could be dangerous to her in this vulnerable state.

Pulling Timur's litter through the bush, her heart beat with terror as some predator in the dark roared its triumph over some weak prey animal that bleated and thrashed in pain. But still she pressed on. If she stopped, Timur would die, and if he died out here, there was no hope for her.

Around dawn the next morning, the ground sloped off and became perfectly flat and treeless. Staring out over the vast emptiness of a dried lake bed, Daring thought about stopping. But she had to go on, Grimhide said there were tribes to the north who could help her. Pulling the litter behind her, Daring took the first tentative steps out onto the flat, parched, cracked ground and began the long trek across.

Within an hour the sun resumed its game of trying to break her will. The shear heat out on the flats was incomparable to anything else she had ever experienced. Daring felt a gentle breeze rise up, and she slowed down to let it waft over her. But instead of cooling her, it whipped up a stinging cloud of sand and dust into her eyes. Tipping her helmet down over her eyes and popping the collar on her jacket, she pressed onward.

Each step was a living nightmare, each breath a taste of Tartarus. The utterly flat land surrounded her on every side, the only thing breaking the monotony being the pale whiteness of bones scoured clean by vultures and bleached by the sun. A passing shadow brought her attention to the sky, her black ringed eyes taking in a large flock of vultures as they circled around her and Timur. But she kept going.

Night fell once again to her relief, out on the lake bed there were no monsters to hide in the dark, only the endless stretch of desert that seemed to be her own hell. But still she pulled, determined to get medical help for her only friend on this continent. At around four in the morning, she finally spied the edge of the lake bed gently sloping up into a low savanna. As the sun peaked over the horizon for the fourth time since her escape and the third time since she had drank, Daring fell under the shade of a tree.

She would have wept for the futility of it all, but there were no tears to be had. Curling up in a ball, she began to accept her failure. N'dutu would get the Eyes, she would become a trailside skull and millions of zebras and ponies would become slaves. All she wanted before she died was a drink of water.

Daring closed her eyes, and felt herself beginning to slip away from the mortal coil, her body becoming as light as air. But as she began to transcend, the pressure of a hoof brought her eyes slowly open again. Looking up, her blurred vision created a beautiful pony made of light. But that pony faded away as a strange zebra leaned closer to her face. The mare wore a red tunic and many gold bracelets. The strange zebra placed a bowl to her lips, and Daring slowly drank the lukewarm water within. She could have wept as the joyous purity of the holy liquid poured into her body, but she simply had no strength left.

All around her, more strange zebras clad in red tunics gathered her things, giving water to her guide and creating a stretcher for her to lay upon. Lifting her gently, they placed Daring on the stretcher and began to bear her away. The strange mare stayed with her the entire time, her sea blue eyes watching over her and giving her more of the sweetest and most sacred of drinks. As she slipped into exhausted rest, Daring vowed to herself never to take a simple glass of water for granted ever again.