Savage: Encounters

by Ese Wey

Bad First Impressions

The crackling of fire inside the pit was the only sound that could be heard. Other than that, complete serene silence. An old black cauldron rested on top of said fire pit, the contents inside boiling along nicely. From the look of things, it only needed a few more minutes before it would be ready for the final ingredients.

Twilight looked back at the book suspended by her magic, going over the steps needed for the third time now. Everything was coming along nicely, she noted. The only thing she needed was for Zecora to return with the final herbs, and she would be done. She kept on stirring the cauldron, waiting for the zebra to return.

When they had noted that they were only one ingredient short for today’s potion, Zecora had decided to go out and get it on her own. At first Twilight had offered to go with her, but Zecora declined and told her that it was close enough for her to go alone. After all, she wasn’t going too deep into the forest. From what Zecora had told her, the most dangerous creatures lived deeper into the forest. Even if she were to encounter something out there, it would most probably be some timberwolves. Although, they weren’t known to stray far from their territories unless they were desperate for food.

She had been out for over half an hour now, and Twilight was starting to worry. It was very strange for Zecora to take so long. It had only taken her ten or fifteen minutes to gather the herbs they needed on past lessons. She looked back at the smoking cauldron, noting that the color was starting to change just like it said in the book.

She really needed her to be back now. If she wasn’t back in time, the brew would be ruined due to not adding the herbs at the time the book stated. She was torn on what to do. If she went out to look for her in the wrong direction and Zecora came back, then their places would be switched, with Zecora wondering where she was. But if she stayed, she would have to sit and see how she failed her potion brewing test. Sighing, she lit up her horn and began putting out the fire magically, leaving the cauldron on top of the still-warm embers. Maybe if she found her quickly enough, she could still save the potion.

Now outside of the hut, Twilight began to scan the forest, trying to figure out which way to go. She was about to stomp the ground in frustration when she realized something. The forest was completely quiet. She had a bad feeling about this. The forest was never this quiet. The only exception was usually when there was a predator nearby.

Suddenly her ears rose, picking up something up in the distance. It sounded like a distant scream. Her ears began swiveling back and forth, trying to locate where it came from. Maybe Zecora was in trouble and that was why she was taking so long. She really hoped not; who knew what kind of creature had wandered out of its territory this time.

“Zecora!” she yelled out. “Is that you?”

She waited for a response. The seconds ticked by slowly, seeming to stretch out. Twilight was already circling around the hut, trying to pinpoint where the call of distress came from. She was about to take a random direction to try and locate it when she finally heard it again.

“Help, somepony please!”

This time she was sure it had to be Zecora. It sounded distant, but she had a general idea of where it came from. In moments like this, that was all she needed. She quickly sprang into a gallop in the direction she had heard Zecora’s voice. It was not an easy run; she had to swivel between the many trees and roots to avoid tripping and falling. Time was of the essence, and she couldn’t just slow down, not when her friend’s life was probably on the line.

A few minutes had passed by, and she was quickly finding out just how bad of a condition her body was in. Her muscles were starting to sting a little, and her breaths were becoming more ragged. She was starting to regret not taking up Applejack’s offer on helping around the farm; it could have helped her build up her stamina quite a lot if her friend was a good example.

But she couldn’t give up, not now that her friend really needed her. Putting the growing pain in her legs aside, she began to gallop faster. She could now hear that Zecora’s pleas of help were much closer, prompting her to gallop even faster than she had thought she was capable of.

“Don’t worry Zecora, I’m coming!”

She could now hear her friend’s galloping, as well as the sound of an extra set of steps, confirming to her that she was indeed being run down by something. Suddenly, there was a gasp followed by the sound of an object flying and hitting the earth. The sound of a body crashing and tumbling into the ground quickly followed. Whatever was chasing Zecora seemed to have finally caught up to her. Firing up her horn, Twilight began to prepare the strongest kinetic spell she could conjure. She had to be prepared to fend off anything.

Once she arrived, however, she froze at the scene in front of her, causing her horn to almost fizzle out. A bear was standing on top of Zecora with its back to her. From the looks of it, the beast was using its paws to pound Zecora’s head into the ground. Twilight was about to unleash her spell on it when it abruptly stopped and brought out what looked to be a knife, ready to strike down her friend.

“No!”

Before she even had time to reason why a bear was carrying and using a knife, she lowered her horn and took aim at the creature’s head. She fired a beam of magic that was strong enough to send almost any animal reeling back. The creature, however, reacted as if it was merely splashed with cold water: it stiffened up and let go of the knife. The effect of the spell quickly passed, and it turned its body towards her, allowing her to get a good look of it.

That’s no bear…

Underneath the bear skin, a pair of small, wild brown eyes stared back at her with the fury of an angered bull, ready to lash out at her for her insolence. Again she shot her spell at it, not believing how utterly ineffective it had been. This time, she managed to hit the creature right in the face. Again the creature took the shot, only this time it seemed to act like it had received pepper spray in its eyes, crying out in pain and scrubbing at its face. Taking advantage of the small distraction, she now focused her magic on her fallen friend, teleporting her from below the beast to where she was.

“Zecora,” she called to her, shaking her with her hooves. ”Are you ok? Zecora, can you hear me!”

However, before her friend could answer, there was a very loud growl that came from the beast’s direction. Turning to see what was of the creature, she could see how it was beginning to stand up on its two legs. Now at its full height, she could see that it easily towered at twice her size, including her horn. Once upright, it reached back, brought out a bow and arrow, and pointed it right in her direction.

Without another thought, her horn flared again. This time a semi-transparent lavender dome came into existence around them, appearing just in time for the arrow to crash into it harmlessly. Glancing back at her foe, she saw a flash of apprehension and confusion in its eyes. The creature stalled a few seconds, as if mulling over the decision to keep fighting for its prey. Unfortunately for them, its concern didn’t take long to disappear. Again the creature reached for another arrow and shot at them, testing the shield’s strength. This time, anger and frustration appeared beside the hungry gleam in its eyes.

Twilight was taken aback when the creature ceased its attack and instead placed its bow back onto his back. Just as she thought that it had given up, the creature then reached inside its hide and drew out an axe. Twilight’s brow rose at the sight. Since when does an Everfree creature use tools?

With a rabid growl, the creature brought its axe up and charged at them. Trusting that the shield’s strength would hold off the creature’s attack, Twilight still braced for the impact. Hopefully it would lose interest in them after seeing the effectiveness of her shield.

Much was Twilight’s surprise when she suddenly found herself dropping to her knees from the magical strain of the attack. Her shield was also not looking very good. It had only taken one hit, and yet small cracks were already beginning to show. She steadily got up and reinforced her shield just in time for the creature to land another strike, causing her to almost lose her footing again.

She needed to find way out of there quickly. If she didn’t, all her effort in protecting them would have been for naught. The problem was, there didn’t seem to be any. If she were to carry Zecora and try to outrun the creature, the creature would easily catch up with her due to her fatigue from before and easily end them both. The only safe way out would be teleporting, but they were too far from Zecora’s hut for her to teleport there in one trip. Not to mention the dangers of multiple blind teleportations. If there was one thing that had been drilled into her head when learning about teleporting, it was to never teleport when you couldn’t see where you were going unless it was a highly familiar place.

Another strike, and this time she almost dropped fully to the ground. Magical fatigue was starting to join her muscular fatigue, as she was needing more and more energy to keep the shield from breaking. This was it; it was now or never.

Twilight braced for the next impact, gritting her teeth and steadying her legs as the axe impacted on her weakening shield once more. However, this time she wasn’t going to repair the shield. As the creature was bringing its weapon up for another strike, Twilight closed her eyes and made the shield explode into the creature’s face. Once the creature dropped the axe and covered its eyes from the sudden explosion of magic, Twilight reared up and gave it the strongest buck her tired body could muster.

The creature was sent back, not expecting the powerful blow to its stomach. Taking the opportunity, Twilight closed her eyes tightly, charged her horn with all the magic she could gather and teleported with Zecora various times. Hopefully they would end up as close to the hut as possible and not in the middle of a tree.

With her teleportations over, Twilight chanced a peek at her surroundings, noting that they were now at the familiar trail that lead to Zecora’s hut. Now that they were both out of harm's way, she allowed her exhausted body to drop to the ground and finally let herself catch a break. With the adrenaline rush over, she could now feel just how much all her muscles burned and that a massive headache was beginning to rise in her head.

While still recovering her breath, Twilight slowly reached out to Zecora to try and wake her up from unconsciousness. After a few moments of her friend not responding to her prying, she saw how her eyes began to slowly open.

“...T-twilight w-what happened? T-the beast—!”

“Don’t worry... we’re safe now.”

Looking around to make sure that she was safe, Zecora again closed her eyes and let out a deep breath. This was the closest she had came to joining her ancestors in recent years. Her relaxing moment, however, only lasted a few seconds. Both their eyes shot open at the sound of an ear-piercing roar that caused many birds to fly into the sky. It seemed that the creature was more than unpleased with the result of their little clash.

---

“Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggghhhhhhhh!”

He could not believe it. He was about to finally get through the purple abomination’s conjuring when, in a split second, they disappeared in a blinding and painful light. All of his energy spent on chasing down the strange zebra and battling that purple abomination, only to be left hungrier and in a fouler mood. His arms were still trembling from the rush the hunt had left, and he needed something to vent all his anger at. Turning to the closest tree, he began pounding at its trunk with both fists. He didn’t feel the pain anyways; it had been years since he had felt pain from punching them, a bad habit he picked up when he was overly frustrated.

After almost a minute of beating the tree, he finally relented, not because he was beginning to feel pain, but because he was starting to bleed more than he liked. His stomach growled yet again, reminding him of his failed catch. Oh, what a feast it could have been. Sure there would have been spoils, but that wasn’t going to stop him from eating as much as he could. There was nothing left to do but to pick up his dropped things and go back near his cave to do some more hunting. He definitely didn’t want to get lost in this strange forest.

Once he had picked up his axe and knife from the ground, he reached back to count how many arrows he had left. Only two left. His day just kept getting better and better. Once he had collected most of his things, he turned the way he had been chasing the zebra and began making his way back, collecting his spear on the way.

He couldn’t help but question what he had just fought. In the heat of the moment, he couldn’t process what he had seen. An equally-malformed purple equine that had paranormal powers. He had already known that this was a strange land unlike any he had ever seen, but now this took it to a whole new level of strange. The last time something that strange had happened, a night had lasted too long than it should have, and the moon had lost its strange shadow.

Had he really already lost his mind to this strange place? Had time finally taken the toll on his mind after over a decade of wandering this strange place? He did not know, but it had all felt too real for it not to have been. Especially that thing’s barrier. Two of his arrows couldn’t even scratch its surface, and it wasn’t until he had brought out his axe that it started to show damage. He didn’t know what else that thing could do. At this point, he wasn’t too sure that he wanted to find out.

He was so deep into his thoughts that he almost didn’t catch the familiar sound of something chipping away at wood. He swiftly crouched down and brought out his bow and one of his remaining arrows. He didn’t have to look to know what it was. While approaching his prey, he stepped on some dry leaves on the ground he hadn’t seen, prompting the chipping to momentarily stop.

He quickly pressed his back to a nearby tree and remained silent for a moment; he couldn’t let it know he was there. After a few moments of silence, the beaver returned to its chipping. Now certain he hadn’t blown his cover, he began to slowly pull back on his bow. Bringing out his head from behind the tree, he took careful aim at the beaver.

You are not getting away this time.

Comments

[Mr Dorito]

Poor beaver.

[RedGlare]

wow, i can't expect for the next chapters!! it's one of the bests human in equestria stories ever!

[Hard Cider]

That poor tree. He smudged his blood over its bark.

[gamer4COD]

Steve from minecraft, we've found your missing, powerless cousin in Equestria, please construct a neither gate and come pick him up.

[Alondro]

And he's magic-resistant.

Of course. And managed to survive a decade in a place that's clearly alien... and never once found a pony town despite the fact that the Everfree could be traversed by foot in a few days.

Not that it would help him at all against a manticore, hydra, cragodile, quarry eel, dragon, etc...

Everything I read only makes me want to punch him in the face harder. I have never seen an HiE where the human was simultaneously a master of his domain and a complete retard.

[Aunoraux]

6329611
That poor tree that the beaver is mercilessly slaughtering!
"Thank goodness a kind predictor came along and ate that horrid, murderous creature!" -Trees everywhere.

[eraser]

teleported with Zecora various times

Did she make a series of teleports, did she teleport them separately, or what?

[Kadigan]

Twilight’s brow rose at the sight. Since when does an Everfree creature use tools?

I'm confused. Is this a rewrite?

Ah, right. Completely separate.

But then, if we're doing the entire "let's meet" song and dance again, and there're only three chapters, I'm no longer interested seeing as there aren't enough chapters for it to actually get anywhere.