19: Urðr
The hoof on Vsevolod's chest lowered a bit, not enough to crush a rib, but quite enough to make him wish he stayed in the Forbidden City, taking his chances with the schizophrenic dragon.
"I told you to stay silent, keshe," said Timer Urman, looking at him and scowling. "You just had to tell her everything, hadn't you?"
Around them, the fire licked a couple of wooden buildings, with a small heap of dead bodies of ponies pierced with a single spear completing the picture of carnage. It looked like no help would come to the young griffon this time.
"Now, you will pay for what you did," declared the old horse, lowering her hoof and crushing his ribs underneath. Vsevolod screamed from the unbearable pain and woke up.
The blizzard beyond the frosted-over window of the bus was as fierce as when he fell asleep. Even though it was the daytime already, the blizzard was darkening everything enough to seem that it was late evening. Once again he was reminded, why he never liked the climate of his homeland. Vsevolod reclined in the bus seat and sighed, "Just a dream. I need to do something about those nightmares, they get out of hand..."
Looking around, he spotted Helga and Kurgash clinging to each other on the nearby seat. Both were still asleep, though it seemed that their sleep was as pleasant as Vsevolod's own. The sudden spring blizzard that trapped them in the bus was violent enough so they couldn't even think about moving today, so they've spent most of it cuddling for warmth and trying to get some extra sleep. Or some extra nightmares, as it came to be. He shuddered, afraid to imagine what would've happened if they hadn't stopped after discovering the bus.
As it turned out, this small bus wasn't a sight unheard of in the steppes. While rarely, the vehicles sometimes returned with their owners around the places, where the big roads pierced the fields once. Every such appearance was a reason to celebrate for the nearby herds. The vehicles provided them with a wealth of rare and expensive materials, sometimes with a Return, possessing a wealth of knowledge from the time long past, and, more often than not, several eager workers with the "pure blood". From the looks of it, this bus returned just before the flood season and was abandoned to be salvaged later. What happened to the passengers was anyone's guess, and Vsevolod had no desire to find out. After all, Kurgash was quite sure that while the Nomads themselves were mostly trapped by the floods, they still had some way to send the word. Every herd out there would be looking for them.
Even with Vsevolod being limited by the young-feather curse, they've covered a significant distance in three days that passed since them leaving the Urman herd. Compared to that, their previous speed of travel seemed to be a crawl, and the young griffon caught himself wondering why Helga had bothered to stick around him for so long - especially at first when she only just met him. He even asked Hel herself, but his knowledge of the language wasn't good enough yet to understand the answer. The only definite thing he got from it was that it was something she intended to do when she first arrived in Moscow, or big-teeth-hungry-ground she called it.
The speed of their travel had one unfortunate implication, though. Since they were moving almost directly north now, they've got to the areas where spring was not yet there, and the blizzard outside was a good reminder of that. In fact, there was no trace of the flood here yet, so their brief time of solitude and safety on the small hills turned into islands was over. The good thing was that they were almost at the edge of the herds' territory, and the copses of trees were getting thicker and larger every hour they flew. The bad was that it was the extent of their daring escape plan. From here there were three ways to continue. They could turn east, but that meant they would be back into the Nomad land. They could turn west and get right back into Moscow with whatever fate Teplovoz was so eager to save Vsevolod from. They could continue north, but the forest meant more chances to encounter the Deer. Since he had no desire to return to the nightmares, he decided to wake up his friends and listen to their opinions on the matter.
"Wake up, sleepy heads!" he called, climbing out of the seat and rummaging through the bags for a little snack. Grumbling noises from above told him that he was heard. In a few moments, a sleepy eagle head appeared over the edge of the seat and pierced him with a ferocious glare. "And good day to you too, Helga. Chipper-fun-wind."
"Death-young-food-stealer," chirped the catbird in return and grabbed a piece of salted watermelon from Vsevolod's grasp. "Hunger-no-prey-parent."
"She sounds happy," said Kurgash, also getting out of the seat and stretching. "What did she say?"
"She said that she wants me and my children to die of hunger in a place with no prey," shrugged Vsevolod. "I guess it's a bit better than her usual 'I hope an elk catches you', my knowledge of death threat vocabulary still needs some polishing. Anyway, I thought we need to decide where to go next. I don't want to roam blindly anymore, we have a history of it ending poorly. Kurgash, what do you know about the lands to the east? It's Nomad territory, so..."
"Honored Ancestor, I'm sorry, but I don't know much. Our herd never went that way, it's Taular herd lands. Their ulus is the largest in the Fields and they guard the border of north and east. They never talk about what lies beyond their lands, so I don't know what is there. Mother might know... oh. Sorry. The only thing I know is that our northern border is some big river, and there's no steppe on the other side of it, and that is some kind of a town on our northwestern border."
Vsevolod once again cursed his lack of knowledge of the land. The only big river he suspected to be nearby, was the Volga, but only because he remembered it going to the Caspian Sea through the steppes. His poor geography skills were finally paying off.
"Helga, maybe you know something?" he turned to the catbird, not really expecting to get an answer. "We need to find some place we can call home, at least for a time."
"Vs-s-evolod want-desire-travel home? Heel-ha help!" the catbird bounced up and motioned them outside. "Fly-fly-fly home! Wind-clouds-way!"
"Helga, are you insane? We can't fly in this!" shuddered Vsevolod, looking at the white blur behind the windows.
"Wind-right-travel! Home!" insisted Hel, bouncing in place. "Fast!"
The blizzard still looked extremely uninviting, but Vsevolod also understood that his friend is not dumb and knows what she's doing. After all, even if Helga was being delusional, nothing stopped them from camping in a way he had learned so well before. With someone to cuddle with it wasn't even cold. He put his bags on, helped Kurgash do the same and stepped outside after very happy-looking Hel.
The griffon smiled at them, grabbed Kurgash and shot right up, towards the clouds hidden by the snow swirls. Vsevolod followed, despite still being not very good in such a flight. When they've traveled, he preferred to mostly glide, saving his quite pitiful stamina for when it was really needed. This time he had to put it all on the line - gliding in this wind was about as easy as to drive a bike underwater. In fact, after a few moments, it felt almost like he's trying to fly underwater. The streams in the air started to act in a way he never saw before, and his progress up slowed down almost to a halt. What's worse, he lost sight of Helga, but could still hear her calling from somewhere above, so he continued his struggle. Several minutes later, he was greeted by the bright sunlight as he pierced the cloud cover.
All around him, the thick clouds looked almost flat, rivaling the flat expanse of the snow below. The fluffy-looking plain stretched as far as the eye could see. Far above he had noticed wisps of yet another cloud layer, thin and almost invisible in the sunlight. Helga was already nearby, still grinning and pointing at the clouds below with a claw.
"Wind-clouds-way! Fast! Safe! Home!"
"I... can't... see... how it helps," panted Vsevolod, looking down. The "surface" below looked firm and inviting, yet he knew that it's a lie. It always looked like that from a window of a plane, and it was always just a dense fog, when... when he got to that point in his musings, Helga flew down to the clouds and dropped Kurgash. He cried of terror for her inevitable doom - while they've spent some time training her for the flight, she was yet to get to the gliding part. Something in the pegasus was different from a griffon, so the same lesson Helga did for Vsevolod was not enough to make Kurgash understand the concept. Kurgash also screamed and closed her eyes - only to continue screaming while standing on top of what Vsevolod knew was just a bunch of water vapor. In a moment Helga plopped onto it as well, defying the laws of physics in every possible way. Vsevolod looked at that for a moment, then groaned and carefully landed nearby. The cloud held firmly. The surface was cold, soft and impossible. He sighed and looked at still screaming Kurgash.
"You may stop now. It looks like our native guide knows more about the clouds than the old world scientists did."
The pegasus stopped screaming and carefully opened one eye. When she found out that she's not really plunging to her icy grave below, she looked around and poked at the cloud with a hoof. When the bouncy surface held, she giggled and jumped up. The cloud caught her, acting a lot like a sprung mattress. She giggled again and started bouncing around, laughing like mad and causing small chunks of a cloud to break off and evaporate all around her.
"First-time-cloud-crazy," nodded Helga. "Helga did past."
Vsevolod pushed at the dense cloud matter with a claw and had to suppress the urge to follow Kurgash's example. The feeling was absolutely surreal. It was similar to when he flew for the first time but even more intense. Sky could be a home, he realized. There would be some complications, but the possibilities felt limitless. That was an idea deserving a good pondering, but before that, he needed to know what Helga meant by calling the clouds a safe and fast way home.
"So... how could this help us to get home?" he asked, sitting down and watching Kurgash jumping around.
"Cloud... kreeek... move! Fast! Wind-direction-there! Home!"
"So, the wind is blowing towards your home and the cloud moves with it?" decoded Vsevolod, looking at the cloud again. From up here, it was impossible to tell if they even moved, but if the winds below were any indication, they were traveling very fast. All while not being subjected to the terrible weather and without moving a muscle. He felt he could like that method of travel. After a short while, winded Kurgash returned to them and fell on the cloud bump that looked like a pillow.
"Helga... that was scary! But exciting! If you do like that again, I'll murder you in your sleep! Thanks!" she rolled on her back and waved her legs in the air. "It looks like Eternal Fields! It feels like Eternal Fields! It's wonderful! Honored Ancestor, do you think we can find my Yangyr up here? Elders said that the dead roam the big fields of white in the skies, so he must be here!"
"At this point, I'm ready to believe in Flying Spaghetti Monster living here, but no, I don't think we can find your fiancee. We are just sitting on the clouds... somehow. There's possibly some good, logical explanation to this. Scientific. With many formulas no one..." his rant continued on. At one point he discovered that both Kurgash and Helga fell asleep, cuddling against the chilly air of the cloud top. He sighed and joined the pile, It wasn't like the cloud needed any steering anyway.
The only downside to riding the cloud, aside from chilly air Vsevolod got used to during his winter travels, was the boredom. There was absolutely nothing to do in the sky. Of course, there were Kurgash's flying lessons, but those progressed slowly and could take only so much time before the pegasus fell on the fluffy surface completely exhausted. As it turned out, the pace of training Vsevolod was forced to take during his trip was a good thing - he had built his flying stamina slowly and carefully. Kurgash wanted everything at once. More than once Helga had to just sit on her to prevent her from overexerting.
Of course, Kurgash was not too happy about that, and more than once attempted to escape the evil predator's clutches. Since there was no way she could just overpower the heavy and mighty griffon, she attempted to dig her way out through the cloud. It wasn't that hard, the cloud was only sturdy enough for them to not to fall through, and in a few moments, the pegasus was deep below Helga, who looked at the cloud tunnel entrance in surprise. After she got a few facefuls of the cloud matter, though, she dived into the hole and easily brought struggling Kurgash out.
Looking at them, Vsevolod wondered if it is possible to have an old-fashioned snowball fight with the chunks of the cloud replacing the snowballs. He clawed at the cloud and tossed a piece of it to Helga. The larger griffon shook her head, watching the misty substance dissipate and then roared, ripping a large cloud ball from the "ground" and sending it flying into Vsevolod. The next hour was filled with something he hadn't felt since his previous childhood, if at all. For the moment he was just a young cub, playing in the "snow" with his friends, with no care in the world. The feeling was so nice he almost lost himself to it, but no matter how young and full of energy his new body was, it still had its limits, and after a while, they all cuddled together in Kurgash's "snow fort", completely exhausted.
"You know, I can get used to it," said Vsevolod, looking at the boundless blue expanse above and stretching his claws and paws as if trying to grab it. "Back when I was still human, I was never much into physical stuff. Disliked sports, wasn't doing my morning exercises, was bullied at school for being a nerd... fun times. Now... I don't know, it just feels... right. I wonder if it's the body, the age, or something else."
"Young-feather-fun," chirped Helga, grabbing him and checking his wing feathers. "Healthy."
Kurgash just nuzzled him and closed her eyes. At this moment, Vsevolod felt like nothing can go wrong with the world anymore.
And for a moment, he was right.
Stats
Page generated in 0.034 seconds
Total duration
747 users online
1,152,371 hits today, 2,561,572 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.®
Okay, I won't blame him too much for that tempting of the universe. It was more an idle thought. But after everything, they needed this nice reprise and the cloudball fight. I wonder, would blizzard clouds feel different from rainclouds and regular clouds?
7929496 Well, I would imagine at least some temperature and density difference. From a magical standpoint, there should be too, especially since the weather phenomena gets some kind of sentience for at least 700 years by then (if we take what Alex did to that mining town as the first sign).
7929557 Magic tends to do that to everything. Weather, the Earth, a City... Makes me feel better about anthropomorphizing everything
7929560 Yeah... you do realize that the gang just tore large chunks of possibly sentient phenomena and played with them while jumping on the violated body?
7929570 Now, now. I'm sure clouds don't hold grudges.
I hope...
Past evidence suggests that's not how this world works...
The whole section with the cloud is pretty cool though. It's nice to see them have a break to do something fun before whatever terrrible, terrible thing is going to happen next.
7930137 Who ever notices past evidence?
Best chapter ever!
New chapter fan art.
7930361 But... no one dies!
7930836 Thanks!
Alright. I took forever to read this... but I prefer to call it 'saving the best for last'. Pure gold.
And I'll stop here before I quote everything back at you. Doesn't happen all that often that I laugh out loud when reading a story and definitely not several times in one chapter. Kurgash's cloud tunnel.
Right. Rarely have I been that invested in fictional characters... and they so deserved this respite.