The Chronicles of Summer Rain, Vol. 11 -- A Wing and a Prayer

by shysage

Chapter 6, Enough

Summer and I hugged tightly and cried loudly together for a while. We were sitting, facing each other, hugging with one of our front legs wrapped around the other's neck. After the last two weeks, that felt amazing, for both of us.

But I knew this wouldn't last. It had been maybe two weeks for Summer too, and without food and water... A pony can probably survive a month or two without food, but water... That was a different story.

Summer mentioned briefly that she knew of no way out of here either. And she only knew about Dark Melvain when he uncloaked after my arrival. Still, she sat right here, right where she found herself, after being ripped from our room. She said she stayed right here, because she knew if I came, I would look here first. I just cried...

Summer soon fell asleep. Well, she was very tired anyway, so I laid on my side, and pulled her up to my neck and chest. She wept softly, sighed a few times, then she was asleep. Again, I knew she could not sleep for long. She needed water. Well, we needed to find a way out, but she needed water before we even tried that. I asked true friend for help. I didn't have any ideas. I honestly felt water, here, that seemed like a rather remote possibility.

As Summer slept, I looked around a little more at our surroundings. We were in a huge cavern next to a place Dark Melvain had called the gates of Hades. We couldn't see very far; a fairly dense mist permeated the entire cavern. We couldn't see the gates from here either. It took the explosion of Dark Melvain to create enough extra light so we could only dimly and briefly see them. And with that extra light, we still couldn't see the roof of this cavern. A dull orange glow permeated the mist and allowed us to see each other, Dark Melvain at a distance, and some of our surroundings. The floor was not the rough hewn, magically forged obsidian that Dark Melvain had used to build his Bastion. It was hard, beautiful, glass-smooth marble, millions of squares. All the squares were white, and stretched in every direction as far as I could see. Wait... Maybe twenty squares towards the gates, towards where Dark Melvain was, from that point on towards the gates, they were mirror smooth and black, and presented a ghastly double reflection as I looked towards where the gates were. It was dead quiet now, but every so often, I could faintly hear the most hair-raising sound. It was muted but unmistakable... a blazing inferno...

Well, we knew which direction the gates were, where the orange glow was the brightest. When we had the chance, we would go the opposite direction. I didn't think we wanted to go towards the gates for any reason. And if Dark Melvain were in there, we certainly didn't want to get any closer.

Maybe an hour later, Summer woke up. She didn't need to tell me why, and she was weeping softly.

"Can you get up?" I asked gently.

"I think so" she said quietly.

I spoke slowly. "I know it is a long-shot, but we need to try to find some water down here. We can walk as slow as you want, but we need to at least look."

It was quiet a minute as Summer worked on getting up. Watching that hurt... "I will do what I can..." she said weakly.

I led us away from the gates, in fact, exactly the opposite direction. Summer could only walk very slowly. I didn't try to rush her at all. Sooner than I expected, she actually leaned against me as she walked. I did my best to keep her upright, so I could keep her walking. I knew this was really hard for her. It took work to not cry, and I didn't do a very good job at holding back tears.

As we walked, I kept scanning around for some sort of change in the floor. I had no idea if there even was any water down here, or what it would look like if we found it. As we walked away from the gates, a chilling realization dawned on me. It was slowly getting darker. Whatever was causing the orange glow, the further from the gates we got, the dimmer that orange light became. I just sighed...

Summer could only walk for maybe 15 minutes, then she collapsed on the marble floor. "Shysage, I just can't..." she said quietly...

What else could I do? I changed into a people, picked my Mare up, and carried her. She was heavy for me, but, even as a pony, Summer is very petite, very slight. And I had no choice. I had to try to save my Mare, if I could. She ended up curled in my arms, with her pony head next to mine. I think we both appreciated that. But her eyes were closed, and her breathing was shallow...

I kept walking... Looking... I have no idea how long I walked. And it was constantly getting darker as I walked. And I knew my eyes were adjusting to the dimming of the light, but I also knew there was a limit to that... The white tiles; the floor looked more and more just a dull grey, only slightly tinged with orange... My arms hurt monstrously, but I kept going. Well, at one point, I sat down on the floor, rested Summer in my lap, and tried to ease the load on my arms briefly. Getting back up holding Summer was a nightmare, so I wouldn't do that again... Still, I didn't know how much longer I could do this. But my only other option was to lay down next to my Mare and watch her die. And if I put her down, and tried to scout some by myself, I knew I would never be able to find her again, not in this perpetual dusk. Even if I found water, she would die before I could find out where she was, let alone try to get her to it.

Shuffling along numbly, trying to ignore the searing pain in my arms... I have no idea how long I did that... It was like time just stopped...

...

I thought I heard somepony say "wait", so I did. Maybe it was just wishful thinking. Maybe I was just a little delirious. I started walking again. But... Sloshing... I must be dreaming... I carefully stomped my foot down, and almost fell over, which would have really hurt Summer. But I heard a splash...

It hurt like mad, but I sat down. I must have been in a puddle or something. It was cold and wet... I had no idea what it was, or if it was even drinkable. It didn't really matter.

I tried to wake Summer up, but that just didn't work. I... I didn't know what to do. But, I knew... If Summer died here, I would never leave this spot, until I died here too...

I picked my Mare up, carefully unfolded my legs, and laid her down on the floor, with her back in the water. I guess it was cold, and she really didn't like that... "Shysage, no!" she scolded loudly. She might have been delirious too... I cupped both hands, and tried to get some water into her mouth. She was angry, I guess it was too cold, and she pulled her pony head away... Still, she was laying on her back in the water. Well, I hoped it was water...

"Oh, please drink Mare..." I said softly... I had brought my Mare to water, but I couldn't make her drink. She had to want to...

For minutes, neither of us moved...

I got an idea, anyway. I dipped a few of my fingers in the cool water, then gently rubbed it into her face above her pony eyes. She said quietly "That feels nice", but at least she wasn't mad at me any more...

"Summer, I found water..." I said softly. Then I did the same thing again.

She just sighed.

"Summer, I found water..." I said again, softly. Only this time, I sprinkled a little water in her mouth. Her tongue came out, and she licked her lips. I guess she felt the water on them.

Still, no response beside that. This time I just sprinkled a little more water in her mouth. She would choke if I gave her too much though. But she licked it up again.

I tried a little more water, and she again licked at it, then she swallowed. And I kept telling her quietly each time "Summer, I found water..."

Well, I would nurse my Mare back to life if I had to do that all day. I kept doing it. She started quietly saying "more, please." I didn't know if she was even awake or not, coherent or not... Or, if I was coherent even...

Many minutes later... Summer's eyes blinked all the way open. She said slowly "Shysage, where is it..."

I started to cry, but managed to say she was laying in it... I helped her roll over on her belly, and she drank... and drank... and drank some more... I changed back into a pony and tasted the water myself, it was very good, so I drank a bunch too. Then I just cried like a baby while Summer drank maybe two weeks worth of water. And to even find water here...

Maybe two hours later, she was mostly back to her normal self. The air wasn't cold here, but the water was, and Summer asked that we walk to the edge of the water, but not away from it. The direction of the gates was still easy to discern. We walked in that direction, but just until we found the edge of the water. It didn't take long.

Then we hugged and cried together for the longest time. There was no food here, but we had some time now. And I had my Mare back. We had absolutely nothing else right now, well besides plenty of water.

But we had each other.

That was enough.

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