A mare and her dog

by cammera

Night 11: As the night's breeze cools the forest, shall we take a walk?

Winona followed orange hat horse to a river and watched for a moment as her horse cleaned the water-keeper in it. She sniffled its smell and, without much consideration, drank downstream from it.

Once they had done everything they needed to at it, they kept walking. The moon was far from full, so there wasn't much light to see by, but both had enough nocturnal ancestry to move in it with relative ease.

-º-

Applejack cringed.

The bridge rocketed to the wind, clearly needing a good repair or five.

She walked to it slowly, as if scared of turning it to dust with as much as a noise. It was old, probably from before the moles -of which she had already found a few holes- had set on in the area, and had a barn-like shape. All of it contorted slowly, creaking as it did, to the night's breeze.

She sighed angrily and gave the river below a look.

"Nope," she said to herself, walking away from the border, then cringed immediately at the sound of her voice. Far too many rocks and far too strong a flow for her liking. They'd have to...

Hers and Winona's heads snapped upward when a sound far too loud to be wind reached their ears, and they caught sight of a looming shadow falling upon them.

Of course, said some part of Applejack's mind as she started running They were at it all day. Now she wants a snack.

She shook her head and realized that she and Winona had ran inside the bridge. The roc landed behind them with a heavy thud, making the earth quake... and the bridge start a collapse that had been coming for quite some time. Without paying heed to the noise of it, the roc jumped inside it with a hop that Applejack would've laughed at in nearly any other situation.

Applejack and Winona jumped in opposite directions when the bird tried to peck at them, shattering the wood.

The floor gave out under Applejack's hindhooves, but she barely noticed it and kept running despite the splinters that dug into her skin. The bird hopped again to reach them, then open her wings for balance when the bridge, visibly skewing under her weight, gave out under her. Walls broke to the wings, and the roof's collapse advanced faster.

Applejack reached the other side of the bridge, a few fearful tears escaping her eyes and deep, aching breaths the only sound she made. She looked back to see the bridge fall to the river, the roc trapped inside.

She averted her gaze from it and walked away a step, then looked back again. The roc was shrieking in pain as the ancient wood fell to her head and the cold river dampened her already hurt wings.

She walked away from it, trying to give some firmness to her steps.

Winona sat still, watching the roc.

Every instinct told her to either escape or search her pack to hunt at the beast, seeing weeks worth of food in it, but a subtle smell escaped it. It was in heat. She got up, her nostrils busy at work in the search of a subtle smell that could be there.

Applejack watched Winona, trying to make herself walk away.

Her gaze returned to the bird.

What if...?

She took a step closer to her.

Her hoof tapped the ground impatiently.

Even if she wasn't, the cries of the bird were too much for her to hear, and her Equestrian soul repugned at the idea of just leaving it be.

She took a step closer to the bridge, which was firmly anchored against the rock. She took another, the decision cemented in her mind, and she rummaged her bags for a rope.

-º-

Tired and damp, Applejack moved as silently as she could through the forest, Winona behind her and in the same state.

One thing she had found quickly, and hadn't had time to consider before, was that moles tunneling through everything to watch the moon meant that, while the place was obviously semi montanous, completely lacking in the caves department. Every one she had seen had collapsed long ago.

When she was considering setting her tent somewhere discrete and testing her luck, something appeared in her view. She walked to it to find a small city, aparently made by diamond dogs or minotaurs from the door shapes, abandoned to its luck. Most of the buildings had crumbled due to time and holes, but a few resisted the elements.

She entered a white building she couldn't quite identify but that seemed to be the most intact one, doing her best to ignore the rocs that sung to the rising sun.

Comments

[Aatxe360]

I still think that's a bad idea.

[cammera]

6826977 What exactly? Walking into a mountanious forest that has too pests that AJ knows off?

[Aatxe360]

6828009

The roc has a mate that is unaccounted for...

[Zaid ValRoa]

6826977

I still think that's a bad idea.

AJ probably wasn't led here by a string of good ideas in the first place.