Heroes of Atria

by TotallyNotAPerson

13: Answers

"Make room, make room!" Darim shouted at Nawir and Kren. He wiped away some leaves and other debris from the ground and dropped Ancero's limp body on the spot. He used his magic to teleport a bag of medical supplies from his cabinet at home to right in front of him. Frantically, he began work on the mare.

"What happened?" Kren asked, gagging when she caught sight of the blood. "It's horrible! I've never seen anything worse!"

Nawir poked his head over Darim's shoulder and watched his hooves and magic operate the tools for a bit. "Dude that's nasty!"

"Can you two shut up? Step back and let me fix her."

"But, this area is so unsanitary!" Kren complained.

"I'm sorry, would you rather I carry a wanted fugitive through town to my nice clean operating table in my house at least a day and a half walk from here?"

"Fugitive?" Kren asked herself quietly.

"Wouldn't the blood trail lead them to us though?" Nawir argued.

Darim sighed. "I suppose you're right, if we went to my house the bleeding would likely stop around the halfway point."

"Then let's go!"

Darim stopped for just a moment to glare at Nawir before returning to the operation. "The bleeding would stop because she'd be out of blood you idiot, dead."

"Oh, that does make more sense." Nawir trailed off, feeling really bad about his suggestion.

"Now, do either of you know anything about botany?" Darim asked, continuing his work.

Kren nodded. "I dabbled in it a bit in college."

"Of course you did." Darim mumbled, "Alright then, I may run out of gauze and bandages so I might need some Lamb's Ear and Marsh Woundwort."

"Okay, I'll get you as much as I can find." Kren immediately left the area to search for the plants.

"Good, and Nawir, do you know what poison ivy is?"

"Yeah." Nawir said suspiciously.

"Get me as many leafy plants as you can find that aren't Poison Ivy. This is going to be for a soft bedding, so if the plant has thorns or hurts you when you pick it up, don't bring it back."

"Okay!" Nawir bolted into the forest after Kren.

"Finally I can work in silence." Darim mumbled to himself. After about ten minutes of quietly working on Ancero, he heard a strange wheezing from behind him. Darim turned around to see Chase, watching intently. "Right, I forgot about you, Chase. Don't worry, once Ancero is stable, I'll help you. You could probably make it a few days without help, but she might not even make the hour."

Another half an hour passed, and Darim was about empty on gauze. He managed to stitch the wound shut and wrap her body in several layers of gauze to catch any more bleeding, after some minor cleaning with some chemicals. He just hoped there wasn't much contamination from the woods and his hooves.

Behind Darim was the sound of several sticks snapping, and he turned around to see Kren return. She had taken the form of a unicorn and had a single plant suspended in the air above her in her magic. "I couldn't find any Woundwort, but I found a single plant of Lamb's Ear."

"Thank you, I'm honestly surprised you found even that. Now I need clean water to wash my hooves in, after that I can start work on Chase."

"I saw a creek about five minutes walk from here, is that water clean enough?"

"We don't know what's upstream. Look for a well or spring that looks clean, otherwise go as far upstream as you can."

"Okay." Kren left, just to be replaced by Nawir, who had a whole mess of leaves lying on his back.

"I got you some leaves and plants."

Darim took the mess with his magic and spread it out along the ground in a large blanket. "Thank you, I'm not seeing anything dangerous in here, so you did good. Can you lift her onto the pile please? I need to save some energy."

"Gotcha." Nawir said, walking over to Ancero. He gently lifted her up and stood on his rear legs.

"Don't touch her wound, and don't let it touch the leaves. We can't risk any more contamination."

Nawir set his friend down as gingerly as he possibly could on the leaves. "So, is she gonna make it?"

"I hope so. I've never seen an injury that bad, and I've seen some shit."

Nawir looked over at Chase, who watched them quietly. "You gonna help him?"

"Yeah, I just need cleaner hooves."

"Anything I can do?"

"Umm. Get some rocks and make a ring a few feet away from Ancero, then make a campfire in the middle, we'll definitely be here for a while."

"Aye aye."

---

After only a few minutes, Nawir had gotten a small campfire blazing and Kren brought back a bucket of clean water. Darim dunked his hooves in the water and scrubbed off all of the blood that he could before holding them near the fire to dry and bake off any leftover contaminants.

"Alright, question time." Darim said as he rubbed the Lamb's Ear leaf up and down one of Chase's wounds. "What's up with the weird magic type stuff you guys can do? Ancero's sword, Nawir's gauntlets, Kren's shapeshifting, and what does Chase have?"

Nawir cleared his throat. "It's an old technique of magic that any species can learn, Earth Pony, Pegasus, Unicorn, even non ponies can if they meet the requirements. It used to be called 'Weapons Magic' but was changed to 'Illusion Magic' during the Great War due to new research done at the time. The magic is a manipulation of the fourth dimension to alter this reality. Also, Chase's ability is that he is able to manipulate body and muscle mass to enhance his physical characteristics for combat. He can basically shift the fourth dimension to make him stronger or faster to an unparalleled level."

Darim used his magic to hold a stick on either side of Chase's leg and wrapped some gauze around it. "You mentioned requirements for the magic, what are they?"

"From the research done, the creature needs to be open-minded about the impossible, smart enough to comprehend the fourth dimension, and have the 'Coju gene'. Coju being an ancient word for illusion. This gene is a recessive trait so it tends to skip several generations from time to time, although it doesn't need to as the creatures with this gene age extremely slowly."

Darim began work on the next leg. "I see, Kren, form a shelter over the fire so the light doesn't spread out as far."

"Okay." Kren did as she was commanded, making sure to leave big enough holes for airflow.

"Is this Illusion Magic affected by null-magic fields?"

Nawir looked at Kren, and she offered up the answer. "Only extremely powerful ones being actively monitored and empowered by somepony more powerful than the Illusion Magic user."

"I see. Could you explain a little more about your specific powers?" Darim queried.

"Ancero can create a sword that's basically an extension of herself, she swings her head around for show, she doesn't really need to. Kren creates his gauntlets which multiply his power immensely. I am able to shift into the form of any pony I know the name and face of. And Nawir told you Chase's."

"Right right." Darim paused his surgery just shy of the end to process the information. "So, why did Solar call us fugitives?"

Kren and Nawir locked eyes, both of them shook their heads. "We don't know." Nawir began. "Who was it that said we were fugitives?"

"Solar told me that Queen Dusk said we were fugitives to be killed on sight."

"Maybe she thinks we're the cause of the reverted griffon attacks?"

"Okay." Darim went back to work and finished up Chase's bandages. "One last question." He turned around and locked eyes with Nawir. "How old are all of you?"

"Not too old, 25 for me and we're roughly the same age."

Darim turned to Kren. "He's lying, isn't he?"

"What? Why would I-."

"Be quiet Nawir, I want Kren's answer. How old are you?"

Kren swallowed nervously. "We were, uhh. Born before the war."

"I knew it!"

"Knew what?" Nawir butted in.

Darim glared at him. "I knew you all were older than you wanted me to know! My great great great grandfather, the one I was named after, wrote a letter before he died. He told me that his squad abandoned him, 5 ponies left him to die. Although I don't remember the names he wrote down because I threw the note away when I was a colt, I do remember he mentioned immortal ponies with unimaginable powers! Not to mention, when Solar asked Ancero her age when we just met, she insisted it stay a secret. She's also able to switch between silly and serious in an instant, making me think the innocent goofy mare was just a ploy. Plus Kren is clearly more experienced in theater than any pony her age should be."

Nawir and Kren kept quiet.

Darim looked at the sky and saw that the moon was already a significant way through the sky. "I suppose we should go to sleep now. I made sure Chase and Ancero are stable enough to last at least the night."

"I'll keep lookout tonight." Nawir offered.

"Although I won't stop you, I have a strong feeling we won't be needing a lookout tonight, we've made enough preparations to not be noticed."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Plus we haven't been getting much sleep lately due to all of our travelling, I'd rather have no lookout at all than a tired one that doesn't notice anything."

"Okay."

"I have some questions to ask Ancero tomorrow. Mostly about that fifth pony mentioned in the letter." Darim settled down and promptly went to sleep.

Kren looked at Nawir worriedly. "You don't suppose he'll come out tonight, do you?"

Nawir put a hoof to his chin. "I sure hope not. It'll be easier if he doesn't, but I think he probably will."

"I was afraid of that."

"There's only one way to find out. Wake up in the morning and find out." Nawir stood on his rear legs and stretched all fours before plopping down backwards. "Good night Kren."

"Hm. Good night, Nawir." Kren said with a tang of worry in her voice.