Patches and Bubbles

by loststone

First Steps are... Stop that Hexxus!

The next morning was anything but quiet for Anasta. Hexxus decided to wake her up extra early at the crack of dawn with music, but it want soothing like the pan flute he had played before. No, this was more like an orchestra made up of only brass instruments. He wasn’t even playing anything in particular, just hitting random notes and startling everything awake in a five hundred yard radius.

Anasta groggily sat up and looked over to the source of what had very rudely interrupted her wonderful dream of swimming through ice cream. Huh I must have eaten some really weird fist last night. She continued to look at him for a few seconds before laying her head back down on her make shift rock pillow. Hehehe, Hexxus has three heads! Now I know that must have been bad fish if its giving me these types of whacked up dreams.

Seeing how his efforts weren’t issuing much of an response out of her, he stopped playing and scratched each of his goatees. Darn, its not working... Oh I know, maybe she didn't hear me! Five steps in her direction later and he was ready to start up again. “Uhg! I’m awake! I’m awake! Just stop it with the overly annoying brass; you don’t even have any skill in it anyway.” She yelled over the loud instruments.

“Ah Anny that hurt.” Hexxus wiped a fake tear from his eye. And my tutor said I was good. In an instant his extra heads and the instruments disappeared in a puff of green smoke. “Well now that you are awake, we can continue on with... THE EPIC JOURNEY TO FIND YOUR SISTER AND OTHER FUN STUFF!” His magic-infused voice boomed throughout the forest as if it were an announcer at a hoofball game, sending nearby animals running in fear.

“Yeah I get that, but why did you wake me up at this time in the morning? The sun hasn’t even risen yet.” Anasta started to rub the sleepiness from her eyes.

“Because, my master, if we are going to make up for lost time from yesterday we are going to have to get going extra early!” He struck a dramatic pose, putting one of his legs up on a rock and starting to flex his muscular arms in different ways.

“Ok.” She hated to admit it, but he was right. They did lose half a day of travel time yesterday dew to their dinner. “Now why are you doing that? This is no time to be acting like you’re a bad ass, cause you’re not.”

“Why not!? If you’re going to do something, you might as well do it with... dunduhduhdunnnnn stile!”

She rolled her eyes and picked herself up from where she had fallen asleep. “Whatever lets go.” She was thankful that the previous night’s dinner was enough to keep going good for a while.

“Yes ma’am! And so starts the traveling montage!”

At the sound of the word montage, the light disappeared from the sky and was replaced by a series of lit up pictures. In the background of the pictures that passed by was an aged, yellow map that had a red dotted line moving down its center. The pictures themselves were of Anasta and Hexxus doing a variety of different activities. Some were of them trekking through the underbrush of the forest looking for food, while others were of them either having a good time while flying or them scaling a snow covered mountain.

“Umm Hexxus, I don’t think this is time for a movie. Now can we please get going?” If it weren't for the feathers that covered her face, anyone would have seen a large veins starting to bulge out of the sides of her forehead. Anasta was giving him a cross look as he turned a crank that was powering an antique-looking movie projector. The picture it was on was of both of them, portrayed as overly cute, smiling cartoons that were walking over a miniature rotating globe.

“Fine.” He huffed and with a snap of his fingers the world lit back up as it should be, and the projector disappeared in a flash of green smoke. Anasta just rolled her eyes and started walking off into the underbrush, shaking her head ever so slightly. “Umm Anny, what are you doing?”

“What’s it look like I’m doing? I’m walking.”

“Yes, but don’t you think it would be much faster if we flew there?”

“Yeah and how do you think we are going to do that? One of us doesn’t have any wings, and you look a bit too heavy for me to be carrying.”

“Ha! That’s a good one Anny! You not having any wings! Hahahahaha!” he rolled on the ground as he laughed. “Wait a minute.” He had a hurt look on his face when he realized that she had just called him fat.

Steam was coming out of her ears from her frustration. “I mean you, bird-brain!”

“Oh I have wings.” He then stared to glow green and slowly started to grow. He now stood a good foot taller than her and had two large, velvety bat wings sticking out of his back. His horns even grew a few extra inches out of his head, now slightly pointing towards each other. “See!”

She face palmed. “You know Hexxus, I really hate you.”

“And I love you too Anny.”

Hexxus then rolled his shoulders and took a few steps back, facing the clearing that was their campsite. With a little skip, he started running towards the fireplace, and at the last second, before he would have stepped in the ashes, he gave his wings a mighty flap. It only achieved getting him a few inches off the ground, but after he brought his wings down a second time, he shot off the ground and took off towards the foliage above. He did a few cork screws and flips before he felt like he had worked out all the kinks in his back. He stopped a few hundred feet off the ground and let out a triumphant cry of shear joy.

“Eden it feels good to be in the air again!” he yelled out so all the world could hear. “Anny, you’re the one who knows where we are going, so get up here and lets get on with it.”

She just rolled her eyes and took off from where she was standing, and soon she ascended to his height. “Like I said before, we need to go south of here. Now keep your eyes open for blue paint markings on the trees so we can find out which way is south.”

“Wait, why must we look for blue paint?”

“In the Everwood forest, as you can see, the trees cover up the sky blocking out the position of the sun and stars, so a few hundreds years ago, a gryphon king know as Gluckern started a big project to help his subjects navigate in this massive forest. He had his subjects start at the edge of the forest and mark every hundredth tree with four different colors; red for north, blue for south, yellow for west, and orange for east. All we have to do is find the right tree, and then we’ll just go in whatever direction the blue is facing.”

Hexxus raised his hand. “Umm quick question. Why don’t you just fly above the trees to get your bearings?”

“Because the average height for these trees is around like, twelve thousand feet high. Only the most well trained gryphons can stand to go that high.”

“Yeeeesh that is high up.” Hexxus made a quick glace towards the canopy above, and upon closer inspection he saw something that shocked him. When he really strained his eyes, he could see that the trees disappeared into a white blanket of clouds about a mile up. He knew his magic had warped these trees, but he never expected it to have gone as far as granting them the ability to grow that high. “Well if we are going to look for a tree with colorful graffiti on it, I say we start now.”

“It’s not graffiti.” She stopped looking around when a cloud of green smoke passed by her. So help me Grydon if he is about to do something stupid. “Now what are you doing Hexxus?”

“OOH OOH!” If hell fire was real, then it could be seen in her eyes as she looked at what he was wearing. He was in a brown monkey suit that had outrageously large ears and a long curly tail hanging from his rump. “EE AH! Hey Anny, I’m a monkey!”

She held back the urge to introduce him to her four fingers. “Yes I can see that. Now stop goofing off and wasting time.”

He grabbed hold of a green vine that hung out of a cloud of green smoke that hovered twenty feet above, swinging away in no particular direction. Anasta stayed back for just a second to cool down before following him as he swung from vine to vine. He hooted and howled, getting the attention of all the animals below them, as he swung in between the trees.

Other than the annoying sounds she had to put up with, Anasta was enjoying herself and was pretty happy about the pace they were setting. It may have not been the fastest speed they could have moved at, but that didn’t matter much to her. There was a giddy feeling in her gut, and she wanted to enjoy it. Maybe it was because she had a new lead to go off of to find her sister? Maybe it was the fact that she had nearly been raped and most probably killed the day before, and she had a new look on life? Or maybe a bit of both, but whatever it was, she loved the feeling.

“OOHOOHEE! Anny I think I found one!” Hexxus was hanging upside down from the monkey tail, and was swinging back and fourth in front of a large, orange circle pained on the side of a tree.

How is that even possible? Its a lifeless monkey suit. She just shrugged it off and inspected the large orange circle.

It was worn down and partially faded due to age, and even whole chunks of it were gone where the paint had peeled off. It was the middle of three large circles that had been painted onto the great tree, each having a diameter of about thirty feet.

She sarcastically clapped her hands. “Well what do you know, you actually did something without acting like a complete idiot, this time.”

“Well what can I say other than I guess I'm just a chimp off the old block.” In his fit of laughter that followed, the monkey tail let go of the conjured vine it was holding on to. “I regret nothiiiiinnngggggg!” and in a flash of light, he disappeared... and reappeared a few feet above Anasta. “Like that time I drank a carton of expired miiiiillllllkkkk!” He appeared above her a second time. ”Or that time I wiped a booger on you while you weren’t lookiiiinnnnggg!”

“You did what!” on his third time reappearing above her, Anasta socked him in the face on the way down, sending him flying into the face of the tree... and Celestia damnit it felt good. “I swear to Grydon, Hexxus, you are the most childish idiot I have ever met!”

He pulled his horns out of the tree and looked back at her. “Yah well, I may act like a dum ass, but I'm pretty damn sexy while doing it.”

“Phht! I don’t know about you Hexxus, but if I had your face, I would shave my butt and learn to fly backwards.” This left Hexxus speechless as he watched her fly past him and around to the other side of the tree where the blue marker was painted.

“Wow, and here I always thought you had no sense of humor Anny.” Hexxus said as he followed her around. “Well you’re not the only one in this little group of ours that can pull off a quick joke.”

“Yah, but that was so unexpected, and quite frankly it was very good for someone as young as you are.” “Well I... I guess I have picked some stuff up over time.” Even if it was all used against me. She said to herself, thinking back to when she would be picked on in school. “Well, now that we have a heading that we can go off of, lets get going.” She turned away from the tree and took off in the direction that the blue paint was facing.

As they traveled, they were constantly keeping an eye out for the the trees that had the painted-on directions. They would appear around every hundredth tree or so, but thanks to the colossal spans the the trees had, it would be about a mile in between each marker. Hexxus would occasionally let out a fit of joyful laughter every time he saw something new about the world that didn't exist prior to his imprisonment. Which in Hexxus’s case, was almost everything in site. Whenever he would see one, he would ask her a hundred and twenty three different questions about what it was, and Anasta would answer them to the best of her ability. Anasta honestly started to feel like one of those nature show hosts for having to explain so many things to him.

Time seemed to fly past them in the flurry of trees and the further south they traveled, the more their surroundings changed. By the time the sun had started to set, the trees around them were, while still immense in size, no where near as big as the ones at Birch Peak. The foliage above Anasta and Hexxus had also started to clear up a bit, allowing them to fly up to the peaks so they could see the blurred shadows in the distance where the looming mountains were.

The ground below them had also started to resemble that of a massive marsh. The roots of the trees disappeared into large lakes that had formed long ago, due to a mixture of monsoon rain storms that happened during the spring and summer, and Hexxus’s magic.

It took them a good hour, but Hexxus and Anasta eventually found a small mound of dry land amongst the roots of the trees. It was just inside the jumble of roots that made up the base of one of the great trees, and it was, to say the least, cosy. It was just barely big enough for one of them to fit on, but Anasta and Hexxus made up for the lack of space by making make-shift hammocks out of branches and strips of flexible bark, hanging the hammocks just a few feet off the ground. Once their sleeping areas were set up, Anasta went about searching for some dry wood for a fire while Hexxus sat on a root and fished for some dinner.

By the time the sun had set, Anasta had gotten the fire up and running on the patch of dry land, and Hexxus had started playing a whimsical tune on his pan flute. He had already caught two fish, each smaller than the one from the day before but still easily large enough to feed them, both of which Anasta was cooking over the fire. Hexxus continued to fish and play his long lost music while trying to catch a third for tomorrow’s breakfast and lunch.

Anasta hummed happily to the tune of the flute , while occasionally turning the pikes that hung the fish over the fire. Well it may be something that chef Iron Ram would frown at but its not like I’ve got a kitchen and assorted spices to use. Anyway its better than what I used to have to eat to keep going. She shivered at the thought. On one particular night she had gotten so desperate for food, that she had eaten a rather large slug. Then ironically enough, when morning came by and she could see her surroundings, she had found out she was surrounded by bushes of black berries.

Anasta’s attention was pulled away from the fish when the song Hexxus had been playing was cut off abruptly. The fishing rod, made out of a long six foot stick and some string, jerked downwards suddenly from where it was sitting in between his crossed legs.

“Oh Eden,” Hexxus was quick to grab hold of the pole before it was pulled away from him, “I can already tell this is a big one!”

A large slash appeared not twenty feet from where he was sitting, sending water spraying everywhere as the fish surfaced in an attempt free itself from the line. Hexxus let out a growl of frustration as he was forced to get upon his hooves so he wouldn’t be pulled into the water. Anasta could feel her heart beating fast as she watched him with anticipation to see what type of fish he had caught. It was also the curiosity of what the buck could be making Hexxus actually have to try. If he could catch fish that were the size of a small couch without breaking a sweat then whatever this thing was must have been colossal.

The fish may have been strong, but Hexxus wasn't about to lose to it, and ever so slowly he made one step after the other backwards, pulling the fish closer to shore. With each step the thrashing grew less and less until it stopped all together, and he was able to pull the fish up on shore.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Heheh... wow Hexxus that's kind of pathe-”

“Just... just don't say anything. This moment is sad enough as it is without you making me feel worse.”

They were looking down at the ‘catch of the day’; Hexxus with a look as if he had just lost all of his pride and Anasta with a talon over her beak, but that was to help suppress her laughter. What was lying before them was unmistakably a fish. It had fins, scales, and was gulping for air like a fish, but it had a oddly familiar orange and white coloring.

“Its a goldfish.” Anasta stated blankly before falling over in a fit of laughter.

“Oh be quiet, it happens to everyone from time to time.” Hexxus then lifted his head from its shameful position and sniffed the air. “Hay is it just me or is something burning.”

Burning? What could possibly be... Oh crap I forgot about the fish!“Oh no I forgot about dinner!” Anasta let out a yelp and ran back to the fire where two fish were currently on fire.

It was a close one, but she was able to get back to the fish in time before they were condemned to the hellish pit of coals known as the camp fire. Not too long after they were in there hammocks, Mr. Worm included, eating away at their fish.

“So tell me Anny, what do you like to do for fun when you’re not going off on adventures to find your sister?” Hexxus asked while taking off another slab of the jerky style fish meat.

“Well…I would usually just stay at home and draw pictures and stuff, and when I got bored of that I would read.”

“Well didn’t you- ERRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEHP Uhhg sorry about that. Didn’t you have any friends to hang out with?”

“Well no not really. I was picked on a lot during school because the color of my fur is different from most other gryphons, so I couldn’t really make any friends because no one wanted to be my friend.” Anasta looked down with a sorrowful look as she nibbled on a piece of fish.

“Oh that’s never a good thing, but hey at least you have me as a friend now!” Hexxus beamed a large grin at her.

“Y-you mean you see me as a friend?”

“Well of course! What else am I to call you if you don’t like to call me your servant? Maybe something like-” Hexxus was unexpectedly cut off when he found to feathery arms embrace him in a hug. Hexxus could feel her warm tears falling on him as she started to cry.

“Thank you Hexxus, and not only for calling me your friend, but for also helping me these past few days.”

“Oh you flatter me. Now stop crying. I’m not one for this mushy girly stuff,” he patted the back of her head lightly before making a weird face, ”and quite frankly, you smell like you could do with a bath.” That comment got him a nice whack on his arm.

After she moved back across the fire to her hammock and started eating her fish again, Hexxus picked up their previous conversation. “So tell me about these books you would read.”

Anasta pondered for a moment as she thought about them. ”Well some would be the usual school books,” Bleck Hexxus stuck out his tongue. “but the ones I really liked were the stories of a adventurer named Daring Do.” “Oh that sounds interesting, please tell me more!”

“Well Daring Do is an archaeologist Pegasus that goes and raids tombs for ancient artifacts. My favorite one is Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone.”

“Well?”

“Well what?”

“Well you have piqued my interest, so aren’t you going to tell me what happens in the book?”

“The story starts with Daring Do galloping through the forest in an attempt to escape her pursuers: a tiger, a panther, a cheetah, a bob cat, and a fluffy white cat.”

“Oh no!”

“You see, Daring’s wing was injured so she was unable to fly.”

Hexxus rolled his eyes. “Of course.”

“Do you want me to tell this story or are you going to keep talking?” Anasta snapped. He put two hands over his mouth and had an apologetic look in his eyes. Seeing that he wasn’t going to interrupt her any more, Anasta continued on with the story. “Now after Daring Do managed to lose her pursuers, she came across the ancient temple that she had been looking for. She cautiously entered the dust-filled ruins knowing that somewhere deep inside was the Sapphire Stone, but a few steps in, one of the tiles gave way underneath her and set off a series of deadly traps.

“After successfully evading all the traps that had been in the hallway that lead to the main chamber of the temple, she had finally found the artifact she was looking for. Just as the legend had said, it was made of sapphire and was carved to look like two jackals facing away from each other. Believing that she had earned her prize, she snatched up the idol and quickly stuffed it in her hat. She was about to leave when a small cylinder arose from where the idol had once been, setting off one final trap. All of the floors fell away, and they were replaced by a pit of molten lava, whilst the roof started to cave in. But there was one small opening in the ceiling that led back outside the temple. Lucky for Daring, however, one of the pillars that held up the roof half fell over right underneath it, and using her expert skills, she managed to get over to the fallen pillar and jump up and out of the hole.

“Daring successfully escaped the collapsing temple with the Sapphire Stone intact and took a moment to catch her breath. But then just when she thought she was out of the woods, a shadow fell over her, and she looked up into the face of her nemesis, Ahuizotl. Daring would have run from him, but he had stolen the Sapphire Stone and had his minions, those cats, surround her. Ahuizotl took her to his secret lair and strapped her down to a table. After giving the whole taking-over-the-world speech to Daring, he pulled a lever on the wall and set off a trap. He left her to her fate and went out to celebrate. The walls sprouted spider-covered spikes and started moving together. Snakes slithered from the walls, and quick sand began to fall down from the ceiling.

“When all hope seemed to be lost, a plan formed in her head, and in one quick movement, she flipped her hat off. Using her mouth and back hoof, she managed to shoot it against the walls and into the lever that was controlling the trap, putting it in reverse. The walls receded, and the sand disappeared into the floor, allowing Daring to break free from her bindings and go off to find Ahuizotl. “And find him she did. Outside of his lair, he was sitting in a stone chair, holding the Sapphire Stone out and bragging about how great he was for stealing it from her. Waiting for the right moment, Daring swooped down on him and snatched it from his out-stretched hand. And so she galloped off into the sunset once again saving the world from Ahuizotl’s evil grasps.”

Anasta let out a huff of air once she was finished. “Well, how did you like it Hexxus?”

“Hmm, to be honest it was a good story, but I’m my personal opinion, it was far too predictable. Also the fact that the villain never makes sure that the hero dies, just ruins these types of stories.”

“Well you were the one who asked for me to tell it to you, so stop complaining.”

“Who said anything about me complaining? I was criticizing, not complaining there is a difference.”

“No there isn’t!”

“Yah there is! Just check the Masterful Maestro's Dictionary.” He said holding up a large four inch thick, leather-bound book.

“Whatever, I’m not in the mood to argue over something so petty.”

“Yah, anyway that was a good way to pass the time, but I think it’s about time we hit the hay and try to catch some Zs.” Hexxus climbed over to Anasta’s hammock and sat himself down right under it. “Now Anny to help you go to sleep, I will play you a very special tune called In the Dark of the Night that was written by Princess Luna herself.” With the pan flute in hand, he started to play the mesmerizing song. It wasn’t anything too long, only lasting five minutes, but its purpose was served as Anasta’s eyes slowly closed. She rested her head in her fore arms and drifted off to dreamland.

He ran his hand over the top of her head as he looked to the black foliage overhead caused by the surrounding trees. “Not long now.” And with that, he laid himself down in his own hammock and slowly drifted off to sleep.

Authors notes: Sorry for the long wait, I've been have the worst of problems with some of my darned proofreaders. Two of them didn't even look at this chapter, and even after contacting them about it, I was forced to let them go. Then I had to find new ones, and well, its been hazardous. Anyway, enough of my problems.

A big thanks to Meeester for being super duper patient and for sticking with me, a big thanks to Mally for just proofreading for me. I know you haven't done much yet but I look forward to working with you more. Finally a big thanks to you few people that are actually reading my story.

Comments

[LordGremlin]

nice chapter. but i agree with hexxus. most of those books can be predictable.

[Mally]

Hmm. You give me props, but you didn't put up the proofed version. Por que?