The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Two Birds, Cage Free

With a click of horseshoes against metal, Slipstream and Gerardo alighted on the railroad, each carrying a modest bundle of supplies. The former's ribs weren't showing, but mostly because she had been well-fed in the Empire: it had been a week and a half since the crash, and rationing was tight.

"Whew," she panted, stumbling slightly over the railing as she alighted. Her step was slowed by saddlebags full of golden bits, and by the time they returned home, hopefully they would be weighted with food instead.

"Indeed..." Gerardo bent over and caught his breath, his own back loaded with bags holding a tent, food for three days, the sound stone and Valey's old flash club to activate it, and the ship's uncharged mana core. "We might be taking this a day too fast after all, now that I think about it. Though at the rate our food is dwindling, I don't think waiting to make contact with this Griffonstone is the best option..."

Slipstream nodded, grateful to give her wings a rest and let her hooves take over for a change. They had flown straight south, and Griffonstone wasn't yet visible on the horizon. "Everyone's counting on us, but we've got this. All we have to do is walk for hours on end, hope they're willing to trade, then carry everything we get back and fly it the last leg of the way! How impossibly dead could that leave us?"

"Not to mention two nights in the wilderness." Gerardo weighed his bags. "And perhaps a third in Griffonstone itself, if an inn is available and we're significantly tired. Which might be a reasonable assumption..."

Slipstream squared her shoulders and set off at a brisk trot. "We've got this. Three days of nonstop hiking is nothing this filly can't handle. Not with a whole week and a half of trying to get back in shape, right?"

She cracked a grin, hoping levity would count as much as actual stamina on the journey ahead. Gerardo chuckled. "Well, I have been known to have a strong spot for wilderness survival. But let's see how it holds up in practice, shall we?"

---

Eight hours into the day, neither of them were holding up.

"I think I'm not good to go on much longer," Slipstream moaned, wobbling on her hooves.

"Any truer than the last few times?" Gerardo panted, matching her pace. Despite the last lingering effects of the sword's curse, it was clear he was the stronger of the two. "Because we've still three or four hours until sundown, and haven't yet reached the city's latitude..." He pointed at Griffonstone far to the west, the lowering sun hanging over it like a point of alignment. When they touched, it would mean they were due west of the city, but the sun was still slightly to the right. "By my estimations, we need to reach at least that far today if we want to complete this in three. Though even that might be a hard task..."

"Sorry..." Slipstream staggered onwards. "I need to stop..."

Gerardo slipped a wing out, hefting her saddlebags himself and nearly collapsing from the weight of both loads on top of his own exhaustion. "Ten more minutes?"

Slipstream whined under her breath, but summoned a last reserve of strength just like she had done countless times so far that day. Finally, mercifully, Gerardo spread a wing. "Here."

The railroad dropped down slightly on the left, creating a valley that was too shallow to harbor much water yet deep enough to protect them from any nightly winds. Slipstream gratefully sighed, then promptly passed out.

It felt like she came to instantly, but the darkening sky told another story. "Where...?"

She lay on the side of the tracks, Griffonstone's tree-like mountain holding the sun in its crown in the distance. Gerardo was beside her, leaning slightly over her as he knuckled her legs with his talons.

"I thought you might like to see the sunset," he explained. "And as much as you looked like you wanted to go on sleeping, you'll feel considerably worse in the morning if you leave these to knot up."

Slipstream's legs felt like they had been forcibly stretched to twice their natural length, then snapped back in place like rubber. "Doesn't feel that great already," she admitted, a single row of sandy dunes separating them from the sea. "So you're just into giving muscle massages to sleeping mares, are you?"

Gerardo shrugged. "You passed out before I could ask, would prevent us from making any headway tomorrow if you can't stand, and weren't waking up to anything else. If I've overstepped a boundary, you have my full apologies."

"Gerardo the absent-minded adventurer." Slipstream tried to gently whack him, but it came out as more of a limp nudge that still batted his talons away. "Has anyone ever told you you're bad with mares?"

Gerardo's headcrest wilted. "It may have been nonverbal feedback from time to time. I prefer to think of myself more as a handsome, rugged wanderer, but I suppose spending that much time away from civilization lends its rough edges..."

"Nobody said those were mutually exclusive." Slipstream leaned down, using her wings to continue what Gerardo had started.

"Then I'll take that as a half-compliment." Gerardo sat back, pulling a spyglass from his uniform and gazing out at the distant city. "Unless you mean it as otherwise?"

Slipstream stretched. "I'm not gonna lie. When I first took you out to lunch, I just thought you were a hunk. Who needs anything else? Sure didn't think I'd wind up on your airship, or in an Empire with all sorts of taboos..."

Gerardo raised an eyebrow. "Well, we're not in that Empire anymore, are we?"

Slipstream blinked.

"Not that I mean anything by it, of course." Gerardo leaned back. "I may occasionally make a foible, but I'm not that clueless. Just thought I'd offer a reminder."

"...And not that I'd read into it." Slipstream continued working her legs, stretching and rolling them one by one. "You're right. You are clueless, but sometimes a lot less than you pretend to be."

Gerardo chuckled. "Neither of us outright wants to say it, do we?"

"I don't know what your angle is." Slipstream shrugged. "But you're not getting a word out of me."

Gerardo sighed, cleared his throat... and gave his brows an exaggerated waggle.

"Come on..." Slipstream cracked a grin. "I might have been pretty transparent about it when we first met, but you're the one who talked Harshwater into swapping me into her place on this mission when she's better qualified. Say it. Be awkward."

"When you say it, I, ah..." Gerardo redoubled his throat-clearing, almost bending over and pounding his chest. "Presume you're talking about us no longer being in a region subject to the no-interspecies-relationships rule? With respect to the two of us?"

Slipstream's smile vanished into neutral contemplation. "Wow. Sure feels weird having that right out on the table after months of legally being just friends. What do we even talk about?"

"Well, your interest was rather palpable," Gerardo said into the sunset. "Hardly the first mare I've seen who was smitten, at that. Modeling your life after a storybook hero tends to come with a glamorous first impression. What I haven't been able to read is just how much you're noticing about my own reaction."

"As much as I need to." Slipstream shrugged. "Not hard when we've spent months hanging out on the bridge together."

Gerardo hummed. "Shouldn't be hard to guess that I've never found the sense of nationalistic pride some of the other Empire denizens take in the heresies. But I've also tended to work alone or travel too much to ever think of my fans as much more than faces in passing, and over the last few months... Well, things have been easier not to think about. So if you think this means something for us now, you're going to have to go right out and say it, because I'm suddenly out of my depth on what to do."

"Not so far out that you couldn't get us together out here." Slipstream winked. "And I was enough of a cool girl in school to have done my rounds on the dating scene a time or two. But picking up a status symbol coltfriend and dealing with a relationship where we've been interested for months and suddenly no longer forced to keep it platonic are completely different things."

Gerardo hummed, adjusting the focus on his spyglass. "What a pity we're stuck together on a three-day journey without any downtime to ourselves."

Slipstream chuckled. "Sure, that works. You want to do something to commemorate?"

"Oh?" Gerardo tilted his head.

"Let's each tell each other a secret," Slipstream said, conspiratorially lowering her voice. "The kind of secret you wouldn't just tell to a normal friend. You know, something close to your heart that would be devastating if it got out. It'll be fun!"

Gerardo grew a wry grin. "I know mine. Mares first?"

"Alright then. Here goes..." Slipstream took a deep breath. "I maybe... might have... not actually had my first kiss until I was sixteen."

Gerardo blinked. "As someone who grew up in a manor and then roamed long and far across the world, is that unusually late or unusually early?"

Slipstream reddened and mumbled something unintelligible that might have involved clueless griffons being bad with mares. "Your turn."

"Ah. My turn. Brilliant." Gerardo shrugged off getting no answer, suddenly looking deeply embarrassed himself... and then all that embarrassment vanished in a sly wink. "When packing, in an effort to conserve weight, I may have elected to bring only one blanket."

Comments

[Phoenix Kitten]

and then they fucked.
Or at least snuggled.

[KMCA]

Gerardo shrugged off getting no answer, suddenly looking deeply embarrassed himself... and then all that embarrassment vanished in a sly wink. "When packing, in an effort to conserve weight, I may have elected to bring only one blanket."

Smooth, real smooth Gerardo.

[alamais]

Aww ye.

[RoboRed]

Ohhhhhmyyyyy

[Boopers]

owo

[Alchemik]

Oh dang. That was smooth.