The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Sunny

Finally, the sun was shining.

The realization caused Starlight to lurch awake far more quickly than she preferred to, and she spent the next ten minutes sitting groggily up with a slump that could put every teenager ever to shame. Blinking, she licked her lips several times, eventually stretching away a cramp and taking a drink from her flask. Her horn didn't feel wonderful, but it would let her get out and in again.

Outside the cave, there wasn't a cloud in sight. Starlight took her time, figuring the sky would give her ample warning if she needed to run, and when she formed the bridge to exit the cave it was with her saddlebags packed and her eyes fully awake. The berry pouch was untouched, still filled with smelly paste, and her slightly damp blanket occupied the other.

Stomach rumbling, Starlight reached the end of the rocky spit that lead to the cave and circled around to the grass. She threw down her things, spread her blanket out to receive as much sun as possible, and then proceeded with the slightly gross task of cleaning her saddlebags.

Wading up to the very edge of the water, the filly dunked the article entirely, using a concentrated ball of telekinesis to scrub around in the inside. Reddish yellow glop began floating to the surface where she worked, and she had to change location twice to keep her work in clean water.

Eventually, the bags passed the smell test, so she turned them inside out and left them to dry, too. With that accomplished, Starlight knelt and began munching on grass.

She wasn't sure why, but it wasn't as pleasing as the meal she had had upon emerging from the upper caves. Perhaps the joy to be outside was gone, now that the weather had rudely welcomed her back with endless buckets of rain. Perhaps the thrill of eating things she wasn't supposed to had worn off, now that she had been away from home for longer. Or perhaps the grass up there was just better.

Either way, she still made a point of enjoying it. Her rations were gone, and unless Sosa had been there recently enough that his were still intact, this grass was all she'd have. Briefly, she contemplated how she might efficiently harvest the grass... and then she felt the sun on her back.

It had been there for the past hour, of course, but now she actually noticed it. She noticed how cold she was, and how much she'd missed it... and flipped over on her back, simply laying there and sunbathing.

The rays of light poured down on closed eyes, softly fluffing her fur and sinking their way into her body, warming even the deepest recesses of her where the caves' chill had taken root. A smile slowly grew on Starlight's face as, with the pace of an artist and the effectiveness of hot soup, the sun warmed her from within, allowing her to finally feel as if she didn't need to shiver.

She rolled over several times, letting the surface of her coat cool while still absorbing warmth. She sniffled once again, and eventually fell into a peaceful slumber.

---

Starlight awoke when the sun disappeared. Looking disappointedly upwards, she watched as cloud cover rolled in from the peaks, obscuring her precious warmth with hazy, high-up grayness. She pouted, but at least the sun had done its job: the filly felt like a living heat battery, a warmth sitting in her core that stayed and comforted her even as the air temperature began to drop.

She took a moment to smile giddily. She still had other problems, such as a temperamental horn and minor leg cramps, but this was a feeling she'd been missing for weeks. Even the sun she'd received at the exit to the caves hadn't come near to comparing to this.

Of course, she also hadn't been wet then. But rather than ponder the intricacies, Starlight instead took another mouthful of grass and turned to her things. Her saddlebags still held moisture; appropriate, given that she had recently submerged them. Her blanket, however, was as toasty as she was. It had a sufficient amount of dust and dirt that she briefly regretted not washing it, too, but that could wait. She shook it instead, closing her eyes at the cloud that flew from it, and then wrapping it around herself like a shell. Taking her saddlebags in her mouth, she made her way back to her cave.

Once there, she sat in the entrance, huddled under her blanket to preserve as much of the sun's warmth as possible. The sky looked back down at her, not raining but very well threatening to, and she wasn't about to tempt it. She could explore the cave again, but presently had that feeling that wasn't quite a headache yet could become one in an instant and decided against using magic.

That left her with little to do... though she could always try reading Sosa's book to see if she could learn more about the land around her. She shrugged at the thought; as boring as it had looked, it was probably less boring than doing absolutely nothing.

Silently, the filly skimmed the pages, turning them with her mouth like an earth pony. The walls of text within were just as mountainous as her surroundings, consisting of all sorts of canticles, arias, odes, dirges, boleros and other fancy types of songs. Green this, blue that, majesty and glamor and blah blah blahhhh... Starlight's eyes rolled as she read. Maybe it wasn't better than nothing. Still, she kept reading.

Once or twice, she read mention of something called the Yule river. Sosa wrote of having a boat, so she figured it must have been more substantial than the shallow things she had crossed with stepping stones. Pondering, she closed her eyes and imagined herself on a boat, cruising through a glacial river with no need to use her hooves and shelter always at the ready. She had just begun considering how she might make such a boat when a useful, if slightly morbid, thought occurred.

There had been quite a few crates in Sosa's camp. Wouldn't the explorer have taken those with him if they had gone on? What if they had never left the mountains, after all?

Not thinking at all about the fact that the long-buried remains of a starved corpse might lie in the old camp in the cave, Starlight turned her daydreaming instead to the possibility that a nice, fully-made boat could be waiting for her somewhere, still afloat and ready to carry her out of the mountains.

Comments

[Hap]

the sun warmer her from within

warmed

I wonder how many lakes in the world sink into caves.

[PropMaster]

Cave rivers are spooky.

Also, it took two days for her blanket to dry. Is it denim? :P Filly Glimmy needs to upgrade her gear. Maybe Sosa has something?

[gakposter]

8982939
And dangerous. Starlight better watch out, those r things can trap you or pull you under and drown you.

[Merula]

Wouldn't a b o t e be handy...

[Walrusesarecute]

These chapters are so short, what happened that made this filly run away from home? Could it be there’s more to Starlight’s story than just Sunburst?