The Escape

by Jimbo

Chapter 9

“Luna! Luna, where are you?”

She was in her mother’s garden, which she had loved so dearly. Her mother’s duty was to lift the sun, and so she directed its gentlest rays to her little patch of green, warming all of the flora and fauna that thrived there. Flowers of every color glowed in their beds, bright and happy, and the grass was a velvety blanket that she and her mother would play on for hours. Birds sang in the trees, and rabbits darted from bush to bush, nibbling on the clover that her mother planted there.

She was a small filly, and no matter how quickly she galloped across the warm grass, her hooves seemed to slow her down, dragging to a crawl as she ran.

“Princess Luna! Princess Luna!”

Her mother was coming to find her; that was the game, after all. So Luna continued to run, stifling her giggles, and dove into a flowerbed, hiding her face under its warm, soft cover.

“Princess! Where are you? Luna?”

She did her best to hide her giggles as she saw her mother’s hooves approaching, all that she could see from her low vantage point. This was her favorite part; her mother would burst into sight, and then they would chase one another around the garden, until they finally collapsed from exhaustion, giggly and breathless.

“Princess Luna!”

She could see her mother lowering her body, crouching down to surprise Luna out of her hiding space. Luna crouched her legs under herself, eyes wide and excited, nearly shaking with anticipation. Here came her favorite part!

“PRINCESS LUNA!”

The face that exploded out from behind the cover of flowers was that of the Kelpie.

Luna awoke with a start, kicking at the blankets, her hooves landing in the soft bulk of her companion.

“Loo! Ssh!” Joe hissed, trying to mask his grunt of pain as she kicked him.

“The Kelpie - Mother’s garden -” Luna gasped, eyes rolling, trying to remember where she was.

“Princess Luna!” The voices echoed in her ears - from above her, this time, distant and soft. “Princess Luna, where are you?”

“The Royal Guard.” Luna whispered, eyes widening as she stared at the top of their grass hut, as if she might see them through it.

“That’s what I figured.” Joe whispered back to her, his eyes hard and narrow. “They haven’t found us yet. Started hearing them about half an hour back, so far they haven’t gotten any closer than overhead fly-bys.”

“They will find us.” Luna whispered, her voice filled with dread, her heart starting to pound in her chest.

“No they won’t.” he whispered back to her, and he said it with such vehemence that she was forced to look at him, abandoning her attempts to sight the Royal Guard from the tent opening. “It’s a good cover. The forest is a better place to hide - they’ll search there first. If I hear them getting close, I’ll wake you up, and we’ll run for it. You have wings; you can probably out-fly them, and I’ll use my magic to hold them off.”

When Luna said nothing, merely stared at him with naked fear in her eyes, Joe gave her shoulder a comforting little bump. “C’mon. We’ll be okay. You get back to sleep, or at least rest for the next couple’a hours. I’ll wake you up when it’s your shift.”

“I do not think that I’ll be able to sleep.” Luna whispered, huddling down against his side, hiding her face in his shoulder.

Joe cleared his throat, but when he spoke, his voice was calm. “Try. You’re gonna need rest, if we’re gonna be making a run for it tonight. Over that hill is a mountain, one of the closest borders to the Griffonlands. If something happens, you need to fly for it. Once you’re in their realm, Celestia would have to risk a war with the griffons to extradite you.”

“You certainly know a lot about international law, Joe.” Luna whispered back to him, resting her face on her crossed forelegs, closing her eyes and trying to ignore the voices calling her name.

“Stallion of mystery, remember?” Joe whispered, lowering his head as well, loosing a soft, tired sigh.

Luna was awake for a long time, listening to the voices overhead and the slow, steady breathing of her tentmate. She began to notice the pattern of his breathing more keenly; when it sped up, it meant there was someone overhead. But when he slowed and breathed more deeply, it meant they were safe. She did her best to rouse herself every time his breathing sped up, but when he awoke her in the late afternoon, she realized she had fallen asleep.

“Your turn.” Joe grunted, rolling onto his side and covering his eyes with a foreleg. “Wake me up when it’s dark, or if you fall asleep.”

“How am I supposed to wake you if I am already asleep?” Luna asked, trying to tease him, but he was already out.

The hours passed slowly, alone with only Joe’s breathing and her thoughts for companions. The calls for her came less and less frequently; she was glad for it, at least, because it meant that she would be less and less tempted to give herself up. She passed many hours like this, watching the sun sink lower and lower into the sky, listening to the sound of the day birds giving their last calls as they retreated to their nests.

At last, the sun was gone, and as the moon slowly rose, Luna pushed her hoof into Joe’s side. “Joe, it’s dark. Time to wake up.”

“Rghgrnnnghr.”

“Awaken, Joe. The moon is rising, we must be on our way.”

“Okay, okay, just - gimme a sec.” he growled, hiding his head under the bedroll. Instead of forcing him awake, Luna set to work, mimicking the actions she had seen him do several times before. She buried the remains of their fire, and tucked whatever stray objects they had removed back into the saddlebags. Lastly, she pulled the bedroll off of Joe, wrapping it as tightly as she could before squishing it into one of the pouches on his saddlebag.

“Hnghrhrng. Cold.” Joe whuffed, searching for the bedroll in vain for a moment before he sat up. “Wazzat?”

“It is time to start moving, Joe. I have packed the camp. We must be on our way if we are to reach the Griffonlands before dawn.” Luna murmured, giving him another little push.

“Packed the …?” Joe rumbled, and looked around, brows lifting as he slowly pulled himself to his hooves. “Well, I’ll be darned. Nice work, Loo. But we gotta get that leg wrapped up first.”

There was a moment of hesitation, then Joe stripped off his uniform, trying to give a strong impression that he couldn’t have cared less, really. Within a few moments, he had cut the uniform into pieces, using the middle section to form a sort of sling around the princess’s much slimmer waist, and the rest was cut into strips and tied over her wounds, along with a hefty dose of antibiotic cream.

“Nothing’ll kill you faster in the wilderness than an infection.” Joe said staunchly, as if the donut-symbol on his haunches somehow implied that he was a wilderness expert.

“Thank you, Joe.” Luna murmured, looking over her bandaged legs gratefully. When she looked up at him again, she took him in more slowly, appreciating how different he looked without his crisp, white uniform on. (Even if, by now, it had dirtied to more of a cream.) “I know how difficult it was to let me have it.”

Joe colored, and shook his mane out, avoiding her gaze. “Wasn’t a big deal. Had to wrap your leg.”

“No, it is a big deal.” Luna insisted quietly, her eyes riveted on his face.

Joe continued to avoid her gaze for a moment longer, but finally looked back at her, and gave a small, grateful nod. “You’re very welcome, Your Majesty.”

“Just Loo.” Luna murmured, bestowing a small smile on him.

“You’re welcome, Loo.”

Luna bowed her head to him, the motion as graceful and exquisite as was befitting of a princess of the realm.

“Man, no offense Loo, but you’re kind of a mess.” Joe chuckled, reaching a hoof forward to brush away some of the tangled mane from her face. “Lemme help. Braiding hair can’t be much different than braiding bread, right?” he murmured as he crawled closer to her, his horn lighting up in the dim tent as he began to brush her mane with his magic.

“Joe?” Luna murmured back to him, afraid to break the silence. “May I see your scars?”

There was a beat, a pause in which Luna could almost hear him considering it, and when he spoke, his voice was similarly soft. “Sure, Loo.”

She lifted her head and drew a little closer, looking over his back while he worked. They were almost invisible in the dim light of the tent, but sure enough, there were two very small, lighter marks near his shoulder blades. Almost invisible, unless you knew where to look.

“Weird, huh?”

“No, not weird. They are very small, hardly noticeable.” Luna murmured back to him, low and reassuring. “They are sign of your bravery; scars show that we survived. They are nothing to be ashamed of.”

This drew a small smile to Joe’s face, but he brushed it away as he straightened up, looking over his work. “A little lumpy, but they’ll hold. Might as well try to keep you undercover, if we can.”

“Thank you, Joe.” she smiled to him in reply, doing her best to pull herself to her hooves with three legs. It took a little help from Joe, but she was soon up, finding her balance without the fourth.

“You gonna be okay?”

“Yes. I will walk for as long as I can.” Luna said firmly, walking out of their low grass hut, Joe close behind her. “Let’s go.”