Bounty On The Frontier

by MajorPaleFace

4. These Horseshoes Were Made For Walking

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Day 5, yesterday a sudden flood swept over the desert. I can only assume it began in the mountains and worked it’s way down, in combination with heavy rainfall the desert is almost completely covered. I managed to make a raft out of logs and driftwood. I have water enough for a few days and a little food.

This morning I found a dead Thestral scout, he’d been killed by a lightning strike, I have his Sabre and meagre supplies. Seems he was as ill-equipped as I am. The weather is clearing by now as I float for what I hope is further south. I worry. They'll be looking, If not for me then the scout.

Hours. It had been a few Ash reckoned and she was too tired to row anymore. There were a slight breeze and enough of a drag on her raft to pull her along. She wasn’t sure which way she was heading, with no point of reference to draw from.

The clouds remained heavy overhead and she feared further downpour. But at least the sun wasn’t burning her to death.
Ash had managed to create a raft from two old trees and built a fire in the middle. Between bouts of rowing, she had amassed enough boiled water from two dozen uses of an empty sardine tin to fill her water bladder with clean, albeit murky water. She drank greedily. The taste wasn’t too unpleasant and was certainly better than nothing. She had been glancing around aimlessly, looking at the sameness of the grey waters and sky occasionally broken up by mounds and lines of sand or rocks.

Something reflected ahead of her and she studied it. It fluttered and moved just above the waterline. She checked to make sure she had both sabres at the ready. Law this far out? Although she could have easily turned back. She wasn’t sure of anything right now and so resorted to waiting patiently. The raft was being pulled toward the movement, and she was too fatigued to change her course.

She neared closer and closer, the movement subsided until only a rocky mound appeared. The drag was pulling her from underneath, like before, the mix of sand and stone was acting as a drain. As she neared she touched her pole to the rocks and it emitted a sudden cracking sound. Movement and fluttering burst from the other side, as a dozen giant carrion birds erupted in fright. Scaring Ash half to death.

Her heart was in her throat and she breathed heavily in relief that it wasn’t some kind of ambush. Tentatively as the raft remained locked against the side of the rocky formation, Ash left the raft with a single sabre outstretched. Nothing around her indicated anything untoward. Yet her basic training remained and kept her alert. She moved quietly, over the mound to see a corpse floating amongst the driftwood. A Thestral wearing leather and silver plate, a big male from the size. She moved closer to examine, very confident in his death from the blood diluting into the water.

She reached down and dragged him out onto the bank, he stank of death and rot. He was already very swollen. Almost centre of his wings across his back was a charred wound as big as a hoofprint. She spread the flesh a little to investigate, it wasn’t magical. He’d been hit by lightning and his partner had probably fled, she'd found them this morning. Rolling him she could see he had a buckle for a weapon that was absent, probably at the bottom of the floodwater. His face was semi chewed from the birds' feast, but she didn’t recognise him from her encounter at the raider camp.

He had a star with the crest of the Thestrian government. Ash took it and pinned it to herself, who knew when pretending to be an official of the kingdom would be to her benefit. He had some belongings in a bag, water-drenched and mostly useless. He had several tins of sardines and beans, the larger cans meant she could boil more water at once.

There was bread which had disintegrated in the water, and a silver hip flask which she opened and sniffed. Scotch. Ash had a swig, and with her face scrunched she screwed the cap and stored it in her belt. He had another knife like hers which she also relieved him of, a coin purse and some tools. All in all a good find. He also had rolled up in a pouch a map of the area.

It wasn’t much good to her, the land was flooded and she was grounded. She wiggled her wings and that sent reprocessing pain along her back and she hissed. Ash returned to her raft and pushed off with renewed strength. The logs jostled as the current fought to return them to the shore. She continued roughly in the direction she had been headed.

She swore to herself if she ever made it out of this place she would invest in a compass and maybe get some enchanted armour. It was extremely rare and expensive, but who knew what the black market could churn out. She’d heard some crime organisations lived the lavish live down south, and if she could rub shoulders with them, maybe she’d get very ahead.

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Ash sighed heavily. Although her appetite and thirst had been sated, she still hurt incredibly. The clouds were lifting and starting to thin, she estimated it to be mid-noon. She had allowed her fire to burn itself out as it was warm enough by now for her not to require it. On the horizon, the water and sky blend was disturbed by craggy hills, a sure sign of a halt in the water-way transit.

Around the prelude to the solid ground were dozens of mounds that rose like giant grey lily pads. Evidence of lightning strikes was abounding. The few isolated trees had been charred and split by the energies while pockets of sand had been turned to blackened glass. Ash was looking at the map she had found on the scout. His scribbled bearings weren’t particularly helpful, without a compass Ash was very lost.

She knew which way south was on the map, but she didn’t know where she was exactly. What she needed was a good landmark to identify where she was roughly and go from there. The water surface was as unmoving as a millpond, and she relied on the momentum of the occasional burst from some underwater current to tow her along.

Soon enough, however, she rose to steady herself as the raft knocked into the rim of a stone Mesa. She didn’t hesitate, cautiously placing her saddlebags over her back and making landfall. She put the spare sabre through her side strap, careful not to slice her pack off.

Ash looked at the raft. As she stepped onto the makeshift shore, she left one hoof on the logs and thanked whoever might reside above for any help. The rocky ground became sandy and rose onto a small hill. She shuffled to the top, hooves sinking as she did.

The view was quite something. The horizon was still vast and stretched on in whites and heat-shimmering oranges. The flatness had returned and the water seemed to have failed to breach into this area of the sands. Her spirits lifted. The clouds also ended shortly over the Mesa. Once night came she could figure out which way to travel by using the stars. By the turn of the sun in the distance, it was perhaps seven or eight hours until nightfall. So she would wait until then.

She settled in, finding a little crevice of shade behind a thick rocky spire. Ash wouldn’t return to the raft for firewood, the light would give her away if anypony was out here looking. She wanted to maintain a low profile, at least until she reached Mulico City.

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Ash awoke. Her left foreleg numb from resting her head on it. It was pitch black and quite cold. She didn’t ache too much and felt weirdly half asleep. Blearily and with uncooperative limbs she gathered her pack and weapons, looping her two water bladders around her neck and walking a few steps away.

She shook her legs to get the blood flowing. Her wings remained unresponsive. She tried to wiggle them a little and gasped as blood began to flow into them. She kept it up, gently massaging them while vibrating them softly. They smelled okay and the wet wounds had dried which were good signs.

Looking skyward she had a big drink of water and swished it around her mouth before swallowing. The stars were out, occasionally broken by the odd rogue cloud. Back the way she came remained water covered as well as cloudy. The moon was high above the vapours, with ghostly beams of white shining through small holes in the cloud top.

There weren’t many constellations she recognised. But the few she did gave her hope. She scanned for a few minutes, trying to find the northern star. Eventually, she used her hoof to trace a compass shape in the sand. She used a few pebbles and rock chips to denote the few star clusters she could find and glanced back at the cloud covered area behind her. Trying to visualise where the north star might be in relation wasn’t difficult, there were two constellations that resided either side of the north star.

She’d found one, and knowing where she was roughly in Equestria meant she could gauge that it was rising eastward, so she knew where north would be roughly relation. Checking up, she couldn’t see it. But another cluster was low to the other side, visible through a hole in the clouds. This meant north was assuredly between them and now she knew which way north was.

Returning to her pack, Ash secured it across her back and began to trot south. She might have drifted a dozen kilometres from her original bearing, but she would eventually stumble into Mulico. There were dozens of towns along the way. The route down was tricky. Small outcroppings existed at decreasing levels and Ash hopped from one to the next like a mountain goat.

It was chilly, yet not actually as cold as she had felt the last few nights. A sure sign that she was recovering from the attack.
With a deep breath, Ash continued on, keeping the two constellations in her peripheral vision.
She wasn’t dragging her legs anymore either. And although still sore and tired, she felt remarkably better.

She considered her plan once she reached Mulico city. Primarily she needed medical attention, but from there she planned on finding North park station and getting some work with those drug runners. She’d need contacts with the Mule syndicates if she wanted to make some big payoffs, and that required knowing people. On a whim, Ash pulled out the heavily creased map she’d collected off the dead scout.

Now she had some idea of South and North, she could make sense of some of his markings. There were two spots of interest, one far behind her with a little home icon, and the second a short detour to the west. Camp locations possibly. Ash wasn’t certain, maybe these were towns. She decided to drift west for the second mark and hoped to whatever mystical force might exist to keep her lucky.

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Author's Note:

Updated 05/11/20

Comments

[Quiznak]

Eh, the last two chapters felt like filler, not the best kind of filler. Though can't wait to see where you go with this!