Time to Shine

by Easysnuggler

49. Key Point

“Negotiate? Maybe we could have negotiated.”
“But that was 40 billion creatures ago.”
“Goodbye Abraxas.”

—T. Sparkle, last words to the Nightmare King as reported by S. Armor

49. Key Point

It was late on the third day that the envoys caught up. Prince Harabi of Saddle Arabia, the kirin mare Green Leaves of Remore and the learned zebra mare Penda of Zebrenica although authorized by King Iron Hoof had not been brought into the expedition planning, nor had Chop-Chop made provisions for their inclusion, so they had had to make their own arrangements for transportation. An honor guard of nine Saddle Arabians had accompanied the prince, and they carried rucksacks, scimitars and had hauled two small carts up the new length-wide path. The zebra had come alone as had the kirin. It had been a laughably uncomfortable trip as neither spoke much Farsai and neither did Harabi or his countrymen speak Poni.

Their arrival had been ignored by Chop-Chop who merely grunted when told they had arrived. A handful of minotaurs knew enough Farsai to be more confusing than useful, and it was not till the evening of the fourth day when the problem was casually mentioned by Risky to Anatsa and Danai, his sturdy Zebra haulers that a solution was found.

Anatsa explained that the Arabian Sign Language of ears and hooves that Danai had learned had been taught to their family by a Saddle Arabian merchant. As a young filly Anatsa had accompanied many of her family from High Lake to Istanbull and on to Aashtethos every year with this merchant on various occasions. She had consequently learned Farsai. Danai had unfortunately not learned much Farsai but could translate from ASL to Poni.

Prince Harabi was overjoyed to learn of some creature who could better understand himself and his fellow saddle arabians, and had his team assist the zebra scrapers with their work and showered them with kindness. As for the other observers, Penda and Green Leaves were swept up in Harabi’s wake and became de-facto messengers and envoys smoothing ruffled feathers and giving the entire expedition a more international feel than was really the case. But the presence of the 10 Saddle Arabians, the kirin and the zebra leader in the front of the expedition made it feel like it had a stamp of international cooperation.

The dates, figs, and dried fruit the carts contained gave the Saddle Arabians some delicious leverage that made them quite popular despite the language barriers.

As Lieutenant Marshal set out on the fourth day the locusts began to catch back up. Once more the expedition left them behind. The pests were not seen for two more nights.

As the sixth day wound down, the expedition looked for a place to make camp as the evening of the sixth night approached, indeed they had already begun to spread out to do so when Risk Taker caught up to Lieutenant Marshal. The scrapers and lead had stopped in the foothills of the mountains, one of which reached down nearly across their path. Leading up to a cliff face were strange ruins. Encountered at the end of the day and seeing no reason to continue farther Lt. Marshal had called a halt.

Smashed blocks of stone and twisted rusting meal jutted here and there from the landscape, overgrown and half buried in the sand and dirt. No large plants grew in this stretch of dirt. The lumps of rust and what seemed to be ancient machinery led in a straight line between two long embankments across their path. Rows of rusty lumps were spaced a few dozen feet apart for as far as the eye could see, leading to a hill and a cliffside where what might have once been a gigantic cave was covered in rubble and debris. What the structures or debris had been was unknowable. They considered making camp here after they found an easy place to cross the jumbled wreckage in the morning.

It was then, when walking around a particularly large rusting hulk that Risk Taker first noticed his pendant glowing.

It illuminated the shirt he wore with a bright green. Risk Taker ordered the van to proceed further into the growing darkness. Rather than take any chances Lieutenant Marshal who was in charge that night, showed just what a good sort he was and worked with Risk Taker to move the camp a half canter further on. Fortunately, this area was completely flat and bare, so shifting proved no difficulty.

Grumbling they did so, a few hundred feet farther on, the pendant finally stopped glowing, and so they made camp. Walking back along the trail with the pendant Risk Taker noted that it again began glowing a bright green, but just a little farther on it stopped. He sent word back to the column to hurry through the strange debris, and though the minotaurs laughed at him and his tale of unquiet spirits and star touched zebras, the striped haulers and their kirin fellows hurried through the area.

Returning to camp that evening, Risk Taker began to feel itchy, and his skin was somewhat irritated. He bathed vigorously in a nearby stream, but the next day his skin had turned red, and he began to shed some of his back and chest hair, and even his trim beard.

Risky reported his strange skin irritation to Captain Syrup, who ordered him to avoid contact with the others, and to keep a good distance, which he did, but in a few days the symptoms vanished as mysteriously as they had appeared, and besides a small blistering on the back of his right hand that took longer to resolve, he had no other ill effects.

A few days later and the incident was all but forgotten.

—-

The farther they were from the river the faster they seemed to go. The grasslands were dry, but not too dry, and the small streams they encountered often were easily crossed with minimal work. In a week they traveled 340 canters.

Now, as they went through that empty country Danai and Anatsa chatted with Risk Taker about his homeland and their own journeys. They had never spoken to a minotaur before, and each had many questions, as did Risky. The elder of the two Dani was escaping a marriage she did not want. Her betrothed did not speak ASL and she was reluctant to marry some she could not speak to. As for her sister, Anatsa wanted a dowry and to get married but was the youngest of five. For himself, Risk Taker said he wanted adventure. He neglected to mention the gambling hall debts accumulated at the card tables of Istanbull that had made the journey seem appealing.

As the days went by and their bodies became used to the exercise, they began to fall into an exhausting routine that left them tired and hungry at the end of each day.

A rucksack can only hold so much food, foraging takes time and there was going to be no resupply. So, the keys to success were the remaining 52 zebras and two dozen kirin. They could carry enough food to feed themselves and two others all the way to Canterlot but only could move thirty canters a day hauling a rickshaw laden with one and a half times their weight. The bulls could barely manage half of that. But by switching off frequently and switching up walking and trotting they all maintained a pace of nearly 60 canters a day. Fortunately, the land was a bountiful prairie and there was grassland everywhere along the route.

They had calculated enough grain for the quadrupeds and figured on gathering twice that amount of forage. Danai and Anatsa were stuffed with calories from grain and hay. They ate from sunup to sundown, and both began to pack on muscle. As he recovered from his strange zebra star illness the already fit Risk Taker grew even fitter. Danai and Anatsa learned he was a passable cook, and he would make meals using herbs he found along the way, of which there were many wild mustards, spicy sedges and even a cinnamon tree. It made the thick grain they were forced to eat by necessity easier to chew. His friend Lieutenant Marshal also proved good company and the two taught the zebras a variety of card games.

It was at this point that the high value of the kirin became known. The draconic ponies made the camp virtually hum with order and purpose. Creatures of harmony, each kirin sought to do some of the many things needed to keep the march in good order. Things were accomplished each night that otherwise would have necessitated delays, and indeed the kirin marched ahead and scouted better routes for the morning, their excellent night sight found the starlit dark no problem for quiet talks and nighttime exploration. A certain amount of romance may have been involved.

Like minotaurs, the kirin were omnivorous, though they favored fruit. They were good at fishing with their natural equipment. The small streams they found yielded some small fish, crawfish, frogs, and salamanders but little else. The deficiencies of the expeditions diet had to be made up with forage.

Each of the minotaurs had only a single personal tool. A curved scythe, a sword, shovel, or spear. For gathering hay, they used the scythes. The grass was high, but green and dry. Foraging was swift. Minotaurs could not eat forage as efficiently as the equines, their stomachs were just not large enough, but they ate what hay they could. Many of the zebras were farmers and put the bulls to shame, mowing down fields far faster than most of them could swing the implements, each morning the company decimated the land mowing sufficient forage in less than an hour before moving on for the day.

The camps of the scrapers and the main camp were rude affairs. Tents in the middle of nothing, with the rickshaws drawn up, and stakes or spears in a ditch in front of hills made by excavating the ditch. Chop-Chop was an old campaigner and he refused to let the apparent emptiness of the land cause laxity.

Chop Chop’s foresight and insistence on discipline and preparation were exhausting, but none of the troops complained. They saw the famous general doing the same work the troopers were doing, eating the same food, and even digging and laying stakes. It was a habit of a long lifetime of vigorous campaigning.