Zinnias

by Serinity Southerland

Dreams I

The creek I was following wound its way through the dark woods, taking meandering twists and turns through overgrown roots and broken trees. I had to step around many of the obstacles in my path on several occasions, not because they were particularly challenging but because of my inexperience with my new form and it’s limitations prevented me from scaling or traversing them. Every time something blocked my way I silently swore, knowing that the longer I was out in the wilderness the more time it was going to take to find the safety of either a cave or hollow tree or even a house that I could hold up in. Not only that, but my lack of knowledge of the plant life here made me skittish of trying to eat anything for sustenance. At least the water was clean.

I’d spent several days limping about the woods, feeling rather aimless as I went. The only direction I knew to go was wherever the stream chose to flow, and even it seemed confused at times. Food was an issue that was beginning to weigh heavily on my mind as my energy levels grew more shallow with every day. Every step seemed to leave me feeling more tired and more ravenous than the last. I even thought about attempting to chase whatever poor woodland creature I saw next in an attempt to quell the rumbling in my belly though the idea of eating anything that breathed still left me feeling like a monster.

I had found a few scant fungi and fruit that appeared to be edible, but I had no way to carry them with me and hadn't observed anything else trying to eat them either so I decided against it, but with the sun rising on my 4th day out here I decided that I needed to do something before hunger made my weary legs too weak to carry me any further.

I went through my mind, thinking about all of the different things I’d learned of traps, wild edibles, roots, and detoxifying poisonous flora, but most of those things required hands to make them or a fire to boil water to cook with. And I had neither. My stomach roared and I felt a wave of nausea and empty pain roll through my guts, reminding me that I really didn’t have too much time to be complaining about anything more than food. I dipped my head into the creek to drink the hunger away, if only briefly, and to wash the sweat from my brow before sitting to rest my legs and observe my surroundings.

I had traveled approximately thirty miles in the four days I’d been moving. I was a little ashamed that I haven't traveled more than that, but 4 clumsy legs and no food prevented me from my regular pace. As I looked around me, not too much had changed. The woods were still just as dark and foreboding as they were at my landing site, and the creek had only gotten marginally wider and slightly deeper.

I saw a few small fish no larger than minnows swimming about in the shallowest parts, so fishing wasn’t going to help much here. What I did notice was that some of the trees sported vines. If they were grape vines, I could have chewed into them and enjoyed the sweet water that flowed inside them for some quick energy but I couldn’t tell what they were. I’d really rather not sink my teeth into some variation of poison ivy.

I grumbled about the vines for a lot longer than I should have, lamenting their lack of berries and how most of them were too big to even use as rope. “Wait…rope! I can use them as rope! And with rope, I can make a fire! Yes!" I jumped up in jubilation but the loud clop of hooves hitting the stones at the creek's edge dampened the mood.

"Right. Hands. I can't make a bow drill fire kit without hands that can tie things." I was becoming frustrated with myself. Every thought that came to mind was quickly defeated by another reason as to why I couldn’t act on that thought. I racked my brain, trying to think of another solution, kicking the stones by the creek-side. I watched one of the stones bounce around before breaking in half, then an idea hit me like a sack of rocks.

"Oh. Duh. I don't need a bow drill. I just need the drill and two arms. Friction fires were made by rubbing two sticks together long before someone was smart enough to use a bow to make it easier." My belly growled at me and I winced. "Ok, ok. I got it. Less talking, more finding food."

I grabbed as big a stone as I could manage in my mouth and dashed it against the ground. It took several attempts, but I finally got a shard of rock sharp enough to whittle with and thin enough to hold with my teeth. I found some smaller branches that were roughly the right size and worked to shave them into the right shape. It took nearly an hour to shape the wood into the right shape, and my teeth began to ache, but I'd managed to make a couple of friction sticks and a board with cutouts for the hot coals to form.

I stepped back and looked at my work with pride in myself. I didn't know how well they would work, but I managed to make a passable fire kit with nothing but my freaking teeth. “Bet my old survival instructor couldn't pull that one off. Then again...I'd have probably broken my teeth in my previous form doing so.” My new teeth were much more sturdy, and I was very thankful for that. I grabbed my sticks in my pearly whites and picked back up where I left off; Finding a good campsite to settle into.

Roughly around midday I stumbled upon an uprooted tree, whose roots created a dirt and rock filled roof over the hole they used to reside in, forming a small makeshift cave of sorts that I could use for shelter. I decided that this would be where I made camp. I pulled together a ring of rocks and made some wood shavings with my rock-knife, which I had to break again for a new edge twice because it kept dulling on the wood I was shaving for kindling.

It took another hour of work to get enough friction with my tools, trying to rub my hoof-capped forelegs together fast enough to make a hot coal proved a challenge greater than I wanted to deal with, but I grinned as I fed sticks and dry plant matter into the slowly growing fire I had made before me. I felt like a king…queen now, actually… I guess. Which reminded me, I'd been drinking a lot of water and even queens needed to pee every now and then.

Once I came back to the camp from taking a quick trip to the little pony’s room, I spent the rest of the day trying to make pinch pots, or were they hoof pots? They definitely weren’t pretty pinch pots or the much larger roll and coil ones that my ancient ancestors had once made, but if they survived firing, they’d work to boil water. I made ten ugly little bowls in total using the clay from the creek bank, hoping that at least one of them wouldn’t crack. I set them around my fire to dry for the evening, then I’d build the fire around them to burn overnight.

Sitting there and working on the pots was cathartic in a way. Giving my mind something to work on helped take my empty stomach off my mind and gave me enough time to really look at the woods around me which, thankfully, helped me discover a little woodland creature nibbling on a fruit from a nearby tree. With a couple of said fruits in hand…hoof…”UGH!” I sat by the fire and gave myself a chance to relax and watch the sunlight fade away through the gap in the trees above the creek. The little squirrel had helped assuage my fears of the fruits being toxic and I ate them with impunity. It wasn't enough to fill my belly, but the sweetness was like nothing I’d ever tasted before and I relished my first meal in nearly five days.

Everything was looking better, when all of a sudden the slowly fading sunlight switched off like a light-bulb and a blanket of stars quite literally erupted into view. I sat there, mouth wide open in dumbfounded disbelief at what had just happened. Everything was starting to make sense again up to that point. Well, as much sense as being thrown into a different woodland region and being made into a tiny female horse with wings could make. Something that was supposed to be a universally understood constant like the sun’s timely dance across the sky wasn’t supposed to suddenly take a nosedive past the horizon like it was late for a meeting…That wasn’t possible.

I could feel my mind breaking again as I tried to comprehend what I’d seen, but gave up shortly after my body began shaking from the shock of it all. I resolved to try to ignore it, stuffed my little tree root cave with leaves in an attempt to make it softer, and laid down inside. “This definitely beats sleeping in a bush any day.” I mumbled to myself and let the fire’s crackling conversation with the babbling creek aid my descent into slumber.

---

I was hiking through the mountains of North Carolina now, enjoying the warm embrace of the sun on my skin as I chewed on some of the prepacked pemmican I made for this trip. Birds were chirping, and I spotted a couple of deer as they bounded away from the path I was about to cross. I watched them run a little ways into the thicket, one of them stopping to stare at me for a moment before hopping out of view with their white tail flagging about and I laughed, amused at their display.

A friendly voice spoke from behind me, “The Forest here is beautiful, and so well kept. It is as though the whole land is a park for one to enjoy.”

“It really is. I love it out here. Beats the city any day.” I responded, happy that someone else was taking as much joy in the natural world around us as I was.

“Is this where you are from? I know not of any woods like this in Equestria.” The second voice asked curiously.

“No, I don’t live here. I’ll probably move to a place like it once I’m done with college though. I’ll likely have a cabin built and just work from home.” I mused as I walked with my friend. My footsteps crunched along the well maintained gravel path on this section of trail with their hoof-steps shortly behind- “Wait.”

I turned around with a gasp, but no one was there with me. My eyes searched the fairly open woods around me, looking for where my fri- the voice went. “I don’t remember taking a friend out here, we usually hiked the trails in the more northern states. I also don’t think I had a friend that speaks or sounds like that either.”

“You are aware that you are no longer where you would consider home, and that you are no longer in your original form, but do you know you came to arrive here?” The regal, but soft voice asked as it now echoed through the trees in all directions.

Confusion plagued my mind briefly before I heard the sounds of that chimeric monster rampaging through the woods and the invisible horses in tow. Night had abruptly fallen and a pale moon lit up the ground I ran upon, but I was too busy running from whatever it was that was chasing me again to look where I was going and ran straight off the cliff in front of me. I screamed as I fell, expecting pain and numbness again but found myself standing back in the gnarled woods I’d been stuck in.

I looked back down at my hands and watched them mutate in front of my eyes into the hooves I’ve come to begrudgingly accept as my own, my boots and clothes fell away and I toppled from the weight of the rucksack as it shifted over a form not meant to carry it. I was left alone again, and all my clothes and gear melted into the ground below, disappearing from sight. I scrambled to my hooves and flicked my head to remove the matting orange tangle of mane from my face.

“I-where am I? Who are you?!” I shouted into the trees around me, but they only echoed back a mocking imitation of my new voice. I shivered as fear began rushing back into my mind. I could see red eyes staring at me through the shadows and growls emanated through the boughs and bushes nearby. The eyes erupted from their placements and dozens of squirrels pointed and laughed at my abject fear.

I instinctively retreated back towards the fire that had somehow appeared behind me, and leaped headfirst into the hole I’d made my home for the night like I was a soldier diving into a trench to evade gunfire. I curled into a ball and tried to resist the urge to cry but the tears welled up in my eyes anyway and threatened to burst forth when I felt a feather-soft blanket drape over my back. It was comforting, but I dared not open my eyes as I was still afraid of the animals that would surely eat me while the squirrels reveled in the slaughter, but I realized I could no longer hear them.

“It is alright, little one. They cannot hurt you where we are now, but you must make haste to follow the water’s flow. When you meet the stream’s end, you will be safe. Beware, the Everfree is not as pleasant as the forests of your world. Your fire will help keep them at bay, but only till morning.” The voice warned as the blanket lifted away. I shuddered, not wanting the warmth to leave me and I stole my courage to glance out of my hole, but again the voice’s owner escaped my view. “Rest easy, little one. You’ve not much further left to go.”

My eyes grew exceedingly heavy as the voice receded into the sky. I watched what appeared to be a horned pony shaped shadow fade into the full moon overhead before my eyelids no longer retained the strength to hold themselves open. The fire crackled as it had once before, and the stream bubbled gleefully as I drifted away.

Author's Note:

Seth (Not Seth)'s time in the wild soon draws to a close. I hope everyone's enjoying themselves so far! And to those reading this story at the time of release, I wish you all a happy Hearts and Hooves day!

Comments

[Chrome Masquerade]

I’d spent several days limping about the woods, feeling rather aimless as I went. The only direction I knew to go was wherever the stream chose to flow, and even it seemed confused at times. Food was an issue that was beginning to weigh heavily on my mind as my energy levels grew more shallow with every day. Every step seemed to leave me feeling more tired and more ravenous than the last. I even thought about attempting to chase whatever poor woodland creature I saw next in an attempt to quell the rumbling in my belly though the idea of eating anything that breathed still left me feeling like a monster.

I would suggest (being a Pegasus) trying fish, but I imagine that would prove rather difficult to pull off. Having little to no dexterity, at the moment, and all.

[Serinity Southerland]

11200543
I'll definitely keep that in mind as an option in the future, thank you!

[Luckyfanisaac]

I wish you all a happy Hearts and Hooves day!