The Sparrow in the Storm

by The 24th Pegasus

1-20

Hardly ten seconds passed before Deep Blue arrived with the distinctive pop of his sudden appearance, eliciting a startled yelp from the still-bewildered Sparrow and even causing Typhoon to flinch a little as her adrenaline rush tapered off. The wizard spun about in a quick, almost frantic circle to gain his bearings, and when his eyes fell on the kelpie in the spring frozen mid-lunge, he practically threw himself forward to the water’s (icy) edge. “There you are…” he breathed, eyes wide and a shaky hoof reaching out almost to touch the kelpie’s frozen snout.

Typhoon roughly clearing her throat made him draw back, and when his eyes met hers, he seemed to remember some of his dismissive dignity and collected himself. “You’re alive,” he observed, though his gaze lingered for a second on the bite mark in her shoulder. “Cutting it close?”

“You never told me she might already be at the spring waiting for me,” Typhoon said, and with a grunt, she forced herself to stand, though putting weight on her foreleg made her wince. In one motion, she removed the pendant Deep Blue had given her and tossed it back to him with a wing, which the wizard tucked back inside his robes with a bit of magic. “That little omission nearly got me killed.”

Deep Blue raised an eyebrow and cast a look back at the kelpie. “She was waiting for you? Maybe she was more proactive in setting traps for her prey than my hypothesis anticipated. Though given what we discussed earlier, I’m surprised she drew you in when you were supposed to be looking for someplace private and unoccupied to seem like enticing bait.”

“I landed here first because it looked like the perfect place from above. Then I heard singing, and was curious.” Then the old soldier’s eyes fell on Sparrow, who had slowly walked around the spring and gravitated toward Typhoon’s side, though the young mare kept her distance and her worried attention on the frozen fey between them all. “She was wearing Sparrow’s skin when I found her. I was worried Sparrow would be the kelpie’s next meal if I left her alone. She almost got me, but then the real Sparrow arrived.” She shifted her focus toward Sparrow and cocked her head ever so slightly. “What were you doing here? Were you following me?”

It took Sparrow a second to realize Typhoon was addressing her, but when she did, she gulped and nodded. “I… I-I was going to ask you to reconsider the… y-you know… training thing,” Sparrow said, her voice turning into an embarrassed mumble, and she looked away in shame, only for her gaze to cross over the frozen monster in the spring. “That was… a kelpie? Why did she look like me?”

“She might have seen you before and decided you made appealing bait,” Deep Blue supposed with a shrug. “Your appearance is distinct and would be alluring to her prey. One has to wonder how many lecherous stallions she drowned and murdered by taking on the guise of an attractive young mare alone in a secluded spring.”

Sparrow shivered despite the warm but lessening rain still falling from the clouds above. “That’s… creepy,” she finally said, and she gave her tail a little flick as if to push away some of the bad thoughts swirling around her. “I can’t believe something like that could have been watching me and pretended to be me to kill ponies…”

“It sounds like Boiling Springs didn’t exactly lose much of value, if those were the kind of ponies she targeted. I can even sympathize a little bit; I’ve had to kill most of the ponies who’ve tried to see under my tail,” Typhoon said with a shrug, and her left wing fidgeted as if to reach out towards the young mare, though her wingtip never left her flank. “But I think that’s too much of a coincidence, isn’t it? That her disguise was the one pony I wouldn’t expect in this town to be a kelpie, and to be quite frank, even passersby would remember if they saw her face.”

Though Typhoon’s blunt comment and surprising solution seemed to hint at a past that Sparrow’s mind struggled to reconcile, the young mare eventually seemed to set the many questions it invoked aside… at least for the present. “You mean… she pretended to be me because she knew you were coming?” Sparrow asked, cocking her head. “But why? How?”

“I don’t know,” Typhoon said, and her eyes slid over to Deep Blue. “Care to explain?”

“Some kelpies that are old and experienced enough learn how to read a pony’s soul,” Deep Blue said with a shrug. “I suppose after drowning enough victims, a fey becomes intimately familiar with the moment the soul leaves the body and can study them through familiarity. She may have done the same to you as you approached and took on a guise that would get you to lower your guard.”

“And you didn’t think to warn me about that?” Typhoon asked, an irritated edge of a growl creeping into her voice.

Deep Blue’s response was to shift his stance and raise an eyebrow at the old soldier. “I would have, had I any reason to suspect that there was anypony in Boiling Springs important enough to give you pause should you see their face. You’re a smart mare, Typhoon, and you would have immediately suspected something is wrong had she pulled the guise of somepony from your past instead. What I was not expecting was that a petty thief young enough to be your granddaughter that you had only met less than a week ago would cause you such emotional turmoil that the kelpie sensed it and used it against you.” He cocked his head. “Now I’m curious, Commander. Why is that?”

Typhoon fidgeted as Sparrow turned to her, confused and somewhat shocked, while Deep Blue merely watched her with rote curiosity in his gaze. “She… reminds me of somepony I know… used to know,” Typhoon finally admitted, struggling to force even those few words through her teeth. Her cheeks began to feel warm as she remembered nearly spilling all those foolish worries to a murderous monster wearing Sparrow’s face, and she pointedly looked down at her hooves.

Then, taking a deep breath, she narrowed her eyes at the kelpie. “My magic likely won’t keep her forever. Not with the spring refilling with hot water.”

At that, Deep Blue reached into his robes and withdrew a simple clay jar, though upon seeing the faint silver runes on it, Typhoon knew it was anything but. “Best to do it now and savor victory later,” the wizard agreed, and he removed the lid form the jar with his magic and approached the kelpie. Drawing what looked like a simple iron chisel from another hidden pocket, Deep Blue leveled the tip at the root of one of the kelpie’s prominently exposed fangs and gave it a solid blow from a rock lying nearby. Both Typhoon and Sparrow winced hard at the loud snap that followed, and when it was finished, the mage placed the tooth in the jar, sealed it once more, and touched the tip of his horn to a little notch in the lid. Magical energy flowed from the grooves of his horn and seemed to crawl down the sides of the jar, filling the etched runes, and one by one they flickered to life with a brilliant silver-blue glow.

When it was finished, Deep Blue held it in his hoof for a moment and simply admired it. “So close…” the wizard whispered to himself, and then with one more flare of his horn, the jar disappeared with a flash of light.

“That was far more than a lock of hair,” Typhoon idly noted, remembering her earlier conversation with Deep Blue that morning.

“Simpler than trying to justify to you what I really needed when you were hesitant to help me in the first place,” Deep Blue said with a shrug. “If I have her fang in my possession, she can never turn her maw against me. As I said earlier, controlling a part of her lets me control the whole, and the best place to start would be the weapon she would use to kill me with. I think you would agree those teeth are sharp, if that bite on your shoulder is anything to go by.”

“Don’t remind me,” Typhoon muttered, and she subconsciously rolled her shoulder. But then she shook her head. “I suppose I don’t really care what you do with her, so long as it’s not another mistake I have to fix before I die. But I held my end of the bargain. Now you hold yours.”

Deep Blue nodded, and his magic pulled Typhoon’s dreamcatcher out of his pocket and floated it over to the soldier, along with a small silk bag. “Here. You’ve more than earned it. And in case you break it again, here are a few strands of silk to make repairs. The further west you go, the less likely you are to come across somepony who has some. Be careful.”

“I will,” Typhoon said, taking both and tucking them under her wing. Then she eyed the kelpie one last time. “Though I should count myself lucky that my prize won’t be plotting how to kill me.”

“I’ve been preparing years for this moment,” Deep Blue assured her. Then he reached out and rested his hoof on the kelpie’s frozen nose. “Thank you for your help, Commander,” he said to Typhoon, giving the old soldier a respectful nod. “You’re meddling with magic that even I would hesitate to involve myself in. But you’re tenacious, if nothing else. I have confidence you can pull through.” Then, to Typhoon’s immense surprise, the corners of Deep Blue’s lips reversed themselves, rising into a slight smile. “If you make it back from the lands of the elk, I would appreciate hearing about them. There are very few ponies alive who know what they’re like.”

“I’ll keep that in mind if I’m in the area,” Typhoon said with a slow nod.

“I look forward to it, Commander. Best of luck on your journey.” And with a flash of his horn, the wizard and the kelpie disappeared from the spring, gone to the hidden cave that Deep Blue had made his home.

Typhoon stood in place for a few moments, looking off into the empty space where they used to be, before giving her head a small shake and letting out a small breath. “You’re going to regret this one day, Deep Blue. I have a feeling,” she muttered. Then, turning around, she started to walk north, back to Boiling Springs.

Sparrow blinked behind her, still trying to process what all had happened and what trade she had just witnessed, when she realized she was about to be left behind. “H-Hey, wait!” Sparrow shouted. “Where are you going?”

“Back to town,” Typhoon said, without even looking over her shoulder. “I need to get my things together. It’s time to go.”

“B-But I… my training?” Sparrow hesitated, raising an unsure hoof. “Typhoon?”

The old soldier continued on, not waiting for the young mare. And finally, biting her lip, Sparrow trotted off after her… even if she trailed several paces behind the entire way back.

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[Reclusive]

Her cheeks began to feel warm as she remembered nearly spilling all those foolish worries to a murderous monster wearing Sparrow’s face, and she pointedly looked down at her hooves.

Absolute qt