Louder Than Words

by Niaeruzu

Chapter 5

The following day, Cirrus joined Slatescale a bit earlier than planned. She had ran out of clouds to sculpt with in the morning, and couldn’t get any more of them until the skies were scheduled to be cleared, which wasn’t for a few more days. It was frustrating, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it.

The two of them weren’t at their usual meeting place. Today, Slatescale had decided to go out for a snack, and had invited Cirrus to join him. As of now, they were casually strolling on one of the barren patches of land just outside Ponyville. Well, Slatescale was strolling, Cirrus had to put in quite some effort to match the speed of the enormous dragon.

Every now and then, Slatescale paused to sniff around, sometimes pulling a heap of dirt out of the ground to sift through. Almost every clawful yielded a sizeable amount of gems, ready for the dragon to eat.

All the while, Cirrus had been babbling at him. “Yesterday was just... It was just so much fun!” she gushed. “I know I said that a few times already, but I met Spike, and I got to spend time and do fun things together with you, and then it was kind of scary and bad when I realized I didn’t do what I told Pinkie I would do, but then she told me it was okay, and then it was really fun again!”

Slatescale nodded and gave a quick smile, then bent forward to sniff the ground. Once more, he dug a hole, then carefully pulled all of the gems from the clod he was holding, then dumped the dirt back on the ground. He immediately threw the numerous gems into his mouth, swallowing them without even chewing.

“Uh, I’m not boring you or anything, am I?” Cirrus asked. She never rambled on like this, except when she was nervous. Or she did, and she just couldn’t remember the last time. She looked around awkwardly. She could stop talking, but aside from walking with Slatescale, there wasn’t anything to do on this barren waste.

Slatescale shook his head and wrote something on the ground. ‘STILL HUNGRY, VERY FOCUSED’. Even though they had started on sign language, there wasn’t anything he could say except for short, one-word messages like greetings or farewells.

“Oh, good,” Cirrus said. Even though this was simply a walk, she was really enjoying herself. Probably because she would normally sit at home and be bored. No, this was much better.

The two of them continued walking, with Slatescale digging up some gems every now and then, and Cirrus talking to him about this and that, receiving short gestures in reply all the while.

However, a voice called out to them after a little while. “Hello-oo~!” It came from somewhere behind them, so Cirrus turned around, while Slatescale merely turned his head.

A little bit off in the distance, they could see a pony walking in their direction. It was a little difficult to tell, but it was a unicorn mare with a white coat and her mane and tail were purple, and very intricately curled. As she came closer, Cirrus was able to see that the mare’s eyes were blue, and she was wearing a set of saddlebags with gem-themed clasps. “Good afternoon!” the mare said, coming to a halt in front of the two. “Goodness, I’ve never seen an adult dragon here!” She stared at Slatescale for a while before turning to Cirrus. “What brings you here today?”

“Hello,” Cirrus said. “Me and Slatescale were just walking here, looking for gems. Uh, my name is Cirrus Cloud.” She gave an awkward smile, as she hadn’t expected to meet another pony here, so she hadn’t prepared herself.

“My name is Rarity. It’s a pleasure to meet you! Say, I wanted to ask you something.” She gestured towards her saddlebags. “I’ve been out here, looking for gems for a while, but I’m having trouble finding some. Is it okay if I join you two?”

Cirrus looked at Slatescale, who gave a short shrug in return. “Sure,” she said, turning back to Rarity. “I don’t see why not. It’ll be fun, right?”

Slatescale briefly held his nose to the ground again to smell for gems, then continued on his way, this time followed by both Cirrus and Rarity.

“I hope I can find enough gems today,” Rarity said. “I’ve been using my gem-finding spell all morning, but there aren’t any on my usual route!”

“Sorry,” Cirrus said, blushing slightly. “I think Slatescale dug them all up. He was really hungry, so we’re looking for some for him to eat.”

Slatescale grabbed another patch of ground, sifting all the gems out once again. This time, he carefully handed a few over to Rarity, before eating the rest himself.

“Thank you!” Rarity levitated the gems into her saddlebags. “Ah, but I can hardly complain. Dragons need to eat, after all!” She briefly turned to Cirrus, keeping her voice low. “Your friend doesn’t talk very much, though.”

“Um, that’s because he’s mute,” Cirrus mumbled awkwardly.

“Mute?” Rarity repeated. “Oh! I’m sorry!” she said, eyes widening in surprise. “How rude of me.”

“Oh, I don’t think Slatescale minds,” Cirrus said, looking at the large dragon, who craned his head backward and shook it. “See? He might be big, and all scaley and spiky, but he’s a lot nicer than he looks.”

Rarity accepted another hoofful of gems from Slatescale, tucking them away in her saddlebags once again. “Yes, you’re right. I haven’t met a lot of dragons who would part with their precious gems so easily. In fact, I think I’ve only ever seen one! A young purple dragon who lives in town. Maybe you’ve seen him?”

Cirrus nodded eagerly. “You mean Spike, right? Yes, yes, I know him!” A grin slowly crept onto her face. “I met him yesterday, when I went to the library, and he was really nice to me, and he’s helping me teach Slatescale sign language! Oh, and did you know he lives together with a princess?!”

Rarity raised an eyebrow. “Yes, that is correct. Twilight has been living here for quite a while, though. You didn’t know?”

Cirrus gave an embarrassed blush. “Um, no. I don’t get out much unless it’s related to work.”

“Really now? What kind of work do you do?” Rarity asked. “I haven’t seen you around much, so I’m afraid I can’t tell.”

“I sculpt clouds,” Cirrus said. “You get short-lived, yet cheap little sculptures out of it, but they’re only popular among pegasi, since they’re the only ones who can touch them.”

“My, an artist!” Rarity’s eyes lit up as she spoke. “I think we’ll be able to get along just fine, darling. I’d love to see some of your work!”

Cirrus sighed. “I’m sorry, but my shop is empty right now, and I can’t make any more. I’m all out of clouds.”

Rarity looked up and pointed at the clouds above. “Can’t you use some of those?”

Cirrus shook her head. “No, those are part of the scheduled weather. I can’t grab any until the sky is supposed to be cleared, which isn’t for... another week, I think.”

“Oh. What a shame,” Rarity said. She tapped a hoof on her chin for a few seconds. “Is it okay if I come by some other time, then?”

Cirrus nodded. “Sure, that’s fine. I—” Suddenly, Rarity used her magic to yank Cirrus to the side. “Whoa! Hey!” she said, as she heard a soft thud behind her. Turning around to see what it was, she saw a rock embedded in the ground where she stood not a second before.

Rarity breathed a sigh of relief. “That was a bit too close. Are you alright?”

“I-I, yes, I think,” Cirrus said, turning back to Rarity. “What happened?” She briefly glanced at the rock behind her. “Did Slatescale drop that?”

Slatescale, who was currently sifting through a huge pile of dirt, looked down at the two ponies. His eyes widened and he dropped the gems he was holding, quickly bending down and keeping his head as low to the ground as possible, looking at Cirrus intently. His claw hovered in the air near her, twitching slightly, as he seemed to be at a loss for a few seconds. Very carefully, he used a finger to remove some dirt from Cirrus’ mane. He gave her a pleading look, biting his lower lip and having trouble keeping his claw still, repeatedly putting it down and lifting it up.

“I-I’m okay, Slatescale,” Cirrus said. “It was an accident. Thank goodness Miss Rarity was keeping an eye out.”

Slatescale turned back to his little pile of gems and picked it up, this time depositing it in front of Rarity and shoving it towards her. For the dragon, it was a small clawful of gems, but to the much smaller pony, the pile could fill both of her saddlebags twice.

“You’re giving all this to me?” Rarity asked. “Weren’t you going to eat those?”

Slatescale shook his head and nudged the pile of gems again.

“Well, if you insist,” Rarity said, though there was a subtle, excited glint in her eyes. She levitated the better part of the pile of gems and put it in her saddlebags, filling them to the brim. “Thank you very much for your generosity. Though I do suggest you try to be a little more careful in the future.”

Slatescale nodded quickly, then nudged the remainder of the gems towards Cirrus.

Cirrus stared at the pile for a while, then gasped. “Oh! I-I can’t take that many gems! That’s a fortune!”

Slatescale looked at the small pile again, then carefully grabbed a single gem and dropped it in front of Cirrus. It was a small and rough, but rather beautiful sapphire.

Cirrus hesitantly picked it up. “Um, I’ll just take this one then. B-But you really didn’t have to. Accidents happen.”

“Then see it as a gift!” Rarity said. “He’s obviously very fond of you.” Slatescale nodded in agreement.

Cirrus stared at the sapphire for a few seconds, then looked at Slatescale. “N-Nopony’s ever given me something like this before,” she said, a blush starting to creep onto her cheeks. “Thank you.”

With a very large smile, Slatescale picked up the remainder of the gems and put them down right where he found them, covering up the hole in the ground with some dirt.

“Don’t you want to hang on to that, for later?” Cirrus asked. “You know, for your hoard?”

Slatescale turned back to her, his smile gone, and shook his head. He even grimaced slightly, and it looked like his eyes were becoming watery. He quickly stepped over Cirrus and Rarity, heading back the way they came.

Cirrus looked at Rarity and raised an eyebrow. “Did I say something wrong?”

Rarity shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. Maybe you could ask him. No sense in wondering!” With that, she followed after Slatescale.

Cirrus stayed behind for a while, staring at her gem. Slatescale was obviously upset about something, and became upset right when she mentioned his hoard. Speaking of which, weren’t dragons supposed to be extremely protective of theirs? A big dragon like Slatescale was bound to have a gigantic hoard, but he didn’t have a single bit. If he did, he wouldn’t need to go out and scavenge for gems like he did today.

She hopped up and flew after Rarity and Slatescale, catching up after a little while. She talked with Rarity all the way home, but she couldn’t focus on their conversation all the time. She needed to find a way to cheer Slatescale up, to help him. He had brightened up Cirrus’ life immensely in the past few days, while she hadn’t been able to do anything for him in return.

But now, she could help him out. She just had to figure out what the problem was, and how she could be of use.

Comments

[Nightheart]

damn i love this story. every time i see it has updated i stop working and read. fortunately painting a school means nobody's all that near me to bitch.
keep up the awsome work.

[Dragon Blaze-X]

DAAAAAAAAA

[Wolfe The Destroyer]

MOARif you could please

[Gordon_Freemane]

Poor Slatescale! I wonder what's troubling him

[Dracus]

why can i thumb up only one time !!!

PS: threadbombing.com/data/media/52/cagemoar.jpg
PSS: i wonder if he never been in a hoard, that or be exiled after an.. accident ?

[Gylden Glor]

Bitch, gimme more or I will fuck you up.
Please?

[granitecrab]

its such a good story. i love it still!
keep up your work!

[CrystalWaters]

Hmm. Their hoard's an uncomfortable subject?
Might be they lost their hoard and their voice in around the same time?