Banished

by Sixpence

Chapter 1: Fall from grace

The grey jagged landscape stretches out in every direction from where I stand. It has been so long, I vaguely remember vast stretches of green, forests that stretched from horizon to horizon.

But that was long ago. Now I call this land my home. I’m not sure why I decided to settle in this desolate place, but it called to me.

The land has nothing to offer, nothing but grey twigs and staunch growths cling to the mountainous landscape. Almost nothing grows here but what I’ve been able to plant and cultivate.

I don’t surely know why I was brought to this world. In my travels I have seen no signs of civilisation, no current ones at least. I’ve waded through the ashes of cities so vast that it took me days to traverse them.

The skeletons of the creatures that inhabited them have long since been turned to dust. Yet partially preserved murals and paintings on walls have told me but one thing. I am not on earth anymore.

The creatures that inhabited the plains and cities I have walked among were not human. I have seen murals of creatures that could only have been wyverns. To think that a civilisation of wyverns once thrived here is beyond comprehension.

Yet I am not alone. I have seen creatures in the skies, nothing but glimpses of what could be anything. I think I saw a pegasus once, but the motion in itself was ridiculous. It was too small to fit the myth, and I was not close enough to discern anything but a silhouette before it flew off.

There were paintings depicting horses living almost as humans did on earth before I... left. Horses, majestic creatures in themselves, forming civilisations and living in cities. It made me wonder what would have happened if humanity had not ‘interrupted’ the flow of evolution.

Maybe this is earth. Just millennia after humanity? Some things I have seen might show that this is so. Certain items, like cracked pottery with handles and such tell me that at least something with hands once inhabited this world. Yet I cannot be sure.

Then again, I have not explored all this world has to give yet. And I have the time. Somehow I have not aged since I so elegantly dug myself out of what could only be a shallow grave.

I have glimpses of memory from my life on Earth. General things, like cities and some history. I cannot remember my name, and I have had no reason to name myself. My only conversations are with myself in reflective pools of water. I might be slightly insane. Perhaps, it is only natural.

A rock crunched beneath my bare foot, and I winced as I felt its jagged edge pierce my flesh. Pain flared for a bare moment before I feel the skin stretch and close, leaving nothing but another pale scar among more of its kin that have faded over time.

The air was moist, and I could smell rain in the air. I put a bit more weight on my staff, or walking stick as some might have called it, and started making my way home.

Over the last few years I have built myself a home, a shelter against the harsh weather of the wastes. It was nothing more than a crude wall in the mouth of a cave, but it provided respite from the wind and rain.

As I walked down the rocky slope, I heard the roar of some predator stalking the hills for what ever unfortunate prey it might fall upon. They avoided me, after a while they learned that some creatures are not to be preyed upon. My staff has served me well.

The staff is a relic I suppose. I found it in a chamber beneath what could only have been a temple devoted to the sun. One end was a matte gold, the color of the sun, the other is dark as the night. What it was made of eluded me, but it didn’t dent or bend under strain. Without it I would still be trapped beneath a rock slide. Each side is engraved with a yin-yang symbol of the sun and moon.

It glows in the dark if I wish it, and shadow in the light. How that works is beyond me, magic perhaps. Which is ridiculous, but I cannot explain it any other way. Humanity has always labeled things they do not understand as the work of Gods, or witchcraft. So close enough.

As I neared my home, I heard a curious whistling sound in the air. Then the shockwave hit me, nearly blowing me over with its force. It carried with it dust and detrious, and my eyes stung as I tried to cover my face with an arm. It vanished as fast as it had come. With a shiver I brushed the dust from my arm and looked towards the horizon for a clue of its source.

It must have been vast to travel such a distance, for I could not for the life of me see the epicentre.

When it passed, the wastes were silent but for the whistling sound that only grew in volume. I glanced up, only to see a black speck in the air grow closer and closer. I yelped in fright and sought cover behind a boulder as the object only grew, its trajectory carrying it towards my location.

I cowered behind the rock for perhaps a scant minute before I heard the object impact the ground not far from me. It landed with a terrible crunching sound, and I heard it slide against the ground before coming to a halt with a wet squelch.

Fearing what I might find I slowly crept out from my hiding place, staff in hand, ready to pounce on whatever might have landed. I feared a bomb at first, but nothing I had seen had indicated that kind of technology, and the sound it made on impact lessened my fear of such a device.

When I reached the edge of my hiding spot, I gathered my courage and jumped out. What I saw nearly made me empty my bowels. On the ground before me lay a creature. It looked to be quadrupedal, but one of its legs lay a good five meters from its body.

I gagged when I saw it. Around it a pool of an almost luminescent green fluid was growing. Blood. It was bleeding heavily. I slowly made my way closer, and noticed that the creature was slightly insectoid. Its carapace was heavily cracked, and the remains of thin membranous wings stood out at a horrible angle from its back.

As I made my way around it, I noted its slightly equine figure. But the creature had a horn poking from its forehead, and a thin reedy mane framed a gaunt equine face. Its eyes were closed, and I could see broken fangs protruding from its muzzle.

I could see that it had once been a proud creature, its features spoke of a majesty marred by the damage it had been dealt by the impact. Blood was slowly leaking from its nose, eyes and muzzle. The horn itself was jagged and cracked, and the blood leaking from it seemed more luminous than what came out of the rest of its body.

My face scrunched up in sympathy. The creature might have looked monstrous to some, but to me it looked pitiful.

I reached out a hand to brush a lock of the matted greenish mane from its face. Upon my touch its eyes sprang open, causing me to yelp and retreat.

The eyes were green and slitted, like that of a cat, or demon. It pulled in a ragged breath and focused on me. Its muzzle moved as it tried to drag in another wheezy breath. I could see its chest slowly rising and falling.

Then it spoke.

“H-help m-me....” Then it closed its eyes, and fell limp once again.

---

I was stunned. The creature before me had spoken. I had not heard words in what felt like an eternity. I had not talked to anything in decades, and it made a surge of intense longing surge through me, as well as an intense need to see this creature well.

I carefully ran my hands over its body, feeling the cracks and lacerations on its body. It was badly damaged. And several plates of its carapace were soft where I could only imagine that they were once hard. The jagged stump where its leg had once been flowed with blood, and I did the only thing I could and ripped the sleeve of my ragged shirt off and tied it around the stump.

With a stick I managed to make a crude tourniquet, and stop the flow of blood.

The creature was large, not larger than me, and its body looked rather light. With the cloak I had fashioned from pieces of cloth and my staff I managed to fashion a makeshift stretcher, and with a lot of effort and care I managed to roll the creature over onto it.

I winced as I saw the other side of the creature. It was scratched and bloody, large pieces of its carapace had been torn away, showing me the pale sickly flesh beneath. Luckily it seemed to have a second covering of flesh, and none of its organs were visible.

It made me gag once more, and I tore off my shirt and covered it. I had to get back to my hollow before night fell if this creature were to have even the slightest chance of survival.

The nights were deathly cold, and the creature would be lucky to even live for another hour out here. Even without some predator finding it and turning it into an easy meal.

With its severed leg gruesomely tucked into my satchel I dragged the poor creature with me to my home.

---

I slowly lowered the injured creature onto my cot. It was not much, but it would keep it off the ground and allow me easier access to its wounds.

The only sign of life was the slow rise and fall of its grievously marred chest. I could hear gurgling each time it drew a breath, which was never a good sign.

Due to whatever graced me with my seeming inability to be permanently hurt, I had never learned how to properly dress a wound. Neither did I have any herbs or anything else that would accelerate the healing process or stop a bleeding wound.

All I could do was tear what little clothing I had left into strips and boil them before tying them around the creatures wounds.

I cleaned the blood from it as well as I could, and I soon had a small pile of rock and detritus lying beside the bed, all collected from the horrible wounds. I could do nothing for the bubbling in its chest, and once in a while releasing the tourniquet so that the blood wouldn’t collect in the stump.

After doing my best to bandage the creature I sat down before it, the severed leg lying in my lap. It seemed to be mostly intact, but I had no real idea what to do with it.

I absentmindedly stroked it, a rather morbid gesture, but I didn’t dare examine the creature itself too much in fear of harming it. The leg itself was a strange thing, it was hard and chitinous, but it had a covering of very short felt-like hairs, as well as several perforations or holes that went straight through them. The inside of the holes were as smooth as the outside, and the underside of the foot, or hoof was softer than the rest.

I put the leg down as the creature let out a cough, splashing more green blood over the crude bed. Suddenly it was wracked with coughs, and it seemed to agitate the wounds more and more, and soon the makeshift bandages were soaked through.

With care I replaced the strips of cloth with new, clean ones and set to cleaning the dirty ones.

Night fell, and there was nothing more I could do to make sure the creature survived the night. All I could do was to lean up against the cave wall beside the cot and try to get some sleep.

---

Author's Note:

Just had to write something. I have a plan, don't worry. I'm still writing Heaven Sent and My little Princesses.

Pre-read by Flutter Glasses

Comments

[Nightwatcher]

Like it so far.

[Flutters Glasses]

At least now he has a... Leg up in this world *snort* *snort*

I'm stupid.

[La Barata]

Dis gon' be good.

[Beyond the Horizon]

Well well, this is interesting.

Haven't exactly read a story with a premise similar to this yet, so lets see where it goes!

[JellyMyst]

Interesting concept. Definitely tracking.

[Morphy]

I never realized changelings are as hard to kill as cockroaches. I find this opener fascinating and unique. Tracking!

[Seraph973]

I wonder if his healng abilities could be used to heal her? I wonder if this will turn into a romance?

[Vates Despero]

for a decades

'Decades' is plural but 'a' is singular... might want to fix that. Ten years verses twenty plus years is a pretty big factor.

---

It's making me hesitant to read when combined with the fact you left us hanging on your other two stories.

[AggroViking]

hell yes this fic is awesome

[Sixpence]

1845696
That was bad, and you should feel bad.

1850410
Hot damn. I hate it when there's errors in the description. And now there was one in mine... It's supposed to be decades.

I understand. I probably should have changed the 'incomplete' tag to 'On Hiatus'. Because they're not cancelled. I'm picking Heaven Sent back up in January, because now I actually have weekends off from work, and I want to write it again. My Little Princesses... Well, I'm going to finish it, but I think I'm putting the 'Our years' in a side story later, right now I can't seem to get it done. This story is something I felt like doing to kick the creative gears back into motion, as well as trying to build something around interactions with Chrysalis.

But I understand the feeling.

[Ravengt]

Good and unique start. I find myself liking this so far and sad that only 1 chapters out. Hope you choose to continue it since this is the type of hie fic's i like.

[Princess Cadence]

Unique and interesting, though of course I would have made a few changes.

[Bronzer]

cities so vast that it took me days to traverse them.

Honestly, that isn't say much. Especially given the size of dragons. Then again, because of their size, those may have been villages, not cities.

They avoided me, after a while they learned that some creatures are not to be preyed upon.

Humanity, fuck yeah! It's how humans survive on Earth against other predators. When make it clear that we are at the top of the food chain. So far above other animals that we can kill them and display their mangled corpses as warnings.

[Winter Storm]

I know the first chapter was posted a long time ago, but do you think you could come back and fix the spelling of "civilizations"? You literally misspelled it as "civilisations" every single time.

Should be a hotkey to find all instances of the word and replace them.

[Mr_Crowbar]

4808471 I know this is really long ago, but "civilization" is American english. "Civilisation" is British english. Both words are completely valid.

[tsaukpaetra]

Heh, an accidentally immortal human? Interesting...

[TheGrandNil]

Love it!!!

[SOUNDBLASTER_SUPERIOR]

Cool