Chapter 1
Daring Do didn't expect her latest adventure to end up with her freezing to death in some strange land with no hope of rescue. Her only hope, she thought, would be to try to find a cave to escape the blizzard. With every step she took, Daring felt her strength drain. It didn't take long for her to collapse in the snow. She was barely conscious when she saw two brown-ish blurs running towards her.
Travis couldn’t believe what his two comrades had found, a creature that resembled the carvings he found in the ruins left behind by the ancient ones. His tail wagged and his lupine heart felt like it was going to explode. A pegasus with a grayscale mane and light gold fur, unlike many antlers he had encountered with generally darker color fur, was laying in his units' extra bed.
“How long do you think she will wake up?” He asked his unit’s doctor, an elk with a bit of a strange honey-colored shine to his fur, named Isaak.
“Shouldn’t be too long, Trav, with that noise your tail is making.”
Travis grabbed his tail with his claws, “Sorry.”
Isaak walked over to the bed where the strange being laid to replace the cold towel on her forehead with a new warm one. Travis tried to walk a bit closer, but Isaak blocked him with his antlers.
Travis folded his ears back and whined, “Come on, I want to get a closer look at the pegasus!”
“Go get Jarod, I think he should be the first person ‘she’ should see,” Isaak paused, “After that, then I will allow you to.”
“How about, perhaps, I watch the pegasus, and you go get Jarod?” Travis put on his best smile, a big, toothy grin.
To which Isaak only responded with a deadpan stare.
Travis refolded his ears and walked out of the large wooden sleigh that his unit shares as a mobile home, toward the rest of unit, sitting around a campfire. First, there was Tank, the last of the member of the royal family of the Moose Kingdom. For being the youngest of the group, someone could mistake him as the oldest due to his size. He wasn’t much for small talk, preferring only to talk when necessary. Second, there was Amara, a talented, one-elk band. She has no antlers, as most female elk do, but unlike most, she is able to channel a large amount of magic. At that moment she was playing a short ballad that she was trying to perfect. Third, was Marian, skilled huntress hailing from Clan Frost, one of the dragon clans that make their home in the mountainous areas in each of the three Kingdoms. Members of Clan Frost tend to be, as their name suggests, frost dragons. Frost dragons often have white and gray dappled scales for camouflage, to which Marian was no exception. Fourth and final, was their leader Jarod, prince and third in line of the Capreon Kingdom. His antlers and excellent posture give way to his royal roots. Jarod had small emblems of both his kingdom and his unit engraved into his antlers. Even though he’s a prince, he was well-known through the kingdoms on the account of his skilled craftsmanship.
“Jar! Isaak wants you to come inside, he thinks the girl you found is going to wake up soon!”
Jarod sprung up and made a dash for the sleigh, upon entering he asked, “Is it true?”
“Yes. I figured you would want to speak with our guest, being as you carried her here,” Isaak sighs as Travis enters, “And I figured you would be a better candidate for a good first impression than our overzealous archivist.”
“Oh come on, I’m not that bad,” Travis runs over to the pegasus’s bedside, “See?”
Jarod smiled, “Yeah, I think he’ll be fine on his own.”
“Travis, I think you should back up,” Isaak warned.
Travis’s tail began to wag again and he started smiling again, “Jarod thinks I’m going to do fine.”
Isaak shook his head and walked out of the sleigh.
“I don’t see what’s up with him. I think you’ll do fine with welcoming our guest.”
Daring Do’s head was pounding when she woke up. Not only that, she awoke with a huge pair of jaws near her face. So she put most of her strength into a full frontal attack, which sent the diamond dog-like creature flying into the side of a cart?
“Travis! You okay?”
She sat up to see this pony-ish person with to horns the branch into smaller horns, and it’s friends with this ‘Travis’ dog?
“I’m better than okay! I got punched into a wall by a pegasus! I can talk to an Ancient One!”
Daring hopped to the top of the bed ready to fight, however, she was still weak and knew she couldn't fight them off, "Did Ahuizotl send you?"
The two creatures looked at each other, before the pony-ish one asked, "Isn't that a food?"
She let her guard down a little bit, "Then who, and what, are you?"
"I'm Travis, a gray wolf," 'Travis' answered, "and he is Prince Jarod, he's a reindeer."
"You have... strange names."
Jarod laughed, "Then what's yours?"
Daring Do relaxed, "You haven't heard of me? I'm Daring Do." The two boys snickered a bit, "What's so funny?"
"You called our names strange, but yours is even stranger!" Travis paused, "Hey, you're a pegasus right?"
She nodded, "Haven't you ever seen one?"
Travis shook his head, "You're the first one."
"Heck, I thought Trav here was silly for believing the Ancient Ones were still around." Jarod chuckled.
"What did you call me? An 'ancient one'?" Daring Do asked, "What's that mean?"
Travis's face lit up, "What are the Ancient Ones?!"
"Uh, I'm going to be outside," Jarod said as he ran out the door, then he popped his head in, "I feel very bad for you, Miss Daring." before leaving once again.
Daring Do was concerned, to say the least.
"Why did he run like that?! What are you going to do?!"
Travis pulled out a leather-bound book, at least twice the size of any of the books she's written, from underneath one of the other beds, "I'm going to teach you everything we've learned about the Ancient Ones in the past three years, and maybe some of the lessons we learned about the importance of unity! Let's start at the beginning," He opened the book, "Today I met-"
Daring Do groaned and lied back down in the bed as Travis droned on, reading his journal to her.
"Hey! Jarod!" Isaak yelled, "Is everything alright?"
"Now that I'm out here, I'm all the better!" Jarod smiled awkwardly.
Marian stood up, grabbing her hunting dagger, "I'll be right back then."
Jarod ran in front of her pushing her back with his antlers, "No, no, no, she isn't the problem, Trav is just... Reading her his journal."
"Aha..." She went back to cleaning her claws and talking with Isaak.
"Hey, Amara?" Jarod called out.
She let down her magic's grip on the wooden violin she was composing with, "What is it?"
"I need to contact my father."
Everyone outside, except Tank, looked at Jarod, then Amara started to put her violin away, "Go ahead."
Jarod walked over to the fire and cast a spell. The fire crackled and soon the head of one of the servants took shape in the flames, "Hm? Oh! Hello, Jarod."
"Is Dad around?"
The servant frowned, "No, sorry, he and your mother went to bed about an hour ago. But I can take a message for him, if you're willing to tell me."
Jarod shook his head, "Take no offense, but most of what I have to say, he needs to hear from me directly."
"Eh, none taken."
"Just tell him that our unit is bringing a guest to the feast this year, again."