Zip your lip and snap the trap!
Hah! Right sorr', old Pegasi credence in how to keep a secret. Lots of "tales-as-old" like that from all the races, you know? "Quiet is silver but silence is gold", that's a Horn Head one. "Step softly and speak softer", Earthy right there. Go on and on I could, but extenuating our differences is how we Pegasi got where we are. And where we are is 'gargoyle' standing atop the Horn Heads' castles. Right, they'll tell you its for this and that, but its gilded tongues and silvered flicks if you ask me.
Tight eye your drunk eye!
Another teller, but this one means to straighten up so you don't look a slouch. Slouches get plowed; not in the exciting way either. Plowed hard, fast, and again until bones are broke and spirits are smeared. Something my type know too-too well. Slouch, you die. Get yourself sloshed before a fight, you die. Get another sloshed before a fight, you die inside because you sent him to die... Then you die for getting the bloke sloshed and killed in the first place. My advice? Get sloshed on your own time... When you're head's in the dirt and your playing dead's a good time, yeah?
You know... Stories are stories. Strange to say, but it's right true. The story you hear never happened the way it's told. Sometime's it small; like the baker's lad slipped on a pebble instead of him slipping on a rock. Other times, you get bold face lies. Those stories have a name. Horn Heads call them "History", Earthies call them "Fables", we Pegasi have a fitting name for them: "Victors Write The Past". Shameful and disgraceful is what it is... But you do what you do so others will do their dues in due time. That's an Earthy saying... I love them Earthies.
Unlike the Horn Heads, Earthies have honor and respect. Maybe I've just locked claws with the wrong Horns and drunk myself under the table with the right Earthies. Can't say, right? Could be a few good ones out there, maybe a few bad ones too. Can't say... Again. But, made me a good friend among the Earthies. Good as silver she is. Silver Bit by name. She and I... We get each other. She talks on and on about these metals and facets of war, and I tell her about the kinds of spiced brews you can swig without blowing your crop! That's a good friendship dynamic!
But, Silver's probably more interested in me than I am her... Not that I'm not interested in her! She's a grand cheek! But, lass' always assuring my talons and body. Don't mind the attention, not at all. It even landed me a first ever! Makers-oh-Makers did they smile on me when they gave me my first ever. She's a beauty. Strong, long, fits like a dream, and my talon curves just right into the notch. Silver made me a lucky lass when she gave me my first ever, have you know. Right-right, don't even know what it really is... But I call her "Adlig"!
Now... I won't pretend I know what Adlig is... You got me on that one. But Silver Bit made her for me and tried to spell out what this pretty lady can do. See, Earthies and Horn Heads don't have talons like I do; so, even with Silver Bit's fine clinger-clanger, she couldn't work Adlig like I can. This is how she works: the 'pipe' here stretches from the 'pin' to the other end. When the 'trigger' here gets pulled back, the 'pin' swings back a bit and recoils back against the 'pipe's' rear. When that happens, a little charge of some kind of Horn Head magic builds up and fires off out the 'pipe' in -what Silver calls- "a bullet". Every time it makes a shot, this revolving thing clicks to another notch. After about eight shots, I need to refill it with these seedy things Silver gave me.
Weird little thing... But Adlig packs a real punch! Notched a tree's face from fifty stones away! That's sharp. Silver said it's mine to keep, seeing as I'm the only Pegasi in the kingdom that can use it. But, she left me a few rules with it. Number one: Can't shoulder it around and show it off. Some Horn Head might get fresh with it and try to snipe it off of me... Like that word? Snipe. Made it up. Number two: No firing Adlig when I'm sloshed. Hard one to follow... The barracks always has the best mead and brew, hard to resist. But, means I can play with my pretty young lass, I'll take the blunt. Finally, her biggest rule: keep practicing.
May not seem much... But it goes to a promise we two share. Blood pact. Tell you more about it if I could, except... "Step softly and speak softer" as I swore. Never stomp on another's words; that's what my brother always told me. Bless his soul and spit on the graves... Stay to my word, stay to my word. Work silent and swift with wind clutched between my slitters... Slitters means my talons. Words are weird sometimes, aren't they?
My name is... Ironclaw... Nah, it isn't. That's just what Silver Bit calls me. But it grows on me, so I go by that one now. Much better than... Other names. But, stiff chin, sober gaze, sharp trot, proud beak. Nothing keeps us Pegasi down. Not a thing. Someday soon, we'll say that proud in the lands. I'll sing it in the taverns with my mane having brothers and sisters!
For the Caw! Heh... That's not a Pegasi saying... That's a "Ironclaw" saying.
