Daring Do and the Shroud of the First King

The icy waves lapped at the sides of the boat as another night fell on their journey. Dust and Leaf had set out from Emilial ten days ago, catching a ride on Muckboot’s ancient, rickety sloop to head back to the fabled ‘Isle of the Damned’ – the home of the all-but-forgotten Seabound civilisation. Days passed, each day seeming longer and more bland than that which came before. The skies had been pale and empty, devoid of clouds and even devoid of birds, and the only thing which moved beside them was the sun as it made the daily trek across the sky, allowing its counterpart to take over this duty at night. The days had become endless silences, Dust and Leaf observing the maddened, broken mare who drove the sloop onward through the slowly-moving ocean waves, hell-bent on her quest to return to the place she seemed to fear and despise most in all Equestria.

But now, as they approached a mist-laden island which rose out of the darkness before them, Dust felt a pang of some unnatural fear rising in her heart. Having only awakened with a start moments before, she sleepily tried to get their pilot’s attention.

'Muckboot? Muckboot, is this the Isle?' She called, leaning forward and staring out at the fast-approaching shore. Muckboot’s reply came swiftly, loud enough to rouse Leaf from his slumber.

'This is it! This is the Isle, damned blacker than the smokes of the underworld!' She screeched, an unhinged, manic edge to her voice. 'We’re never going back home! Never going back!' Dust and Leaf exchanged worried glances, before turning back to look upon the island with silent horror, as events beyond anything imaginably true unfolded before their eyes. There was a titanic thunderclap which shook the heavens, and a burning red flare of lightning which forked downward viciously. The red blast punched straight through the heart of the boat, tearing it asunder in one fell swoop. Waves lapped all around the halved vessel, and as Dust scrambled onto one half with Leaf, Muckboot remained upon the aft. She screamed wildly as colossal waves rose up from nowhere, engulfing the boat and pulling that half of the sloop below the waves quickly. Clinging to their portion of the sloop, Dust and Leaf were dragged helplessly inland by the seemingly-intelligent waves, and in a short while, the front end of the vessel ran aground violently on the alien shores of the Isle of Bones. The sheer impact with the rocky coast and the ensuing fall onto the rock-laden sands of the shore knocked Dust into unconsciousness.

She was awoken to the bright light of the following morning by a weak howl of pain from her companion. Pulling her exhausted eyes open, Dust looked around for the source of the call, and her eyes quickly fell upon the form of Leaf, lying a few metres away on a piece of broken deck – with a thin, shattered piece of planking protruding from his side. Her eyes widened in shock.

'Oh, Celestia… Leaf!' She scrambled over to him, having to limp slightly due to a twisted rear leg and wincing slightly at a long scratch across her abdomen. She crouched down at his side, inspecting the wound.

'Am I gonna make it? Am I…' He uttered breathlessly, looking down at the dried blood on his side, and the jagged piece of wood piercing his stomach. Dust breathed heavily, looking over the damage and gravely assessing his chances at survival.

'There’s a chance… But it’s slim.' She answered grimly. 'You’re going to want to bite down on something.' She added, throwing off her coat and tearing a strip of fabric from her shirt to fashion a bandage. Leaf looked around, grabbing another sodden, wet plank in his mouth, taking a deep breath, and nodding to signal his readiness. Taking a moment to ready herself, Dust grabbed the offending shard of wood, and pulled with all her might. There was a muffled screaming, a fleck of dark liquid covering her muzzle as the shard pulled free of Leaf’s abdomen. He was wincing, and soon, he submitted to unconsciousness. Acting quickly, Dust pulled a box of matches from her saddlebag. Striking one and lighting the shard of wood to create a fire, she pulled out another tool from her saddlebag; a sturdy combat knife. Heating the blade for a few moments over the now-dwindling fire, she used the red-hot blade to cauterise Leaf’s wound. He jolted in his unconscious state, but upon checking his heartbeat, Dust was assured of his survival. Taking off his coat and shirt, she wrapped his abdomen in the makeshift bandage, packed any supplies the two had into her saddlebags, and then proceeded to drag his unconscious body inland with her a short way.

Finding a cave on the Isle of Bones had not been much of a challenge; merely a tenth of a kilometre inland, a sea cave opened onto the open coastal waters, and exploring inside, Dust had found a passage to an upper chamber therein which would safely remain above sea level. Dragging Leaf inside and stowing him gently in a sheltered, dry corner of the upper cavern, piling makeshift blankets on his sleeping form, Dust had then spent a good half-hour collecting supplies from outside: stones, branches and driftwood for a campfire, and a few crates of food which had survived the wreck. The weather outside had taken an unexpected turn for the worse, with pouring rain and thunderstorms with more unnatural flashes of red lightning – but surviving through it all, Dust returned in good time, arriving just as the tides rolled in and began to submerge the lower section of the sea cave. Safe and dry in the upper chamber, the campfire was constructed. The golden glow of the fire was pale on the old stone walls, flickering light illuminating the bare walls and reflecting off the surfaces of stalactites and stalagmites all around. Presently, Leaf awoke again.

'Leaf! Leaf, are you all right?' Dust called out.

'Urgh… What happened? It hurts…' He managed, obviously wincing as he tried to sit up.

'Stay there! Don’t move… You’re healing.' Dust demanded, a harsh kindness in her voice. Leaf did as he was told, lying back down and looking down at the slightly blood-flecked bandage tied tightly around his mid-section. He cringed as the memories of the previous day returned. Dust stood again, throwing off her rain-soaked coat and ripping the remaining sleeve from her shirt so not to obstruct her forelegs. 'I’m going back out there… Stay here, and don’t move a muscle.' She smirked at him, pulling a pair of walkie-talkies from her saddlebags before setting those down too. She tossed one to Leaf, clipping the other to her belt before heading out into the stormy outside again.

Having had to dive down and swim through the lower portion of the sea cave to exit, Dust was soaked by the time she emerged on the shoreline of the isle again, in the open air once again. Turning her attention inland, she proceeded inward and toward the heart of the island, taking care to remember the way back, following a small, winding river as a guide. But turning a sharp bend in the river and traversing around the side of a large boulder, she came upon something immensely worrying.