The Frozen and the Eagle

Chapter One: The Find

The small blood drops shone bright against the white snow and the odd tracks led to a greater curiosity about what was bleeding. Eric stood up and looked into the distance at the decrepit home that the tracks were heading for. He had been following the small blood drops and unidentifiable tracks ever since he had come across them near the border of Arboribus and Duma. The blood then had been dry but now the blood was quite a bit fresher. He shifted his backpack and then the rope around his waist. He looked back at the sleigh to make sure everything was still strapped down and was happy to note that it was then started marching forward once more.

The sun was still in the eastern part of the sky, having risen only two hours prior. The tall man trudged forward till he was within about thirty feet of the gaping doorway of the house. His actions were quick and steady as he untied the rope, and let the back-pack slide off only to be swung forward infront of him. He quickly pulled out a four-inch cleaning knife, a bottle of water, and a couple of tightly knitted bags. He set his pack down on the sled, grabbed the shotgun laying along the side of the railing, and grabbed a flashlight. After tying the flashlight to the stock of the shotgun he moved toward the doorway. He flipped the flashlight on and let the light illuminate the inside before stepping in himself.

The crumbling home was a mess of broken furniture, snow, structural damage, and the smell of moldy wood. Eric crept forward, keeping his footfalls soft, though this only slightly helped in keeping the floorboards quiet. He went through the destroyed living room and into the kitchen all the while following the blood and scuff marks of some creature. He couldn’t quite tell what the animal was, only that it didn’t have paws, claws, digits, or that it had shoes on. It was in the kitchen that Eric found a trapdoor leading to the cellar. He shined the light into the hole and saw stairs with more of the scuff marks them.

Eric slowly descended down the stairs which creaked and moaned in protest. The rasp of his boot against the stairs oddly loud. He could practically taste the musty dampness of the cellar but all the same he wanted whatever animal had been hurt. After-all, you can’t just let perfectly good fur and meat go to waste. When he reached the bottom of the stairs he had to dip his head a bit to keep from hitting it on the ceiling. He looked to his right and saw an open area that was devoid of anything while on his left was a wall that extended a few feet past the stairs with a doorway leading to a separate room. Taking small steps Eric turned around the corner, and immediately took a bucket to the face. Thinking that he was under attack, he opened fire. The shot was wild and didn’t hit anything other than wall and ceiling but it was enough for the creature to think twice before chucking a piece of pipe at the heavily breathing human.

“Uh, hello,” Eric’s voice was generally quiet, so it didn’t help that the blast from the shotgun had deafened the rooms occupants. It wasn’t really the silence that bothered the man, as it was the ringing in the ears. For the few minutes that Eric had been standing there he had gone over the room with the flashlight but it hadn’t revealed anything of importance, well almost anything. Small drops of blood led to a large dresser that had been tipped over on its side. It suddenly hit Eric that this creature probably should have passed out or even have died from the blood loss by now. The man pushed the thought away, then sat down against the wall and waited for his hearing to return before speaking up again. “Hello,” his voice was raised from the first time, only he was still greeted with silence. This silence stretched for several minutes which lead to Eric opening the bottle of water and taking a healthy swig from it. The creature on the other side of the dresser saw this through one of the cracks in the wood and let out a heavy sigh. It had gone for hours without water and it was closing in on day three of no food. All in all, it really wanted water and something warm to eat.

Eric suddenly stood which startled the thirsty creature, and she became even more concerned when the very large man started to slowly move forward with his shotgun. He edged around the dresser and stopped when he saw what was back there. Really it was nothing extreme, just a bloody, beaten looking creature with cyan fur, rainbow mane and tail. Eric really only noticed the latter of the characteristics and, subconsciously, moved the barrel of the shotgun so that it pointed a bit more toward the creature than it had been. This combined with the fact that the mare was scared was not a good combination. Before Eric could react the strange animal, in his eyes, turned around and then launched its back hooves at him. They connected with his stomach and with a heavy grunt he fell backwards and into the wall. The wall was heavily corroded and it caved under his sudden weight allowing him to fall through. It only took him a second to see that he had landed underneath the stairs.

The mare took her chance and started to run for the doorway to get up the stairs. She couldn’t manage a decent speed because the kick had agitated an old injury. The run was much more of a limp which gave Eric a chance to get up, get to her, and wrap his arms around her waist before she had gone more than four or five steps up. There was a brief struggle that quickly ended with the Pegasus winded and hanging limp in the large man’s arms. The whole time he was doing his best to calm down the frantic mare with shushing sounds and quiet, calming, murmurs.

“Alright, see I’m not going to hurt you,” Eric’s voice was quiet, deep, and comforting yet this did nothing to alleviate the fear in the mare. He set her down, then quickly took the flashlight off the shotgun and shined it over her. His feelings of excitement died and was replaced with pity and sadness. He saw that this was a horse of some kind, oddly colored, had wings, but mostly he noticed that it had been beaten and abused. There were numerous lacerations on her body, most of them had bandages though these were dirty and bloody. One of her wings was obviously broken with many of its feathers torn out and the skin underneath was a mottled color of bruising. He reached out and gently petted her back only for her to spin and try to sink her teeth into his hand. He yanked it back and stared at her knowing that some human must have done this. It was common knowledge that survivors, and sometimes even whole tribes, had religions that involved the abuse of animals. Eric didn’t know what it was supposed to do and he never bothered to figure it out. The thought process behind it was that it brings favor on you from the Gods or God. There were even a few that thought it might relieve the cold. This was a fools thinking but humans have a nasty habit of reaching for things when they get desperate.

“Don’t touch me,” the mare snarled at Eric which caused him to lurch back into the wall across from the stairs. His mouth was agape, his eyes bulged, the skin paled a bit in shock and fear, yet the Pegasus didn’t see any of this. She had closed her eyes and flinched back expecting a heavy hit to slam into her head. They stayed in that position for close to a minute before the cogs and gears in the man’s head started to spin again only in overdrive while the mare opened her eyes and looked at where the man had fallen back too.

“You can talk,” Eric spluttered out. The pity and sadness turned to anger as he realized that she was in fact, not just another exotic animal. He stood up and moved forward again until he was in touching distance and moved his hand to her again. This time she didn’t try anything figuring that it would be pointless and on top of that she felt like she might pass out any minute. “I’m going to help you.” Eric quickly wraps his arms around the Pegasus and only for her to tense up and let out an annoyed and pained grunt. This only spurs him to move up the stairs faster so that he could set her down. Eric quickly did that but made sure that he found a relatively clear spot on the ground to set her. He descended into the cellar to grab the shotgun. With it in hand he rushed back up and gives the sulking mare a quick glance before leaving the broken house and walking up to the sled.

Leaving the shotgun at the sleigh Eric takes a tarp, a can of peaches, and a bottle of water. He lays the tarp down and lets the mare stumble on to it. She thought it useless to try and do anything other than comply. Sleep deprivation was catching up to her, leaving her barely conscious when the man presented a bottle of water. She eagerly took it from his hands and started to chug it down leaving Eric to wonder how she could possibly hold it in her hooves. Next he presented the can of peaches and much like the bottle she devoured them quickly. Unfortunately this brought on a wave of guilt at the fact that her two friends were alone, and in the same boat when it came to the lack of water or food. She stopped eating and set the can down with the last two or three slices in the bottom.

“You done,” Eric asks and received a small nod. “I’m going to wrap you up now. You’ll stay warm.” The last part was to try and ease the wild and frightened look she got in her large magenta eyes at being told that she was going to be wrapped up. Nonetheless Eric proceeded and soon enough she was wrapped up ready to be moved. He gently lifted the bundle and carried her to the sleigh and just as gently set her down. With this done he tied the rope at the end of the sleigh to his waist and started following his tracks back.

The minutes slip by when Eric stopped, realizing that he was being an idiot. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a compass that was inlaid with silver, bronze, and zaffre haloate. Zaffre haloate is an extremely strong and hard element that had a dark blue color that sparkled under the sun or a full moon. He stared at the compass for a few seconds marveling at it and wondering how he could have been so lucky to find it. Pushing the memories away he pushed one of the four buttons on the side and the compass went from pointing north to an Easterly direction. He turned and started walking to his destination with a smile under the white mask that covered his whole face.

Eric’s attire consisted of heavy duty white pants, shirt, coat, and boots along with a light blue back-pack. Eric spent the walk home thinking of what he might tell his fellow tribesmen or whether or not to even mention the fact until later, giving himself more time to think. He could do it too. Just walk in and bring the sleigh to his room, take the tarp in with the Pegasus and drop her off on the bed, then take the sleigh and everything else back except for half of the food.

Food management was a relatively easy thing at home. Anything you found out in the cold you kept half, while the other half was donated to the tribe. Being able to keep five cans from a run would keep you feed for a week, maybe more if you rationed it right. Only now that wasn’t really a concern, since the tribe had managed to get one of the older machines, a G.E.C.K., to work allowing the growth of food to be done underground. Along with the domestication of the cows, goats, and pigs, going out on runs was becoming less and less important. However the rations would be strict so that if you wanted something more to eat you would need to go and get it. In this case Eric would be able to feed the mare without raising concerns and he would be able to eat well too.

All the while Eric was in thought the mare was having a pitiful sleep causing the tarp to turn this way and that way. After some time of this Eric stopped and went to the Pegasus and started to unfold the tarp to reveal the bruised and battered body underneath. She was breathing heavily and her face was contorted in an expression of pain mixed with fear. Pity flooded the man, yet he didn’t know what he could do to help other than to get her to his home, wash the injuries and bind them. He gently petted one of the few unbruised areas on the body and it seemed to help a little bit, the turning stopped but her face was still a mask of pain and fear. Eric folded the tarp over her again and started the seemingly endless marching again. It would take another hour to reach the underground village but then another half hour, at least, before being able to do anything for the wounded creature.

It was twenty minutes after he had paused for those few moments that he heard the noise of multiple boots striking the snow behind him. It sounded like two, maybe three. He stopped and turned to see two men of what might be average build. It’s sometimes hard to determine the physique of someone under the mounds of clothing one wears in the cold. The two men kept moving forward until they were within just a couple feet of the sleigh. The bigger of the two watched Eric while the other one looked at the tarp.

“Need help?” Eric asked.

“Yeah, I reckon you can. What you got under that tarp,” the smaller of the two pronounced tarp without the ‘r’ in it. The question caused Eric to become more than a little bit nervous. His skin paled a bit and a small bit of sweat popped out onto his brow.

“Wolf meat. Got it in the house that way,” Eric points back in the direction that he came from.  The bigger of the two stepped out from the back of the sleigh and slowly made his way over to Eric with his hand out-stretched. Eric took it, albeit with trepidation.

“Name’s Jeremy,” the big man’s voice was deep yet comforting. “Listen we’ve been looking for a… special pet for our boss. She ran off and we found some blood and it led to that house. Now it wasn’t a wolf or anythin’ but did you happen to see… something exotic?”

“No, there were some feathers. Wolf got it probably,” Eric said feeling only slightly better.

“Were they blue by chance,” Jeremy asked and got a nod in return. Jeremy then turned to his companion and was met with a shrug. Then the shorter man moved forward and drew a pistol, pointing the gun at Eric’s chest, he grabbed the edge of the tarp.

“Na hold on a sec, you said you got a wolf under here. There weren’t no wolf paw prints over dere, so tell me a story I might just believe. Otherwise imma shoot you,” the smaller man had a toothy smile under the cloth covering his face.

Eric suddenly found his mouth to be quite dry. He looked back and forth between the two men for what felt like an eternity.

“Dune, enough you’re gonna give the man a heart attack. It’s probably one of those skichra wolves under there,” Jeremy said with his hand raised in a calming gesture.

“Skicha,” Eric said, correcting the man. Dune then started laughing and holstered the pistol. He walked a few feet away, looking over the expanse of the white land.

“Dune is crazy, but he gets the job done,” Jeremy said quietly. “Take care now and don’t let that meat spoil.” He turned and started to walk away but then stopped. He turned back to Eric then asked, “Hey do you know where the main tribe in this province is?”

“I live there.”

“Good,” Jeremy’s face lights up in joy, “cause the only thing my tribe has to hunt are predators and me and Dune noticed that you have quite a few of the ice cows. It amazes me how they can survive but I guess we all adapt huh. Anyway can you ask your head tribe people if we can come and take one or two them every now and again? We could really use some easy hunting. Oh and our tribes met about three weeks ago, when we made our base in Arboribus.”

“I’ll ask,” Eric said. Jeremy looked at his companion that was bout forty feet away by now before turning back to Eric.

“If you find a… creature… just don’t bring it back to our province. Alright,” there was a pleading note in Jeremy’s voice.

“Yeah,” Eric nodded his head and then watched as the big man jogged over to his companion. Eric watched the two men walked away for a few moments before walking home himself. His nerves were still frayed from the incident though, he tried to take deep breaths in hopes of becoming calm. Only the breathing was not helping so he stopped to sit down on the sleigh next to the tarp. Only now it moving as the mare tried to escape it. After a minute or two she finally spoke up.

“Hey, human a little help here,” the voice sounded fairly impatient. Eric quickly uncovered the Pegasus only for her to close her eyes and let out a small ah. “Are you okay?” Her voice was cold and when she opened her eyes they were colder. Really, she just wanted to be somewhere warm and preferably not in the company of humans, but unfortunately the last bit wasn’t an option. For her question all she got was a nod. “Okay… then can we please continue, it is really cold.” With those last few words she ducked back underneath the tarp. Eric didn’t move right away but instead stayed there for a moment looking at the tarp wondering if it was good or bad luck to find such a unique creature. He stood and started moving forward again. The thoughts of what had transpired not more than fifteen minutes ago started to run through his mind along with why would they abuse such a beautiful creature. Honestly, nothing had such vibrant colors and once she was washed up they would be even more so.

It was some time before Eric got over the ridge that led to a small indentation in the hill. The hill itself was not very large but it was perfectly round, a very strange formation indeed. At the top of it the ground sloped down, creating a bowl with three trees in the middle. Together they created a triangle and within this triangle there was a sturdy cinderblock square. The back of this square sloped down to meet the ground. The square had just the first set of doors to get into the tribes underground home, there were another three that had to be passed before the guard barracks were even reached.

Eric quickly jogged down the hill with the sleigh following him, almost nipping his heels a couple of times. After he reached the double doors he let out a sigh of relief. Now the only thing to do was get in, get the wounded Pegasus to his room, all without any of the other guards noticing. It wouldn’t be hard considering that Eric got away with just about anything that wasn’t a major offence. Then again he never did anything that would ever draw attention. He never did things that broke the rules or laws in place, well except for today that is. Any living thing that enters the underground home that was new had to be inspected and then given proper shots as to prevent the risk of sickness. Luckily for Eric, he never had to do the checks and such, he was well known and the guards let him come and go as he pleased. It didn’t hurt that he also slept in the guards barracks.

Eric pounded on the light blue doors and they were pulled open by two guards. Both of them gave Eric a small smile and a nod before closing the first pair of doors behind the sleigh. The three men traveled down the sloped hallway for ten meters before coming to the second set. The two guards banged on the door twice to which a single bang answered back. The first two guards banged twice more and the second set opened. The process was repeated until Eric was finally in the barracks itself. He quickly made his way over to his room pulling aside a heavy cloth curtain before entering. He made sure the sleigh was in all the way before closing the curtain and even then he took the tarp with the mare inside to the bathroom.

“Stay here till I get back,” Eric whispered to the mare as he set her down. After leaving the bathroom he quickly stripped out of the heavy coat and pants along with taking the mask off. He grabbed an old pair of Levies out of his dresser and then left his room. The Pegasus waited for a few seconds after hearing his footsteps fade before fighting her way out of the tarp and then inspected the bathroom. It was fairly large with a good sized tub and shower mix. The shower head was one of those that came off the wall. The tiles were made from the zaffre haloate which gave the floor and walls a pleasant look to them. The sink and toilet were a simple white and there was nothing notable about them. While the mare was taking in the bathroom Eric was doing the customary steps of coming back in from outside.

First thing Eric did was take the sleigh and the few goods he found before coming across the trail of blood to a prep center. The prep center took the sleigh and kept a hold of them along with any weapon that was checked out such as the shotgun that Eric had with him. The center took the scavenging objects to stow them in their proper spaces. Next they sorted out the food. The most needed kind was kept while the other half was returned to the finder. After that it was time to fill out a report. This was the part Eric enjoyed the most. Many of the scavengers hated it, yet Eric found it to be relaxing in the simplicity of the chore.

Once that was all done Eric went to find Edward. Edward was a young boy who played messenger. It was a useful job and he was generally compensated well for his efforts. The compensation normally consisted of food or clothing.

“Hey bud, I need you to deliver a message for me,” Eric said. The kid nodded and grabbed a notepad and a pen then stared at Eric expectantly. “The tribe that we met with three weeks ago wants permission to hunt on our land every now and again.” The boy gave a quick nod and then ran off to deliver the message. With that taken care of Eric quickly made his way back to his room in the guard’s barracks. Eric wasn’t one of them but nonetheless he was given one of the rooms because he went out so much.

Within a couple of minutes he was back in his room with the curtain drawn and the lights on low. He entered the bathroom to see that the Pegasus was out of the tarp and on her hind legs so she could look into the mirror. Despite being a Pegasus Eric could see the shock in her eyes. He assumed that she hadn’t seen what she looked like for quite some time. He grimaced as he saw her wing but then broke the silence.

“I can fix up some of those,” Eric offered and the Pegasus dropped to the ground and gave him a suspicious look but then looked at her own body and came to a decision.

“Okay, but only if you tell me exactly what you’re doing and only if I allow it,” she stated with some bite in her words. Eric nodded his head and then motioned for her to step into the bathtub. She did but only grudgingly. Eric grabbed a small tab on the bottom of the mirror above the sink and pulled revealing a cabinet with numerous medical supplies. He grabbed a couple of tubes of medicine, bandages, and a small square electronic with an electric eye on one side of it. Eric set them all down on the floor by the tub. He reached over and started to run warm water through the tap.

“Need to clean them out first,” Eric explained. After letting the water run for a minute Eric grabbed a pouf off the faucet and got it wet. He started to clean out the wounds only for her to immediately move from him. He looked at her face with a question in his.

“I can clean myself,” was her only response as she took the pouf out of his hand. It took her a moment for her to notice the shocked expression on his face. “What?”

“You can hold it,” Eric said, his voice sounding slightly dazed. The Pegasus gave him a look that said that he was an idiot.

“Yeah, big deal,” she said.

“How do you do that,” Eric’s eyes had a glint of curiosity normally found in children. The Pegasus ignored his question and shoots one back at him.

“You’re not going to kick me, hit me, or swear at me, let me starve and whatnot?” The spark of curiosity died and was replaced with sadness.

“No. Let me fix some of these wounds.” The guarded and suspicious look the mare had in her eyes since meeting him finally dropped away.

“It’s a small form of magic. Telekinesis, it allows us to hold onto objects as long as they aren’t too big or heavy. Obviously we don’t have fingers like your kind,” there was the sound of distaste in words.

“Magic? You can do magic. That’s awesome,” the smile on Eric’s face was large and a happy glint was in his eyes. It was contagious and the mare started to feel a bit better because of it. Of course the warm water helped quite a bit too. “So, what is your… name,” Eric’s voice turned a bit more serious.

“Rainbow Dash,” she said after staring at Eric for a moment, contemplating whether or not to tell it. He gives her his big smile again and then turned the water off so that he could begin to fix up the wounds. He looked over her body once more finding all of the injuries and noticed that she was favoring one of her back hooves. The biggest cut was a deep one on her back leg, the one that had caused the blood trail and it looked relatively new compared to some of the others. The march she had undergone hadn’t help any. Probably had kept the wound open. This was the first thing he tended to.

“This is will make the wounds heal faster,” Eric explained while unscrewing the small cap on one of the tubes. He squeezes a small amount of the greyish substance onto his finger tip and gently spreads it over the cut. After it was smeared on, he pinched the wound closed and counted slowly to twenty. He released his pinch then leaned in a bit closer to make sure that the skin was holding. It was in the middle but the ends were still open, albeit much closer together than they had been before.

“Why couldn’t I feel that,” Rainbow Dash asked with suspicion in her eyes.

“The ointment numbs the area. Had to pinch it close”

“Pretty cool stuff… I guess,” the mare responds to which Eric gives a nod.

“Doesn’t work well with burns though,” and with that remark they fall into silence. Eric continues with closing the small open wounds and then moved onto the older, closed ones. The ointment would increase the speed of healing for the older wounds and minimize scaring. After that was done Eric picked up the small electronic and turned it on allowing the screen to turn a light blue. The blue was replaced with white and the device let out a soft ding signifying that it was ready. “This’ll take an x-ray. An x-ray is-”

“I know what an x-ray is,” Rainbow cuts in. Eric gives another nod and starts scanning her body. It took a total of five minutes and what it showed made him cringe inwardly. Five of her ribs had been broken but now were mostly done healing along with a small crack in her back leg bone, the one she was favoring, but it was her wing that was in the need of the most help.

“I need to set your wing.”

“No.” The flat refusal shocked Eric a bit.

“If it isn’t set it won’t heal right. You might not be able to fly,” his eyes were pleading. Eric genuinely didn’t want the Pegasus to go through any more pain. “Put some of the ointment on your tongue. It’ll numb any pain.” The seconds turned into minutes and Eric thought he was going to need to try again.

“Fine,” was her terse response. Before he could move she snatched up one of the tubes and put a small dab on her tongue that was then smeared. Her lips and cheeks contorted into a small pucker. “You could have told me it was sour.” It was oddly cute and Eric smiled inwardly

“Sorry,” he said before carefully taking the broken wing and start to fix it. Luckily for him the wing would not need any kind of surgery and that bandaging it would suffice. He stood and took a bottle of pills out of the cabinet and took one of them out letting the light settle on the yellow oval.

“This’ll get the bone to heal faster.”

“You got medicine for everything don’t you,” the response was sarcastic. Eric gives her a closed smile before he starts cleaning up the mess. He exits the room after making sure that Rainbow Dash could get out of the bathtub on her own. Opening up a few of the cupboards in his small living space he decided that noodles would suffice. Five minutes later and he had two bowls of hot noodles to be eaten and he hoped that she would like them.

Considering that she downed the bowl and asked for seconds was a good indication to Eric that Rainbow Dash liked them. A lot. Once the two were done eating Eric cleaned up the bowls and then proceeded to dry the bathtub. The tub was actually quite large, one of the bigger ones in the barracks. Eric decided that this was where the Pegasus was to sleep so as to avoid anyone from seeing her if they came into his room. Rainbow Dash wasn’t exactly pleased with accommodations but it was twenty times better than where she had been sleeping for the last three and a half weeks.

Eric grabbed an extra pillow and three blankets. The first two he lined the bathtub with while the third would be used to keep Rainbow Dash warm. The underground village never got too cold but there is just something comforting about having a blanket in the night while sleeping.

“Goodnight,” Eric said quietly.

“Night,” the Pegasus answered back. Eric left the bathroom closing the door behind him and then fell onto his bed, he never noticed the pained look that would flash across her face when she watched him set everything up. He let the events of the day wash over him all the while a small smile was plastered on his face. He couldn’t believe that he had found such a creature, one that could talk no less, and it that he was now taking care of it. It wasn’t until the question of what now that his smile slipped. How was he going to explain this to the committee, in a way that would allow the Pegasus to stay in the village no less? He obviously couldn’t have let it stay out in the cold, then on top of that there had been those men that were looking for the injured mare. It still angered Eric to know that someone would hurt such a beautiful creature. These were the thoughts running through his head as sleep over took him and he fell into that dark bliss.

Eric woke with his arm being shaken. When he looked over he saw Edward there with a piece of paper in his hand. Eric gave the mute boy a smile before taking the page from his grasp.

Dear Eric Holder,

Eric, the committee would like your presence in the council room as soon as possible.

Sincerely,

The Committee

“Thank you Edward,” Eric said giving the boy another smile before getting out of bed to grab a couple cans of food. “Make sure your sister gets an extra helping alright.” The boy nodded his head vigorously before leaving.  'Alright I should see how Rainbow Dash is doing'. Eric opened his bathroom door and was greeted with snoring. He couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle as he looked over into the bathtub. The Pegasus was on her back with the blanket just below where he assumed the belly button would be. The urge to scratch her stomach like he would a dog was strong, but the knowledge that she might bite one of his fingers off kept him from doing so. However the injures that had the ointment on them were coming along very nicely. In fact some of the scrapes were unnoticeable unless you were actually looking for them and the cuts that hadn’t been bandaged were nothing more than light lines.

He left the bathroom and started heading down the various halls passing the prep center, the cafeteria, past the guard training center, and checkpoints along the way. The underground village had started out as a rich man’s pet project, a bunker of sorts, he believed heavily in an apocalypse happening. It did happen and he died within the first month of starting. His son took over building as quickly as he could until the cold came and then he ushered in as many people possible to save them from the cold. That was fourteen years ago.  The renovating and building had never stopped. Of course it had slowed considerably, but never stopped.

In the very center of the underground strong hold was the Council. Possibly the most well defended and biggest room in the entire place. The size could hold more than five hundred people and had the greatest food storage. It was really a sight to behold. The Council held the committee. The committee were the rule makers and the guys and lady in charge. Four men and one women to be in charge of two thousand people. It was quite the feat for having a rudimentary democracy between the five. It wasn’t perfect but so far it had worked. It was in front of these five that Eric found himself at the end of the journey from his room.

“Eric good to see you my boy,” called a man in his mid-forties.

“Sir, Jarvis,” Eric said with a bow then he bowed to each of the other committee members before standing at ease.

“The reason we called you was to request that you go to the tribe in the Arboribus to take this contract concerning hunting on our lands. We decided that since you have already met them that it would only be appropriate that you would go,” Jarvis said. The leaders never beat around the bush and were always direct when it came to something. Eric was a bit stunned at this. They had diplomats for these kinds of jobs, not some guy who goes out and scavenges fourteen year old cans of food.

“Why me? I’m no diplomat," Eric said.

“Take it as you will but we want you to do it,” Lories, the only woman on the committee, answered Eric. “Go, get ready to leave.” Eric nodded gave the man at the end of the line of committee members a quick glance, then took his leave. He hurried back to the prep center to grab a sleigh and some supplies. Once everything was signed out and done with he went back to his room. This would be the tricky part considering that the mare would most likely want him to stay. Eric opened the bathroom door to see that Rainbow Dash was awake and looking quite bored.

“I’m going to be gone for a day or two. Don’t go out.” He was about to exit when the Pegasus stopped him.

“Are you going to that other tribe,” she asked him. Eric turned and nodded but was startled to see hate burning in her eyes. He took a couple of hasty steps back. Her features softened a little bit seeing that she had scared him. 'Maybe he isn't like the rest of them,' she thought. “I have two friends there, you have to get them out.” Her request left no rebuttal.

“I’ll try-,” Eric started but was then cut off by Rainbow Dash. She had risen to her hooves and had just about knocked him over when she jumped on him.

“Don’t try, do. Don’t let them hurt us anymore.” Eric lost himself for a couple of seconds in her large magenta eyes filled with so many emotions. Hate, fear, sadness… pain.

“Ok, ok I’ll get them. I’ll get them.”