The River Back

Alien

Counting trees served to keep his mind busy, doing what he could to keep away the thought of aching pain radiating through his tired legs from walking. The colt sometimes thought he was hungry or thirsty, but when he went over to a bush or low-hanging tree, the only vegetation he could find, he found the leaves to be bitter and near frozen, so he refrained himself from eating said plants.

Although the world he was in seemed like everything was covered in ice, the water was surprisingly refreshing to him when he gulped mouthfuls down his throat, even if it was freezing. On occasion he glanced into the stream to get an idea of what he looked like, and from what he could see from the reflection of the waving waterway, he had scrawny black streaks of wet hair on his head, similar to that on his tail, but he also possessed bright orange eyes, the type that could be mistaken for glowing in the dark. Apart from those two distinct features, there was little else he could see through the ripples in the water. He also realised how much better he was feeling as the bruises had all but vanished from his skin, although he wouldn't risk doing things such as running yet, just to be on the safe side.

When the colt got to a point in the river where it made it's first major curve in the landscape, he spied a structure in the far distance through trees; some tall alien creation nearly beckoning him to come closer. He looked down the stream, then up to the structure once more before deciding to investigate this thing, even if it would be only for a few minutes.

Moving closer to the construction, he realised it had even numbers of trees lined up in parallel leading up to it, like a wide path blanketed in snow. Every tree had a small, grey box fixed to it that swayed in the wintery breeze, the frost had also covered most of the sides and base, along with the fact that he was too short to even get a good view made it difficult to figure out what it was. Leading further to the structure however, made a chill colder than glacial water run up his spine, as the giant, derelict building looking down on him from it's towering height in dismay and sadness.

Some of the windows had been smashed out or cracked either by age or thievery, but all remaining were thick with frost just as the grey boxes on the trees were. Upon further inspection of the front area, he found a wooden door left slightly ajar decorated with scratches and indentations from time, the same could be said with the silver knob that had a flicker of yellow swaying back-and-forth on it. Moving closer to the mysterious light he realised the colour was the reflection of a fire, crackling away calmly in it's birthplace and blissfully unaware that soon it would die from a lack of fuel. Once the colt saw the fire and felt the warmth licking his face he discarded fear of the building and tiptoed across the wooden floorboards to where a lounge was placed, adjacent to the flickering element.

The young colt sat staring into the blaze, a large grin on his content face, his eyelids droopy and blinking constantly from the heat drying his eyes, forgetting his worries, the river and everything inbetween, growing to the point where he wanted to curl up and lie where he was, happily drifting off to sleep. This comfort for him was short-lived however from a loud "THUNK" noise outside, but when he sprang onto the lounge's armrest to see what the commotion was, he heard creaking hoofsteps in the storey above, making his blood pump faster.

Unable to decide what to do in the few precious seconds he had, whether he should face what was about to happen or hide became the hardest question he had to ask himself, so he dove under the cushions on the lounge running the chance that he wouldn't be spotted, then decided he'd come out when he felt the courage to either stand his ground or flee.

He followed the sound of the steps above him to the point where they were beginning to move down and became somewhat softer. At this point, the colt saw what was making the hoofstep sounds as it came down via stairs beside the fireplace, stairs that he had failed to notice when he entered.

A tall alien-creature cloaked in leather and wool clothing appeared with a hood over it's head covering the face, and like the colt, it had four legs, but only used two for walking as the other limbs had four or five lengths of skin at the end; one was grasping the wooden end of a metallic rod almost the length of the creature's own limb, while the other dangled freely beside it's body. Amazed, the young colt went unnoticed to the alien as it passed by him without even batting an eyelid. This was obviously due to the sounds of another alien coming through the doorframe, and although he couldn't see the new member from where he was, he could hear the hoofsteps and talking in an unintelligible dialect to his (not that he had one anyway).

The colt could feel the vibrations of the steps in the floorboards and the couples' chatter as they came closer to him, and he began to panic, but did what he could to remain as still as he possibly could under his cushion. When they were between him and the fireplace they came to a silenced halt, frozen in place. He felt sweat run down his cheek when he realised one of them was slowly reaching out towards him with it's outstretched appendages. When the alien slowly lifted the pony's only source of cover, he bounced out in the hope of surprising them, knocked one over by ramming into it and bolted for the door, not caring if they were friendly or wanted to roast him alive. The cold from the outside hit him like a hurricane as the weather had become the middle of a blizzard. He passed a large contraption on four wheels, immediately thinking it to be the possible source of the "thunk" noise, but not necessarily the "crack", although he didn't care in that point in time, as all he wanted was to get away from the aliens.

Through the howling wind and snow he could hear shouting from aliens slowly fading away the further he ran from his potential danger, the steam of his breath turning invisible within moments, puffing and puffing until he reached the river again. He squinted his eyes making sure he wasn't being followed before walking upstream, while trying not to wander into a tree as his hooves kept sinking into the thick snow and his eyes dried-out all too quickly from the wind, but just as the blizzard felt like it was reaching it's peak, it subsided before the colt had even realised he could see clearly again. He looked to his side to check that the river was still there, as it ran it's course downstream carrying snowflakes and twigs along with it.

The colt sighed in moderation now that he was back on track, yet as he looked up to see the path ahead of him, he realised there was none. Instead, the path was replaced with a colossal mountain no more than one hundred metres away, almost as if it snuck up to him in the storm. He looked around to see if he had indeed gone the correct way instead of backtracked to where he first gained consciousness, but to his moderate relief he didn't go back, and now it seemed that the stream came from the mouth inside the mountain, or perhaps from the other side of the stoney wall altogether.

The young pony hadn't even taken another step from where he was when the snap of a twig caught his attention. Swinging his head around believing to see the aliens, his eyes only met with a hungry look from a skinny wolf hiding under the branches of a dead bush, flashing it's sharp teeth. The colt could feel the blood in him rush to his legs once more as he cautiously backed up towards the cave. Within moments he realised this was one of the worst things he could have done, for instead of one wolf there were now six emerging from the underbrush at a quick pace, moving straight towards him licking their teeth with thin tongues smelling the fear spreading off their dinner.

The colt's only choice now was to run and hope that he could reach the mouth of the mountain in time before the hounds could reach him, but these dogs may've gone for days without food so who knows how desperate they could be? He tried with all his might to run ignoring his fatigue, but his legs were like stumps compared to their long twigs and claws, nearly catching up to him in mere seconds. He reached the mountain only to see his route blocked by fallen rocks from the inside, but with a running jump he lept onto the first stone. Yet, as fate would have it's cruel way, the young colt screamed as the teeth of a wolf pierced the skin of his flank and sank into his flesh, beginning to pull him back down to the ground and struggle to rip a chunk of food off his terror-stricken prey.

As quickly as he felt the world and the wolves cave in around him as more teeth began to sink into him, everything in time seemed to pause, replaced by the "CRACK" noise to fill his ears, but this time much closer. He lay curled up in the snow as his weeping and rose-red blood mixed into a vile concoction, waiting for Death to claim him. But Death didn't come that day. Instead, the pony looked up to see the red, blood-stained snow, and in the puddle lay one of his attackers motionless on it's side. Slowly rising to his hooves he looked over the corpse of the wolf and saw the two aliens standing next to their four-wheeled contraption back where he first saw the wolves, the hooded one with the long object in his grasp, moving to aim it downwards to the ground to show that it meant no harm.

The colt only stared at the pair of aliens, but when the one without the rod began to approach the colt, the other alien put his outstretched limb across it's path and mumbled something incoherent as they both looked at each other. When they looked back to him, the pony realised that this was his goodbye, beginning to turn around and limp towards the cave in the stone wall. Without looking back he climbed the rocks and disappeared over them into the dark hollows of the mountain, where the river flowed through and into the stream.