Little Redd: the Lost Concept of Peace

Chapter Nineteen

Heavy Relations, Part Five

He acted like he didn't know me.  He's cleverer than he lets on, Zecora thought.

The tea came to a boil, and she poured a glass and made her way over to Redd before realizing that she had already fallen asleep curled up in the corner.  She couldn't stop the smile from spreading across her face as she set the cup to the side, and made her way onto her cot.  She wished Redd would accept her bed, but she was nervous that she would be overstaying her welcome if she did.

A thin blade of sunlight made it's way from the sky, became filtered by the trees and magnified by Zecora's window before landing directly on Redd's slumbering lashes.  Her eyes fluttered open and she stretched, releasing an unearthly groan.  She stood and yawned before taking a step outside, suddenly at attention.

That odor.  That gut-wrenching odor.

Timber wolves.

She burst forth, charging her horn and following her nose through the Everfree.  After roughly a minute of running, she began to hear them.  Snarling, something breaking, the sound of hollow sticks flying into trees.  Their howls and yelps were stacked, at least six or seven times.  On que, she exploded into a clearing, a large wooden body flying in her direction.  Releasing the inferno she had built up, she incinerated the wolf, no fiber nor ash to prove it was ever there.  What was beyond took her breath away.

A dark black stallion spun in the air and landed on one of the wolves, smashing it's head into the ground before reflexively bucking away one from behind and leaping to the left, narrowly dodging yet another attacker from the front.  He landed on the side of a tree, pushing off with incredible force and drilling through another of his foes.  Redd leapt forward and shot down the two of them that were coming to him from behind.  At the sudden burst of dark red light, Hawk Eye's head turned in surprise, just long enough for an enemy to strike him from the side.  They rolled for a moment, both of them snarling, until he managed to physically tear the creature's head off.  Shoving the body off of him, he watched the final wolf take a fine spray of ranged fire from Redd, who slowly progressed with a dangerous look on her face.  Once it was smoking and down, she charged a final shot and pressed her horn against it's forehead.

BOOM!

A large charred crater with no plant life to be found within resulted, the enemy completely gone.

Hawk Eye wasn't in the best of shape.  He had several cuts laced across his body, his armor oddly missing.  His rear left leg harbored a limp, and his ear had a small cut along the edge.  His nose was bloody, and his cheek was slashed across with claw marks.  Out of pure curiosity Redd's eyes wondered to his cutie mark, no longer hidden by his armor.  A thin bronze dragon curled around a dark black sword, also outlined in bronze.  At the hilt, a dark blue gem was enlaid, making the entire image seem to come alive.

Redd's eyes met his again as he approached, avoiding putting weight on his hind leg.

"Are you okay?"

Redd felt great.  Pissed, but great.

"Shouldn't you be asking yourself that question?"

He smirked.

"If you weren't here, I would be," he said, stepping around her to the edge of the clearing.

He retrieved his armor from a bush, mangled and no longer fit to be worn.  It looked like Hawk had used it as a bludgeon.

"If I weren't here, you probably wouldn't have gotten the chance to wonder that."

He grinned.

"Indeed, my little badass.  Indeed."

He turned around, his armor slung across his back.  She flushed at the compliment, and her eyes widened in surprise.  That smile was still there, and it didn't do anything to slow her heart down.

"C'mon.  Let's get you home."

"Hawk Eye, there is nothing wrong with you," Zecora said, wrapping her hooves around his neck.  This gesture surprised him, but he didn't move.

"You just don't know what to do."

He sighed, looking at the ground.

"I'm... a monster.  I dread the moon... "

Fury suddenly built up in his chest, and he turned to the night sky.

"I hate it!"

"How did you know I was in trouble?"

Redd smiled at the ground, casually walking alongside Hawk Eye through the trees.

"I smelled them, and just followed my nose."

He nodded, and winced as a root snagged his limp.  Redd immediately felt guilty, but knew that if she tried to heal him it would probably make his leg explode or something.

God damn chaotic nature.  God damn it all.

After a moment, she heard something.  Soft melodies.  It took her a second to realize that Hawk Eye was humming.  They continued along, and she noticed that she had never heard his song before.

"What're you singing?"

He froze, and his eyes widened.

Shit.

"Uh... "

She smiled at him.

"It's kinda embarrassing... "

Her smile spread into a grin.

"Go on."

He sighed.

"It's a song I learned when I was a colt.  But it's, uh... We're Gonna Be Friends by the White Stripes."

She giggled, and leaned closer to him.

"I'm sure we will, Hawk Eye."

His eyes widened again, and he flushed.

They kept walking, and eventually she nudged him playfully.

"You going to keep singing, or are you shy?"

She loved how she could make him nervous, red shining through the dark coat on his cheeks.

"I, uh... can't really... sing.  Well."

He cleared his throat.

She's choking me up, he realized incredulously.

She laughed, and looked back at him with a glint in her eye.  He couldn't place what it was, but it was there.  It struck a chord in him, urging him to at least attempt.  He sighed and looked into the sky, the sun hitting the 10 o'clock mark.  Then he started humming to himself, slowly escalating in effort until he eventually formed words.

"Fall is here, hear the yell, back to school, ring the bell.  Brand new shoes, walking blues, climb the fence, books and pens.  I can tell that we are gonna be friends.  I can tell that we are gonna be friends."

He began slightly bobbing his head, signifying a rhythm.  Redd smiled at him.

"You lied to me.  You're a wonderful singer."

He smiled back, but didn't answer her.

"Walk with me, Susie Lee, through the park and by the tree.  We will rest upon the ground, and look at all the bugs we found.  Then safely walk to school without a sound.  Safely walk to school without a sound."

This time she simply looked at him, sure that another verse was coming.  She wasn't wrong.

"Well here we are, no one else, we walked to school all by ourselves.  There's dirt on our uniforms, from chasing all the ants and worms.  We clean up and now it's time to learn.  We clean up and now it's time to learn... "