Little Redd: the Lost Concept of Peace

Chapter Twenty One

By the Flight of Night

Redd shimmered away, an iridescent red shine passing over her.

"Be careful," Hawk said, taking a step toward her as she vanished.

He sighed and turned, only to be met nose-to-nose with Eagle Eye.

"Well, somepony's got a laaadyfrieeend," he chided in a sing-song voice.

Hawk Eye shoved him back and shot him a dark look before walking back the way he came, towards the Everfree.

"It's nearly eleven, Eagle.  I don't have time to waste right now."

Eagle Eye fell into step beside him, visibly pondering what his brother meant.

"Oh, right.  Sorry, I forgot you're on your period."

He received another look from Hawk.

"That's an... oddly observant way to put it."

He let a humored smirk crack across his face.

"Although accurate."

Laughter echoed across the streets, Eagle unable to maintain his composure.

The foliage parted, and a jet black stallion stepped into the clearing closely followed by his brother.  Zecora sat in the center, meditating with a small leather pouch on a string around her neck.  She flinched, leaving her trance with an ungraceful yelp, before standing and brushing a few leaves off of her flank.

"Once you wake, the hour will be nigh.  To remain unseen, do not fly too high," she grunted irritably.

Hawk nodded, smirking at her state of disarray.

"I've done this enough to know that, Zecora.  I'll be fine."

Eagle Eye scoffed.

"Always so sure of yourself.  Be humble for once."

Hawk's expression remained rigid as his hoof launched into Eagle's side, knocking a satisfactory grunt out of him.  Hawk Eye walked over to Zecora, who took the pouch from around her neck and opened it.  A sweet aroma greeted him as he lowered his nose and took a deep breath of the pollens inside.  Almost immediately, his eyes crossed and his legs buckled, his body hitting the ground with a thud.  His breathing became erratic, slowly calming until his eyelids closed, and he fell into a slumber.  Once he was down, Eagle Eye and Zecora watched him for a moment, before locating and lying under their respective trees.

Glancing up at the moon, Eagle confirmed that it was only a few moments before it would strike midnight.

Just a couple more minutes...

Zecora followed his gaze into the sky, and nodded.  Suddenly, Hawk's unconscious form exploded in a white wave of fire.  A bronze blur erupted from the rising flames, soaring into the sky with a speed previously unaccounted for.  It slowed down, tipped backwards, and fell into a dive towards the trees.  At a split-second's brush with death, Hawk Eye opened his wings, pulling out of the dive and leaving the autumn trees, mere inches below him, bare in his wake.  He did a barrelroll, tilted to the side, and let the wind redirect him back to Zecora and Eagle Eye.  He hit the clearing hard, overturning grass and leaving long claw marks in the soil, before turning to his companions.

He was glowing.  Absolutely, positively glowing.

"I've been waiting for ages to do that!"

Eagle grinned through his jealousy.

"I just wish I had enough of dad in me to join you," he said, stepping towards his brother and wrapping his foreleg around Hawk's neck in a bro hug.

Hawk's nose pointed into the air, and his pupils visibly dilated under the moon.

"Strawberries," he hissed, shaking Eagle's arm off and darting into the foliage.

Eagle stumbled through the bushes after Hawk Eye and his hoof caught on a root.  An audible growl erupted from his throat as he hit the ground cursing.

"Bucking trees, bucking roots, bucking bugs, bucking... "

At a loss for further targets to buck, he growled again as he got to his hooves.

"Where the hell is he going!?"

Hawk Eye leapt over yet another bush, navigating the Everfree as if he'd been born there.  The sweet aroma of strawberries was getting stronger, but he had never been this deep in the Forest before, and that fact was worrying him.  His ear twitched as he heard a faint roar, not of a creature, but rather that of rain.  The strawberries were in the same direction, but he stopped and continued cautiously despite the overwhelming urge to break back into a sprint.  The terrain was rougher here, more stones hidden in the leaves and large boulders outsizing him by several feet.  The trees became less than favorably dense, and he'd smacked his muzzle into a trunk more than once.  He was beginning to wonder if all of this was worth it as he pushed through another shrub and promptly stared in awe.

Yet another clearing stretched out before him, a monstrous, grassy stone overhang extending from a hill in the opposite end he had entered from.  From this overhang a waterfall poured into a crystal clear pond, reflecting the stars with a semicircle of strawberry bushes along the left side.  From the right side of the water a large oak tree stood at a diagonal angle, providing shelter for about a tenth of the glassy surface.

Hawk Eye snapped himself out of his stupor and walked across the twenty foot gap of grass between the edge of the trees and the pond, before taking a mouthful of strawberries and further exploring the oasis.

The bottom of the pond was bare stone, rays from the moon dancing across the rocks like the Northern Lights.  The oak tree was young and in great condition, serving as only the most perfect of lounge space.  The waterfall mostly added to the beauty of the area, but he tested it out and it nevertheless stood as the most amazing shower he had ever been in.  Living up to the Autumn name, the water was freezing cold, yet oddly refreshing.  As for the strawberry bushes?

Couldn't have built this place better myself, Hawk thought, happily chewing on a berry while relaxing in the oak tree.

He popped another in his mouth as his ears picked up a frustrated howl.  Eagle Eye stumbled through the foliage closely followed by Zecora, who was more graceful in her efforts.  Picking himself up off the ground, Eagle's coat was matted with sticks, thorns, leaves, and stained with topsoil.  He took in his surroundings for a moment before his eyes landed on Hawk, and he stiffened.

"Why'd you just get up and go like that?"

Hawk Eye snickered, popping another strawberry in his mouth.

"You mean to tell me that you can't keep up?  Come on, bro.  Lighten up.  Enjoy the fragment of heaven that's befallen this forest."

He was about to throw another berry in his mouth before his form suddenly shifted, and he slipped out of the tree into the water.  Eagle didn't bother hiding his laughter as he shook the debris off of himself.  Hawk resurfaced, and swam back out of the water in his familiar black coat and bronze mane.