Chapters Chapter 1: Dreams
My name is Zecora of the Pundamilialian Empire, or at least it use to be. The story you are about to read is an account of my travels. It is a story of struggles and hardships, but also of triumph. Learn from my mistakes and my victories, as well as those of my predecessors and very little in this world will surprise you.
The Book of Travels: Journey of Zecora
I stood on a castle tower balcony, overlooking a great city perched on the side of mountain. Below the city I spotted many figures going about their lives, not bothered in the slightest by the looming structure to their backs.
Farther down there was a plain that spanned the horizon, pockmarked with small towns. I thought it quite beautiful, if only because it seemed to think it was, if that makes any sense. I drank in the fresh, cool, air and watched the landscape below for another few hours, calmly staring out across the shimmering landscape as the sun drifted steadily thru the sky.
Around mid-day I turned from the balcony and made my way to the door into the castle. I did not have a particular reason for doing this. In fact, I could have stood atop the high tower for many more hours before I grew bored of watching the unfamiliar terrain, but I felt compelled to move by some unseen force. I walked the empty halls of the grand structure, calmly treading the silent corridors. The city itself was much more lively, but I found it difficult to look directly at anyone. They all wore such bright colors that hurt my eyes, reminding me of the traditional robs of the southernmost parts of the empire.
Despite the discomfort I slowly made my way through the group surrounding me and onto the open street. No one attempted to follow me and when I turned back to the castle hold the crowd had dispersed, leaving without a trace. It was strange, despite coming into extremely close proximity to a great many of the unusual people, not one of them had said a word. Now that I thought about it I hadn’t heard a thing since arriving, not even a gentle breeze. Still pondering the oddness of my current situation I made my way down the road, toward the outskirts of the courtyard.
The explosion had come from one of the towers that marked the perimeter of the castle. I did not hear it, but I felt in the very core of my being. A blinding sphere of light expanded outwards, descending towered me, crackling with lightning and pure energy. Staring with wide-eyed fascination I did not even have time to move before the leading edge hit me.
I awoke with a start and sprang to my feet. I was not generally a morning person, but today my eyes were wide open before I even hit the floor.
I had never seen anyplace quite like the castle in my dreams. For one it was on a mountain. I had seen hills before, but for the most part my world was flat, consisting of open savanna with the occasional spot of dessert and shrub land. Although I had never seen a proper mountain, I could clearly visualize the vast range that stretched across my field of vision.
The castle city was even more impressive than what it sat upon. I had seen cities before, but none anywhere close to the scale of that one. A shame my avatar did not seem to appreciate it, or perhaps I might have explored it more.
“Well enough of this, I have many things to do and the day will not get any shorter,” I said to myself. The floor creaked nosily as I made my way across my small room and down the stairs to the centralized cooking space that I shared with ten other families. The sun was just starting to peek over the horizon, but already there was quite a bit going on.
“Hello, Zecora. It’s good to see you while the sun is still in the sky. With how it was going I thought you would not wake before night fall.” I turned to see a young mare standing across the room from me. She had been mixing up some bread dough for their dinner, but had turned around when I came down.
“It is good to see you as well, Akilah,” I replied with a smirk.
“Masfiri is coming back today isn’t he,” Akilah said. I frowned at her. ‘She just had to bring that up didn’t she’ I thought.
“He will, if he stuck to the road; which he didn’t, like always,” I said.
“You know as well as I do that he will be back precisely when he said he would. Have a little faith in the man.”
Masfiri was a circuit runner for the new Pundamilialian leadership, or The Tani as they called themselves. He was also my guardian.
The new leadership took power right about the time I was born. Its rise to supremacy caught everyone off guard. One day they were a group of ill contents, the next they had successfully pulled off the largest coup in Pundamilialian history. They had struck all of the empires vital military outposts simultaneously, using pitched battle, surprise attacks, and sabotage from the inside to their upmost advantage. They had leveled both the old government and the old capital before the day was out.
Circuit Riders were initiated after the worst of the revolts passed. Instead of spreading their armies too thin, the Tani would simply send a few scouts to check up on the many towns and villages under their dominion to check up on them and let their forces stay in the hot spots.
Many of my neighbors in Tamu, the small community we called home, viewed Masfiri as a sell out for working with the government. Ours was an isolated community where many who did not agree with all of the Tani’s policies found refuge. Masfiri himself said he just did it for the money, but I thought that it was more likely he just wanted to get out. When I was younger he had regaled me with stories of his travels into far off lands filled with strange and interesting people. When I was old enough to look after myself for any extended periods of time he was off like a flash. I didn’t mind too much; it was just the way things were.
“I do trust him, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it,” I said. “So what are you doing here? I had thought you had started your apprenticeship with the peacekeepers yesterday. We had a big farewell dinner and everything.”
The peacekeepers were created along with the circuit runners and served the same general purpose, except it was for the inside territories rather than outermost settlements. They were at least tolerated because members of the community they were in generally made up their ranks.
“That was just a introductory seminar,” Akilah replied. “They gave me the next two days to ‘get your affairs in order and finalize any arrangements regarding your estate, just in case you get yourself killed on duty’,” she said, imitating the commander of the watch’s sarcastic tone. He was a nice enough guy, if a bit unprofessional at times.
I laughed at my friend’s antics. “Well, I’ll make you a deal. If you leave me all of your nothing, I’ll leave you all of my nothing. Sound like a deal?” I said.
“OK, but be carful. That almost sounds promising enough to do off with you,” Akilah replied. “If you really want to do that you can sign the paper. It would mean a lot to me if you did,” she added after a second. Her face had taken on a slightly more serious look, although it still didn’t lose its smile.
“Well if you really want me to I will, but on one condition; we have to spend the day doing what I want this time,” I said, letting a mischievous glint creep into my eyes.
Akilah rested her chin on her palm. ““So, what am I in for?” she asked after a second.
I smiled maliciously over at my friend, savoring my victory. “Follow me, my dear, for we shall now go to the library!!!”
“How did I know you were going to say that,” Akilah said with a look of pure misery as we made our way out of town and toward a small grove of trees a few miles away.
I only laughed. “Because it’s what I always say,” I said. Akilah might make a big deal out of having to put up with my reading habit. Despite the numerous protests against the learned arts, I had been forced to rip her away from a good read on more than one occasion.
The library really didn’t live up to its name. It was just an old hollowed out tree that I retrofitted to store my ever-growing collection starting with when I got my first book. That was one of my most cherished memories from childhood. It was back when Masfiri wasn’t working and spent much of his time with me. I had been crying, for what reason I could not remember, and he had distracted me by reading out of an old storybook. The idea of holding a collection of parchment and weaving a story was magical to my young mind. I had to have more.
Over the next few months Masfiri taught me how to read and later write. According to him I was a quick study, although I had no one to compare myself with. The Tani had outlawed any written words back when I was just a baby, deeming that they all be burned. I don’t know why Masfiri kept that one.
It was just after the last big rain of the season when he gave me the storybook. “Look after this book, Zecora. Knowledge is the most valuable possession you can have, be that knowledge from a book or from life,” he had said. “Between you and me, books are easier teachers.” From anyone else I would have thought the last bit a joke, but he never joked. This was not the same as not being funny; many things he said were funny. It was that everything he said had a purpose, apparent or not, and I was expected to take it to heart.
He had left on his first mission the week after I got the book, but I was too enchanted by it to notice too much of his absence.
I moved my slowly growing supply of tomes to the tree after Akilah had found them under my bed. It hadn’t turned out to be too big a deal. Despite her parents being firm supporters of the Tani, they had taught their children the basics of reading when they were young. Because of this Akilah was more interested to see if there were anything she would like rather than the possible penalties of not turning me in. Despite this stroke of luck I thought that it would be best if I moved my books to a more secure location. After all, if one person could find my little secret, then more could.
Now I had more than thirty books. I had collected them from traveling vendors, older community members, and Masfiri.
The tree itself was a real forest giant, unlike most of its companions in the glade. Time had eaten away at its core, creating the cavity I used as my library, but it still stood strong.
I looked over at Akilah who had snagged a book on unarmed combat and laughed silently to myself. Typical. Akilah had always been slightly obsessed with fighting, but it had gone to a whole new level once she had been accepted into the peacekeeping force.
Akilah glanced over before setting into the tome. “Do we have to do this? Why don’t we go down to the river and swim? It’s to hot here.” I could tell she was only putting up some resistance in order to save some face. She looked far too comfortable for that voice to be genuine.
“The shade of the trees offers better protection than the river. It practically boils this time of year.”
“Fine, but after the sun goes down a ways we get to do something I want to do.” I smiled and nodded my consent.
Grabbing a book on the history of navigation titled Longitude for myself, I settled down on a bed of grass. It was the latest gift from Masfiri, a treasure acquired on his travels. I opened up the book to where I had left off and began to read.
“Here lies the real, hard-core difference between latitude and longitude- beyond the superficial difference in line direction that any child can see: The zero-degree parallel of latitude is fixed by the laws of nature, while the zero-degree meridian of longitude shifts like the sands of time."
Chapter 2: The Book
“Let’s go Zecora! You said we could go after you were done with the first book!” Akilah huffed.
My joints showed their resentment of having stayed in one position for to long by creaking in protest as I got up from my sitting position. The sun had long since started its downward arc, leaving long shadows across the all encompassing grassland, giving testament to just how much longer we had spent in the glade then I had planned.
“Come on. If I don’t do something exciting within the next five minutes I will explode,” Akilah said over her shoulder as she started to run across the savannah toward Tamu. I chuckled softly at my friend’s antics and made after her.
After we had made it nearly half way across, Akilah stopped dead in her tracks and turned around, a mischievous glint tainting her eyes.
“Seeing as you drug me out miles away from anything fun to sit and read for hours on end, I do believe it is my turn to decide what we do,” she said.
I groaned. “Not this again.”
“I’m an addict, OK? Just stop talking and get ready.”
Sighing, I assumed a fighting stance. While I thought Akilah’s obsession with sparring was funny, it did get annoying at times, especially in the hot sun of mid summer.
We closed the distance in just a few quick steps, trying to win an early advantage. I blocked a strike to my neck, quickly following through with my own swipe to the chest. Akilah tried combating this with shear ferocity and strength, but it was a futile effort. Less then thirty seconds into the fight one of my blows got through her defense, sending Akilah reeling backward.
I glanced down at my fallen foe. “Are we done now, or do you want to get beat up again?”
Akilah laughed and sprang back to her feet. “You aren’t getting out of this that easily. Again and this time put some feeling into it!”
The next bout went just as quickly and with the same result, but on the third Akilah brock through my defense, knocking me to the ground.
“Ha. I stand victorious!” she yelled triumphantly.
“No chance. It was best out of three,” I said, scrambling back to my feet.
“I say three out of five,” she rebuked.
I laughed and got back into position. “Fine, but it’s your funeral.”
We fought late into the day, stopping only when the light was too dim to see by. My night vision never had been the best and Akilah was kind enough to only take advantage of the fact a few times before we called it for the day.
“Why don’t you try this with one of your peacekeeper buddies? Maybe then it could actually be a fight,” I said, once we made it back to our home.
“As if. I creamed you,” Akilah replied.
I chuckled. “If you call 23 to 26 a win.”
“How can you even know that? I lost track at 13 to 12,” she asked.
“When I was taught how to fight I was told to watch everything and keep every detail,” I said with a grin. I had learned the skill from Masfiri. He had been a hard taskmaster but I hadn’t complained. When I was younger I would have gone through much more to spend time with him.
Akilah sighed in exasperation. “Well, at least now I know I could beat anyone else in this town.”
“You mean to say ‘I could best anyone else in this town, save one’, I presume,” a new voice said from the stairs leading to the living spaces.
Akilah turned toward the voice and smiled. “Of course Masfiri, although I’m a little surprised you would consider yourself tied to this little town.”
Masfiri laughed. “I do enjoy my travels, this is true, but there is only one place I can call home.” Masfiri was a big man, even as he advanced in age, and made for an impressive figure standing in the cramped stairwell.
“So, how was your trip?” I asked, mildly annoyed that Masfiri was chatting it up with Akilah instead of me when we hadn’t seen each other in four months.
“Uneventful. The southern most parts of the empire are getting restless, but that is to be expected after a drought like the one they’re having.”
“Well, I hope it doesn’t escalate. I don’t want to be transferred away to the far corners of the empire before I even finish basic training!” Akilah said with a laugh.
“So you got into the corp. Good for you! At least one of us has started to make something of ourselves,” Masfiri said. Although his face was all smiles, for a moment I saw a different emotion surface behind his field of calm.
“Well, we best let you get off to bed. Your last day as a care-free mare starts in a few hours and you want to be well rested,” I said before the conversation could kick off again. I then turned to my guardian. “You as well Masfiri. If I know you it’s been three days since your last proper sleep.”
Masfiri turned and gave me a smile. “That’s a good idea. You two probably are going to be at it all day tomorrow, and it would be wise to be well rested.”
“If you all insist, but I’ll be getting up at first light, so you better take your own advice,” Akilah said.
“I will. See you in the morning.”
After we had retired to our shared room Masfiri turned to me. “So, what have you been doing while I was away? I mean besides beating up on your friends,” he asked.
“I finished that book you gave me,” I answered, ignoring his sarcasm. “Other then that, Akilah and I spent a lot of time out to the west a ways. The wetlands are always so pretty this time of year.”
Masfiri sighed. “You know I don’t like it when you roam like that. What if there had been a flood well you hiked through a gorge, or what if you had run into some rebels. The world is a dangerous place filled with people who would not think twice about doing away with you. Even if you have friends with you it can still be dangerous.”
I rolled my eyes. Masfiri always got a bit paranoid when I started mentioning my adventures. Like he was one to talk. He traveled all over the world in his youth. It was definitely time for a change of topic, even if messing with him was fun. “I had a strange dreams last night,” I said.
“Is that so. What was so strange about it?” Masfiri said, letting his line of interrogation go.
I had to think about that for a second. “I don’t know. It was it was really life-like. I was just standing in a room in this castle, then whole place blew up all of a sudden right before I woke up.”
Masfiri’s eyes snapped wide open. “Could you describe the castle to me?” he asked.
I frowned a bit at his reaction but complied. “It was a big castle overlooking a city on the side of a mountain.”
My answer seemed to only add to Masfiri’s intrigue. “That sounds like Saba Urefu. But how could that be? You were much to young to remember,” he said, seemingly to himself.
I gave him a puzzled look. “You mean the old capital? Wasn’t it destroyed in the revolution?”
Masfiri jumped a little at my voice, but quickly managed to gain back control of his features. “Yes. You were actually born there, so it’s possible that you remember it, but you were a few weeks old at best. Your father was the military adviser to King Mwenye so you would have seen at least some of the castle and might have seen the blast at its source.”
I was about to say that the explosion didn’t look near powerful enough to destroy a city when Masfiri’s other words hit me. I almost lost my balance on my chair. Up untill this point he had never once hinted off my origins, and I had kept a respectful distance from the topic since it obviously bothered him. Know he was telling me not only where I came from, but who my father was.
Masfiri’s smiled as he continued with his story, seeming to read my emotions. “He was named Zuberi and he was my brother. A good man if ever there was one. All throughout our childhood he would bail me out whenever I got into trouble. One time when we were not much younger then you I got myself lost out exploring. He searched for three months before he finally found me staying with an old man just a few days travel from our lands. He was a good stallion as well, but that’s a story for another time.”
My mind was in overdrive as I tried to process all of this new information. I had fight back my questions as I listened on.
“As you know I did a lot more adventuring in my youth then I do know, but even then we stayed pretty close. Even as the world moved on around us, we never lost our bond.” Masfiri fell silent with a far off expression on his features.
“What happened to him?” I asked when it was clear no more of the story was forthcoming. It was clear that this story hurting… my uncle?… but I needed to know.
Masfiri gave the floor a tired sigh and looked up at me. “He was killed in the revolution. I’m not certain of what happened and when, but he was long dead by the time I reached the scene.”
“Why are you telling me this now?” I finally asked.
Masfiri’s gentle smile returned to his face, as if the reminder of the present had chased away the demons of the past. “I kept silent throughout your childhood in order to keep you safe from those who would use that kind of knowledge against you. It is long past time I told you, but I guess I’ve been putting it off the past few years.” He met my gaze, his usual unreadable expression once again taking hold. “I know you must have a lot of questions, but they’ll have to wait until morning. There is much to do and not much time to do it in.”
With that Masfiri turned and retreated back down the stairs and out into the street below. I stared blankly at the empty space he left behind for a couple moments before I heard his huff steps fade to silence.
When I awoke, I heard sounds of movement coming from the far corner of the room. It was still dark out, with no trace of twilight in the night air. Slowly I opened my eyes and peaked across the room, only to see Masfiri rummaging around in a crate that I had never seen before.
“Good morning,” he said without turning around. “I hope you don’t mind if breakfast’s cold; I made it a couple hours ago.”
I looked outside. The moon was still high in the sky, giving clear indication that morning was still hours away. “Did you get any sleep last night?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
Masfiri shook his head confirming my suspicion. “This is too important to let slip even one more day. There are forces in your life you are unaware of, and I can’t allow you to live in ignorance anymore. I owe you and your father that much,” he said. “Our clan is an ancient one. Of all of the Oloitiko clans the Elong’a were the oldest and most respected. When we joined the empire our strength granted our people the leverage we needed to remain a separate entity within the whole,” Masfiri said as he dug through the box and pulling out a collection of ten gold bands: five neckpieces, and five bracelets. “These were your fathers symbol of station. There was a reason he was selected as the military adviser to King Mwenye. He wanted someone who could bind our people closer together. Our family has led the Elong’a for generations so Zuberi, a natural born warrior and tactician, was the logical choice. His heritage meant a lot to him, even if it caused him problems every now and then. It would have meant a lot to him if you had them.”
I was dumbfounded at this latest development. I knew I was Oloitiko, although I had kept it hidden as best I could. The zebras of Pundamilia were generally nice enough, but not the most accepting of outsiders. I was not so well versed in the interworking’s of my people as I would have liked, but I knew a bit about the Elong’a clan. It wasn’t a mystery what Masfiri meant when he said leverage.
“I understand if this confuses you, but I had to keep it a secret. If I had told you when you were younger you might have told one of your friends and I couldn’t take the chance. There are people that you haven’t even meet that would kill you without a second thought. And never will meet if we can continue to keep your existence a secret.”
“Why wouldn’t they know I exist? If I’m part of a ruling family, shouldn’t that be documented?” I asked. The thought of people I had never meet wanting me dead was fairly unnerving, but of all of the information I had been feed thus far, this struck me as the most odd.
“Your parents kept you a secret. They didn’t want you to suffer because of their relationship,” Masfiri said. I looked at him quizzically.
Masfiri gave me a reassuring glance. “Their marriage was very unorthodox, even back then. Now I doubt even their station would have made it possible without the whole country going into a blood rage,” he said. “You see your mother wasn’t Pundamilian or a Oloitiko; she was an ambassador from Equestria, a country far to the north and east. When you were born they decided to keep you out of the public eye to avoid any tension your existence may have caused. The only people who knew anything of your birth besides me were in the castle when it was destroyed. I moved us here because many who don’t agree with the Tani fond refuge here. I didn’t want you growing up around people who would openly despised you if they knew your secret. You were never meant to stagnate here, which brings us to the second object of discussion.”
At this Masfiri lifted a large tome out of the crate, treating it almost reverently. Bond in two thin slabs of a dark polished wood and held together with twine, it looked older then any work I had ever laid eyes on. “The Book of Travels” was written in large elegant script on the front cover.
Masfiri looked down at the old tome in his hands as if they were long lost lovers. “This book was given to me when I was a boy just starting down the road of a traveler. Read it with an open eye and very little about this world will surprise you,” he said. “I have grown old and tired and my journey is nearly at its end. You have an adventures sprit and are ready to go forth into the world.” He finished his proclamation by handing the book to me. I took it gently into my hands and laid it down on my bed. I looked back up at Masfiri who still had his eyes on the book. Slowly, he too lifted his gaze.
“The next time I leave for the outer reaches of the empire I want you to come with me. You need to see what the world has to offer and someday move past our boundaries, if you so choose. The time to sit idle has past. Now we move forward into tomorrow.”
Chapter 3: Changes
I did not get as much time to study The Book of Travels as I would have liked after Masfiri left. It was a series of short stories and biographers that, from what I had read, spanned a truly epic time scale. The first twenty pages were nothing but a table of contents, listing the names of the various authors. Many of the names were written in strange languages, with only the last two names recognizable as Pundamilian. The first was unfamiliar, but the last was as recognizable as the day. Masfiri.
“Come on Zecora! The sun is up, it is time to go!” she yelled in excitement as she rushed across the room towards me.
“What do you mean? Where are you going?” I asked breaking out of my trance, thoroughly confused.
Akilah stopped and grinned at me menacingly. “It’s my last day as a civilian so we are going to have fun,” she said.
“That’s today?! I’m sorry, there was so much going on this morning I completely forgot,” I exclaimed. I quickly got to my feet and put the book in my backpack.
The sun was just starting to heat the air as we walked past old, run down, shops and residential buildings toward the center of town. Most would undoubtedly find Tamu depressing, but to me it gave the town a homely feel that I had never replicated in any of the other places I had visited.
Akilah glanced over at me. “Are you seriously going to bring your book with us. I figured you got a new one when you weren’t down at sunrise but this is my day and that means no reading,” she said with a smirk.
I looked at her in mock horror, which quickly subsided into a fit of giggles. “I know that, but this a special book and I can’t leave it laying around just anywhere. My uncle would kill me.” I recognized my mistake just as it left my mouth. Masfiri hadn’t sworn me to secrecy but he had definitely implied that most of our earlier conversation should stay between us.
My friend looked at me in confusion “Your uncle? I thought you didn’t have any relatives. Did Masfiri say something last night.”
Well, to late now. “Do you think you can keep a secret?” I asked.
Akilah nodded. “Of course. You know you can tell me anything.” I gave her a searching glance before nodding back. “That’s actually who I mean. We had a talk last night, and it turned out he’s my uncle.”
Akilah stared at me for a second. “While, that’s different.”
I smirked. “No kidding. I’ve had a little bit of time to settle in, but I still can’t believe it. Still, it seems rather mundane compared to some of the other things he told me this morning.” By now we had passed into the market. Usually it did not attract much attention entail after fresh produce was set out after the midday sun had lost its heat, but not today.
A large crowd had gathered around the open courtyard that was the center of the market, despite the lack of wares. I could hear the sound of raised voices coming from within, but I couldn’t make out what was being said over the din of the muttering crowd.
“What’s going on over there?” Akilah asked, as they came into view.
I took a quick scan of the crowd. They seemed uneasy, like they were angry about something. “I don’t know,” I finally said, perplexed.
We quickly made their way across the courtyard and into the crowd, letting the sound of our footfall animate our approach, but we still had to push and shove some people out of the way. Finally, we made it to the front of the mob and could see what had drawn the crowed. An impromptu stage had been constructed out of some readily available packing crates. The whole construct was rather hokey, but it got the job done. Keeping a perimeter around the stage were twelve peacekeepers. Five of them were locals, but I had never seen the others before. I would have laughed at how serious they looked if it weren’t for what they were guarding.
Standing on top of the crate was another peacekeeper, holding Masfiri down with one arm while gesturing wildly with the other. The new peacekeeper wore the black sash of a lieutenant marking him as the leader of the group. He was a big man, one of the largest men I had ever seen. I briefly wondered why Masfiri didn’t get up and clobber the guy, until I saw his legs. They were broken.
Despite the growing heat there was no trace of perspiration on the lieutenants brow. He was saying something, but despite being close enough to hear I still couldn’t make out his words. I could only stare in fascination as my uncle was dragged to the front of the platform. He glared over at his captor, showing no sign of the pain he was undoubtedly in. By the look on his face I figured the lieutenants must have said something he did not approve of. Go figure.
Before he could open his mouth to speak one of the peacekeepers was on him with the shaft of his spear, driving his already kneeling body to the ground. He screamed something, whether it was an animal howl or a cry of resistance I would never know, for like the rest of the scene it was silent. Another one of the guards drew a short, single edged sword and made his way towered him. With one slash to the neck Masfiri’s body went limp. After a few long seconds blood began to poor out of him, staining the platform red.
I moved before I could think, tackling a guard to the ground and ripping the sword out of her mouth. With a quick nock to the temple with the pommel of her own weapon she collapsed, out cold or dead I didn’t care. Now armed with my fallen enemy’s blade I set upon the rest of the patrol.
The first two went down before they knew what hit them, but surprise is a short-lived thing, especially in trained soldiers. Five of them were on me before I had a chance to strike out again. Using the weight of numbers they pushed me back of the platform, allowing them the benefit of the high ground.
Instinct saved my life. Without knowing why I did a lightning fast roll to the side. Maybe it was a slight sound, picked up by my unconscious mind; maybe it was years of fighting experience telling me that there were danger, it would come from behind. Regardless, if I had stayed in that spot even a moment longer the lieutenant’s sword would have impaled me.
I shot back to my feet to meet my new opponent, but even with all my speed I was too slow. Before I could regain my balance he lunged forward once again, stabbing me in my left shoulder, sending a wave of agony through my body. With an animal howl I lunged at him with all my might, but he easily parried the effort. With the brief moment it did gain me I toke stock of my situation. The others had held back thus far, allowing their superior the chance to bet me himself, but they wouldn’t hold out for long. If I were to win it would have to be now.
Unfortunately it was not to be. While I was a trained martial artiest and considered one of the best in my community I was no warrior. I had been fighting the lieutenant as if he was my equal, but that simply was not the case. In my moments hesitation he raised his blade high, swinging with the strength of a giant. I stared transfixed as time slowed, allowing me to see in perfect detail the instrument of my death, but powerless to stop it. But then, just before sword met hide, there was a bright light that blocked out my entire field of vision. When it cleared I staggered back at the sight. The ground was littered with bodies. Guards lay unmoving on the ground with numerous unmarked figures scattered among them, civilians that had been caught up it the light, whatever it was. Most of the crowd had scattered to the wind, leaving the courtyard bare of any sign of their passing except for the dead. I was the only one left standing.
“Zecora…”
I wiped around at the sound of my name. I could not see anything but more corpses. The body of Masfiri began to move, slowly started to roll over so that it faced me. The gash on his neck had stopped bleeding quite so profusely, but the amount he had already lost was massive. He should not have been alive.
“Zecora, come here. There is not much time,” he said weakly.
Quickly compiling to his request, I knelt down next to him. “I’m here uncle. Tell me what to do,” I said. Glancing around I looked for anything I could use to steam the blood flow. Spying a fallen soldier, I ripped off his uniform and pressed it against Masfiri’s neck. The effort was futile. Even at its reduced rate, there was too much blood being pumped out of his body for me to stop.
Masfiri chuckled slightly. “This is it for me. I have grown complacent in my old age and it finally got the best of me. That crate had more in it then some old family trinkets and books. I shouldn’t have moved it during the day, but I thought my position would exclude me from being searched. I was a fool.” His breath was coming in ragged gasps at this point and his voice lacked the straight to project over a whisper. Nevertheless he pressed on. “You can’t stay here now. You may have been able to take down a dozen peacekeepers without contest, but after the little show you just put on the Tani will not allow you to live. Soon you will have real soldiers on your tail. You must be far away from here before they arrive.”
I was dumbstruck. Throughout my life Masfiri had always been a constant. A life without him was incomprehensible. “There has to be some other way,” I said, tears streaming down my face. “You can’t just die.”
“I am already dead. You need to head north to your mothers homeland of Equestria, you may be accepted there. I did not know her but your father loved her, so she would not turn you away.”
“No I won’t just leave you. We can make it. You just have to get up. I know you can make it. Just get up.”
Masfiri smiled up at me. “You were my best adventure,” he said in a quiet whisper before he let out one last shallow breath and was still. I could still make out the gentle smile on to Masfiri’s face.
I sat by the body of my uncle, unmoving. When the world finally came back to me it was with the sound of an approaching army. I looked up from were I knelt to see a huge mob of peacekeepers and villagers coming from the direction of the fort, at least a hundred strong. I could not make out individual faces from the distance, but I knew that many of them were friends.
“Get her. Surround the courtyard, leave nowhere for her to go,” someone yelled. It sounded like Akilah.
Moving quickly I grabbed the sergeant’s sash, making a bandage for my wound and grabbed his blade. Somehow he was still breathing, but I didn’t have time to fix that even if I had the resolve. After that I turned and ran. Even if I had any desire to stay and fight against my neighbors, I was outnumbered. My only option was to take my uncles advice. Where to go I would decide later.
I made it past the last of the buildings in a blink of an eye. Easily dodging out of the way of the few villagers that tried to intercept me. All of my years exploring the country outside of town paid off as I ran through the grass, opening the distance between my pursuers and myself. The main pack could not hope to match my speed and the few who split off did not know the best rout to take.
Most of the towns people stopped before they got to the grove were the library was located but still I ran. I ran through the grass of the open savanna, I ran in small forest groves, I ran across fields of rock, I ran through flooded swamps.
Images would come to me of times from my childhood, passing before my eyes in no coherent order. When Masfiri comforted me after I got bitten by one of the geese we kept. When he came back from a mission laden down with so many books for me to add to my library he didn’t have room for food in his bags. The time he had introduced me to Akilah.
I finally regained my awareness far to the north west of Tamu in a dried out riverbed I had explored with Akilah two years prior. It had taken us a week to make the journey. After a short while I managed to find a small cave where I could take shelter for the night. Just as my eyes were closing did I finally consider what my uncle had said. My mother was alive. She was in Equestria. I did not know where Equestria was other then north, but I knew I would overcome any obstacle that stood in my way to get to it. In the morning.
Prologue: Broken Ground
Most days I can forget about what happened. Life moves on, and if I don’t stick in the moment I will be left behind, and I can’t let that happen. That would be unfair to her. Most days I wake up to the sound of explosions, only to remember that it is all in my mind. Most days, but not all. On the rare quiet night, when nothing is going on, I remember and I think to myself, ‘could I have done something to stop it?’
The answer, of course, is no and I knew that, but I can’t help but think that it could have been different, if only their had been time.
When I was young I never appreciated what was before me; that only came with age. I longed for the adventure my ancestors faced as they made their slow retreat across a continent before finally reaching the empire. I love the excitement of not knowing what lies beyond the next bend and the thrill of discovering what is. Since becoming an adult I have made dozens of trips to the far corners of the land, journeying many leagues past the empires farthest reaches. I was Masfiri, greatest of the Pundamilian explorers.
My older brother, Zuberi, never had any such desire of grandeur. He joined the guard when he was just a boy. After five years of service he had progressed from the rank and file to being the military adviser to King Mwenye, the highest position you could hold without being on the king’s immediate council.
He was always the calm one; never deviating from what was expected of him, never acting out of turn. Everything he did, he did with the perfection of a master. Despite this, he was far more unpredictable, a quality that came in handy as a military commander. Sometimes he surprised even me. It was his downfall in the end.
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“You are betrothed!” I shouted.
“No, I am already married. You would know this if you had been paying attention,” Zuberi replied, calmly shaking his head triggering his gold bands to gently rattle against themselves. I often wondered why such an unwieldy devise had come to symbolize rank among my people. Once you got to the position of Zuberi they were more of a hindrance than anything.
We were seated in the great hall in the castle of Saba Urefu. Around us the rest of the rooms inhabitance hardly turned their collective heads to see what the commotion was about. Although neither of us spent too much time in the city proper, the sound of our raised voice within its castle walls was not uncommon and they knew that despite our numerous petty arguments we were quite close.
“I’m sorry, brother, but this is quite sudden,” I countered. I had always believed that my brother would die unwed and had never seen a reason to reassess my initial judgment until now.
Zurberi laughed, his dark blue eyes glissading with mirth. “Not in the slightest. We’ve been courting for over two years now.”
“What! It is inconceivable that my own brother, my closest confidant, could get married and not tell me,” I yelled, getting increasingly agitated.
“Do not blame me for your insistence on spending all your time out beyond any such thing as a courier. You have been gone for over three years now,” Zuberi said in exasperation. “It is difficult to correspond with you even when I know were you are and I wasn’t going to wait for you to get back.”
I pursed my lips at the familiar argument. “It’s my job to go out and explore past our frontier. It has to be done by someone,” I argued. “I am just surprised is all; I assumed you were too dedicated to your post to be so easily distracted.”
Zuberi chuckled, “Who ever said I got distracted? Mwenye saw that I was a little downtrodden, so he give me a special assignment to take my mind off things and the rest is history.”
This got my attention. If Zuberi got a special assignment it had to be for something big. He was too skilled to use for just anything. “Is that so. Is she a political prisoner?” I asked in excitement as I allowed one of my brother’s servants to clear my plate.
Zuberi shook his head. “No, she most definitely is not. Just look at it this way. Now I get to do more traveling like you want me to.”
I pondered this statement. “So I’m guessing that she isn’t from around here; or a professional criminal,” I finally said, earning a hearty laugh from Zurberi.
“You guessed correctly the first time. She’s the leader of a group of dignitaries from Equestria, a country far to the north and east. It sounds quite lovely other than the cold and the wet. And here I thought it only got cold if you went south?”
“You would think that,” I said sarcastically. “I’m sorry I got carried away. I ran all night to get back because I was a bit too excitable with only a day’s trek from home.”
“Well, there is no place like home, although I am beginning to consider a change in scenery. When my wife returns to her homeland I plan on accompanying her,” Zuberi said, a determined glint in his eye.
“What! Not only do you marry without me here but you’re leaving as well, all without a word of counsel from me!” I sputtered. My mind reeled as I fought to come to terms with what he had just said. He was leaving! But I had just got back. And besides, he had duties here. “Wouldn’t her staying here be more reasonable? She is a foreign diplomat after all.”
I saw a slight grin play across Zuberi’s face. “Since when have you been against me traveling? If I go with her I’ll be roaming farther than even you have ever gone,” he said with a chuckle. “You do bring up good points, but I seem to have accidently feed you some misleading information. She isn’t actually a foreign dignitary in any regard.”
“Then why is she here? She must be here with some purpose in mind,” I said, now thoroughly confused.
Zuberi just gave me a devious smile. “You’ll find out when you meet her tomorrow. Right now she is catching up on some paperwork and looking after our daughter.”
I was about to comment on how this mysterious enchantress had somehow made my brother a so devious when what he said hit me. “What!!! You just became a father and its only now that I hear about it! As an after thought no less!” I yelled, only remembering to keep my newfound calm once it had been thrown to the wayside once again. After all Zuberi was probably intentionally egging me on. I did not trust his new sense of hummer.
“I’m sorry. You were caught on the whole me being married and moving to a far off land. I thought I’d leave the big stuff for the end,” Zuberi said casually.
“Well can you at least give me their names?” I asked, exasperated.
Zuberi smiled. “No.”
“What?! Why?!” I sputtered.
“I want her to see you butcher her name,” he replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
I glared at him for a second, but seeing that he wasn’t going to brake down I decided to cut my losses. “Well, can you at least tell me your daughter’s name?”
“If I must. Her name is Zecora.”
“As in Zebra? Isn't that a little self serving?” I asked skeptically.
Zuberi just laughed. “I want her to remember her heritage no matter where we end up. Besides, it’s not Pundamilian or Equestrian. It is more of a mix of the two, just like she is.”
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The ground shock violently, knocking me to the ground. I hurriedly lad as flat as possible, hoping the tremor passed before the rock face above me collapsed under the strain. This was unlike any earthquake I had ever experienced. Shock waves hurled over me with the strength of avalanches, uprooting trees and casing whole sections of the mountain slop to crumble away. When it finally stopped the ground was striped bare of life save me. Staggering to my feet I had to do a double take. The sky had light up with the strength of a thousand suns, making the entire world shine like a mirror. It took a second for the light to dim, allowing me to pin point it source. When I did my veins ran cold. It was coming from Saba Urefu, or what had once been Saba Urefu.
Saba Urefu, the City of the Heights, was gone. The city that for centuries had stood as a symbol of unity in the Pundamilian Empire, made of rock queried from the land of the original fifteen tribes, was a heap of rubble. In its entire existence no enemy was able to breach its walls, as if the gods themselves had deemed it so. Now all that remains is ash and dust.
It didn’t take me long to get back to outer walls, or rather the remains of the outer walls; all that was left was a heap of rubble. Inside the walls was worse off by far. Decrepit structures, barely standing, were all that remained of the city. Bodies littered the streets, left were they lay.
The sound of several raised voices reached my ears as I raced past crumbling walls and soot stained buildings. Despite my haste I ducked under a pile of rubble. I didn’t know exactly what happened, but I didn’t like the idea of anyone else was wandering these ruins. Below me I could see a small group of armed soldiers searching the wreckage. Their colors marked as part of the Tani movement, a political group that had popped into existence five years before my latest expedition. They had been a fairly small entity when I left, but know they were one of the most powerful groups outside the king’s immediate family.
“What happened here? This was suppose to be the simple mission,” one of the soldiers yelled. I had spent a large portion of my life trekking thru near impenetrable terrain, but this man made me look like a toothpick. From within their ranks a smaller, but somehow more imposing figure, turned to scan his surroundings. The others in the group were obviously not warriors, but these two looked like professional soldiers. I didn’t like the thought of the Tani hiring mercenaries.
Risking another quick glance I saw that the small one was scanning the wreckage. “We should seek out survivors. With any luck we will connect with our forces and continue the campaign. Be wary; there were foreigners staying in the city before the explosion. I would guess that they had something to do with it,” he said calmly.
Now that it had been pointed out, I knew it couldn’t be coincidence; the Equestrians had been at court at the same time as the explosion. It is said that the many strange and dangerous things exist out beyond the borders of Pundamilia, and I could attest to the existence of many of them. I had never seen nor heard of anything such as this, but that obviously didn’t mean it didn’t exist. All I knew was that none of the bodies I’d seen were Equestrians. What I didn’t know was why. Although I only had words of their good intentions, they seemed sincere enough if only because my brother trusted them. I shock my head in frustration. I would figure it out latter. Right now I just needed to find them.
The last I heard of Zuberi he was with his wife at court with the counsel and the other royal advisors in the grand hall for an early morning meeting. I had been growing increasingly antsy in the big city, so I had decided to take a quick run thru the country, maybe even run into the rest of his party that I had abandoned upon entering into the empire.
Staying low I quickly moved farther away from the group and deeper into the cataclysm. When I finally made it to the castle the sight that met me nearly brought me to tears. If the city was rubble, the castle was sand. For hundreds of feet in all directions the ground lay bare, showing no trace of the once mighty structure. No creature caught in such a blast could have hoped to survive. Ignoring reason, I made my way down the shallow slope trying to find any trace of survivors. Bits of Ash clung to my throat as I blindly made my way forward until I saw something shiny amidst the ruin caught amidst the endless gray. It was my brother’s gold bands.
With an animal like howl I fell to my knees. I was to meet my niece and her mother for the first time today. I was to spend time with my brother before he left forever. Now I was never to see them… I was never to see my brother again.
Clang!
I whipped around at the sound of something shifting in the waste, focusing in on one of the few boulders that survived the explosion. Slowly, I made my way toward it, my imagination working in overdrive as it franticly tried to reach an explanation for the sudden breach of quiet. Whatever it was wasn’t very big if it could hide completely behind such a small piece of cover, but I wasn’t going to take any chances. With the utmost care I stepped around the obstacle and towered my query, ready for anything, or so I thought.
Lying before me was a tiny filly. She could not have been more than a couple of weeks old. She was covered in minor abrasions, but other that that she was fine.
I stared dumfounded at the sight. When I didn’t move away the filly started to whimper quietly. I did not know how this child had come to be in the middle of the blast zone, but I couldn’t stand by and do nothing. “Now, now. Don’t be afraid. Everything will be alright,” I said as soothingly as I could.
At the sound of my voice she stopped shaking and opened her eyes. Despite being drenched in tears and slightly blood shot; her eyes still caught me off guard. They were not just any eyes; they were Zuberi’s eyes. Maybe they were a tad brighter, and maybe they still had the look of innocence only found in the young, but they were without a doubt his eyes.
“Zecora?” I whispered.
Upon hearing her name Zecora’s body relaxed slightly. Within a few moments she had fallen fast asleep, exhausted from the days struggles.
Taking one last look around the ruined castle for any more survivors I gently picked up the sleeping baby. Although I did not know it at the time, my life’s real adventure had just begun, and I loved adventure. If only I could forget where it all began and what it had cost.