Afternoon

Several hours later…

     Birds were chirping in the tallest branches while the soft whisper of a river sung its melody through the rocks. In the sky the sun was declining definitely, setting for its final destination to conclude that tiring day. The ground was still and quiet, readying for the night, while in the river bank shadows were starting to accommodate and grow. In the ambient that was that display of nature, it wasn't too easy to tell apart many things, for those almost always seemed to merge with the rest of the world, but for the keen ear, the marching of hooves over the stony shores was an ever growing echo in the background of nature.

     Marxwell took a moment to breathe before continuing. His body ached with the aftermath of the fight, his cape was torn in the places where the enemy had pierced his guard, and his fur would take a little while to grow back. He had no wounds anymore though, his healing spells had taken care of that, only the soft yet painful memory of being injured and a perfectly threaded cape torn to shreds over his back… Not the way I planned it, is it?

"Marx!" Tia called from behind. "Where are we going?"

     And there were them still, the alicorns. They had been following him since the end of the battle, and hand't spoke a word, not even when he came off the known way and begun to follow the river course, an hour ago. Marxwell took a peek over his shoulder to show his face with the trace of a cut through his cheek, a new souvenir from Venor's part, and then looked to the front again. Strange, though, that hey'd be back there still.

"I thought you were going to go already" he said without turning.

"We are" responded Tia. "We just happen to go in the same direction as you do."

"Then I don't expect me to answer for your behalf… Not like that again." he briefly turned. "And Neither would I recommend you to remain here. Sooner or later the locals are going to acknowledge that something happened to their 'benefactors', and then they're gonna start asking questions… I just hope they just think they've been coned."

"And if we move?"

"Move?" he stopped, an eyebrow risen. "Then I wouldn't take the risk of going through the open road. Many people go over there, and many of them, if not all, share the same idea about… your kind."

"Then?"

"Travel to the south and catch a ship. Perhaps there's a better chance in the north, who knows? …Just don't travel west. Those are the unicorn kingdoms, and the Horsemaster knows what are they gonna do if they find you."

She seemed to meditate for a second, then smiled sideways. "You seem to know much about the world."

"Well… I've been around" he shrugged, smiling too.

"Are you kidding? You're an adventurer!" put in Luna . "The way you handled those jerks…" she imitated the action of punching someone in a headlock. "'Get away from the fillies, you morons!'" she voice acted him.

     This set both of them in giggles, and even Marxwell's smile grew a little wither, but it didn't last. His face soon returned to its sour expression, and his gaze turned to the river course. A mix between amusement and melancholy in his eyes. Ah, the things one has to do… Damn principles!

"Marx? Are you alright?" Tia asked when she noticed he wasn't laughing, a little remorseful. "We're sorry that you had to deal with your friends because of us."

Marxwell closed his eyes and frowned for a little bit, clenching his lips before lowering his head. Remorse? "Its okay…" he sighed. "They had been asking for trouble for a while now. I'm just glad I saw Ven… depart" he opened his eyes slightly to see both fillies looking concerned at him. Fillies… "…But I gotta admit" he rose his head again, something else starting to grow inside him as his own rascal smile appeared in his face. "Me against five was kind of amazing back there!"

     It took just a second, but the feeling settled right. Luna was the first to burst out in laughing followed by Tia and Marxwell, who just chuckled more because of the fillies' joy than his personal one. The traces of wounds were still fresh, and something like that was a very good mood killer. Either way it was good to see those two happy for once.

"It was good meeting you, Marxwell" Tia said when she finished laughing. "I just wish there'd be more ponies like you."

"Yeah, right" Marxwell chuckled once more. "It was good meeting you too. For once its a job I don't regret to turn down!" he laughed briefly… Then discovered that he was smiling warmly at them. He suddenly cleared his throat to regain his composure. "I, um… I'm glad that you're safe for now and wish you the best of lucks in your way" he turned again, ready to leave. "Until next time… I guess."

     Tia and Luna stood in their place for a second, then lowered their ears as a powerful sensation of disappointment seemed to take over them after his words. Strange, how quick can a feeling change over the course of one phrase only. Both fillies looked like abandoned, even desperate for a moment, before, at least in the case of Tia, the feeling seemed to be absorbed, or concealed, by what surely was her outstanding power of rationalization.

"We…" Tia begun, but stopped to gulp something down her throat. "We wish you well too, Marx."

"Good then…" Marxwell nodded, trying to talk through something unidentified as well. "Good bye."

     Marxwell turned and started walking his way. No point in extending that moment for longer, and besides, he had yet to find his luggage if he were to camp in the river bank. He had been offered a room in the town's inn, but he wouldn't be returning there for a little while. Not while he had to explain so soon how did he got there and the other's didn't. It was common sense, and besides, being prepared for the next eventuality was one of the first lessons he had learned in his travels with Eusquere… Back when he was a filly too.

     He kept on going, turning his thoughts aside like an annoying swarm of insects. At his back nothing had made a sound ever since he had started waling, and for a moment, even though he had went away from those thoughts, something started to wander. Were they… still there? Nah, surely they had gone too, to wherever they wished. They were, after all, or at least Tia, fierce and independent, just like him when he was her age… And just like her when he had been close to loose his life in countless occasions due to his innate ability to stick his nuzzle in wherever he didn't need to-

     He immediately casted those ideas away. Yeah, surely they had taken their own route and would be fine. Of course, disregarding the danger, and the beasts, or the bandits that used to camp in the countryside, feral Changelings, or even other ponies that could mean to harm two defenseless fillies. Specially if those fillies happened to be two alicorns…

     Marxwell took a second, but after it he realized he was actually worried. So worried that, without noticing it, he had stopped moving, and something itched in the back of his neck. A sensation that urged him, pressed him to turn back, even if it were clearly ridiculous… Oh, damn conscience! Sometimes he just wished for things to be simpler-!

"Marx!" the sudden call of Tia brought him back to reality.

     Marxwell turned in a swift movement, his purple eyes and his breathing as equally agitated, and stared back. There were Tia and her sister, not having moved an inch since he had started moving, which, surprisingly, hand't covered more than two yards.

It took a second, but after that Marxwell's composure returned. "Yes?"

     A simple question. Something yet so complicated that it couldn't be that simple. It was a question that demanded an answer, a plead for her lips to burst open and make a decision in life. One that more than surely'd change it all. If only feelings were that simple…

     Tia and Luna gave a step back, more moved apparently by Marxwell's indifference rather than the fact that he had just stopped for them. Marxwell waited, but nothing came out of their mouths, and apparently nothing would. Both Tia and Luna were completely dumbstruck, fighting something inside them that even he, despite his empathy, could find less than hard to recon. No, those lips were sealed as if by saying it would bring upon them some kind of cruse. Perhaps he'll have to take the lead.

"Well?" he asked, as undeterred as he could. "What is it?"

     That abandoned face, those desperate eyes. They were pleading it with all of their strength, and it wasn't that Marxwell didn't have experience with children, but the mere insinuation that what the outcome of that situation would somehow rendered him unable to continue, unsure of accepting something so sudden as it were what they'd suggested.

Luna didn't move, overtaken by that awkward feeling, but Tia did, less sure, true, but at least with initiative. "I-" she mumbled. "Well, we…"

     Something got stuck in her throat. Something that prevented her to finish the sentence, and no matter how hard she tried, words wouldn't come out of her mouth. Or at least that was what came to his mind. Marxwell's gesture hardened, and his eyes began to wonder more than what he seemed certain. Slowly, almost as if he wanted to believe otherwise, he began to turn again, much to the sisters' despair. If the fillies wouldn't state their minds maybe there wasn't a point in staying there after all-

"Wait, please!" a shrilling voice cried at his back.

     The sudden noise of hooves rushing towards him broke his thoughts. Marxwell turned swiftly again to see what had happened. It took a second, but after that the realization didn't fit in his face. Before the shocked lock of Tia and the any less surprised eyes of the freelancer, Luna had broke into gallop and had taken a leap, stretching her wings to soar towards his figure. Neither of the two managed to process what was happening before it did. After a second, Tia's eyes had watered, and Marxwell was being tossed back, almost with the risk of loosing his balance, as the form of a crying Luna had crashed against his chest and grappled to his neck with her forelegs.

"Please don't go!" she cried again. "We wanna come with you!"

     Interesting… Tia rushed back after her sister, at first seemingly determined to set her aside, but upon reaching Marxwell she clanged unto him as well. Marxwell looked at the two of them not really knowing what to do. He tried to do something, say something, but he just couldn't figure what. Just as a moment ago, something had sparkled within him that seemed to make his power of decision completely blank. Interesting… Was all that came to his mind. That something so little had the power to move him within so much.

     Perhaps it wasn't the power of reason, but the lack of it. The pure emotional side that conscience couldn't do anything more than just restrain, and that now was just taking over as his forelegs instinctively rose from its position and wrapped both fillies around with something more than the desire to just hold them. Marxwell had lived too many things in his life, even for a normal pony, but in that moment he found it really difficult to find one single experience that was as nearly as fond as having those two within his grasp could feel.

     Again, it took a second, but after that the realization of composure broke through their minds. And the world returned to how it was a moment before.

"Okay, okay fend off" Marxwell moved away from them. "I… Uhm… respect that you feel that way about this" he scratched the back of his beck. "…But could not assure that you're gonna be better off with me than by your own. A freelancer's life isn't much of a joy most of the time."

"Less than being on the road by our own?" inquired Tia… Touchè. "Nah, I think we'll take our chances with you."

"Is that so?" he smiled sideways. "Well then let me warn you that it's not going to be a walk in the park."

"As if something's been easy before…" she shrugged. "You have underestimated our determination once, and see how well it played for you."

"Tia's right, we're stronger than we look!" finished Luna, flexing her forelegs the more threatening way possible and falling after a second.

"Sure you are" Marxwell chuckled as he set way again. "Come on then, we have some things left to do, but first…" as he spoke his cape suddenly levitated out of his body and teared into tow equal pieces, each one wrapping around one filly. "We'll have to conceal those wings for a time now. At least until I find something more suitable for you to wear."

"Seems fair" shrugged Tia as she fastened her and her sister's new attires. "But I just got one question."

"Fire away" he sighed, nonchalantly.

"Who's Astaroth?"

Marxwell suddenly stopped his walking, and even though Tia and Luna couldn't see his front they should have noticed the change in his mood, all his relief suddenly being tossed away. "W-what?" Of all the things that came to his mind, that was the one that more swiftly broke through his tongue.

Tia this time puzzled, somehow unsure to continue. "Well… we've been called many things before, but never like that" she mumbled. "Have you got some clue about it?"

     Astaroth… The very name gave him nausea. Marxwell didn't noticed at first, and perhaps the fillies neither, but luckily they weren't in front of him, or they'd be seeing the expression of contempt that had drawn across his features.

"Would you be able to terminate me?" he asked, smirking mockingly. "Me and all of my kind…? That is, if you got the guts to do what's right for once!"

Snowflakes fell from the night sky as his laughter became lighter with every step he put between he and him. There wasn't anything left behind his march… Only the darkness that he promised.

"…Hero."

"He's, no one…" he whispered, in a tone so low that it almost seemed like he were growling. "And if you know what's best for you, you won't ask about him again" he turned to the sisters, his wrath successfully contained within a stern look. "Understood?"

"Y-yes" both Luna and Tia jumped back. "We're sorry, Marx."

Marxwell took a second, but after it have a long breathe, just as his gaze softened. They were just fillies, after all. "Its nothing… You didn't know" he turned to his way and start moving. "Come on now, better find a good place to set camp before nightfall."

     Luna and Tia doubted for a second, but moved with him afterwards.

"M-mister Marx?" Luna reached him first and started walking by his side. "Does this means we can stay with you?"

"Stay with me, travel with me… Its a form of understatement" he winked at her, seeing her smile grow once again. "…Buuuut, don't you think that you're gonna go with me for free. Not without learning to do some things properly."

"Like?" appeared Tia at his other side.

"Like, for example, lighting a good bonfire, and not that poor pyre you had back in the cave" he began. "So, when we get there, you'll start making the preparatives while I go look for some lumber."

"And then?"

"Then we go to sleep, peacefully and quiet" he remarked those last words turning upon each other. "After that we rise early, I'll go into town, and feed the folk the best excuse for my… our delay."

"And what would that be?"

"Dunno" he shrugged. "Perhaps we ran into a hungry Hundroog, and only we three made it."

"A… Hun-du-rog?" inquired Luna.

"Have you seen one?" he asked back. The filly shook her head. "If you haven't, then, take my word, you don't want to. At least it'll keep the townsfolk away from the forest for a while, lower any suspicions… I'll work on the details later."

"And after your alibi?" asked Tia again.

"After that I'll see if I can get you some real clothing, and then…"

"…Then?"

Marxwell slowed his pace for a moment, and his gaze turned to infinity. Something suddenly ad lighter within him. Oh, Eusquere, how proud you'd be… "And then to the road" he muttered. "…To live and learn."

Inspiration:

Rabbit Heart - Florence and the Machine

King and the Lionheart - Of Monsters and Men

Underdog - Imagine Dragons

El Duelo - La Ley

Counting Stars - One Republic

Never Let Me Go - Florence + The Machine

Mountain Sound - Of Monsters and Men