The Dreamcatcher

Chapter 3: Beatdown

I woke suddenly, something prodding at my belly.

“Get up,” a voice said. It took me a few moments to register that it was Firebeak’s. He was nudging me with his hind paw.

“H-huh, what?” I asked, dazed. Bright daylight invaded my vision, blinding me with white.

“We let you sleep an extra hour, sheesh,” he complained, ruby red eyes glaring disapprovingly at me. It sure didn’t feel like I had gotten an extra hour. Last night must have taken more of a toll on me than I expected. I slowly got onto my hooves, pushing myself up from my mat.

“All right, all right,” I moaned. Glancing around the camp, I saw that the others were already up. All of them, Firebeak included, had thick, brown coverings on their torsos, what I could assume to be leather.

“Why the shirt things?” I asked. “It’s not cold out.”

They exchanged a wary glance, but Firebeak quickly spoke up. “Safety, of course. These things are thick enough to block a chomp or two by some animal out there.”

Reasonable enough. “Can I have one then?”

“You, uh, won’t be needing one. We’ll protect you.” The griffin’s tone of voice had grown almost worried. It made me uneasy, but this pack was well armed. I had no doubts that would be unable to fend off whatever stood in their way.

The heat of the day was a welcome change from the cold breath of night. I stretched out, the stiffness in my muscles from my rough sleep burning away. My new companions looked well rested, standing tall and at attention. Firebeak and Talon’s charcoal-gray coats stood out harshly in the midmorning sunlight. The other male one, Razor, looked like a poorly-made puppet with how many scars tore through his normal coloration. Stonewing was somewhere on top of the camp, watching over the landscape.

“Grab your bags, pony, we’re heading to Arbor,” Firebeak commanded. I have a name you know, a voice in my head said. Maybe it would be better if they forgot. I certainly didn’t intend on sticking around with these guys any longer than I had to, even if they were fairly amicable on our first meeting.

I hoisted my saddlebacks over my back, brushing off the dust and pebbles. The group had rejoined in front of the camp by then. As I traversed the rubble and headed towards them, they started their trip to Arbor, not even waiting for me to catch up. I trotted a bit faster, bottles jingling in my bags.

“So, this town,” the leader said. “Are they going to be hostile towards us?”

To be entirely honest, I had no idea. In my life at Arbor up to that point, not a single visitor came to us. If they had, I certainly wasn’t aware. Maybe the guards took care of it, I thought with a shudder, remembering their steel-tipped arrows and sturdy bows that always captured my attention as a filly.

“I doubt it,” I said after a pause. “As long as you don’t wander in there all threatening. I’m sure you could do a good job of that,” I giggled. Firebeak’s face grew grim. Maybe that wasn’t the best joke to say.

We walked in relative silence under the radiant sun. Every now and then the group asked me to confirm that we were going in the right direction. Thankfully, my hoofprints were still faintly visible from last night, so we followed the trail with ease. As they were fairly larger than me, I found that I had to keep my pace quick to not fall behind.

Squinting at the horizon, I tried to spot some other sign of life out in the world. Even with the daylight aiding me, there still appeared to be nothing. The sensation of freedom I felt yesterday was now growing weak. Now, I just felt small and alone among these strangers. I wanted to be home.

“Hey, is that it up there?” Firebeak pointed a claw to a dark mass in the distance. It looked a lot smaller from out here. Plus, it almost blended in with the gray-brownness of the dead land around it. No wonder there weren’t a lot of visitors.

I nodded. As if on cue, they leapt forwards and sprinted, picking up speed.

“Wait!” I cried out, breaking into a dash. I saw their wings extend and flap once, twice, and then they had taken to the air. “I can’t fly!”

They flew low and lazily, like bumblebees scoping out a garden. Even at that speed they were hopelessly faster than my equine legs. Darting over unearthed boulders and fallen, petrified tree limbs, I called out again. Talon looked back but continued flying.

By the time I arrived at the front gates, my legs were on fire. A minute ago I had seen then swoop into the city. The front gate was wide open. As I bolted towards it, something stopped me dead in my tracks. Directly to my left, one of the guards remained motionless on the ground, a stream of red flowing from his lips.

I was instantly frozen. Horror flowed into my veins, the same awful nausea that I felt when I thought I was going to die yesterday. Walking over to get a closer look, I could see that he was out cold. His jawline very clearly didn’t line up in one place. Blood trickled out of the wound there, as well as draining from his lips. I wanted to scream. I was the one who led the griffins here. IT might as well have been me who smashed his jaw like that.

A shriek brought my attention to the inner town. I dropped my saddlebags where I stood and rushed in, another horrific sight filling my vision. One of the griffins (I couldn’t tell which- at this point they were all a blur of feathers and darkness) pinned Rosethorn down while two others rampaged through the central garden. I could see their claws covered in dirt as they ripped up plants indiscriminately.

They were robbing Arbor. My home. And not of petty things; they were destroying our food source.

“HEY!” I screamed, my voice cracking uneasily. The griffin holding Rosethorn down looked up at me, snarling. “What the hay are you doing?!” I called out.

“Take a wild guess,” he said, amused. It was Firebeak. His eyes burned with a fierceness I hadn’t seen in them before. He looked more animal than a sentient being at this point. One claw was clasped over Rosethorn’s throat. She was crying, looking at me with terror.

As much as I hate to admit it now, I didn’t stop it. No heroic instinct kicked in. No action-packed fight took place where I kicked his beak in like he deserved. I just stood there, trembling, and asked him why.

“Why? Because you practically gave this to us, you clueless bitch!” He gestured to the town around us, cries of terror audible from nearby buildings. “And there’s not a single other guard in sight! We’re completely--”

A faint whizz sounded out, and almost immediately Firebeak screamed. When he let go of Rosethorn and bent down in pain, I saw why. A long arrow shaft stuck out of his wing.

I never saw who fired it. Rosethorn darted away into a building, gasping. Firebeak groaned, snapping the arrow free from the arrowhead and tossing the shaft aside. He turned behind him and called out that he was wounded, grasping the rapidly-darkening base of his wing. Once again, I just stood there, dumbfounded.

“We need to go, now! Pack it up!” he ordered. His minions emerged. Talon and Stonewing came out of the garden, bags full of our finest seeds and harvested fruits. Razor stepped out of an alleyway, an overstuffed potato sack filled with what I can only imagine were the possessions of Arbor’s residents. He wore a more sadistic grin than the rest.

“Move out!” cried the leader, bounding for the gate. The bags were far too heavy to fly with. Catch them, the hero in me begged. Though fear and panic had locked my joints up until now, I took off with blistering speed towards them.

Despite the newfound weights on their backs, they still navigated the terrain like shadows crept over every surface. Ever so steadily they were gaining ground on me. I didn’t know if they knew I was following them or not, but that didn’t matter. I was getting back what was ours if it was the last thing I did.

It hadn’t been long before the group of robbers disappeared into a grotto in a mountainside near Arbor. Whatever pain was left from today’s spriting was turned into pure, firey rage at what they had done. They tricked me! Abused my trust! And used it to hurt those I loved! I wasn’t going to have a shred of mercy when I went in there.

Carefully, I stepped along the rocky wall, making sure not to lose my stability. Though my ears still rang with the shrieking of the townsfolk and my own pounding heartbeat, I could hear gruff voices talking in the cave. Stonewing, Razor, Talon, and that flankhole Firebeak. If I could just run in there and put my hoof through his face…

“We actually did it,” one of them was saying. “We’re eating like kings! Sell that crap you got at the next town we find, Razor. Maybe we can afford a home to stay at.”

They had not a single regard for us, their victims. Frothing with rage, I stepped into the stone cavern. They all jumped backwards in surprise.

“Are you alone?” was the first question Firebeak asked. I didn’t answer as I stepped closer. “I asked you a question, you bitch.”

“Give our stuff back,” I growled. Firebeak smiled at me, a grin dripping with sick amusement at my anger. “And my name is Jadeleaf, by the way. Better remember it because you’re going to have to avoid it for the rest of your life.”

The griffins broke into a howling of laughter. I have to admit, maybe that was a bit over the top. But at the moment, not being taken seriously was making my rage boil over, like a river of hot magma. I sunk my teeth into one of the bags they had used to carry our stuff out and started dragging it to the cave entrance.

A hard talon-fist swung into my side, sending me toppling over. I groaned, dropping the bag from my mouth. Razor stood over me.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” he asked, his eyes wide with psychotic interest in my squirming form. His punch hurt like Tartarus, dull pain radiating through my side.

“I’m go--” another punch directly in my snout. I screamed, agony shooting into me. Tears were welling up in my eyes. I tried to breathe in through my nose, but all I managed was snorting in a thick mess of mucus and blood.

“You’re not going anywhere, bitch,” Firebeak grunted. He lifted up a muscular hind leg and brought it down on my throbbing side. I shrieked again, throwing my head back. He was leaning with his full weight into my ribcage; it felt like I was going to pop.

Stonewing ran in and gave me another kick to the face, causing my blood to spray across the stones in sticky strands. My world was spinning from that kick, but Firebeak payed no mind as he stomped on my chest again. I heard- and felt- a sickening pop, followed by a hurricane of fiery agony. As I inflated my lungs to scream again, the most horrific pain of my life washed over me. I choked out blood (from my lung or from my nose, I had no idea) and let out an primal moan.

“That’s right!” Razor screeched, taking pleasure in torturing me. He brought a claw down on my belly, the added pain from that only worsening my torment. Warm liquid trickled down my stomach.

The beating became a blur of motion, noise, impacts, but most of all pain. I didn’t know there were so many kinds: hot and searing, unbearable aching, the agony of your bones not fitting together correctly, the discomfort of swallowing and choking on your own blood and vomit. I couldn’t think about my impending death. My mind was completely consumed in an unrelenting world of misery. By far though, the greatest pain was the subconscious shame of knowing that I had failed to protect those I love. The horrific feeling of knowing that, by extension, I had robbed my own home.

I don’t know how long it lasted. I have no idea how broken I was at the end of it. My final memory of that horrific event was a griffin paw rushing towards my head.

Then, darkness.