A Lost Hawk
Chapter 1: The lost boy
"Come back here!" Caleb yelled at a strange cloaked man running out of his village.
Caleb was a 14 year old boy who up until today had expected nothing more than a simple day in the life. He would wake up, go to his Swordsman class at his Knight's guild, hang out with a few of his friends, climb trees, fall out of trees then go back to sleep. But today was very different, he was on his way back from class when a strange figure of a cloaked man dressed in ugly black robes appeared before him. However he decided to just ignore it as a simple villager who really needed to revise his wardrobe. As Caleb walked along the sandy path he would usually take to get back to his house he noticed the same man on the other end of the street, now blocking his path. Caleb was surprised to say the least and was beginning to stare at him. Was this guy following him? he thought.
After realising that he was staring, Caleb decided to take another path praying he would not encounter this man again.
"I'm sure this guy is probably just taking a similar route as me" he mumbled to himself.
After a quick glance behind him he saw the man again, staring directly at him. Caleb was walking down a reasonably quiet street, not many people took this road as they would usually just take the main one.
"An extremely similar route as me" he whispered, now a little shaken up.
After another few turns, taking a ridiculous path that only a confused tourist would take, it became clear to Caleb that this man was stalking him. He was beginning to panic, why was this man trying to follow him, who was he and where did he come from he thought to himself over and over.He couldn't get a clear look of his face as it was enveloped in the shadow of his hood. It wasn't long before Caleb had started running, trying to loose the man. Coming to a small park area in his village he hid amongst some of the trees and bushes.
"Okay... okay..." Caleb spoke, trying to catch his breath. "This guy is following me and I have no clue who he is"
Trembling in the hiding spot, confused and terrified he began to think to himself, who could it be?
"Erm... my teacher? I know I was a little rusty in stealth practise today" he thought. "Well, if you'd call rusty; nearly cutting his pet eagle's tail off with the throwing knives." He chuckled a little as the look on his teacher's face was rather priceless. "Well he brought that on himself, I told him I wasn't great at aiming" he said with a stern face.
Before he could think up other possibilities for the man's identity, Caleb felt something on his shoulder. Frozen and incapable of movement he asked,
"Who are you and why are you following me?"
Unfortunately Caleb didn't get the response and answer he had longed for. Instead he herd a small snap sound, to which he quickly turned around and glanced at the man. But, wait...
"He's running from me?" he said puzzled.
Eager to investigate the snap sound he checked around himself.
"Wait... where is my ocarina?!" he shouted.
Taking another glance at the path the man ran down, he gave chase desperately trying to get it back. Caleb chased the man out of the village and into a nearby forest, the trees and think foliage proved a slightly difficult task for the man to manoeuvre through. This gave Caleb a devious grin.
"Ha, this old guy's not gonna get far like this" he chuckled, while slightly out of breath.
Caleb enjoyed climbing and running in his spare time, he would often race his friends through forests like this when he hung out with them. This gave him an advantage and at this rate he would surely catch up to the thief. After catching up tremendously with the thief, he saw that he was entering a cave. This made Caleb a little worried and brought him to a halt. He didn't have a way of seeing in this cave and in the darkness up against a thief that may happen to have a weapon on him, he could be hurt or killed. Caleb pondered for a while of his chances, he still had his trainee sword from the guild and could use it fairly well, but that didn't change how dark it was. Still, this ocarina was very important to Caleb as it had belonged to his mother. With this in mind he summoned all of his courage and dashed into the cave.
The cave was dark but not as much as he had initially thought, and when his eyes adjusted he could see much better. The cave had a very faint strange purple glow emanating from the walls which would have stood out to Caleb if he were not in pursuit of a thief, to him it was as plain as the dirt we was running on.
Eventually he came to a strange crevice in the ground with no other path from what he could see.
"What?! this is impossible, where did he go?!" he shouted "Unless..."
Caleb looked down the crevice into an ominous black void.
"Did... did he... fall?" he murmured to himself still gazing into the abyss.
Caleb was contemplating on giving up his search for the man before he felt his arm being yanked into the gorge. The thief's arm had grabbed his and in an instant they were both falling.
"AHHHHHH!!!!" Caleb screamed clutching his eyes shut as he fell into the blackness.
Beneath his cries he could hear slightly audible laughs from the thief as they tumbled to their imminent doom.
Caleb awoke from a really unpleasant slumber as he felt his arms and legs tied up. Opening his eyes he could see that he was dangling from a ceiling of a really large room. Looking more closely to himself he saw that he was currently bound by a mess of vines. He struggled for a while until,
"My Sword!" he spoke gleefully.
Cutting through with with his trusty blade he was able to cut himself free.
"Wait a sec..." he spoke as he had only just now realised the drop beneath him. "AHHH!"
!!!THUMP!!!
Caleb landed on the cold stone floor aching all over.
"Ouch..." he mumbled "I think... I've had my fair share of falls today"
Arising from the stone floor he noticed he was lucky to not have any broken bones, only a few minor cuts and bruises.
"I suppose I should consider myself lucky" he said checking his arms.
Brushing off some dirt from his white and red tunic he finally got a good look of the place he was now in. The big room he was in looked to be some sort of temple or church, although it looked like it had seen much better days. Taking a glance towards the great stone ceiling he was recently a human decoration for he noticed a huge hole in the ceiling.
"Please don't tell me I crashed through that..." he groaned with a painful expression.
Despite the crumbling walls and overgrown floors, Caleb admired the structure for it's décor. It had some very interesting patterns and figures of beings that he had never seen before, regardless though he still found them admirable. The place seemed very large as there were some long halls that split into many large rooms, Caleb felt compelled to explore them all but before he could take a single step he heard a noise coming from a large room at the top of the stairs. Opening the door, Caleb discovered it to be a large throne room.
After walking into the room he found it to be a filled with bookshelves, tattered curtains, banners, carpets and of course a throne. However what stood out the most to Caleb was the noise that was coming from behind the throne. It sounded like... talking?
"Hel...lo?" Caleb spoke with a tremble.
The noise had stopped, before he knew it a large man with burly arms, a beard and white hair appeared from behind the throne. Upon seeing Caleb, the man made a slight frown accompanied with a pair of squinting eyes. Caleb gave a scared but ready to attack pose as he reached and held the hilt of his blade. After this, the man made a face of glee and let out a large chuckle. Caleb was a little confused to this but he didn't let go of his sword.
"Ha Ha Ha, another human!" he chuckled as he walked towards Caleb.
Caleb then drew his blade with a face that basically said 'Back off!'
"Whoa, whoa, easy there my boy, I'm not looking for a fight" he said with a small smirk. He had a buff voice to match his figure.
"Who are you?" Caleb asked curiously
"Well my name is Blake my boy and up until now I'd thought I was the only human wandering around Equestria!" he said following up with a short laugh.
It didn't take long for Caleb to become confused, only human? Equestria? what is this guy talking about? Shortly after a pause of silence Blake spoke again.
"Would you like to share your name as well young one?"
It took a moment for Caleb to let out anything but he eventually gave an answer.
"Caleb, my name is Caleb" now a little calmer and lowering his blade.
"Well it's a pleasure ta meet ya Caleb!" Blake responded in a cheerful fashion.
Caleb on the other hand was anything but cheery, another long moment passed until Blake spoke out again.
"Heh, you don't seem to be much of a tal..."
"Where the hell am I Blake?!?... what is... Equestria...what are you talking about?!?" Caleb exclaimed
Blake was a little surprised at this sudden outburst, but quickly gave a remorseful and understanding look to Caleb, then let out a small sigh.
"Well... Equestria is a country my boy" he said in a calm demeanour
"I've never heard of it before, is it close by to Nightcrest?" Caleb asked curiously
Blake gave a much more pitiful look to the young lad as he explained to him,
"Equestria is not a part of your world Caleb..."
Before Caleb could say anything Blake put his hand up to him.
"It's a country from a different world entirely"
Caleb was staring at Blake in disbelief for a moment until he spoke again.
"A... different... world?" Caleb spoke slowly. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You're joking, you can't be serious" he chuckled
The face he received was not one of a joker. Blake proceeded to show Caleb the ruins of the temple, the old books and parchments and it wasn't long before Caleb realised that there was a lot if evidence to prove Blake's point and upon thinking back to the fall into that void when chasing that thief he came to the conclusion that he had either indeed travelled a different world, or was in the bottom of a crevice dreaming all this up. Either way he wanted out, he wanted to go home.
"Well how do we get out of here? How... how do we get back?!" Caleb asked frantically.
Blake gave a slight smile to the boy and explained to him,
"I believe that I have found a means of building a portal back to our homeland!"
Caleb returned an excited expression back to Blake.
"Well, how do we make it, what do we need?" he exclaimed
"Well that's the hard part my boy, the resources I require can only be found in certain places."
Caleb's face instantly switched to a disappointed one.
"What do we need to get?"
Blake produced a map of Equestria from a satchel and laid it out on the table, he began to circle towns and cities with strange names like Canterlot, The Crystal Empire, Ponyville, Manehattan and Baltimare to name a few. He listed all of the resources needed next to the circled areas.
"I was going to find them alone but with two of us we ought to be home in twice the time!" Blake let out a cheerful laugh giving Caleb a nuggie.
Caleb remove himself from Blake's arm and laughed with him for a while. After they had put their plan together they decided the best means would be to split up and search separately. Blake gave Caleb a list and sent him off. Caleb took a look at the map and according to it the first place to look, Canterlot mountain was rather close by, Blake he said that to get there he should ask some of the folk in the town known as Ponyville, which was on the other end of a rather think forest. Caleb waved to Blake as they parted and he made his way through the forest.
"Ponyville... what an odd name for a town" Caleb thought to himself.
Author's Note
So yeah, this is indeed my first Fimfiction story, I hope you liked it but I don't really what anyone to hold back on the feedback, give me all ya got, what did you like? what did you hate? let me know below. :D
Chapter 2: Blinding Darkness
A Lost Hawk
Chapter 2: Blinding Darkness
Darkness, something that Caleb didn't exactly relish in. As he walked along the grassy path into the great forest before him, the world around him seemed to vanish before his eyes.
"...Alright, one step at a time" he thought whilst looking back at what was once a relatively bright clearing of the forest.
As he ventured through the forest he could swear that it was getting darker and darker, as if it was in the middle of the night, which didn't make much sense since it was broad daylight only moments ago. As if the increasing darkness wasn't enough, he couldn't shake this feeling like something was, watching him. There seemed to be something in the corner of his eye whenever he was focusing on the long path ahead, but it would disappear in an instant the moment he turned to look.
"Ugh... how much longer till I reach this village?" he thought. "Blake said that it wasn't very far but I feel like I've been walking for hours"
Caleb thought to pull out his map to reassess his location. This was quickly proven to be a poor choice as the darkness had grown to a state where he felt nearly blind.
"Dammit! why didn't I bring something to light my way!" he shouted.
*Rustle*
A sound emitted from behind him which caused him to freeze in his tracks.
"Wh...who's there?" he asked. But there was no response other than some more rustling. "Blake? Is that you?" he asked again trembling. He didn't get the reassuring voice he had hoped for.
At this point Caleb was considering to simply run, it didn't matter where as long as he could get away from what ever was making this noise. He was no stranger to forests, in fact he kinda liked hanging out in them, they were generally very peaceful places, or at least where he came from. This forest on the other hand just felt... unnatural, with it's mysterious sounds and ever growing darkness. It felt like it was alive and toying with his psyche which now felt like it was hanging for dear life in his head.
"Listen... whoever you are... I'm armed" drawing his blade from it's sheath. "I don't want to hurt you... so take my advise... and leave" he muttered in fear.
This proved to be as effective as his previous method of trying to find out it's identity, no response except for the continuous rustling. Taking heavy breaths Caleb decided to continue walking along the path, he refused to put his sword away and gripped the hilt tightly in his hand in case anything were to attack. He began to walk a little faster, hoping that the noise behind him would fade into darkness like the beautiful light from the skies earlier. Yet it didn't, in fact it felt like he hadn't moved an inch since before.
"Is this noise real, or am I just hearing things?" he began to think. "Is this extreme darkness just playing with my senses?"
The rustling seemed to get quieter causing Caleb to believe his thoughts.
"Sure, of course... I mean it just... happens to people when they're scared" he thought to himself.
The rustling had seemed to cease from making a single noise now.
"Heh heh... guess it was all in my head" he chuckled.
Taking a deep breath he began to continue his walk through the forest and placed his sword back into it's sheath. He enjoyed the silence for a good while until he heard another sound.
"A... flute?" he thought to himself.
This flute seemed to be coming from directly in front of him, although he couldn't see a thing it was defiantly coming from the path ahead. Considering the possibilities that this was just yet another noise his head was making up he tried to abolish it from his mind. This time though it wasn't going anywhere. The flute was still playing a tune, a very warped one, Caleb thought either the player had a broken flute or they themselves were just generally bad. As Caleb walked further to investigate the noise, each hollow note made him all the more weary. The forest seemed to be yet again playing tricks with him as the noise did not seem to grow the slightest bit louder, as if he was not moving at all. Caleb was getting restless and terrified to the point where he could not resist but run after the sound.
"Who the hell is playing this noise?!" he muttered under his deep breaths.
The forest didn't seem to be out of strange tricks or illusions just yet as the noise he had heard seemed to be getting better as he grew closer, each note played smooth and professionally, in fact it began to sound strangely familiar. His... Ocarina?
"Is... he here? that damn thief who stole my ocarina?" he whispered
As he continued to follow the sound he realised that he had long since left the path that he was supposed to be taking.
"Damn!" he shouted at himself furiously. "I just had to go chasing enchanting melodies in this damn forest didn't I!"
He stood there staring at the way he came, considering walking back to try and find the path again. Before he could make a decision though he noticed that the ocarina was still playing, yet it was getting quiet. Against his better judgement he decided to continue following the source of the noise, leaving the chance of finding the pathway again behind.
It had been quite some time now and the noise was leading Caleb through all sorts of twists and turns in the forest before the noise started to fade. Caleb quickly picked up the pace of his jog to a faster running speed, however this didn't seem to make a difference. He then frantically ran faster yet into a sprint,
"No... I... can't... loose... this" he spoke running out of breath.
This was his only lead since his map was practically useless now and the path he had originally planned to walk along was long gone. If he lost this he could be lost in this place for good. Running faster than ever before he furiously chased down the sounds without a second thought for where he was going or what he was running into.
!!!SLAM!!!
He crashed into a low hanging branch in his way and fell to the ground. In the last few moments of his conciousness he heard the melody of the ocarina fade away into the darkness.
Arising from the ground with a bloody nose and a terrible headache he noticed that the darkness he was previously drowning in had seemed to let up slightly which filled Caleb with a great feeling of relief. Wiping the blood off his face and the dirt from his clothes he saw a faint glimmer of light through some bushes up ahead. Frantically running up to this light he climbed over logs and under branches to reach his goal.
At last he was out. Caleb ran out into the glorious light of the day like it had been an eternity since he was blessed with it's radiance. Looking back at the forest he could only think one thing,
"Never... again..."
Composing himself he glanced to his right and saw a town with what looked like a castle built on a mountain behind in the distance. Taking out his map he assessed his location and discovered that Ponyville awaited. With a great sense of accomplishment he ventured towards the town.
