Glyph

"Ticket, please!"

Ugh.  Mornings.

I am not an 'early bird'.

The train had started moving while I slept, so as I looked out of the window to find myself staring at a very wide and dry-looking desert.

I was still drowsy and must have been staring for a little too long, as I heard the conductor give an impatient clearing of his throat.

"A-HEM.  Ticket please." He snapped the last word.  I turned to give him my full attention.

"Huh?  You sold me the ticket last night." I didn't get why I had to show it to him.  Sure, there may be a lot of people on this train, but I was a little hurt that he didn't remember me.  Also, shouldn't one of the perks of first class be a full night's sleep?

The conductor sighed.  "You must be referring to my brother."  I mentally groaned.  "He, as you claim, may have sold you a ticket, but we do get a fair amount of stowaways every now and then so it is customary to check each customer has their ticket in their possession.  So."  He paused, looking at me expectantly.

I stared back.  "You woke me up just for that?"  I knew it was important and that I was just being rude at this point, but at least I could blame it on tiredness.

"I did, ma'am."  Again with the 'ma'am' thing.  I didn't look that old, did I?  Usually I was referred to as a 'miss'.

He gave an exasperated sigh.  "Look, if you don't present your ticket I have to throw you off the train.  It's regulation."

Well, being deposited in the middle of nowhere would certainly make it easy for the assassin to dispose of the body.  I shuddered at the thought.  I really needed to stop thinking about being dead.

With an exasperated sigh of my own, I pulled the ticket out from my saddle bag and handed it to him.  He briefly glanced at it before slipping one end into the slot of the machine he wore hung around his neck and stamped it.

A bit unnecessary, I thought.  What was the point if he checked it anyway?  It wasn't like we were stopping between now and our destination.  An extra hole in one end didn't prove I wasn't a stowaway either.

I shook my head.  Those thoughts were just sleepiness taking its toll.  The more sensible part of my brain understood perfectly the reason behind the hole punch, but that didn't stop the mental grumbling.

The conductor handed my ticket back.  I stuffed it right back into my saddle bag and huffily lay back down, pulling the covers over me.  I heard him tut and walk away.

I tossed and turned for a while, getting more and more frustrated as time went on.  Finally, I gave up.  Sleep just wasn't going to happen now.  On top of the fact I now felt wide awake my head was now clear to worry about not only the assassin, but also whether my family had found my note.

I will admit, I felt a little guilty about just leaving in the middle of the night without waiting up for any of them, especially on my brother's wedding, but that very wedding meant they would all be out until excessively late, and I would be all alone, waiting at home like a sitting duck.

And then the assassin might have got bored and come and killed me there and then.

I shook my head, again.  Morbid thoughts were not helping now.

I got up with a sigh and stretched.  At this point, it couldn't hurt to find a way to take my mind off things.  I was pretty hungry, after all.

I drew back the curtain.  In the carriage with me were two other griffins and a pegasus.  The griffins I could understand, of course, but when and why had a pegasus visited Cloud Peak?  There was nothing there, apart from maybe the royal palace and most of that was closed to the public anyway.

A sudden thought occurred to me.  She was probably visiting friends.

Well, no point just standing around staring at her.  I walked over to introduce myself.  I managed three steps before my stomach rumbled embarrassingly loudly.  The pegasus looked up from her book in surprise.  I smiled sheepishly, and continued over to her, ignoring the other two passengers completely.

She had a dark red coat with a mane of two different shades of orange.  One was much lighter, and it was the dominant colour.  Her tail matched, but instead of being patches of colour, as her mane was, the darker orange was flanked by the lighter shade in a very elegant swoosh.

She bookmarked her page and closed the book, giving me her full attention.  I suddenly and very predictably forgot how to introduce myself using words.  Instead, I just stood with my mouth hanging open like an idiot, trying to think of some way to introduce myself without sounding weird.

I didn't have to worry myself with that after all, as my stomach decided to growl again, this time even louder than before.  A strange look crossed the pegasus' face, and she fixed me with a stare.

Great.  Now I probably looked like I wanted to eat her, with all the staring and the hungry noises.  I did the only logical thing to do in this situation, and facepalmed.

To my surprise, I heard a giggle.  I removed my hand from my face and smiled the same sheepish smile as before.  She smiled back.

"Hi there."  She said.

"Hey."  Was all I managed.  Still hadn't quite recovered the ability to talk properly yet.

She raised an eyebrow.  "Usually introductions happen about now?"  Her tone was jovial.  "My name's Feather Flare," she announced warmly, offering a hoof.  I shook it tentatively.  I was never great at meeting new people.  There weren't a lot of griffins my age back at home, and most families were home-schooled, even though that was predominantly hunting and flying in my family.  Sure, I had learned how to read and write, do maths a little, but ultimately, the only real jobs in Cloud Peak were weather patrol or guard patrol.

"Hey," I said again. "I'm Glyph."

She cocked her head a little.  "That's an interesting name."  She looked genuinely interested too.  "How about we get breakfast?  I haven't eaten yet, and well..."  She trailed off as my stomach complained again, as if on cue.  She made an airy gesture.  "Well, yeah.  So how about it?"

"Err, sure.  That sounds great."  I smiled.  I was a little surprised at how simple talking to others was turning out to be.  I should have done it more often at home.

"Well, let's be off then!"  She bounded up, full of energy for someone on an empty stomach.  She took off down the carriage and paused at the door, looking back at me as I slowly trudged over to her.

She tutted.  "Come on, keep up."  Opening the door, skipped off to the next carriage, which I assumed and hoped would be where breakfast was located.

Traversing the carriages, I found myself in a very charming little restaurant set-up.  I whistled, impressed.  It looked the business at least, now I hoped it would live up to appearances.

Feather Flare was already at the counter, deliberating over the menu.  I looked up at it, and was relieved to see they catered for omnivores as well as ponies.  But, not wanting to seem inconsiderate to Feather Flare, I decided I ought to have a vegetarian option.

"I'll have the fruit salad, please."  I said, addressing one of the bored-looking chefs behind the counter.

"Six bits, please."  I handed over the money.

"Oh, I'll have the same, please!"  Feather Flare interjected, money already in hoof.  The chef nodded, taking the money and placing it in the till.  "You two can sit over there while we whip these up if you like." He motioned to a bench sitting on the other side of the carriage.

We complied, and sat.  I didn't exactly have much to say to Feather Flare, after all the effort I went through to introduce myself.  Luckily, she had it covered.

"So, Glyph."  She looked at me.

I sensed a question.  "What's up?"

"Well..." She looked unsure all of a sudden.  I motioned for her to continue.  "Okay.  What's the story with your name?"  She finished.  I must have looked a bit startled, because she hastened to add "not that there's anything wrong with it of course!  It's just, well, interesting."

Interesting, huh?  If only.

"Well..." I began, not really wanting to disappoint her with the story, which I knew I would.  "It may be an interesting name, but the story behind it is pretty mundane."  I hadn't expected that to rhyme.  I hoped she didn't expect a song or poem or something, because that was probably not going to happen again.  Especially due to the length of my story.

"My parents apparently liked it, so that was what they chose."  I couldn't resist adding "I doubt there's much more to it, but hey, who knows?"  I was smiling now.  Who knew I was such a poet?

Feather Flare laughed.  "Fair enough.  So what about your parents?  Do they live in Cloud Peak?"  Well, someone was full of questions today.

"Yeah, I lived in Cloud Peak with my parents, brother and sister."  I decided to elaborate a little, to stave off a further question that I knew would follow.  "My parents names are Henry and Martha.  My sister's called Melissa, and my brother's Garth." I paused. "Our clan name is Skybreak,"  I added.

She nodded thoughtfully.  "So how come you left?" She asked

Hmm.  No easy way to answer this one, and I hadn't come up with a plausible excuse yet.  Thankfully, I was saved by the chef calling out "food's here!" so I quickly stood up to grab the bowls.  "I'll go get those."  I smiled at Feather Flare.

She shrugged.  I got over to the counter and immediately remembered how bad I am at walking on only two feet.

Well, this was going to be tricky.  I pondered for a moment before remembering my wings.  Grabbing both bowls in my talons, I spread my wings and fluttered back over to Feather Flare, with a little effort.  The carriages were not built for griffins to be flying around them.

Fortunately, I made it back to her without any mishaps, and placed both bowls on the bench next to each other before I settled back down.

She nodded appreciatively, and took her food.  I sat down, doing the same.  We sat and ate in silence for a very awkward few minutes.