I Only Want to Know

twelve years ago

"Mother, no!" Callum cried out before falling into the ground gasping. His collar tightening around the fifteen year old boy's throat as he tried to resist. Still though, he thrashed, causing the Earth Pony who tried to restrain him to back up a bit and shoot a glance at the Unicorn who could only offer a glance that said "what else do you want me to do?" Callum eventually collapsed, gasping in a heap, allowing the Earth Pony to slam a hoof against his chest for good measure.

"He's lively, that's for sure" he chuckled. The Unicorn, the master of the house, only nodded. The two seemingly ignoring the older human female on her knees, weeping quietly into her hands. "He'll make a fine labourer in your employer's quarry once you properly channel that energy of his."

Callum could only look up, trying to breath...his collar had loosened slightly, but only because his master...or his former master...didn't want to damage him as he was selling him. He strained, looking at his crying mother, trying to speak. The words, however, weren't coming out. He could only weekly reach towards her before collapsing again, only able to watch as he was drug away, into a caged cart. By the time he could breath normally again his home, where he had lived his whole life, began to get smaller and smaller...

present day

Callum awoke in a sweat and groaned. He could never go more then a week or two without having that dream. Regardless of how hard he tried to forget.

He rubbed his ribs, a sight ache throbbing away as he tried to collect himself. Everfree Forest was terrifying, but it was also safe...for now at anyrate. And not lacking in fresh water either. He splashed some that had been gathered for him onto his face. He had a couple hundred slaves waiting just outside of his makeshift shelter. He splashed more water, shaking his head. He needed to be focused, yet he couldn't shake this slightly dazed, hot feeling in his head. A side effect of...of whatever it was that had spoken to him perhaps?
He didn't have enough time to ponder as Lede, the leader of the elders of this group of slaves, entered.

"You're awake" he commented, a bit cautiously. This slave, this young labourer who'd never once shown any desire to do anything but pull stone, had taken charge of the uprising, his display of bravery having galvanized the lot of them. For Lede though? He didn't know what to make of him. How could you trust a leader you had no feel for? And to trust them as fugitives? He needed to speak with him.

"Yes, barely awake" Callum replied, taking a sip of what was left of the water before running his temples. "How are spirits?"

"Good, high" Lede answered, "but a bit restless. We've been camping here for days. Sooner or later..."

"They'll muster up what nerve they have and come looking for us, I know..." Callum replied, finishing Lede's thought for him.

"Myself and the elders...we just want to know what else you plan on doing. If you had anything planned that is..."

Callum sat down, the cool dirt of the forest floor feeling nice on his feet, used to treading on hot stone. "I need to...consult."

"With whatever it was that you told us spoke to you."

"Yes" the younger slave answered. He sounded more terrified at the possibility then excited or eager.

"How do you know it will answer?"

"I don't" Callum replied, confident in his lack of confidence. A sort of admittance that he was just as lost and restless as the rest of them.

Lede looked him in the eyes, the young slave's grey gaze full of sincerity. He wasn't lying when he spoke of this entity. At least not intentionally. Crazy, yes. Deceptive? No. "What do you want me to tell the others?" he asked.

"That I'll speak with them in a few hours, at the most. Maybe sooner."

Lede nodded. It seemed absurd, that he was taking orders from a slave thirty or years his junior. Yet this was...uncharted territory to say the least. He nodded. "Will do. Don't be any longer then you need to be though."
Callum closed his eyes and raised his head, trying to feel the cool forest air. "Of course."

Lede exited the makeshift structure, just one among many that had sprung up among the group of escaped slaves. He looked around as slaves went about the basic business of survival. Going to and fro, making shelter, bringing water back from a nearby river. Everyone was focused on something. No one would notice if he stayed here, turning to get a peak inside. To see what Callum meant by this entity.

Callum knelt, and closed his eyes. "If...if you can hear me...please" he began, his head bowed. "I need to know what you want from me. From us. Where do we go from here?"

There was silence for a moment before the voice returned, a soft melody that more inferred words then spoke them outright, yet was entirely understandable. "You had that dream again." Callum opened his eyes. "How do you know about..."

"You are mine, I am yours, as I said. I know you."

"I've tried to forget" Callum answered. "There's no point in remembering and..."

"No" the voice answered, cutting him off. "You've all forgotten. Too much. No longer."

"Forgotten what? What else?" Callum asked, his curiosity peeked now that this entity was speaking to him.

"Azure Dawn" the voice answered, the words dancing in his ears, in his mind. Callum frowned. This entity had told him that the night it came to him.

"I still don't understand what that means."

"Exactly. You have all forgotten. And there will be no more forgetting. It is the name of your nation, your identity as humans that has been stripped from you..."

"Azure Dawn..." Callum said softly, feeling the words on his lips.

Lede was taken aback. Callum was kneeling there, speaking to no one. Yet he wasn't rambling like a crazy person. He paused, answered, having one half of a conversation calmly as if there were another party answering. He kept watching.

The voice continued. "Yes, and it will be a nation once again." Callum remained silent for a moment. "You wish me to..."

"To free your people. Force a settlement with Celestia's court, and bring your people together in one nation, returned to its proper place among the many peoples of this world" the voice answered. Direct. Clear. With purpose.

"How...I only have a few hundred. Not enough to wage war..." Callum asked, almost to himself as much as to the entity.

"Grow your numbers. And strike from the shadows. So long as you stand before tyranny, you will not be alone."

Callum didn't need to hear anything else. He knew the voice was finished. He drank what little remained of his water. Lede, watching quickly turned away...war? Is that what he had asked, to no one? Whatever it was he knew that blood was on the horizon.