Cold.
The waking world hurt. The small and annoying spots of frost covering his face stung unnaturally and leached his body of heat. The cold, soft, fluffy stuff around him didn't help either, however, it did help dull the pain that surrounded his chest.
His ears picked up a faint sound and his bleary, unfocused eyes saw three pillars of black walk into his vision before he blacked out.
Brown Hermit dragged the younger stallion into his cabin and over to the fireplace. The old stallion then levitated some firewood over and lit it with a practiced spell, bathing the one room cabin with a flickering heat. He then hobbled over to his Medical cabinet where he pulled out his needle and thread, rubbing Alcohol, bandages, and Penicillin. "Damned leg." He grumbled as he nearly tripped over his carpet to get back to the unconscious pegasus lying in front of his fire.
After making sure the gash in the pegasus' head was clean, he dabbed a bit of rubbing alcohol onto a bandage and wrapped it around the wound and tied it off, securing it in place. Due to the gash being on the left side of the Pegasus' head near the temple, he had to wrap the bandage around it's eyes to make sure it would stay.
Brown hermit then rolled the pegasus onto his side (making sure to not pin it's good wing) and took a look at the still bleeding puncture wound in the pegasus' chest. The unicorn slowly concentrated his mind and sent in tendrils into the wound, careful to not spread it too wide. After an agonizing minute, Brown pulled out the jagged piece of rock that had stuck itself into the ribcage of the Pegasus and broken three ribs in the process. Thankfully, the ribcage had done its job and protected all the organs underneath, barely.
Brown levitated the needle and thread over to the wound and proceeded to sew the wound closed. In a more relaxed situation he wouldn't have used just normal thread but given the circumstances he didn't have much choice. The wound was closed after the third stitch went in place and he sighed in relief.
Brown looked at the awkward angle that the left wing was positioned and winced, even if he didn't have wings he knew that that must have been painful. Brown carefully straightened out the feathers as best he could and paused at the next step of the process. He was about to jam the dislocated and broken wing back into place and pin it to the stallions body to keep it from moving.
Brown jerked the wing, heard a pop, grinding of bone on bone and then nothing. He had managed to reset the bone and proceeded to bandage it. The stallion let out a pent up breath and sat back on his haunch, silently scanning the stallion for any other injuries. He found a small cut underneath the left cutie mark that looked like it had partially healed but it had been re-opened so that a shiny little object could be seen poking out.
Brown placed his front hooves around the small cut and pressed down slightly, the object protruded more and he grabbed it with his magic. He examined it closely with his dull eyes and found that it was a small cylinder with a screw cap on it. He opened the cylinder and found a rolled up piece of paper with the words:
Crystal Empire
Shine st. 9567
1784-874-1005
-Mind the lamp-
Brown re-rolled the paper and replaced it in the cylinder before looking at the unconscious pegasus in his home. Questions running around inside of his head that could only be answered when the stallion woke up.
He opened his eyes to only see black, he tried to move his hooves up to his face and find what was blocking his vision, only to groan in pain as fire lanced up his chest and over to his left wing.
"I wouldn't move if I were you..."
He looked to his left where the voice had come from and wondered who it could be. The voice was masculine and gruff, so an old stallion, and judging by the clink of a cup on a saucer it was a pegasus or a unicorn. He heard a grunt and then the sound of hooves hitting the wooden floor, as well as the unmistakable tingling that spread through the air when magic was in use.
So his... Captor? Helper? Was an old unicorn stallion with what sounded like arthritis in his knees. "Where am I? How'd I get here?" He asked, keeping his voice as neutral as possible. The unicorn snorted before sitting down in front of where he was propped up against something squishy, keeping weight off of his chest and wing.
"The more important question is who are you?" The old unicorn questioned, which he responded almost immediately.
"I don't know...Oh buck me...I don't know my name!"
He started panicking and scrambled to get ahold of something to help his mind calm down and for him to wake up. He felt a magical touch wash over his body and restrain him without causing discomfort to him. He didn't know how long it took but eventually he calmed down to slight shivers here and there.
He started crying into his bandage and he couldn't stop, he didn't even give the scratching at the door a second thought until the old unicorn stood up and opened it. When the door opened he heard the unmistakable sound of a blizzard raging outside. A wash of cold air plowed into his body causing his shivers to become more violent. He didn't notice the small scritching sounds of claws on wood until a soft fuzzy muzzle pressed lightly against his bandaged chest.
He pushed the muzzle away from his chest non too gently and was surprised to hear a soft growl in response. The muzzle then pushed itself into the crook of his neck and snorted, sending a light spray of wetness to cover his neck. He tried to push the muzzle away but was met with a defiant growl and a rock solid shoulder to resist him.
"She likes you, probably because you are hurt. Say hello to my good friend Sasha, the Runt of the Litter." The old unicorn said as he shuffled over to a chair that he scrapped across the floor to the front of the fire. "I wouldn't fight her, she will eventually get what she wants, especially in your situation."
He reluctantly let the persistent Sasha start liking at his face and then was surprised when she lay down in his lap and bathed in the fires heat. Unsure of himself, he reached down and softly dragged his hoof through her course but thick fur, he was met with a consent sigh. Feeling more confident, he used both hooves to pet her from her head down to her tail, feeling her as well as pleasing her.
He paused when he felt three uneven lines and no fur greet his hooves, they felt lumpy and soft.
"Those are scars that she received as a pup when the pack tried to kill her, I wasn't kidding when I said she was the runt. I found her in the snow with those scars still bleeding, she was half dead half frozen. I didn't think I could save her..."
The old unicorn went silent for a couple minutes where He resumed petting Sasha. He continued to do so until he felt like he was safe to ask a question.
"What is your name?" He could hear a shuffle in the chair and assumed that the unicorn had turned to face him.
"'name's Brown hermit. Mr. Hermit to you. While you are staying here I expect you to help an old Stallion out, least you could do."
"Of course. I haven't thanked you, and I feel I should, not only did you save my life as a stranger, but you risked your own to do so. The least I could do is become your servant for the rest of your life."
"Ha! Wouldn't be long of a sentence would it?! No, I choose to live up here by my self, no pony else believed I could do it, if they could see me know... I will fix you up and then you can be on your way back home." Mr. Hermit paused and he heard a scuffling before the stallion spoke up again, "here, this is yours. Found it in your leg actually."
Mr. Hermit pressed his hoof against his and he grabbed the object that was given to him. "What is it?"
"It's an address actually, in the Crystal Empire. Must be where you live."
He shrugged his shoulders while he felt the metallic cylinder, it had been in his leg? He tried to reposition himself better but Sasha let out a growl when he tried, he would remain uncomfortable for now.
"Hmph, she likes you better then me already. You are going to have to get used to her bossing you around though, she thinks of you as her hurt cub."
He felt a small smile touch his face at the thought of the wolf being his mother, then he asked himself who his mother was. Who was his father? Did he have brothers and sisters? Was he married? Did he have kids? How could he not remember anything?! Thankfully Mr. Hermit spoke up and distracted him from his depressing thoughts.
"I'm gonna call you Nest, mostly because your cutie mark is of a nest with one egg in it, positioned on a rock ledge. Just until you remember your real name though."
Nest. He liked it.
He scrambled up the rocks and the snow billowed up around him as the wind picked up.
"Do it, and she goes free. Fail, and we will kill you and her."
He glanced behind him but saw only a blanket of white and gray, snow rushed past his fast and into his eyes as the wind changed directions.
"Remember, if you get caught, we will kill her."
He stumbled on and tried to fly away. the wind was too strong.
He was suspended over a cliff, held there by talons of a creature that blended all too well with its surroundings. He felt something stab into his chest and he was let go into free fall.
Nest lurched upwards and tossed the growling and scrabbling thing off his legs and stood up. Nest took a step forward and ran into the wall next to him, completely disoriented he grabbed for the wall to steady himself while he tried to remember where he was. He heard a scuffle and then muffled words before two hooves pressed down on his shoulders, forcing him to sit down against the wall.
He then felt a long, wet, rough thing slide across his face and repeat itself. Nest relaxed a little when he remembered that he was alive, inside a friends home, with a hounding wolf to look after him. He relaxed against the hard surface as Sasha pressed her front paws against his chest to get a better angle at his face. Unfortunately she placed a paw on his chest wound and he groaned in pain. She immediately backed off and resorted to sitting next to him, whimpering.
Nest sighed as the pain faded away, however, his wing hadn't faired better at all. He desperately wanted to get this blasted bandage off his face, so he took it off. Nest looked around the cabin that he was in, the structure was made out of wood, except for the fireplace. Nest examined his surroundings to find a set of four tennis rackets, except they were a little bigger. He also found a coat rack that held several heavy looking coats and scarfs.
The thing that surprised Nest the most was Mr. Hermit, he was a dull brown with a starch white mane and tail. A seashell with two antennas sticking out of the opening adorned his flanks, but his most striking feature was hard to miss. He was missing his hind right leg, cut off at the half way point from his flank to his knee. Just then Mr. Hermit turned around from what he was grabbing on the table to see Nest's uncovered head.
"I really wish you would ask before you do anything else, I was going to check and see if you were all right. Whatever, here. Drink this and it should dull some of the pain." Mr. Hermit levitated a small glass towards Nest and he tentatively grabbed it, before downing it in one swallow. Satisfied, Mr. Hermit took the glass back and he placed it back on the table, he did notice Nest's gaze lingering at his missing leg though.
"Surprised?" He said as he looked down at it as well, "so would anypony else if they saw me know. I lost it when I was first coming up here, I was on a search for a place to get food when a rock came down and pinned me in place by my leg. I had to cut it off myself, it wasn't that hard because the rock had turned the bone to powder, still hurt though."
Mr. Hermit shuddered a little as the memory came back to him. "I was going to go back to the Crystal Empire but a blizzard much like this one sprung up and I had to hole up here. That week was the worst in my life, barely any food, cold, and half my blood spilled outside attracting wolves far and wide. I suppose I got some good out of it though." Mr. Hermit made a meaningful nod towards Sasha as he finished his story.
Nest didn't know what to say, the Stallion certainly went through the frozen version of hell, and yet he chose to stay all this time?
"Why do you stay? You could leave, go back home and have an easy life, You would be famous."
Mr. Hermit laughed and cast a glance at him as he walked over to a wood stove positioned in what he assumed would be the kitchen. "When you get better, I hope you will make me famous, as payment. The reason why I came up here was to get away from the easy life. Why should I go back?" Nest didn't have an answer.
Nest sat against his wall and sub-consciously pet Sasha as he thought about his position. The memory of his dream came back to him and he pondered it, it had felt so real. Why would he have a dream like that? Who was this 'her'? Why did they want to kill her and him? Or perhaps it was just a dream, not a memory. He frowned at his troubling thoughts and returned to observe his surroundings.
Pushed off into a corner was a bed with ruffled sheets and a ratty mattress. He briefly wondered where he had gotten the mattress but didn't find anything unusual about it. At the foot of the bed was a locker, slightly open as it was over-stuffed. Pinned to the wall were numerous picture, some painted but most were hoof drawn. He looked closer and saw that some were of animals and some where of scenery, one of a wolf with a deer carcass stood out to him.
Other than an oil lamp hanging from the ceiling, there wasn't much else to the Cabin, a table, a stove, and a couple of cabinets made up the kitchen. He wondered where he got water until he remembered that it almost constantly snowed. Nest was getting bored of sitting around, he wanted to do something.
He struggled to get up but managed to stand on his unsteady hooves, he once again felt blood rush to his head but kept his balance. He took a step forward and winced as pain lanced through his chest. He took a much more cautious step and thanked that the pain wasn't as bad. He then resumed carefully walking towards Mr. Hermit who had placed a pan on the stove after lighting the wood underneath.
"I asked you to not do anything else." Mr. Hermit turned around and glared at him, but his face softened when he heard Nest's stomach growl. "Well I just started putting on food so just take a seat at the table and I will bring it to you."
"I want to help."
"Ha! Patience son, you won't be able to help in a while. Just take it easy and you will get better."
Nest grumbled wordlessly to himself but took a seat at the table anyway. He silently sulked until a very interesting smell filled the cabin. Sasha came bounding over to Mr. Hermit before sitting down next to him and looking up, expectantly. "Nuh uh, not for you." Mr. Hermit said to the begging wolf. Nest took this time to actually compare Sasha's size to himself. Mr. Hermit was about the same size as him, and Sasha was about an inch shorter, but the same length.
Nest thanked that she didn't hate him.
Mr. Hermit picked something out of the pan and bought it on two plates he levitated over. He then brought the plates over to Nest and laid one in front of him. He looked wide eyed down at the fish that occupied his plate. He didn't know if he could eat it.
"I'll eat it if you don't, what do you think I eat up here? Can't grow much, and the stuff I do is savaged by the birds. I had find a river, thank goodness there are plenty fish there, watch out for the bears though. Nest watched as Mr. Hermit brought the fish up to his face and take a chunk out of the side. He looked back down at his and mentally sighed, here goes.
He picked up the fish and brought it to his mouth, he hesitated. His stomach growled, so he took a bite. At first he recoiled at the oily flesh that greeted him but then the flavor sank into his tongue and he sighed in content. He liked fish apparently. He heard a snort and he looked up to see Mr. hermit looking at him, he seemed to be judging him.
"What?"
"You made the same face I did when I first tried it, good?"
Nest nodded his head before taking another bite from the fish, his flat teeth crushing the little bones effortlessly. Sasha whimpered but then huffed her way over to the door and gazed up at it. Mr. Hermit got up and opened the door for her, she disappeared into the billowing storm outside. Something inside Nest urged him him to follow her and get out of this accursed cabin, he hated being in one spot for too long.
