A Colt Named Asper

Chapter Three

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    Asper couldn’t see much other than brief flashes of light, and a muffled voice.  Maybe there were two voices, but they were too quiet, and it sounded like they were talking underwater.  Other sounds occasionally popped through the thickness around him, a brief scream always did, right before it hit him.

    He had a brief falling sensation and then was enveloped, cold, and couldn’t breathe.  Just as everything was losing complete focus, and he was sure the world was collapsing around him…

    Asper woke with a start, the feeling of water hitting his body again as a drop landed on his nose.  The colt, sitting in his bed inside Ferndorf’s church across the room he could see Glad Lilly, his and Radiant’s adoptive father, slowly sitting up in his bed.  The low wood frame worn smooth from years of use, worn mattress creaking and sagging as the stallion moved.

    Next to the stallion’s bed was an oak nightstand, top stained with watermarks and chips missing from its surface.  Atop the stand was a pair of spectacles, left arm bent a bit outward, both lenses thick and heavy, with the right chipped as if some foal had thrown a stone at the unfortunate wearer.

    There was a drawer in the stand, which held a scant few belongings of Glad Lily, and beneath that drawer was a shelf holding a pitcher of water, and a few cups.  These stoneware were as worn as the stand, chips along the rims of the glasses, and one with a crack partially down its side.  The pitcher’s lid was missing, as it had been since Asper was young, as was part of its spout, having been broken last winter.

    As Glad sat up, swinging his hind legs over the edge of his bed, tossing the covers back against the cobble wall behind him, his eyes became near slits, squinting toward a pitter-patter on the window pane at the foot of his bed.  Of course, with his aged eyes even squinting was to no avail.  He proceeded to reach his foreleg out toward the nightstand, attempting to retrieve his spectacles.

    While Glad fumbled for his glasses, Asper experienced a few more drops from above.  He took a moment to push back his own covers and sit up as well, and still a bit shaken from his dream, he rested his head on his forelegs for a moment, watching Glad and looking toward the fogged window.

    “Strange, we rarely get any rain outside of May.  Hardly ever in the early Autumn like this…” Glad said, not really to Asper, but more to himself.  Thinking aloud about what was most pressing on his mind as he was prone to do.

    “Mr. Lily,” Asper started, getting out of bed as he did, “What’s going on out there?”  Another drop fell from the ceiling as he leaned back to stretch, landing on his muzzle and running down his cheek and dripping down to the floor beneath his hooves.

    “Well, young Asper, we seem just to be having an out of season storm.  It doesn’t seem heavy, or threatening, but it is very strange.  You know that we usually get rain early in the year, rarely in the Summer months, and nearly never this time of year.” Lily snorted a little, arching his back and stretching his shoulders.

    “So why are you up?  You usually sleep through even the worst of the storms Mr. Lily,”

    “I could hear you talking in your sleep again son.  It didn’t sound like a very pleasant dream either.”  Lily had turned from the window to face Asper, only a little taller than the colt, his light gray coat was powdery looking in the scant candle light.

    “I was just having… it was just a dream.  Nothing that bad.” Asper lied, averting his eyes a bit and waving the question off with a gesture of his foreleg as he set himself down onto all of his legs.

    Glad raised an eyebrow, seeing cleanly through Asper’s fib, but didn’t push the point..  “Hey, Asper, do you want to do the morning chores with me?  I could use a helping hoof while checking the grounds.”

    “Yeah, I would love to.” Asper replied.  Doing some chores around the church would help calm him down, and refocus his mind from the night’s not so restful sleep.

    “Alright, let’s go then.  We have a lot to do before Radiant wakes up and wants breakfast.” Glad Lily said, leading the way to the door and into the main room of the little church.  “While I light the candles, would you mind fetching the water for the public trough and sweeping the pews?”

    “Sure.  Is the pail in the front closet?”  Asper asked, already walking toward the main doors.

    “Yes, it is.  And the broom is as well.  Throw on your jacket before heading out, it isn’t raining hard but the morning is probably chilly.  You don’t need to be catching a cold now,” Glad Lily told the colt as he opened the closet.

    Asper picked up the pail in his mouth and grabbed the broom with his front hooves, setting the rough twig broom across from the closet.  He set down the pail as well and turned back around to grab his jacket from the hook on which it rested.

    Glad observed Asper putting on his jacket, and let out a satisfied snort.  He then opened the small chest containing a small match box and a few new candles.  Leaned into a little nook behind the chest was the long handled candle lighter, half an inch of wick extended beyond the end of the slim gold metal tube.

    Attempting to strike the match on the box, wood handle held in his teeth, Glad grumbled a bit to himself.  Once he got the match going, he quickly leaned the candle lighter down to the small fire, before it could get too close to his lips and the short graying beard he sported.

    “This used to be so much easier,” Glad mumbled, having lit the lighter, he had spit the match into a small ceramic urn next to the chest, its flame going out as it fell through the air.  He adjusted the wick a little using a slider on the lighter.  Grasping the grip of the tool with his teeth, he set about lighting the forty-some candles set about the room.  Just as Glad got around to his job, Asper had put his hood up and stepped into the mist with his pail.

    Outside the air was thick with moisture, and the misty fog was thick enough to obscure the low fence to either side of the church building.  Straining, Asper could catch glimpses of the wooden ramshackle barrier through the wispy air, but anything farther than three or four yards was completely obscured.

    Turning and heading toward the right side of the building, Asper approached the gate, undoing the rusty latch and lifting the sagging thing over a hump in the dirt behind it.  Once off the well beaten path of the street, the ground was a lot muddier and his hooves sank in a little with each step.

    As Asper walked toward the little pump the grounds had, the fur on his face had collected moisture and was sagging down and clinging together.  Some of his mane came down and stuck to his face, he took a moment to flick it out of his eyes as he set his pail beneath the pump.

    Standing up on his back legs, Asper filled his pail, actuating the handle of the little pump with his forelegs.  As the water gushed from the spout of the black iron contraption, Asper sighed.

    He had never gotten along particularly well with water, he didn’t like feeling soggy or being immersed deeply in the stuff.  As long as he could remember water was something he had avoided.  He didn’t even really like swimming that much, but his friends did, and so did Radiant.

    The pail filled quickly, and Asper stopped his pumping, picking up the bucket and heading back toward the gate, and then the front of the church.  Lost in his thoughts the whole journey.

    Asper had been here since he was young, not as young as Radiant had been, but before he had gone to school.  Now he was about sixteen, neither he nor Glad were really sure, but he had been with Glad for eleven  years.  In that time he had first made friends with Clyde and Golden, a few years later Lee and his family moved to town and joined their group of misfits.

    A year after Lee’s arrival, Radiant was left on the doorstep of a home on the outskirts of the little town, the farmer and his wife had brought her to the church having already emptied their nest of their own children.  Glad Lily accepted the little filly without a second thought, Asper was old enough then to behave himself, so the good willed priest was able to take on the extra child.

    For Asper this was a new experience.  The little Radiant took to him like sprinkles on a cupcake, and soon he had a little sister.  With a little sister, Asper learned that he needed to be there for her and teach her how to do some things in life.  Over the last eight or so years Asper was hardly seen without the little beam of sunshine following close behind, or even leading the way.

    As Asper reached the door of the little church, he was greeted with a beam of light and a small shower of dust at his hooves.  Glad Lily had in his absence swept the little nave of the church and was just then ejecting the little pile of dust through the door and to the side of the entrance.

    “Oh, apologies Asper, I didn’t see you there,” Glad said, smiling just a bit at his adopted son’s misfortune.  “You took long enough at the pump I was wondering if you had gotten lost!  So, I went ahead and swept for you.  The floor was fairly clean, so it wasn’t an issue.  You have the water, yes?”

    “Mmhmm, ah gaht ‘et ‘ight ‘ere,” Asper spoke around the handle in his mouth, careful not to spill the bucket as he set it down in the entry next to glad.  “But I should probably wipe my hooves pretty well before coming in, the grounds are fairly wet this morning.”

    “Yes, my boy, you seem to have found yourself plenty of mud to stand in.  How about I take the bucket and handle that, while you head around back.  Grab any sticks you see and meet me by the back door.  Sound good?”  Glad offered, picking up the pail.

    “Yeah, sure, I will see you in a bit Glad,” Asper replied.  Glad gave him a nod, and turned into the church, while Asper closed the door for him and headed back toward the gated fence.

    Through the gate he was hoof deep in mud again, and tried to keep his eyes peeled for any tree bits that the water or any wind last night might have dropped into the grounds along the side of the building.  There wasn’t much, a small branch was stuck in the soil next to the base of the old oak, and there were a couple of walnuts from their respective tree, but the low grass was clear enough.

Asper collected the branch, and batted the walnuts through the fence, he had no desire to taste those soggy things.  Plus they would dye his tongue and he didn’t need that.  Continuing on his way toward the back of the grounds, he passed the window by Glad’s little bed, he peeked through it to see Radiant still fast asleep, the little filly having tossed her covers off a bit since he and Glad had gotten up.

    “Ha, you are going to be doing chores one day too, Radiant, soon enough too!  You are gonna miss sleeping in!” Asper said to himself, the little filly yawning a bit and curling up some as he continued on his way, reaching the back gate and opening it.

    This fence was lower than the wood fence around the side yard of the church, and it was of fairly simple wrought iron construction.  Both material and upkeep were better than the rest of their fence, with this one being painted with a thick layer of black paint.  This kept it from rusting and made it seem a little nicer.

    As Asper unlatched the gate, it swung smoothly for him, being hung on greased hinges, and he closed it behind him with a soft click as the latch lifted and dropped into its slot.  He found himself on a fairly familiar stone path, cobbled from the same quarry stones as the church itself.  The grass in this part of the grounds was actively kept trim, and the little stones along the path marked where ponies had been laid to rest.  This spot nearest to the entrance had a few of the older graves, from the first settlers of their little town.  Asper read a few as he walked toward the back door of the church, which was just opening.

    The first Asper passed was that of Alten Horsetail, 850-975 ANM.  Then came Rough Rubies, 845-950 ANM.  Iben Rich had a larger stone, but it was more worn away, stating simply his name, and year of death, being 965 ANM.  Jonagold Apple, 810-995 ANM was a more recent addition compared to the others, but lived a lot longer.  His family were all that way, it seemed.  His wife Ambrosia still lived in their home, a few trees around the back side of the house that always hosted a good crop of fruit each year.

    “Asper, is that all there was?” Glad asked, having just stepped through the rear door of the church.  “I guess I just dreamed that wind then, i could have sworn it was real though…  Anyway, let’s take that, and these kitchen scraps, back to the compost.”

    Nodding with the stick in his teeth, Asper followed Glad who was toting a small wooden bucket of potato peels and eggshells and other such refuse on his back.  The two walked between the few rows of stones in the little cemetery and beyond the last row by twice as far as they had gone to reach a shoulder high pile of dirt and vegetable matter.

    Glad slid the bucket from his back and onto a forehoof, dumping it atop the pile while Asper gave the stick a good toss onto the backside of the pile.  Task done, the two headed back, Asper pausing a moment to wipe his hooves in the longer grass at the rear of the cemetery.  Once satisfactorily clean, he put his hooves to a slow trot along the path to catch up with Glad.

    The pair reached the back door, opened it, and entered the church again.  This put them behind the altar area, the backside of a pair of golden idols, one of a moon, one of a sun.  Between these, but on the other side of a large wooden frame inside of which hung a banner dedicated to the harmony that existed between the pony tribes.  The banner was about the same as the Equestrian flag, but without the stars around the circling princesses.

    Asper followed Glad around the front of the banner, and across the sanctuary area of the church as they headed toward their little room in the corner of the building.  Their hoofsteps echoing in the open nave, clip clopping on the cobble floor.

    It wasn’t a long walk by any means, and the pair entered their little room and started breakfast.  Glad worked on a small fire in their wood stove, and Asper fetched some cracked oats from the cupboard and placed them in their sauce pan.  Using some water from the pitcher they set the oats to boil and Glad sent Asper for their milk, which had just been dropped off at the front of the church.

    When Asper had returned with the little wooden crate and the quart of milk, Glad had woken Radiant and dished out their oatmeal for breakfast.  Grabbing their three cups from around the water pitcher, they poured the milk and began to eat.  Enjoying their porridge as well as they could.

    As the little family ate, the air outside cleared up a bit with the fog lifting to above the buildings, but the clouds still staying very low and thick.  It was just about eight o’clock when they were done eating and had cleaned up their dishes, and Glad released the pair of foals to go out and head to school.

    The little ponies put on their jackets and headed into the slightly chilly day.  The school bell was ringing across the courtyard from the church, its dinging audible to all of the school ponies in the town.  Asper and Radiant didn’t have far to go, nor were they in any big hurry.  They crossed the little courtyard at the top of the hill in town, and waited in front of the schoolhouse for Lee, Clyde, and Golden to arrive.

    They caught sight of their friends cresting the hill and beamed toward each other.  Greeting each other and heading through the white painted door on their red school house to have another day of learning and minor shenanigans.  With the cloud cover the day was a bit chilly, but not cold enough to start the little stove in their schoolhouse.