Lost on the Way to Nowhere

Heavy footsteps thudded on the ground behind the dark olive-colored mare as she galloped, her speed almost completely unhindered by the figure draped across her back. Adrenaline pumping through her veins and powering her strides like a potent fuel, she gritted her teeth and pushed as much strength as she could into her legs, launching herself forward into each stride.

"Mender, ladder, NOW!" she bellowed ahead of her as the cacophony of howls and the pounding of claws on the ground behind her grew uncomfortably closer. "So help me Celestia, if you don't have it ready when I get there, my ghost will throttle you from the grave!"

"G-getting it, I'm getting it, hold on! It's t-tangled!" a nerve-wracked voice called back.

"Then untangle it or I'll tangle my freakin' hooves around your neck, Mender!" she hissed at him.

She was almost at the base of the tree when the rope ladder finally dropped down from the canopy. She grabbed one of the forelegs of the pony laying on her back before lunging up at the ladder, grabbing it with her one free hoof while the other clung tightly to the pony that now hung in the air beneath her. "Pull us up, I can't climb this thing with one hoof and I've got somepony in tow!"

"Wh-what?!" Mender cried back incredulously from the top of the ladder. "Who is—"

"Ask questions later, just PULL!"

"I can barely... I can't... I'm not strong enough!" he cried back, a distraught tone in his voice.

"Think of something, Mender; the logheads are almost on top of us!"

A few long moments passed with no response as the footsteps grew nearer and nearer. She could almost hear their beastly panting at this point, a cluster of deep growls emerging from the pack behind her. She felt her heart rise in her chest as she—

No, wait. She was rising. The forest floor drew further away from her with each second, easily out of reach of the threat. Looking down at the pack of timberwolves as they reached the base of the tree, she let out a shrill whoop. "No chow time for your ugly mugs today. You'd make better firewood than predators!"

Soon enough, she found herself at the edge of a wooden platform, taking a moment to gather her strength. "Back up, Mender; got our guest comin' up!" With a loud grunt, she swung the limp pony hanging beneath her up onto the platform, his body hitting its wooden surface with a heavy thud. Now free to pull herself up, she was quickly on all four hooves again atop the platform, the familiar treehouse that she called home now before her. "Whew, that was some workout!"

Mender was leaned up against a section of wooden railing, a smile of total relief plastered across his face. "Hooooh... thank Celestia that worked." Next to him was a very hastily assembled pulley wrapped around a few thick branches of the tree in which the platform rested, and then the other end attached to the upper part of the ladder.

"Mender, I dunno whether I want to slap you or kiss you right now," she said, her lips curved upward in a grin. "For a split second there I thought you went and bailed on me, but I knew you'd figure something out, and you did! Next time, try to cut it a little less close, though."

"S-sorry. I just... wasn't expecting the company," Mender replied sheepishly. "Who is this guy, anyway?" His nervous smile turned into a curious look, his head tilting a little as he eyed the blue-coated pony on the ground. "Is s-something wrong with him?"

"No idea," she replied, turning her attention to the pony as well. "Found the sucker out cold in the middle of the forest. Poor sap woulda been toast if they got to him first." A proud smile emerged on her lips. "Of course, I got to him first, right at the last minute, there to save the day. It was so rad. One minute they were trying to gather around him to chow down, and one blink later, he and I were both outta there like lightning with somewhere to be!"

The silver-coated stallion stepped closer to the unconscious pony as he furtively squinted and leaned in. "He looks like he hasn't eaten or drunk a thing in a couple of days. We need to get him some w-water or he might just shrivel up and blow away before too long. We can't just leave him on the ground, either, but we only have two—"

Right as the words came out of his mouth, he heard a thud from inside the treehouse, the olive pony nowhere in sight. Leaning into the door frame to peek inside, he was greeted by the sight of the apparently exhausted mare face down on one of the two beds, already snoozing away. With a sigh, he returned to the other unconscious pony. "Make that one bed," he remarked to himself, wrapping his hooves underneath the forelegs of the blue equine, getting to work slowly but surely dragging the heavier form toward the treehouse.

The first thing Ocean Breeze heard as he felt his consciousness return to him was a loud, constant snoring. Is that me? Do I snore? he asked himself, but soon realized that the snoring came somewhere from the right side of the room. I'm... indoors? His eyes creaked open wider as he sleepily surveyed the room around him. The room was minimally furnished, with basic wooden walls and a coarse wooden floor. Light entered mainly from two windows, one on the wall above the bed in which he lay and the other on the opposite side of the room, although light slipped in between the unevenly spaced boards that made up the room's walls and roof.

It wasn't long before he noticed the figure laying in the bed across the room from him: an earth pony with an olive-colored coat and a mane the hue of summer leaves. On her flank was her cutie mark, a brown droplet of some sort. Soon after, his attention was caught by a second pony, one slumped against the wall beside his bed. He was an earth pony as well, one with a coat like tarnished silver and a navy-colored mane tucked neatly into a ponytail. His cutie mark was obscured by his posture. As Ocean began to stir, so too did the pony by his bedside.

"I'm... I'm awake. Awake. Uh... I'm... s-sorry. Didn't mean to f-fall asleep on you like that. I see you're finally a-awake yourself," said the stallion, his eyes lidded with bags apparent underneath them. "I tried to k-keep myself awake as long as I could. I wanted to be awake when you woke up." He let out a restrained yawn. "I guess I should introduce m-myself. She's, uh..." He gestured toward the sleeping mare. "She likes to be called Forest Flash, but... if you wanna know, her real n-name is Maple Sap. Don't tell her I told you that, though," he said, his lips drawn in a nervous smile. "And I'm Mender. Pretty plain, I know, but... Yeah. Mender. That's... my name!" he said, awkwardly forcing a smile that looked more like a grimace than a grin.

Ocean raised his head up from the pillow, blinking off his grogginess for a few moments. "I'm..." he paused for a moment, reaching for the memory tentatively, hoping not to meet once more with the wall within his mind. To his good fortune, he was able to recall. "I'm Ocean Breeze." Looking himself over, he realized something was missing. He swept the room with his eyes, combing for the object in question to no avail. He looked back to Mender. "Where are my saddlebags?"

"Your saddlebags?" Mender frowned, furrowing his eyebrows. "When Forest brought you up, you weren't carrying anything. You'd have to ask her, b-but... after she wakes up. She gets really grouchy if you wake her up too soon." He tilted his head, raising an eyebrow slightly. "How did you end up down there, anyway? Forest found you just... lying there in the open."

"I remember..." began Ocean. "I remember walking. I was walking toward the forest and I didn't have any food and I ran out of water, too. I didn't see any other landmarks, so I just... walked toward the forest."

"But... why? Were you just in the middle of nowhere, with no map, no nothing? I mean, why would you go so far out there with no clue where you were going?" Both of his eyebrows were raised now.

"Well..." Ocean trailed off as his mouth hung open, hesitant to continue. "I... honestly don't remember. I woke up under a tree and I didn't have a map or anything in my saddlebags and I can't remember a thing before that."

A look of intense concern overcame Mender's face. "Oh, that's... that's bad. Did you... did you hit your head? Jostle it at all? That's a serious symptom of some sort of head trauma or some sort of brain damage or..." He bit his lip. "I'm not a doctor, I don't know what to do if that's what happened, but I... it's really serious if you hit your head, we have to get you to a doctor..."

"No, no, it's fine, really, I'm okay. My head's fine." He rapped a hoof against his skull. "Not a scratch on me when I woke up. Though I did feel a little damp, now that I think about it. But I wasn't hurt."

The worry on Mender's face subsided to relief. "Oh... okay... g-good, good. Good. I was... worried for a minute there." But as Mender's worry faded, another worry planted itself in Ocean's mind.

"How long was I asleep for?" asked Ocean, an apprehensive tone in his voice.

"Well, you've been asleep here for at least eight hours, so that plus however long you were out there on the ground."

Ocean squinted his eyes as he mulled over this information. So I was walking for almost two days, and I was out for at least another eight hours on top of that, probably closer to twelve, so two and a half days total. He felt something powerful well up in him, and his eyes went wide.

"Wh-what's wrong?" Mender asked, the concern returning to his face.

"It's been almost three days and I still can't remember anything and..." Ocean trailed off for a moment, a lump forming in his throat. He blinked hard for a moment, shaking his head sharply. No. Don't be like that. He took a deep breath and then exhaled. "Nevermind. I'm just a bit stressed out, is all. Don't worry about it."

"A-are you...—"

"Yeah," Ocean interrupted. "Yeah, I'm fine. Really." He looked over at the figure still prone and snoring away upon the bed on the opposite side of the room. "How much longer 'til she wakes, do you think?"

"Probably another two hours," Mender said, offering a weak smile that failed to conceal the evident worry that lingered in his eyes. "She... sleeps a while."

So they waited.