From Beyond the Badlands

As I looked around my cave-like home, I found my mind drifting back to when I had found a dragon corpse (recently died, and of natural causes) and had quickly said my prayers to Baldur for desecrating a corpse, before cutting it with one of its own teeth, and cutting up and using as much of it as I could. The parts of the dragon that I didn't use (nor did I want to ) I had buried in a marked grave. I had used the dragon's skin to make some saddlebags, using my old ones (that for some reason had been exiled with me) as a template. Hrókr's hoarse cries and tugging at my ear brought me back to reality, as I got started on packing what little belongings I had into my saddlebags, before heading towards the high cliffs of the badlands.

For hours I walked, sometimes hiding from shadows that passed overhead, only to realise that it was only Hrókr flying overhead. An anxiety I had from living in the badlands made me jumpy whenever a shadow flew overhead, as it was a constant reminder that some gryphons liked hunting in the badlands for some ponies that were either travelling or just extremely unfortunate ponies that somehow ended up in the Badlands like me. After walking for miles and hours, the sun started to set, and the moon rose to take its place in the sky. When I noticed this, I realised that I desperately needed to find somewhere to sleep for the night, or I would end up as gryphon food, and so would Hrókr. As the moon rose, I searched frantically for a place to sleep, finally spotting a small cave next to a glittering body of water. I galloped towards that small cave, in the hopes that it wasn't already occupied and I could sleep there. Thankfully, the cave had no other creatures living inside and Hrókr and I both started to settle for the night.

When I awoke, I felt sore all over and my muscles felt cramped. In response to this, I stretched every inch of my body to loosen my muscles so that I could feel everything properly, as well as eating some food that mostly consisted of dragon meat (the last of it) and some fish that I had managed to catch in the lake. I looked over to Hrókr to see that he had just started waking up as well, and had fluffed out all of his feathers and started to preen his wings. Following his example, I started preening mine before leaving the cave and walking towards the small lake that I had galloped past in my desperation to get to the cave. Peering into the watery depths, I could just about see my reflection, and it wasn't pretty. My dark navy-blue coat was stained slightly red by the dust in the badlands, the white diamond shape on my muzzle was barely visible under the dust, as well as there being some blood from the meat I had just eaten covering my lips. My sandy-coloured mane and tail that had two streaks of a grey-ish blue in it were now not only messy but also covered in the similar dust that now covered my body. My wings, however, seemed as though they had less of the reddish soil on them, despite them being larger than the wings of other pegasi I had seen in my village. Snorting at my appearance in the lake water, I decided to take a quick bathe in the water, to rid myself of the dust that covered my body. Just before I could, however, Hrókr appeared from the depths of the cave and dove into the lake with a joyous cry as he flicked the water over himself. At this action from my companion, I couldn't help but laugh as he looked ridiculous. In response to my laugh, he shot me a look that said 'you try doing it without looking ridiculous then.'

"Alright, challenge accepted" I smirked, thinking that I could do it better than him as I started copying him, flicking the water over myself with my wings, drenching myself most effectively, making me look like a drowned rat. I felt ridiculous and embarrassed at my mistake, and my embarrassment only increased as I heard short hoarse cries from my corvid companion.

"Yeah, yeah laugh it up..." I grumbled as I blushed a bright red after I realised that he was laughing at me in the same way that I had previously been laughing at him. Dragging myself clear of the water, I shook myself like a dog with the water flying off me in all directions as I effectively dried myself. Hrókr let out a hoarse cry as he flew upwards to escape the water flying off my coat as I shook myself dry. Hovering above me after I shook myself dry, Hrókr gave me a dirty look that just said 'I'll get you back for that.'

"I don't doubt that you will" I replied as I started to place my saddlebags back on myself, preparing to set off towards the cliffs, which were now much closer than before. At about midday, I had reached the cliffs after a few hours of galloping to make up for the lost time we had spent playing around in the lake. Looking at the high cliffs, and the mountain range that stood on the edge. I started hating myself for not being able to fly up and above the mountain range and the looming cliffs before me. As I stared at the cliffs, I looked for an easy path to climb up. After finding the path, I started to jump from ledge to ledge, looking for any hint that the ledge I was about to jump to wouldn't collapse underneath me.

Making my way up the cliffside, I had managed to reach the top of the cliff just as the sun had started to set. Glancing around for somewhere to sleep, I found an indent in the base of the mountain in front of me which wasn't quite a cave but was deep enough into the mountain to make me feel safe. As I made myself feel comfortable in the hollow, I found my eyes had started to close. Just before I fell asleep, I felt Hrókr land on my back and sort of curl up into my back, which made me smile sleepily before I drifted off into oblivion. As the sun rose in the morning, I felt myself jolt myself awake, covered in sweat as I re-lived another haunting memory of my time in the village. As I jolted, I heard a startled cry from Hrókr, who had nestled on my back.

"Sorry Hrókr, I just had a bad nightmare, that's all" I muttered to him as he looked at me in a concerned manner, almost as if he knew something was wrong, although he let it go, knowing that I wouldn't let him pursue it any more than that. Starting to leave as the sun rose, I looked at the mountain in front of me and started to climb upwards towards the snowy peak at the top of the mountain. By midday, I had managed to reach the top and started my descent down the other side. Unfortunately, at this point, I had almost no strength left to carry on, and just slid down the mountain on all four hooves with my wings spread in front to create air resistance in the hopes that it would slow me down. When I had reached the bottom in quick succession thanks to sliding down, my front hooves tripped and slid under my body, causing my head to slam into the ground, making me start to slide into unconsciousness as I heard the thundering of hooves nearby.