Growthby LevoanpChaptersChapter1: A Grim TaskChapter2: No Longer Alone Chapter3: FamilyChapter4: Out of the ForestPrelude: Freakin Wolves!Chapter1: A Grim TaskThe little griffon was crying, give me a manticore to fight hell I´ll even wrestle those freaking timber wolves that chased me of a cliff! I´ll even do it wearing a tutu, I´ll face anything you throw at me just not crying babies! It´s like kryptonite to me! And when I tried to pick it up the little rascal bit my little pinkie finger and the top of my ringfinger on my right hand clean off. Leaving half of it as a stump, yes it hurt like hell but still endured it for the sake of not upsetting it more than I already had. Well as good as I could anyway, I might have jumped around a little and rolled on the ground and tried not to think about it, earning me a little giggle from it... for ten seconds. Well, given how I looked I can´t blame it to be frightened of me, I looked like one of those sterotypical homeless guys from the comicbook world. My brown hair were greasy and passed my shoulders and since I had no means of shaving my beard I to had grown so long that I looked like Hagrid form Harry Potter, not that I´m complaining about having a beard, beards are cool and so I had taken the opurtunity to braid it a little which in my opinion made me look like a badass viking! Unfortunally badass vikings scare little children...obviously. One other thing that is always bound to happen on when your in the Everfree is being attacked by a manticore, luckily for me it was a small one this time, it was about my own size in mass. And it was easy to dispose of: sidestep and punch its face in. That earned me a warm pelt to ward of the cold nights not to meantion in the winter. Not that i did a good job in skinning the bastard seeing as it´s easely tatered and was begining to smell. To sum up my appearance: I looked like a red,brown and yellow, homless dandelion viking. Sounds silly? Well it beats being an icicle. "WhatdoIdowhatdoIdowhatdoIdo?!" Like I said kryptonite. I tried everything I could think off: baby talk, silly faces, peek-a-boo to name a few off them... Every. Single. One I tried to make it calm down just made it worse. I was just about to give up when I got an idea... well two actually but thats beside the point. I looked around the glade scaning the few scatered supplies on the ground there was a broken lute, some scorched rope aaaand... aha! I found what I was looking for and brought it back to the little griffon. then I conjured a nyckelharpa. The funny thing about my magic? It is wired to anything realtive to music I don´t why but it is. Meaning that I can conjure any kind of instrument even an imaginary one with a thought but not clothes to keep me warm during winter or a razor for that matter, it also gives me a permanent knowledge of how to play anykind of instrument. I can even sing multiple parts of a song simultaneous. Which have been my only joy these past four years being all alone in the wild and not to meantion that I´ve been reccently plauged by homesickness. Anyway I started playing the instrument. And to my suprise it worked, well almost it started crying direcly as I stoped playing. The crying wasn´t annoying per say but it was heart wrenching and I felt the buildup behind my own eyes. But I haven´t given up yet! "Okij, time for plan B" I said out loud as I grabbed and held the supplysack I had collected over my head "this better work as well as it did for Pinkie" and ripped it in two causing whatever that was in the sack fall on my head, unfortunally it wasn´t flour as I had hoped but lemons, MOLDY LEMONS! All which hit my head with a tuka-tuka-tuka-tuka-tuka-tuk...squish. And apparently a rotten tomato in the bottom. "The hell?" I held my breath, and had my eyes closed waiting for the little griffon to start crying again. It never came, instead that heart wrenching sound that could possibly turn Pinkies mane straight in record time, came the most wonderfull sound one will ever hear in his or hers lifetime: the sound of a babys laughter! "Mission accomplished" I thought with a smile. __ __ __ __ __ __ __ After finally managing to calm the little griffon down I proceded to lift it out of the wagon to check its gender. I can´t call it "it" all the time now could I? This time when I picked it up it only chewed on the side of my hand a little, nothing that really hurt. Wellp, it´s a she. I think its a she anyway, it´s really hard to tell! It would be so much easier if the male griffons had balls! Then I could be 100% sure that this were a female. Lets call "it" "her" for the time being. "Alrighty then" I said with my best Ace Ventura voice getting a giggle from the little one as I swept her into the blankets I had foud her in "You wait here for a bit okij?" she just tillted her head and looked at me, how does something go from heart wrenching to puppy-adorableness in a nanosecond? __ __ __ __ __ __ __ Alright lets check the to do list: calm the baby? check. Make graves for the parents? no check. Search the wagon for usfull stuff? no check. Make badass hat out of the dragons skull? no check, wait scratch that it´s probably to big anyway! Lets begin with scaveging for digging equippment. No usefull tool at all! Nothing! After going through every notch of the wagon and the scattered suplies I had found nothing that could be used to dig the planed graves. I looked to the bodies. I had placed the bodies of the griffons next to each other near the place I had choosen for their graves, I had not bothered moving the dragon since it was to large. The griffons claymore still in its chest. I walked up to the dead dragon and around it. I stoped at the tip of its tail, it was spade-shaped and thin enough for me to grapple. My gaze whent from the tail to the sword and back again and the idea was formed. I climed up onto the belly of the beast and pulled out the sword followed by a sound not unfamiliar to someone geting their boot out of deep muck. Wasting no time I went back to the tail, chopped it of and went to the digging spot and started digging. "damn this is awkward" I whined through my teeth. __ __ __ __ __ __ When layed the finishing touches on the graves the sun was on its way down painting the sky orange. I went back to the little griffon only to find her sleeping in her blankets. I sat down beside her and patted her on her head making her make a little chirp, which made me smiled. My gaze then went to the graves of her parents and then back to the sleeping griffon and that was all it took for me to reach a very serious decision as I picked her up in her blankets and went to sleep in the now dark wagon as the flames had died out. __ __ __ __ __ __ Early the next day I gathered up some things that I thought would be usefull in the future: The claymore which I´m named "Dragonheart" with its holster, a book that looked like a diary that I could not read, a feather from both of griffon parents and a satchel with stale bread in it. I put the book in the satchel and threw both it and the sword over my shoulder. I then went to pick up the still sleeping griffon with blankets and all.I named her Saga. Then I went into the forest once more. Chapter2: No Longer Alone Chapter2: No Longer Alone I must have been alone for far to long, I had almost forgotten how fun it is to have company and with Saga in my life now my days got more structured, if not harder. Since I can´t hunt worth a damn. Most of the time we ate beeries and roots, with the occational mouse or rabbit but that was only if got really lucky and it was quite tasteless since we ate them raw. Oh well, loosers can´t be choosers. At least I don´t have to chew Sagas share of the food anymore. And so the days went on wake, eat, trying to teach Saga both swedish and english words, sleep and rince and repeat. With very few monster attacks besides from those it was peacefull. But since I now had something sharp to defend myself with most of the predetors that attacked ended up as the meal themself. I guess the rest of them just learned to stay away. Well exept those damn wolves they just don´t know when to quit! They still forced my flight button every thime they jumped us. They are never far behind. All the while hopfully getting closer to anykind of settlement. And since I can´t tell north from south I took the easy way and followed a river that I found, not far from that glade. __ __ __ __ __ Its been some time since I buried Sagas parents in that glade, I have started to count the sunrise but I lost track after the thirtyfifth. So it has been about a month and a week proably more. Saga has learnt to walk on her own, the funny thing is that she walks more often using only her hind legs then she does on all four. I think she´s trying to copy me since I´m the only other person she knows. She mostly used all her limbs when running from the wolves, I swear they must have a grudge against me or something. "I´m the closest to a family that she got... I´m her father" I thought while looking at the little griffon, as she chased a butterfly. A fond smile crept onto my face. "I´m her dad" She also finally learnt how to speak, her first ord was in swedish "Rövläpp" wich would translate as "ass lipp" in english, hey, don´t look at me I have no idea were she heard that from! Okij... I might have grumbled something similar when the weather was bad... well at least it was a wake up call for me to tone down on my swearing. Can´t have my daughter go around swearing like a sailor all the time now can I? __ __ __ __ __ Being on the road can be quite boring so to battle my own boredom and hers I began teach her playing some instruments and the basic theorie behind a good punch as well, its very usefull to be able to defend oneself seeing as we are in the most dangerous place in Equstria. As it turns out she is quite the quick learner, I would go as far as to say she´s a genius! I mean seriously she´s barely one years old and already she could walk, talk (better than any other child her age anyway) and play seven different instrument almost as good as me and thats quite the achievement since her musical knowledge and skill were real where mine were artificial. Not to say that she wasn´t struggling with some parts but climbed past them the next day. __ __ __ __ __ "And this is how you play a C major" I said while demonstrating on the lute I had conjured. We took turns at playing a melodie as we walked beside the river. It was quite the scenery since the trees didn´t grow very close to the river you could see the sky , the sun shone brightly partly hidden behind one of the clouds. And far away in the distant lied a mighty mountain with its top covered by snow. As we walked I noticed something ahead, as we closed in on it I saw what it was, a bridge made out of cobblestone followed by a dirt road on both ends of it. Saga looked curiously at the structure that lied across the river. "What are whis?" She asked while poking one of the stones. "This my dear Fuzzyhead, is a bridge wich makes it possible for us to cross the river without getting wet, " I said with my best stereotypical posh scholar voice as I called her her nickname. She gave me her secret weapon in return... she pouted wich made her feather rise a little which in turn made her head look fuzzy, hence the nickname. "Touché" I said as I focused back at the bridge to decide if to follow the road across or follow. Turns out I didnt have to, seing as Saga took the initiativ and ran across the bridge. "Saga! Were do you think..." I called after her. "I fink I head somting" she interupted while waveing me for to come along. "huwy up dad!" The road were muddy from yesterdays rain. Fortunally we didn´t have to wenture far on the road to find the what she had heard. Ahead on the muddy road were a wagon stuck in the mudd and beside it sat a tired pony with green fur and a multi coloured mane of red and blue. He must have tried to force the wheel out of the muck by himself. As we approached I noticed that he had a horn. "A unicorn then" I thought for myself He suddenly burst to life tugging, pushing the wagon which didnt move an inch in return. He finished by kicking it. All the while screaming the most bizzare swearing I have heard! Something about a dragon, a pair of clippers and a fish. If I could, I would have writen it down because it was freaking hilarious! His swearing I mean... not his situation As he noticed me his expression went from tired, to panic. I saw him tensing up, pearls of sweat began to form on his forehead. Then he feel to the ground. I hurried up to the unicorn. As I did so I noticed another thing about the colorfull unicorn: he didn´t have a cutiemark. Using what little I knew of basic CPR I turned the unicorn over to his back and began checking for a pulse "all good" and if he was breathing "hmm, its faint but it´s there". Saga stod beside me with a mixed look of curiosity and worry. "Don´t worry sweetie, I´ve got this" I said with an asuring smile. I then procceded to slap the unicorn hard across his face with my right hand, which made him open his eyes and stare at me in shock. For about five seconds that is. "BY CELESTIA NON-EXISTENT BALLS, PLEASE DON`T EAT ME" he screamed while trying to crawl away from me, still on his back. "Why would I want to eat you?" I asked while raising one eyebrown. "Well because your... your not a manticore now are you!" I just laughed at that. "Thas just siwy" Giggled the little griffon. "I like this one, he has just the right amount of crazy" I thought. "Well, you scared me half to tartarus and back! Who goes around with a dead manticore over his shoulders like that?" "I´m human and my name is Paul Lindén and this little cutie is Saga, my daughter" I said as I pointed a thumb at myself and then put my hand on top of Sagas head. The unicorn looked suprised at the notion that I had addopted Saga as my own. He then shook his head proably to collect himself. "Good meeting ya Paul, Saga. The name´s Pokeblox" He said with a quick nod and finished with a mock salute. "Do you need any help with getting the wagon out of the mudd?" "That would be great but its more stuck than an turtle trying to make cheese while on its back!" He said as he kicked the wagon again. You should have seen his face when I simply walked up to the wagon and lifted it easily out of its prison of mud. "Priceless" as a certain draconequus would have said. "What are you doing here alone anyway?" I asked as I put the wagon down on a relatively dry spot on the road. He then explained that he was moving from a village called Smallhoof to an apartmentbuilding in Manehattan to become an apprentice to a blacksmith there. When I asked if we could tag along he only said. "On one condition bud... the manticore has to go, its making me sick just looking at it!" While making a gaging sound. So I stripped of the fur leaving it in the ditch of the road, did I ever meantion that I had name it Garfield? Well I did. I was now only wearing my old red t-shirt which were full of scratch mark after many animal attacks which made my scars on my uper body visible, my shorts and sandals. "Goodbye Garfield may you be of use to another cold unfortunate soul in need of warmth" I said as I swept away an imaginary tear. "You named it!? You named it Garfield?" Pokeblox said in a deadpan voice. "I think we´ll get along just fine" "I don´t even... *sigh*! Come on then your pulling." __ __ __ __ As we travelled the road me and Pokeblox took turns pulling the wagon all the while swaping intell with each other each time we stoped. He brought me up to date with news and the present date and year. We quickly became friends or "bros" as he called it. This time I told him of my fear of being wolf chow to which only made him laugh. "You do know that timber wolves don´t eat meat right? They eat fruit. Besides they don´t wenture far from the Zap apple trees near Apple Acres! Which is their primary feeding grounds." "WHAT, but I got chased endlessly by a pack about um three seasons back, all with redish thorny bark with black eyes" As I described the wolfpack, Poke went from his natural deep green to limegreen. "Those weren´t ordinary Timber Wolves Paul, those were Redwood Thornwolves!" "So the redwoods are the meat eaters then?" "Eyup and it sounds like you did something to really piss them of, redwoods are known for hunting mant... OH BY LUNAS FLANK, DON´t TELL ME YOU STOLE THEIR KILL! WE HAVE TO MOVE NOW" No sooner had he finnished screaming when a certain pack of wolves jumped out of the undergrowth. Chapter3: FamilyMy mind was racing and as the wolves drew closer Poke, Saga and I backed away until we had our backs against the wagon. My mind started filling with the most insane and not to mention outright silly ideas. "Since this is a magical world would it be strange to belive that everone have an skill tree like in the games? And the majority of my points are distributed mainly in the music branch, would that make me a bard? Why didn´t I finish watching the Zap Apple episode?!Wait is this fear real or are they puting somekind of fear spell on us? Didn´t I read about something about how to challenge the packleader? Were they really this big before?" As I looked to one of the monstrosytis it had clearly grown since they had jump out of the bushes. Yeah clearly some magic was in effect here. Then I noticed the small details that didn´t make sense a sudden calm washed over me and I could finally think somewhat clearly again, a plan started to form in my head. "What if..." "Hey Poke..." I whispered and slightly turned my head towards the unicorn. Only to see that he was playing dead again. So I poked him lightly with my foot. "I don´t think they wouldn´t eat a dead pony Poke, listen I think I have a plan!" As he got up I told him the plan. "ARE YOU CRAZY?! Are telling me to leave behind a friend to save my own fur? Then you don´t know me bud!" He shouted at me, making our audiance jump back a little. "Then as your friend I ask of you to take Saga out of here" I said calmly. He stared at me and then sighed in defeat. "Fine! But you better catch up! I would hate to be the one explain to her why "daddy" isn´t coming back" I closed my eyes to focus, for the first time I was actually going to use my magic actively using my magic redirected it from my muscles to my vocal chords, I could feel its flow. I counted to three before shouting the signal for Poke to make their escape as I locked eyes with hopefully the leader of the pack. "COUNTERSONG" as I started to sing at the top of my lungs to drown out the wolves growl I drew Dragonheart out of its sheath. At the same time Pokeblox grabbed Saga in a green field of his magic and levitating her as he ran past two wolves. All the while I heard Saga crying and screaming at Pokeblox to let her go. The last thing I heard her scream as she got out of earshot was: "DADDY" __ __ __ __ __ The wolves(now normal sized still big enough to rip me to pieces though!) had me surrounded in a half circle as I still had the wagon at my back. With me and the alpha in the middle of it. It kept on growling trying to drown out my song(yeah I´m still singing!) no doubt while the others kept an eeiry silent and just watched as we circled one another. My trick had for what its worth actually worked! My fear had subsided enough for my body to stop trembling. My mind was filled with determination, fuelled by Sagas word. The alpha suddenly pounced bringing, down its right paw towards my head. I´m no fighter put even I know that the safest place in a fight is closer to the opponent. I charged in under its arm barelly making passed with only a light scratch. I rotated my entire body as brought in Dragonheart in a two-handed baseball swing upwards scoring a likewise light wound on its shoulder. Then it charged at me, this time I wasn´t ready for it and we became a tangle of claws and blade. When we broke free both were covered in wounds. I was the one who came out worst, I was bleeding heavely from gashes on my arms, chest and shoulders where the alphas claws had stuck. While I had hit my opponent at least as many times in return, none of the hits proved fatal to the wolf. I chought blood I quickly looked at a gash on my left forearm I noticed that it was not healing as fast as usually! And I was begining to tire. My entire body hurt as if I had been hit by a train. I had to stuggle hard to not give in to unconsciousness. I tried to relocate my magic back to my muscles but to no avail. This would proably end badly for me. I feelt tears roll down on my face. "I regret not being able to be there when you grow up...Saga" I whispered to myself as I closed my eyes only to open them again in suprise as Dragonheart began to feel hot. As I looked to the sword, strange runes began to cover its blade, down to the hilt. As they reached my hand they continued on to my skin. I screamed, each of the runes felt like a white-hot brandening iron to the skin forcing me down on my knees as my opponent took to the offensive and pounced aiming to tear out my throat. And then the time froze as everything took on a gray hue. Two figures shifted into view behind the wolf, like ghosts. The distorted shapes approached me stoping only an arms lenght from were I was kneeling. As they did its shape became clear, it was the previous owner of the sword -who had black and red feathers and the same tiger patern on its feline part as Saga- and its mate who had teal feather but instead of a tiger patern it had lepard dots. Before me stood the ghosts of Sagas parents. And all I could do was to stare. They looked to the pouncing wolf with a look of distain clearly on their faces. Then as they looked to me again their faces shifted to a look of dissapointment. "Why do you give your life so freely to a foe so unworthy?" the black one said, its voice was gruff but clearly feminine if with a tint of ghostly. "Why do you so easily give up..." the other one started to said, his voice hard as stone as it echoed inside my head. "...When you still haven given your all?" as he finished they both brought up one of their talons Sagas father rested his onto the center my forehead while her mother rested hers on my chest in the region just above my heart. Then there a blinding light as the secrets of the claymore was layed bare to me. "How is this possible, your dead?!" I asked when I recovered enough from the "knowlege infusion". "When a the dead is not burried correctly the soult binds itself to an object that held a certain value to it. When you burried us in that grave you did not perform the rites and our souls binded to this sword which in turn is bound to your magic thus we are bound to you as well." Sagas father explained giving the expression of a schoolar. "And you know this because?" "I´m dead" He said flatly. "Aaha, not to sound ungratefull or anything but why are you helping me?" I asked as they started to dissapear. "Isn´t it what family´s for?" They said in unison while smiling warmly at me. "Family huh?" It´s unfair how many things of late has plucked at my heartstrings. __ __ __ __ __ "Alright, lets try this"I said as time catched up, I shifted slightly to the right switching Dragonheart over to my left hand as my opponents fangs dove into my left shoulder. "Why don´t you chew on this!" I said through clenched teeth as I brought the tip of the sword so it was pointing towards the wolfs throat. "GROW!" as I shouted the comand word the swords runes reapeared on the blade making it grow though the throat and piercing the neck of the alpha wolf, a dark bronze sticky liquid trickled down the blade. I saw its eyes dim as its lifeless body fell over me, traping me under it. The duel was finally over! Unfortunaly the rest of the pack didn´t take my victory very well. I tried to struggle through a distorted vision the darkness of unconsciousness creeping in from the corners of my eyes. The last thing I remembered was the sound of the wolves growling... and the sound of pans being clanging together? And a familiar voice bellowing. "SPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON-AH!" Chapter4: Out of the ForestI felt like I was floating in water. It were very relaxing, that is until I felt something pokeing me in the side with something pointy. I winced and tried to wave it it away with my hand. The poking stoped only to return only with increased vigor. Annoyed I opened my eyes only the be met by total whiteness. I instinctively knew what this meant and where I was. "Leave me alone Disc, I´m trying to recover from an very eventfull day. Come back tomorow!" I said grumpely as my old friend poped into view. "Aw, your no fun Paul! Where´s the What? The Were? The How? You know all the classical questions you mortals always ask? I was accually looking forward to them this time!" Said the draconequus with his arms crossed in front of him as he shoot me a fake pout. "Can´t it wait?" "Yeeeees, but who knows when the next time you fall unconsious is? Besides you should be gratefull, it´s not every day you get a personal visit from a god you know?" "And I would be very awestruck and humble if not for following reasons one: that you framed me for B.F.W.B incident, then there was the pony-eating cupcakes incident and last but not least: I just got shreded by a blasted Thornwolf, which is clearly a chaoticly mutated timber wolf which in turn makes all I´ve been through today your fault!" I said as I angrily looked him straight in the eye. ...5 second silence... then he started laughing. "Ha, those were the days" He said while wiping a imaginary tear from his eye. "Alright why have you really decided to bother an injured friend?" "It´s very simple reason really... I was bored and it gets lonely in here, but unfortunally, it seems its time for you to wake up, see you next time,tata!" As he snapped his fingers on his lion paw I snapped awake. "Asshole" I said outloud. __ __ __ __ __ I found myself lying in a bed in a unfamiliar room with...ceiling lights? I bolted straight up in the bed only to be met with intense pain, which made me lie down again. I looked around and noticed some apparatues you find in hospitals: there was the thing that goes blip, another that went bing. And no sign of my equipment... or my pants. I noticed that all I was wearing now were bandages. "So I´m in a hospital" I brought a hand over my face trying to force back any of the fears and what ifs that were surfacing in my mind. "I can´t be back, there´s no way, not now!" For four years all I wanted was to be back in my own world, to hear the voices of my family and friends. But I had come to terms with staying for the sake of Saga. She´s family, my family, my daughter and my responsibility! I smiled as I hold on to the happy thought. As I layed on the bed I noticed that my body flared up with runes for a second and then they were gone again, this time they weren´t white and they did not burn. In fact they weren´t any paticular color, like the light pattern in water they shifted between colors and comfortably warmed my skin. That´s when I noticed that my magic were still wraped around my vocal chords. "Phew... I´m still in Equestria!" I thought while a wave of relief washed my worries away. Since my magic only works when I´m in Equestria. "Oookijjjj...if this means what I think it means I´m never playing MMORPGs ever agian!" I thought as I once again tried to redirect the magic to its original possition. The runes flared up again and stayed as long as it took me to move the magic back to my muscles to speed the healing procces along. This time I succeded and I could feel a slight tingle as my wounds healed rapidly. As I got up again to search for Saga, I was meet with two sets of eyes, one set was of sky-blue color and belonged to a black and red head the other set was of deep green and belonged to a teal head both of the feathery kind. Both were invading the universal human standard of personal space as they were inches from my face and for the second time I lied down in the bed this time in silent shock. "Are you allright? You look like you´ve seen a ghost." Sagas mother said with a badly hidden smirk. "Ha ha, very funny! Exuse me while I facepalm myself" I said with a facepalm. "Your taking this very well, for someone who´s still alive" Sagas father said. "Well when you´re friends with the spirit of chaos you´re bound to see some crazy stuff and besides I try to be very acceptive of facts." I said still lying on my back. "So you can just appear out of nowhere?" They nodded. "So what gives me the honor this time?" "We wanted to tell you who we were in life and what brought us to the forest" "I would love to hear your storie, but I need to find Saga" "Be asured our daughter is safe, she´s with your unicorn friend" "Our? Aren´t you guys dead?" "Technically, yes. Let me explain" And so he did. "Let me get this straight: your souls were bond to the sword" they noded "which the bonded to me" more noding "which in turn made your souls flow over to my body?" nodedy-nodnod "and my soul is now fusing with yours?" yet another nod "slowly transforming me into a griffon making me Sagas both biological and addoptive father?" final nod. Processing in...3...2...1. "Oh god, I´m turning into a intersexual griffon!" I said while cradeling my head in my hands in a double facepalm. After I calmed down I got two "are you serious" looks from the griffon ghosts. "Are you ready to listen now?" Said an annoyed Nuvé, this time it was my turn to nod. And so they began to tell their tale. Sagas mother whose name was Ull and hailed from a long line of low-altitude griffon and while she was alive she had had the occupation as sergeant in a honorguard to an very powerfull and influentiall lord. She braged about being one of the best in her squad. They explained to me that there is different types of griffons just as the ponies are divided into earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns. Griffons divide themselves into low, mid and high altitude katagories depending on how their size and wingspan, low being the biggest with largest wings, mid being something in between (ranging from low-big or high-small and everything in between) and high being the smallest but with the smalest wingspan. Sagas father name was Nuvé and was an mid-altitude griffon and suprisingly he didn´t have an occupation as flashy or high ranking as his wife. He had been an entrepreneur in magical devices and enhancedments since he was an magic user. Though he was very succesfull in his work acording to himself anyway and the claymore was apparently his handiwork and his greatest succes since Ulls master had personally made the order and gifted it to her for her services as guard. The situation that made them flee from their home was a compex one with politics and griffon honor involved but from what I really understood were: apparently Ulls masters son put his moves on her Nuvé sees this and punches him in rage and when the lordling tries to return fire Ull knocks him unconsious by slaming his face into the floor. "Wait a minute if you´re a magic user why don´t you have a mane?I thought griffon mages have manes" I asked. "Because I shave, all griffons have manes no matter the katagory or gender and it´s mostly the traditionallist that keeps their manes, like Ull here" he anwers while he chuckles and gestures towards Ull. Prelude: Freakin Wolves!Ohshitshitshitshitshitshitshitshitshitshit run damn you RUN! AAH THEY ARE GAINING ON YOU RUNMOTHERFUCKERREUN! WHY DID YOU TURN AROUND?! I guess an introduction is in order: Hello my name is Paul I´m a swedish 21 year old guy and "suprise" I´m a brony who currently is being chased by woody hellspawn from botanic hell! Timber wolves to be exact! And they are pretty much breathing down my neck! So yeah not what I had in mind when visiting Equestria, for the seventh time actually. And by the way every time I arrive the staring point is always, ALWAYS in the middle of the EVERFREE! And every time it´s another time epoch! First time I came here was during Discords reign and let just say I chose the losing side that time and for the record being hit by a magic rainbow? Not something to recommend! What I was his right hand when it came to pranking those ponies, well mostly all I did was ensuring that none of the ponies were hurt or killed by his more creative pranks. Second to fourth time was in the years in between the end of Discords reign and Lunas banishment fortunally for me I had ended up in griffin country while the fifth to the seventh time were during the banishment. Though my stays are never for to long the longest were a year and that was the first time I arrived in Equestria. And most part of the time I´m stuck in this forest as it takes me weeks to find the exits. At least I´m closing in on the correct one... I hope. Well ok this time beats all the time record since I have been in this forest for four winters now. On the bright side: I´m very hard to kill since I apparently have a very high regeneration rate my wounds heal so fast you can see it closing almost like Wolverine (although mine still leaves scars), super strength found those out on my first trip here by being mauled by a manticore. Did I mention that I also can use magic? No? Well I am, although it seams that I´m restricted to conjuring and telekinesis thought again restricted as I can only affect inanimate objects. I blame my passive abilities for that. So now your surely wondering why I´m running? Because sharp fangs and pointy claws still hurts like hell! And I´m not like that kind of pain that result in spilling blood particulairly mine. And since I abhor to cause animals pain(well to be honest as long as it´s not vital to my survival like eating and warmth) fighting them is not an option unless my fight/flight switch is fliped. But back to the chase As the growling and howling became more and more distant I dared take a glance behind me to see if had put some distance between the wolves and me. And was met with nothing but trees and leaves. But I have not survived this long by counting my chickens before they hatch! So I continued running darting left and right sorted by random. When I finally stoped my lungs felt like someone lit them on fire and my heart felt like bursting out of my chest. Not to meantion I was sweating like crazy! I took a quick look around to see that I now stood on a tall cliff cuting the forest in two creating a canyon you only see in an episode of loony toons only with more trees. And not to my suprise the wolf pack were actually right behind me. "Aw fuck you and your damn camouflage!" I screamed at them while backing away from the canianes from botanic hell. Now I ran my options in my head. Option A: Fight the wolves and risk alot of pain not to meantion the possibility of being eaten alived or B: Jump of the cliff denying the wolves a meal and possibly break every bone in my body. Looking at one of the growling monter of timber made me light option A on fire with a "HELL NO" and choose B while fliping them of. __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ And not before long I was lying broken on the ground at the botom of the canyon intense pain flowing trough my entire body. Another brilliant idea by yours truly. I rolled over to my back the process of healing had already begun as I felt the bones getting back were they originally belong, it was uncomfortable to say the least. Looking through the hole of broken branches I saw that the sun were setting,and suddenly felt very tired as the adrenaline wore of "Well I think I´ve earned the right to take a nap" I thought as I closed my eyes and let my mind rest for a bit. __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ When I Later awoke it was early morning with a light mist, I got up and streatched my limbs And took of in a random direction since i didn´t have a compass on me. I had found an small path leading somewhere and since somewhere is better than here I decided to follow it. After following the path for a while I ended up in a clearing punching a hole in the thick overgrowth so that I could glimpse the sky I usually take in the sceanery on these occations exept for this time. I could glimpse a little of the wast mass that was the Everfree were I stood. And what I saw sparked my interest: Smoke, some kilometers from my current possision. Hoping sparked to life in my mind "Finally! Civilisation!" I thought as I hurried towards the origin of the smoke. But what I found instead horrified me straight to my core. In a glade of scorched grass and blackend trees lay four things before my gaze one: a broken wagon with small flames flickering on its side, it was of griffin origin, and how did I know that? Well that brings us to thing number two & three: two corpses of the biggest griffons I have ever seen! One of them was layed beside the wagon badly burned on its back, fleash turned to coal. The other was covered in great gashes of wounds that had been infested with magoots and other parasitic larvae. It was slumped over its weapon: a massive steel claymore which had ended the life of thing number four as it possibly pieced its heart: a great red dragon which was just massive! A loud crack brought me out of of my investigation of the scene, I tried to localise were it had come from when I heard it again aparently from the wagon. As I approached it several more cracks could be heard, when I was close enough to peak inside I could see something moving under the blankets. I gingerly griped the corner of said blankets with my left hand while forming the other into fist just incase whatever creature that was under here decided to pounce at me. "Alright 3...2...1!" I thought while pulling the blankets quickly to my left startling the little creature that was now before me and was looking at me with beady eyes ready to cry any second, one eye were skyblue and the other deep green. Before me sat a baby griffon with feathers that went from light brown at the base to draker brown at their tips. its feline part was of light orange with black stripes like a tigers. Every thing about it made me think of Deathclaw from the tabletop game of warhammer fantasy. It had aparently been eating what was left of the egg it sat in and that was what made the noise. "Well hello there" I said with a voice that you use when talking babies. Thats when it started crying "mudcrab"I swore.
Chapter1: A Grim TaskThe little griffon was crying, give me a manticore to fight hell I´ll even wrestle those freaking timber wolves that chased me of a cliff! I´ll even do it wearing a tutu, I´ll face anything you throw at me just not crying babies! It´s like kryptonite to me! And when I tried to pick it up the little rascal bit my little pinkie finger and the top of my ringfinger on my right hand clean off. Leaving half of it as a stump, yes it hurt like hell but still endured it for the sake of not upsetting it more than I already had. Well as good as I could anyway, I might have jumped around a little and rolled on the ground and tried not to think about it, earning me a little giggle from it... for ten seconds. Well, given how I looked I can´t blame it to be frightened of me, I looked like one of those sterotypical homeless guys from the comicbook world. My brown hair were greasy and passed my shoulders and since I had no means of shaving my beard I to had grown so long that I looked like Hagrid form Harry Potter, not that I´m complaining about having a beard, beards are cool and so I had taken the opurtunity to braid it a little which in my opinion made me look like a badass viking! Unfortunally badass vikings scare little children...obviously. One other thing that is always bound to happen on when your in the Everfree is being attacked by a manticore, luckily for me it was a small one this time, it was about my own size in mass. And it was easy to dispose of: sidestep and punch its face in. That earned me a warm pelt to ward of the cold nights not to meantion in the winter. Not that i did a good job in skinning the bastard seeing as it´s easely tatered and was begining to smell. To sum up my appearance: I looked like a red,brown and yellow, homless dandelion viking. Sounds silly? Well it beats being an icicle. "WhatdoIdowhatdoIdowhatdoIdo?!" Like I said kryptonite. I tried everything I could think off: baby talk, silly faces, peek-a-boo to name a few off them... Every. Single. One I tried to make it calm down just made it worse. I was just about to give up when I got an idea... well two actually but thats beside the point. I looked around the glade scaning the few scatered supplies on the ground there was a broken lute, some scorched rope aaaand... aha! I found what I was looking for and brought it back to the little griffon. then I conjured a nyckelharpa. The funny thing about my magic? It is wired to anything realtive to music I don´t why but it is. Meaning that I can conjure any kind of instrument even an imaginary one with a thought but not clothes to keep me warm during winter or a razor for that matter, it also gives me a permanent knowledge of how to play anykind of instrument. I can even sing multiple parts of a song simultaneous. Which have been my only joy these past four years being all alone in the wild and not to meantion that I´ve been reccently plauged by homesickness. Anyway I started playing the instrument. And to my suprise it worked, well almost it started crying direcly as I stoped playing. The crying wasn´t annoying per say but it was heart wrenching and I felt the buildup behind my own eyes. But I haven´t given up yet! "Okij, time for plan B" I said out loud as I grabbed and held the supplysack I had collected over my head "this better work as well as it did for Pinkie" and ripped it in two causing whatever that was in the sack fall on my head, unfortunally it wasn´t flour as I had hoped but lemons, MOLDY LEMONS! All which hit my head with a tuka-tuka-tuka-tuka-tuka-tuk...squish. And apparently a rotten tomato in the bottom. "The hell?" I held my breath, and had my eyes closed waiting for the little griffon to start crying again. It never came, instead that heart wrenching sound that could possibly turn Pinkies mane straight in record time, came the most wonderfull sound one will ever hear in his or hers lifetime: the sound of a babys laughter! "Mission accomplished" I thought with a smile. __ __ __ __ __ __ __ After finally managing to calm the little griffon down I proceded to lift it out of the wagon to check its gender. I can´t call it "it" all the time now could I? This time when I picked it up it only chewed on the side of my hand a little, nothing that really hurt. Wellp, it´s a she. I think its a she anyway, it´s really hard to tell! It would be so much easier if the male griffons had balls! Then I could be 100% sure that this were a female. Lets call "it" "her" for the time being. "Alrighty then" I said with my best Ace Ventura voice getting a giggle from the little one as I swept her into the blankets I had foud her in "You wait here for a bit okij?" she just tillted her head and looked at me, how does something go from heart wrenching to puppy-adorableness in a nanosecond? __ __ __ __ __ __ __ Alright lets check the to do list: calm the baby? check. Make graves for the parents? no check. Search the wagon for usfull stuff? no check. Make badass hat out of the dragons skull? no check, wait scratch that it´s probably to big anyway! Lets begin with scaveging for digging equippment. No usefull tool at all! Nothing! After going through every notch of the wagon and the scattered suplies I had found nothing that could be used to dig the planed graves. I looked to the bodies. I had placed the bodies of the griffons next to each other near the place I had choosen for their graves, I had not bothered moving the dragon since it was to large. The griffons claymore still in its chest. I walked up to the dead dragon and around it. I stoped at the tip of its tail, it was spade-shaped and thin enough for me to grapple. My gaze whent from the tail to the sword and back again and the idea was formed. I climed up onto the belly of the beast and pulled out the sword followed by a sound not unfamiliar to someone geting their boot out of deep muck. Wasting no time I went back to the tail, chopped it of and went to the digging spot and started digging. "damn this is awkward" I whined through my teeth. __ __ __ __ __ __ When layed the finishing touches on the graves the sun was on its way down painting the sky orange. I went back to the little griffon only to find her sleeping in her blankets. I sat down beside her and patted her on her head making her make a little chirp, which made me smiled. My gaze then went to the graves of her parents and then back to the sleeping griffon and that was all it took for me to reach a very serious decision as I picked her up in her blankets and went to sleep in the now dark wagon as the flames had died out. __ __ __ __ __ __ Early the next day I gathered up some things that I thought would be usefull in the future: The claymore which I´m named "Dragonheart" with its holster, a book that looked like a diary that I could not read, a feather from both of griffon parents and a satchel with stale bread in it. I put the book in the satchel and threw both it and the sword over my shoulder. I then went to pick up the still sleeping griffon with blankets and all.I named her Saga. Then I went into the forest once more.
Chapter2: No Longer Alone Chapter2: No Longer Alone I must have been alone for far to long, I had almost forgotten how fun it is to have company and with Saga in my life now my days got more structured, if not harder. Since I can´t hunt worth a damn. Most of the time we ate beeries and roots, with the occational mouse or rabbit but that was only if got really lucky and it was quite tasteless since we ate them raw. Oh well, loosers can´t be choosers. At least I don´t have to chew Sagas share of the food anymore. And so the days went on wake, eat, trying to teach Saga both swedish and english words, sleep and rince and repeat. With very few monster attacks besides from those it was peacefull. But since I now had something sharp to defend myself with most of the predetors that attacked ended up as the meal themself. I guess the rest of them just learned to stay away. Well exept those damn wolves they just don´t know when to quit! They still forced my flight button every thime they jumped us. They are never far behind. All the while hopfully getting closer to anykind of settlement. And since I can´t tell north from south I took the easy way and followed a river that I found, not far from that glade. __ __ __ __ __ Its been some time since I buried Sagas parents in that glade, I have started to count the sunrise but I lost track after the thirtyfifth. So it has been about a month and a week proably more. Saga has learnt to walk on her own, the funny thing is that she walks more often using only her hind legs then she does on all four. I think she´s trying to copy me since I´m the only other person she knows. She mostly used all her limbs when running from the wolves, I swear they must have a grudge against me or something. "I´m the closest to a family that she got... I´m her father" I thought while looking at the little griffon, as she chased a butterfly. A fond smile crept onto my face. "I´m her dad" She also finally learnt how to speak, her first ord was in swedish "Rövläpp" wich would translate as "ass lipp" in english, hey, don´t look at me I have no idea were she heard that from! Okij... I might have grumbled something similar when the weather was bad... well at least it was a wake up call for me to tone down on my swearing. Can´t have my daughter go around swearing like a sailor all the time now can I? __ __ __ __ __ Being on the road can be quite boring so to battle my own boredom and hers I began teach her playing some instruments and the basic theorie behind a good punch as well, its very usefull to be able to defend oneself seeing as we are in the most dangerous place in Equstria. As it turns out she is quite the quick learner, I would go as far as to say she´s a genius! I mean seriously she´s barely one years old and already she could walk, talk (better than any other child her age anyway) and play seven different instrument almost as good as me and thats quite the achievement since her musical knowledge and skill were real where mine were artificial. Not to say that she wasn´t struggling with some parts but climbed past them the next day. __ __ __ __ __ "And this is how you play a C major" I said while demonstrating on the lute I had conjured. We took turns at playing a melodie as we walked beside the river. It was quite the scenery since the trees didn´t grow very close to the river you could see the sky , the sun shone brightly partly hidden behind one of the clouds. And far away in the distant lied a mighty mountain with its top covered by snow. As we walked I noticed something ahead, as we closed in on it I saw what it was, a bridge made out of cobblestone followed by a dirt road on both ends of it. Saga looked curiously at the structure that lied across the river. "What are whis?" She asked while poking one of the stones. "This my dear Fuzzyhead, is a bridge wich makes it possible for us to cross the river without getting wet, " I said with my best stereotypical posh scholar voice as I called her her nickname. She gave me her secret weapon in return... she pouted wich made her feather rise a little which in turn made her head look fuzzy, hence the nickname. "Touché" I said as I focused back at the bridge to decide if to follow the road across or follow. Turns out I didnt have to, seing as Saga took the initiativ and ran across the bridge. "Saga! Were do you think..." I called after her. "I fink I head somting" she interupted while waveing me for to come along. "huwy up dad!" The road were muddy from yesterdays rain. Fortunally we didn´t have to wenture far on the road to find the what she had heard. Ahead on the muddy road were a wagon stuck in the mudd and beside it sat a tired pony with green fur and a multi coloured mane of red and blue. He must have tried to force the wheel out of the muck by himself. As we approached I noticed that he had a horn. "A unicorn then" I thought for myself He suddenly burst to life tugging, pushing the wagon which didnt move an inch in return. He finished by kicking it. All the while screaming the most bizzare swearing I have heard! Something about a dragon, a pair of clippers and a fish. If I could, I would have writen it down because it was freaking hilarious! His swearing I mean... not his situation As he noticed me his expression went from tired, to panic. I saw him tensing up, pearls of sweat began to form on his forehead. Then he feel to the ground. I hurried up to the unicorn. As I did so I noticed another thing about the colorfull unicorn: he didn´t have a cutiemark. Using what little I knew of basic CPR I turned the unicorn over to his back and began checking for a pulse "all good" and if he was breathing "hmm, its faint but it´s there". Saga stod beside me with a mixed look of curiosity and worry. "Don´t worry sweetie, I´ve got this" I said with an asuring smile. I then procceded to slap the unicorn hard across his face with my right hand, which made him open his eyes and stare at me in shock. For about five seconds that is. "BY CELESTIA NON-EXISTENT BALLS, PLEASE DON`T EAT ME" he screamed while trying to crawl away from me, still on his back. "Why would I want to eat you?" I asked while raising one eyebrown. "Well because your... your not a manticore now are you!" I just laughed at that. "Thas just siwy" Giggled the little griffon. "I like this one, he has just the right amount of crazy" I thought. "Well, you scared me half to tartarus and back! Who goes around with a dead manticore over his shoulders like that?" "I´m human and my name is Paul Lindén and this little cutie is Saga, my daughter" I said as I pointed a thumb at myself and then put my hand on top of Sagas head. The unicorn looked suprised at the notion that I had addopted Saga as my own. He then shook his head proably to collect himself. "Good meeting ya Paul, Saga. The name´s Pokeblox" He said with a quick nod and finished with a mock salute. "Do you need any help with getting the wagon out of the mudd?" "That would be great but its more stuck than an turtle trying to make cheese while on its back!" He said as he kicked the wagon again. You should have seen his face when I simply walked up to the wagon and lifted it easily out of its prison of mud. "Priceless" as a certain draconequus would have said. "What are you doing here alone anyway?" I asked as I put the wagon down on a relatively dry spot on the road. He then explained that he was moving from a village called Smallhoof to an apartmentbuilding in Manehattan to become an apprentice to a blacksmith there. When I asked if we could tag along he only said. "On one condition bud... the manticore has to go, its making me sick just looking at it!" While making a gaging sound. So I stripped of the fur leaving it in the ditch of the road, did I ever meantion that I had name it Garfield? Well I did. I was now only wearing my old red t-shirt which were full of scratch mark after many animal attacks which made my scars on my uper body visible, my shorts and sandals. "Goodbye Garfield may you be of use to another cold unfortunate soul in need of warmth" I said as I swept away an imaginary tear. "You named it!? You named it Garfield?" Pokeblox said in a deadpan voice. "I think we´ll get along just fine" "I don´t even... *sigh*! Come on then your pulling." __ __ __ __ As we travelled the road me and Pokeblox took turns pulling the wagon all the while swaping intell with each other each time we stoped. He brought me up to date with news and the present date and year. We quickly became friends or "bros" as he called it. This time I told him of my fear of being wolf chow to which only made him laugh. "You do know that timber wolves don´t eat meat right? They eat fruit. Besides they don´t wenture far from the Zap apple trees near Apple Acres! Which is their primary feeding grounds." "WHAT, but I got chased endlessly by a pack about um three seasons back, all with redish thorny bark with black eyes" As I described the wolfpack, Poke went from his natural deep green to limegreen. "Those weren´t ordinary Timber Wolves Paul, those were Redwood Thornwolves!" "So the redwoods are the meat eaters then?" "Eyup and it sounds like you did something to really piss them of, redwoods are known for hunting mant... OH BY LUNAS FLANK, DON´t TELL ME YOU STOLE THEIR KILL! WE HAVE TO MOVE NOW" No sooner had he finnished screaming when a certain pack of wolves jumped out of the undergrowth.
Chapter3: FamilyMy mind was racing and as the wolves drew closer Poke, Saga and I backed away until we had our backs against the wagon. My mind started filling with the most insane and not to mention outright silly ideas. "Since this is a magical world would it be strange to belive that everone have an skill tree like in the games? And the majority of my points are distributed mainly in the music branch, would that make me a bard? Why didn´t I finish watching the Zap Apple episode?!Wait is this fear real or are they puting somekind of fear spell on us? Didn´t I read about something about how to challenge the packleader? Were they really this big before?" As I looked to one of the monstrosytis it had clearly grown since they had jump out of the bushes. Yeah clearly some magic was in effect here. Then I noticed the small details that didn´t make sense a sudden calm washed over me and I could finally think somewhat clearly again, a plan started to form in my head. "What if..." "Hey Poke..." I whispered and slightly turned my head towards the unicorn. Only to see that he was playing dead again. So I poked him lightly with my foot. "I don´t think they wouldn´t eat a dead pony Poke, listen I think I have a plan!" As he got up I told him the plan. "ARE YOU CRAZY?! Are telling me to leave behind a friend to save my own fur? Then you don´t know me bud!" He shouted at me, making our audiance jump back a little. "Then as your friend I ask of you to take Saga out of here" I said calmly. He stared at me and then sighed in defeat. "Fine! But you better catch up! I would hate to be the one explain to her why "daddy" isn´t coming back" I closed my eyes to focus, for the first time I was actually going to use my magic actively using my magic redirected it from my muscles to my vocal chords, I could feel its flow. I counted to three before shouting the signal for Poke to make their escape as I locked eyes with hopefully the leader of the pack. "COUNTERSONG" as I started to sing at the top of my lungs to drown out the wolves growl I drew Dragonheart out of its sheath. At the same time Pokeblox grabbed Saga in a green field of his magic and levitating her as he ran past two wolves. All the while I heard Saga crying and screaming at Pokeblox to let her go. The last thing I heard her scream as she got out of earshot was: "DADDY" __ __ __ __ __ The wolves(now normal sized still big enough to rip me to pieces though!) had me surrounded in a half circle as I still had the wagon at my back. With me and the alpha in the middle of it. It kept on growling trying to drown out my song(yeah I´m still singing!) no doubt while the others kept an eeiry silent and just watched as we circled one another. My trick had for what its worth actually worked! My fear had subsided enough for my body to stop trembling. My mind was filled with determination, fuelled by Sagas word. The alpha suddenly pounced bringing, down its right paw towards my head. I´m no fighter put even I know that the safest place in a fight is closer to the opponent. I charged in under its arm barelly making passed with only a light scratch. I rotated my entire body as brought in Dragonheart in a two-handed baseball swing upwards scoring a likewise light wound on its shoulder. Then it charged at me, this time I wasn´t ready for it and we became a tangle of claws and blade. When we broke free both were covered in wounds. I was the one who came out worst, I was bleeding heavely from gashes on my arms, chest and shoulders where the alphas claws had stuck. While I had hit my opponent at least as many times in return, none of the hits proved fatal to the wolf. I chought blood I quickly looked at a gash on my left forearm I noticed that it was not healing as fast as usually! And I was begining to tire. My entire body hurt as if I had been hit by a train. I had to stuggle hard to not give in to unconsciousness. I tried to relocate my magic back to my muscles but to no avail. This would proably end badly for me. I feelt tears roll down on my face. "I regret not being able to be there when you grow up...Saga" I whispered to myself as I closed my eyes only to open them again in suprise as Dragonheart began to feel hot. As I looked to the sword, strange runes began to cover its blade, down to the hilt. As they reached my hand they continued on to my skin. I screamed, each of the runes felt like a white-hot brandening iron to the skin forcing me down on my knees as my opponent took to the offensive and pounced aiming to tear out my throat. And then the time froze as everything took on a gray hue. Two figures shifted into view behind the wolf, like ghosts. The distorted shapes approached me stoping only an arms lenght from were I was kneeling. As they did its shape became clear, it was the previous owner of the sword -who had black and red feathers and the same tiger patern on its feline part as Saga- and its mate who had teal feather but instead of a tiger patern it had lepard dots. Before me stood the ghosts of Sagas parents. And all I could do was to stare. They looked to the pouncing wolf with a look of distain clearly on their faces. Then as they looked to me again their faces shifted to a look of dissapointment. "Why do you give your life so freely to a foe so unworthy?" the black one said, its voice was gruff but clearly feminine if with a tint of ghostly. "Why do you so easily give up..." the other one started to said, his voice hard as stone as it echoed inside my head. "...When you still haven given your all?" as he finished they both brought up one of their talons Sagas father rested his onto the center my forehead while her mother rested hers on my chest in the region just above my heart. Then there a blinding light as the secrets of the claymore was layed bare to me. "How is this possible, your dead?!" I asked when I recovered enough from the "knowlege infusion". "When a the dead is not burried correctly the soult binds itself to an object that held a certain value to it. When you burried us in that grave you did not perform the rites and our souls binded to this sword which in turn is bound to your magic thus we are bound to you as well." Sagas father explained giving the expression of a schoolar. "And you know this because?" "I´m dead" He said flatly. "Aaha, not to sound ungratefull or anything but why are you helping me?" I asked as they started to dissapear. "Isn´t it what family´s for?" They said in unison while smiling warmly at me. "Family huh?" It´s unfair how many things of late has plucked at my heartstrings. __ __ __ __ __ "Alright, lets try this"I said as time catched up, I shifted slightly to the right switching Dragonheart over to my left hand as my opponents fangs dove into my left shoulder. "Why don´t you chew on this!" I said through clenched teeth as I brought the tip of the sword so it was pointing towards the wolfs throat. "GROW!" as I shouted the comand word the swords runes reapeared on the blade making it grow though the throat and piercing the neck of the alpha wolf, a dark bronze sticky liquid trickled down the blade. I saw its eyes dim as its lifeless body fell over me, traping me under it. The duel was finally over! Unfortunaly the rest of the pack didn´t take my victory very well. I tried to struggle through a distorted vision the darkness of unconsciousness creeping in from the corners of my eyes. The last thing I remembered was the sound of the wolves growling... and the sound of pans being clanging together? And a familiar voice bellowing. "SPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON-AH!"
Chapter4: Out of the ForestI felt like I was floating in water. It were very relaxing, that is until I felt something pokeing me in the side with something pointy. I winced and tried to wave it it away with my hand. The poking stoped only to return only with increased vigor. Annoyed I opened my eyes only the be met by total whiteness. I instinctively knew what this meant and where I was. "Leave me alone Disc, I´m trying to recover from an very eventfull day. Come back tomorow!" I said grumpely as my old friend poped into view. "Aw, your no fun Paul! Where´s the What? The Were? The How? You know all the classical questions you mortals always ask? I was accually looking forward to them this time!" Said the draconequus with his arms crossed in front of him as he shoot me a fake pout. "Can´t it wait?" "Yeeeees, but who knows when the next time you fall unconsious is? Besides you should be gratefull, it´s not every day you get a personal visit from a god you know?" "And I would be very awestruck and humble if not for following reasons one: that you framed me for B.F.W.B incident, then there was the pony-eating cupcakes incident and last but not least: I just got shreded by a blasted Thornwolf, which is clearly a chaoticly mutated timber wolf which in turn makes all I´ve been through today your fault!" I said as I angrily looked him straight in the eye. ...5 second silence... then he started laughing. "Ha, those were the days" He said while wiping a imaginary tear from his eye. "Alright why have you really decided to bother an injured friend?" "It´s very simple reason really... I was bored and it gets lonely in here, but unfortunally, it seems its time for you to wake up, see you next time,tata!" As he snapped his fingers on his lion paw I snapped awake. "Asshole" I said outloud. __ __ __ __ __ I found myself lying in a bed in a unfamiliar room with...ceiling lights? I bolted straight up in the bed only to be met with intense pain, which made me lie down again. I looked around and noticed some apparatues you find in hospitals: there was the thing that goes blip, another that went bing. And no sign of my equipment... or my pants. I noticed that all I was wearing now were bandages. "So I´m in a hospital" I brought a hand over my face trying to force back any of the fears and what ifs that were surfacing in my mind. "I can´t be back, there´s no way, not now!" For four years all I wanted was to be back in my own world, to hear the voices of my family and friends. But I had come to terms with staying for the sake of Saga. She´s family, my family, my daughter and my responsibility! I smiled as I hold on to the happy thought. As I layed on the bed I noticed that my body flared up with runes for a second and then they were gone again, this time they weren´t white and they did not burn. In fact they weren´t any paticular color, like the light pattern in water they shifted between colors and comfortably warmed my skin. That´s when I noticed that my magic were still wraped around my vocal chords. "Phew... I´m still in Equestria!" I thought while a wave of relief washed my worries away. Since my magic only works when I´m in Equestria. "Oookijjjj...if this means what I think it means I´m never playing MMORPGs ever agian!" I thought as I once again tried to redirect the magic to its original possition. The runes flared up again and stayed as long as it took me to move the magic back to my muscles to speed the healing procces along. This time I succeded and I could feel a slight tingle as my wounds healed rapidly. As I got up again to search for Saga, I was meet with two sets of eyes, one set was of sky-blue color and belonged to a black and red head the other set was of deep green and belonged to a teal head both of the feathery kind. Both were invading the universal human standard of personal space as they were inches from my face and for the second time I lied down in the bed this time in silent shock. "Are you allright? You look like you´ve seen a ghost." Sagas mother said with a badly hidden smirk. "Ha ha, very funny! Exuse me while I facepalm myself" I said with a facepalm. "Your taking this very well, for someone who´s still alive" Sagas father said. "Well when you´re friends with the spirit of chaos you´re bound to see some crazy stuff and besides I try to be very acceptive of facts." I said still lying on my back. "So you can just appear out of nowhere?" They nodded. "So what gives me the honor this time?" "We wanted to tell you who we were in life and what brought us to the forest" "I would love to hear your storie, but I need to find Saga" "Be asured our daughter is safe, she´s with your unicorn friend" "Our? Aren´t you guys dead?" "Technically, yes. Let me explain" And so he did. "Let me get this straight: your souls were bond to the sword" they noded "which the bonded to me" more noding "which in turn made your souls flow over to my body?" nodedy-nodnod "and my soul is now fusing with yours?" yet another nod "slowly transforming me into a griffon making me Sagas both biological and addoptive father?" final nod. Processing in...3...2...1. "Oh god, I´m turning into a intersexual griffon!" I said while cradeling my head in my hands in a double facepalm. After I calmed down I got two "are you serious" looks from the griffon ghosts. "Are you ready to listen now?" Said an annoyed Nuvé, this time it was my turn to nod. And so they began to tell their tale. Sagas mother whose name was Ull and hailed from a long line of low-altitude griffon and while she was alive she had had the occupation as sergeant in a honorguard to an very powerfull and influentiall lord. She braged about being one of the best in her squad. They explained to me that there is different types of griffons just as the ponies are divided into earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns. Griffons divide themselves into low, mid and high altitude katagories depending on how their size and wingspan, low being the biggest with largest wings, mid being something in between (ranging from low-big or high-small and everything in between) and high being the smallest but with the smalest wingspan. Sagas father name was Nuvé and was an mid-altitude griffon and suprisingly he didn´t have an occupation as flashy or high ranking as his wife. He had been an entrepreneur in magical devices and enhancedments since he was an magic user. Though he was very succesfull in his work acording to himself anyway and the claymore was apparently his handiwork and his greatest succes since Ulls master had personally made the order and gifted it to her for her services as guard. The situation that made them flee from their home was a compex one with politics and griffon honor involved but from what I really understood were: apparently Ulls masters son put his moves on her Nuvé sees this and punches him in rage and when the lordling tries to return fire Ull knocks him unconsious by slaming his face into the floor. "Wait a minute if you´re a magic user why don´t you have a mane?I thought griffon mages have manes" I asked. "Because I shave, all griffons have manes no matter the katagory or gender and it´s mostly the traditionallist that keeps their manes, like Ull here" he anwers while he chuckles and gestures towards Ull.
Prelude: Freakin Wolves!Ohshitshitshitshitshitshitshitshitshitshit run damn you RUN! AAH THEY ARE GAINING ON YOU RUNMOTHERFUCKERREUN! WHY DID YOU TURN AROUND?! I guess an introduction is in order: Hello my name is Paul I´m a swedish 21 year old guy and "suprise" I´m a brony who currently is being chased by woody hellspawn from botanic hell! Timber wolves to be exact! And they are pretty much breathing down my neck! So yeah not what I had in mind when visiting Equestria, for the seventh time actually. And by the way every time I arrive the staring point is always, ALWAYS in the middle of the EVERFREE! And every time it´s another time epoch! First time I came here was during Discords reign and let just say I chose the losing side that time and for the record being hit by a magic rainbow? Not something to recommend! What I was his right hand when it came to pranking those ponies, well mostly all I did was ensuring that none of the ponies were hurt or killed by his more creative pranks. Second to fourth time was in the years in between the end of Discords reign and Lunas banishment fortunally for me I had ended up in griffin country while the fifth to the seventh time were during the banishment. Though my stays are never for to long the longest were a year and that was the first time I arrived in Equestria. And most part of the time I´m stuck in this forest as it takes me weeks to find the exits. At least I´m closing in on the correct one... I hope. Well ok this time beats all the time record since I have been in this forest for four winters now. On the bright side: I´m very hard to kill since I apparently have a very high regeneration rate my wounds heal so fast you can see it closing almost like Wolverine (although mine still leaves scars), super strength found those out on my first trip here by being mauled by a manticore. Did I mention that I also can use magic? No? Well I am, although it seams that I´m restricted to conjuring and telekinesis thought again restricted as I can only affect inanimate objects. I blame my passive abilities for that. So now your surely wondering why I´m running? Because sharp fangs and pointy claws still hurts like hell! And I´m not like that kind of pain that result in spilling blood particulairly mine. And since I abhor to cause animals pain(well to be honest as long as it´s not vital to my survival like eating and warmth) fighting them is not an option unless my fight/flight switch is fliped. But back to the chase As the growling and howling became more and more distant I dared take a glance behind me to see if had put some distance between the wolves and me. And was met with nothing but trees and leaves. But I have not survived this long by counting my chickens before they hatch! So I continued running darting left and right sorted by random. When I finally stoped my lungs felt like someone lit them on fire and my heart felt like bursting out of my chest. Not to meantion I was sweating like crazy! I took a quick look around to see that I now stood on a tall cliff cuting the forest in two creating a canyon you only see in an episode of loony toons only with more trees. And not to my suprise the wolf pack were actually right behind me. "Aw fuck you and your damn camouflage!" I screamed at them while backing away from the canianes from botanic hell. Now I ran my options in my head. Option A: Fight the wolves and risk alot of pain not to meantion the possibility of being eaten alived or B: Jump of the cliff denying the wolves a meal and possibly break every bone in my body. Looking at one of the growling monter of timber made me light option A on fire with a "HELL NO" and choose B while fliping them of. __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ And not before long I was lying broken on the ground at the botom of the canyon intense pain flowing trough my entire body. Another brilliant idea by yours truly. I rolled over to my back the process of healing had already begun as I felt the bones getting back were they originally belong, it was uncomfortable to say the least. Looking through the hole of broken branches I saw that the sun were setting,and suddenly felt very tired as the adrenaline wore of "Well I think I´ve earned the right to take a nap" I thought as I closed my eyes and let my mind rest for a bit. __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ When I Later awoke it was early morning with a light mist, I got up and streatched my limbs And took of in a random direction since i didn´t have a compass on me. I had found an small path leading somewhere and since somewhere is better than here I decided to follow it. After following the path for a while I ended up in a clearing punching a hole in the thick overgrowth so that I could glimpse the sky I usually take in the sceanery on these occations exept for this time. I could glimpse a little of the wast mass that was the Everfree were I stood. And what I saw sparked my interest: Smoke, some kilometers from my current possision. Hoping sparked to life in my mind "Finally! Civilisation!" I thought as I hurried towards the origin of the smoke. But what I found instead horrified me straight to my core. In a glade of scorched grass and blackend trees lay four things before my gaze one: a broken wagon with small flames flickering on its side, it was of griffin origin, and how did I know that? Well that brings us to thing number two & three: two corpses of the biggest griffons I have ever seen! One of them was layed beside the wagon badly burned on its back, fleash turned to coal. The other was covered in great gashes of wounds that had been infested with magoots and other parasitic larvae. It was slumped over its weapon: a massive steel claymore which had ended the life of thing number four as it possibly pieced its heart: a great red dragon which was just massive! A loud crack brought me out of of my investigation of the scene, I tried to localise were it had come from when I heard it again aparently from the wagon. As I approached it several more cracks could be heard, when I was close enough to peak inside I could see something moving under the blankets. I gingerly griped the corner of said blankets with my left hand while forming the other into fist just incase whatever creature that was under here decided to pounce at me. "Alright 3...2...1!" I thought while pulling the blankets quickly to my left startling the little creature that was now before me and was looking at me with beady eyes ready to cry any second, one eye were skyblue and the other deep green. Before me sat a baby griffon with feathers that went from light brown at the base to draker brown at their tips. its feline part was of light orange with black stripes like a tigers. Every thing about it made me think of Deathclaw from the tabletop game of warhammer fantasy. It had aparently been eating what was left of the egg it sat in and that was what made the noise. "Well hello there" I said with a voice that you use when talking babies. Thats when it started crying "mudcrab"I swore.
