Lost in a Natural State

The woods were getting dark. Solomon had never really practiced lighting magic, and now was too late to learn quickly. He had no idea how they had gotten there, but there they were, smack dab in the middle of the Ever Free forest. He strained for a bit, focusing hard on the tip of his horn, sending energy there from the rest of his body. It was tiring him more than he would have expected. After the third try, he was able to cast a moderate blue glow on a limited amount of their surroundings. He was able to make out Northern’s silhouette a few paces ahead of him, every bit as lost as he.
“Are we speaking yet?” he asked her tentatively. As far as he could tell, she was mad at him for getting them lost. Solomon was a book worm, not really very experienced in the way of, well, experience. This was his first attempt at trying to get farther out into the world beyond his books. It wasn’t going well.
She remained silent for a moment, and he began to think that the answer to his question was no until she spake. “We’re going to have to bunk down for the night. We won’t be able to see much longer in this light, and your blue light won’t work for us much longer.” She said it so coldly. He wondered vaguely if she knew just how much it was taking from him. He fought against the urge to just hang his head in shame at it. He was useless outside of his library, and he knew it. “Stay here,” Northern said sharply, “Don’t want you getting lost out there while looking for a safe place for the night.” With that, she left him.
Solomon didn’t know what else he could do, other than sit back on his haunches and wait for her to return. The light quickly faded from his surroundings not covered by his faint blue light, and the details inside his aura faded to obscurity. Trees quickly gained the features of his nightmares. He knew that it was one of the horrors of the forest that it personified itself with a miasma of penetrating fear, and that was what struck him now. The wind blew through the brush behind him and he could imagine the creatures of horror that could be lurking within. The sun set fully, dousing the last of the light. He didn’t even know how long Northern had been gone, but he was imagining that the time had just gone into another dimension and he was waiting hours and hours on end for her to return. His rationality, what little of it that remained, said that he had only been waiting for nearly forty minutes, but his fear of what might have happened to her overrode that rationality and he leaped to his feat, fixing to go searching for her when a twig snapped behind him. He jumped, not expecting the sudden sound to see Northern walk out of some bushes.
He nearly cried in relief, but he held himself at bay, rationality returning to him. He realized at that moment that he was not scared for himself, but for Northern. He had gotten her into this mess, and he didn’t want her to suffer for his mistake.
“And where do you believe you are going?” she asked him with scorn. Evidently the walk through the woods only worsened her mood. Too much time to think about why she was here. Because of him. It only made him feel worse, and his ears fell flat against the side of his head in shame as he cringed away from her. She sniffed in dissension of his apparent cowardice. “Come on. I found a place for the night.” And she turned, her gray coat easily allowing her to disappear into the darkness.
He surged forward, not wanting to lose her, and nearly ran over her in the process. She whirled on him, anger glowing in her eyes. “Watch it!” She didn’t shout, and he probably would have preferred it that way, but she kept her voice low. Even though, he could still feel the heat of that anger in her glare and in her words. He could hear the shouting that those words implied. He shrank back against the ground, not wishing to anger her farther until she turned her angry gaze away. He then walked beside her, slightly back so that she wouldn’t glare at him again. He could feel radiating off of her the anger at him.
They walked for a few minutes in absolute silence and he could slowly feel her anger cooling. No longer the absolute anger that it had been when she had first started hating him, but more of the silent heat that could flare again at any moment. Solomon walked up beside Northern, keeping a steady pace beside her, not saying anything, but he picked his head up a little. He wouldn’t lie. These woods scared him. The blue light from his horn faded a little. He was getting tired from having to keep the light up for so long. He’d never had to keep magic going this long. He put some more focus into the light and their aura brightened back again, but at a much greater cost to him now. Then things got worse. He felt a drop of rain fall on his flank. Then another on the tip of his nose. And another and another. He nearly shouted out in frustration at this latest development.
Northern looked up at the sky and didn’t so as well as he had at containing herself. She shouted and cursed at the weather of the forest, not controlled by the pegasi as the rest of Equestria was. “Come on,” she said at last, picking up her pace and was soon at a canter. He followed her closely, nearly running over her in order to not lose her. Unlike the previous time though, she didn’t lash back at him. She must have realized that he didn’t want to lose her and needed to be this close in order to not do that.
In another minute, they were within sight of a small cave. She broke into it just in time to not get soaked by the sudden downpour that soaked Solomon. He was only a second behind her as well, barely stopping in time to not run headlong into the wall that came up quickly on him. Then it once again got worse. His horn went out. They were cast into an impenetrable darkness. The sound of the downpour outside drowned out all else that he might have heard. He felt a small well of panic in his chest as he foolishly thought that Northern had gotten lost, despite the fact that he knew better. He had seen her in the cave a mere second ago. He quashed the fear thinking it silly. A flash of green in the cave and then orange light suffused the small cave, and started, yelping out before he could stop it. Luckily, Northern didn’t hear it over the rain outside. She had lit a small fire from dry tinder in the center of the cave and it crackled cheerily. He took a moment to study his home for the night. It was indeed, a cave. About ten feet deep, not very much at all. It was narrow as well. He could have reached out both hooves and touched either side barely if he stretched. And if he jumped too high, he would crack his head on the ceiling. In the middle was the fire, four and a half feet, five feet from the outside of the cave, and on the other side of that stood Northern. Her gray coat slightly wet from the rain, her flanks heaving minutely from the sprint into the cave. Her tie was tattered slightly from being in the woods and her glasses needed to be straightened. There were a few leaves stuck in her shortened brown mane. She used to have it longer, but she didn’t anymore, saying she preferred it the way it was now. He wondered why he thought of that now.
She was being much braver than he was. But her anger was back. She was glaring at him evilly. No doubt in his mind, thinking of horrible tortures that she would inflict upon him later. “Well, look at the mess you have gotten us into!” she shouted at him. That strangely made him feel better, but he didn’t show it. “We’re lost in the middle of the forest, it’s raining, the temperature is dropping,” wait, what? She continued to rant at him, but he was lost now from the conversation. Besides, everything she was telling him, he already knew. He focused more on the feelings from his surroundings. The temperature wasn’t dropping. The wind was picking up. He leaped in front of the still fledgling fire, blocking the sudden gust that would have put it out, catching cold water drops and even colder wind on his own flank so that their fire wouldn’t go out. It didn’t stop though. The wind kept up for several long seconds before finally dying down a little, still leaving breeze enough to threaten the fire should he move from his spot.
Solomon grinned sheepishly and probably foolishly at Northern, but instead of returning it, she returned her features to a hard and cold stare at him. But he still caught it. The look she had been trying to hide from him. She was scared as he was. She just didn’t show it as much. But then, she didn’t also have to be afraid of herself. He didn’t show that he had seen this, and instead laid his ears back and fell back into a depressed look. “Get some sleep. I’ll keep watch here for the night,” he said, barely audible to her over the falling rain and blowing wind as he let his gaze fall. She was already curling up in the back of the cave. He let his magic flair again, stirring the fire a little, allowing it to grow hotter and brighter. Shortly afterwards, he heard her fall into the deep steady breathing of deep sleep. He let his ears prick up and he turned around. The fire wasn’t really bright. It cast lights out only to the edge of the clearing. In the woods, he could barely made out some dead wood small enough for him to pick up at a distance. Using his magic, he pulled it into the cave, arraying it around the fire as he had read in his books to let it contain the fire and dry out quickly so that he’d be able to use it later. He turned his back to the fire, his work completed for now and just watched out into the night. The cold rain ensured that it would be a long one.