Knight of Equestria - Gabriel the Wanderer

(No Entries)

His aimless journey continued on. He had had some luck recently with making fires, since the constant snowfall had seemed to cease. He didn't know if a flame could survive in the flurries, so he didn't bother. He let his mind wander as he stared into the raging fire. The way of living he was now subject to was eating away at his state of mind. He no longer had any energy to do anything. He hadn't bathed since that night at the inn, which he guessed was about three weeks ago, not that he bothered to keep track of the time anymore. All he did was walk, set up camp, then drink late into the night thanks to his special bottle. He rarely stayed in the same place for long, but sometimes his hangovers kept him inside the tent all day, not feeling well enough to continue walking.

When his trek continued, he awed at the very land around him as he came to an incredibly dense forest. It would probably take him days to get through the entire thing, provided he didn't get lost. He pondered to himself why it even mattered, seeing as he had no real goal in mind anyway. At the very least, there would be plenty of firewood.

His desire to keep moving had even perturbed himself. Something in him told him that he had to keep moving. Perhaps it was a desire to get as far away from his problems as possible. Perhaps it was because he was trying his hardest to pretend his old life in Equestria didn't even happen.

Whatever the case, he did his absolute best to put the entire banishment out of his mind. The only things he cared about were walking and drinking. If he didn't think about it, his pain would numb.

A few hours after entering the forest, he passed a large cave covered by what looked like spider silk. He didn't know if that implied several small spiders or a single large one and didn't care to find out. Unfortunately for him, it was already getting close to nightfall so he had to set up shop for the night somewhat close to the cave.

He lay in his tent, using his backpack as a makeshift pillow, his journal rested gently on his chest and his cider bottle at his side. He knew if he opened the book he couldn't resist thinking about the past. He sipped from his bottle and set the journal down as he got into a sleeping position.

His usual nightmares that re-lived the tragedy that took his parents had long since been replaced by visions of his imprisonment, followed quickly by exaggerated versions of his exile. No matter what he did, nothing could stop his dreams.

Another event that happened that caused him great night terrors was the accident that hurt Luna. He never did get to see her again after his punishment was decided, as she was still healing. In his dreams, she hated him. In reality, he never got to know what she thought of him after that day.

He sighed, resigned to his fate of a restless sleep and tried to let himself drift off.

…...

Mere hours after he managed to fall asleep, his rest was stopped by a scream echoing in the night. He sat up, being silent for a moment to see if he had heard right. After a few moments of silence persisted, he began to rub his temples and lay back down.

As he lay there, he heard a very similar scream and confirmed that it was real, not some dream that woke him up. The shriek sounded feminine and not too far away, coming from the direction of the cave he had passed earlier. Some poor fool had probably wandered inside looking for shelter for the night. Whatever the case, he deemed it not worthy to risk his life on and just tried to go back to sleep.

…...

In the dark cave near the center of the forest, a young unicorn ran through a small tunnel, using her horn to light up the path ahead. She dared not look back to see if her pursuer still chased after her. The tunnel was rather large, almost as big as the entrance itself. As she ran she found herself faced with a three-way crossroads. She took the path on her left, purple cloak trailing after her.

The tunnel she followed had opened up into a large cavern. She grinned excitedly at what lay before her. A hole in the roof of the cave let moonlight shine down onto a pile of gold and other treasures. Gems, pearls, other expensive looking objects she had never seen before. It all glimmered gloriously in the darkness. She noticed what seemed like clusters of eggs on the wall nearby, a clear sign that the beast that was chasing her made its nest there.

As she took a step into the cave, from one of the other entrances emerged a couple of long, skinny legs. The massive spider who guarded the entrance had assuredly come to check on its brood. She dipped back into the tunnel and dimmed the light coming from her horn. As the gargantuan arachnid stepped over the pile of treasure, it knocked some coins loose from the pile. One coin rolled nearby the unicorn, and she gently used her magic to try and snatch it.

The spider noticed this immediately, all eight eyes spotting the intruder. She shrieked, dropped the coin and ran back through the tunnel, the spider in pursuit.

When she made it back to the crossroads, she glanced at the other exits, cursing herself for forgetting which way she came in. A strange noise was heard from behind her as she was suddenly snatched away and into one of the other tunnels when she looked back.

What looked like a thread of web shot out of the way tunnel she was just standing by, the only reason she didn't get caught was the strange person who had grabbed her. Whatever it was had covered her mouth and watched the intersection carefully. The spider saw that it's thread had missed the mark and continued through the tunnel that she assumed led outward. After silence had returned, the creature that grabbed her uncovered her mouth as she gasped for breath.

"Phew, thanks..." she said.

"The damned thing is blocking the exit..." it replied.

She could guess from its voice that it was a male, though of what species she couldn't say.

"You here for the treasure, too?" she asked.

"What? No. I was trying to get some sleep nearby and couldn't because someone was screaming. I assume that was you?" he replied.

"Oh... uh, yeah it was."

Some kind of shuffling was heard at the entrance to the cave, prompting the two to share a glance.

"Is there any other way out?" he asked.

"Maybe? There were some other tunnels this way." she responded, gesturing to the way she just emerged from. "Don't know where they go."

"It's better than nothing." he said, walking ahead without her.

"Hey!" she said, quickly lowering the volume of her voice. "Hey! Wait for me! I can light the way." she said, taking lead and using her magic to light the path.

"Soooo... what're you doing in these parts?" she called back to the tall creature following her.

She was met with silence, so she rolled her eyes and just kept going.

Soon they were back in the spider's den, the treasure room. Now without the threat looming overhead, the young pony rushed over and began scooping piles of the loot, stuffing her pockets as best she could. The human ignored the pile at first, before noticing something odd sticking out of it. It resembled the handle of a weapon, perhaps a sword or dagger.

He spotted the other entrance to the treasure room and assumed that was what the pony was talking about. As he made his way towards the entrance, the lights trickling into the room from above suddenly vanished. He looked up to see the huge arachnid had circled around to its lair. It wasn't looking at him, however. It was eyeing up the purple pony who had lead him there.

As the beast lunged he felt his body move instinctively. He dove into the young mare, sending the both of them rolling away will the spider's fangs ended up in the floor of the cave.

"Hey! What's the big id-" the pony began before noticing what had just happened.

"Stay low." said the human.

He watched silently as the spider tried to loose its fangs from the dirt. The impact had scattered the pile of treasure, revealing the handle did indeed belong to a sword. It was quite long and double edged, dressed in a partial sheath seemingly made of gold. As the beast finally freed itself, he quickly grabbed the blade before running away.

He ran out the second entrance, removing the gold sheath and tossing it at the spider to ensure it followed him. He marveled at the shear weight of the otherwise unremarkable looking sword, gripping it with both hands as he lead the monster away. The tunnel was shorter than the others, and it began to curve slightly upwards at the exit to the surface. The exit was covered with brush and was easily hidden from unknowing eyes. He recognized the spot as being merely a few meters from where he had set up camp.

As the spider finally pulled its massive body out of the tunnel, it let out what sounded like a terrifying hiss. The man knew that running out in the open was futile, his mobility was nothing compared to the eight legged fiend. Although at this point he had decided to stand his ground.

One of the spider's legs came crashing down in an attempt to stab the human, something he dodged and swung the heavy blade in counter attack. To his surprise, it lopped the end of the leg clean off, causing the beast's green blood to gush about as it shrieked in pain. He marveled at the sharpness.

His actions had only served to anger the monster, which rushed him with such ferocity that he had no choice but to run. As he dodged more of it's swings, the spider turned around and began launching web from it's abdomen. A strand had caught his foot and caused him to trip, making him waste precious time cutting the thread with the heavy sword. As he stood, the arachnid had caught up to him and forced him up against a large tree.

It's legs had entrapped him, so he began to wind up a swing in an attempt to escape. It was a futile effort.

The spider quickly bit into his left arm, stopping his momentum and pumping copious amounts of venom into the human. After the intense pain rang through him, he howled in agony as the vile green liquid seeped into his wound.

With a surge of adrenaline and with what strength he had left, his right arm stabbed the sword down violently, into the spider's head. The monster writhed in pain and released his arm, green and red blood spilling everywhere around them.

As the life drained from the dying spider, the strange sword pulsed with a faint red energy.

The human stumbled over and pulled the blade out, something he knew was pointless but still compelled to do, before collapsing onto his back.

"A-are you okay?"

He looked up to see the purple pony from inside the caves. She seemed to have made it out without issue.

"... no." he replied, looking down at his left arm and the venom that coursed through it.

"That looks terrible... do you have any antidote or something?" she asked.

"No... but there's a first aid kit in my tent, a few feet in that direction." he said between breaths, pointing with his good hand. "You know how to treat wounds?"

"I-I know some things, but nothing about poison!" she responded hysterically.

He knew what he had to do. He only had a single option left if he wanted to survive. And he had to act fast.

"You'd better go grab it. Quickly." he said.

He sat up, slowly, hesitantly, placing the blade under his left armpit.

"You aren't seriously gonna...?"

Before she could continue, he began to pull up and cut through his arm. She couldn't bear to watch, so she scuttled off to find the first aid kit like he had ordered her to.

His screams of pain could be heard as she went, echoing throughout the whole forest.

When the deed was done, he couldn't take anymore and began to pass out from the pain.