All was still in the old cabin nestled near the edge of the woods, its occupants still wondering through the realm of dreams. Unfortunately for some their exploration was cut short.
The faint rustling of sheets and creaking of the mattress pierced through the silence as the stallion sat up. He blinked a few times and was met with the near pitch blackness of his room. He was only able to make out the shapes of his belongings from the dim light of the moon shining through the small window. His ears pricked up from the faint sound of a door opening and closing followed by light hoofsteps moving across the wooden floor. Pushing off the covers he climbed out of bed, lighting an old oil lamp resting on the bedside table. Grabbing the handle in his mouth he carefully made his way out of the room.
He had set the flame low enough to allow him to see but not wake anypony. The stallion slowly continued down the short hallway passing the room of his still sleeping young siblings finally reaching the kitchen. He could make out the faint outline of his father already at the table eating his breakfast. Setting the lamp on the table he turned the knob, the flame growing illuminating the room in an orange glow. Now able to see the stallion moved to the cupboards pulling a bowl out, making his way to the old wood stove, spooning some of the leftover stew for himself before sitting across from his father. The two ate in silence not because they had nothing to say to the other, but because of the ponies still sleeping.
In truth, he had no trouble talking to his father. Though the older earth stallion seemed intimidating with his height and the large muscles seen under his grey coat, along with the serious expression he always wore. Strangers would want to steer clear of the stallion but to those who really knew him, Alder was fairly kind, loving, and willing to help those who needed it. But he was not afraid of being stern with his children or anypony who deserved it.
With their bowls empty the younger stallion grabbed the lamp following the other out the front door. Once outside the two made their way near the back of the cabin where they stored the larger logs and equipment. They had spent the day before cutting down a few trees pulling them back to the cabin and stripping the branches off.
Coming to the pile the stallion put down the lamp glancing at Alder, "What do we have to get done today father?"
Alder moved his eyes to a large cart nearby his deep voice breaking through the silent night air. " Well I have to chop up these logs, and deliver them to some ponies in town, and I need to take one of the harnesses in for some repairs. If I hook it up to just one tree the moment I pull, it could possibly snap and the harness would be completely useless. So, Adair, you will be in the woods on your own for possibly a few days, depending on the condition of the harness."
Adair whipped his head around staring directly at his father. " Are you sure?"
The older pony nodded, "You'll be a full-grown stallion in a few weeks, and you're getting too big for me to be watching you." He said with a playful grin. "Besides it's about time for you to take on more responsibilities here, and doing things on your own."
"You can count on me Father," Adair said with a smile, his chest swelling with excitement from being trusted enough to be out on his own.
His father placed a hoof on his shoulder, "I know I can. Now let's get started, the unicorns should be bringing the sun up soon."
The two stallions quickly gathered up their tools and some food, heading out just as the sun began to rise.
The young earth pony made his way into the woods smiling over the basket handle in his mouth, listening to the sounds of birds over the jingling of the harness's chains trailing behind him. His body was still buzzing with energy, he was trusted to work alone today and possibly more often in the future. It seemed rather silly for a pony on the cusp of eighteen to be this happy over something so simple like this. But growing up he had never been allowed to go past the trees near the cabin without his father. Forcing himself to focus Adair scanned the area searching for the right tree just as he had been taught.
He had been walking a while and hadn't found the right trees to chop down. He and his father had the same problem the day before, he even went in a different direction from yesterday. There was no other choice but to go further than he or maybe anypony had gone before. Squaring his shoulders Adair prepared himself for the likely long trek ahead, picking a direction he began walking deeper into the trees.
It seemed like hours had passed and it began to take its toll on the earth pony. Sweat had begun rolling down his face and back from the noonday sun beating down on him. He also became more aware of his surroundings, though he had always felt comfortable among nature, spending most of his time in it when his father allowed him to come along with him. But at the moment he was slightly on edge, he was alone wondering an area he'd never been in. His eyes scanned his surroundings searching for any signs of timber wolves. He had never seen one come close to his family home but he had heard their howls every once in a while at night, and he'd like for them to stay heard not seen. With a sigh, he wiped the sweat from his face with a hoof continuing his journey.
Moving deeper into the woods and with no sign or sound of the wooden canines, he slowly began to relax, focusing on the sights and sounds around him. It even seemed like his luck had changed for the better as he finally found a few trees that were just right. Dropping the basket he moved to one of the trees. It was a fairly old tree, Its branches were nearly bare and the bark was flaking off. Just to be sure he reared up slamming his front hooves against the trunk, waiting a few seconds and wasn’t met with angry chirps or chatters from anything that could be living inside. Satisfied he took the axe at his side biting down hard on its handle to ensure he had a firm grip, he brought it against the thick trunk. Feeling the vibration from the impact his jaw clamped harder around the wooden handle as he swung it again the blade sinking into the wood.
As he chipped away at the trunk, he heard something just as he was prepared to swing again. Freezing he turned his head in an attempt to catch the sound once more. It sounded like humming, maybe somepony lived around here. If that was the case he hoped he wasn't trespassing on their property. Dropping the axe he quickly tried to find said pony to apologize, in case he was taking something that belonged to this pony. perking up his ears Adair attempted to locate where the humming was coming from. Shifting his ears the young stallion locked onto the sound trotting in its direction.
Doing his best to focus on the faint hum over the chains he was dragging behind him. He could feel he was getting closer when the soft melody stopped. Quickening his pace hoping he hadn't startled them.
Coming to the edge of the trees he spoke out, "Forgive me I mean no harm I Jus-"
He had completely frozen once he entered the clearing seeing a large old willow tree near the center with a stream running at its side. The sunlight making the water sparkle as it shone through the tree's branches. But it wasn't the view of the land that caused him to pause, but the figure staring back at him from the shade of the willow. He had seen many mares when visiting the village that he thought were pretty, but none seemed to compare to the mare before him.
His stillness must have given her time to get over the shock of a random stallion bursting into the clearing. She moved to hide behind the trunk of the tree.
Realizing his sudden action must have scared her he slowly brought up a hoof. "Wait I'm sorry I didn't intend to scare you, I had no idea somepony was out here. I just want to talk." He said softly.
In response, the mare peeked out from behind the trunk, as he gently encouraged her to come out in the open. A bit unsure she slowly moved forward meeting his eyes. Now that he could get a better look he stared at her in awe. Her fur was a pale cream color and her long mane and tail were a bright red, but it was her green eyes that drew him in. She was beautiful and made him a bit subconscious of his own appearance. His dark brown fur and dirty blonde mane had clumped up from the sweat from walking and working outside.
Adair did the best he could to smooth out his mane with a hoof as he smiled at her, trying to come up with something to say."I'm sorry for just jumping out like that, um do you live around here?"
The mare slowly nodded her body language remained rigid, the stallion noticed this and continued to speak hoping to put her at ease. " I live a bit further out from here, I came here for a few trees and I apologize if I'm trespassing or taking from your property."
The mare seemed to relax seeing he was of no threat to her which also seemed to help the stallion relax a bit as he continued. "I'm Adair nice to meet you." He said with a smile.
The mysterious mare returned it. " My name is Calla it is a pleasure to meet you, and yes I live here but anywhere beyond this spot does not belong to me."
Adair let out a relieved sigh. " Well, Calla you have a very nice name." He stated with a small smile on his lips.
The mare gave a small giggle looking back at him. " Why thank you, Adair, you have a very good name as well."
The small chuckle along with the compliment from the mare made the stallion move his gaze to the side rubbing a hoof against his foreleg. " I like it but I don't think it's anything special."
Calla smiled all tension seemed to have melted away as she began moving from her place behind the willow. "Well, I rather like it, you're named after a type of tree I believe."
Adair took a few slow steps forward a smile still on his face hoping his demeanor came off as non-threatening. "Yeah, my family all have names based on trees or some type of plant. It seemed fitting for woodcutters."
The cream-colored mare's expression morphed into one of confusion. " Woodcutter, what is that?"
Adair just stared at her for a moment waiting for her to say she was only jesting, but she hadn't spoken so he decided to take the risk of her just trying to make a fool out of him. "You know ponies whose job it is to take trees to chop them up for other ponies to use."
Her face changed from confused to worried. "You cut down trees? That's terrible, they are so beautiful and are home to so many forest creatures."
Hearing the other pony's voice turn a bit frantic the stallion knew he needed to defuse the situation. "It's not like that." He said flinching that his answer came out more aggressive than he wanted quickly continuing in a softer tone. "Yes that's my job, but it helps many ponies in the village near my home. You have no need to worry. I love the forest too as do my family. That is why I'm careful to only take the oldest trees giving the younger ones a chance to grow, I also collect a few tree seeds and acorns to replant, replacing the ones we've taken. This is what I've always been told to do."
This seemed to calm the mare, “so you take but also give back, just like everything here does naturally.”
Happy to see he had eased the mare Adair continued. “Yes, it’s what my parents taught me and my siblings. Despite our occupation, they both love nature and feel it would be horrible to cut down trees leaving the area completely bare. I share these feelings. It would be so sad to know we took away such beautiful scenery and life.”
A smile had begun to grow on the mare's face as the stallion spoke only for her to soon tilt her head in confusion once more. “Parents, siblings what are those?”
This mare seemed to become stranger the longer Adair spoke to her. It was a bit odd that she didn’t know what a woodcutter was, but it was hard to believe this mare didn’t know what parents were. Everypony has parents, nopony would exist without them. Now he was intrigued by this pony. He knew he needed to get his work done but cutting trees was now the farthest thing from his mind. He had to find out more about this mare.
“I’m sorry that you must not know or remember your parents, but you must have had somepony who raised you in this place.”
He was answered by the shake of her head. “I don’t think I had anything like that, I’ve just always been here.”
Adair just stared in disbelief before yelling out, “ What, how is that even possible?”
The volume of his voice caused the mare to flinch, making her take a few steps back behind the tree, with a bit of nervousness showing through her green eyes.
Realizing his reaction was a bit aggressive the stallion was about to stomp his hoof and snort at how he had been handling this whole interaction but stopped himself. He didn’t want to do anything else to alarm the mare.
Taking a breath he calmly addressed the mare. “I’m sorry for my outbursts, I’m just trying to process what you're telling me. So how about this, come out from that tree, and we can just talk about all this”
Calla peeked around the willow’s trunk a bit unsure that she wished to continue talking with him. It seemed whenever she asked a question the stallion would have fairly loud responses.
Adair gave a small smile his voice softer than before hoping to make up for his earlier confused shouts. “ Look I promise I won't yell again, in fact, I won't say anything until you’ve finished speaking. Then I’ll calmly ask you questions and you can ask me questions as well.”
He watched as the mare slowly moved from the willow tree and out in the open, stopping a few feet from him still a bit wary of him.
Adair was glad that she was still willing to continue speaking with him. He sat down deciding not to try moving toward her, wanting to allow her the choice to move closer if she wished.
The two were silent waiting for the other to talk. Adair’s eyes moved anywhere other than the pony in front of him, he didn’t want to just stare at her possibly making her uncomfortable. But it was he who was growing a bit uncomfortable as he felt the other’s eyes focused on him. With the silence drawing on guess it was up to him to start, only he didn’t know what to say.
Soon his ears perked up as something came to him. “Is there anything you’d like me to answer? Seeing as most of the things I said were unfamiliar to you.’
Calla seemed intrigued by this offer as she brought a hoof to her chin her gaze still on the stranger. She didn’t know where to begin, with the small amount he had shared with her already had begun to wonder about what other things she may not know of beyond the forest. For one she thought she was the only one of her kind, yet here was another being that was a bit like her. She decided not to overthink it and start off slow for now.
“You said you had family what is that?”
Adair smiled glad to have the silence broken, “Well a family is a group of ponies you share a bloodline with.” he paused for a moment wanting to make the explanation as clear as he could before continuing. “It starts when a Mare and Stallion can be married but sometimes not but they love each other and they make a foal In my case I’m the first one they had, then my younger sister and brother came years later.”
He watched as Calla took in the information that he hopefully managed to make clear. The brown stallion waited patiently for more questions.
The mare had gotten some grasp of what she had been told and decided to move on to the next question. “What is marriage?”
“Well, when two ponies fall in love they have a ceremony bonding them together for life,” Adair replied.
He watched as the soon familiar look of confusion made its way across her face and felt that he would be seeing this look a lot more in this encounter. He didn’t have to wait long for the next question.
“What is love?” The cream coated mare asked.
Not expecting this Adair rubbed his neck with a hoof he looked anywhere but her. “It’s when you hold strong feelings of um affection for another pony. You think about them all the time, and you have a warm feeling in your chest when around them.”
The mare gave a small nod sitting down now that she had begun to feel more relaxed around her unexpected guest. Once comfortable she moved to the next question. “ Are you married and harbor these feelings for another?”
He was left sputtering but kept his voice level remembering his promise of not letting himself answer in loud outbursts. “No no, I’m too young to marry just yet, and I don't have anypony I feel that way towards. I’m only repeating what others have told me about it.”
Calla gave a small laugh at his reaction before moving on with her questions. The two sat under the old willow tree talking back and forth, though it was simply the mare asking Adair questions and him giving brief answers. Both had begun to become more relaxed around each other as they spoke. With each question, Adair grew more confused and a bit worried for the mare. She didn’t know she was a pony and he had to explain the differences between mares and stallions, which was a bit awkward but managed to sum it up without having to go into too much detail. Even if the two ever grew close to each other he was not going to be the one to explain it in detail. He thought that a book might help but from what she had to learn from him he doubted she could read.
As he finished up an answer a loud growl came from his stomach. With all the excitement of meeting this mare and talking he hadn't noticed how much time had passed. He heard a chuckle from his companion causing him to look back up at her.
“If I didn’t know better I would have thought a bear was wandering close by,” she said accompanied by another chuckle.
Adair gave an embarrassed laugh in return. “I was so caught up finding the source of your humming I left my lunch back at an old tree.”
As he spoke he quickly looked up at the bit of sky he could see through the branches. Standing up with wide eyes as the sky began to grow orange signaling the sun was setting. He had spent most of the day in the woods and hadn’t cut down a single tree.
Sensing her guest's change in mood Calla moved closer to the stallion. “ Are you alright?”
Adair turned to her “Yes I’m fine, it’s just the day is almost over and I got no work done. I apologize but I need to go to try and bring something home.”
The mare frowned looking down, ‘I should be the one apologizing. I kept you with all my questions.”
“ No I would say it was both our fault for getting so caught up in our conversation,” Adair said with a smile.
This seemed to ease the mare, “Well I shouldn’t keep you any longer, hopefully, you find something in time.”
“ I know where to find one it's better than nothing.” he turned in the direction he had come stopping to look over his shoulder. “I’ll try to come back tomorrow to finish talking.”
Calla gave him a wave I’d like that.”
With a curt nod, the brown stallion galloped back through the woods using the light of the setting sun to get his bearings till he came to the old tree. His axe lay where he dropped it as for the basket it was tipped over and when lifting the cloth covering it he was met with only crumbs. Looks like some critters had made off with his bread and small strawberry pastry. With a huff, he dropped the cloth taking up the axe quickly swinging it into the tree bringing it down in almost record time. He hooked it up to the harness grabbing his basket and axe before charging in the direction of home.
Adair began to grow nervous as the sun continued to sink further from the sky knowing timber wolves were known to start coming out at this time. The thought encouraged him to move faster till he could nearly see the edge of the woods causing him to slow down a bit so he wouldn’t alarm his family by barreling out of the trees.
He slowed to a trot pulling the tree to the back of the cabin with the others hearing his father chopping up the wood on the other side of the wooden house. He began to unhook the tree hearing the chopping stop replaced by hoof steps. Adair feared what his father would say seeing he only brought a single tree from nearly a whole day in the woods.
He had finished unhooking it just as Alder reached him. The grey stallion looked at the tree then to his son whose back was towards him as he was unfastening the harness from himself.
“This all you could find?” Alder asked
With his back still to him, Adair answered, “ Yes, I had to go rather far out and this was all I could find.”
Finishing unhooking himself from the harness he waited for his father's reaction.
“ Not surprised, we had a hard time finding some the other day, and you managed to find a fairly large one. Not bad for your first time working alone.” Alder said with a smile happy his son didn’t seem to have run into any problems when out alone.
Relief washed over the younger stallion as he turned to face his father. “ I’ll try to do better tomorrow.”
Before his father could say anything else they heard the cabin door burst open followed by smaller hoof steps. Two foals rounded the corner towards them. In a blur of white and grey, the two foals were jumping around their older brother.
Adair could only make out a few words as the two were speaking at the same time. Before either stallion could attempt to calm the energetic foals a yell came from inside the cabin.
“Birk, Marigold get back in here and help wash the vegetables.”
The foals stopped turning to see a bluish-grey mare looking out the window at them. The grey colt Birk quickly made his way back inside while Marigold stayed wanting to speak with her brother.
“Marigold go help your mother,” Alder ordered.
With a small huff, the fill followed Birk into the cabin. The mare in the window let out a sigh turning to the two stallions. “Dinner will be ready in about an hour, so I don’t want you both still out here when I call.”
“Yes yes, I know,” said Alder moving to the window to nuzzle his wife before she went back to prepare dinner. Despite his role as head of the house his wife Primrose seemed to be the only one who could ever stand up and at times overrule Alder.
With their distractions gone the two stallions began stripping off the branches with sicles saving them to use as tinder. Once bare they moved the tree over to the pile, tying it to the others to keep it from rolling away. Once it was secured Adair helped his father cut up the logs he’d been working on so they could fit in ponies stoves and forges.
They worked till Primrose called them for dinner. With how early he and his father had to be up for work and how long they would be gone dinner was one of the few times the family could be together. So it was always a happy time, where they talked about each of their day.
Adair just said it was fine he didn’t think he should bring up that he spent most of the day talking to a mare that lived in the woods and didn’t know of anything in the outside world. Besides, they might not believe him and his father might accuse him of playing around because Alder wasn't there to make sure he was working. His father might not trust him to work alone again.
So he just sat listening to his family and practically inhaling his food since his lunch was taken by the inhabitants of the woods. His father brought up the harness he took in for repairs when delivering firewood, turns out a few straps had to be replaced and re-enforced. It would take a while to do since the shop owner had to wait for some materials to be delivered and they wouldn’t arrive for a few days.
Adair was glad he would still be working alone for a bit longer. It gave him the chance to prove himself and give him more time to speak with Calla some more.
But with his father unable to work with him in the woods what would the stallion do most of the day? Wood chopping and deliveries weren't as time-consuming as looking for the trees and not much needed to be done at home. The small vegetable garden they had was tended easily by Primrose that she even had time to tend to her small flower garden. He knew his father’s help wasn't needed in his sibling's lessons.
Alder appeared to sense his family's thoughts on him, “You all don’t have to worry about me laying around the house for days. Golden Stalk came into the shop and we got to talking. Seems his mother has fallen a bit ill and with his father away to take care of some business a few towns over he has to care for her himself. He can’t take care of the farm work and his mother so he offered to pay me to help out with some of the work just till his mother’s health improves a bit more.”
Adair thought his father had gotten very lucky in town today knowing his father hated standing around doing nothing. This gave him something to do and earned some extra money for the family.
The family talked a bit more before finishing their meals leaving the parents to clean up the dishes. Meaning Adair had to entertain his younger brother and sister the few hours before their bedtime. So here he sat as the two surrounded him asking how his first day alone was like.
“Did you see any animals?” Birk asked
“Did you have to fight off any bears, Timber wolves, oh oh or a manticore ?” Marigold asked excitedly nearly bouncing in place.
“ I saw a few birds and a deer, and no I didn’t have to fight off any beasts today,” he said with a smile as Marigold sat with a pout disappointed Adair had no exciting story to tell. In truth he did but decided to keep quiet, maybe he’d tell it as a fairy tale one day when getting them ready for bed. His encounter with Calla in the woods was like something straight out of a storybook.
With his lackluster tale, he played with his siblings until his mother called the younger ones to bed. With the two foals in bed, Adair went outside to help his father put away the tools and equipment before both headed off to bed.
Only sleep didn’t come easy for the young stallion as he went over his encounter with Calla. It was so strange for a mare probably close to his age not knowing the basics of what a foal would have some grasp of. Birk and Marigold understood things better than her and they were nine. Shifting onto his side gazing at his window, maybe he could introduce a few small things of life beyond the woods.
That's when it hit him, he hadn’t asked Calla anything about herself. It was just answering questions of his life and world. Well, tomorrow he would learn more about her and her world instead of just focusing on his. He closed his eyes willing himself to sleep, feeling he was going to have quite the day ahead of him.
In the woods, Calla was sitting at the edge of the streaming running near the willow staring at her reflection with the help of the light glow of the moon. A pony that's what she was a mare to be exact, she never had any words to describe what she was. And that there were more like her living beyond the trees was amazing. She moved from the stream and down a small path to a den heading inside to a makeshift bed.
She laid down staring at the ceiling her mind still buzzing with all she had learned today and what more she wanted to know. Calla hoped Adair would visit again tomorrow. She might have a list of things to ask him by then. Snuggling into her pillow she shut her eyes trying to stop her racing mind so she could get some rest, wanting to be alert enough to catch everything he said.
