Broken muddy skies lined the horizon, touching the tips of mountains that glared downward at the forests below. A subtle rain had fallen into the dark depths of the green sea though it faded rapidly. A cool chill ruffled the blue feathers that belonged to the Griffin.
His wings sliced the air around him, causing a soft whooshing sound to batter the insides of his ears. Bright blue eyes scanned the mountain above; he could see snow peaking on the tips as the dark clouds swirled ominously above. The air tasted wet, frosty, a stab of lightning forked it's way out of the cloud, smashed the sides of the rock walls with a loud "boom!"
Gallus didn't mind though, the weather reminded him of home almost. Not that it rained often in Griffinstone but that it had a feeling of being alone, cold. Despite the angry storm that threatened to rip the mountain tops away he could fly easily against the winds. It wasn't a task too large for his powerful wings that flapped against the howling air. They moved smoothly against the harsh winds with each strong flap.
But suddenly it all stopped. Confused, he stopped too. The noise all around him seemed to get quiet, as if the world had been anticipating something unknown to him. A paper flew up from nowhere, white as snow, it smacked into his golden shimmering beak ripping as it did so. Gallus scrambled to grab the two halves of the paper.
His talons grazed the snow white sheets but they were gone. Suddenly another one hit him in the chest, then another, and another. Before he knew it these white papers filled the air as if they rained down from the clouds themselves!
He watched in awe as the papers were whipped up by the sudden roar of wind to create a thick, angry tornado, lighting exploded from the sides as it gained speed. Panic struck through the Griffin but he couldn't move, he hovered there staring dumbly at the unholy creation of paper and wind before him.
Was he shaking? The tornado let out a moan as it moved towards him. His eyes grew wide before another sheet of paper smacked him over the eyes. Ripping it away he looked it over with horror filling his gut.
"Missing"
Read in big bold red letters and below that, a picture of himself. Before he had a chance to react the tornado whipped towards him. Ripping the paper from his talons, he watched it fly away in a mixture of shock and horror. He screamed in fear as the tornado bowled down upon him, shutting his eyes tight
"Gallus!"
The voice cut through the sound of flapping paper, it's warm familiarity brought a sense of peace to him before the wind started it's rampage again. Opening his eyes slowly he saw the shining form of a purple mare. She looked worried, scared. Her wings flapping easily against the angry winds though he knew her flying against such harsh conditions would seem impossible with her smaller wings.
"Gallus," she said again, despite the look on her face her voice came out calm.
"Twilight?" Gallus breathed,
The tornado bore down on him, he felt himself being sucked into it's angry body, "Twilight help!" He shouted towards the shimmering alicorn.
"Gallus!" She shouted out into the wind but her voice was different this time as he was sucked into the storm, he watched her get farther and farther away as he was eaten alive by the monster. It's sharp winds tore at his fur, crippling his cries of fear and pain in it's gust.
"Gallus! Hey!"
"Twilight!" He shouted once more before the sharp pain of a claw jabbed into his side. The Griffin blinked awake, his dream still raw at the edge of his eyes as he glanced up to the owner of the voice that had torn through his dream like paper.
"Smolder?"
With scales orange as fire she peered down at him through narrow blue eyes. Despite his friends face that showed hints of worry etched in the smile on her face she seemed happy to see him.
"Duh! Who else would it be? Why were you calling for Headmare Twilight in your sleep?" She asked, standing up straight with arms crossed over her chest. The dragon arched an eyebrow at the male, "Is someone hot for teacher?" The concern in her voice vanished as humor dripped from her fangs.
"Oh yeah," he laughed, "you know it!" Sarcasm rang through his words,
"I've always wanted to date," he threw up his arm, clenching his fist towards the sky "the great Princess of friendship!"
Smolder sneered, "And you know who else I wanna bang?" Gallus asked, wiggling his eyebrows at her.
"Better not be me!" Smolder laughed, "I wouldn't want to date someone so blue! I bet someone could shoot you outta the sky easy!"
She made a motion with her hands to signify a bow and arrow shooting,
Mulder scoffed, standing up to face the other with a sweeping grin on his face "Oh yeah? Least I don't smell like burnt eggs!" He challenged playfully.
Smulder howled in laughter, "You're ugly!" She concluded, grinning at the other. Her grin always reminded Gallus of a switchblade. There was something so sharp about it, "And you're stupid!" He tweeted back at her.
The two laughed at one another for a few minutes, the dream slowly fading from Gallus' memory but he knew it'd be back. It was always back.
Every night since summer break started he had the dream. The forest, the paper, the tornado, twilight. It was all the same.
"What're you doing here anyways?" Gallus questioned "weren't you supposed to go back to dragon land or whatever,"
Smolder snorted, a puff of smoke blew from her nose as she did so. The smoke circled the air and was gone before she spoke, once more crossing arms over her chest.
"Yeah well, my brother's been trying to 'woo' Ember,"she said making air quotes with her claws and rolling her eyes, "and I'm not about to be part of that barf fest. Plus all my old friends are either going gah gah over some guy or not really around,"
There was a touch of sadness in her voice as she spoke, looking down for a heart beat before returning her gaze to the Griffin.
"So I figured I'd just hang here.." she trailed off for a second, "with you" she motioned towards him.
He blinked in surprise but couldn't keep the smile from his face, "Just admit you'd have missed me too much!" He teased, cutting the frown on her face as she laughed "Naw I just missed talking to someone who isn't love struck!"
They both laughed
Gallus wasn't sure why Smolder was so worried about such a thing. He didn't take her as someone to even care about that but then again he understood the frustration with friends being hung up on someone else. His mind flashed to Sandbar and Yona who were both spending summer in Yakyakistan.
Gallus stretched, arching his back and yawning big. With a shake he felt awake, excited almost to spend the day with his friend! He hadn't planned on doing much during the summer, his idea to add a swinging tire to the tree house was possibly the only thing he had on his agenda.
He could see the same buzzing joy in his friends eyes, they glowed as he spoke, "Well, since we're stuck together what're we gonna do?"
A breath of silence between the two before Smolder shrugged, "Wanna go check out Ponyville? There's always something weird happening there."
With that the pair took off towards the warm city. The sun rose high in the sky, heat kissed the air chasing the morning chill away. Gallus and Smolder spent a good amount of time exploring the city, enjoying themselves with sweets, pranks and movies. They enjoyed lunch at a local cafe before doubling back to the ice cream parlor. Almost getting themselves kicked out of the movie theater as they locked the swinging chairs in an upward position so ponies couldn't sit in them. The pair enjoyed the newest horror movie, creeping each other out as they watched.
The two hooted and laughed through Ponyville, music danced around them as they enjoyed the warm sunshine of the day! It seemed Ponyville always had some type of music playing. That bothered Gallus, always loud and intrusive but for whatever reason he didn't mind it when Smolder danced beside him. Her confidence reminded him of a Griffin without the sharp bitter words that often followed from their beaks, she had the angry almost childish firecracker way of speaking but without the painful words that seemed to cloud him through his entire life while living with the other Griffin.
As the day wound down the pair found themselves back in their treehouse,
"Pay up," Smolder sneered, outstretching a hand towards him.
Gallus scowled, slapping a handful of colorful paper money into her outstretched claws with a roll of his eyes.
"I swear you're cheating," he huffed, crossing his arms over his chest at her though he seemed upset he couldn't keep the inkling of laughter from his voice.
"Dragons don't need to cheat, we're just that good!" She chimed, putting hands on her hips.
The pair settled on the floor around a brightly colored game board. Small pieces all over the bright cardboard, duct tape had fastened some of it back together.
Gallus couldn't help but smile remembering the time Yona had accidentally stomped on the board in pure excitement to be winning against the rest of the group, they had to tape the board and remake new pieces. Though he rather liked the new pieces and board, it reminded him of his friends. Smolder played with a piece of her scale she rubber banned a scruff of her purple fur to, Sandbar had shoved his rather large plushie of himself on the board with a sly grin before the group had actively told him to change it so now it was a small plastic seashell.
Yona had simply used a flock of her hair tied together badly with twist tie, Silverstream, in all her wisdom and excitement, had placed a thimble of water on the board which eventually spilled but she kept the thimble all the same! Ocellus had placed her sunflower hairclip on the board with a shy smile and Gallus, well, of course his was the best, at least, in his own mind.
He had pulled a feather from his head, leaving a small bald spot at the end which he was ruthlessly teased about for weeks, and tied it to a small plastic crown.
"Cause I'm royalty!" He squared proudly.
It had cause laughter to erupt from his friend, he felt a twitch of embarrassment at their laughter but knew they meant no harm.
Now he and Smolder lay on the floor, pieces and money scattered about. Smolder held up a half full bottle of champagne, taking a swig she passed it to him. The two had "borrowed" the alcohol from Pinkie Pie's party closet, making sure to only take one they now both swayed lightly as the game continued.
"You sure she won't notice?" Gallus asked with a raised eyebrow. The liquid tasted sharp, bubbily, it wasn't a taste he felt he'd ever get used to as it left a dry feeling in his throat but he had to admit, the buzz in his head was enjoyable.
"Yeah," she shrugged, taking the bottle back from him, tilting it up towards the sky, draining more of the liquid.
The two passed the bottle between each other as the full moon started to rise in the sky, the sun falling sleepily behind the trees. A cool breeze started up, bringing forth the sound of crickets in through the opened window.
"I'm beat," Smolder yawned out after another hour of playing, she scooped up the pieces and began to return them to their proper places in the box. Gallus lapped up the last few drops of alcohol, dropping the glass bottle onto the ground with a soft 'thunk'.
"We could probably just crash here," Gallus offered, thinking of the small room he and Sandbar shared in the school dorms with the tiny bed and cramped space.
"Sou'ds like a plan ta 'e," her eyes had drooped slightly at the idea of sleep, her words slurred together.
The two finished cleaning the game up, pulled a few sleeping bags from a closet before settling down in front of the large opened window. Warm moonlight cast around them turning the entire room to silver.
The pair chatted for what seemed like hours but couldn't have been more than twenty minutes before the soft breathing of the dragon lulled and turned into growling snores. Gallus lay on his back in the sleeping back, wings tucked under him, arms behind his head.
He listened to her soft noises as she slept and wondered if he would fall into unconsciousness soon as well, since he was a child sleeping didn't come as easy as it seemed to for others. He recalled a time as a kid being forced to sleep in a small closet as a form of "punishment" that had been inflicted upon him for something he couldn't even recall.
The closet had rapidly become a common place he had been locked into whenever he even breathed in the wrong direction. Grandpa Gruff would angrily chase him into it before slamming the door shut, loudly proclaiming
"You're lucky! Most orphans don't even have a home! But you get to stay with me"
As if it was some great thing to live with the PTSD induced war veteran who could hardly talk without it coming out in a snarl.
Since then small spaces became a nightmare in the living world and the concept of sleep wasn't comforting. Gallus rolled a bit in his covers to face his friend, silently feeling a sense of peace knowing he wouldn't have to sleep in the closet again he slowly drifted off to sleep.
The last thing he heard was the warm snores of his friend as she dreamed.
****
Gallus found himself once more in the depths of the tornado, it's angry form spinning ever closer. He screamed for Twilight as she shouted his name just out of reach.
Right before he got sucked into the swirling winds a noise broke over his dream, a soft wrapping on wood. As if someone was knocking on the door of his consciousness.
Moonlight once more flooded into his vision but it was dulled, he was awake. In his sleeping bag, he could still hear Smulder soft snoring. Her mouth agape, drool pooling on her pillow. What had woken him?
He shuffled in his sleeping bag, rolling to look outside but to his confusion the shades had been drawn. Did Smolder close them in the night? What time was it?
Rap
Rap
Rap
The noise from his dream, a soft rapping against wood. It was so quiet he had mistaken it as part of his sleeping thought.
Slowly he pushed the bag off, it fell to the floor with a soft slump. Silence.
Gallus stared at the door that leads to the hallway and down to the stairs where the front door sat. Was it gone? Did the noise stop?
Rap
Rap
Rap
There it was again, it sounded like someone knocking ever so softly on the front door. Gallus hesitated, a finger of dread started to run down his spine.
"Smolder," Gallus whispered, moving towards his friend.
She groaned in her sleep, rolling away from him, "hey!" He whispered, putting a claw on her shoulder.
"Wake up, dumbass," he hissed,
She swatted his hand away, "Shut up numb nuts" she grumbled sleepily
"Wake up, dude!"
Rap
Rap
Rap
He froze, the dread leaked down his spine like water as he strained his ears to see if he could hear anything else. Who would be knocking at their door this late? It couldn't be any of their friends, everyone had gone out of town to visit families. Even Ponyville was decently empty of their usual residents to enjoy the hot summer with loved ones or friends.
Rap
Rap
Rap
"Smulder!" Gallus growled louder, shaking her aggressively now as white fear leaked into his mind.
What if it was storm King? Or Tirek? The monster from the movie? Or--
"What?" She growled, pushing his hands away again, slowly sitting up with a glare. She opened her jaw to give him a few strong words when--
Rap
Rap
Rap
She froze, he saw the confusion on her face.
"Did you hear that?" He asked though he knew the answer he wanted to be sure that he wasn't going nuts or that this was simply some sort of dream.
"Yeah," she whispered, scrambling out of the sleeping bag to stand beside her friend. The two stared at the door as if they expected the knocking to start on it.
Rap
Rap
Rap
"You should go answer it," Smolder blurted out, turning to him quickly with slightly wide eyes.
"What?!" Shock sprung over his face "Why me?"
"Cause I said so,"
Rolling his eyes he huffed, "what? Are you...scared?" He leaned towards her, wiggling his fingers in a playful manner.
Her eyes flashed, she puffed out her cheeks in defiance, "What? No!" Stomping her foot down, "I think you're the scared one!"
Though her voice sounded angry he could notice the hint of fear behind it,
"No way! I'm not scared!"
"Then go get the door!" She pointed with a finger, holding her pose as he glared at her.
Rap
Rap
Rap
They froze, she dropped her hand and shuffled from foot to foot.
"How about we go together?" Gallus offered, swallowing back the dread that filled his stomach. His throat suddenly felt dry, chalky. Why was he so afraid? If anything it was probably just one of their teachers or something. Yeah. Maybe they were looking for him?
Swallowing back the anxiety Gallus made towards the door, swinging it opened, he glanced down the stairs that ran down towards the front door. Darkness. As if no light could touch the shadows of their treehouse.
Rap
Rap
Rap
Taking in a few breathes slowly the pair decend down the stairs, he felt Smolder against him. She was standing beside him, letting his fur brush over her and Gallus wondered if that brought her comfort. Her warm scales reminded him he wasn't alone at the moment giving him a bolt of courage as they reached the front door of the treehouse.
The house seemed ominously quiet aside from the soft wailing of the wind outside, Gallus stared at the door in a haze as though he silently wondered if this was just some sorta dream he'd be waking up from upon pulling opened the door. It certainly felt like a dream, with the quiet in the home and the angry gust outside he could easily chalk this up to just another bad dream.
That was, until it happened again.
Rap
Rap
Rap
He felt as if his feet had frozen in place, the knocking was so loud now it just about filled the dead space that vibrated all around them. Smolder nudged him with a sharp elbow causing him to jump,
"Open it!" Her voice hardly a whisper, she gestured to the door with both hands extended.
Swallowing the lump in his throat Gallus didn't argue as sharp talons met with cold metal, the knob let out a soft whine as he turned. Blood roared in his ears, heart pounding against his chest, legs turning to jelly he ripped the door opened with one quick, smooth jerk.
The two glanced out into the cold night, expecting to see some sort of movie monster with a knife and evil laugh.
Nothing
Gallus blinked, despite the lack of anyone he still felt that hand of dread turning his blood to ice as it slowly combed down the length of his spine. He felt Smolders grip on his arm as the Griffin slowly took a few steps out with her following, back and forth the pair looked but nothing seemed to be there aside from the sheer darkness of the night. The moon cast it's silver light upon them as if trying to calm their nerves with its beauty.
Rap
Rap
Rap
They both screamed, scrambling over one another to get back inside, causing the pair to collapse onto the floor in a fit of feathers and claws.
"Wait!"
Smolder shouted as Gallus ran to shut the door, his eyes wide as he turned to look at her. The chirp of the crickets filled the air as the two stared at one another. Smolder slowly got to her feet, brushing past him. She made her way out of the door. Stepping down onto the dirt ground with a soft crunch. He watched as her crisp blue eyes glanced around before a laugh erupted from the depths of her throat. He blinked in surprise before pelting over towards her, she pointed up towards the door, still laughing.
He cranked his head up and against the top of the door was a broken branch, it looked as if someone had stepped on it and the branch was now loosely hanging from the side of the tree.
Rap
Rap
Rap
The branch knocked against the wood near the very top of the door causing Gallus to laugh as well, the intense dread he felt vanished as the two laughed into the darkness.
"I can't believe you were scared of a branch!" Smolder chuckled
"Me?? You were practically holding my hand!"
She scoffed, her switchblade grin returning to her features.
"oh yeah? You almost pissed yourself when--" she trailed off. Her eyes had moved from him to the ground, he followed her gaze. Settled under her foot was a snow white piece of paper.
Gallus felt as if someone raked icey claws down his spine, the world spun under him for a few rapid heartbeats as she leaned down to inspect the paper. He waited in silence as she brought the sheet to her face, glancing it over with a puzzled gaze.
"What is it?"
His voice sounded smaller than he wanted it too. Wordlessly she turned it so he could see, the front had large bold letters that read
"MISSING"
Under was a picture of a pony with a description.
"How did that…"
Suddenly the moon shone so bright it was almost as if someone was trying to tell them something. The light eliminated the entire ground showing off multiple papers all seeming to have been placed in a very particular way.
Gallus picked one up, another missing poster with a pony. And another. And another.
"This one's gotta Yak!" Smolder shouted towards him,
"This one has a dragon," he held it out to her, she was behind him collecting a small stack of the papers before turning at the sound of his voice.
"I don't know em," she whispered, holding her papers against her chest.
Gallus placed the paper down, not bothering to collect them. He could feel dread flowing through his veins like blood as he flipped over one paper and another.
"What's that?"
He swirled towards her, orange scales shimmering as Smolder pointed towards what seemed to be a trail of paper leading into the woods.
"It's like-- a breadcrumb trail,"
"Like in Yaksel and Gretal?"
Gallus stared blankly at the yawning opening of the trees, where did these come from? When had so many creatures gone missing? Some of the papers were very old yet they looked brand new as if someone had just printed them to lay them in a peculiar pattern in front of the tree house.
the whoosh of wings broke his train of thoughts. Wind whipped at his feathers, yet the papers didn't seem to move despite this. Smolder had taken flight into the night sky, papers falling from her arms raining; down on him.
"Gallus,"
He hardly heard her among the whispering breeze, abandoning the paper the Griffin flew up to her with a few quick pumps of his powerful wings.
She was pointing down to where they had just come from, her wide eyes seemed spooked as if she had just seen a ghost.
Following her finger, he too, felt a jolt of shock. The papers weren't just thrown around at random, they made an arrow. An arrow pointing towards the forest where the path of snow white pages layed. The arrow was so perfectly sculpted aside from the end where the two had picked at the pages.
Rap
Rap
Rap
Suddenly, the broken branch didn't seem so funny anymore.
Author's Note
I haven't written anything for a short while so I really hope this is up to snuff! Please let me know your thoughts and comments. Though go easy on me! I'm dyslexic so sometimes things get messy hah hah!
