I released a mildly irritated groan as I let my gaze wander over the trail of carriages in front of me once more. It'd been days since we’d entered the swamp now, and every second we spent in here felt like its own trial. The sheer amount of insects and critters that began pestering us the instant we’d crossed into the bog was enormous, but not too surprising. I mean, it was to be expected given the environment, but even with all the torches and the occasional kirin bursting into flames every now and again, the bites and buzzing just wouldn’t end.

Seagail, in contrast, seemed to be enjoying our trip through the swamp. She was getting a little bit more round lately, and was regularly climbing onto someone to snatch the little insects that landed on them.

“We really should have taken the mountain pass, sis!” Kindling snuggled his head under my wing as he spoke. “These mosquitoes are a pain in the…”

“Kindling!” Mom yelled.

“I mean they are really annoying!” He slid closer to me and tried his best to use my wing as a shield.

“The swamp’s not going to continue forever,” Mom said. “We,” she had to stop for a second to slap one of the little bloodsuckers, “should be through it any day now.”

“You said that yesterday, and the day before that!”

She sighed. “I know, I know. And it looked like it from above.”

“Just because we can see where the swamp ends doesn’t mean your sister's merriment is able to take the shortest route,” Dad piped up before shifting his attention to me. “The next time you go to claim some kirins, try to find luftirins. If enough of your kirins can fly, we could just lift all the carriages and fly over such obstacles.”

“It’s not like I can choose who we bump into, Dad.”

“Maybe not. However, your godmother could lend you a little bit of luck in that matter.”

“I sadly don’t think that our comfort is one of her top priorities at the moment.”

“You could pray for it though,” Kindling mumbled. “Maybe she will listen and free us from these mosquitoes!”

“We could also ask Rythil about it,” Night added enthusiastically while using the opportunity to snuggle up close to Kindling to protect him. “He’s not getting stung by these insects at all, and he’s mostly covered in fur.”

“That probably has more to do with his personal luck than with any extra prayers,” I said. “I think her priests have nearly the same amount of luck as I have. Though, it couldn’t hurt to ask him if he would be able to help us with that.” I think it should be self evident, but I wasn’t getting pestered by the mosquitoes at all.

“Can you go and ask him, sis? If you’re the one asking, he can’t say no.”

“I would, though,” I tried to lift my wing a tiny bit a few times, “there is a tiny pony attached to my wing, so I’m unable to move.”

“I am not tiny!”

“No, but you are small and cute,” Night said before I could and started purring.

“That was my line! I wanted to say that this time!”

“Neither of you should say that to me!”

“But it’s true!” I giggled, and since he was already in my wing’s embrace, I pulled him closer and ruffled through his mane with my nose. “My cute little baby brother!”

“Fiery!” Kindling spat out as he suddenly struggled to get free.

Maybe I would have let him go, but Night quickly wrapped his wings around both of us, preventing Kindling from escaping.

“Moooomm!”

“Fiery, Night, your brother is not a plushy.” You could hear it in her voice that this was a line she’d said hundreds of times already, still, we let go of him.

Not that it helped him much.

“And don’t forget that he’s getting more and more fluffy each day,” Dad added approvingly before grabbing Kindling by his neck and pulling him over to cuddle him as well. And it was true, over the last few days, Kindling’s chestfluff had started growing more and more. Even if it wasn’t that easy to see at the moment with how strongly he was struggling to escape Dad’s claws.

“Big Softy,” Mom said, half amused, half reproachful, as she rose to help Kindling. “That also goes for you. Our son is not a plushy,” she grabbed Kindling and pulled him out of Dad’s grip, “not even for dragons.” Seeing Dad’s sad face, she quickly jumped into his arms though.

My brother on the other claw just stomped a hoof and fled back into our carriage while loudly releasing mumbled curses.

“I told you to not cuddle him too much,” Mom toldsaid to Dad. “He is a pony, and a teenager at that. He doesn’t like it.”

Dad snorted.

“Big Softy!”

“He is my son, I am supposed to check on his well-being as well as reassure him of my love. A bornling needs a lot of affection to be well.”

“The more the merrier,” Night threw in, rushing over to lay his claws on Mom’s side while she was in Dad’s arms. He also waved his tail happily, expecting to get a chance at cuddling with Mom and Dad simultaneously.

“Greedy dragons,” Mom giggled while stretching a hoof out to pat Night’s head. “Still, if Kindling doesn’t like to be cuddled, you two must respect that.”

Both dragons snorted at this ridiculous statement. For Dad and Night, there could never be enough cuddling.

I shook my head and momentarily looked towards where Kindling had disappeared. While it was true that his dislike of cuddling was a bit strange, I agreed with Mom that they had to be careful or my little brother would be most angry with them…

Well, there wasn’t anything I could do about it at the moment, so I may as well try speaking with Rythil. I hopped off the carriage and, with a nice splashing sound, landed in the swamp’s omnipresent mud that pretended to be a path. I sighed, and watched my not-so-white-anymore fur soak up the mudwater like a parched sponge.

I looked forward to when we were finally past this swamp!

With newly drenched claws, I made my way over to where I expected the luck dragon to be at this time of day, our Watchtower, which happened to be the carriage directly behind my family's in our caravan. I was sure that when I looked up at the tower, I would see Rythil taking a nap while curled around its foundation. If nothing else, I’d at least find out that eastern and western dragons shared the belief that napping was most important. A trait that also went for batponies.

However, when I arrived at the tower, I only saw my cute batfriend’s sleeping form dangling from one of the joists, swinging in rhythm to the movement of the cart, while Rythil was occupied in a conversation with Ocean Sky and Fertile Desert.

Seeing Illu like this, I of course remembered that this was an opportune position for kissing him. Dangling head down brought him within easy reach of a kirin standing at the base of the tower, a fact you can guess I was very happy to take advantage of. With a smile, I began making my way in his direction when Ocean Sky called out, interrupting my plan.

“Oh, Fiery!” He turned to face me while lowering and tilting his head a little bit. “You should see this! Fee-De found a very interesting plant!”

With a huff, I decided to let Illu sleep in peace, changing course to instead join Rythil and the others. “What plant?” I asked, quickly ruffling through Ocean’s mane when I reached the three and matched my pace with the track of caravans.

“This one!” Fertile Desert held up a dark purple flower bloom. “It not only looks quite interesting with the pattern of its petals, it also has a very interesting effect if you eat it. You should try it! Just take a little bite and you’ll see what I mean!”

With a raised eyebrow, I inspected the plant closer and gave it a sniff. Well, the lighter streaks of orchid running down the purple petals did look cool, though the stinging smell of wild garlic mixed with the muffled flavor of cocoa didn’t really appeal to me. “What does it do?” Instead of waiting for an answer, I leaned forward and took a tiny bite off of one of the leaves. “Hmm, tastes like paprik…” With a huge burp of flames, I was suddenly stood there in my nirik form, flaming tail and mane included.

“What the heck?” I held my claws in front of me and watched the flames run over them. “I don’t even feel annoyed, so why am I burning like I’m in a rage!” I flapped my wings just to make sure. Yep, like a phoenix.

“It’s great, isn’t it?” Ocean Sky proclaimed. “All the fire protection, none of the anger issues!”

“And it grows like grass in here!” Fertile Desert added. “There’s enough for everykirin!”

“No more mosquito-bites!" Ocean Sky cheered.

“That surely is an advantage,” I agreed. “And it also dried my fur. So, how long does it last?”

“I don’t know, maybe it depends on the amount you eat? When I found it, I ate one leaf and stayed nirik for several minutes.” Fertile Desert waved her tail in anticipation and lowered her head a little bit. “So, I found something useful, right?”

“Seems so to me.”

Her tail increased the speed in which it was waving, and a soft purr could start being heard.

I rolled my eyes but patted her head anyway. My kirins hoping I praise them for every little thing they do still irritates me sometimes. “And what does it do to non-kirins?” My gaze shifted to Rythil. “What’ll happen if you eat it?”

“I have no clue,” he confessed, “but I doubt I will burst into flames.”

“Let’s find out!” Ocean Sky enthusiastically suggested.

Rythil took one of the leaves from Fertile Desert and turned it around in his claw. “I don’t know, seems kind of risky to me.

“You are a priest of Fortuna, what’s the worst that could happen?” Fertile Desert inquired.

“Yeah, you will be fine,” Ocean added.

“Could be,” Rythil answered hesitantly. After another short examination of the leaf, he looked into the sky and said, “May Fortuna smile upon me,” before he ate it.

For several seconds, nothing happened.

“And? Do you feel anything?” Ocean inquired.

“Any tingly feeling?” Fertile wondered.

“No, not really,” he replied.

“Ohh, that's a sha…” she started, but stopped when she noticed Rythil’s horns suddenly start to glow, and the onset of a sneeze began to play across his muzzle.

When Rythil finally released it, he exploded in a cloud of blue sparks, and when the flash of magic faded, where the relatively huge luck dragon had been, a tiny one now stood, maybe not even a tenth his usual size.

“What in the…” Rythils voice had become very high pitched, and his claws rushed to cover his snout the second he realized this.

“Oh look at you! You are so cute!” Fertile Desert giggled as she picked him up by his armpits. “I didn’t know luck dragons could do that!”

“I told you I saw him at different lengths when he’s curled around the watchtower, Fee-De. You just never believed me.”

“Well I knew they could fly, but them shrinking is new even for me,” I threw in as Rythil floated up to escape Fertiles grip. “Is that something you can do whenever you want, even without the flower, Rythil?”

“Yes,” he said, sounding like he had inhaled a whole bottle of helium. “Though,” his horns started to glow for a moment, but nothing else happened, “normally I can turn back just as easily. And it doesn’t affect my voice!”

Just for a moment, a smirk crossed my muzzle. Just the image of my brother finding out about this…

“Well, it should only last for a few minutes. So nothing to worry about.”

“Nothing to worry about? That’s easy for you to say! Half your merriment is now going to start pestering me to shrink down so they can cuddle and treat me like a pet, starting with your brother!”

I looked at the two kirins pulling the watchtower, both whispering to each other and giggling while looking at Rythil. “That might be true for my merriment, maybe, but my brother would treat you better than that, he would just try to make you a part of his hoard and made sure that you were well cuddled at all times”

“That’s not at all a bett-”

“Hold!” The loud shout of Bliz reached us from the first carriage just a moment before the whole train stopped.

“Huh? What happened,” Ocean asked, rising to his hind legs to get a better view.

“You should go check,” Fertile said to me. “We can speak about anger-plant later.”

“Anger-plant?” I shook my head in irritation. “We are not going to name it anger-plant.”

“But shrink-plant sounds kind of lame.”

“We’re not calling it shrink-plant either.” Before she could reply, I placed a claw on her muzzle. “No, we will find a good name later.” Good thing kirins are fireproof, since I just remembered that my claw was on fire. Being nirik without being angry really feels strange.

“Fiery! Could you please come over here?” Bliz yelled. “I think we might have a problem!”

*

“Are you sure you are alright?” Bliz remained in her submissive stance and kept her distance while her gaze shifted back and forth between me and the ground.

“I told you, it is just a plant. I am not angry at all. The effects are just causing me to look like I’m a nirik without actually being one. I should turn back any moment now.”

This didn’t seem to help though as she gave me an unsure glance while remaining in a submissive posture with her tail tucked. I ignored this though and looked at the bridge ahead, or more accurately, what remained of it. In front of us laid what used to be a suspension bridge, only now the wooden blanks were buried in the swampy water and the ropes that had held it together hung split and frayed from what little remained. At least that was what I could see, as a thick fog hung over the area. It was so thick, I was only able to see as far as I could toss a stone, making it impossible to gauge where the bridge ended, let alone how far it stretched.

“We either need to fix the bridge, or lift our carriages across with wings and magic,” Twisting Compass said. He too kept a submissive stance, but at least still had the guts to try to give me advice. “It will be a lot of work and will take forever, but we could carry them over one by one I think. Fixing the bridge could be quicker, if we can fix it. But there is no guarantee it would hold the weight of our carriage as we cross it.”

“If we carry them all over, we will be exhausted for sure and won’t be able to do much afterwards. We haven’t faced any dangers so far, but I just think we, ehm, you should keep that in mind Fiery,” Chilly Crust added. “If we happen to run into something on the other side, if we didn’t fix the bridge, we wouldn’t be able to pull back as quickly as we might like too.”

“We should send someone to check out the other side first, before we decide to repair the bridge or fly over it en masse.” Wind Root advised. “Who knows what's hidden in this fog. Could be the other side is hundreds of hoofsteps away, or the water’s deep enough at some points that the bridge’s debris is out of our reach, meaning we couldn’t fix the bridge even if we wanted to.”

“Those are all fair points,” I nodded. “Bliz,” I gestured for her to stand up and come to my side. “What do you think?”

After giving me another hesitant look, she stared at the broken bridge for a moment. “Sending someone to scout ahead seems like a good idea. On that I agree. And when it comes to fixing the bridge,” she scraped the ground with her hoof a bit, “I mean, it would be the right thing to do, you know? Could be a while before someone with the ability to do so comes along again. We have the numbers and the magic to do it. Creatures without magic or wings may get stuck here in the middle of nowhere, and they’d only find that out after having traveled the swamps for a week. I don’t like that idea, but…” She hesitated to speak further.

“Yes? What’s on your mind?”

“It would cost us more time to do it, and like Twisted Compass said, we can’t say for sure if it would be able to even support our heavy carriages. So fixing the bridge costs us time that might not end up being worth it in the end, time you need to reach Shakirin-La. So it may be better to just fly everything across.”

Now it was on me to be surprised. The thought of the fate of other travelers hadn’t even crossed my mind. I felt a little bit guilty about that, though, Bliz's argument was right, fixing the bridge might take a lot of time, with even five minutes making a huge difference in if we run into some unclaimed kirins.

“Now that you bring it up, I don’t like the idea of travelers being stuck here either.” I sighed. “Time is against us though, we can’t risk being late. We will tell the next town or village about the bridge’s condition and try to just fly over as well as we can. But first things first, we…”

“Just because it is more convenient for us, doesn't make it right,” Calmly suddenly piped up. “If we are to lead an empire, we must be a good example. Fixing the bridge to benefit everycreature should be what we do.”

“Fiery?” Bliz asked uncertainly, even daring to come closer to poke me with her nose.

I just gave her a quick shake of my head and pointed at my temples.

“A few travelers are unimportant compared to the battle we would have to fight if we miss the chance of claiming more loyal subjects before our enemies!” Roary countered. “Creatures may die if we pass on the opportunity to be faster. We are meant to lead, we can care for the inhabitants of our empire after we’ve claimed it!”

“The kind of decisions we make determines what kind of leader we are. We can’t know if repairing the bridge will really cost us more time in the end. We don’t know if a few minutes or an hour really makes a difference. We do know, however, that repairing this bridge would help the creatures that try crossing this swamp.”

“As much as I would like to be helpful to creatures here, the risk is too high.” I decided. “If we don’t fix the bridge, creatures may have to take a multi-day deture to reach the other side of the swamp. Not claiming kirins I otherwise could have would be a disaster though. We will fly over the bridge if we can.”

“Bliz, take two luftirins and fly to the other side. I want to know how far the other side is away, as well as if the path continues without any more surprises like another collapsed bridge or something.” Suddenly, Dad’s words drifted through my mind again, so I added, “And if you happen to find anything dangerous, return immediately.”

She purred agreeingly and turned around to fulfill my orders.

“Wind Root,” I waited a moment for him to approach, “you and Twisted Compass prepare our carriages for the flight. Make sure the weight of our stuff is distributed equally among them and nothing is attached loosely so we risk it falling off.”

“Will do!” Instead of going straight to do as I told him though, he took a second to step closer and, despite my flames, rub his head against my side one time. After this, he turned around and left to do as I instructed.

I looked after him as he left, unsure how to react. On the one claw, we’d known each other since we were foals, so him rubbing against my side was nothing so out of line. Though, with me being his leader now, as well as my jealous batfriend, I don’t know if I should allow such familiarities. As a reward for good behaviour or as praise for good work, sure, though without any special reason… I don’t know. Unintentional, I started to tap on the ground with my claw until I finally pushed that topic aside and returned my gaze to the damaged bridge and the fog beneath.

***

Blizzard Silence

My first real mission for Fiery! What an honour! Just scout the other side of the bridge, tell her what I find, and then, I receive a lot of head pats and praise! All the praise! The easiest thing in the world, and such a delightful reward for it!

Or, so I thought. Though, life had other plans…

Choosing my team proved to be a challenge. There weren't many luftirins in Fiery’s merriment to begin with, and, as you can understand, I was not interested in taking one of my parents with me after Fiery set them above me again. So, with my limited options, I took Flittering Echo and Heat Wave with me. Flitter is quite agile and short, so she might be of use if the need to scout on undetected should arise. Not that I thought it was likely that we were going to fly into somecreature, but you never know. And Heat Wave was quite strong for a luftirin, he would be responsible for any muscle work that may come up.

I was sure that Fiery would be alright with my choice! When we gathered at the bridge though, she only spent a moment looking at Flitter and Heat Wave before returning her gaze to the bridge. At least she had returned to her normal self.

“Be careful over there,” she said. “I don’t want one of you to get hurt.”

“Will do,” I replied, and offered my head for some good-luck head pats before we lifted off. With her mind still clouded in thoughts, Fiery stretched a claw out to pat me without even looking in my direction. I had to make this mission a success to get her full attention and all the praise again!

I lifted my head back up as soon as Fiery withdrew her claw. “Okay guys, let’s see what we find on the other side!” I spread my wings and lifted off, a second later, Flitter and Heat Wave followed.

Quickly, we made our way along the broken bridge, accompanied by the buzzing of the many insects and popping bubbles of swamp gas beneath us. I took the opportunity to inspect the suspension towers and a few planks I could see along the way. They were in terrible condition; covered in mold, splintered, or mostly rotten away.

“Looks like fixing the bridge is not an option,” Flitter mentioned, saying what I was thinking. “We would have to build up a new one essentially from scratch.”

“Yeah, that would take like forever and a few days,” Heat Wave added.

I agreed. “Sadly so. But it shows how wise Fiery is by deciding to fly over this obstacle.”

Both of them released a 'hmm' and nodded. It was good to know that Fiery was a good leader!

Though, as we flew along, a little bit of concern began to grow with every passing minute. Heat Wave was the first to speak it out loud. “This bridge is quite long, or was. I wonder if we’ll really be able to lift everything across it. The few small spots of grass we saw between the towers of the bridge don’t seem like they would fit a whole carriage on them to take a short rest.”

“Maybe it would be better if we build a raft? Or at least a few small platform along the way where we can drop the carriages for a moment?” Flitter looked at me. “What do you think, Bliz?”

“Both seem to be an option. I’ll tell Fiery about it when we get back.” Speaking of, I threw a look back at the shoreline behind us, but it had already been swallowed up by the fog.

*

“Mud, mud, mud, nothing but mud,” Flitter cursed when we reached the other shore,instantly sinking into the ground up to her fetlocks when she landed. She flew back up and shook her legs, tossinging mud in all directions.

“Watch where you’re throwing that!” I scolded her, and, much more careful, landed a few steps ahead. I still sunk in a bit, but not nearly as much as Flitter had. “Okay everykirin, let us see what we find over here. Flitter, you scout ahead and see where this path leads. Slowly though, Heat Wave and I will follow you, watching left and right for anything of importance.”

“Okay,” Heat Wave replied and moved to my side while Flitter took the lead. He shook his shoulders a bit when he’d gotten closer. “It’s kind of cold here. Damn fog blocking out the sunlight.”

“Now that you mention it, I agree.” It hadn't come to my attention before, but he was right. “It is kind of cold.”

Without asking for permission, Heat Wave laid his wing on my back and pressed up against me. “I can keep you warm.” He even started to purr.

Instantly, I loudly hissed, whipped my head towards him, and I pushed forward, presenting my fangs! What did he believe he was? I am an azure-kirin! How dare he snuggle up against me!

With a whimper, he fell to the ground, straight into the mud and kept his gaze low.

“Don’t you dare cuddle me without my permission!” I growled.

“I didn’t mean to,” he mumbled quietly. “I just don’t want you to freeze.”

I was going to scold him further when two things happened. First, my, how had Fiery called them, ah yes, advisors piped up, arguing about the benefit of having one's subordinates voluntarily be of service versus them acting only when demanded. And second, Flitter turned around to us, making a ‘shhhh’ gesture and sound.

It took me a second to focus on her. I really wonder how Fiery is dealing with her advisors so well. “What did you say?” I finally managed to say after silencing the voices in my head.

“If you keep growling and hissing so loudly, our presence won’t be a secret anymore. I don’t know what may or may not be lurking in these swamps, but if you continue to be so loud, everycreature will know we are here.”

My first reaction was to growl at her too, since she dared to scold me, though her next words silenced me most effectively.

“What will Fiery say if you mess this up? She sent us here to scout and not alert everycreature of our presence.”

That hit me hard! No way was I going to miss out on all the praise, or even worse, get scolded instead! No, no, no! My first big mission has to be a success!

“Alright,” I now whispered way calmer. “We will talk about this later.” I pulled up Heat Wave by his ear. “Let’s move along. Silently.”

Slowly, we got into motion. The flapping of our wings was the only sound we made. I stopped mid flight and listened. Actually, it was the only sound that I could hear.

“Strange,” I mumbled. Since we entered the swamp, a simple growl did nothing to silence all the insects. Could be that the fog had swallowed all the sounds.

“What’s wrong?” Flitter asked, looking back over her shoulder.

I shook my head. “Probably nothing.”

*

“There is something beside the road.” Flitter landed quietly and pointed ahead and a little to the left. “There between the overgrown trees,” she whispered.

She must have better eyes than me. Even when I landed next to her, I saw nothing besides the pervasive green and brown of the swamp. More so with the dim twilight caused by the remnants of sunlight that made it through the fog.

“Some kind of hut maybe?” Heat Wave narrowed his eyes and stared into the wall of plants before us. “Or maybe some kind of wagon? Definitely something out of wood,” he added a second later.

All three of us moved behind a nearby bush.

“I don’t see anycreature.” Flitter turned to me after we had taken a moment to observe whatever it was we’d found. “No movement, no lights, no treacherous sounds. Seems abandoned, whatever it is. Shall I go check it out?”

“Hmm, yes. But be careful though. Heat Wave and I will cover your back. And keep in mind what Fiery said, if anything looks dangerous, pull back.”

“Will do.” More skilled than I had expected, she flew up and into the canopy. A moment later, she disappeared.

“If I didn’t know she was here, I would be none the wiser,” Heat Wave commented quietly. “No way anycreature would hear her coming.”

“Let’s hope you’re right.”

Feeling Flitter’s presence in the foliage got me thinking that maybe somecreature else would be able to sense her as well, but I discard that idea. If there was somekirin ahead with that ability, I would have sensed them too.

So we waited. Only one time did I see Flitter for a quick moment when she emerged from the crown of leaves next to the… thing, and as fast as she appeared, disappeared into the thicket below.

“She reached the thing,” I whispered while forcing myself to look around once more. There was still nothing other than silence and fog.

Heat Wave gave me a short nod and kept his gaze on the track behind us.

Confident he would alert me if anything suspicious happened, I returned my focus to Flitter. I couldn’t see her though. The thicket blocked my view most effectively. And so another few minutes passed while I waited for her to show up. Only the calming feeling of her presence moving around before me prevented me from worrying too much.

“She is coming back,” I finally announced when I could feel her coming nearer again. We moved a bit backward and waited for her to show up.

“It’s an old carriage,” Flitter explained while she hoovered down to us. “Several in fact.” She made a gesture including the fields behind it. “Maybe a dozen or more. They are all abandoned. Seems to be a trading caravan, or, was one.”

“How do you know that?”

“They are still partially loaded. Boxes and chests mostly. A few rusty cooking tools and goods for daily use. But no tents or other things that would imply that they were traveling with a larger group like what we’re doing.”

“Why would a trading caravan leave all their waggons behind?” Heat Wave wondered. “More so the freight? If they couldn’t pass through the swamp due to the broken bridge, they surely would have turned around instead of dropping their wagons into the thicket.”

“I don’t think they did so intentionally. Some of the carriages have areas that’ve been scorched, and here and there on them some wood’s been splintered like it was hit by an axe or mace. Or some very strong and angry creature.”

“Did you see anycreature?” I moved a bit so I could throw a look at that one overgrown carriage I knew was there.

“No, no one was there. Whatever happened did so a while ago. At least that’s what I think given all the plants that have overgrown everything. ”

“Are you sure about that?”

“I don’t know. That’s just the impression I get.”

“Hmm,” I tapped the ground with my hooftip a few times. “Maybe it’s best if I take a look myself. Come.” I gestured for them to follow and walked towards the abandoned carriage.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Heat Wave trotted up to me and threw nervous glances at the thicket around us. “What if it was some bandits? They still could be around.”

“Not if everything’s started to get overgrown. I don’t know the swamps, but it should take days or weeks for that to happen, not a few hours. Even if it was bandits, they left days ago.”

“Or they’re just lurking around here waiting for the next careless group of travelers which has to stop due to the broken bridge. Maybe it was them who destroyed it in the first place, to cut off creatures escape route.”

“That is a possibility,” Flitter agreed and added, “but then they would be lying in wait further ahead, where there was still a chance that creatures with a lot of valuables would come across them. You saw how difficult it would be for us to transport our entire caravan over here, I doubt that they’d expect anyone with as much stuff as we have to be coming from this direction.”

“We should keep that in mind,” I agreed. “But Flitter is right, there would be no point in watching the bridge anymore. If they are here, they’ll be looking in the other direction. And it’s our job to find out if they are there at all. Fiery must know if it is safe to ferry everything across.”

As I was saying this, we reached the first carriage. Now that we were closer, I was able to better make sense of what I was seeing below all the shrubs and tendrils it was buried under. “You have good eyes, Flitter. I wouldn’t have seen this from a distance at all.” I stretched my hoof out and patted her head as a reward. For a moment, she closed her eyes and enjoyed it, but soon she started to throw suspicious glances around.

“We should hurry a little. I don’t like standing here on a silver platter,” Heat Wave murmured.

“Right.” I made my way around the shrubbery, and hopped onto the hoof board of the carriage to peek inside. What I saw matched Flitter’s description. Some broken boxes, grain and hay spilled on the floor, rusty tools laying around randomly. Something felt off about this, though, I couldn't put my hoof on it, but something wasn’t right with this.

Heat Wave hoovered up next to me and took a look too, but he didn’t say anything.

“Let’s look into the others,” I decided and moved over to the next one. While doing so, I came to notice the damaged parts Flitter had mentioned.

“Looks a bit too small for an angry creature,” Heat Wave judged after measuring the missing parts and some holes in the wood. “These holes are not much bigger than my hoof.”

“What do you mean?”

“Have you ever seen the damage Fiery’s dad does when he punches something?”

“Yeah, once or twice.”

“Well, the edges of the holes he leaves behind are always extremely jagged. So the hole is actually bigger than his claw.” He pointed at a hole in the side of a carriage. “As I said, these ones are a little over the size of my hoof.” He fit his hoof through it to demonstrate. “That means that if a creature punched it in, they must be smaller than me, with trice or more times the strength. I mean look at this plank. It’s supposed to hold for years and protect the cargo. It’s thick! A mace can punch a hole in it, or a sledgehammer I suppose. But doing it by hoof, no way.”

“Makes the bandits idea more likely,” Flitter threw in.

Heat Wave nodded. “I guess so.”

“Makes sense,” I also nodded. “I would prefer a few bandits over some wild swamp creature for sure.” I turned around and jumped onto the next carriage. This time however, I heard the sound of coins clack against each other when I landed. “What is that?” I mumbled and leaned down to pick up a small pouch from the floor of the hoof board. When I shook it, the sound repeated. I turned the pouch around and emptied it into my hoof, revealing several bits.

“What did you find?” Flitter asked and hoovered next to me.

“A pouch of bits.” I threw the stack up and down a bit, guessing its amount. “Not a fortune, but still worth taking.” Puting the coins back, I wrapped the cord around my neck and secured it with a knot. “Seems whoever caused all this overlooked some stuff.

It turned out I was wrong though. They didn’t overlook some stuff, they had simply ignored all the money. In many of the carriages laid at least a few bits. In one or two there was even a few dozen scattered around. And not only the one bit coins, but also the five bit yokes and a few ten bit saddles.

“I guess we can discard bandits,” I said. “No way they would have left behind so much money. All in all we have like…” I estimated the sum, “four hundred fifty bits? That's probably not enough to buy a tavern, but it is to have a comfortable life for a year or two.”

“Given that, and the fact they didn’t steal most of the food brings back the question of who did this then?” Heat Wave looked around once more. “Maybe the carriages only had one or two highly valuable things that the bandits were after, though, even then they would have taken the bits. And out here, I’d bet food’s pretty valuable.” He stomped a hoof. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Maybe we should fly back and inform Fiery about all of this, surely she can make sense of this.” Flitter suggested.

“Flying back with only guesses and vague ideas? No.” None of us would get any praise for that, surely! “We have to look more closely at this. Spread out and see what else you can find. When we return to Fiery, I want to be able to report something useful to her.”

They did as I instructed, and to my delight, it didn’t take long for us to indeed find something. A trail of broken branches and compressed grass leaving the caravan and leading deeper into the swamp.

“At least we know where they came from now,” Flitter said.

I leaned down to sniff at the trail, but there was no scent besides the foul smell of the swamp.

“And now we know where they went,” I added. “Flitter, you’re the most skilled of us in regards of moving unheard or seen. See if you can find out where this trail leads. Maybe there’s a camp at the end, or a cave. Whoever did this must have some kind of base nearby.”

“You want me to follow these unknown tracks?” She swallowed and looked along the muddy path leading into the foggy bushes. “Alone?”

“The more go, the more likely we are to get seen.”

“Yes, but…”

“No buts. Go and tell me what you find.”

“It could be dangerous,” Heat Wave threw in.

“So you want me to tell Fiery we couldn’t find out anything because you two got cold hooves?”

“No,” both squeeked out in unison.

“Good, then go, Flitter,” I ordered. “Heat Wave and I will stay here and look for additional clues.

***

Fiery

Moving all our stuff around took far more effort than one would imagine. Not only did we have to make sure the weight was spread equally, but also that everything would get back to the owner afterwards, so everything had to be labeled somehow. My merriment did their best, but it felt like it took forever!

It also didn’t help my patience that we still hadn’t heard from Bliz and her team.

“They’ll be fine.” Illu, who had read my mind, said, extending his wing over my back. “They are just being thorough in scouting ahead. Scouting is just something that takes some time.”

I snuggled against him. “I know. It’s just that they’re doing so on my behalf. That makes things kind of different.”

“I understand. And they will be fine. Don’t you worry.” He supported his attempt to distract me with a kiss on my cheek.

“My mom always warned me of evil dragon, kirin, and pony tricks,” I purred. “But she never mentioned evil batpony tricks.”

“Her mistake.” Illu smiled.

“How careless of her. I…” Panick rushed into my bones and I pushed Illu aside, turning towards the bridge.

“What is it?” Illu tried to lay a hoof on my shoulder. “Fiery, what’s happening? What’s wrong?”

“Bliz and her team!” I yelled. “I… I could sense three of my merriment over at their side, but now there’s only two!”

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t feel one of them anymore! I could feel that they were over there, three of them. I can’t tell who is who, but I can feel their general presence! Illu, now there are only two!”

“You mean…?”

In that moment, another presence in my merriment diminished…

Author's Note

Sorry that this took so long, but you can't imagine how many people have birthday or marry these days, ruining my weekend writing plans all the time