Just A Slice

His throat was raw and his tongue was like sandpaper as he became concious. He could feel his body rocking back and forth while he lay in a rickety hammock. The rocking motion made him fell sick, and he felt the need to throw up, but there was nothing in his stomach to vomit out. Where was he? He didn't know. He? I? He had a name. But he didn't know what it was. A faint prickling in his head, just barely beyond reach. He knew he had a mission. The package. To a pony in black. But he didn't feel his bags on his flank where they should be. With a dry gasp, he sat up quickly, banging his head on a wood board above him, hard. He suddenely heard a lot of yelling from above him. A pegasus lept out from above and ran out of the room via a small wooden staircase, yelling his head off the entire way up. He rubbed his sore head where he had banged it, and stepped out of the hammock. His legs collapsed out from under himand he toppled onto the floor in a heap of legs. He slowly got up and stumbled about the room, looking for his missing parcel. Finding nothing, he staggered up the steps leading out of the room.

As he opened the door, the moon shone over still waters. All around him was dark wood. Behind the door he just came out of, a huge beam stood over him with an enourmous canvas attatched to a cross beam towards the top. He was on a boat. In the middle of the ocean. How the hay did he get here? He didn't remember anything before his awakening besides the parcel and the need to deliver it. His mind and memory was a blank. A pony came rushing out of a small cabin at the back end of the ship. He saw the confused pony and rushed back in. The pony followed the other into the cabin and ran into a massive green pony with a wide brimmed black hat on his head. The pegasus backed away sheepishly, mumbling an apology when the big pony pushed him, ordering him to return to the hold with him. The pegasus went back as told, and when he turned around the pony with the hat closed the door and began bombarding him with questions.

"Who are you?"

"Why are you here?"

"Do you know where you are?"

"Where did you get those wingblades?"

"Whats in the package?"

The pegasus couldn't answer him. He didn't know the answer to any of those questions. "I-I don't know."
The earth pony. or sea pony, only glared at him from under that wide brim of the hat. "I am the captain of this ship.This is a fishing ship and we saw you hit the water. Fortunately you fell into the water right over one of our fishing nets. We didn't get any fish, just you. So you better explain yourself. I am not used to going home with a net empty."

The pegasus didn't know what to say. Couldn't say anything. He just stood there dumbfounded. Hit the water? He looked at his hindquarters and saw wings. He could fly? He fluttered the wings, almost strangers to his body, yet somehow they felt familiar. "Why were you flying out over the ocean? I have known dozens of pegusi that have drowned because of a ocean gust or gully. Don't you know better than to trust the sea? The waters are more treacherous than a hired blade."

He had no idea what the captain was talking about. His head hurt. "I don't know. I'm thirsty." The captain showed him to a barrel full of water with a small rubber tube stuck over a nozzle on the bottom. The pegasus just looked at it, not knowing what to do. "Dragons! You take the tube in yer' mouth and suck. the water comes clean an' fresh." The captain did not look happy to have to explain how to drink to a grown pony. He took the tube in his mouth and did as he was told. The water was warm and a little tepid, but it tasted like sweet nectar to the desert of his tongue. He sucked greedily on the keg untill the captain took it from his mouth. "Thas' enough you'll drown yerself again." He looked at the captain with disdain. His body demanded more, though his tongue was wet.

"Now. Answers." ordered the captain sitting down on a chair as the pegasus slumped into the hammock. He just shrugged. "Fine. We will start from the beginnin', Who are you?"

"I don't know." was all he could answer. The captain sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Dragons, ya got the mind blight look like. I guess ya don' remember anythin' before ye' woke up. The pegasus shook his head, but asked about the package. "Hold on fer' a second." The captain said leaving. He returned a short while later with a bundle in his mouth. He dropped it on the floor, issuing a series of clangs. The captain just looked at him expectantly. "Well? Ye' wanted ta know where ye' bags had gone. There they is."

He unrolled the cloth and a metal box and a pair of odd... things, tumbled out. The things were the same shape and size his his wings and had a very sharp edge. The metal box shone dully in the lamplight. "We tried everthin' tryin' ter open that wee box. But it been sealed by dark magic. We gots a unicorn that says so. How do you explain that?"

He only knew that he was supposed to deliver it to the one in black. "Dragonheim." The name meant something to him about the package but he didnt know what. "Dragonheim? Thats a city, we make port there every so often, but we ain' to far away. We could get you there by sunrise and get rid of ye'. Savin' a drownin pony is bad luck on the sea, but me consciousnesses was naggin me."

He only nodded. "Welp you ain't got no name. The bad luck that come wit' ponies like ya is called a cairn. So how 'bout we's call you Cairn? Yep, that be fine. Get some rest I'll wake ye when we get to thar city.

He nodded and curled into the swaying hammock, becoming nauseated once again, but he was slowly getting used to the constant swaying back and forth. Cairn. It wasn't his name. But he didn't know what his real name was and it felt good to actually have a name. But the name meant "bad luck" so he wasn't sure if that meant anything. He shifted and turned, but no matter what position he got into he could not relax in the awkward hammock. The sides squeezed his wings mercylessly and constantly made him uncomfortable. After a while the pegasus that had summoned the captain came back into the cabin. "Hi." said Cairn trying to be friendly. His voice startled the pony and he saw that he only had one wing. He settled after he spotted Cairn in the hammock and climbed up into the bunk above him. "Eez it hard to sleep in that hammock?"
came a voice from above. "Yes." He heard a laugh come from the one above him. "Crushes the vings, don't it? Ja, alvays perfurred the hard bunk to ze crushing of ze sheets pulled tight."

The pony spoke with a wierd accent. "Where are you from?" Cairn asked, curious as to where he aquired the strange accent. "I come from across the grass desert to the vest. From the Tall Cities miles from Dragonheim. My homeland speak entirely deefrent language. I learn to speak like zis from taveling merchant. I go wis 'im to Dragonheim, and zere signed to vork on ship." Cairn stepped out of the hammock, tired of it's vice-like grip on him. He settled on the floor. "I don't know where I come from. I don't even know who I am." The pony laughed again. "I'll vager zat you come from ze pony land. Soom Ekestia or somsing like zat." The name tugged at his mind. But he didn't know what it meant. He knew that he recognized the name. Somewhat. He settled on that the ponies accent was the cause for his confusion.

The pony was right. Even the hard floor was much better than the hammock. He pulled his belongngs closer. He tucked the box next to his belly and pulled the unknown metal thing closer, examining it. He put it up to his wing and it was the perfect size. "Zat ve took from your vings. They go on like zis." He hopped down, limber like a cat, and put them onto Cairn. At first they sat rather strangely on his wings, but they quickly became comfortable as he moved them. "Zose are veery vell made. Almost as if for you. Zey are called 'Lævatreinn'. Vingblades I sink zee ponies call dem." Wingblades they were called. The name was befitting. They moved fluidly with his wings, and the razor sharp edge testified to the 'blade' part of the name. Doubtless they were used in combat.

The forein pegasus climbed into the bunk and blew out the lamp, telling Cairn to get some sleep. He tucked his wings into his side with ease and curled around the special package that he had to deliver. No matter what.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

As he had promised, The captain of the small fishing vessel woke him a few hours before sunrise, telling him that his crow had spotted the city on the horizon. He led him out onto the deck and pointed. There at the very edge of his vision was a black dot. How the sea pony could see that was beyond him. The captain informed him that they would be in the harbour in a few hours and encouraged him to try his hoof at something and be useful as long as he was on the boat. Cairn wanted to meet the crow who had such astonishing eyesight. He considered flying, but after being told that was the reason he didn't remember anything and had almost drowned deterred him. He settled for climbing the net-like ropes that stretched from the crow's nest to the railing on the side of the ship. The ropes shook and shivered as he climbed, the wind becoming stronger and stronger trying to throw him off into the foaming waves below. A couple times he almost fell, his hoof slipping on the rogue rope that suddenly moved before he could get a good grip in his fetlock. After a while he made it to the top and toppled over the rail of the large basket that was the nest. The pegasus he had shared a room with the night before stood before him, his eyes squinting at the city. At Cairn's arrival he looked from the city to him then back again.

"Gutten, ze port gate iz down." Cairn struggled to stand up. The constant swaying motion of the ship was amplified and the floor swayed and shook like an upside-down pendulum. The pegasus laughed at his fall and helped him up. "Iz not so easy to stand up here. spread hoofs wide like zis." He showed Cairn and he imitated him. It helped him considerably, he could now stand, but he was still uneasy. "How can you see so far?" He asked him. "Iz my special ability." He said simply, showing him a picture of an eye on his flank. "You has very strange mark. I not seen one like it." Cairn looked at his flank. He had never noticed it before. A short gold hyphen with two lines coming off it. "Iz just like when I see you fall in sea. Gold streak coming from around you. You moved so fast." Cairn didn't know how to respond, so he asked if he knew an all-black pony. Unfortunately he didn't, but he did volunteer to teach him how to get around Dragonheim without getting his head cut off.

He taught him all the workings of the city, how the traffic moved. how to greet ponies. And he also taught him how to greet dragons. "You fall on your knees like zis if you see a dragon come your way. Get avay from his path and don't look him in ze eye, they are powerful. Much more powerful zan you , ja. He resumed his teachings untill the ship floated lazily under a massive steel gate rising out of the water. Under the water, if you looked hard enough, you could see long lines on either side of the gate.The pegasus answered his question, "Spikes to sink ships. You must enter through ze gate."

The boat docked up and ponies tied thick ropes to the pier as Cairn was showed how to climb down. When he made it to the deck he found the captain waiting for him. "I gave you some dragoons. The Equestrian mony you had is useless out 'ere." "Equestria" struck a familiar note in Cairn's head, but still he couldn't place the signifigance of it. He thanked the captain for saving him and exited the ship. The moment his hooves hit the ground, he almost fell again, but managed to keep a shaky balance. Several sailors laughed and called him a 'landlubber', whatever that meant, as he walked shakily from the docks.

He was immediately thrown into a river of ponies as he stepped onto the street. Thanks to the old pegasus, he found his way to a small restaurant. he oredered a "clover sandwich" and tossed a dragoon onto the counter, not sure how much to pay. The pony behind the counter told him to put two more down. He did and the pony took them as he found a table and ate. The food was good, and landed with a plop in his empty stomach. When he finished, he felt several times better and left the eating place to look for the dark pony.