Pyroneus Dawnlight: The Gatekeeper of Worlds

Chapter Seven

The Problem with Trees

The wind whistled through the trees, soft yet chilling, and I tried to sit up, dazed from impact. I was immediately pulled back down, noting that there was still a woman wrapped in my wings. My right wing was held down mostly by her, wrapped tightly around her body and tangled in her limbs and wings. The shaking motion jarred her awake, and for a moment she was caught up with frantically trying to escape the folds of my larger wingspan. My right wing tangled, I tried rolling onto my left side, only to find the tip of my left wing was stretched over to my right, pinned under the tree. I then tried rolling to the right, only to realise we were right up against a large root structure, making rolling impossible. Her thrashing about was starting to get painful as the muscles in my wings were stretched and contorted into positions they shouldn’t be able to make.

“Calm down, we’re stuck for a moment. Please just stop moving, that’s really starting to HURT!”

She shoved suddenly to either side, directly into the main joint structure of my left wing and snapped it like a twig. The bones crunched very audibly as she stopped thrashing, and I could feel them grind across each other, ragged edges tearing into my skin like white hot knives. My wing tip was still pinned, but my muscles were trying desperately to pull it back to my side. The pain was unbearable, considering how much power it took to break my bones. The willpower it was taking to keep from screaming had clamped my jaw shut. My right wing fared no better considering she was wrapped in it; it was dislocated in two places and pinching countless nerves. In the haze of deafening pain, I heard a small voice pipe up.

I told you so…

SILENCE!

……….Was it worth all this?

YES.

……So be it……

The voice left again, hopefully for good. A downside to its departure was that the only thing my mind had left to focus on was the searing pain in my side. I could feel my very small amount of healing magic etching its way across the break, preparing to knit it back together. I won’t be flying for at least a month. A sudden stir from the young woman I had saved broke my train of thought.

“Uhm, he-hello? Are you awake?”

“Yes, I am, but all things considered, you did just shatter my wing joint in about eleven places. I am having trouble speaking at the moment.”

“What!? Oh gosh I’m so sorry, I just got scared when I woke up to darkness. Your wings felt like cloth, so I assumed I was tied up. Are you okay? You’re burning hot! And your skin feels like a grindstone!”

“Does my skin really feel that coarse?”

“Are you kidding? It’s like sandpaper! I can feel my fur being rubbed away.”

“Well there’s nothing I can do. If my wing wasn’t broken, I could have lifted you off of me. You’ve also dislocated the other one, so I cannot unwrap you. As it stands, we appear to be stuck here until I can figure out how to roll you over without breaking it or you any further.” Not that I’m complaining….

“Well that’s just great. Is there really no way I can just get up?”

“No, if I could move my wing, you’d already be free, but the only one moveable is my broken one, and as I’m sure you’ve noticed, it’s very heavy. Without the bone structure to support it, it’s not going anywhere.”

“Well you could at least release me from that death grip of yours; it’s getting hard to breathe.”

“Oh, sorry.” I let go, I didn’t even notice I had been holding on to her. If I had wrapped my arms around her neck or stomach, she’d have been dead.

“Okay, now that I can breathe, let’s try to assess the situation. We can’t move your wings, and I’m not only blanketed by your unbelievably heavy wing, but my wings are trapped underneath you, my legs are pinned under something, and my arms are behind my back, so sliding out isn’t happening. So the only option is to move the tree. But the question is, how? We’re not Conjurus, we’re Pegassians.”

“No, you are. I am all three.”

“But where’s your horn?”

“A horn is nothing but an instrument to focus magic, if the user has enough mind power to aim his spells, a horn is of no use.”

“Well then can’t you just lift the trees?

“No, I’ve been unable to use magic for the whole day. There was an……. incident earlier, and it left me drained, probably for a couple days.”

“Great, this just gets better and better, doesn’t it?”

“Don’t complain, it gets us nowhere fast.”

“Well what do you suggest then?”

“Hmm, it looks like the trees are spaced too closely for you to crawl out, but maybe if we can at least get your hands out you can try to dig a space big enough to free the ends of my wings. The dirt is at least decently soft. My left leg is free; if I lift myself slightly, do you think you can free your arms? I can try to free mine as well.”

“I guess it’s worth a shot.”

There was no way of letting her move with causing me excruciating pain, but as there were no other options, I bore through it silently as she shimmied out from under my wing, first her left, and then her right hand, and when she ran out of room to move out, she twisted around to face the tree that pinned us. That elicited a scream.

“Oh gosh I’m so sorry, what did I hurt?”

“Every single twitch and wiggle you make is agony. Just focus on digging, forget about me.”

“But-”

“Please.”

The darkness that gathered around was thick, almost suffocating, and I wasn’t sure whether or not she could see what she was doing. It didn’t help that hands are certainly not meant for excavating. We had a lot of earth to move, and no tools or magic to help. I could hear soft scraping noises as she tried frantically to move the dirt. What I didn’t hear was the sound of earth being dug.

“Oh this is no use! Gaaah! I can’t get enough reach to even scratch the surface.”

“Calm down, it could be worse.”

“Oh yeah? How?”

“Those timberwolves might have heard you.”

“What?! How can you see in this darkness, let alone find a timberwolf?”

“My eyes see many things. Nothing ever escapes my vision.”

“I find that awful hard to believe. More importantly, how does that help us out of this?”

“It doesn’t, but at least we don’t have to worry about predators.”

“So what happens when one wanders over? What can we possibly do to escape that?”

“Perhaps you can wave your arms really hard and scare them off?”

“Oh ha ha, very funny, now quit the sarcasm and figure out how we can get out of this.”

“Look, this will be easier if we just wait until morning. Then you can see what you’re doing. I know my eyes glow but it’s not very helpful with my head mashed into the dirt. Think you can put up with a night of rough skin and cold wind?”

“… Fine, but no funny business. I already broke your wing, that doesn’t mean I won’t break something else.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

“… Care to explain why your eyes glow? And why you’re so heavy and yet so fast?”

“You wouldn’t believe me.”

“Then promise me you’ll tell me anyways. Once we get out of this mess I mean.”

“Deal.”

She curled up as best she could in my wing, trying to keep herself warm. I could tell she was trying to wrap her own wings around herself. The wind was starting to blow fiercely, sweeping up under the fallen trees and hitting us fully. She scooted away from me, shivering fiercely.

“You know, if you moved closer to me instead of farther, you’d stay warm. I’m like an oven.”

“Yeah, nice try, I’m not gonna hug you.”

“I didn’t say you have to hug me, I just said you could move closer. I’m just trying to prevent frostbite.”

“Sure, and I’m the king of Equestria.” I could almost hear her eyes roll.

“Why are you so distrusting? I barely even know you, and all I’m doing is trying to help you. I don’t help others very often you know.”

No response. She’d fallen asleep, probably from exhaustion. I don’t normally need sleep, so I just laid back and watched the leaves sway in the breeze. The sounds of animals were drowned out by the wind, but I could still see a few scurrying along branches and vines. The pain in my wing was starting to throb viciously. I could hear her shaking from the cold, and I tried to sense how much heat she had left. She wasn’t going to last the night; winter in Equestria is always cold. From what I had heard from Rainbow Dash, the weather was controlled, but they always overdid it in the first week. I didn’t want to go back on my word but for her sake I’d take the beating that follows, gladly. Ignoring the pain that moving caused me, I shifted over closer, hoping I’d be able to free my arms but finding no success. I wrapped my leg around her, trying to push the heat around evenly. It was difficult considering I had essentially no magic left to use. Nevertheless, she finally relaxed and started breathing evenly again.

The night passed very slowly, dawn creeping over the horizon as a caterpillar climbs a leaf. The wind eventually died down to a slight whisper. When dawn finally turned to morning, I noticed that the area around us was a deeper part of the forest, and it was obvious that animals rarely cross here from the large amounts of brush and undergrowth. Suddenly, she stirred from her sleep.

“Finally done sleeping, are we?”

Her eyes opened; she looked around, dazed.

“Huh? What?”

She noticed I was holding onto her, and her eyes opened wide. She jerked around, throwing my leg off of her and eliciting a pained grunt.

“What did I say about funny business pal? You’ve got a lot of nerve! Why when I get my hands on you, I’m gonna-”

In a much louder voice, stiff from pain, I said to her, “FIRST OFF, you already have your hands on me. SECOND, you cannot possibly cause me more pain than two broken wings, which you are currently contorting into odd shapes!”

I couldn’t tell whether it was the volume of my voice or me making note of my pain, but she stopped moving.

“Well… you deserve it. I told you not to try any funny business.”

“If this ‘funny business’ you are referring to is some sort of sexual activity, I can assure you the sheer amount of pain I am in is enough to keep me from moving around. Despite that, you should know the temperature outside hit eight degrees below freezing before factoring twelve mile-per-hour wind chill and sixty-two percent moisture content in the air last night. Like I told you, you were freezing to death. A thanks is unnecessary but you can at least stop grinding my bones together over some supposed misbehavior which you have no proof of occurrence.”

“‘A thanks is unnecess-’ who the fuck do you think you are? I didn’t ask to be put in this situation, this is YOUR fault.” Her voice trailed away for a moment, before saying, ever so quietly, “Was I really gonna die last night…?”

“Without shelter and warmth? Absolutely.”

She mumbled something to herself, trembling slightly. I couldn’t hear her properly, so I asked her to repeat herself.

“Are you an angel?” She sounded like she couldn’t believe her own words.

At that, I was forced to laugh despite the spiking pain. “Are you serious? An angel? I’m about as far from those ridiculous fairy tales as you can possibly get! Why that couldn’t be further in the opposite direction if I tried! I-” She was crying now, silently but I could feel the tears running into my scales. “Are you okay?”

“If you’re not an angel, then you must be a demon. Come here to rescue me in exchange for my soul or something. W-what do I have to do? What’s the price?” She sounded on the verge of a breakdown.

“What makes you think I’m a demon? Uh… well besides the appearance.”

“Why else would you be here… I was lost, okay? I’m not very good with directions, and I got myself turned around. I didn’t know it was going to be that cold last night. If you hadn’t shown up…” Now she was crying heavily. “What else can you be? What are the odds that I just happen to run into somebody in the middle of the forest? Do you want my body? Do I have to do some sort of task for you now?”

I know I shouldn’t have laughed, but you must understand how ridiculous this sounded to me. “Do you really believe that it can’t just be a coincidence? I know the forest is big but… I’m really, truly not here to ‘collect a debt’ or some silly thing like that. And.. wait are you telling me you had no idea where you were going when you took off earlier?”

“Of course I didn’t, I was hoping you would be in front the whole time and I’d just pretend! And don’t turn this back around on me, we’re talking about you right now!”

DO NOT CONTINUE THIS CONVERSATION FURTHER. STOP OPENING UP TO HER IMMEDIATELY. SHE IS NOT YOUR FRIEND.

“Would you believe me if I told you I was running away from my own problems? I… I… Uhm. I just needed a quiet place to compose myself.”

She sniffled. “That sounds like a shit cover-up story…”

“I don’t know what else to tell you. I’m not lying, I promise.”

“Is that supposed to assure me or something? Your promise is empty without proof.”

“Well I agree with you, but just for future reference; I don’t make promises I can’t keep. It’s probably the only thing I’m unyielding about. So, I promise you I’m not trying to trick you. Ask me anything for proof, and I’ll tell you.”

“Alright, well you already promised to tell me why your eyes glow, and why you’re so damned heavy. Start talking.”

“I’m heavy because my body contains cosmic magic which makes my form incredibly heavy when someone else tries to move me. It would take a team of people to carry me around against my will. Call it a defense mechanism. If I’m awake, you’re essentially trying to lift the core of a star off the ground. The more force you apply, the heavier I get. Unconscious though, I guess it’s closer to an elephant or something. Not ideal but it’s not exactly under my control or any-”

“Hang on, how come I’m not being crushed right now then?”

“Because I’m not trying to crush you? My wings are broken so think of them as lead blankets for now.”

“Wait, wait that’s gonna be a problem when you get up isn’t it? I mean that’s a lot of weight on a broken joint.”

“I would prefer not to think about it. I can try to tie them up with something, but I’ll bear through it. I’ve had much worse. As to why my eyes glow, that’s simple science. They contain a phosphorous mixture which glows when I apply a bit of electricity to them. My biology is different from yours by… well a lot. I’m an alien, not a demon.”

“You’re an alien? You’re really gonna go with that and expect me to believe it?”

“Are you seriously going to choose demon over alien? Which is more likely? I’ll give you a bit to do the math.”

She jabbed her elbow into my wing again. “Don’t insult me.” She turned her head to look at me. “Prove it. Prove you’re an alien. What can you do that regular folk can’t?”

I had to think for a bit on that one. There’s obvious things but my magic was depleted for the time. What could I do…?

“AHA! I know what I can do. I can just show you what led me to be in that exact spot.”

“Uhhh, come again?”

“Just look into my eyes, you’ll find your answers.”

Her expression flattened into a deadpan stare. “Alright, you can stop making fun of me. I’ll go with the alien thing for now if you’ll stop pretending I’m stupid.”

I was so insulted at her response I didn’t finish thinking through the repercussions of what I was about to do. Instead, through the anguish it caused me, I wrenched my arm from behind my back and held her face up to mine. “No tricks. I know you aren’t stupid. Please just humor me, I promise you’ll see what I mean. Just look into my eyes.”

She tried to move her head away from me at first but she really was stuck. “Jeez you really are a weirdo, let go!” When I asked her again, even more politely, she gave up trying to squirm away. “Ahh whatever, if it’ll get you to stop being weird fine, I’ll humor you.” She fixed me with the most strained look, like she was trying to bore a hole through the back of my head. After a few seconds, she said, “See? I don’t see anything you creep.”

As calmly as I could, I said, “No. Relax, and look into my eyes, not at them.”

STOP! STOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSHE’LLSEETOOMUCHSTOPYOUFOOL!

I listened to the voice a bit too late. Her expression softened as it shouted at me, and she said gently, “This is ridiculous, what the hell am I supposed to be see-”

Our world drifted away into white light.