Bug on the Breeze

Just outside the hive, the day was warm and bright as it headed towards the afternoon, but a large gathering of clouds on the horizon promised rain.

Pharynx studied the sky with a practiced eye. With the change to the surrounding landscape came new weather patterns, but they were still largely predictable as long as one knew what they were looking for. He turned his attention to the bag at his hooves, rummaging through it and going down a mental checklist of supplies for the fifth time since he came outside.

Preserved jerky and nuts? Check.

Cured leather roll to mark and update their maps? Check.

Journal with notes on everything they knew about sand kelpies? Check.

Compass? Check.

Rope? Check.

Water canteen? Check.

Bedroll? Check.

Incompetent pegasus who was surely going to get both of them killed? Nowhere to be seen.

Pharynx closed the bag and looked around, ears straining for any sign of the pony he was roped into babysitting. He had hoped to already be miles away from the hive at this point of the day.

Pharynx snorted and pawed at the ground. Just what was Thorax thinking? It was dangerous enough to suggest hunting down a young sand kelpie, but to make him take a soft, untrained and, in his opinion, pathetic pony?

Pharynx turned and stomped a few paces, pitching his voice to mock Thorax’s. “He just needs some guidance Pharynx, it’ll just be like training grubs in the old days Pharynx, Pharynx you need to risk your life making sure he doesn’t lose his.”

“Goood morning Pharynx!”

Pharynx’s ear flicked and he looked over as Zephyr approached, bluntly stating. “It’s afternoon.”

Zephyr laughed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Right, sorry, this breeze doesn’t really do ‘mornings’. But hey, I’m here and ready now.”

Pharynx rolled his eyes as he swung his bag onto his back, using magic to adjust it until it was balanced. “Better late than never I guess. Come on, we’re losing daylight and I don’t want the trail to keep getting colder. You’ve got everything you need? Once we leave, we aren’t coming back until the mission is done.”

“Yup! I’ve got my tent and my sleeping bag and my sleep mask and my soap and-”

“Anything useful?”

Zephyr scoffed, a wing gesturing at the large hiking bag Thorax had insisted on in place of his beloved duffel bag. “Well, I mean, in addition to those essentials, Thorax gave me some food, a first aid kit, and some other woodsy camping stuff.”

Pharynx shook his head. “Well, at least someone was thinking. Let’s go.”

Pharynx walked past the shredded remains of the net trap that had temporarily held the kelpie, eyes on the forest floor to follow its escape. Despite its relatively small size, the creature was still larger than Thorax, and left behind a wide and easy to track trail of destruction.

Zephyr followed after him, though his eyes were focused on taking in the scenery around him. They were near the back of the hive, which seemed a bit wilder and more green than the front, the trees bigger and more dense. Somewhere nearby was a river or something, the sound of flowing water just evident under the quiet thuds of hooves on packed dirt and the shuffle of leaves.

“You know Pharynx, I just might be wrong, but I don't think you are like the other changelings.”

Pharynx snorted. Just when he thought he couldn’t be surprised anymore… “You just now figured that out?”

Zephyr shrugged. “I came here thinking y’all were a bunch of artists and creative souls now instead of scary warrior types, and most everyone I saw on the tour was. But you talking about traps and predators respecting each other is making me think you are still a fighter at heart.”

“Yeah, well, old habits die hard.”

“Oh yeah? So what exactly did you do? You know, before.”

Pharynx looked over his shoulder, surprised that Zephyr seemed interested in something other than himself. “I was head of patrol. I trained those under me in how to defend our borders from intruders.”

“Ohh, so you were like the captain of the guard. That’s cool. Heh, you were probably crawling with the lady bugs huh? Mares looove a stallion in uniform.”

Pharynx rolled his eyes and looked forward again. Before their transformation, Zephyr would have been a prime target for harvesting. Even now, Pharynx might have been able to find his naivety and obliviousness endearing, like a grub who simply didn’t know any better. That was, at least, until Zephyr opened his mouth and tainted any endearing quality with ignorance and straight delusion.

A surprisingly quiet ten minutes passed before Zephyr apparently got bored of looking at the scenery and needed to hear his voice again. “Sooo…what’s going to happen when we catch up to the kelpie thing?”

“I’ll fight it.”

Zephyr frowned. “Right…but like, I know you seem like a big strong bug and all, but are you going to be able to handle it on your own?”

Pharynx smirked with a teasing tone. “What? Are you saying you are gonna fight it Mr. Monster Hunter?”

“Ehh…I’m more of a lover than a fighter, but being a monster hunter doesn’t mean I have to fight monsters, I’m sure there’s plenty of different ways I could handle them.”

“Oh yeah? Like what?”

“Charm them so they would feel bad hurting me and ask them nicely to leave? Ooh, maybe if we knew what sand kelpies like to eat we could make it such a good meal it’ll be all ‘oh my gosh thank you so much, I promise I won’t ever bother you again’.”

Pharynx laughed, the absurdness of the idea forcing genuine mirth. Zephyr laughed along, though it sounded almost automatic, like he couldn’t help when others laughed at something he said.

Their laughter faded, leaving behind another comfortable silence. Pharynx savored it, knowing it was only a manner of time before the pegasus started on some other ridiculous tangent.

The forest was thinning the further they traveled, and the trail Pharynx was following got less obvious. The wind started to pick up, stronger now that there were less trees to block it and the sky darkened, both from the late sun and increase of cloud cover overhead.

Zephyr looked up, shuddering from a sudden burst of cold wind, his feathers fluffing up instinctually. “There’s lightning brewing in those clouds.”

Pharynx paused, looking up as well. “Hmm. I knew there would be rain, are you sure about the lightning?”

“Mmhmm. My pop worked in the weather factory most my life and I even interned there, I know what lightning feels like.”

Pharynx grit his teeth and surveyed their surroundings. There really wasn’t any form of good cover in their immediate vicinity, but Pharynx was sure there was a cave somewhere ahead. There was a broken line of them around the edges of their territory, easy landmarks and relatively safe places where scouts would weather out storms or rest on their way back home.

His shell split opened and his wings flared out. “Stay here, I need to fly up and get my bearings.”

Zephyr watched him, his own wings twitching on his back. Pharynx descended a minute later, hovering above the ground and pointing towards the left. “There’s a cave that way, if we fly fast we can make it within a couple minutes and get settled before the storm starts.”

Zephyr nodded and flared his wings. He wasn’t the best weather pony around, but deeply ingrained Pegasi instincts told him they had about an hour before things started to get hairy. With a grunt of effort he left the ground, wobbling a little as he adjusted to the extra weight. The backpack was well balanced at least, so he was able to fly up to Pharynx, who turned and began to fly quickly.

They ascended to just above the tree line and headed in the direction Pharynx had pointed. Within a minute, the edge of the forest came into view and as they passed it, Zephyr saw the end of the river he heard earlier spilling into a small oasis. The sweat already forming on his brow made him wish he could dive in and enjoy the water that was certainly cool and refreshing.

Zephyr looked up, his eyes widening as he got his first glimpse of what the changeling hive and lands had once looked like. From this perspective, he was able to see that they were in a valley. A short, rocky mountain range made a sharp and irregular border and small patches of cactus and random rock formations dotted the sandy landscape. In the far distance, there appeared to be a section of sand that dipped down into a swirled vortex.

As they got closer to the border, Pharynx slowed the brutal pace he had set and angled downward towards a large opening. Zephyr panted as they descended, his wings burning. They passed under the rocky ceiling and follows a set of randomly placed, glowing lanterns towards a ledge in the back.

Pharynx landed and began searching the wall as Zephyr collapsed nearby. “W-whew, I don’t think I’ve flown that fast…that much…since I was a colt.”

Pharynx glanced over his shoulder at him. “You good?”

Zephyr laughed shakily. “Pssh, of course! What’s a little adventure without some marathon flying, am I right?”

Pharynx snorted and turned back to the wall, letting out a soft ‘ah ha’ of victory as he found a special marking left by a scout long before his time. He lit his horn and a section of the rock shimmered with a sickening green glow before dissolving.

Zephyr blinked at the hole that had appeared. “Huh. You don’t see that every day.”

Pharynx walked over and helped pull Zephyr onto his hooves. “Changelings have been using these caves for a long time and there were even more dangerous monsters around when the hive was first formed, so they are all well hidden and protected.”

Pharynx started walking into the cave, pausing for a moment to look over his shoulder again. “Oh, and good job keeping up.”

Zephyr blushed and stumbled over his hooves, caught off guard by the first genuinely positive thing that Pharynx had directly said to him. By the time he thought to say something, anything, Pharynx had disappeared.

Shaking his head to right himself, Zephyr walked through the entrance. After a short hallway lit by more of the same glowing lanterns, Zephyr came into the cave proper. It wasn’t a huge space, roughly the same size as the living room of his sister’s cottage, but it would do.

Pharynx was sitting in the middle next to a charred fire pit, his bedroll already on the ground as he dug through his backpack. Zephyr sat on the opposite side, undoing the buckles around his waist and shoulders to take his backpack off too. Looking around, the only other thing Zephyr noticed about the cave was a series of cubby holes dug into the back wall.

Pharynx took out a large roll of leather, unfurling it on the ground and revealing an unfinished map. He grabbed a piece of charcoal from the firepit and began to mark it, filling in where the forest had grown and noting where it stopped.

Zephyr watched him for a few minutes before deciding he was hungry and dug through his bag for some of the food Thorax had given him. “So how long do you think we’ll be in here for?”

Pharynx paused in his scribbling. “Well, considering we left so late, we should wait until morning.” He briefly glared at Zephyr. “And we will be leaving at first light.”

Zephyr rubbed the back of his neck. “Ah ha. Right.”

“I’m serious.”

“Of course, of course. I will try to be ready for an early morning tomorrow. Promise.”

Pharynx nodded sharply and returned to his map. Zephyr bit back a sigh and munched on some granola, preparing himself for a long night.