“Welcome Back”
Simile stood proudly in the entrance of the tunnels. The Diamond Dogs had turned out to be rather nice, once we had shown that we weren’t there steal their gems and desecrate their holy place, and had apparently assisted in restoring it to its carven nature. We had parted in better terms after that, and were getting ready to pick up the bags we had left in stasis near the entry to the cave.
Reaching past the glamour cast over the hollow, I shattered the effects of the stasis spell and pulled out the huge, duct-tape wrapped bag that held the sleeping bag and pillows I had kept, along with the green satchel bag that most of my valuables were stored in.
Shrugging the shoulder strap on, I rolled my shoulders to get the feel of wearing it comfortable again. The feel of the laptop at my side was comforting, the solid weight of the old thing making me smile.
My grin grew broader as Colgate looked out at the slow dawn of the Strife-Lands. She looked utterly enraptured, the dawn’s glow sliding around her soft, smooth features, her eyes huge. Standing next to her, drinking in the beautiful sight of the sun’s rise, was Simile, tall, regal and proud, wings fluttering gently.
Hefting the bag in my left hand, I motioned outwards.
“So, girls, you ready to start walking? We’ve got a good distance to go, and the sooner we’re there, the sooner we can plan what to do next.”
The two lovely mares turned at the sound of my voice, Colgate nodding affirmatively and Simile grinning broadly as a ‘yes’. I stepped forward, and listened to the soft ‘crunch’ of the gravel at the cave’s mouth, and inhaled the scent of a world I thought I could honestly call... home.
And you know what? It was good to be back.
The three of us had been walking along for several hours, the sun finally rising a bit above the horizon, its brilliant yellow-white fire shifting visibly at its edges if you cover the sun itself with your hand. The sharp-edged shadows held steady as soldiers at attention, the leaves on the trees standing in stark silhouette on the ground yards away from their creators.
We walked down the rolling hills that gave the local Diamond Dog pack its name, whistling a tune. The gentle breeze playfully flicked our hair about, soothing the remaining cuts on my exposed arms as they healed on their own.
Colgate broke the silence with a question, “So where are we going?”
I stopped whistling, and pulled out the crude map Simile and I had worked on. After several minutes, I had realized I had the map upside-down, flipped it over, and read the actual route we were taking.
“Alright, we’re going north right now, but we’ll have to turn to the east if we want to get re-supplied. There’s a village labeled ‘Oldoaks’ in that direction, and it’s labeled as a combined town, Human and Pony. And just as a guess from the surrounding land, I’d guess it’s a farming town, ‘cuz there’s nothing else for miles to trade to.”
Colgate looked at me with a quizzical expression. I had hurt to keep that poker face, but I still hadn’t improved any on that, and Simile was visibly fighting back a giggle at that point.
I glanced at Colgate’s face and almost busted a gut laughing. “Nah, we plotted out this path a while ago, the Map’s not that detailed. The only thing we’re missing is what kind of town Oldoaks is. Nobody in Clifton’s Retreat had been there before, except a trader that had come through there some time ago.”
Colgate nodded satisfied with my answer, and Simile’s Guised eyes twinkled. I chuckled and folded the map again, pointing to the wide dirt road that was meant to lead to Oldoaks.
“Looks like we walked faster than I was expecting, I didn’t think we’d get there until around 12 o’clock, a little before noon.”
Colgate grinned, and challenged us both to a race to the road. Laughing along the way, the three of us ran, reveling in the blissful simplicity of the movement. Catching our breath at the road, we smiled and panted happily. It’s an absolute shame the laughter couldn’t last. Neither could Colgate’s lack of experience in this world.
Colgate looked up the road, smile falling from her face, as she asked, “Where’s that smoke coming from?” and pointed.
Simile and I both looked in the direct Colgate gestured, were there was a cloud of smoke rising. The slight, orange-red tint on the trees would’ve given it away if the easy view of the burning caravan hadn’t. Motioning to Colgate to stay back, I drew the Changeling Blade, extending it into a wide-bladed cross between a scimitar and a gladius. a few holes pocked its surface, and the greenish shimmer on its edge betrayed its origins, and gave it a demonic look.
Colgate worriedly looked at the blade, and I held it steady as I began marching up the road, Simile charging magic along her horn as she followed, her unicorn Guise in place. The two of us advanced, and I noted at the time that my arms was much steadier than it ever had been previously, though I didn’t think too much about it at the time.
The rough dirt crunched under my boots and Simile’s hooves, and the wagon we had seen pulled into focus in time for us hear some shouts from the side of the road. Pivoting to my right, I raised the Changeling Blade to counter a blow from a soldier in a white leather suit of armor, a gold symbol embossed on it, looking like wings wrapped around a circle, with a spike coming from the top.
I recognized the symbol immediately, the sigil of the Solar Empire, one of the two most vicious factions in the Strife-Lands. The other being the Empire of Man, who outranked the villainous factor of the Solar Empire by an incredible degree. I’ll get around to explaining them later, but know that they really are the closest things to true ‘bad-guys’ in the Strife-Lands.
The soldier was human, though his companion wasn’t, something made painfully obvious when a jet of flame seared across my side.
Screaming in pain and rage, I swung the blade in my hand, watching as it cleaved down onto the sword of the other fighter. Steel rang on carapace, and the shock of the blow sang in my bones. My foe was at least as strong as me, and probably better trained. Stepping back, I slashed wide, opening a seeming gap in my defences, hoping he’d take the bait.
Thankfully, the man took the moment to try stabbing me in the side. With Simile’s enchantment in place, the ordinary metal of his sword simply skittered over the cloth. The shocked look on his face was entirely worth still feeling the sword bruise my side rather badly. Swinging with an elbow, I clocked his helmet-less face dead on the nose, jerking his head back in the process.
Apparently, he was a lot tougher than me, too, because he just proceeded to snarl and take another swing at me, one I barely deflected.
By this point, I had completely forgotten the unicorn with the guy. By the shouts from behind me, I guessed that he/she was dueling Simile. And by the fact that I couldn’t hear Simile making any pain-noises, I guessed that she was at least holding her own, especially with the leftover energy from Ponyville’s ambient love and care.
The man I was locked in combat with took another slash at me, this time smacking me across the chest with the sword. While it smarted, the enchantment held. Returning the blow, the Changeling Blade screeched across the edge of the swordsman’s weapon, causing an unholy-sounding screech.
Unexpectedly, one of the holes in the material caught on his sword, stopping it with a jerk pointed at his face. He stopped, and realized I couldn’t overpower him. He began laughing, only to stop when saw I wasn’t impressed.
“At least you die with honor. You were weak to the righteous strength of the sun, but do not weep or beg. I admire that.”
His voice was very masculine, like something you’d expect the male lead of a fantasy adventure movie to be like.
“Well, I can admire that you’ll stare down the point of an extending weapon and laugh. That takes balls, man.”
The humourous look fell from his face as he asked, dumbfounded, “what?”
The point took him in the eye before he could move, sliding with a meaty slicing noise before it grated across bone. Jerking back, he succeeded in nearly cutting off the top of his own head, and tumbled to the ground, gurgling.
I remember feeling oddly numb about the whole thing. His death, at the time, didn’t seem quite real. Likely, it was an effect of desensitization from the long trek back after Riverstone. I didn’t think of it at the time, instead turning in place to orient on the unicorn, who was backing up towards me. He had concentrated solely on his direct opponent, the spellcaster of my group, Simile.
Flicking out the Changeling Blade, I slashed across his back legs, cutting them out from under him. He screamed in agony, losing the spell he’d been charging. At the same time, a shout erupted from the inside of the wagon behind the one we were fighting near.
The screaming unicorn rolled on the ground, trying to get to his back legs, which bled into the dirt, his thrashing churning it to mud. Judging from the speed at which he’s bleeding, I guessed I had hit the pony equivalent of the femoral artery, and his rapid stilling only proved it. In less than a minute, I’d brutally and coldly killed not one, but two sentient being.
And, in all honesty? It actually felt pretty good then. I’d grow tired of death in time, but then, I reveled in my new-found ability to do more than just defend and parry. I had no idea then what had been guiding my movements so much better than I could’ve at that point.
At the time, I was grinning crazily, and getting ready to vault a flaming wagon for some reason I can’t really recall. It probably made sense at the time.
Instead settling on going around the flaming vehicle, at Simile’s insistence, we came across another flaming wagon, this one covered on top, though it had the markings of an axe, which appeared to have been used to jam the door (which, it seemed, opened outwards)
Using the amazing powers of leverage, I ripped the axe from the wood, and called out to the person inside. Hearing a cough and hacking wheeze as an answer, I pulled the door roughly open and looked in. The fire coated the top of the tipped wagon, and a man in pants and a white shirt was trapped under a flipped bed.
Simile, standing behind me, lit up her horn, and pulled the bed off the man. He looked pained, and held his chest as I crawled in and pulled him over my shoulders in a fireman’s carry. It seemed appropriate, considering the situation.
Carrying him away from the flaming wreckage, Colgate rushing towards us, I the man down on the grass on the side of the road. There, he hissed in pain and clutched his side, which had a large red stain on the white cloth.
Colgate shouted, asking what was wrong, and Simile told her of the ambush, to which she looked shocked. It obviously hadn’t settled in how dangerous this world really was, yet. Simile came back over and lit her horn up.
At this point, the man opened his eyes, in time to see Simile, horn alight, bearing down on him. He panicked, and began trying to scuttle back and away from the two of us.
“Please! I don’t have anything of value! It was all in the wagon! Don’t hurt me...”
The man had curled up in the crook of an exposed tree root, peeking out at us from the crook of one arm and cradling his other against his side. He was visibly shaking, something I wasn’t used to seeing.
“Woah, calm down, man, we’re here to help. What all happened?”
The man looked at me like I had blue lobsters tap-dancing their way out of my ears. His eyes darted between the sword in my hand and Simile’s still glowing horn, frantic with worry. Something in me twinged, but not in sympathy. I quashed the feeling, and sheathed the Changeling Blade, and Simile put out the aura around her horn.
Colgate got close enough to see the man, and squealed.
“So there really is more of you? That’s amazing! Wait, what’s wrong?”
I gave a quick synopsis of what had happened, glossing over the exacts of what I’d done to our assailants. After explaining that the bed had likely injured his ribs, Colgate gasped, hoof to her mouth in horror.
Mumbling to herself, she turned towards the injured man, and asked a question.
“Would you like me to heal you? I know a spell that should work. It’s a little complicated, and it’ll take me some time, but it could really help you.”
Her calm voice and manner really appeared to soothe the man’s fear. He slowly pulled his arm from his face, and looked at Colgate directly. Then, he asked the most common question asked in the Strife-Lands, and one we had made sure to drill in Colgate from the beginning.
“W-what faction?”
Colgate smiled, and said, eyes glimmering with happiness, “Unaffiliated travelers. I try not to get into trouble if I can avoid it.”
The man’s fear was rapidly evaporating. he shifted, and nodded. “S-sure, if you think you could fix my side, g-go ahead.” to which Colgate smiled and began charging her horn. A cool, mint-scented aura flowed from her horn to the man’s side.
While she channeled the spell I asked the stranger his name, and his faction.
“J-John. I’m a bard, unaffiliated, like you guys. And wow, that’s really feeling better.”
Colgate grinned again, delighted to help. “I worked a pain-killer into the spell. i’m a dentist, so I had to come up with inventive ways to numb pain while I work.”
The man looked at Colgate, puzzled. “I have never heard of a ‘Dentist’. Is it some type of arcane mage?”
Colgate giggled. “Yeah, something like that.”
John looked pensive, like he was thinking. I would find out exactly what he was think a short while later, and I would not see it coming until I looked back.
Ah yes, that’s right... I had just met John, the Bard...
“Onwards”
We helped John stand and, as a group, we began walking towards the town of Oldoaks. He explained that he had been on the road, when the bandits had attacked, though he now knew they had been Solar Empire soldiers instead. He had seemed confused at this, claiming that the Empire had not ever seemed that bad to him, and had, in the past, been one of his primary sources of income. They always paid fairly and never stiffed him on the bill.
After me and Simile explained some of our ‘misadventures’ in their territory, he winced and agreed that, perhaps, the Solar Empire was not for everyone.
We continued walking for several hours, before taking a break. Pulling canteens from Simile’s saddlebag, the group drank deeply in companionable silence, until I asked John what he wanted to do. Looking miserable, he replied that he had no idea for the moment, he’d been traveling in hopes of finding somewhere to work, as he had been running low on money, and now had none.
“Well, Mr. John, you can stick with us! We’ll help you out!” Colgate said. Her trusting and gentle nature was one of the things that had attracted me to her in the first place, and it made me grin like an idiot then. Simile looked a little unsure, but I chose to support Colgate in this.
“Yeah. We might’ve only just met, but you seem like a nice guy. We’ve got plenty of supplies to share, and we’re headed north anyways. Why don’t you at least come with us as far Oldoaks. It’s the least we can do.”
John looked more than a little befuddled, understandable as most travelers wouldn’t think of simply handing out supplies, as hard as they were to get ahold of.
He even tried to tell us it wasn’t necessary, but Colgate wouldn’t hear it, and eventually he gave in. By then, nearly an hour had passed, and the four of us got up, brushed off the dirt from our pants or rumps, and began walking again.
After walking for nearly another hour, we are nearing a small river, on which stands a lone figure. A tall, strong-looking human male in bandit garb (that is, furs and leather armor) stood, a mean smile on his stubble-covered face. He yelled for us to stop.
“You gotta pay da toll.” he said, he voice as thick as the handle the oversized waraxe he leaned on. It was a voice that would fit perfectly for a troll, an orc, or some other dull-witted, two-bit goon in a fantasy movie.
John looked nervously at the big man, and turned back to us.
Thinking nothing of the big man’s request I shouted back for him to stand down, to which he simply repeated his demand.
Simile’s ears had gone flat, I had noticed.
“We’re surrounded.” she stated plainly.
I called back to the man on the bridge, “What’s the toll?”
His grin grew larger and meaner. “All yer stuff. And those two lovely pieces of horsemeat.”
I responded with two words:
“Fuck. That.”
As if taking that as a cue, the ragged group of bandits burst from the forest at the sides of the road, screaming a war-cry and brandishing poor-quality weapons. Drawing and extending the Changeling Blade, I fended the first several attacks easily, me and Simile standing side-by-side and facing opposite directions to fight effectively.
I slashed and the blade bit deeply into bandit flesh. Colgate and John were huddled by our sides, as emerald flames and the black blade flickered into the group surrounding us, charring flesh and parting flesh.
The men and ponies surrounding us had no organization, and no way to seek commands. Even the big man from the bridge had joined in, and was trying to hack at me until I cut his fingers from his left hand, making him drop the heavy axe with a howl.
As each of the humans and the ponies appeared to have no magic, being almost all earth ponies, it was almost too easy to slay them. Obviously used to relying on weight of numbers, the dozen or so of them were no match to Simile’s magic and my skill. With a shout, I cut one bandit’s head off and the arm of the next with a single swing, their paltry armor offering no resistance to the magical edge.
Finally, the only one of them standing was the big man, and he was running, holding the stump of his fingers, into the woods. These bandits wouldn’t be attacking anyone again.
Turning, I surveyed the carnage, stopping when I saw Colgate shivering and hiding under her hooves. Her breath came in shuddering, horrified gasps, red flecks and splotches splayed across her coat from the arterial spray the bandits’ deaths.
“Is... is it over?”
My heart almost broke at her voice. It wasn’t so much scared or terrified as... resigned. I wasn’t sure what to make of it. Returning the Changeling blade to its form as an armband, I leaned over and put a hand to her withers.
She flinched, before peeking out from behind her arms cautiously. She flung her arms awkwardly around me, and I drew her into a hug, stroking her gently to help calm her down.
John looked at the two of us. “What, is she some sort of sheltered city-bred?”
At this, Simile inhaled with a sharp hiss, and edge to her voice as she replied, “She is not some piece of property, and I would request you watch what you’re saying. I don’t care if you’re an unarmed bard, I will cause you great pain if you even think something like that again.”
John backed off, hands raised in surrender. “I’m sorry, I thought she was only along as a bought caster.”
Simile stepped towards him, still furious, spitting, “No. You didn’t think that, maybe, she was a real person and not just some dumb animal to look down upon.” Her horn was coated in an emerald halo of dancing flames.
John stepped back, hands still raised, visibly nervous. He didn’t even see as I glared at the two of them.
“Would you two stop fighting? Colgate is sitting right here, and she’s not used to this. Now, would you kind stop being a pair of little children, and be helpful?” I snarled each world, fury evident in my voice.
I picked up the shivering blue unicorn, and held her to my chest. Standing up, I shot another glare at the now-stunned pair. Striding towards the river I murmured to Colgate, “Here, I’m going to get us cleaned off. The river’s a little cold, so...”
She sniffed as she pressed her face against my ribs.
“Did you have to kill them?” she asked.
I didn’t even pause to think before replying, “Yes. Because if I hadn’t, you wouldn’t be with me anymore, and I wouldn’t be able to live with that.”
She sniffled again. “Oh.”
And that’s all she said.
An hour later, the four of us, Simile and John looking and acting sheepish and apologising, had cleaned up.
We began walking down the road again, the sun rising towards its zenith, and we dried in the warmth of its rays.
Several terse, quiet hours later, which I carried Colgate for a while of, We finally came into sight of Oldoaks. Shifting the weight of my backpack, I motioned us onwards.
We approached the town, which seemed surprisingly empty. Looking about, a villager (I assume) motioned to us from a doorway.
“You folk look like travelers. Heros, perhaps?” He sounded a bit desperate.
Sighing, I agreed, and he looked very relieved, “So you can help us. Good. There’s some sort of crazy ork-slayer in the tavern. He looks a little dangerous, but who knows what he actually thinks. Just, uhm, talk to him, please? He’s scaring my kids and I don’t feel safe.”
I nod, and begin walking in the direction the man gestured, Simile, Colgate, and John following. I turned to the door of the tavern, and my blackened skin ruptures as my remaining lung re-inflates, flooding my numbed nerves with pain, a signal that reaches nothing, a phantom of what once was...