III
Eiro

Eiro played back his entire day until the moment he saw the brown Pegasus bleeding in the snow. The storm the previous day and night had not allowed him to go and scavenge for food, nor did it allow him to do much of anything else, including sleep peacefully. The continuous sound of thunder had kept him awake all night, leaving him restless.
The clouds had disappeared, and at the first sight of dawn Eiro stepped out of his cave and into the snow. Eiro walked through the freezing snow as if it was nothing. Even after all of his years of living on the mountain, he still preferred the warmth of his cave. Thinking twice, he looked back and thought not. His food supply was dangerously low, he probably had another days worth of food left, and that was it. His pure white coat blended perfectly with the new fallen snow. His icy blue hair flowed in the wind as the rising sun shined upon him. If it wasn’t for his hair and his garments, then he would’ve been invisible in his element.
Nothing had remotely changed, though there was new snow, there were no animal tracks, not a single sign of a living creature. For Eiro, this was everyday life. He had no company; he lived in complete isolation at the top of the mountains. He had honestly never seen a single pony in his life, except for his mom. A smile flickered as he thought about it, but he pushed the memory aside. Letting out a heavy sigh, he watched his breath steam. He stretched his wings and flew down to the forest floor.

Setting out for food, Eiro noticed Fang and Thresh were a little more than active today. He had asked them to guard the forest from anyone or anything trying to get to the mountain and don’t harm those who are just passing through. Of course they didn’t listen, but he didn’t care, he was just listening to what his mom had told him. “Find a way to keep the mountain from being intruded upon,” she had said, “I know you’ll find a way.” He hasn’t seen her since that day and misses her dearly. He had come across the vicos in the forest one day and had managed to overpower them. Apparently they were outcasts in their clan and were wandering aimlessly looking for food, shelter, and other basic necessities. Eiro decided to strike a deal. “What are your names?” The biggest of the two stood up and introduced himself. “My name is Fang,” he said and gestured toward the other, “And this is my comrade, but we’ve been through enough for me to call him my brother, I digress, his name is Thresh.” “Do what you will pony,” he continued, “We have nothing else in this world except for each other.” Fang sighed and kneeled in and honorable pose as if Eiro was going to strike them down. “I’ll let you two live on one condition.” Fang and Thresh looked up in curiosity. “All you have to do is keep this forest clear of wanderers.”
“What’s the catch?” Thresh asked.
He looked over to Thresh and said, “No catch, that’s all you have to do. The forest is yours to freely roam and hunt. There’s game, water, and various shelters. And all you have to do is keep it clear of those heading to toward the mountain.” The vicos, they called themselves, accepted and later became rather good friends.
The forest was full of things to eat. Whether it is fruit, a wild crop of hay, roots, Eiro wasn’t missing any meals that’s for sure, even though his build didn’t agree. He only looked for food every couple of days or when his stock was low.
With about thirteen apples, a few bundles of hay, and twenty-one taproots, Eiro headed back up the mountain. Running up to him was Fang and Thresh, “Hey guys, what do you need?” He asked. Fang came forward with a bruise that covered his left cheek. “We ran into a brown pegasus about a mile from here. We were interrogating him when he did this to me,” Fang pointed to his cheek, “And he got away.” They both looked as if they were about to get punished. “Oh c’mon stop with that look, I’m not even mad. Just let it go, if you “interrogated” him then he’s as good as dead. You can get the body later when you come across it.” Thresh came forward, “But what if he comes back with an army? What’ll we do?” Eiro looked into the distance with a grim look on his face, “Then we’ll go somewhere else, bail, find a new home. And IF that does happen, you two don’t have to come I’ll understand.” Fang laughed, “Haha now YOU stop it. We’ve been through quite a bit together; I’m not just going to ditch you.” “Me neither,” Thresh said. “Alright then, it’s settled, we won’t bail on each other no matter what.” Eiro stated confidently. Everyone agreed and went back to what they were doing.

Now after Eiro had first met the vicos, he thought he had seen everything, but he wasn’t prepared for what he saw later that afternoon. Though it had been a day of gathering and nothing else it was still just another day to him. He was walking through the snow when he noticed something red in it. He looked down to find a trail of blood leading off into the distance. “Great, I guess I get to get rid of the pony since he’s up here.” The trail continued for a surprisingly long time. “How could anypony survive this long in the snow while losing blood?” The trail continued for roughly another two hundred meters. When he saw the pegasus lying in the snow bleeding out. “Yup, they interrogated him alright.” The blood dripped from his leg and pooled right below him, melting the snow with its warmth. Eiro stood there not knowing whether he was dead or not. As the thought came to his head the body’s head moved “So he’s still not dead.” He walked over as casually as one could. Now hovering over the body he examined Fang’s “handy work”. “How the hell did you get up here?” Immediately after the words came out of his mouth the brown pegasus’ head collapsed in the snow. “You won’t last long out here with an attitude like that.”

Eiro had managed to get the pony on his back so he could carry him. The storm clouds were rolling back in. “We gotta get inside now, or we’ll both die.” Still he couldn’t figure out how or why the pony was up here in the first place.

The cave welcomed Eiro back with warmth. The fire from that morning still had red hot coals sleeping in the ashes; he wouldn’t know what to do if it wasn’t for this cave, for it was at the perfect angle to where the wind didn’t come in at all, leaving the place warm pretty much 24/7. He put the stranger in his bed, which was a bale of hay, and wrapped the wounded leg with a piece of torn cloth lying around the cave. After tending to the wound, he propped his back up against the wall and watched over his unexpected guest. His breathing had steadied, and he seemed to be surviving the trauma. “Two nights in a row without sleep,” he said, “Wonderful.” He spent the rest off his night doing anything to keep his mind preoccupied. For most of the night he was wandering around the cave finding things he hadn’t laid eyes on in years.

That night was the longest night Eiro had ever gone through. Sure he stayed up the night before that, but he was trying to sleep not watch over a wounded pony. A growling sound came out of nowhere; it wasn’t until a few moments later he realized he had gone the whole night without a single thing to eat. He decided to get himself some food, and made a simple breakfast of roots and an apple. The cave was silent except for the heavy breathing of the unknown stranger. He wasn’t wearing anything so there was no way for him to know his name or where he was from. His first guess was from the desert; he knew most of the ponies in that area where brown if not another color. But it was too soon to tell, there were plenty of other places he was sure that were filled with other ponies. After all, he and the desert area couldn’t be the only places with ponies in this entire world, right? He pondered the thought some more when a headache came to be. Eiro quickly stopped thinking about the chance of others out there somewhere. Maybe even some those were his own kind. Sounds came from the bed; he looked over to see the pony rustling around as if in a bad dream. “Huh.” That’s all he could say at the moment. He reexamined the wound and found it was scabbing over. There was no sign of puss or infection. He let out a sigh and let his guest rest.

Eiro spent the rest of his time staying inside, which he hated, He preferred to be outside doing something, anything was better than sitting around the place all day. But he had to keep watch over the guest.

It was a few hours after noon, and he finally got what he was hoping for. The brown pegasus sprang from the bed and started to panic. Making Eiro jump himself. He was in a cold sweat, and as soon as he landed, he collapsed from the pain in his leg. “Who are you? What do you want? And why am I in a cave?” he asked all these questions in a frightened tone as if his life was about to end. Eiro stood where he was kneeling and walked over to where the pegasus lay and slapped him across the face with no hesitation. “Wha…..what was that for?” he asked rubbing his face and noticed the gash on his face had scabbed over but was now broken to where blood was coming out again. “I almost died didn’t I?” He seemed to have calmed down. “I’m not going to kill you if that’s what you’re wondering.”
“But what about those vicos down in the forest? They said they were trying to stop me from coming to the mountain, and then they beat the shit out of me.”
“I see you met Fang and Thresh, they guard the forest for me, but they are known to take matters into their own hands not how I instruct them to.” “Whoa whoa whoa, hold up a second, you know those two?” he asked with the fear back in his eyes. “Yes, they are my friends, but enough of your questions. I have a few of my own. First of all what is your name?” Eiro was eyeing him with intensity not letting go for a single second. “
“My name is Dune.”
“Well now I know what to call you; second where are you from?”
“I’m from the kingdom of Saddle Arabia; I reside in a small town by the name of Inivo Vicus.”
“And my last and most important question,” Eiro leaned closer, “What are you doing here in the first place, why didn’t you stay to your desert region.” Dune scanned him with question as if he wasn’t sure if Eiro was mad or not. Dune shrugged, “Your guess is as good as mine; I felt as if I had to come to the Altus Mountains for some reason. I’m still not as sure as when I left my house.” “Well I hope you travel well, because I’m bringing you back to your town, and you’re going to show me the way.” He said as he was packing his pack. “Wait, I just woke up and you want me to start that long ass journey back to my town?”
“Well about how far is it?”
“About twenty-three miles from here, not including the way down the mountain.”
“Well that surely is a long way,” He thought for a while. “We’ll leave in a few days when you’re better fit for travel.”
“What are you talking about? I still have my wings, we could just fly there.” Dune spread his left wing but the other one didn’t appear. “What happened to my wing?!”
“Calm down, you must of injured it when you landed or something. And I don’t have the proper medical supplies to treat you, all the more reason to get you home faster. So we could head out tomorrow morning and walk the whole way, or we could wait for a few days and IF fortune favors you, then you might be flying.”
“Fine, we’ll leave in the morning.” Dune said glumly.
“Oh, and one more thing.” Eiro slapped Dune’s face again.
“NOW what? “
“That’s for scaring me to death, now go get some rest, you’re going to need it for tomorrow.”

Author's Note

Update: Star Dust's (Dune's mom) name has been changed to Star Nova. I found someone else using Star Dust as an OC name.