Aspects of Life

IV Eiro

Eiro and Dune both walked out into the snow. Though it didn’t snow that night, the snow looked nearly undisturbed besides the tracks and the trail of blood leading into the cave. Eiro stretched his wings, as he did every morning. Dune looked at him with jealousy and then his wing which was still bandaged. Eiro walked down the mountain path encouraging Dune to push on. “C’mon,” he called, “If we get going now then we might make it there late tonight.” Dune limped over, passing Eiro, “Well then let’s gets a move on, wouldn’t want to wasting any more of your time than I already am.” Eiro looked at Dune questioningly, “ I don’t get it, why don’t you want to waste any more of my time?”
“Haven’t you ever heard of compassion or returning the favor I guess you could call it?”Eiro shook his head. “Well,” Dune started to explain, “You saved my life, and you don’t seem too excited to take me to my village, so I’m gunna try to make this trip as easy on you as I can, but no promises.” Dune turned and kept walking. Eiro still didn’t understand what this pony was talking about, but it seemed like a fair trade off.

Traveling through the forest seemed to prove more of a challenge on Dune’s part. Eiro would jump and fly over and in between fallen trees and thickets of brush with immense agility. He watched Dune from a tree branch, snickering at Dune trying to do everything with ease. Eiro caught Dune throwing a glare toward his way, but it wasn’t a glare of annoyance, he decided to ignore it for now. This was the first pony he’d seen since his mom, and he was going to make the best of it. Yet, for some reason, he felt bad for laughing at Dune. He flew to the ground next to Dune. “Hey sorry for laughing at you those few times.” Dune simply chuckled, “It’s ok, I don’t blame you, I’d probably be doing the same thing. Let’s keep moving.”

Eiro was walking next to Dune now. Not knowing what to do with the awkward silence he decided to make small talk. “Sooooooo, what’s your village like? Friends? Family?” Dune gave him a curious look. “What?”
“Oh nothing, I just didn’t expect that question from you was all. You don’t seem like the type of pony who would ask a question like that, but I’ll answer your question.” Dune went on to tell Eiro all about his village, his friends, and his mom. Eiro listened intently out of curiosity. Never being around ponies, this made him interested in the world and the ponies outside of his mountain and forest. “Have you been anywhere else, or outside your desert region?” He asked excitedly. “Actually, this is my first time I’ve been out of the desert. But there are stories of a place called Canterlot, where some pony named Princess Celestia and Princess Luna live. They supposedly are the ones responsible for raising the sun and the moon, but I don’t have proof of any of that so yea.” Eiro thought about all of this. He didn’t even notice that they were walking past the end of the forest and were now walking in the desert sands.

It was barely the mid of day and they had made better progress than Eiro had hoped. “About how much farther do you think?” Dune squinted at the horizon, “I’d guess we’re maybe between seven to twelve miles away.” Eiro was impressed at this pony’s navigation skills considering he couldn’t fly and get a bird’s eye view of everything. “Alright, well lets take a break, we’ve made more ground than I thought we would have. Also, I need to change your bandage, the sand isn’t making it any cleaner.”

Eiro rewrapped the leg, which was thankfully not infected, and adjusted the splint for Dune’s wing. “You’re in good shape for now. The wound isn’t infected and you’re wing is looking good as well, but we still need to get you to a real doctor.” He sat down and started to munch on a root. Dune looked at Eiro, “so what’s your family like? Friends, Village, Kingdom, anything like that?” Eiro immediately stopped chewing and swallowed hard. He felt as if he was all alone again, all by himself with no pony. “Er…well I have a mom; we’re part of a town in the mountains.” Dune pulled another question, “Wait, then where was your mom when I was in the cave?”
“Uh, she was out at that point in time.” “So then where’s the village you were talking about?”
“Ummmmmm…higher up in the mountains.” “But we were at the tallest peak of the mountains.”Eiro face-hoofed himself in frustration, while Dune kept pouring out questions about him, he couldn’t keep up with them. “I give up, alright; I don’t have anypony, no village, and no kingdom!” He looked away from Dune. “All I have are Thresh and Fang for company, not complaining, but you know; they aren’t my kind, or ponies for that matter.”
“Whoa whoa whoa whoa hold up!” Dune took a few steps back, “what do you mean, your kind?” Eiro smiled,”Such innocence.” He thought. “Well what do you think I’m referring to?”
“You’re not some demon pony or some shit like that are you?”
“You listen to too many stories. No such thing as demon ponies or at least that I know of. But anyway that’s probably just a myth. Anything else you think I might be?” Dune shook his head. “Well I guess I’ll show you first. It won’t work as well as it would in the snow though.” Eiro spread his wings. They looked exactly as they did before except the feathers at the bottom of the wing seemed to be transparent. They grew longer, and in a swift movement, the ends of his wings were gone and sticking up in the sand about ten yards away. He looked back to see Dune’s mouth wide open. “How did you do that?” “And now I guess I’ll explain. As it was an answer for you, it is now one for me. I don’t know, growing up alone tends to bring out some things in ponies that you didn’t even know were there. When I discovered I had these abilities,” he slammed his wing vertically in the ground like it was a giant fence post. He lifted his wing to show a relatively thin wall of ice in front of him, “I learned how to use them and control them. And that’s all I really know.” Dune looked over at the shimmering piece of ice standing in the sand. “That…is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!” Dune ran over and examined the shield. He looked over it and then kicked it with his good leg. Dune looked at Eiro in amazement, “That can withstand a kick! Man this incredible.” “So you’re not afraid anymore?” Dune shook his head. “No way, this is way to cool to be afraid of, unless you know, you attack me.”
“Well I plan on returning you safe and sound, so let’s keep moving.” Dune seemed to calm down and recollect. “Alright then, let’s get a move on.”

The rest of the afternoon was full of questions from Dune. “So how do you do that?” “For the ninth time, I don’t know.” It went on for hours, there was probably fifteen minutes of silence when Dune wanted to eat again. The sand was burning under Eiro’s feet, he wasn’t used to this heat, he preferred snow, nice cold snow. He felt a nudge and looked up. “We’re here Eiro,” Dune said happily, “We should probably hurry though, the night brings dust storms and those aren’t fun.” “Well lead the way then, you know where you’re going.” Dune nodded and proceeded to the main gate. “Halt!”came a voice from the top of the wall. A head stuck over the edge with complete surprise in his expression. “Open the gate NOW!” He hollered. Not a second later did the gate begin to open. “Well I guess this is goodbye, I’ll see you next time.” Eiro began to turn away. “Wait, are you going back to the mountains? C’mon why don’t you stay for a while, some company might do you some good.” Eiro pondered the question, “Well sure, if you’re offering.” They both smiled and turned to walk into the village. “Man, you’re going to love my mom, she likes everypony and treats everybody with kindness, I’m sure she won’t mind having you for a few days.” “Well I don’t want to be a bother.” Their happiness was short lived. Without even expecting it, the guards were completely surrounding both of them. “What’s this about? What did we do wrong?” Dune asked. One of the guards stepped forward and laughed, “Well let’s see, you Dune, broke curfew, and as for THIS one,” he pointed at Eiro, “Is considered and enemy of the state. BIND HIM!” A few of the guards cuffed Eiro’s wings with something heavy. “And THIS is what I get for returning this guy to his home,” he thought. The guard talking walked in front of his face, “Take him away to diamond cage.” The guards followed their orders. Eiro couldn’t move or use his ice. He was defenseless. He watched as Dune’s image grew farther away, “I’ll fix this, you’re innocent, I know you are!” He called. “I hope you’re right,” Eiro thought.