Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-Four — Our Little Ponies
Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-Four — Our Little Ponies The hunting party spent the rest of the pre-afternoon moving along at a decent pace. My friends and I had to jog to keep up at times, but not too often. There was only so fast a group of its size could move through the tall grasses.Once Calamity introduced us as a group of wandering explorers, they welcomed us with open arms. I think our jobs were similar enough without overlapping that the hunters didn’t mind our company, though there wasn’t much time to talk and make friends since they all had to work.About an hour after we joined the group, Calamity and a bunch of others conferred together, then charged off into the distance. No one else panicked, so I assumed that was pretty normal.Half an hour later, we came onto the group who were working on tying the legs of what looked like a particularly orange lion together. The poor thing was clearly dead, with a few hook-tipped spears poking through its hide.“That looks a little like a sandcat,” Awen said. “They’re big stealthy cats that hunt in the deserts close to my home.”The hunters loaded the lion onto one of the carts then tied it down so that it wouldn’t bounce around too much. They didn’t seem particularly proud of their catch, or disappointed. I had the impression that this was just work as usual for them.That didn’t change the fact that the lion was longer than I was tall and weighed enough to make the cart groan a bit.The caravan continued, following some twists and turns in the landscape that seemed entirely random to me. By the time the sun was near its zenith, the group had only paused a few times, either to load up a few more animals onto the carts (they caught something which looked like a tiny buffalo, smaller than a pony but with thick hair) or to collect herbs and cuttings from some bushes and flowers we found as we moved.Finally, the caravan stopped within a copse of trees next to a large oasis formed downwind of a slight rise. The hunters warned us that there were monsters in the water and that we should only approach it once it was safe.The animals pulling the carts were unhitched and given water pulled from the pond by some hunters who had water magic, and then someone started a small fire and the hunters started to cook up some lunch.Calamity approached us then. “I’ve gotten two more ponies,” he said. “With Blinky that makes three. The hunters will be heading back early today. Our mereomagist sensed a rainstorm coming this evening and we can’t be caught out in the grasslands when the ground gets wet.”“So we can go?” I asked.The catboy cowboy nodded. “That’s right. We can leave right meow if nya want.”I held back a snort. “Sure thing!” I said. I wasn’t going to laugh. My friends were treating Calamity’s verbal tic as if it was entirely normal, so maybe it was just me who found it weird.The ponies Calamity secured were waiting for us on the edge of the camp. They’d been fed and watered already, and had little sachels on their backs with some grain and water bags in them. “This is Tassels, and that’s Shanks,” Calamity said. He turned towards us. “You understand that I had to rent their services, yes?”Amaryllis sighed. “We do. Do you accept sylph gold?”Calamity grinned. “I accept all gold, my lady.”That started a quick round of haggling between Amaryllis and Calamity. “Fine,” Amaryllis said before she fished out some coins from a purse hidden in her coat. “Now, how much for your services as a guide?”Calamity took the coins, bit into one, then slid it away. “That’ll depend. Quite honestly, I’ve been meaning to look into it myself, but I couldn’t quite justify leaving the caravan on my own for an evening. Still, having to guide nya might slow me down a whole lot.”“We’re not slow,” I said. “Although I’m not sure exactly how riding a pony works.” All I had to do was hang on and scream ‘hyah!’ right?Calamity gave me a look, then shrugged. “Fine. Then how about this. I’ll charge nya half of what I usually would, but I get finder’s rights on whatever we run across once we reach the crash site. If there is one.”Amaryllis hummed. “That seems far more profitable for you than for us. We’d essentially just be bankrolling your own venture at that point. Besides, the ships are already someone’s property. We’ve already covered the cost of the ponies and their feed.”The catboy shrugged. “Do you have the means to grab whatever valuables are left at the wreck if we do find something?” he asked. “If it's really there, I can ask the caravan to make the trip, my word’s worth enough that if I promised that it's worth it, they’d come. I don’t know if you can manage that. Or if nya could, then it would take some time. You’d need to head to the fort and hire teamsters and guides and a whole troop of folk.”“You might be correct, but I won’t give up so easily. We’ll give you the right to exploit the crash site, but we can leave with anything we can carry. Papers, maps, the ship’s manifest, even including things like tools or any gold aboard the vessel.”“But only what you can carry?” Calamity asked.“We can hardly carry off an entire ship with three ponies,” Amaryllis said.Calamity thought about it for a moment, then nodded his head and extended a hand to shake. All three of us shook, then he nodded to the ponies. “Two of nya will have to ride double. I’ll let nya sort yourselves out.”In the end, Amaryllis and I climbed onto Tassels, the biggest of the three ponies. We were both pretty light, so it wasn’t a big deal. Amaryllis had a hard time with the reins since they weren’t designed for talons.I sat in the front, which meant that Amaryllis had to wrap her arms around me to hold on. “Why are you grinning so much?” Amaryllis asked. “We just rode wyverns, why are you so happy about being on a pony?”Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.“It’s less the pony and more the hour-long hugs I’m gonna get.”Amaryllis squeezed me, then huffed a very ‘you’re silly, Broccoli’ kind of huff. “Figures you’d get excited for something so juvenile.”I pulled her wings forward so that she was hugging me even tighter, and Amaryllis laughed for a whole two seconds before she remembered that she was supposed to be all serious and unfunny all the time.“Alright,” Calamity said. “Tassels and Shanks should be used to following along. We’ll try to make good time without tiring the ponies out.”With that, we took off out of the shady copse and into the warm day. The sun shone above, bathing everything in bright warmth while a few puffy clouds lingered above in a blue-blue sky.Calamity set a strong pace, not quite a trot but faster than normal walking. We pushed through where the grass was shortest, with the occasional turn as Calamity guided us around obstacles that we didn’t see until we were right on top of them.At one point, we crossed a bridge that just showed up suddenly as we pushed through the grass. The bridge crossed a long cut in the hillside. It was only a few metres deep, but it would have been a heck of a surprise to anyone running through the grass who didn’t see the fall coming.“So, Calamity,” I asked once I got bored. It took a whole ten minutes after leaving the camp, so I was pretty proud of myself. “Where are you from?”“Me? Right around here. My family’s all from Fort Middlesfaire. Or at least, that’s where we’ve lived for a while. My grandpa was from the Endless Swells. He was a mariner.”“Oh,” I said. “What’s that?”Calamity laughed. “A sailor, but for one of them ships that’s on water instead of in the air. He used to tell me all sorts of stories when I was just a wee kitten. Always wanted to head out that way and see what was what.”“That’s cool!” I said. “Is that why you’re so interested in airships?”Calamity grinned. “Nya! I want to ride one, one day.”“They are really neat,” I agreed.The catboy cowboy half-turned in his saddle. “You’ve been on one?” he asked.Awen giggled. “Broccoli is a captain,” she said.I nodded as Calamity’s eyes locked onto me. My chest puffed out with pride and my ears straightened up. “Yup! It’s true. I’m Captain Broccoli Bunch, of the Beaver Cleaver, the nicest ship in all the skies.”“What kind of ship?” Calamity asked. He was clearly excited, as he should be when the topic of airships came up.“An owl-built ship, a special commission by some fancy harpy lord who didn’t want it in the end. I don’t even know if it had a class name,” I said.“A one-off,” Calamity said. “That’s properly fancy. What sort of ship is she?”“He!” I said.“Aren’t ships usually shes?” he asked.I shook my head. “The Beaver’s a boy, I think.”“Don’t argue with her, she’ll just confuse you,” Amaryllis said.“Oh, don’t worry, I understand,” he said with a nod.Amaryllis sniffed. “The ship’s a modified full-body catamaran. Single balloon, two hulls.”Awen nodded along from her spot atop Shanks. “It has a type two-sixteen Albatross engine, with a three metre prop-span and custom cam-work. The original engine was an Owl-wright model seven, I think. Some of the parts were left over, including a lot of the transmission and gearing, which is probably for the best. They are better than the Albatross models.”“Pardon me?” Amaryllis asked.“Wait,” Calamity said. “You’re an Albatross from the airship makers Albatross?” he asked Amaryllis.Amaryllis nodded. “Yes, of course. I’m the family’s youngest.”“So, you think maybe an aspiring young man could get his hands on a ship? Like, a small one?” Calamity asked.Amaryllis laughed. “Oh no, you sound like Broccoli when I met her. She asked the same question. Well, it was worded differently, I suppose, but the idea’s the same. I’ll tell you the same thing I told her, if you have the gold, you can have a ship.”“If you become Amaryllis’ best friend forever you get a cool discount too,” I pointed out.“What? No you don’t,” Amaryllis said.“I got the Beaver with a one-hundred-percent-off friend-discount,” I pointed out.Amaryllis was quiet for a moment, then she squeezed me tighter. “Alright. I’ll give you that one. But don’t you ever tell our competitors.”“What could they do? Convince you they’re your best friend just to steal a ship?” I asked.“Yes. I’m sure they wouldn’t blink at the idea of planting a false friend next to me or one of my sisters just to steal a ship or two.”I gasped. That... that was horrible! What kind of sad person would pretend to be someone’s friend? Worse, who would pretend to be someone’s friend just to steal from them? That was... it was despicable!It was beyond the pale! Unforgivable!... Ah, so this is hatred.That sobered me right up. “I don’t like that. Let’s talk about something more fun.” I scrambled for an idea before latching onto the first that came to mind. “Hey, Calamity, how’d you become a hunter?”“Well, it was something of a natural evolution,” he said. “I was the best shot with a bow in the world, so naturally all I needed to do was turn those skills towards hunting. Then, as it turns out, I’m a great leader. So, obviously, I was quickly promoted up the ranks. Not that we have any sort of formal ranking, really.”“And your incredible humility makes you the humblest person in the world too,” Amaryllis snarked.Calamity laughed. “Humility? Nya, I don’t have any of that!”
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Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-Five — Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head
Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-Five — Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head The warm afternoon turned into an early evening that wasn’t much cooler. Some grey clouds rolled in from the west, travelling towards the Sylphfree mountains to our right. They looked like they were heavy with rain, but for the moment all we got was rising humidity to go with the heat we had.We stopped by a rivulet along the way and after Calamity checked around it for predators, we let Blinky, Tassels, and Shanks have turns at drinking some water. We did the same, emptying our waterskins before refilling them in the stream with some Cleaning magic thrown in to keep the water pure of gunk and stuff.Once our break was over, we continued on. Calamity kept up a good chunk of the conversation, talking about his experiences as a hunter while occasionally asking questions about airships.I shouldn’t have been too surprised, but I still kind of was-Awen was being a lot more sociable than usual. It was nice seeing her break out of her introspective nature for a bit. I think it mostly had to do with the topic at hand; Awen loved talking shop and Calamity was a huge fan of airships, so they were on the same wavelength when it came to that.The trip continued, with the four of us charting a zig-zaggy route across the plains. Calamity seemed to know where he was going, and he had hinted that he had a skill that prevented him from getting lost out in the open.Then, just as Calamity finished saying that we were only an hour out, the sky opened up.Something touching my ear had me wincing. I reached up and noticed that it was a bit wet. All day, a few flies had been buzzing about me, but usually a quick flick of my ear was enough to send them off. The thwap of another raindrop smacking my helmet told me it wasn’t a bugging bug.“Huh, I think it might be raining soon,” I said.A half-second later the skies opened up and it was as if a million buckets had just been flipped around over our heads.Awen squeaked and Amaryllis squawked as a deluge came pouring down atop us. Calamity reached up to hang onto his hat and the ponies shifted under us. “Well, looks like that storm’s come around. You ladies good to ride through this or should we look for shelter?”“What shelter? There’s nothing but grass around here!” Amaryllis shouted.“There’s always something,” Calamity yelled back. I had a hard time hearing him over the constant rush of water. It was like standing next to a waterfall. Or maybe under it. I was pretty sure if I tilted my head back and opened my mouth, I could drown just standing still.“Let’s find shelter!” I called out.“Right! Stay close!” Calamity said. He reached into his saddlebags and pulled out a length of rope and tossed both ends at us. I caught one and Awen, on the other pony, grabbed the other. “Tie it to the saddle,” he shouted while looping the middle around the horn on his saddle.We did as he asked. I think Awen’s knot was much nicer than my own, but it wasn’t time to compare that kind of thing. I didn’t have time to ask why we’d done that, but it became obvious as Calamity rode forwards and the lines went taut. I could only barely see him out ahead of us through the sheets of rain.My armour, which had a lot of padded cloth to it, was soaking up water like a sponge and clinging to me in an icky way, and I felt way heavier than usual as my ears flopped down, they were too waterlogged to stand.Once it stopped raining, someone would have to hang me out to dry for a while at this rate.A strong gust of wind whipped by, making the water swell around us in great big sheets. That cleared things up for a bit, and I could make out the open plains around us for just a moment before the rain returned in force. The grass was forced down flat and there was a fog rising from the ground.We pushed into the rain, Calamity leading us despite the constant downpour, though he had a hand on his hat the entire time to keep it from blowing off.A bright light flashed in the distance, then, maybe some ten seconds later, a heavy rumble washed over the sound of the rain.“Thunder!” Amaryllis shouted.“There’s a proper storm coming,” Calamity said. “We’ll need to find cover sooner than I thought!”“This isn’t a proper storm already?” Amaryllis asked.Calamity’s laughter carried back to us. “Ladies, this is just a light shower! Now hang on, we’ll be moving a trot faster.”Calamity “Nyah’ed” and the ponies started to move much faster, with a pace that had us bouncing on the saddles. We reached the end of a cliff that I hadn’t seen coming and Calamity turned, then had us follow the edge until the hill until we descended into a gully. A stream ran down the bottom, full to bursting with rapid water that we crossed with plenty of splashing.As we started to move along the edge of the cliff, Calamity pointed ahead. “Look!” he shouted.I squinted, then brushed a lock of sopping hair away from my face. There was something out ahead, but I couldn’t tell what it was. There were poles and bars loomed out of the downpour at odd angles and something that looked like a house-sized boulder, but I couldn’t make out many details.As we came closer though, the details became clear.It was an airship. Or half an airship, at least. One that was tilted onto its side, entire chunks of its hull ripped out and Some of the main beams were half-driven into the earth like lawn darts.. The tattered remains of the balloon lay across the wreck, just as sodden by the rain as we were, while some lighter material flapped wildly in the wind.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.“That’s one of the ships you saw crashing?” Amaryllis asked.“About the right place!” Calamity called back. “Is it one of the ones you’re looking for?”“We’ll see,” Amaryllis replied.We did see, once we got closer. The ship had been, if I had to guess (which was made hard since half the ship was missing) about half the size of a Beaver Cleaver in terms of width. Its hull was still much larger than either of the Beaver’s own hulls though. It had a main deck and a bilge deck below that, both of which had been crushed into the ground on landing.We made our way around to the back of the ship, where the entire aft section was conveniently missing which left a large opening for us to wander into.Amaryllis and I cast some light balls ahead to illuminate the interior, in case something had decided to make their home inside the wreck. Fortunately, other than a few creepy-crawlies, the ship was empty of anything alive.We pulled the ponies in after us, and all let out contented sighs as we finally got out of the constant downpour. I placed a hand against my breastplate and pushed it in, which squished the gambeson underneath and sent water pouring out of me. “I think I’m soaked through,” I said. “I’m like, eighty-percent water now.”“Well, at least no one’s thirsty,” Calamity chuckled. He removed his hat, then ran his hands through his fur. “I’m going to smell like wet cat all day now.”“Should we, ah, look around?” Awen said with a gesture to the crashed ship.“Before that, we need to tend to the ponies,” Calamity said. “I imagine we’ll be waiting the storm out in here, and at this hour, I don’t fancy riding back to the hunter camp. Unless nya really want to brave the storm, it’ll be best to wait in here.” He walked up to Blinky and started to undo the straps on the pony’s saddle, which was just as waterlogged as the rest of us.I rolled up and twisted the side of my skirt to wring out some water, then gave up and went to help.Soon, we had the ponies set up in a corner of the wreck, far from the hole we’d entered from where they could stay nice and dry. The food we’d brought for them had stayed mostly dry thanks to the leather of the satchel it was in.Our food wasn’t so lucky. The packages were in our bags, which were more canvas than leather, and not quite as water-proof. The packages the food came in were somewhat better, but not by much.“We’ll eat those that got hit the worst,” Amaryllis said as she stacked the food to one side. Awen was collecting bits of wood and stacking them along the wall while Calamity and I dragged a big metal plate over. I think it was once part of the baseplate the anchor’s pulley was fixed to, but now it was just a big bent chunk of metal. Good enough for a makeshift firepit.We didn’t have to worry about the smoke pooling above us, the side of the ship that was now the ‘top’ had a few shattered portholes. At the moment they were letting in plenty of rainwater, but after the soaking we got, it was nothing.It took a good twenty minutes to set up a makeshift camp. In the end, we cleared out a space for a pair of tents and had some actual benches to sit around our firepit.“This is definitely a harpy ship,” Amaryllis said once we sat down. Awen was handling the cooking while we tried to dry up. A cord strung across the ship was being used as a clothesline where a lot of our clothing was left to dry.“You recognize the design?” I asked.Amaryllis nodded and pointed to the ceiling of the hold. “The trusses there, the way they’re jointed, that’s one of my family’s techniques. This ship was made in our shipyard. It’s a patrol frigate, I think.”“Think we can find out more about it?” I asked.“We’d need the logs for that,” Amaryllis said."There's still a lot to explore," Calamity said. He was quite excited to look around. We’d checked for survivors already, but didn’t find anyone, living or otherwise. There were bunks though, and storage rooms by the keel. They were on their sides, but that just meant it was trickier to look around.Amaryllis shook her head. “Those will be in the officer’s quarters which should be right about... there.” She pointed towards the big chunk of the ship which was missing.“Oh,” Calamity said.“The engines would be there too,” Awen said. “And most of the heavier sections of the ship. Most harpy ships are back-heavy.”“We compensate for that,” Amaryllis said.Awen shrugged. “It’s probably why the ship was ripped in half. I’m guessing here, but I think this part still had the balloon hooked to it when it crashed. It would have slowed it down a little. But the gravity generator and other equipment would be in the back where they’d work best.”“Would they be far from here?” I asked.“Maybe, if the generator was still working when the ship broke in half, it could have flown off for quite a ways,” Awen speculated.“Most of the crashing bits I saw fell near enough to each other,” Calamity said. “But that was near-enough from a long ways off. Nya can’t judge distances well like that.”“We can look around once all of this clears up,” Amaryllis said with a gesture to the storm outside. The flashes were a lot more frequent now, and there was a constant bassey rumble occasionally accentuated by a loud crack-boom that made the ground shake.I nodded. “I’d rather not be out there right now, no. We can look around in the morning! I bet we’ll figure the whole thing out, no problem!”
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