Good job Trixie! You’ve managed to secure yet another meal ticket. Good to know I can still cry on cue, a good magician always has more than just smoke and mirrors up her sleeve. Actually I could use some new smoke and mirrors for my show. I wonder how much those big fancy mirrors cost. Eh, can’t be that much. After this job I should be fine for the next couple of days. I just got to hurry up and...and... hmmm.
“What exactly are we doing anyway?”
“What do you mean?” Geez, you could at least chew your food a little more before you open your mouth.
“Like, what do we need to do to get these bits you were talking about?”
“You mean the bits you so graciously staked your claim on?”
“Yeah, that.”
“We’re looking for a book.”
“Book?”
“A magical book.”
“What does it do.”
“Don’t worry about that.” His face looks a little sterner than it was a couple of minutes ago. “Just worry about coming back alive so you can continue on your little misadventures.”
“If you’re implying my work is anything less than the greatest thing you’ve never seen then you should really reconsider your taste in entertainment.”
“Remind me to get a ticket to one of these shows of yours. I’m sure they’ll be a real treat.”
“Remind me to remind you that they would never let disreputable characters like you into one of my shows so you can go ahead and save your bits.”
“That’s probably the best news I’ve heard all day.”
Is he trying to get under my skin? I’ve met dogs with better manners. And what’s with that smug look on his face. He must think he’s the smartest pony in Equestria, but anypony with half a brain could tell we are heading in the wrong direction.
“Why are we going this way? The mountain is that way! I told you I-”
“You saw it last night, yes I was listening.”
“Then what are we doing over here”
“We need to take a small detour first. Now help me find a felled tree. There should be one somewhere around here.”
“And what exactly is this tree going to do for us?”
“It might help us, it might not, we won’t know until we find it.”
These bits better be worth it. I signed up to look for a book, not a tree. Books mean libraries, libraries mean librarians, and librarians mean warm fires and not trudging through all this snow. It’s already slowing us down, so why would we waste more time going in a different direction from where we need to-
“Oww! There are boulders under the snow!”
“Are you sure it’s a boulder!” He started rushing this way high-kneeing through the snow. I could do without that laughter under his breath.
“What else could it be!”
“Check it!”
I started moving the snow around my foot. There were three, maybe four hand-fulls there before I saw the dark bark of an old tree. It looks like it had been scorched then chopped down a long time ago.
“Look for the stump!” He seemed slightly winded as he rushed over through the snow, not that I can blame him. It was knee-high. The stump was not too far from where I first hit my leg and by the time I found it Arcane had already made his way over. He started knocking on the stump as quickly as he got to it; gently pressing his ear against the bark. He could of at least checked to see if my foot was ok first.
“Find what you were looking for?”
“SHHH!”
“Don’t shush me!”
“Found it.” He took a step back and began to light his horn purple. As it shone against his black mane, a thick circular wooden slab a couple of tree rings shy of the entire stump rose from its snug spot. He dropped the wooden circle to the side of the stump and started to feel around with his hands. This is the first time I’ve gotten a good look at his left arm. A thick layer of leather wrappings completely covered it stretching from his elbow to his knuckles. Near his knuckles and all along the length of the leather were several iron studs. It looked like it could give and take most things that gave it a hit. Looking back toward his face I noticed the look of excitement was gone.
“What’s this doing here? You’ve been here?”
“Me personally, no, but there was encampment here a decade or so ago. A small joint fort between ponies and griffins when the borders were being pressured. Near the end of that whole fiasco there was a push from the dragons. Here take this.” He pulled out a medium-sized blade from the hole and threw it toward me. I’ve held a sword before but it was for a trick for my show. I haven’t tried sword swallowing since. This sword felt different. It was heavy and pretty thick near the base of the blade. The silver-grey blade clashed with the simple curve of the iron guard. Leather straps wrapped around the cylindrical hilt toward the pommel in a haphazard criss-cross fashion. “And this.” The next thing he threw was an ugly brown leather sheath. There were scratch marks all over it and it looked like somepony tried to carve letters into it but the wear and tear made it impossible to read. It’s not something I would be caught dead with.
“Before the fort fell some of the smarter guardsmen hid weapons in crevices between rocks, submerged in rivers, or in this case, in a tree stump.” He pulled out a small wheat-colored sack and hung it over his right shoulder before finally pulling out another blade; this one smaller than the one he threw at me. The blade was about the same color but it was much thinner. It’s guard curved like mine but the hilt was a faded dark-grey. “They hid it in case they were caught off guard and forced to retreat into the woods. Unfortunately, for us, it seems they were, so this is all we got to work with. Can you hold a sword?”
“Are we going to need it?”
“Maybe.”
“Then maybe.”
“If we are going up that mountain and something should happen I would prefer it if the pony with me could at least hold their own. Even if it’s just long enough for me to escape.”
“Did anyone ever tell you you have a knack for inspiring confidence.”
“Once or twice.” A small smile snuck its way onto his face while he looked at the blade. It’s the first time I got a good look at him. He has the maturity of a child but his eyes looked older than mine. They were deep pools of purple, like wilting lavender, cushioned by the deep bags nestled under them. His light grey fur was knotty but clean and the tips of his mane had hints of the same lavender in his eyes. For a brief moment, he looked like a true gentlecolt against the snow glazed trees.
“I could teach you some basic sword dances you know.”
“Are you sure?” All of a sudden a big cud-eating grin possessed his mouth.
“Of Course! I am your master after all. Haha!” Does he really have to say it like that.
“Has anyone ever told you that you should do yourself a favor and keep your mouth closed.”
“Once or Twice.”He quickly sheathed the blade and hooked it to the right side of his belt underneath his cloak. The last thing he grabbed looked like an old leather cuirass dyed a light blue slightly darker than my own fur. It looked like it was made for a large, lean colt. He started tearing at the leather near the waistline causing the cuirass to flay outward near the bottom like a heavy skirt. “ If we had more time we’d be able to look for more spots like this but I’d like to get back home in time to see a friend of mine. Here put this on, no sense in you walking around with just those torn rags.” He wasn’t wrong, these things haven’t been changed since I fell into the river. I wrestled the thing on and it settled on me fairly well stopping just above my knee. Not pretty, but practical. “Now, lead the way my quaint but faithful apprentice. We’ve got a book to find.”
No amount of bits is worth this.
“Keep talking like that and I’m leading us into a blizzard.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t doubt it.” He lifted the wooden circle back into place and then motioned me to help him cover it back up. When we were done you could hardly tell we had been digging along the entire trunk. He nodded to me when he was satisfied so I began to trudge in the direction of the mountain.
Pine trees, pine trees, and more pine trees. This is all we saw for hours while trudging through the thick snow. From what we can tell the sun is past it’s high point and is on its way down, hiding behind the trees. The tall trees covered the sun early making it seem later in the day than it really is. It’s not dark enough to struggle seeing but maybe dark enough for my eyes to start playing tricks on me. It’s nothing I couldn’t handle. When you spend as many nights in the woods as I have you start to figure out what’s what. Those scary shadows you see out the corner of your eyes? Probably just another tree. Scary noises at night? Probably some small animal making itself seem bigger. The faint sound of voices? Haven’t figured that one out yet, but I will. If I had to guess, it’s probably one of those birds with the big dark eyes and short wide beaks. I’ve only ever seen them say “squawk” but with a face like that, there’s no doubt they’re up to something.
That’s a really big rock, we must be getting closer to the mountain. I looked back at Arcane to see if he noticed it too. It seems he did because he keeps looking at the trees around him and then back at the drawing in the little journal thing he carries around.
“Hey.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you always carry that thing around with you?”
“Most times, why do you ask?”
“Just wondering. To me, it seems like a waste.. I could be carrying more food or something like that.”
“You never know when you need to write something down.”
“You wouldn’t need to write stuff down if you memorized it.”
“You’re not wrong.”
“Then why do you do it?”
“Ease of mind, I guess. Knowing I have something to fall back on keeps the pressure off of me. What about you? Not too big on keeping notes?”
“Never had too, Trixie has everything she needs right here and it’s never steered her wrong.”
“So I guess starving to death in a bar was all part of your master plan?”
“I’m still alive, aren’t I?
“Because I was there to bail you-”
“Because you were there to give me a little help towards my goal.”
“If you say so.”
“Trixie does say so.”
“You might want to-”
“Trixie has made it this far on wits alone, you have to be quick on your feet if you’re even thinking of doing what I do.”
“Lula-”
“Why it wouldn’t surprise me if It turned out that Trixie has the highest IQ in all of-”
“TRIXIE!”
“WhaaaaaaAAAAAAH!”