I can’t breathe. It feels like a rock is being pressed against my chest. I didn’t even know I was lying on my back, not that I could even see the ground with all this smoke. A moment later I could breathe and catch my bearings. My eyes still sting a bit, but my ears are better off, though this low ringing could get annoying if it sticks around. No time to worry about that, not with the drake nearby. Wait a minute...did she just kick me!? She did, didn’t she?! I was blind and pleading and she just-
“LULAMOON!” I might just wring her neck next time I- where is the drake? “Lulamoon?!” Where the hell is it? It was just here. There’s something on the ground; dark-colored splotches flicked across the rocks. I brought some of it up to my nose. Smells like…
“TRIXIE?!” Crap. Follow the splotches. “TRIXIE!” Come on, come on, say something. How could she have gotten so far? She kicked me, right? Damn it, Trixie. You gotta help me out here.
“...ughhhhh…” Good, good. Keep it up, I’m close by. More splotches-- come on you’re fine. “Ughhhhhhhh…” There you are. I saw the sword first. The one I had grabbed.
Through the smoke, the stains on the tip of the blade looked like glossy tar. It’s cutting days were over. You gave it a good nick, didn’t you? She wasn’t much farther from where the blade was lying. She was conscious but she had landed against a tree; one eye closed and the other half shut. Her eye looked faded and she did not focus on me or anything I put in front of her. I pulled her into the brush as quietly as I could; careful as to not disturb the leaves or cause her to groan. I doubt the drake would have given up after a single strike. It must have been a good cut considering it backed off.
I sat her against a rock and looked her over. She definitely hit her head but there was no external bleeding. I stuck my hand in front of her face. Warm air steadily brushed my hand; she was breathing.
“Hey, Trixie?” I’m supposed to be shouting as I do this, but I can’t risk the noise. “Trixie? You gotta help me out here, you awake? Can you feel me poking your shoulder?” She started twitching her open eye. “That’s it, can you feel my hand on your shoulder? Nod if you can.” She closed her eyes and nodded; flinching as she completed the motion.
“Good, good. How about here?” I started poking at the tips of her fingers. “Can you feel this?” Once again, she nodded.This time with a little more vigor. I started working my way closer to her torso. “Here? Here? He-”
“Don’t...even think about.”
“There she is.” I pinched her thigh as if I were pinching a grape. Her legs recoiled without any delay.
“Ow! What was that for?”
“Just making sure you can move. Can you stand for me?” She got onto her feet fairly quickly all things considered, but she immediately grabbed her left side when she tried to straighten her back.
“Ow! Ah! Ow ow ow!”
“Alright alright alright. Just keep it down. Let me see. Did you get hit?”
“I don’t know, ow!” Imbedded in the cuirass were a few scales. None of them penetrated through to her undershirt, but they were close.
“It looks like you did, These scales are small though, I think it head-butt you after you had a go at it.”
“Huh?” I pointed at her sword. Visible now that the smoke was beginning to fade. A dastardly grin possessed her face. “Hah! Serves him right!” The pep in here step started coming back too. “He had no idea who he was messing with! A creature like that is nothing compared to the likes of me! The Great and Powerful Trixie!”
“Well, I’m not so sure about-”
“Did you know that I used to vanquish creatures much bigger than it on my own?”
“With what? You’re parlor tricks?’
“Oh, what do you know anyway?”
“I know that the drake might still be around here and that we might want to keep quiet.”
“Pshhh, that thing’s long gone by now. I mean, look at that blood! I’ll be surprised if it ever tries to eat ponies again.” I started to hear the sound of cracking twigs over dead leaves, but I couldn’t tell from where. This ringing in my ear isn’t helping either.
“Trixie, you hear that?”
“Maybe I’ll have a statue commissioned about-” She must love listening to herself talk. It’s like she blocks out everything else just to savor her own voice.
“Trixie!” I tried pulling her down from a sitting position.
“Hey! Quit it- yellow never really worked for me-” Oh well I tried the nice way. I stood up and positioned my right hoof behind her left one. She had her eyes closed; probably imagining some painting or statue dedicated to her. I clenched my left fist. I have to do this quickly or I’ll have the whole forest after us. I waited for her to take a pause between thoughts.
“-I guess you could be in the statue, but-” Now. I blasted my fist into her left side. I didn’t want to wind her. I just needed the shock of the pain to kick in. Just before her mouth could process what was going on I covered it with my palm and then pushed forward so she would trip over my hoof. I kept my hand pressed against her face as we fell. She started wailing underneath my hand. Her body twitching and squirming trying to grab at anything nearby. Her pupils contracted and tears rolled off her face as she desperately let out all she could. She eventually stopped; catching her breath in the lull. The breaths were slow and steady at first; a sign of her fatigue. Once her flailing arm found mine her breaths picked up again, only this time she didn’t sound like a wounded little filly. It was more akin to the sound of a cat after you pulled its tail too many times. And then after upsetting it you decide to put a bucket over it to drown out the growling.
She started squeezing my arm. It started out light, but then I started to really feel the pressure she was putting. It's starting to hurt... Don’t scream, don’t scream. You can’t let anything know you are still here. Hold it in, hold it i-
“Ah-” Before I let anymore out, she let go of my arm and launched both her hands into my face; aiming for my mouth and nose. Her breathing was erratic and her eyes were still teary, but they were fixated on me. Sweet Celestia, she’s trying to suffocate me! I tried to scream, this time for my life, but she had some kind of freak grip on me. I knew she’d be mad but they usually calm down and give you a chance to explain yourself. I should have just hit her head.
She started kicking around my lower stomach. I shook my hips around as quickly as I could but she found her mark. I lost strength in my legs and fell onto my back. She got off hers and sat on my stomach. She bit my middle finger forcing me to let go of her mouth; her grip never wavered.
“You’re going to apologize!” She said in an aggressive whisper.
“MMMHHH! MMMMMHHH!” I couldn’t pull her hand off. I’d be more impressed If I wasn’t so terrified
“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that.” I thrust my fist into her side again; hitting the tender area. “Gahhh!” She fell over; clutching her left ribs. I could finally catch my breath.
“Were you trying to kill me!?” I said in as loud a whisper as I could make.
“You hit me! Twice!” She seemed on the verge of tears.
“Because you were going to give us away! Now shhh! Listen.” The drake had moved closer to us. Not close enough to notice us but close enough to be heard scratching and groaning against some of the trees. She must have hit some soft tissue around the nose or eye. She’s starting to get that we are not done just yet. She stuck her head up and quickly scanned our surrounding area.
“Okay, I’ve got an idea.” She said while she wiped the tears from beneath her eye.
“Lay it on me.”
“You see those little circles on the ground.”
“Yeah.”
“I think they might blow up when something steps on them.”
“They do.”
“Why?”
“Because they are mine.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I put them there, they are mine-...-s, eh, see what I did there? Pretty clever right?”
“Really? You’re doing this now of all times?” I thought it was clever.
“I thought it was clever! Really, if you can’t take the time to appreciate things in the moment as they happen-”
“How do the the circle thingys work?”
“...They are runes. I placed them down when I went to get water earlier. You know just in case.”
“Why’d you put so many.”
“I don’t know, just in case. Looking at it now though, it may have been overkill.” The ringing in my ear has gotten quieter at least.
“You think?”
“You think? That’s what you sound like, it’s not cute.” That last one might have peeved her a bit. She gave me a glare but stopped herself before she could say anything particularly loud. She took a deep breath and looked back toward me.
“...Do you think we can get it to run into that patch of circles?” I raised myself next to her, she was pointing to an undisturbed patch adjacent to the river.
“We probably could, but what good would that do us?”
“When I checked it earlier, the rocks were kind of slippery. Maybe we could get it to trip?”
“Maybe spook it into the water-
“-And make a break for it.”
“It would have to find somewhere to warm up if it gets covered in water in this weather. That’s our chance.”
“Okay, go over there get its attention and then teleport away.”
“Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.”
“Yes, it is.”
“I kind of...made too many circles now that I think about it. I’m not sure I have enough juice.” And I mean it too. Sure runes don’t take much in terms of magic, but if you make a lot of anything you are eventually gonna run out of material. Teleportation is no easy feat either. I almost drained myself completely the other day. I’d have a little more in the tank but I woke up early to make sure I got the water.
“Well how about that book of yours? Does it have anything we could use?”
“What, my journal?” I pulled it out to show her. “It’s just notes and-”
“Yoink!”
“Please give that-”
“Hyaa!” I watched my journal glide through the air; pages flipping to and fro as if it were trying to fly on it’s own. It landed between two of my runes. Its back and cover faced the sky like a tent while the pages inside propped it upright slightly. “Shoot, It was supposed to set one of them off.” It was a nice throw, though she doesn’t need to know that.
“Hmmm, this works too.”
“You better have a good explanation for this, Lulamoon.”
“Trixie does,” she started to grin. “If an explosion won’t lure it to the rest of the circle thingys then I guess one of us will have to do it. Considering it’s your journal, Trixie believes you have a little more incentive.” I didn’t like her smug look at all. “I’m not going.” she said a little sing-songy.
I was livid, but mostly impressed. I should have thought of it first.
“Trixie?”
“Yep.” She started dusting off her hat.
“How do I know you are not going to run away as soon as I lure it to me?”
“Well, it looks like you’ll just have to-” Now.
“Yoink!”
“GIVE THAT BACK!”
“You can have your hat when I have my Journal!”
“RAAAAAAAAAAHHH!” There’s her fire. We’re gonna need it.
Alright, Arcane now you’re really in it now. Be quick, but precise. Left hoof, right hoof, left hoof, right hoof and don’t forget to watch your placement. You might have made them too strong for your own good. Probably for the best considering the situation. Just a few more-OH SWEET CELESTIA IT’S COMING! It sounds like a mountain is rolling towards me! Don’t look at it now. Just get into position and be ready to move.
The drake was only a few meters away. I scooped the journal in the hat and braced my knees. Come on! Trigger the damn tr-It jumped? It jumped! Did it know? Did it guess? My head was going a mile a minute. Doesn’t matter. I tucked my face into my cloak and threw the hat onto the runes. Light managed to bounce into my eyes as I dropped to my knees. The shockwave pushed against my balance. When my eyes relaxed I could see that the drake had landed behind me. It was clutching to the slippery shore kicking the riverbed with its hind legs. I took a couple of steps back. It snapped its jaws; each whiff of air more pungent than the last.
“Hey, Trixie! Bring your sword! I think It’s stuck.” It’s having trouble getting a firm grip. It even stopped trying to bite me, but it’s nowhere near calm. It looks like it could explode at any second.
“Where is my hat!?” She came running out of the bush just as indignant as I was, maybe more so. “I swear If that thing ate my hat-”
“Relax, I’ve got your hat right-” Where’s the hat? WHERE’S MY JOURNAL? I looked back toward her. She seems to have noticed. “Well, there are more pressing matters right now. Hand me your sword.” It was holstered around her waist. She had her hands on her hips while she looked at me.
“It’s right over there.” She tilted her head sideways to look past me. Apparently the shockwave had sent the hat flying onto a thick log that spanned the river.
“Oh good, now hand me the sword so I can-”
“Not until I get my hat.” She started walking toward the log.
“Don’t be like this.”
“Trixie be like this.” She started climbing onto the log. The drake quieted and fixed its attention to her.
“Trixie.”
“Shut it. You can talk when I have-”
“THE SWORD!”
The drake launched itself toward the old log. It swung its forelegs onto the log in a desperate attempt to find footing. Each motion peeled the old bark from the tree-like butter. One strike found its mark; a soft piece of wood for it to dig its claws into. It shifted its weight and began to balance itself. The icy water stung as it splashed against me. Trixie drew her sword, but she was on her back trying to crawl to the other side.
“Trixie keep moving!” It’s all she can do, and she needs to quickly. The drake kicked and pulled until its soft stomach was now resting on the log. If it gets its balance I’m not sure how she is going to get out of this. “Don’t stop!”
“HURRY UP AND DO SOMETHING!”
“I’m trying!” I started throwing rocks at its head, maybe to distract it long enough so that she can get to the other side. There was no plan. I just had to try. “Hey! Over here!” The drake flinched when one of the rocks struck its left temple. “Keep swinging the sword! Don’t give it time!”
“To do what!”
“Anything!” These rocks aren’t going to cut it. I’m gonna need to get a little more creative. I picked up a stone that felt fairly flat. It was wide enough to leave a few markings on it. “I’ve got an idea!” I climbed over to my side of the log. I had to keep my balance, luckily so did the drake. His tail was slightly raised. Come on Arcane, you’ve done crazier things than this. “Get ready Trixie! It’s about to get really mad!”
“I DON’T CARE!” I found my mark. I gave myself a running start and hunched myself lower to move below it’s tail. I jammed the rock in. It wailed.
“IT’S GOING CRAZY!” she screamed. “WHAT DID YOU DO!”
“Later! Don’t get hit!” I hurried backward myself, but it turned too quick. Its tail pushed me back onto the riverbank. It winded me. Trixie was screaming something but I couldn’t make it out over the deep screeching from the drake. It recoiled onto its hind legs. Now! I lit my horn and a low pop came from the drake. It squirmed like it was mad and fell over the side of the log. It buried its nails into the side of the log; the current was strong. Trixie saw her opportunity. All that fear she had a moment ago disappeared from her eyes. She grabbed her sword and rushed toward it. Once. Twice. Three times she hammered the claw. The blade had chipped but the strikes were true. The drake fell into the river. Even with its size, it could not find a grip on the river bottom. Its wails became quieter the further it was carried. Soon, the mountain was quiet once again, save for the trickling of water.
It was quiet for a long time.
“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! I’M DONE! I’M DONE! THIS ALWAYS HAPPENS! WHY ME! WHY NOT SOMEPONY ELSE! WHY DO I GET TO HAVE ALL THE BAD LUCK!” Bad luck.. “WHAT DID I DO THAT… that… RAAAAAAAAAAH!? I… I…” She paused. Her legs collapsed. She was still for a moment and then wiped the wet streaks from her face. She looked at her hand for a long while. When more watery streaks came, her fire returned.