After her near-miss escape from what really, objectively, should have been a death or near-death experience with the family of Kalonas, Pachamamma Breeze found herself in two ways: first, safe, far away from the danger. Second, lost. In her panic, she’d simply bolted, paying absolutely no mind to where she was going or how far away her destination was from her home herd, because her home herd was the furthest thing from her mind.
They could never, ever find out. She’d be in more trouble than anyone had ever been in, ever, in the entire world, and they wouldn’t even be wrong to punish her for being so stupid. How could she have been so stupid?
They could never find out.
Once her heartbeat slowed, she was able to take stock of her surroundings: the edge of a forest that had been steadily increasing in altitude for quite some time. The breeze was helpful in cooling her down and slowing her heartrate; Belvedere on her shoulder was still passed out from fright, the poor little mouse.
She really did need to find her way home, though. As pleasant as her surroundings were, her family would worry if she didn’t return soon; it wasn’t supposed to be a long adventure outside the herd property, just a quick little jaunt.
Well, she’d certainly jaunted, hadn’t she.
“This is hopeless,” she sighed to herself. “And you are the dumbest Soquili to ever walk this earth.”
“I’m sure that’s not true,” Ayaz said, smiling beneath his skull mask. He was on his way back from a job, and he’d fully planned on announcing himself in a different way to the mare, but who was he to ignore a perfectly good opening? The mare, however, did not appreciate it - she jumped, probably all four hooves leaving the ground, and her nostrils flared as she scanned the woods for who could have spoken. Ayaz took pity on her, as he didn’t want her to think he was an aggressor, and stepped out of the shade of the trees.
“Don’t worry,” he said, as soothingly as he could, to someone who was, very clearly, worrying quite a lot. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
Pacha’s eyes fixed on the stranger and she took three steps back, her heartrate immediately flying into her throat and hammering away once more. Would the horrors of the day never cease?
“Are you wearing a skull,” she croaked out, immediately regretting the words and how she said them. She knew better than to show fear - but at least this wasn’t a Kalona…probably. She couldn’t quite tell, under all of his accessories, but he, at least, didn’t smell like blood the way the other Kalonas had earlier.
“Just for show,” he said, with a little chuckle. “I’m a member of the Gryps Nemoris herd.” When there was no flicker of recognition or relaxation of her stance, Ayaz repressed a sigh to himself. When would his clan start getting the accolades they deserved? Their clients needed to step up their word-of-mouth game, if that was the only way they were to advertise their services… “We are protectors,” he explained. “Do you need help? I may be of assistance. Free of charge, of course.”
In spite of herself, Pacha did relax a little bit as the stallion explained himself. A herd of protectors…she had never heard of such a thing, but there were lots of things she hadn’t heard of, sheltered as she was, and it sounded plausible to her ears, and whatsmore, it didn’t sound like he was trying to convince her of anything - merely stating fact. That, more than anything, was what made her believe him.
“I… seem to have gotten myself lost,” she explained, feeling the heat rise to her cheeks. “I need to return to my own herd, but I’m afraid I don’t know the way from here.”
“I’m well-traveled,” Ayaz said gallantly, “and I know most of the herds in this part of the world. Perhaps I could escort you home?” When she nodded her shy assent, Ayaz closed the distance between them and gave her a reassuring smile - or at least as reassuring as he could, given the mask he wore. “Come, tell me of your home.”
And so she did. As the two walked, they left the forest, and Pacha was immensely grateful; the trees and their branches had begun to feel stifling and suffocating, and the open air soothed her, as did her company. Maybe things would be alright after all.
“So you’ve had a day,” Ayaz said as Pacha finished explaining - rambling, really - what had happened to put her in such a state. “That’s terrible, but I’m glad you were able to get away unscathed. And I hope that from now on, your day will only impro–!”
One moment, Ayaz was standing next to her, protecting her from the dangerous edge of the cliff. The next moment, he was simply gone, and it took Pacha a moment to realize what had happened. She blinked and darted as close to the crumbling edge as she dared, peering downward, though she almost couldn’t bring herself to look - she’d never seen a dead Soquili before, and she wasn’t sure she was in a state to see one now.
But Ayaz wasn’t dead. There was no blood or horrible guts surrounding him like a halo. Instead, he seemed to be resting on…. Well, Pacha couldn’t quite tell what had broken his fall, only that something had, as the ground proper was well beneath where he lay, wings pinned to his back. The lack of blood was what made Pacha think he wasn’t dead, but he also wasn’t…moving.
“Ayaz? Ayaz, can you hear me? Ayaz? Ayaz!”
The world came into focus… slowly, and at first, there were two of them. Worlds, that was; double vision slowly coalesced into one - albeit hazy - view on the world, though not the view he’d been expecting. It seemed like everything was upside down, for one thing, and for another thing - ow.
Everything hurt. He couldn’t tell if anything was broken, but he was pretty sure no bones had broken the skin, at least, which was something to be grateful for. And he was conscious, which was another point in his favor.
He had never realized how heavy all of his gear was before. It felt like the sky was pressing down on him, and all of his accessories were weighing him down even further. He might never be able to get up.
But he had to try. He started to move one leg, and whatever he was laying on - from his perspective, he couldn’t even tell what had caught him - rocked and creaked in a precarious manner that made him quit moving at once.
Someone was calling his name. Had his ears always been ringing like that? Ayaz couldn’t be sure. He frowned, tried to focus, and as he did, movement above him caught his attention. There was another Soquili up there, pacing back and forth, and he was fairly certain that was where the noise was coming from.
“Can you speak? Can you hear me? Ayaz!” Pacha was pacing back and forth and snorting in a most undignified, but most anxious, manner. She’d seen him move slightly, but he’d stopped immediately, which - she’d thought that was a good sign, but the instant cessation made her worry even more. Maybe he couldn’t move. What was she supposed to do? He was the protector, not her! She didn’t have his big strong wings to fly down and scoop him up. If she tried to go after him, she’d probably slip and break her neck, and then where would they be?
The shouting had woken Belvedere up. He stirred from his little nest between her shoulders and squirmed to peek out of her hair, making curious little noises as he tried to gather his bearings. He refrained from asking questions, for the moment, sensing that Pacha was once again full of anxiety, and that any explanation he got would probably only add to his confusion as he tried to sort out the world around him.
“What do I do, what do I do,” Pacha muttered to herself, ears pressed flat back against her head.
“Well, first thing to do is breathe,” Belvedere said, hopping up to the top of her head so that he could perch between her ears and peer down, following Pacha’s own gaze. “Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear.”
“What am I going to do!” Pacha all but shouted, not necessarily at Belvedere, but more at the universe itself. She was never, ever going to leave her herd again.
“Stop moving,” Belvedere said, doing his best to keep his little squeaky voice radiating calm. “You’re making me dizzy! Take a breath! I’ll go assess the situation.”
“What do you mean, you’ll go? Belvey–”
“I’m a mouse!” Belvedere reminded her smartly, deftly scrambling from the top of her head, down her leg and to the ground next to her anxious hooves. “We’re small but we’re great at getting out of hairy situations!”
Without giving Pacha a chance to agree with him or forbid him from leaving her, Belvedere took off down the cliff, his little claws clinging to rocks and footholds far too small for any Soquili to even see, let alone use. In truth, it was one of the scariest things the little mouse had ever done, but he had to seem confident - for Pacha, and for their new friend.
The first thing Belvedere did was introduce himself. And then he ran all over Ayaz’s body, making sure that there weren’t any serious breaks or scratches - to Belvedere’s sensitive nose and eyes and whiskers, there were not, but he couldn’t be one hundred percent certain, because every time Belvedere’s little legs found a ticklish spot, Ayaz would flinch and the whole structure that was supporting them both would flail dangerously.
It was slow going.
“Okay,” Belvedere said when his initial inspection was complete. “I’m going to take off your hood now. Move very slowly.”
“My hood? Why?”
“It’s how we’re going to get you up and up again, silly!”
It was very slow going, but it did go. Belvedere carefully unwound the fabric as much as he could, squirming beneath and around Ayaz’s head as he lifted it cautiously upwards for the little mouse. Soon, his hood, once pristine and now filthy from dirt and whatever else, was loose fabric, clutched between two tiny mouse paws.
“I’m going to run this up to Pacha,” Belvedere explained, “and you are going to clutch this very tightly between your teeth. Very, very tightly. Can you do that?”
“One way to find out,” Ayaz grumbled, already not liking this plan very much. He was much bigger than the mare, but…well, it wasn’t like he had any better ideas. The tiny mouse fed the edge of the fabric between his teeth, and Ayaz obediently clamped down on it, as tightly as he could. Somehow, even that little effort sent a wave of aching pain through his body, but he couldn’t complain.
Or, well, he could, but he’d save it for when he was standing.
The little mouse ran, somehow, up a nearly-vertical rock wall, and disappeared over the edge of the cliff.
Ayaz gave himself permission to close his eyes, for just a minute or two, while he waited for whatever was happening up there to happen. Just a minute or two…
“Hey. Hey!” Belvedere’s squeaky little voice was loud in Ayaz’s ear, jerking him awake and making their support rattle dangerously. “No going to sleep! That’s not allowed when you’ve hit your head!”
“Right,” Ayaz said, around the fabric in his teeth. “I knew that.”
Belvedere gave him a doubtful look. “Are you ready?”
Ayaz nodded as best he could, and Belvedere scooted back up the cliff to Pacha once more.
The fabric was tied around the nearest, sturdiest tree, as tightly as it could be. The hood was longer than it looked, but even so, they’d had to tear it longways to make it long enough to reach Ayaz. They could only hope that it would still be strong enough to do what it needed to do, for long enough to save Ayaz.
“Is he ready?” Pacha asked Belvedere, eyes wide and nervous. Belvedere nodded, then darted over to the edge of the cliff. As loudly as his little lungs could manage, he called down, “Count down from 3! Stretch your legs out as much as you can!”
Carefully, haltingly, and with increasing anxiety at each echoing crack, Ayaz did as he was told. He felt the fabric tighten between his teeth, and he clamped down harder. Three, two…
With a sudden jolt, he was pulled upright. Or, upright-ish, anyway. He flailed slightly but his hooves found purchase, albeit halting and hesitant purchase, on the wall. He was jerked again, and his back hoof slipped and pressed on the semi-solid ground beneath him, and with a deafening crack, it fell away.
This really had to work now.
Another jerk, and he was lugged up another few inches. He forced his feet to comply, forced himself to ignore their aching protests. One step in front of the other. One step–one step–
He was going to pass out.
“Wings!” A little voice called down to him from the edge of the cliff. “Use your wings!”
Moving them was excruciating. Something was broken there, but he took the risk and stretched them out anyway - there was no way he could fly on them, but…maybe he could glide on them? If his poor hood tore and sent him plummeting? At worst - maybe they could give him some extra balance.
He groaned as his wings extended fully, and it did seem to take some of the pressure off the fabric as he began to walk his way up the side of a mountain. To Ayaz, it felt like it took hours upon hours - maybe close to days. He was pretty sure he nearly passed out at least twice, and only Belvedere’s little, very high-pitched, voice kept him from completely losing consciousness. If he thought it was odd that he only heard Belvedere, it didn’t occur to him until he was just breaking over the edge of the cliff, when he saw the tiny unicorn, paired with a tree, straining with all her might on what remained of his poor hood.
He collapsed in a heap and released the fabric, finally, which had been making him want to throw up since halfway up the damn cliff. Everyone was panting, and Pacha seemed almost as exhausted as he was. She walked toward him, wobbly-legged, and collapsed next to him, breath coming heavy.
With his last breath of conscious air, Ayaz panted out, “Thank you. You– you saved my life. Thank you.”
They stayed there that night, in the open, utterly unprotected, and the fact that nothing attacked them and no more cliffs collapsed beneath them was the second blessing Pacha had that day.
The first, she’d decide later, was meeting Ayaz. She hadn't known that she had it in her - to save someone else's life. But she did, and that was such a gift that it made everything else that had happened that day worth it.
((wc: 2572))
