Chapter 12 pt. 1: Playing In The Park

"....."

Artemis could barely open her eyes. She couldn't feel or see much but she was alive. It was dark, but not night time dark more like inside somewhere dark. There was a faint light out of the corner of her vision. Her head fell back down on the cot. It felt like it was made from grass and sticks.

Her breathing was long and slow. She struggled to think, her mind was in a dense fog. What had happened? Did the Legion ambush them on the road? Her friends! What happened to her friends? Were they okay? The fog started thinning but her body and vision remained muddled and unresponsive. She must have fallen back into unconsciousness because she awoke again.

This time she could see a little more. She was in a cave and a fire crackled behind her. Artemis cringed and made herself roll over on the cot. It was as if she weighed a ton, she laid on her other side completely exhausted. She breathed in long gasps as her vision became fuzzy again. Through her clouded vision she saw a pony sitting by the fire. She couldn't make out the gender but it saw Artemis and moved over to her. Good or evil she was at this pony's mercy. A second later she fell back asleep.

"....."

Artemis awoke again, this time she felt better. She could see and her maybe even move some. Her breathing was normal and her thoughts began to flow again. She rolled over more easily this time not losing consciousness now. Next to her was the pony she had seen before falling unconscious again.

He assumed an odd pose for a pony, he looked as if he were meditating. The stallion wore a bullet proof vest over an old park ranger suit. He had a dark gray coat that was a strike away from black.  The most peculiar thing about him was the blindfold he wore. As Artemis looked up at him his faced turned to her's as though he sensed she was awake.

"Welcome to the land of the living." He grumbled plainly. Artemis could only stare. "You awoke several times, you were hard to keep unconscious."

Artemis did not know what to say. She was confused. She asked the only thing she could articulate.

"Wh, what happened?" She wheezed. The stallion kept his pose next to her and answered her calmly.

"Your caravan was attacked. The White Hooves initiated the attack but some of my men were in the area and drove them off."

"Where are my friends?" Artemis asked weakly.

"I'm afraid the White Hooves took some of your friends, the orange mare, two foals and a stallion. But we were able to procure you, the old one and the married couple."

"Where are they?" Artemis asked with rising worry.

"Most likely at their village to the south but you are in no shape to fight them." He rose from his meditation and stoked the fire.

This was bad. Those tribals had Aroma, the two kids, and Hans! Who knows what torture they were going through and Artemis could barely move. She felt so helpless.

"Can you help us? Please." She asked the mysterious stallion.

He did not answer immediately. He only stared at the fire with a intense focus. Even though his eyes were covered with his bandanna you could tell he saw something in the fire, something no one else could see. After Artemis was sure he had not hear her she laid her head back down in despair.

"You can help yourself." He grumbled.

"How? I can't even move." Artemis replied irritated. The stallion turned slowly and enveloped her in a cyan aura. He flipped her over on her stomach.

"What the hell!?" Artemis snapped. The stallion climbed over her back and pressed a hoof to her left shoulder blade and the other one on her lower back.

CRACK! CRACK! POP! Artemis's back snapped in several places. Now her back felt weightless and she fell to the cot, limp.

"Why did you do tha-! Hey..." Artemis stopped complaining mid-sentence. "Hey,I actually feel...better, a lot better."

A small smile happened across Artemis's face as she sat up in the cot. She cracked her back again and stretched her arms.

"See? You needed to be asleep so I could begin the acupuncture unhindered." He said in his monotone grumble.

Artemis stroked her head. "What's acupuncture?"

"Irrelevant." He groused. "All you need to know is that it restored you to functionality in two days. We have more important things to tend with anyways. The other griffon with you, the legionnaire. He wasn't taken captive, he fell into Gnawshika Gorge. Go and retrieve him." He ordered sternly and began meditating.

Verity! She had completely forgotten about Verity! Artemis nodded and then realized she had none of her equipment.

"Where's my stuff at?" She asked. The stallion did not speak but he levitated an old duffle bag and laid it at her feet.

Inside she found her equipment. Famas, DSR, P08 it was all there and had, strangely been meticulously repaired. Artemis also found Aroma's pipbuck  she instantly felt awful. She thought of whatever torments she and foals were going through. She latched it on and flipped the switch. It was slow to boot up nonetheless it loaded. The map page had a new customized location marker. "Gnawshika Gorge" it read.

"Go get your friend and bring him here then we will make our next move." He nodded over to another cot that had Grandpa. The old stallion was unconscious and looked like he wouldn't wake up anytime soon.

"You..." Artemis hesitated, she could be wrong. "Are you Skipper?" The stallion frowned.

"Yes....I am. But I am known as He-Who-Sees-Everything-and-Nothing to my tribe. But you will get your answers upon finding your friend." His horn flashed and a second later he vanished into thin air.

"Dammit." Artemis muttered. She didn't trust strangers easily, especially with these mysterious circumstances.

She checked on Hayseed, Lady and Grandpa. He was still breathing. Reluctantly Artemis would have to do as Skipper ordained. Then that also meant Obsidian Shine had not totally lied, maybe Artemis would ask Skipper about the number station once she rescued Verity.

The cave led to a small village that rested in a small canyon by a river. Ponies and Zebra's lived side by side, some speared fish in the river, others tended crops, cooking food and foals ran about playing games. Artemis was met with stange looks as she wandered about the village. A foal bumped into her and fell to his haunches.

"My bad." She said casually.

"Mi'ka koda baba. Chitu wadda beeta ki kee kai-el." He ran off.

"I guess no one here speaks ponyish." Artemis thought to herself and flew away. Many of the tribals watched in awe as she flew away casually. Guess they never saw a griffon either.

Before her lay White Tail National Park and Artemis saw it from a bird's eye view. It was beyond words, beyond belief. The forest looked untouched by the ravages of the war. Trees were vibrant greens and browns. The sun was breaching the horizon starting the new day. Birds chirped and you could hear streams and animals. It made you think, no matter how hard we try nature will always beat whatever we throw at it be it on purpose or accidental. One day the plants and animals will return and life will bloom again, no matter what weapons salt the earth, nature will prevail. Artemis felt her heart stop if only for a moment.

Artemis flew low so she could see the plants and animals. White tail deer scampered about. This place's color palette was breath taking. She grew up with the endless orange and yellows of the San Palomino wasteland but here it was so much different. The sand was replaced with healthy brown dirt. This dirt was the dirtiest dirt in the whole dirt world! She flew gracefully and weaved through trees and rock formations. She felt like Aroma when she looked to the sky in awe.....Aroma.

She had to find her friends and rescue them. After that they could frolic in the park all they wanted to. She imagined Verity skipping through the forest with a smile on his face. Artemis giggled and scanned her pipbuck. Gnawshika Gorge was in a rockier part of the park, near the entrance.

Red rocks dominated this area. Some rock faces had paintings on them. One of Skipper, He-Who-Sees-Everything-and-Nothing. It was a crudely drawn face, the eyes were dark black ovals. Some of the paint had bled giving the look that the painting had cried. Tiny black streams dried down from the eye sockets. This was obviously his tribe's territory.

"Where are you Verity?" Artemis mumbled to herself. She scanned the lower parts of the canyon. At the bottom of a canyon was a shallow river with crystal clear water that shimmered with the sunlight. Artemis continued scanning for Verity.

"No, that's a fish." She told herself. Maybe she was looking in the wrong place. Maybe Verity had washed up on shore somewhere. Then something caught her attention!

Around a corner the river the funneled a figure that was face down. It was armored and the red scarf, that was Verity's arm cape! In a haste Artemis flew down to him, then she heard something. The river ended with a waterfall!

"Shit shit shit." Artemis cursed nervously.

Verity's form limply bounced off several exposed rocks along the river rapids as he approached the drop. Artemis increased her speed but the rapids were carrying him to fast. She reached out her hand and grabbed his tail but it soon slipped through her grasp. The waterfall roared like a great beast hungry for Verity.

Her mind concocted an idea, it was borderline insane with a side of suicidal but if she could pull it off they would both survive this. She reached out again and grabbed his tail, she struggled to keep a hold of it. Then she wrapped her other hand around him. She took a deep breath and pulled herself to him. The water was ice cold and would have been refreshing in different circumstances but right now it just made holding her breath difficult. Artemis could not swim but if this plan worked she wouldn't have to. She was shook violently in rapids.

Seconds later she felt her head and vision shift upside down. Artemis struggled and flailed in the waterfall. The pair breached the water in a eruption of twinkling water droplets. Time slowed to a crawl or at least it felt like it did. The only thing you could hear was the thump-thump of her heartbeat and the muffled roar of the fall. Artemis held Verity tightly in her grasp. Gravity pulled them down to the jagged rocks below. On instinct Artemis raised her wings and glided.

FWOOSH!

Artmeis sped away from the waterfall that would have been their demise. She released her breath and flew down to a sandy shore. She laid Verity down, he was cold, blue around his beak and all around pale. This didn't bode well. Artemis sat on her knees and opened his mouth. Hesitantly she put her mouth to his. She exhaled into his mouth and raised to press his on chest. Mouth chest, mouth chest, mouth chest. Dammit it wasn't working.

"Breath  damn you." Artemis hissed.

She repeated the cycle two more times until opened his eyes and began choking profusely. He rolled over to his side vomiting water. Verity collapsed and laid on the shore breathing heavily.

"You....you saved me......... I thought you hated me?" Verity said amazed but quietly grateful.

Artemis shrugged. "It was nothing."

"Why did you save me?"

Artemis was silent for a minute. "I..was told to. Verity some bad stuff has happened. Aroma and the foals have been kidnapped by White Hooves. And Hans to."

Verity raised an eyebrow. "White Hooves?

"Yeah, do you know them?" Artemis queried.

"The White Hooves are trying to be integrated into the Legion. They demonstrate their strength and we decide if they are let in."

"The Legion does that?" Artemis asked.

"Naturally, it's not so much we accept them and they walk into the Legion. We accept them and haze them by storming their villages. We kill the elderly and the men taking the women to be sold as wives to the officers and the children are raised as legionnaires."

Artemis was appalled by Verity's story. "Why would they even want to join then." She asked with a disgruntled look.

"Because we're the biggest faction and we'll survive this time period, not some small tribe like the White Hooves. They see it as an honor, they practically worship us." Verity said nonchalantly and climbed to his feet.

This gave Artemis an idea....

"Well there's someone you need to meet. I can take you to him." Artemis nodded back above the waterfall.

Verity looked suspicious of Artemis. "Who is he?"

"I, I think it's Skipper. You'll have to see for yourself." Artemis raised her wings preparing to fly but something stopped her.

They stood for a second in silence. One of them wanted to say something, but neither of them knew the words. Was it affection? It felt like a presence in your stomach. Her heart sped up slightly. But in the next second the time had passed and the moment was lost.

"About that stallion then...." Verity said with a tone of disheartened disappointment.

"Right.." Artemis replied.

They flew off to Skipper's tribe, Artemis felt something in her gut for missing that opportunity. But why? Verity, affection? Not now, they had to save Aroma, Hans and the foals.

Next Chapter: Chapter 12 pt. 2 - A Vision of The Future Estimated time remaining: 7 Hours, 2 Minutes