I will admit that I was a fool for thinking that I could make a relatively quiet life for myself here. Rather than being surprised I should’ve been preparing for this chain of events.
But here I am, standing ready to face the world again. The legacy I thought I left behind still beckons it seems.

I awoke with a large yawn, I had stayed out far too late last night trying out the limitations of Imagination’s reality marble. From what I could tell so far the marble itself would not disappear unless I broke the area border. Coincidently objects summoned inside the marble’s area of influence would not disappear as long as they remained inside the border. The downside with this though was that the recharge would be halted until all conjured items inside the marble were removed or the marble was dispelled. So in short once you started summoning things inside a marble you had to think carefully about what you were going to summon. All the rules made the power incredibly impractical for combat, not to mention downright dangerous for the user should you attempt to use it for fighting. Needless to say I still hadn’t been able to figure out why a weapon had such a strange ability.

Shaking my head I went down to the second story from my room in the attic and into the bathroom on this level. A glance at the mirror caused me to grimace, during my two months here I hadn’t bothered with shaving. Something that was painfully obvious with the scraggly beard I had grown. Ok that’s it I’m asking Ranger if he has a razor or a sharp knife I can borrow. I decided, it was bad enough that Stella had taken to calling me the bush monster the past few days. So I left the bathroom to hunt for Ranger.

As I walked down the hallway I ended up almost walking into Gilda as she exited her own room, but a quick pivot on my part helped avoid a potentially painful collision.

“Good morning to you too Cloud.” She greeted with a raised eyebrow.

“What has you in such a hurry this morning?” she continued to ask.

“I’m looking for Ranger, I’m hoping he has a razor so I can get rid of this.” I said motioning towards the lower part of my face.

“Oh, so is this another thing like when you asked to borrow a claw file then?” She pressed on, a bemused tone had entered her voice.

Perhaps I should clarify what she meant. About six weeks back I had come to realize that my nails were growing too long to be sanitary for cooking. So being the idiot I am I had asked if they had any nail clippers only to receive a blank stare from the entire Rustfeather family. It had taken me a few seconds to understand why, and I had been forced to amend my request and ask for a file instead. I had been given the requested file but the tradeoff had been that Gilda got to laugh at my, as she put it, useless claws.

“Yes and no, this time I actually do mean a razor. Any sharp knife would do, but I would prefer it to be a razor.” I answered carefully.

“Hmm, I think dad has a razor.” Gilda said, adopting a thoughtful expression.

“Wonderful, I’ll go find him then. See you down at breakfast Gil.” I said before walking past her.

I only had time to take about two steps though before Gilda called out to me from behind.

“Okay, I don’t know anything about beards but what is you excuse for that?”

I turned around again, confused as to what she meant. “My excuse for what?”

“Your wings Cloud. They look like a disaster area, aren’t you preening them?.” Gilda exclaimed.

I cocked my head to the left. “I’m supposed to do that?”

Gilda face clawed with a groan. “I keep forgetting that you’ve only had your wings for just over two months. Okay no flight practice this afternoon we’re going to go over proper wing care.”

“Aight, thanks again Gil, you’re a life saver.” I thanked her as I started to move down the hallway again.

“Yeah, you’d be lost without me Cloud!” she called down the hallway after me. I just responded by raising a hand as I kept walking.

Luckily finding Ranger proved to be easy as I pretty much just had to walk down the stairs to the first floor. Just as Gilda had assumed Ranger had a razor to lend me, so moments later I was back in the upstairs bathroom. Since I had little knowledge of shaving with a straight razor, I had used one once or twice, I let the process take its time. Slowly my face started to reappear from behind the beard. Twenty minutes later I put the razor down, admiring the fresh look I had achieved. Well now it’s time to start today’s work I suppose. I thought with a smile as I headed downstairs to the kitchen.

I started to prepare a large batch of porridge and set up a couple of large pitchers, containing whatever morning beverage our guests would prefer. I also started to make a pot of coffee but those who wanted that would have to wait a bit.

The day continued to flow at what I considered a normal pace by now. We had the average number of new arrivals, which made this summer day morning quite enjoyable. Soon I found that lunchtime had come and gone, which meant that Gilda was already waiting impatiently in the backyard when I got there.

“About time you showed up. Come on we don’t have all day.” She greeted as she grabbed hold of my left arm and started to drag me over to a small stool.

Once I was seated she turned around so that she was facing me again.

“Okay so now could you extend one of your wings like this?” she said while extending her own wing forward so that she could reach it with her claws.

When I copied the motion she gave an approving nod before starting to lecture me on how to take care of my wings.

“Okay see here.” She said pointing to an area of feathers on my currently extended wing.

“That is what it supposed to look like, but all these feathers.” She said making a sweeping motion over quite a few bent of broken feathers. “All those need to be preened.”

“Okay so how do I go about doing this then?” I asked, idly wondering if this was going to be an arduous process.

“More often than not it’s actually a simple matter of just removing the misaligned feathers, like so.” Gilda said as she reached up and plucked a bent feather out of my wing.

I experienced a strange sensation of relief that flooded from the area where the offending feather had been irritating the surrounding ones. Oh I guess that is a nice trade for something that could be quite time consuming. I thought genuinely surprised. I reached out to remove another feather as Gilda watched me. With a bit of careful pulling this one came out too, once again triggering the relieved feeling.

“Yeah, that’s good Cloud. Now keep doing that with all the major feather you find that are damaged. Keep in mind though that sometimes it will be enough to realign a feather. I will be back in half an hour to check your progress.” Gilda said before she headed back into the inn, leaving me with my task.

By the time Gilda returned as she had promised there were quite a few feathers littering the ground around me. Gilda walked up to me slowly, taking her time to observe the work I had done so far with my wings.

“Hmm seems like you’ve grasped this pretty quickly Cloud.” She said approvingly.

“Thanks Gil, but it isn’t exactly rocket science.”

“Rocket what? You know what I don’t want to know Cloud. Anyway dad wants you to help with something.”

“Aight, know where I can find him?” I asked her and stood up.

“Yeah he should be on the roof, something about the roof tiles.” Gilda supplied.

“Mkay, I’ll go help up there then before heading to the kitchen to start prepping dinner.” I said as I prepared to jump onto the roof with the help of my wings. But then I stopped myself and turned to Gilda again.

“One question first though, where should I put all the feathers?” I asked, motioning towards the mess on the ground.

“Ah, don’t fret about it I’ll sweep that up. You just worry about getting up on that roof.” Gilda said, waving dismissively with a claw.

“Thanks again Gil.” I said and took the jump I had intended to make earlier. With a powerful flap I cleared the rooftop and landed on the edge. I could tell just from that flap just how much the preening had helped the overall feel for the airflow around my wings.

I spotted Ranger further down the roof as he waved me over. As I got closer he started to explain our task after greeting me.

“Ah good, you’re here Cloud. The merchant who stayed in the room bellow us right now complained that he had heard scratching from the ceiling. Which of course means that we have to check if there’s rats or even birds living under the tiles.”

“Aight so where do we begin?” I asked him.

“Well I thought you’d start over there and I start from this side, that way we’ll cover the area in question in an efficient manner.” Ranger suggested and I couldn’t do anything but agree that his reasoning was sound.

We had probably worked for about forty minutes to an hour when I heard Ranger call out.

“Aha! I found it Cloud! It was a rat!”

After we made sure that there were no other rats in the immediate area we started the process of replacing the tiles we had moved and we worked in silence. Well the silence lasted until I realized how much the sun had traveled over the sky and I quickly excused myself to head down to the kitchen. To which Ranger only expressed his gratitude for my help and said that he’d finish up the work at the roof.

The evening was going along swimmingly and the dining room was full of guests bantering and eating of tonight’s stew. I was currently locked in a conversation with a rather inquisitive merchant who had taken an interest in me. Well I couldn’t really fault him since I was indeed an oddity around these parts. Ranger and Gilda were moving along the tables, collecting dishes and taking up additional orders for food and drink. It seemed that the night would continue like this when the door was suddenly thrown open and five griffins in uniforms strolled in.

By now I recognized the style of the Gryphus army uniform since we had had a few guards visit the inn a few week prior. Those soldiers had been stern but polite when it came to asking me questions. The ones that had strolled in this time were a loud bunch if their initial behavior was to be any judge.

They moved across the floor of the inn and sat down around one of the tables as if they owned the place. I saw Ranger whisper something to Gilda before he moved over to the new arrivals. After a few quiet words from Ranger and a few not so quiet words from the soldiers Ranger made his way over to me. During the time Ranger walked I saw the griffin I assumed to be the leader scan the room and when his eyes finally landed on me he froze for a second. I didn’t have time to contemplate the meaning behind it as Ranger had stepped up beside me.

“Prepare food for the five of them, the faster they eat the faster we can have them leave.” He grumbled. It was clear that he disapproved of their general conduct.

“Oh and Cloud try not to antagonize them when you bring the food, I already told Gilda to stay away from their table.” He added under his breath.

I simply nodded and started to put five bowls of stew on a tray. I then steeled myself so that I wouldn’t say something dumb out of reflex when I served them their food.

“The flying feather are you? Some kind of mishap?” One of them exclaimed as I approached their table.

I suppressed the urge to bite back with a comment of my own and just placed the tray with the bowls on the table and turned to leave. However the leader barked out a few words causing me to turn back again.

“My soldier asked you a question creature. You’d better answer it or I’ll let him teach you what happens if you ignore us.” He said with a smirk.

“I’m human.” I said through clenched teeth. I had no interest in dealing with this type, but I’d rather not cause any trouble for the Rustfeathers.

“Sounds made up!” another soldier chimed in.

“I assure you it is the truth.” I said, trying to keep my tone neutral.

“I’ve never heard of humann before, have any of you boys heard of a humann?” The leader said to his soldiers, a malicious smile was present on his face.

“I think we’d better bring you for quest-” he started but was interrupted as Gilda suddenly appeared.

“I’m so sorry if our chef is bothering you but he needs to be back in the kitchen right now.” She declared quickly before starting to lead me away.

I breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks for the save Gil.”

We only made it halfway across the floor though before we heard the voice of the leader call out again.

“I challenge your chef for the right of recipes!”

“I challenge your chef for the right of recipes!”

Buck! Gilda thought, the rather fitting profanity from her time in Equestria bubbling to the surface. Why couldn’t they have just let him go? She thought frantically.

“Hey Gil, what’s that challenge?” Cloud bent down to ask her.

“It’s a really old thing were a patron is allowed to challenge the chef to fight for his recipes.” She quickly summarized.

“Ah okay, so if the challenger wins they get all of the recipes. What happens if the chef wins?” Cloud asked sounding curious. How can he be curious at a time like this! Gilda thought angrily but ultimately decided to answer.

“If the chef wins he can ban the challenger from the establishment, but don’t do it Cloud. They’re just trying to bait you. Just give them your recipes no griff will think any less of you.” She pleaded.

“That’s a problem though, all my recipes are up here.” Cloud said tapping his head with two fingers.

“Cloud come on, I know you’re pretty strong but you don’t know how to fight. These challenges continue until one party submits or is unable to continue.” She tried to reason with him again, but Cloud didn’t seem to listen.

Instead she could only watch with increasing unease as Cloud turned towards the soldiers and spoke.

“Aight I’ll accept your challenge. But this will be without any weapons, and if you lose you will leave this inn and not return.”

The grin that the leader gave didn’t help Gilda’s increasing feeling of dread, meanwhile the rest of the soldiers quickly cleared some space in the middle of the room. With a helpless feeling she watched as Cloud slowly stepped inside the makeshift arena. She had to do something Cloud was going to get himself hurt. With that thought she tried to move, only to be stopped by a large wing.

“Don’t Gilda, you’ll only put yourself at needless risk at this point.” Her father said as he lowered his wing again.

“But he is going to get himself hurt if he goes through with this.” She hissed angrily at her father.

Ranger gave her a small smile. “It’s good to see that you’re worried about someone else than me or Stella, Gil. But I don’t think you have to worry about Cloud.”

That left Gilda confused. What does he mean by that? Cloud didn’t have any experience in fighting, right? She thought as Cloud and the still nameless soldier walked up to the center of the table and chair less space. They then turned their backs to each other as one of the older merchants present instructed them too. How can he look so calm? Gilda wondered as she studied Cloud. She let her eyes wander over to his opponent and noticed that he was trying to discretely reach for something strapped to his uniform. Before she had time to bring anygriff’s attention to it the merchant that had given the previous instructions bellowed.

“Start!”

Cloud whirled around faster than she thought the human capable of moving but as soon as he had turned so had his opponent. The soldier stabbed out with the tube like item he had been reaching for, catching the unsuspecting human by surprise. Gilda could only watch in horror as a massive static discharge erupted between the weapon and Cloud, before he was thrown across the room and slammed into table. Her horror only grew when Cloud didn’t rise from behind the table that had been flipped on its side, and was now concealing his form.

“Oh how sad, I forgot to set it to stun. I guess we have a corpse to bring with us tonight boys.” The soldier said with a chuckle as he fastened the shock stick on his belt again. His subordinates laughed at their officer’s comment.

Something inside Gilda snapped at that moment, and she threw herself at the soldier in a blind rage. Or she would have if her father hadn’t been there to restrain her.

“Let me go! I’m gonna kill this bastard! Let me go dad!”

She continued to scream out her anger and the soldiers kept laughing.

“Aw look at the wittle chick, did we kill your fwend?” one soldier said mockingly.

“We should take her too boss, for threa-” a second started to say but the words died in his mouth as his eyes locked onto something on the other side of the room.

Everything has gone deathly quiet. Gilda suddenly realized, as she looked around the room to find the cause. Her mind almost went completely blank when she saw it though. Cloud was slowly standing up from behind the table while he carefully cracked his joints. The very air around him seemed to be filled with electricity and at times sparks would materialize around him. Then he threw his head back and laughed. A laugh that sent shivers down Gilda’s spine and she could feel her feathers ruffle involuntarily. Just what is he? She wondered, but couldn’t help to not feel a bit afraid of the Cloud that was in front of her. It didn’t help when the laughter died down to a dark chuckle and locked his gaze on the soldier who had tried to kill him.

“You two attack him!” He cried out, wildly pointing at two of his subordinates.

Before they had a chance to act though Cloud flapped his wings once, quickly crossing the distance between him and the closest soldier. An electrified elbow slammed into the soldier an instant later, causing him to collapse on the ground. Still chuckling Cloud turned and focused his attention on the second soldier that had been ordered to fight him. However after seeing what had happened with his friend he opted to flee instead. Seeing one of their comrades flee brought the remaining to goons out of their shock and they fled as well, leaving only the leader. The leader though had used the confusion to his advantage and now, to Gilda’s dismay, he held a struggling Stella in one of his claws.

I had avoided any testing related to electricity so far during my stay. I hadn’t been sure if this particular gift had carried over, and a mistake could’ve been fatal. It seemed though that I was still very much a storm paragon, perhaps now more than ever as I hardly felt any strain on my body. I would of course have preferred to not find out at all whether I still had my paragon heritage, but beggars can’t be choosers. I guess that the cat is out of the bag no matter what I do at this point. May as well go all out. I thought with a sigh as I rose from behind the table, the electricity coursing through me numbing any pain. A second later I had assumed a mask I thought I wouldn’t have to wear any more, but I welcomed it.

The leader griffin or whatever shouted something and two of his henchmen turned to face me when my laughter died down to a chuckle. Amateurs. I thought as I crossed the distance between me and the first one and delivered a swift elbow thrust to his temple. He collapsed like a puppet that had its strings cut, but I was already turning to face soldier number two. As soon as I turned towards him though he panicked and ran screaming out into the night closely followed by the other two soldiers, leaving only the leader. The problem was that he was restraining a terrified Stella with a claw as he stared at me a wild look in his eyes.

“Stay back!” he cried out as took a step towards him, his claw tightening its grip on Stella.

At that moment I felt a cold rage start to build under the mask I wore. The Rustfeathers had suffered enough. I’m ending this.

“Let her go. This is the one warning I will give.” My voice was ice, trembling with barely contained anger.

The griffin didn’t seem to register what I was saying though, and started to slowly back away. Eventually his rear bumped into the wall behind him and in the moment when he threw a wild look over his shoulder I was already in motion. When he turned his gaze back to me I was already in the process of reaching for wrist of the claw that held Stella with my right hand. With my free hand I delivered a whip like strike to the side of his head, causing him to release his grip on the young griffin. And while he was still dazed my knee found the underside of his beak, making his head snap backwards. Carried by the momentum and by instinct my right hand let go of his wrist and soon found itself around his throat as I slammed the next to unconscious soldier into the wall, pinning him there. Slowly I started to apply more pressure intent on choking his life out until Ranger appeared in my field of view.

“Calm yourself Cloud, he’s done.” He said as he placed his claw on the arm I was using to pin the soldier with.

I slowly released the grip and closed my eyes. A deep and shaky breath later I opened them again and leaned down to the still, barely, conscious soldier.

“I suggest you leave, you’re not welcome here anymore.” I said, my voice carrying no emotion.

He responded by nodding weakly, fear filled his eyes, and then slowly starting to crawl towards the exit. With that I finally allowed myself to release my mask and I turned to look at the rest of the patrons and the Rustfeathers. They looked scared, they all did, with the exception of Ranger. That the patrons were scared I couldn’t give a flying fuck about. No, what truly hurt me was the look I was getting from Gilda and Stella. They were afraid of me.

“I’m sorry. I’ll leave first thing tomorrow.” I said quietly, but in the silent room it sounded like thunder.

I walked up the stairs with heavy steps. Another life in ruins. I thought bitterly. I slammed my clenched fist into a wall but it did little more than produce a dull thud, as the power from whatever had been used on me had dissipated from the repeated contacts made with other living things. Once I reached my room I entered and started to quickly stuff all my possessions into my duffel bag, it didn’t take long as they really hadn’t increased that much in quantity. I wanted to be ready to leave at sunrise so with that I sat down in my corner and tried to sleep.

As the first rays of sunshine started to filter in through the small window to my room I rose. I hadn’t really been able to get much rest but that wasn’t important now. What mattered was that I got away from here, it wasn’t just me running away I was also distancing myself from the Rustfeathers should retaliation come my way. I had assaulted Gryphus soldiers after all. But where was I supposed to go now? I couldn’t figure that part out. No I can worry about that after I leave. I resolved.

I snuck out of the in easily, and was greeted by a thick layer of morning mist, that the sun had yet to erase, covering the ground around the inn. I threw one last glance at the inn I had called home for the past few months before setting off down the road. I had just cleared the forest edge when I heard rapid wing beats quickly growing closer. Turning while expecting an ambush from yesterday’s antagonists I fell into a defensive stance but was surprised to see the form of Gilda approaching fast.

“Cloooud! Waaait!” She cried out, before going into a rapid descent.

She landed a few feet away from me, the mist swirling around her. When it settled I saw a Gilda with tears in her eyes and a hurt expression on her features. She looks so vulnerable. I couldn’t help but think.

“Don’t you dare! Don’t you dare leave without even saying good bye.” She exclaimed, her voice carrying a mix between anger and sadness.

I didn’t know what to say to that tear filled face. Gone was the tough girl act, gone was the confidence I normally saw in her. This is Gilda without any shields towards the world. The Gilda she truly is. I slowly came to realize.

“I understand why you have to leave dad explained it to me late last night when we finally got Stella to sleep.” Gilda spoke up again, taking the chance to talk since I wasn’t.

“But you could’ve at least have waited for one of us to wake up first.” She continued, using a claw to wipe her tears.

With a sigh I spoke up. “I thought you were afraid of me. After what happened last night I thought it was just better if I left.”

“I was afraid at first I won’t deny that, but you’re Cloud. I know you, and I know that you would never hurt anygriff in my family.” Gilda stated, locking her eyes with mine.

As I looked at those eyes, tinged red from crying I made a decision.

“Two and a half years ago I left this world thinking that I would never come back here.” I began and Gilda looked at me bewildered.

“Yes, I can see that you’re confused and I will only give you the quick version for now but hear me out.” I began.

”As I said I left this world two and a half years ago after a rather personal battle with two beings calling themselves Rage and Grief. Only my time was spent in the Equestria and I held the form of a pegasus. You see somewhere in my family line storm paragon blood was mixed with mine and that caused my form to change when I hoped between the dimensions. I think it’s the reason for my current appearance to some degree as well. I know that this will probably just give you more unanswered questions but it’s all I can offer for now.” I quickly summarized for her, I owed her that much.

“I- I see.” Gilda said after a while.

“Where will you go now?”

“Quite frankly I don’t know where I should go. I’m tired of having to rebuild my life again and again. But with last night’s display I think it’s safe to say that my cover is blown no matter what I do. I guess my only option left is to stop running and return to where all this began. I guess that means I’m going to Equestria.” I said tiredly. I had hoped to avoid this.

Gilda nodded and then started digging into a saddlebag that she had brought with her. A few moments later she drew out a long piece of silk like cloth of a shimmering greyish color.

“Here, it’s a scarf. We were planning to give it to you when summer was about to end since you don’t have feathers or a coat to cover you.” She said as she offered me the bundled scarf.

“Thanks.” I managed to force out as I had to fight back a few tears. I hadn’t been expecting that.

Judging by the length of the scarf that had been given me I would have to wrap it around my neck a couple of times just to keep the edges from dragging across the ground. I hunkered down so that I came into the same height as Gilda before opening my arms, offering a hug.
Something that she accepted after a split second’s hesitation.

“If you ever need me for anything Gil, you know where to come find me. I won’t exactly be able to keep myself secret once I reach Equestria.” I said as I released her.

She looked up at me as I stood up and nodded. “And you can come visit once things have calmed down big guy. No you have to visit.”

“I will.” I promised and went to stand up.

“Well then I guess this is farewell for now then Gil.” I said solemnly.

“I guess it is.”

“Give my regards to Ranger will you? Oh and an apology for this stupid human’s behavior to both him and Stella.” I continued.

“I will Cloud, good bye.”

“Good bye Gil.”

With that final farewell I turned and continued down the road, my few possessions had increased in number. And I knew with certainty which one I treasured the most.

Author's Notes:

And there we have it Cloud is on the move and this chapter I have to say I enjoyed writing greatly. I hope you enjoyed reading and keep being awesome.

As always here's the working title for the next chapter: Homecoming