Blue yelped as she felt Breakneck bend down shakily, his legs trembling as she slid with a muffled thud from his back, the spines on his neck grazing her almost-healed up underbelly lightly. It didn't quite draw blood—as if she needed any more wounds anyway—but succeeded in causing her a peculiar, almost unpleasant tingling sensation. Shivering at the feeling she sighed and lay her head down on the straw covered floor as she folded her legs under herself, rolling about unenthusiastically with stiff movements as she scratched her back, careful to avoid turning the familiar aching into full blown, mind incapacitating pain.

Pausing mid-roll so that she was laying on her back with her hooves elevated in the air, Blue turned her head with a small wince to look in the direction of her companion, studying him. He too was laying down on the floor, his body slouched and seemingly exhausted, and the graze on his shoulder was beginning to bleed more rapidly.

Gagging, Blue turned her head away and instead focused on the strange box at the end of the room, trying to think what could possibly be inside. No noise had ever came from it, at least as far as she knew, so no clues there, and there wasn't anything obviously missing from the caravan's single room to indicate. There was always the possibility that it was a storage place for weapons, of course, though that also seemed unlikely since Breakneck had not taken anything out of there before heading on out, something which Blue would have figured he'd do if he'd had any guns, or something similar. Though on that note, he did seem to have fairly good defences—unnervingly good—already. As nice as he seemed, she knew she'd have to keep an eye out for his tails—one wrong move and she could be dead. Still, at least having him by her side would mean she wasn't alone in this world. Seeing those maddens earlier... Well, she couldn't fly around forever and as soon as she stepped hoof on the ground she would surely be  attacked.

Standing unsteadily, putting very little weight on her rear right leg, she limped over to the box. Placing her hoof on the handle, she turned to assess Breakneck's reaction; he simply smiled and nodded with pained eyes, muttering, "Go ahead" quietly as he lay back down. Poor stallion was probably worn out from carrying her all the way back; still, he had offered.

Raising the lid, Blue yelped at what she saw inside the box; there were no blood-stained knifes, no heavy maces or lethal guns. Instead, a number of large orange-yellow eyes stared unblinkingly up at her, the bodies of the creatures in question hidden from view by heavy shadows inside the deep box.

"There's a light switch on the side," Breakneck grumbled, "If you want to see them. But turn them off once you're done; they need to sleep for another hour or so. It's still morning."

"They? And how on earth can you tell the time?"

Breakneck gave a short laugh and rolled his eyes. "It's called a clock, Blue."

"Oh."

Turning away from the stallion, Blue's brows furrowed as she scrunched up her muzzle as she started to search for the light switch, eventually finding it on the side of the box; a few small bulbs on the back side of  the box flickered on feebly and the creatures residing inside the box were finally able to be seen. A group of large, dark brown chickens stared up at her, opening their little beaks a few times but making no noise. There were perhaps about ten or so in the space—they had a surprisingly large amount of room to move about—but Blue couldn't tell the number for sure; the moment she laid eyes on the birds  she'd dropped the lid down immediately with a squeak, hopping backwards and landing awkwardly on her rear leg. Yelping once more at the pain in her thigh she fell to the floor and landed with a thump on her thigh.

"Ow..." she moaned as she pushed back up, flicking her tail at Breakneck as he chuckled. "It's not funny, it really—ah!—hurts!"

"It is kinda funny..." Breakneck murmured, looking away from her down at his flank. Hearing Blue's indignant huff, his ears fell flat back, his head hanging. "Sorry, sorry. Ignore I said anything. But... Could you turn the lights off please?"

"What? I was just teasing, Breakneck, you don't need to say sorry..."

"Sorry!"

Blue laughed as she trod back to the box, flicking the switch to turn off the lights, for what reason she did not know. Walking back again after, she plonked herself (gently) down next to the stallion and smiled, keeping her eyes way away from his hurt shoulder; it wasn't chronic, but she didn't like blood. "You're really shy, aren't you?" she uttered before she began to look around curiously, wondering where the food was kept. A few crackers was not nearly enough to even calm the aching of her bottomless stomach.

"It's kinda hard not to be. I've not had a friend since I was mutated." he said with a sigh, looking at Blue with an almost-pleading expression. "Tha's not much of a surprise, though, really. Who'd ever wanna hang around me?"

"I don't think you're so bad..." Blue said, trailing off as she spoke. "You seem... Well, I like to think that I could trust you. You haven't killed me yet, at least..."

"Yeah, I'm not gonna hurt you. I've been alone for way too long, it's nice ta have some company. Course, you don't have ta stay with me, just... It'd be nice. Nopony else'd trust me, I'm too much of a risk."

Blue hunched her shoulders slightly at those words. "No offence, but... Well, I can get where they're coming from. You're really quite the scary sight, what with the poison tail and all." Blue winced slightly as she spoke, realising how harsh it sounded and she scolded herself for being so rude. "Uh, but really, I don't mean any offence. "

"Nah, tis fine" Breakneck said with a sarcastic laugh, "I'm used ta it by now."

A small silence, awkward and unpleasant, fell on the room and Blue continued her hunger-driven search, eventually realising that unless she went snooping through all of the draws she'd probably find nothing. Pouting slightly, she stood and asked softly, "Have you got any... Uh, old cloths? And a bucket and some water?"

"Wha-? Yeah, sure. Look in the cupboards, you'll find somethin' there. And there's a water butt outside, but if ya want a drink there're cups hangin' up..."

"No, no, I need a bucket." Blue replied as she walked over, rummaging about until she found what she was after. Placing a small, slightly stained cloth in an old and worn—but incredibly clean—tin bucket she trotted lamely over to the doorway, wincing at the movement, and placed her hoof on the handle, before freezing.

It was dangerous to go outside.

"Hey, hey." Breakneck called as he stood up, his tails tucked between his legs in slight discomfort.  "I'll get some water for ya if ya like?"

"No, no!" Blue replied, standing tall as she pushed down on the handle, opening the door wide and desperately hoping there was nothing hostile waiting there. "I've got it."

"Well... Just don't stay out for too long, 'kay?"

"You don't have to ask twice."

Trying to shake off the instantaneous fear as she stepped hoof outside of the caravan and onto the dirt ground below, Blue felt herself whimpering like a foal, her eyes darting in all directions. She skipped spookily over to the container and dipped the tin bucket into the collected water, careful not to spill too much as she pulled it back out again. Holding the handle tightly in her teeth, almost cracking the metal from the pressure she was placing upon it, she began to walk the few metre distance back to the door; a slight breeze blew up and a small, somewhat rough... thing...  gently touched her injured rear leg. Yelping loudly she struggled to keep the bucket in her mouth as she stretched her wings out and shot as fast as she could towards the entrance to the caravan, flying in and almost crashing into the wall, water flying everywhere.

Skidding to a stop, Blue panted loudly as her thigh and neck burned; she glanced towards the door repeatedly, her hooves shaking as she trod back to close it when Breakneck jumped up immediately, ready to attack with his tails raised high. As she stood in the doorway her breathing hitched—there was nopony, or nocreature, outside, meaning they must have gotten in—before the offender finally entered the caravan. A small, crinkled brown leaf drifted across on the breeze and landed on the  tip of Blue's hoof, immediately making her tense up until she realised it wasn't a mutated monster shrunk down in size for a surprise attack. Just a regular old autumn leaf.

Laughing quietly at first, Blue quickly descended into a fit of exhilirated giggles as she walked back towards Breakneck, who had since laid down and was smiling at her, amused, and picked up the bucket with the little water left inside. Returning to his side, she pulled out the cloth and rung out most of the water until it was just damp, gently dabbing it at the stallion's shoulder wound. He winced and stiffened at the added pain but, to his credit, didn't complain too much, even when Blue washed the completely wrong section of his body—being unable to watch what she was doing and knowing she'd surely faint again if she saw the blood meant she had to work with her eyes closed, something which made her task much harder.

Nonetheless, after an almost entire body wash as the wimpish mare tried to tend to the wound, she did relent, satisfied when she saw how much better his shoulder looked without bloody fur.

Of course, she did gag when she saw the red water, and she pushed that in her companion's direction, unable to bear the sight of it. It was only made worse when she realised she'd dipped her muzzle in that water when she dampened the cloth; standing quickly, she rushed to the hay bale and draped herself across it, almost ready to vomit. Letting her wings rest unclosed she sighed and shut her eyes as her stomach growled; groaning, she perked up when she heard Breakneck's short laugh, who then returned not long after with a small bowl of cold soup and a slice of slightly stale bread.

"Here, that's the last food from your saddlebags. Other than a few crackers, course, but believe me, you'll wanna save 'em for a rough day. Good food's hard ta come by sometimes." He spoke as if he knew from experience and Blue gave him an appreciative smile, though the saddlebags were an unpleasant reminder, as she dipped the bread into the liquid in hopes of making it more edible. "But that's not really enough, you've been out for an age. How 'bout a fried egg as well?"

Blue's stomach grumbled once more in reply and she looked up beseechingly, batting her eyelids and tossing her mane stiffly, wincing afterwards. Breakneck laughed.

"You're not much of a flirter, huh? Ya don't seem that good at it." he teased as he trotted over to the box with the (in Blue's opinion, awful) chickens, reaching down and pulling out two small eggs in his mouth. Closing the lid he headed back to the small work area, immediately cracking the eggs cleanly as if he was well practiced in the skill. "Give me a minute, then it'll be done. 'K?"

"Okay!" Blue chirped, feeling suddenly uplifted at the promise of good food. The smell of frying eggs quickly reached her nose and she sighed as she lapped up the last of the soup, licking the bowl spotless before waiting (im)patiently for her next course. She didn't have to sit there doing nothing for long as Breakneck returned very soon after, placing the eggs down in front of her before he lay down on the (now wet) straw floor, looking at her curiously.

"So, tell me 'bout you, would ya?" he urged, folding his rear legs as he looked up at her.

"Okay, but you have to tell me about yourself as well. Deal?"

"Yeah, why not?" Breakneck said with a grin, looking extremely contented. "We've got nothin' better to do for a while anyway."

Blue took a large mouthful of the fried egg, rather lacking in flavourings and yet absolutely delicious all the while. "Awesome." Next Chapter: On The Road Again Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 34 Minutes