chapter 3

Before I could even react, I was rushed, getting jabbed right in the face. God, it hurt like no other. My vision was blurred as her next attack, a swift right hook, connected with my already bruised muzzle. The blow was devastating. Staggering back, I let out a loud roar of pain, only for it to get cut off by yet another punch. This time to the throat.

Having my larynx bashed in is not the most pleasurable feeling out there, let me tell you.

“Glack!” was all I could make out as I fell to the floor choking.

All the while, a silver furred, black striped cat was splashing around in the river nearby, having a grand old time. You could hear his happy laughter echo around the trees, along with the sounds of my gagging. Little guy was oblivious to the ass kicking happening not ten meters away.

I gasped loudly as I regained my ability to breath. I tried to think of my options of fighting back, but my chances of getting a shot in were slim to none. This chick is fast. I doubt I have any chance of even coming close to beating her...

“Jūs patētisks ķēms!” she yelled in a fairly feminine tone.

I knew it, she was female! Colten owes me money! Suddenly, I was reminded that now was not the time, as her heel came smashing down on my head. That’s gonna leave a goose egg... Good thing I wasn’t panting that hard or I’d of bit off my tongue.

Man, this is getting old. I mean, isn’t she getting just a little tired of whooping my buns? And just as I thought that, who to show up, but none other than the fur ball himself.

“Flora, pārtraukt!” Baldon cried out as he jumped in front of her. “Nav ievainots, viņš ir draudzīgs!”

As I slowly collected myself, I could only wonder what these crazy cats were saying.

Baldon

“I know he’s probably not the smartest, but I think he means well. Flora, just hear me out here,” I pleaded.

“Baldon, that’s insane! Look at him. He’s a monster! A demon! He kidnapped you and threw you off of a cliff, and you want to help him?!” Flora retorted angrily.

“But... he didn’t hurt us when he could have... that must count for something, right?” I reasoned.

“What if he wants to use us to get to the village?! Did you ever think about that?” Flora yelled.

I visibly flinched, and looked down. “I-I didn’t think about that... what should we do?”

Flora sighed and looked at me with a warm smile, her mood flip-flopping instantly, throwing me off completely.

“It’s okay. What we need to do is find out what it wants, and stop it. Easy as that.” Flora explained.

“Excuse me, still alive over here. What's up with the gibberish?” Zack butted in.

“... Baldon, how can he...” Flora tried to ask, but was also interrupted.

“Hey, Baldon, what’s up with your girlfriend anyway? She’s kind of a bitch,” he so eloquently stated.

Flora’s eyes went wide after that. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She turned to me with a confused and slightly angry look on her face.

“You told him your name?! What, are you two best friends or something now?” she yelled, switching languages suddenly.

“Hey! What’s wrong with that? Where I come from, telling someone your name is the polite way to greet people,” Zack stated matter of factly.

“How do you know this language? Who and what are you?!” Flora yelled at the chimera.

I just sort of sat back and watched to see where this was going.

“Um... let me see, because I was taught it from birth, duuuuh. Any more dumb questions?” He smirked. “And I’m called a chimera, just so you know.”

“A chimera? What’s that supposed to be?” Flora questioned.

“It’s what you see in front of your face. You’re not very smart, are you?” Zack said in the sassiest manner he could. Oh no, he went there.

That seemed to really rub Flora the wrong way. What a shocker. From the look of it I thought she was going to beat him to a pulp, but to everyone’s surprise, she just started smiling.

That’s not really like her... She gracefully approached the chimera, giving him a big smile and then punched him in the face. There it is.

Zack dropped to the ground like a brick. I don’t think I’d ever seen someone cry so much over one little punch. But, this is Flora we’re talking about, so it’s understandable. I was about to step in, when a calm voice beat me to the punch.

“Okay, Zack, I think you’ve dug yourself into a big enough hole, now it’s my turn to step in,” the large black snake chimed in.

This caught Flora’s attention, and when she looked to see who it was talking, I think something went wrong because she just sort of froze up out of nowhere. She had a weird look on her face that I’d never seen her wear before.

Her eyes shrank down to the size of pin pricks. Slowly, she took one step away from Zack, then another, she kept going until she was pressing herself against a tree.

I couldn’t wrap my mind around it; what in the world is she doing? Suddenly, it all became clear when Zack stepped forward. He didn’t even look menacing, just kind of confused; all the same, Flora flinched when he moved towards her. There was the answer, plain and simple. Flora was...scared.

Zack

“Hey, what’s up with you?” I asked as I took a step closer. The second my paw touched the ground she flinched like I’m about to rush her. What the heck? I thought to myself as I took another step.

And another flinch... what is up with this girl? She is jumpy as hell! I can’t take five steps without her freaking the fuck out. She seemed fine just a minute ago when she was kicking my ass! Just, out of nowhere she gets all twitchy and scared. What could have changed to make her afraid of me now and not earlier? Wait a minute... maybe.... nah... I’ll just ask. Deciding that, after the longest inner monologue of all time, I just went with the easiest way out.

“So... seriously, what’s wrong with you?” I asked bluntly.

Yeah, I get my abruptness from Colten. Except I think I do it wrong or something, because for me, people get pissed, but for him, people don’t mind as much.

“There’s nothing wrong with her!” So says the little rugrat.

“Okay, then explain, what’s up with her?” I questioned.

“Zack, you’re coming on too strong here, let me try and talk to her again,” Colten butted in for, like, the millionth time.

With a heavy sigh, I turned around so Colt could face the cats.

He began with a deep breath. “Hi, I’d like to--”

His sentence was cut off by the blood curdling shriek of fear coming from the female feline. The scream could be heard for miles. God that was some loud shit.

“Way to go Colt, you iced it,” I chuckled.

She was still going at it, screaming like she was about to get eaten or something. What’s the name for snake phobia? Doesn’t matter, this chick’s got it good.

“She’s just overreacting, this is ridiculous,” Colten scoffed.

I let out a laugh, and looked over to Baldon. “Maybe you should try calming her down, man. We’re kind of at a loss here.”

Nodding, the little cat walked over to the larger one and talked in that backwards language of theirs. Whatever he said, it worked; she finally shut up. I had grown bored of watching them have some type of moment with each other and had gone to sit next to the fire again. Colten and I had started to plan out what to say next to these two.

“Okay, so introductions didn’t go as planned,” my brother proclaimed.

“No, really? I thought it was going good, when she started beating the shit out of me, I felt a real connection,” I said with my usual snarkiness.

“Well, jokes aside, what do we do?” Colten asked.

I just stared at him. “I don’t know! You’re supposed to be the guy with the plan, man!”

“It’s not that easy, Zack. We’re in a different world, if you haven’t noticed. I don’t know what to do in a situation like this!” he exclaimed.

“You and me both man, this is as surreal as it gets. I mean... we just got done talking to cat people for gods sake!”

I think that got their attention, because right after I said that I heard the sound of someone clearing their throat from behind me.

“So uh... yeah, hi, still here,” Baldon said.

The little guy had grown a pair, I guess, because now he just walked up to us no problem. About time too. The scared routine was getting old. And guess who was hiding behind him, performing the same god damn shtick.

“Anyway, guys, this is Flora,” he continued, stepping off to the side to reveal the scared cat girl.

Her eye’s were instantly fixed on Colten, the fear fairly noticeable on her face. But, she showed a little courage and didn’t hide away. Instead she just kind of looked down at the ground. Great, now she’s got the shy routine going on.

Something caught her eye, because out of nowhere she spoke up.

“Are you okay? You look hurt,” she said while looking down at my paw of all places.

“Really?” I asked, looking down to inspect my paw.

Turns out she was right, I was still cut up from that spear earlier. I’d completely forgotten about that. Huh, didn’t really hurt much anymore, but now that she mentioned it I can’t really leave it alone, now can I?

First, I felt it was my duty to piss this cat off as much as possible.

“No fucking shit, I just got stabbed, jumped off a cliff, and was beaten by a deranged cat girl. I’m more than hurt, dammit!” I exclaimed angrily.

I received a deep glare and a low growl for my douche antics there, so I’d say a job well done. I thought I’d finally pushed her over the edge, but she pulled a fast one on me.

“I could help bandage that up for you,” she mumbled.

I have to say, that did surprise me. I mean come on, can you blame me? She was acting like she hated my guts and all of the sudden this. Make up your mind, dammit!

“Yeah, I... it’s just, you need help, and I can help you,” she whispered kind of awkwardly.

That didn’t even make any sense! That is literally no reason to help us! Gaaah, forget it! I thought loudly.

“Um... okay, knock yourself out, I guess,” I said as I handed her my paw.

Without so much as a flinch, she walked up to me and took my paw into hers and began to examine it. I was on guard at all times, just in case she tried something.

Yet, all the cat did was look at my paw. Once she got a good enough look she let go and started messing with her dress looking thing. There was a sudden ripping noise and Flora turned back to me with a long strip of cloth.

“What are you--” I didn’t get to finish as she sat the cloth down on the ground next to me and ran over to the trees, but not before assuring me that she’d be back. Well, couldn’t really do much but go with it for now, so I sat with Baldon nearby and waited.

“Been pretty crazy, hasn’t it?” I asked, trying to instigate some kind of conversation.

“Y-Yeah,” Baldon replied back awkwardly. He seemed to be rubbing some spot on his neck. It took me a bit of effort to see what was up, but after a while I was able to spot some marks on his neck before he could cover them. Shit, that was my fault.

With a sigh, I broke the long silence that had fallen over the both of us. “So, listen, I’m sorry about all this. I didn’t mean for it to get out of hand.”

“Yes, do understand that we aren’t from here and we just happened to wake up at the wrong place at the wrong time,” Colten pitched in.

Letting go of his neck, the little cat responded. “Oh, it’s fine, really. It probably hasn’t been the best experience ever, but it was kind of fun.”

The kid tossed me a friendly smile that I more than gladly returned. Before we could say any more, Flora popped out of the woods. She had what looked like a butt load of plants. So, she went to go pick some flowers. Yeah, I’m sure that will help with the huge gaping hole in my paw! I thought to myself.

“Chew on this.” Suddenly, I found myself with a mouth full of leaves and I started chewing. Within a few minutes, the pain slowly dulled, giving me great relief. I couldn’t even believe it. I’d never stopped to realize just how much pain was there.

“W-Whoa,” I exclaimed with a smile. I spit out a few leaves and looked them over. Didn’t look out of the ordinary, I guess. I’m not a leaf expert, so hopefully it won’t kill me.

“What is this?” My head started to spin as I said that. Before I knew it I had to plop down on my rump before I fell over or something.

“It’s an herb called kā guļ. It should relieve your pain long enough for me to clean and wrap it up,” Flora explained, with kindness in her voice.

It just doesn’t add up. What’s she playing at? Why is she doing all this?

“Why?” I asked vaguely.

“Why what?” she asked as she tilted her head and blinked at me in confusion.

“Why are you helping me? It doesn’t make any sense. I kidnapped your boy friend and hit you over the head with a rock. What gives?”

“... I owe you for saving my life,” she said quietly.

My ears flicked a bit. “What are you tal... you mean that? You remember that?”

With a nod, she continued. “You reached in and saved me... I just thought I’d return the favor.” Before I could say anything in return she continued, a sudden blush on her face. “And he’s not my boyfriend!”

Suddenly, our little moment was over, if you could even call it that. Either way, it was all ripped to shreds when I started howling in laughter.

“Hehe, sure you aren’t. Then why did you jump off a cliff to come save him? Admit it, you crazy about him.” I chuckled out the last bit of laughter before I finally settled down.

I was quickly put in my place, as Flora retorted with a scoff. “And you say I’m stupid... I’m his guardian, his protector.... basically, I’m his godmother.”

Whaaaaaaaaa?! I couldn’t even tell if I said that out loud or if it was in my head. Didn’t really care.

“W-What?!” I repeated. Still couldn’t tell. Lots of shit just filled my brain for, what, the third time today?

Giving me the look that said something along of the lines ‘Well, yeah, duh,’ Flora answered my very stupid question with guess what? Another equally stupid question.

“What?”

What, am I talking to, a parrot?

“What do you mean, ‘godmother’? You look almost as young as him!” I barked.

“I’m old enough! What do you know anyway? You’re just a loony freak!” Flora shot back.

“A freak, eh? I’ll remember that the next time you’re about to drown. Instead, maybe I’ll just sit back and fucking watch!”

“Zack...”

“You don’t even fucking know me you bitch! How are you going to come up to me and call me loony when you’re just some punk ass kid!”

“Zack!...”

“You want to throw this kind of shit at me, fine, fire away you little shit. I can take more than you could ever fucking dish out!”

“ZACK!!” Colten yelled.

I stopped and turned to my brother, only to see the look of disappointment on his face. I’d seen that look a lot growing up... I never thought I’d see Colten use it. I visibly quailed from the look he gave me.

“Both of you need to calm down and go to sleep, now.” He ordered through gritted teeth.

“I don’t have to do what you tell me!” Flora exclaimed.

With that she turned and stormed off to the other side of the clearing. Huffing, she plopped down onto the ground, crossing her arms. Grumbling to herself about god knows what.

Poor Baldon didn’t even get a word in. With a tired sigh, he went back to go check on Flora.

And I, I just sort of stood there, feeling a whole load of mixed feelings about everything. I turned to Colten and started to apologize.

“I think you’ve said enough today, lay down, it’s time for bed. We’ll figure this out tomorrow.” Didn’t even look at me when he said this.

With my head hung low, I did as I was told and laid down next to the fire. I flipped to my side with a sigh. I really screwed this one up.

After a little while of moping I started to close my eyes, slowly setting an end to my first day in the land of Equestria. And I’ll tell you what, this place isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Next Chapter: Chapter Four Estimated time remaining: 35 Minutes