//------------------------------//
// 37 - Nice Things You Have There// Story: Ponyfinder: Roots of Stone// by David Silver//------------------------------//

Just at the crack of dawn, with Paul standing watch, his attention snapped to the loud crisp tones of arcane power coming from the dim light. He pushed off his seat and ran towards it in time for a small mote of fire to fly past him in the other direction. The camp was caught in a sudden explosive rush of flames. Before he could check on the status of his allies, two figures in dark leathers stepped out, swords at the ready. "Put down that toy of yours before you hurt yourself."

With a scream of fury, Paul charged the two, bringing his blade down across one man's chest in an arc of blood. He tried to carry the momentum into the second, but he hopped back out of the way and lunged back at him, driving his sword into his exposed shin. The first fighter, staggering back, drew a potion from his pocket and greedily gulped it down, ceasing to add blood to his stained clothing.

Paul could hear shouting, and several bolts of power slammed into him from nowhere, rocking him back. In the increasing light of the morning, he could see one figure with fingers crooked at him. A wizard?

A loud caw came from the other side of camp. "Possibly!" Bright Feathers flapped before a man wielding a bow, clawing and pecking what might have turned into a backshot on Paul.

Rolling to her hooves, Fast charged the archer with a grim silence. The man scrambled away from her and the bird, and she abandoned him to turn to another archer preparing to fire. The arrow bounced off her thick armor, but her lance did not find the same resistance in the assailant's lighter clothing. She drove deep and well, kicking the man's gored body free of her lance to almost instantly collapse to the ground.

"Merciful god of the sun, protect us," spoke a man holding a metal charm of a globe with little waves coming off of it, a clear sun icon. The fallen man coughed, stirred to life as healing waves passed over the attackers.

Tree looked around in a bit of a panic, on her hooves but confused and terrified by the chaos around her, not to mention burned and scorched by the sudden ball of flames that had served as their alarm. Maud had no such delay, launching herself towards Paul and striking the man on his right with a sudden sharp blow to the chest, making the man drop his blade, the breath knocked free of him. "You burned my new frock."

Paul knocked the still-capable man's blade aside, but couldn't land his own on him. His foe was fast and nimble, falling back as he gave a false lunge, scraping against Paul's breastplate. "G'on, do it!"

The apparent signal was received, and the wizard began to intone powerfully in a short spell, thrusting his hands forward. Bright colors washed out over Maud and Paul, sending Paul to the ground with a wordless cry. Maud locked eyes with the wizard and trotted for him unnervingly without running. The men beside her tried to stop her with dancing blades, but she danced around them easily. An arrow was loosed at her, and she swatted it away. Her time had been well spent, and she strode unstoppably.

The wizard fell back. "Stop it! Keep it away from me!" He clapped his hands together and sent a sheet of fire at her, for her to duck beneath most of it, coming ever closer, the singed tips of her ears doing little to stop her.

Unseen by them, Fast was delayed putting the archer back down in a more permanent fashion. She yanked her lance free from his punctured head. "Tree, Paul needs you!"

Tree started and ran towards him, her form melting and changing to that of a wolf on the way with a keen howl. The cleric raised a loaded crossbow into position and fired into the charging wolf's shoulder, drawing a distressed yelp from her, and drawing the ire of Bright Feathers on himself in a fury of feathers.

Circling around her, the two warriors closed ranks with Maud and came at her from both sides, one of their blades turned aside with a thrust of a hoof, but the other found its mark along a hind leg in a thin line that became red quickly. Abandoning her original quarry, she focused on one of the swordsmen, raining down a rapid staccato of hoof-blows to the chest and head before kicking his feet out from under him, sending him to the ground. An arcane spell rang out as she worked, and she felt it taking hold of her, slowing her motions as if she were swimming in tar suddenly.

As if led by the bird, Fast galloped onto the cleric. "Throw down your holy symbol if you're as good as any sun god should be." She didn't strike out at him, but looked ready to do so. "I don't want to visit pain on a fellow praiser of the sun if I don't have to."

Tree stood over Paul's prone form, growling at the others, but not engaging in the melee either. With a burst of green, she could speak. "Fast, he's tripping way out. What can I do?"

Maud struggled against her dance partners. Slowed, more strikes could pierce her defenses, and she wasn't lashing out in the storm she would have preferred, to say nothing of the arcane pummeling the wizard offered from afar to harass her. "You will lose." She tried to keep her head clear. Even if they were getting some strikes in, she focused on moving and striking when the chance made itself clear. One had his legs open just a little too far. A planted leg sent the man to the ground with a new appreciation for the kicking power of horses.

"Why are you attacking us?" Fast kicked aside the cleric's dropped gear as Bright Feathers flew off towards Maud. "Who sent you?"

"Nobody 'sent' us," grunted the holy man.

"Then why?"

Bright came down on the troublesome wizard in a screech, producing quick bloody wounds and distracting the man from his spells quite well. "Forget this!" He fled, and his parting took the wind out of the other two, who scrambled to follow, aches or not.

The cleric might also have fled, if Fast didn't have him held down. "Why? Speak clearly."

"We thought you were easy marks, lucky and inexperienced, come into money in a lucky journey and drunk on it. We could have put that gear to better use."

Fast raised a brow high. "Common bandits? Is that what the sun would smile on?" The man looked down. "I should think not! You shame your order."

Tree shook the shaggy fur from herself, becoming a pony once more. "Everything alright over there?"

Fast pointed a hoof at the cleric. "Nothing but a holy man that has lost his way. I've been told any being can stray, once, and find their way back. Will you turn your eyes back to the sun, instead of burying it in the ground in shame?"

"You're not killing me, or just giving me the chance for peace before I go?"

She snorted loudly. "If I wanted you dead, we wouldn't be conversing. What will you do when you return to the city?"

He clenched his hands a moment in a tremble. "Fine. I'll go to the church, and admit what I did."

"An excellent start." She smiled. "I hope the sun does shine on you, and you give it good reason to." She turned away from the man, bringing her deadly lance tip away. "How is everyone?"

Tree brought a hoof off Paul. "He's fine, where are you, ah." She set eyes on Maud, then shook her head. "You're hurt, come here and get some righteous healing."

"Wait." The cleric reached for his dropped symbol. "I will atone with this to start." The cleric proved an able wielder of the divine arts, banishing the lacerations from Maud's grey hide and scorches from the rest in waves of golden light. He took a fallen cap and with an invocation, filled it with water, clear and pure. "Use this to wash yourself."

Fast smiled gently. "Don't let yourself fall in with such rough characters again. Offering them your services darkens your spirit as well, and I doubt that's what you want." She nuzzled her lance into a less ready position. "Travel well."

Paul recovered shortly thereafter, dazed, but unharmed. With their morning off to an exciting start, they gathered together, and resumed their journey. "Told ya it was a good idea there."

Fast nodded in assent. "I concede. Had the horses been directly beside us, they would have been caught in the blast. I'm too used to fighting beasts, not other intelligent creatures. A fireball is not how I plan to start most days."

Maud glanced aside at Paul as they guided their horses across the plains. "You did well."

"Did I?" Paul looked less certain. "Damn wizard knocked me out cold."

"You didn't panic, and you fought well."

Fast nodded from behind Paul. "I didn't get to see much of it, but you were carrying your blade well. There's room for improvement, of course. There always is, but you didn't embarrass yourself today. Flint would be proud."

Tree looked less certain, holding to Maud. "I kinda wigged out. I was having a nice dream and then suddenly everything was going haywire at once, man. It was freaking me out. How did you all just get up and get moving like that?"

Maud peeked over her shoulder. "We had to."

Fast smiled. "That's about the size of it. We get moving, or someone we care about gets hurt for it, maybe ourselves. Don't beat yourself up for it, you'll improve, like the rest of us. I imagine that was the first time you were roused that violently."

They had much longer to go to reach the first major town, to say nothing of the pony empire far beyond.

