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// 41 - Grounded// Story: Ponyfinder: Roots of Stone// by David Silver//------------------------------//

The rider groaned as he struggled to get the combined weight of his fallen mount and Maud free of himself.

Maud looked down at him impassively. "Where is the crown?"

"Get offa me!" He squirmed a precious inch towards freedom with a howl of pain. "Damn it all."

"Give me the crown and I'll get off." Maud tilted her head. "It's a simple request."

"Don't have your bloody crown. Get off already!" He thumped a hand against the unconscious form of the horse. "Damn horses, both of you."

Maud hopped free of the injured animal and circled to the man's side. "It would be better if I didn't find it." She pulled him free of the horse with a fresh howl. He'd broken something, but she wasn't sure what, and didn't devote the time to find out. Her hooves patted him down, pulled his bags free and searched in those. No crown. She'd chosen wrong.

Still winded from the effort of reaching the three, she let the man sink to the ground and focused on breathing evenly as she waited for her friends to arrive. "Why did you take it?"

"Why the hell do you think we took it?" He had his hands on his injured legs, trembling as he tried to do something about it, but he looked fairly clueless and in shock perhaps. "Damn thing's worth more than all of us."

Maud tilted her head at him. "We're taking it back. You could give it to us, then we'll leave."

"Not my decision. Look, are you really going to just watch me?" He raised his hands away from his leg. "Help me. If you've got any decency at all."

Maud glanced down the road. The others hadn't caught up yet. She stepped over to the man, taking some of his bags from beside him and fashioning a crude splint out of the few supplies he had to keep the leg straight. He screeched when she set the bone as best she was able. "You should try not to move."

That wouldn't be much of an issue, with him fading from consciousness under her tender care.

When the two horses of her friends came into view, galloping down the road, Maud moved just beside the road and steeled herself. She sprang up onto Tree Hugger's horse. "They went there, and there. One of them has the crown, but I don't know which."

Paul veered off the road, following one of them. "We'll meet back at the city by sundown. Good luck!" And off they went, racing in different directions. Paul and Fast one way, Maud and Tree the other. They didn't even look at the downed man, though he hadn't moved since they raced past.

Fast's eyes swept over the ground as they ran. "They could have ditched it along the way, hoping we wouldn't see it in our hurry."

"Hope Tree does her sight thin'" Paul pointed up ahead as he urged the horse on faster. "Bloke's comin' up now. Looks like his horse's runnin' out."

"Thank goodness for that. Ours isn't looking much better. I'll close the distance." Fast slid to the ground in a rough tumble, almost falling over along the way before she could get her hooves under herself properly and get galloping alongside the less burdened beast.

Paul drew his blade, the reins held in a loop around his arm to guide the war beast as he prepared to crash into the thief. He saw them coming, and wildly urged his mount on, getting a dredge of energy out of it in a sudden gallop. He left Fast behind, clanking along in her metal armor, but the winded animal  couldn't keep it up for long, and slowed again before stopping, heaving and foaming with exertion. "Show the damn animal some compassion." Paul raised his huge sword menacingly. "Just hand it over. We ain't really here for you."

"Ain't got it," said the man, his hands going up. "Boss does."

Fast caught up, panting softly as she took up position on the other side of the rider. "What boss, where? Be specific."

"Probably done rode off by now." The man frowned. "He has the best horse, and he knows how to ride it."

Fast sucked air through her teeth. "They'll find him, if we don't first. Get off that horse." She raised her lance at him.

Caught between a sharp point and a long deadly blade, he slid off the horse with his hands still up.

"Thank you." Fast threw herself up onto the horse and pat it on the back of the head. "She deserves better treatment than she's getting, and your associates don't need warnings from you any faster." She nudged the horse into a slow walk, mindful of its winded state. Paul pulled up beside her on the other horse. "We'll go at his pace, focus on following their tracks, and let our mounts catch their breath."

Left behind, the would-be thief threw his hands down. He looked between the wilderness and the distant town. He had a long walk ahead of him, and began the journey with the first step, grumbling softly the entire way. At least it wasn't technically his horse that she had commandeered.

Maud slipped around Tree even as they galloped, much to Tree's fearful protestations. Taking the reins, she assumed control of the mount and guided it forward, but after several minutes of moving in the same direction the other had, there was no sight of him, and the horse was becoming as tired as Maud had been before. With a gentle pull, she slowed the horse to a walk as her eyes scanned the ground. "Do you see his tracks?"

Tree Hugger nodded and began to point them out. "We're going the right way. He was still, or at least his horse was still running fast. That must be a very healthy horse." She tilted her head. "Can we catch him?"

Maud nodded. "We'll follow him until they slow down. He has to slow down eventually." Or so she hoped.

Tree nodded as she kept a hoof directed at the tracks. "I'll make sure we stay on target, right sister?" She smiled a little. "Do you think this one has the crown?"

"Maybe not." Maud glanced around. "Maybe Fast already has it and is on the way back to town. We can't assume."

"Possibly." Bright launched from Tree's head suddenly, circling up into the air and soaring ahead of them along the line of their travel. Flying far above, he could see quite far into the distance in what was mostly open plains. Spying something, he returned to them. "Possibly!"

Tree smiled upwards at her friend perched on her brow. "I hope you add some radical lingo to your vocab, little dude. What'd you see?"

"Possibly." He extended a wing a little to the right of the trail they were following, and Maud silently adjusted to follow the bird's guidance. This seemed to please Bright feathers, who nodded and settled down on Tree comfortably like a hen tending some eggs.

They went off into some thick grass, and what he had seen became clear several minutes later. Emerging from the vegetation, they beheld a man standing beside his horse. There was glass scattered around him, and he had a rapier drawn. He looked ready for a conflict. Maud slipped off the horse easily. "I'll ask him to give it back. If he doesn't agree, you know what to do." Tree nodded, and watched as Maud stepped with sure, but fast, motions.

Tree wondered how Maud could do that. It was as if the bursts of speed she had occasionally been known for had become second nature to her. She had been so slow, like stone itself, but had become faster and faster the longer they spent in Everglow. Perhaps she was changing too, though not as obviously. She still looked like her old self, unlike Tree, who more closely resembled the horse she was mounted on, if one discounted her bright green pelt and the outrageous locks in her mane and tail.

Maud walked towards the man, not even trotting. "You have the crown."

"I do." He raised the rapier towards her. "You plan to fight for it?"

"I'd rather not." She raised a brow. "Just because I can, doesn't mean I should." She held out a hoof. "Can we have it back?"

He looked between her and the obvious druid mounted on a horse behind her. The odds weren't looking very good. If she could entangle him... If the speed demon in front of him lunged for him... "I wasn't born a fool, or raised as one." He waved the rapier lightly, taking a slow step back. "I don't have a chip in this. Why wouldn't you murder me once you have it?"

Maud frowned subtly. "We don't care about you. Give us the crown."

It was a bruising blow to his ego, to simply be beneath her concern. The druid called out to him, "Hey, man. Be cool. If you have the crown, give it up. It wasn't yours to start."

Perhaps they were restrained by some sort of moral code? "Well it is now... The way I see it, you're robbing me. Maybe you'd rather buy it instead?"

Maud paused. She afforded a quick glance back at Tree then looked at the human, considering impassively. "No."

Tree shook her head a little. "Nah man, that ain't cool. You stole it. It's important, give it back. We'll fight you if we have to." She turned her attention to the man's horse, making soft nickering sounds followed by a sharp whinny. The horse responded by rearing up, legs kicking. He was forced to let go, and it gallopped off. He was truly alone.

Pushed to it, he lunged forward and drove his rapier into Maud before she could turn it aside, lancing her in the shoulder and causing her to give a soft grunt of pain. She put her hooves on his shoulders and pulled him tight. To someone watching, it may have looked like she was embracing him, and she was, but there was no affection there. Her grip tightened even as he drove the iron blade into her side before a sudden swipe of a hoof sent it to the ground. She pinned him to the earth as Tree came up with a rope.

Nodding, Maud accepted it and soon had him hogtied and helpless. "Should have given it." She started frisking him, producing the crown from a hip bag. She tossed it to Tree Hugger. "Thank you."

Tree caught it in her mouth before tucking it in a saddlebag. "Sister, are you alright? You look like you were stuck." She approached with dully glowing green hooves. Maud stood still long enough to let her banish the hurts. "Good job. You didn't even hurt him."

Maud looked at Tree's smiling face, then turned back to their horse. "We should head back to the city."

Tree inclined her head at the pinned man, who was cursing and threatening futily. "Shouldn't we do something about him?"

Maud returned to the horse and pat its neck gently. "He should have given it." She moved to simply walk away, leaving the man to his fate.

