This is a story about my OC, Rain Leaf, and his sister, Silvermist. I had a lot of fun writing this and I hope you will all enjoy it as well. Criticism will be greatly appreciated. I really want to improve my writing.
A small critter scurried underneath the soaked leaves at the sound of the approaching hoofsteps. Raindrops slid down the drenched manes of the two grey coated pegasi as they carefully made their way along the trail, the large Everfree trees stood above them allowing very little light from the darkened sky to make its way down to the two visitors below. The male pegasus stopped for a brief moment, the royal blue eyes he shared with the mare behind him surveyed the trail before them. Fallen leaves checkered what was left of the dirt path. Still, it didn’t seem the be a problem for the seasoned veteran as he continued to lead the mare along the path.
“Did we really have to do this now?” The annoyed mare asked as she tried to shake her drenched pine green mane away from her eyes. A thunderous boom echoed through the trees; nothing that the two ponies weren’t accustomed to.
“You’re not a afraid of a little thunder, are you, Silvermist?” The male pony laughed. He turned toward his sister and offered her a reassuring smile.
“Me? Not at all! I just don’t see the reason why we have to look for whatever kind of bark it is during a storm like this. You had to have known that the weather was going to be this awful after Winter Wrap Up.” Silvermist said, trying to act as unfazed by the thunder as possible.
“Well, it is safer this way. All the critters are going to be hiding away right now. Plus, it’s not that bad. You practice in this weather all the time!” The stallion said as he continued down the path. Two squirrels caught his attention as they ran up a tree off to the left of them searching for some form of shelter from the storm.
“All this for some bark.” the grey mare muttered, half hoping that her brother wouldn’t hear her.
“A special kind of bark!” the stallion replied cheerfully. “You should really be more cheery. I am rather enjoying this quality time together.” he said with a chuckle.
“Yeah, yeah. This time it is a special kind of bark, next time it is going to be a special flower or a special weed. I still don’t understand what we are looking for. All the bark on the ground looks the same to me.” Silvermist paused to shake some mud off of her hooves. The trail was becoming more and more boggy as they went along. It was difficult to tell how long they had been at it due to the thick cloud coverage that was hiding away their precious sun. Well, her precious sun.
“Well, it doesn’t come off of a tree, or maybe it does. Who knows? Maple needs me to find some fresh timberwolf bark.” Another thunderous blast shook the forest around them. The purple flashes of lightning seem to be oddly out of sight. Only the thunder gave voice to their passage.
“Rain Leaf, Rain Leaf, RainLeaf” Silvermist said shaking her head. “You’re going to tell me that she sent you all the way out here in the middle of a powerful storm just to gather some bark.”
“Her buyer thinks that timberwolf skin has a special regenerative property to it. They said something about applying it to Equestrian infrastructure or something. Think about how valuable something like that could be!” Rain Leaf said enthusiastically, turning back towards the mare.
“So what you are saying is that she sent you out to gather bark.” said the mare with a smirk.
“Yes!” Rain Leaf said casually with a smile. He turned away as something caught his attention. There were tracks in the mud. They didn’t seem to lead off in any specific direction, but it was a start. A few scattered pieces of waterlogged bark were scattered in the mud near them. He took a few tentative steps towards the tracks, making sure that he wasn’t overlooking any small details.
“What is it?”
“Timberwolf tracks. Fresh. They have to be. The rain would have washed them away by now if they weren’t.” He kneeled down the inspect the bark chips near the tracks. “Definitely timberwolf skin. Er, well, bark I mean. It doesn’t seem fresh. It must have already been here or something.” Rain Leaf shook his head. It didn’t seem to add up. Both ponies quickly looked up towards the sky when they felt the rainfall come to an immediate halt. “Perfect! Perhaps now you will put a stop to your complaining, eh?” he teased. “Anyway, this will give me a chance to consult one these field guides with having to worry about one of them getting ruined.”
“You’re kidding. Can’t we just follow the tracks? I’m sure we'll find some bark eventually.” Silvermist asked impatiently.
“No, the whole point of us coming out here in the rain was so that we could do this without having to worry about running into one of them. They’re all in their dens right now, I’m sure.” Rain Leaf began to shift through the many pages of his field guide, muttering to himself as he went along.
Silvermist stood behind him, fidgeting for a bit. She looked around at the trees and vines around her. It all looked the same. Each tree was just as sinister as the last. The long branches almost looked like talons that could snatch up some unfortunately pony and drag them up into the dense foliage. “Creepy.” she muttered as she took a few steps back towards the trail.
“You say something, sis?” the stallion inquired, still halfway lost in his reading.
“Nothing. Is there a stream or something nearby? I want to fill the canteens while you do...” she paused for a second to check whether or not her brother was listening to her. He was still lost in his field guide, constantly flipping through pages filled with images and descriptions. “...whatever it is you doing.” She finished.
“Uh, yea, sure. Um, there should be something up ahead. Don’t wander off too far now.” Rain Leaf pointed his hoof down the trail without looking up. “How am I supposed to test for magic? I’m not some unicorn....” he carried off.
“Cause I’m always one to get herself in trouble.” the mare remarked sarcastically. She threw both of the canteen straps over her neck and started along the muddy trail. A small stream of water was flowing down the trail in the opposite direction carrying small bits of plant matter with the occasional bug. The constant sensation of the mud squishing underneath her hoof was begin to frustrate her. She kicked at the mud sending a wave of mud forward and causing some to get higher up on her leg. “Egh. Come on!” She stamped at the mud again in frustration before continuing up the trail.
It wasn’t long until she came upon the stream Rain Leaf had mentioned. There was a nice clearing along it. The stream was far higher than its natural banks but that was obviously due to the mass amount of rainfall. Silvermist walked up to the rapidly flowing stream. A few fish swam near the surface as they went with the current. A frown formed on her face once she inspected the water. Dirt and who knows what other kinds of runoff made the water appear as a murky green slime. “Eww. That’s not even worth it! Why couldn’t it have been flowers. We would have been done by now.” She thought about the last time she helped her brother out with his work. It was the first time that she had ever been to Dodge Junction. They even had to avoid a group of griffin bandits. All for a weed! She couldn't help but the shake her head and smile at the thought of it. They always knew how to find trouble. That is what she loved about hanging out with him, although she would never tell him that of course.
Something off to her right caught her eye. A large tree stood not far from the stream. She recalled her brother calling a similar tree a Knotted willow. This one lacked all of its leaves. It was almost as if it was dead. The trunk had a series of indents that created to appearance of a face with a spiteful expression. She slowly approached the sinister tree, half intrigued and half spooked. She carefully crept towards the “face” and leaned in half expecting the tree to lash out and gobble her up.
She closed her eyes for a moment to think about her silly ideas and busted out laughing. “It’s just a stupid tree!” She stamped the ground multiple times, not caring about what might be around to hear her.
A low growl from behind silenced her immediately. She quickly spun around in shock. Her blue eyes widened at the sight of a large ravenous creature. A timberwolf. The vile beast growled even louder as it took a step towards her prompting her to take one step back. Its bright yellow eyes seemed to detect her fear, its rotten wooden maw salivating at the thought of devouring the meal in front of it.
Silvermist frozen in fear. She begged her muscles to move and her wings to flap but nothing moved. She couldn’t scream. Every attempt would just get caught in her throat. A tear slid down her face and fell onto the muddy ground below her. “Somepony...... help!” she managed to get out only as a soft whimper that was drowned out by the growling of the creature.
The wolf took another step towards her, its claws digging deep into the mud. It could easily see the fear in the mare before it. It barked at her causing her to flinch before hunching back for the finishing lunge. Silvermist closed her eyes to prepare as best as she could for the fate that was about the befall her.
A shout came from her side. She opened her eyes just in time to see a grey flash tackle the monster. It was Rain Leaf! The two rolled a short distance through the mud, stopping just before they reached the stream. Rain Leaf came out of the roll on the bottom with the wolf snapping at his throat. It took all of his strength just to hold the wolf back with his legs. With a mighty kick from his back legs he knocked the beast a few meters away from him. Both him and the wolf wasted no time in getting back up. The wolf prepared to lunge again. Rain Leaf quickly used one of his front legs to kick a crest of mud at it, staggering it for a brief moment.
The wolf quickly wiped the mud off its face and lunged again. Rain Leaf quickly spun around and kicked as hard as he could with his back legs. It made the sharp sound of splintering wood as he made contact with the animal. The wolf flew back with such force that it hit a nearby tree and fell to the ground with a muddy plop.
Rain Leaf approached the fallen beast only to jump slightly as the wolf jumped back up. The rage and hatred the wolf had for him burned in its bright yellow eyes. It growled at the stallion and took a few cautious steps forward. Rain Leaf stomped the ground and flared his wings, sending drops of mud and rainwater in every direction, creating a stunning display. “Back. Off!” he commanded.
The wolf shrunk at the display. It barked at the pegasus hoping to spook him. Rain Leaf didn’t flinch. The animal seemed terrified by the daunting scowl on the face of its foe. Rain Leaf stomped the ground again which sent to wolf running off into the wall of trees. It was over for now. He stood perfectly still for a few moments in awe that it was actually over.
Not far behind him Silvermist still stood in the same spot where she watched the whole ordeal. She could hardly believe what had just transpired. Another tear slid down her face now that the reality of it all finally hit her.
Rain Leaf took a deep breath and then started to laugh. He couldn’t control it. “I didn’t think that would actually work!” he said, turning to his sister to make sure she was fine. “I really didn’t have a follow up plan. I guess running might have worked but th-”. He was met by his sister’s huge smile. Tears were flowing freely from her eyes. “Hey, hey. None of that now.” he said softly.
She ran up and embraced him. “You... you save my life!” she said with a catch in her throat. She sniffled as she began to weep.
Rain Leaf gently stroked her mane with one hoof. “Shh. shh. shh. It’s alright.” he said, hoping to comfort her.
“How did you know?”
“Big brother’s intuition.” he replied. There was a brief moment of silence before he spoke again. “That and I became a little worried when your usual loud laughter went silent for no apparent reason. I wasn’t going to let some wooden monster harm my little sister!”
“You always seem to have my back.” she felt a few sprinkles land on her face. It wasn’t going to be long before the rain picked up again.
“And I always will. Even when when you become a bigshot wonderbolt, I’ll be there when you need me.” The sprinkles started to turn into heavier rain drops as the rain picked up again “What would you say if we headed on back to Ponyville. Get ourselves out of the rain. I think that was enough excitement for today don’t yah think?. I’m sure Maple will understand why I had to come back empty once I tell her what happened.”
Silvermist’s eyes shot open at the mention of his job. A feeling of guilt swept through her as she realized that she ruined the whole venture for him. Just as she was about to close her eyes to continue crying something caught her attention. “Hey, bro, you remember how you said that you needed a fresh sample?”
He wasn’t sure what she was getting at and turned to see what she was looking at. Not far from where the wolf hit the tree were several large chunks of barkskin. “No way! Well, I guess it wasn’t all for nothing then after all!”
The two quickly recovered the samples and sealed them away in a special waterproof bag.
“You know, I could really go for a milkshake right now.” said Rain Leaf as they started back toward the trail.
“Last one to Sugercube Corner is a rotten egg?”
“You’re on!”
(As one of my prereaders pointed out, the ending was a little rushed. Sorry.)
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