Ruki meets Takato

Once more, Ruki wondered why she had been so stubborn. Why hadn’t she listened to the warning of the old man? The snow storm was coming, and there was no shelter. Still she had forced herself to go on, and now she was almost freezing. The snow storm was raging, blowing the small snowflakes against her at high speed. And there was no place at all for shelter, only one big plain she had to cross.

Oh, there had been a road there. She had seen it that morning, before the snow arrived. She was definitely on the right path to the west. The second crossing… the one in the north that was not watched nor cared about. Of course, it wasn’t safe, either. The breach never was. Especially in this weather… Would she arrive there in this snow storm? If she would she had no other option but to wait until the snow was gone.

How far away the crossing was, she did not know, either. It could be days away, weeks away, months away… If it was still there in the first place. Stubbornly Ruki walked on, her hoofs sinking deeper into the snow with each step she took. It was cold, so cold… Ruki was already way past the point where she could still feel her legs. But she could not linger. She knew that if she would she would slowly fall asleep, never to wake up again… No, she had to go on, unless she could find shelter somewhere, but as she could not see a meter in advance the hope of that ever happening had vanished.

All she could see was the endless white that stretched out before her covered by a shower of white that made her unable to see, to feel… She was tired, so very tired, but she could not afford to fall asleep. No, she could not… but she could feel the darkness touching her. She could not go on for much longer… All she wanted was to sleep, to hide from the pain of the cold snow… It was so appealing and yet she could not, she definitely… could not… but in the end the white vanished before her eyes and the warm darkness of a young dream embraced her.

Warmth was closing in on her. Where was she? Back in her old home, surrounded by the pretty flowers and the countless butterflies? Yes… the warmth of that place was coming closer to her. Her father… was sitting there, watching over her so she could safely sleep. Yet what was that single light? It was so bright, while everything else was so very dark…

She closed her eyes and once she opened them again, she realized she was not in her old, safe home. There were no flowers, no butterflies… and the warmth was only an illusion. She could hear the wind howl not too far away, but she was covered by a blanket and lay close to a fire that did not seem bothered by the wind at all.

Was she safe? There was no wind… So at least the storm would not hurt her anymore. But that person… He was not her father. Her father’s coat was light purple and this person was definitely… dark blue. And he seemed so much smaller… Yet she found it terribly hard to believe that someone else had been as foolish as her to face the storm. She tried to speak, but she found her entire throat was dry, so only a weird sound came out.

Immideately the blue pony turned.
“Oh, you’re awake.”
“Wa…ter…” Ruki managed to say and the pony hurried and brought her a cup of fairly warm water. After she had sipped a bit of the water her throat seemed to calm down and she was able to talk freely again.
“Thank you…” She whispered, without looking at the pony. She had to check her surroundings first.

Her bag stood against a stone wall… Was she in a cave? Her bag appeared to be unopened. Well, at least the stranger didn’t touch her possesions… not that it was much, anyway, but she gotten attached to them, as they were things she had paid for with her own hard earned money.
“It was a bit silly of you, you know. Going out in that snowstorm. You were lucky I saw you, or you would certainly have died out there.” The pony said.
 She could hear in his voice he was still young, maybe only a little older than she was.

“Yes, well… Thank you, for saving me. I know it was stupid, I just… really wanted to move on.” The pony still did not turn, so she still had no idea what his face looked like. “So much that you were willing to risk everything?” He asked.
“No… of course not. I just… didn’t know it was going to be this bad.” Ruki answered.
When he said no more, Ruki asked, “So how is the storm now? Has it calmed down yet?”

“No… only a little. It will take until morning to calm down. You’ll have to stay here until then, I’m afraid. Where were you headed for, anyway? There’s not much out there, you know.” The blue pony asked, still staring into the fire.
“I was… headed for the breach.” Finally the pony had a reason to turn. Surprise was obvious in his face.

Ruki liked to say that she could read a lot from a person’s face, but she was clueless when she saw him. His eyes were friendly but in a way also very emotionless. And sad… but she did not know where exactly it came from. His eyes were even darker than the depths of the ocean, his coat bluer than the evening sky. There was something special about him that Ruki could not place at all.

“The breach? Are you planning on going onto the west?” He asked.
“Yes, I was… why?” Ruki answered hesitantly. To her surprise, he smiled.
“You won’t be able to go there now. You’ll have to wait until the winter leaves.” “But… why? There is a bridge here, right?” Ruki asked.
 “Yes, there is, but it’s frozen now. It has no support, it’s just one big road to the other side. It’s way too likely that you will slip and fall. And you know what they say… nobody ever came out of the breach alive.”

“But I have to go to the west!”
“Well, you will have to take the official bridge or you will have to wait. You can go and see for yourself, of course.”
The official bridge… It was much more south so it was probably still passable, but it was heavily guarded by ponies from the west. If someone should recognise her… she did not want that. She would still check the northern bridge, but she had the annoying feeling the blue pony was right.

“May I ask why you wish to go there so badly?” The blue pony asked. He had already turned to the fire again. Ruki didn’t understand, he was asking her all these things truly interested, and yet he was not even looking at her.
“I… have some research to do there.” She answered. Well, it wasn’t a lie.
“I see. Well, I am sorry, but it will have to wait until spring or you will have to go south. But somehow I feel you have a reason not to go there… to the southern bridge.”

She had, but she was not about to tell this strange pony. Ruki slowly got back on her hoofs and while she felt a little dizzy at first, she soon recovered. The cave wasn’t as abandoned as she had thought it was. The bed she had been sleeping in was actually a bed, and the fireplace was carefully made. The cave was larger than she had expected, too. There was a path that no doubt led to the exit, as she could hear the wind come from there, and in one of the corners there was a rather unsorted pile of food.

“Do you live here?” She asked.
“Yes… for the moment.” He replied, without looking up.
“May I ask your name?” Ruki asked after she realized she did not even know this. “I guess you can call me Takato.” He replied.
Ruki knew this was no his real name, but he would not give that to her.
“Yours?”
“Ruki.”  She almost gasped when she realized she had given him her real name. She never did that, but it had completely slipped her mind.
“That’s a nice name. Ruki… it’s a western name, isn’t it?” Takato asked.

Ruki sat down on the other side of the fire. She loved the heat of the flames. Takato handed her a cup of water which she greedily drank.
 “Yes… it is. My father… lives in the west. But I’m not going there now.” Once again, she told Takato the truth. She did not completely regret it. It was nice to tell the truth for once, even though she knew this was as far as she could possibly go.

“So… why are you living in a cave?”
“I… have some research to do as well. And as there are hardly any ponies here, I guess this is the right place for it. But I won’t stay here long enough to build myself a little house. I was planning on going back to the west as well, in spring.” Takato replied, and this time Ruki felt sure he was speaking the truth.

“What kind of research?” Ruki asked.
“I am… researching the forces of the earth here in the east. You know the kings in the west get their power from the earth, while the queens of the east get theirs from the heavens. Once, it was all in balance… but it is no longer so. Therefore I am trying to find evidence that the forces of the earth are no longer contained in the west, but instead are leaking to the east.”

Ruki had heard of the forces of the west before. It was true that in the west there were no queens like there were here in the east. Men ruled there, because only they could use the earth’s forces. But that was all she knew about it. She had never looked into these things much when she was young and by the time she thought these things were actually interesting she had already left the west to look for her mother in the east.

“That is… really interesting.” Ruki replied.
“And dangerous. If it really is true, ponies here need to be warned about which effect it might have. But I have yet to confirm it is true. You can stay here and help me, if you want. Then we’ll cross the bridge together this spring.” Takato proposed. Ruki hesitated. She liked Takato, as far as she could tell, but… should she really spend a few months in a small cave with a complete stranger? Even though she felt like she could trust him… And she had to have a place to stay anyway, if she really could not cross the bridge now.

“I guess I could stay for a while, and help you out.” Ruki answered. A rare smile appeared on Takato’s face.
“Great. Tomorrow we’ll go get you something to sleep on. You can use my bed until then. You need it more than I do right now.”
“Thank you.” Ruki smiled. Yes, Takato really was nice… She could sense no evil from him at all. Yet she sensed there was something he was not telling her. It wouldn’t really matter, but she could not suppress her curiosity.

Takato got up and took some fruit from the strange pile. “Here, eat this. I brought it from the west. It’s a strange fruit, it doesn’t spoil until it is months old. Legend says a high king of the past once made a contract with the earth to get this.”
“I know it… I used to have it… where I was born. We called it Bamunde.” Ruki smiled. She had no idea why she had not recognised this fruit earlier. She used to love it so much when she was young.

“Bamunde eh… that’s not how we used to call it where I come from. But I guess since the west is so large… there are different names across the continent. Well, I’m sure it’ll still taste wonderful.” Takato said and he took a bite from his fruit.
Ruki did the same, and for a very small moment she was able to close her eyes and pretend she was safe at home.