BaronEngel
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Ambush
🕑 Added 2019-07-17 17:43:31 +0000 UTCThat evening as Half-cock and her team prepared to return home in my Equestria dreamscape Yer in trouble! others were spilling more blood. Shirakal eyes slowly opened. The campfire she'd lit earlier that evening had almost burned down leaving only a few, small, flickering flames. The griffin looked around the clearing. Something had brought her out of her slumber. Without moving her head much she glanced up and searched for the waxing crescent moon in the nighttime sky. Finding it she determined it was a couple hours after midnight.
The griffin pretended to sleep as her eyes began sweeping the meadow in front of her. She was facing away from the fire and with her nighttime adjusted vision, limited illumination from remaining fire, and faint moonlight, she could almost see clear across the meadow until it was final swallowed up by the shadows of the oaks on the other side of the clearing. She saw nothing moving or out of the ordinary.
Pretending to roll over in her sleep the hunter continued to scan her surroundings. Once again nothing seem amiss. However she couldn't escape the feeling she was being watched. Watched by another hunter. Normally Shirakal hunted with her partner Linoshrek. However her partner had been called away on clan business. Unwilling to put off the hunt she'd gone out alone.
Unlike many in other griffin clans the Blackbill clan still strictly adhered to the traditional customs and tongue of griffins. Refusing to adopt names that sounded anything like pony names. In fact her clan had very little contact with the brightly colored ponies and their world.
Not seeing anything out of the ordinary Shirakal listened for anything unusual. A faint breeze occasionally caused the tall grass to slightly sway and hiss faintly. Outside of that the chaparral was silent. Too silent.
Slowly she extending her left paw toward her smooth rifle/fowler. When she could Shirakal preferred to hunt with the sinew-backed short bow that was also had lying nearby. It didn't alert prey in the area as much when she was hunting. However it was unstrung at the moment and she didn't want to spend the time or giveaway the fact that she was awake.
Besides the .60 caliber, patched round ball of the smooth rifle packed more punch than a broadhead arrow. The smooth rifle wasn't as accurate as a true rifle, but was more than adequate for large game out to 75yds. Which was within the distances she preferred to hunt at. Using her stealth and knowledge of game to get her close enough to guarantee she'd hit. Also it could be loaded with shot of various sizes, making it useful for everything from quail to other griffins at close quarters.
Her paw had just settled on the wrist of the rifle stock when she heard a faint, whistling sound quickly growing. Dispensing with the charade of being asleep she quickly rose from beneath her woolen blanket. Cocking the flintlock she threw the rifle to her shoulder. She recognized the sound of an approaching large flier. Frantically she started scanning in the direction of sound.
She didn't see her attacker until they were almost on top of her. Gliding just above tall grass the almost jet-black form was almost invisible against the shadowy background of the trees across the clearing. At the last instant she saw it. A large, gaunt to the point of almost being skeletal, draconic form that slammed into her. The rifle went off but the shot went wide. The force of the impact sent Shirakal and her attacker sliding 12ft across ground. Before they'd even come to a halt her attacker started to savage her with teeth and claws. In a few seconds it was over.
Grasping the now lifeless body the almost serpentine drake drug the dead griffin back to campfire. Throwing the corpse down it violently went through the belongings of its victim. Tearing apart the pack Shirakal had brought on her trip. Quickly it rifled through the contents, grabbing a few small, random things.
With that accomplished the being launched itself up into the nighttime sky. Coming to a hover about 15ft above campsite the being it reached into a satchel hanging around its neck. It withdrew a small, sealed, ceramic pot and hurled it straight down into the smoldering remains of the campfire. The pot shattered and erupted into flames engulfing everything in a 10ft circle. The fire quickly began to spread to the surrounding grasslands. The being watched this for a few seconds then flew off into the nighttime sky.
Drone 893 stood at the entrance of the cave and looked up at the nighttime sky. The opening was just barely big enough for a changeling to fit through, and even during daylight the heavy undergrowth around the entrance made it almost invisible until one was on top of it. A careful examination of the area had shown no griffin activity around for at least a couple of years, so the changeling was comfortable that the griffins didn't know of it.
Soon the drone saw the approaching draconic form against the stars and moon. It dove down and at the last instant it flared and landed in front it. After a couple seconds the newcomer begins the morph and shrink, eventually becoming a slightly larger changeling. The newly arrived changeling swayed slightly on its hooves as it attempted to steady itself. Drone 893 stepped forward and helped its fellow changeling into the cave. A few feet in the passageway made a couple of abrupt turns before opening up into a small chamber. Inside the changelings had set up temporary camp. The chamber was filled with the soft, greenish light of a glow stone. The newcomer laid down on a bedroll while its partner went and retrieved a small flask. Coming back it passed it over. He waited until its partner had finished drinking before speaking to him.
"So warrior 2216, I assume you were successful?"
The changeling nodded his head. "Yes. It was over in a matter of seconds. They were alert, but I was upon them before they could react."
The drone noticed the empty satchel. "I assume the fire pot worked as planned?"
"Yes, yes it did." The warrior shook his head and took another swig of the flask. "Ugh! Assuming such a large form really takes it out of me! We're moving out soon right?"
The other changeling was unwrapping some type fruit/nut bars from a linen packet. Taking one themselves they passed them over to their teammate. "Affirmative. But we'll wait until tomorrow night before departing. For the rest of the night we'll sleep. Then we'll spend tomorrow cleaning up this area of all traces of our stay here. Then we head back to the hive. Our mission is done here."
The warrior chewed for a moment and then swallowed.
"Good. I grow tired of this charade."
To be continued.
Comments
Jaroslav Pešek
They were lucky. The opration in Dragonlands didn't end very well. All changelings died.
Vet
The quick and the very dead.
Baron Engel
Yeah Discord's seeds are more of the mischief type instead of the cold, calculating, murder type.
McClaw
Discord would be upset -- he's the one that is supposed to sow such "seeds".
