653 Difèrne || Land Quests || First Land

As the train screeched to a stop, Zealin glanced outside the window. She quickly stood up and opened the compartment door, grabbing her bags as she ran. “We’re here!” she shouted to Difèrne. “Come on!” Zealin stepped outside the train and stuck her hoof on the threshold of the train so that the door couldn’t close. The yellow mare shot out of her seat. In a swift, practiced manner, she strapped her luggage on her trustee dog’s back. Zealin blinked, and Difèrne seemingly had appeared at her side.

“What are we waiting for? Come on, let’s go exploring!” And she dashed out of the train and into the crowd.

“Careful!” Zealin warned. “Your hooves are likely unused to all the snow and ice.” The mare trotted through the snow, heeding her own warning. 

As if to punctuate Zealin’s statement, Difèrne’s hoof slipped from under her body and the mare collapsed onto the boarding platform. “I’m fine,” she laughed.

Zealin sighed but a small, fond smile fleetingly went through her expression. “Welcome to the Icy Region,” Zealin deadpanned, “where all newcomers fall at least thrice.” 

“Well, that’s one down. Only two more to go,” Difèrne shook the snow out of her mane as passerbys shook their heads, amused.

Zealin bit back her laughter. Despite Difèrne’s efforts, snow was still stuck in her yellow coat. “Anywhere specific you’d like to see?” Zealin questioned, although she knew that Difèrne’s answer would likely be “everything.” Ember shivered in Zealin’s fur before bursting into slightly stronger flames to maintain warmth. 

The yellow mare looked around, still trying to get the snow off her botany mutation patch. “What do quirlicorns here like to do to pass time?” Her gaze landed on a pamphlet dispenser at a welcoming desk. As she opened it, the quirlicorn in charge of the info centre struck a conversation with her. Meanwhile, Zealin was ready to attack the unknown quirlicorn if they expressed any hostile signal. She glowered at the stranger, almost daring them to make a wrong move. Difèrne remained oblivious to this quiet exchange. Under the stranger’s guidance, she landed on the fishing page of the pamphlet. 

“It’s not a very costly activity, and you get to keep whatever you fish, provided that it isn’t a protected species or a historical token. In the case that you fish something interesting, our local museum is likely to make you an offer. The museum’s a nice place. I definitely recommend checking it out regardless of what you get out of your fishing trip.”

Zealin stared at the stranger. While fishing itself wasn’t a costly expenditure, fishing poles, at least in the Mountain Region, still required a decent sum. Oh well. She was a sect leader and had plenty of coins on her, at least. If not, she could threaten the quirlicorn at the counter anyways. “Do you want to go fishing?” Zealin asked Difèrne, still glaring daggers at the stranger. The stranger’s smile turned more forced. 

“I’d love to give it a shot! We don’t have many bodies of water in the mountains, so I never actually did it.” She thanked the quirlicorn at the counter and moved away with Zealin.

“Hmph.” Zealin nodded. “I’ve caught fish in the Icy Region before. It’s not too difficult. Just takes a lot of trial and error. We’ll have to buy fishing poles first though.” Go, Zealin sent in her familiar link once the quirlicorn at the counter faded from their sight. Ember spun upwards in the sky and disappeared (to set a few things ablaze at the counter; nothing permanent, unfortunately). 

“Will that be an issue?” Difèrne worryingly glanced at her travel companion. Although she had gotten used to Zealin treating her to activities and food (her own allowance being fairly low), it still made it uncomfortable to accept so much while being unable to return the favor. Internally, the quirlicorn promised herself that she would take charge of the exploration trip once they made it to the mountain region. 

Zealin waved her hoof. “No problem at all. I’m pretty close with a decent sum of quirlicorns that were from the Icy Region, so even if I don’t have enough on me right now, they can withdraw it later. I mean, those quirlicorns live with me, so it’s not like I can escape them.” She grinned to herself, knowing perfectly well that her disciples wouldn’t dare force her to cough up money either way. “Besides, they can be reused. The younger ones would love it.” 

“Ah, so like distant relatives of sorts? My  cousin  lives in the desert! That’s in part why I want to go exploring so badly. All her letters always fascinated me.”

“...Something like that,” Zealin said. She doubted that Difèrne knew what a sect was. “I know quirlicorns from all sorts of regions though. Not close with all of them.” Zealin found a sign pointing to a fishing store. “Let’s go in there. Let me know which color you want, for your fishing pole. I think that two cans of worms should be enough for the two of us to fish with.” Ember returned, hovering next to Zealin. The emotions shared in their bond told Zealin that the former was successful in traumatizing the unknown quirlicorn. 

Difèrne peeked into the shop and interpreted the shopkeeper’s stupor to be caused by Friend. She asked her dog to stay back while she stepped inside. “Do they have blue poles? Does the color matter at all?” 

Zealin shook her head. “Nope. Colors are just for fun. Those don’t cost extra, anyways. As for blue poles… check over there.” She pointed to the colorful racks. “They have plenty of options.” She herself picked out a standard black fishing rod and then took two closed cans of worms. The two mares met at the checkout. Difèrne had found herself a rather childish sparkling blue rod. 

“Do we also need some of those?” she pointed at a display of lures.

Zealin eyed the lures and shrugged. “Why not?” She took some lures and dropped them into a paper bag. The checkout quirlicorn went through each of the items and gave the total of 3 gold coins… a pretty hefty sum. Zealin took out two gold coins and hooved it over. “I’ll send a message to Pyxis to send you the last gold coin.” 

The quirlicorn at the checkout jolted. “Wait… You must be…”

“Zealin,” the mare said with a curt nod. 

“Oh, no. I can’t accept the last coin then,” the quirlicorn quickly said, “Especially since you’re looking after him now.” 

“...Are you sure? It wouldn’t be a problem-”

“I’m sure, I’m sure,” the quirlicorn answered, before nodding towards Difèrne. “Please, enjoy the Icy Region.” 

Zealin hesitated for a moment before shrugging and taking the items. “Let’s go then.” 

Difèrne enthusiastically thanked the shopkeeper and left alongside Zealin. Friend made a fuss outside of the store, happy to finally be reunited with her master after… a couple of minutes. 

“Do you want any food or drinks before fishing?” Zealin asked. “It could take a lot of energy to fish.” They were nearly at the giant lake. Several quirlicorns were also there, fishing. “Especially at first,” she added. 

Difèrne thought for a second, assessing the other’s words. “Alright. What would you like to have?”

“I’ll probably take an energy drink to go with me,” Zealin answered as she trotted over to a supermarket. “What would you like?” She picked out a Red Bull.

“I’ll have the same thing, then.”

Zealin took another bottle and purchased them at the counter. From there, the two traveled to the lake and settled at an isolated spot. “Have you ever fished before?” Zealin asked. Difèrne shook her head. 

“This is my first time ever!”

Zealin went through the basic procedures of fishing and eventually casted her rod into the lake. “Wait until you feel a pull, then quickly bring it up.” To her surprise, she immediately felt a bite. Zealin quickly pulled the rod back and found that a large fish took a bite. She set the struggling (and soon dead) fish in a bucket that she had taken. 

“Okay-” Difèrne’s eyes widened. “Woah, you’re a pro!” She attempted to cast her line as well, but her lure ended up being stuck in her hat and it flew into the water along with her line. “No!!!” the mare yellow, horrified. She quickly reeled it back in. She set it on a rock to dry. Later, she found it completely frozen on that same rock.

Zealin waved her hoof in dismissal, careful to not knock down her bucket of fish. “Ember, please defrost it.” She rolled her eyes. “Yes, yes. You can have a hot dog later. I swear, you and hot dogs…” The phoenix flew onto the rock to melt the hat. Difèrne quickly stuffed the hat into her back, and shooed Friend away from the bucket of fish (which was filling rapidly thanks to Zealin’s “expert fishing tricks”). 

She readied herself to cast again, focusing on where she intended the lure to fall. She pulled back her rod and-

SPLASH!

In her determination to cast far away, the mare had yanked her rod at a concerning force, not realizing that the hook had, again, caught on to her tightly curled tail hair. This resulted in Difèrne rolling into the lake like one falls out of a crashing car. 

Immediately, Difèrne was shocked by the freezing water. Exhaling in stupor, she filled her lungs with water. In a last dash of panic and consciousness, the mare flayed her limbs in an attempt to resurface.

“Difèrne!” Zealin called, bolting upwards. Unfurling her wings, Zealin flew over to the lake and latched onto the other mare’s hoof. She winced as she tried to fly up. She simply couldn’t lift both of them with only her wings. 

On the shore, Friend barked frantically. She jumped into the lake and swam up to both quirlicorns. Having grabbed her master’s mane, she quickly began pulling her to the shore with the help of Zealin. 

“That could’ve gone better,” Zealin muttered once the dog and Difèrne were on the shore. She settled down in the snow next to Difèrne’s now-defrosted hat. “Ember, you should go to Difèrne and warm her up before she gets hypothermia or a cold. Yes, you get another hot dog. Get on with it.” The phoenix, bribed by junk food, flew over to Difèrne and began to warm her up. 

Difèrne forced a smile on her violently shaking face. “T-t-t-t-that was-was- an ex-experirence.” “T-t-thank you for s-s-saving me.”

“Hm. I don’t think that you’re a fishing prodigy. Estherele always says that knowledge is important,” Zealin half-joked in a serious voice. “And don’t worry about it. Let’s take a break from fishing and go to a hotel now. I think that a break is in store.” 

“A-a-agreed.” Before leaving, Difèrne pulled out a blanket from one of her bags. Thankfully, she had remembered to unstrap them from Friend’s back before settling down to fish.