(story extract)

“Well I’ll be damned, you’re back? Sheesh, did you two decide to go and build a snow fort or someth-…” The particularly snarky mouth of Bloodbeak stalled, looking over our tired, weary selves. Enjoyable as coming across a massive pre-war megaspell warhead stockpile and it’s delivery system, and finally settling on a reliable radio station that had a damn wide selection of songs great for traveling to, the severely long walk back served to kill most of the fun. The sun was casting long shadows of the cathedral’s spires and the exterior walls now, myself and Minty trudging along and sitting down with a fwhump in the snowy road. Bloodbeak swooped down off of the wall, looking us both over. “Goddesses, you go out for two nights and come back with one less leg and reeking of… Jeez! How in the hell are your eyes glowing!?” She jumped back, staring into my face as I blinked lazily, rubbing one of my eyes.

“Mmm, wha? Uh, news to me… would explain why things started getting brighter in that storm, though, I guess…” I picked myself up, Minty fiddling with his robotic hoof some, lifting it up and watching as it impacted the ground with a heavy thud. Eyes glowing or not, there’s no escaping the fact that we were just plain exhausted. I let my wings fall to my sides, blinking tightly to try and keep myself awake. “We got the raiders cleared out… can we just have somewhere to stay instead of the caps? I feel like I just walked a marathon on the Stable treadmills…” I grunted out, watching as Bloodbeak opened up the doors and helped lead us inside. Was… was that actual concern on her face? Jeez, she’s not going to tuck us in now, is she? It’s just exhaustion and mild radiation poisoning, nothing to worry about. I’m sure I’ve exposed myself to worse before back in the Stable.

“Uh, um, yeah, sure. There’s an old hotel inside the inner walls, I’ll call ahead with my brother and get things situated. Practically owe you a room at this point, eheh… j-just go and get some rest, you two. And some rad-away.” The sun had vanished behind a distant mountain range, the clouds still a bright orange that was quickly beginning to fade away with the time passing, arcane generators kicking in and illuminating the streets. A light snowfall had started, as we both wearily made our way through the large brick arch into the grand fortress inside. Old signs glowed in different vibrant shades of red, blue, and green, one hanging above a doorway reading clearly the word ‘hotel’, suspended in a makeshift mishmash of cables and welded steel plates. Minty trotted ahead, breath condensing over his glasses before he had to stop and rub them off. Man, the outside sucked at night…

“Well, at least we’ll finally get some actual sleep now, right? I’m getting sick of just falling unconscious because of explosions… or blood loss.” Minty grunted softly, as we both stood in the doorway of the hotel. A cold breeze was picking up, blowing the wisps of light snow at us, the glow of the sign overhead casting its reddish-blue lights on the ground and casting strange shadows, supplemented by the road lamps and lights from behind the door. After a short while of knocking, a young mare opened up the door, looking up at the both of us timidly for a moment, before letting us inside and trotting off. A colt trotted in behind the counter, smiling warmly and looking over at the both of us, levitating up a pen from out of his coat pocket.