THOTH & MORVEREN
There was a brief pause when Danny knocked on the door, followed by an assortment of strange noises. First came a clip-clop, clip-clop like hooves on stone, followed by a thud and some scraping. The door handle rattled. There was a single knock from the other side of the door, some more scraping sounds, and the handle rattled violently. Another clip… clop, followed by a heavier thud which made the whole door shake worryingly. A second, louder thud coincided with a crack as the door burst off its hinges and clattered to the ground, revealing a flea-bitten grey fourteen-hand pony on the other side. Wisps of pale green smoke curled around her.
The pony blinked her soft brown eyes at the young boy, before snorting and shaking her mane. She did a tight u-turn and took a couple of steps forward, then paused and glanced back at him, clearly wanting him to follow.
Inside, the room matched the strangeness of the circumstances so far. It was a fairly sizeable chamber with a low ceiling which seemed lower because of the smoke, white-washed walls and carpetless grey stone floor. Every available piece of wall space had a cupboard or shelf haphazardly nailed to it, some at slight angles, and every visible shelf was crammed with glass jars, beakers, petri dishes or odd-looking instruments. Three desks broke the space of the open room, each sporting a different variety of scientific experiment. On the desk furthest from the door, a large beaker which was sat on a tripod over a bunsen burner was spewing the translucent green smoke which had now almost entirely filled the room. In front of the only window - a large bay - was an assortment of potted plants and a tree sapling which was flowering an odourless purple bloom. On the far side of the room, a large nest of blankets indicated where the pony had been staying.
The pony navigated the room with a skill which indicated she was used to being here and stopped by the far desk, nickering over to Danny. At her hooves was the unmoving form of a boy, only a few years older than him. Thoth was small and slight for his age, and made all the more fragile-looking by the slightly too big clothes he wore, which were mismatched in colour and hopelessly out of fashion. He had narrow shoulders, hair which was an indeterminate shade between brown and blonde, and a mild, heart-shaped face which was neither attractive nor ugly. His eyes were closed and his breathing was regular, as though he was simply asleep, but he didn’t move when the pony nudged him with her nose.
She glanced up at Danny again, snorted impatiently and pointed her nose towards the beaker over the bunsen, apparently unwilling to touch it. Then she turned and trotted over to the window, which was shut, and started to chew on the latch. On the desk, the beaker spluttered and spewed slightly more dense smoke, which made the air feel heavy and weighed on the eyelids. Sleeping gas.
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