>>177263The other stallion walks up to Jakala, who sits on top of the sled, and sits down next to her. He says,
"Little Jäkälä Kenttä." He says, and places a hoof on her hood-covered head. "If you're going to come along. You are going to need to be quiet. Can you do that?"
"Mhmmm." She says, and nods.
"No." He says, "I'm serious." He pets a strand of her blue mane that pops out from under the ring of brown fur. "You'll need to stay still when I tell you. And stay quiet. There are things in the woods. Things we can't let hear us. Do you you understand?"
"Mhmmm."
"Do you understand?"
"Mhmmm"
"I'll get you some chocolate if you can stay quiet and be a good filly." Jakala starts to wag her tail, though this tail wagging is subdued by the mass of her fur jacket.
The stallion gets back up and says to Father,
"Let's go."
Amber hooks herself up to the sled to pull it, although Father will sometimes pull on a leather belt to move it forward, however, Father mostly walks ahead and sometimes off to the side. While the sled is not as heavy nor as hard to pull as when the other one was full of wood, the task is still harder, as Amber is expected to move more quickly.
Father and the other stallion speak to each other, saying things like "Off we are, then" and "this way," though Amber cannot hear every word. They tend to walk ahead and a bit to the side. Each carries a kerosene lamp. The group as a whole walks north, just a bit to the left of where Amber saw the Blast begin over a hill top, and through an open plain of frozen group and packed, thin layers of snow. It isn't far before she sees that same pattern of endless trees, all lying down on the ground, and all pointing the same direction. A lone pine tree stands straight up, every branch blown off and looking like a telephone pole, save the topmost portion, where oddly even small branches still cling, such that it looks like a needless sapling placed on top of a telephone pole, in the middle of so many downed trees. The adults each turn off their lamps, so that the ponies go forward in darkness, with only the stars, the twilight, and the aurora to guide them.
>>177429He takes it. "Heh." And he smiles