DiR ALTERNATIVE REALITY
"The price of bread - Possession"
What If - Will had accepted to break his fast with the black rider.
Will stretched out his hand to accept the proffered bread but then hesitated as the Feeling from the previous night, that of looking down into a great black pit and the same paralysing fear, hit him. But it was daylight now, no place for night time fears. It has been bad enough that last night that those fears had chased him from his attic room. Now he was afraid in daylight?! It was ridiculous! So what? A cloud had passed over the sun when he's first seen the man. That wasn't the man's fault was it? So the man appeared a little strange with his bright red-brown hair and black cloak and had a funny accent. He was probably a foreigner. So he knew his age. Lucky guess was all. Nothing to be alarmed about.
There was a brief burning smell that blotted out the smell of the bread as John the Smith continued his job of shoeing the black horse. For a split second Will almost refused the bread. But he was hungry. He took the warm bread and bit into it. It tasted as good as it smelt and yet.. he tingled, almost as if little jolts of electricity were running through his body. He felt light headed and almost feverish and briefly wondered if he was coming down with something. Then the same heavy sensation of the previous night, that of something trying to make him into something else came again, this time much stronger. He surrendered to it and it seemed that he was falling into the black pit. Marvelling, he wondered why the prospect of this had so frightened him before.
The smith was finishing the last shoe now. Then the black clad man was leading his horse away from the anvil towards the road. He and smith must have spoken to each other but Will was too disorientated to take any notice of anything. Then, as quickly as the tingling had come, it was gone.
He still feel a little light headed but that too was rapidly vanishing. He started to be able to see and register things again. The smith was hanging his tools up again. The dark robed man with the funny accent was gone.
"Come up, boy." The man's oddly accented voice came from above him, not drifting downwards gently but more like a stone dropping. Will spun around and his eyes were caught and held by the now mounted man's compelling blue ones. "I'll take you where you want to go. Riding is the only way, in snow as thick as this."
A vague warning sense flickered in Will's mind for the briefest of seconds telling him that to accept the offer would be very foolish, but a wild recklessness had suddenly taken hold of him. "Ok." he said and the black clad man helped him up to sit before the saddlehorn of the tall horse.
At his fumbling and the weight, the stallion turned his head and looked at his master. Was there the briefest hint of triumphal gleam in those dark horsey eyes in the instant before they turned away?
The man passed the reins over Will and a part of Will, the faint part that had warned him against not accepting the 'lift', that was now even fainter and dwindling away to nothing, made him think briefly of an animal hemmed in, unable to escape.
But that was stupid the rational part told him, the part that laughed at fears. I don't want to escape..
Will felt eyes upon him then and looking around saw John the smith watching him with what seemed to be unimaginable sadness. Will could almost see a 'why Will?' in his eyes. He didn't understand. It was just a bit of bread and a horse ride after all…
The man twitched the reins and the horse moved off, first in a walk then swiftly urged to a gallop by its master. The smooth workings of the animal's muscles and the fresh, cold air whipping at his face and hair, combined with his already reckless mood exhilarated Will. It was a if a fey part of him, the darker, bestial part of human nature that exists in all of us but which the greater majority manage to keep a firm leash on, had broken free of the chains that had bound it. Morality and consequences no longer held any meaning. Will felt that he could do anything.. anything! He laughed and behind him, unseen, the Black Rider smiled triumphantly. The hated Light had lost. They may have the Grail, but they could not decipher it and so it remained nothing more than a shiny, golden cup. Pretty, but essentially useless. And now with the last of the Old Ones in his power, their Circle would never be complete and the Great Signs were forever out of their reach. But, he smiled coldly, not out of the Dark's reach. There was no reason why the boy Will Stanton should not take up his predestined role as seeker of the Great Signs. No reason at all.
The sky had become much darker now, great black thunderheads racing with them overhead. Thunder rumbled around and behind them.
Then the gloom was pierced on the left by a flash of brilliant light. It caught the corner of Will's eye and he turned to look. The Rider too had noticed the strange flash. He turned to regard it though he already knew what was it was.
A great white horse was running abreast with them. It was truly a beautiful animal and Will marvelled at the sight, then blinked. For a moment he had thought that the animal had a slightly golden aura to it.
He felt the man behind him lean from the saddle to the horse. Will thought he shouted something at the animal but the wind whistled in Will ears and whipped the words away so that he didn't hear what was said.
But the White Mare of the Light heard. Looking once at the boy that should have been her passenger, she fell away with the words "You are too late. He has made his choice!" still ringing in her ears.