'Twas a quiet and pleasant afternoon when Blythe was sipping tea on her upper deck. She enjoyed her small plot of land. It was a small canyon located a ways into the Santa Cruz mountains. The entire area was covered in beautiful, towering redwoods. Her home, built by her great-grandfather, was made out of the trees that were cut down for the construction of Highway 17. It was far too large and spacious for one woman to upkeep, but Blythe made due. She made most of her money writing bullshit self-help books that suburban mothers ate up. The rest was in stocks.
But that's not the story I'm telling you.
For you see, there was not a single human being for five miles from Blythe's forest. Which made it the perfect place for the Horseman to land.
A bright light in the clear skies caused the young woman to look up from her tea. Four balls of fire fell from the sky, on a collision course with her forest. One was red, one white, one was black, and the last was, pale. There was no better term for it. It was pale.
Blythe continued to sip her tea, watching as the fireballs crashed into her trees, upsetting hundred year old sentinels. Sighing, she set down her teacup, only for it to be knocked over by shock waves from the impact.
"I hope it's aliens this time."
Death groaned and sat up. He put a hand to his head, then stood, looking about for his brothers and sister. He spied War off to his left, then Strife and Fury a short distance away. Good. They could start on their mission right away-
"Hello,"
Damn.
The pale rider turned his head and his gaze settled on a human female. She looked at him, then past him at War, then past him at Strife and Fury.
"So," she began, "Do you usually fall from the sky and kill innocent trees, or is this new for all of us?"
In the blink of an eye, Redemption was pointed at her head.
"Stupid human. Don't you know who we are?" Strife cocked his head to the side and sneered.
"Well, let's see. There aren't any UFO's around, so you aren't aliens. There's four of you, and he," she inclined her head towards the eldest Horseman, "Is very obviously Death, and I'm assuming the one with the hood is War, so by that logic, you must be the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, disregarding your lack of horses. And," she added, "There is no apocalypse,"
"Lucky guess," Strife holstered his weapon and stepped back, "I'm Strife, and this is Fury," He indicated himself and his sister.
"Nice to meet you, I suppose. I'm Blythe, but why did you hurt my trees?" Blythe was rather intent on getting an answer for that.
"Why are we wasting our time? Let's just get out of here and begin our search!" Fury was getting rather impatient. She had important things to do, and would rather their task was done in as little time as possible.
"Search for what?" Blythe asked innocently.
"What would we gain from telling you that?" Death responded.
His voice is sex.
Not now brain.
'Kay. Later.
"What would you lose? If I know what it is you're looking for, I might be able to point you in the right direction. If I don't, I'll send you to someone who does," Death couldn't argue with that.
"We're searching for a group of rogue angels. We have reason to believe that they plan to upset the balance. We have evidence that they-"
"Have formed a cult dedicated to carrying out their orders with unearthly weapons, even if it means certain doom? Yeah, they're right over that ridge- there," she pointed to a steep rise in the East.
"You've had run-ins with them?" War spoke for the first time.
"Eh. I found one being attacked by something that was definitely not a mountain lion. He ran off once I got the thing off of him,"
Blythe noticed the Horseman tense. That couldn't be good.
"Do you think you could show us where that 'thing' was? " Death ordered rather than asked.
"Yeah, it was just over here."
Strife ran a hand over the dimly glowing sigil on the ground.
"It was definitely created by an angel, but used to summon a demon. Why in damnation..." He trailed off.
"That can wait. We need to bring the angels before the Charred Council," War declared simply.
"But we need to know what we're up against. It'll be a very different fight if there's both angels and demons to worry about," Strife rebuttled.
"The Charred Council will..."
Blythe watched the exchange between the two ancient and powerful beings. She noticed that they were all rather tall, War perhaps a little over seven feet, followed closely by Death, and Strife and Fury could be NBA all-stars. The woman was starting to feel very small.
"Blythe," She was snapped out of her reverie by Death calling her name, "Do you know a way into this cult's base of operations?"
"Uh, yeah, yes I do. There's two. One is by the main road, it's wider but under 24-hour surveillance. The other is a bit narrower and more roundabout, but it's rarely used, from what I've seen," Blythe recounted.
"How narrow are we talking?"
"Just wide enough for a horse,"
Behind his mask, Death grinned.
It was a fifteen minute walk before the Horseman and their guide reached the trail Blythe spoke of. Death summoned Despair and the other Horseman followed suit. The pale horseman offered Blythe his hand and pulled her into the saddle in front of him. This earned a curious glance from War, but the youngest horseman dismissed it as Death wanting to be the lead. The Horseman set off at a trot, planning to arrive outside the compound in the night. Strife and Fury followed Death, with War bringing up the rear.
Blythe lightly gripped the horn of the saddle. She was a bit surprised that Death's horse had no visible reins. Speaking of Death, she could feel his chest brush against her back whenever he breathed or his horse hopped over a fallen branch or small stream. The sensation wasn't entirely unwelcome.
"So," Death spoke, breaking the silence that had settled over them, "What do you know of this cult? Their numbers, weapons, the layout of the compound, anything,"
"Hmm, they have to have at least a thousand members at this outpost alone. A good chunk of them are women and children, but from what I've seen on the news," Blythe shuddered, causing more contact with Death, "They're just as deadly as the men. The compound is rather sparse and scattered, with most of the living quarters on the far side of the camp from where this trail takes us. We'll be almost directly on top of their main building. There are two big buildings that I think are storehouses of some sort, but I'm really not sure what they're for,"
"How do you know all this?" Death asked skeptically.
"I'm a nosy neighbor."
