Hoofbeats of the Night: Chapter 2

Merla slept like a log that night, not bothered by the sounds of the day or the other horses. When she awoke, the sun was setting over the horizon, giving way to a new night, a new day for the vampyres and fledglings of the House of Night. She shook herself, straw dust rising in a cloud from her black coat. She poked her head over the half door, looking along the aisle. Several other horse heads were looking out, waiting for something. Merla reached out her nose to the horse in the next stall, a silvery stallion. The horse squealed in anger, trying to bite her nose. Merla flattened her ears against her neck, jumping to the back of her stable.

It soon became clear to Merla what the other horses were waiting for. Lenobia came striding down the aisle, her arms full of feed buckets. A few fledglings followed her with even more buckets, depositing them to the waiting horses. Lenobia opened the door into Merla's stable, putting the bucket down on the straw. The mare planted her nose into the bucket, starting to wolf down the mixture of oats and barley.

"What's your name, young one?" She murmured, stroking Merla's neck. The mare hoovered up the last few grains in her bucket before raising her head to look Lenobia in the eye.

"Merla," She nickered, or she thought she nickered. The name came out clear as crystal in English.

Moments later, with a rustle of velvet, another woman swept into the stables. Merla would soon learn that her name was Nefret, and that she was the High Priestess of the House of Night. Nefret breezed into Merla's stall, confronting Lenobia.

"So, where is this mare who seems to have been Marked by our beloved goddess Nyx?" She asked.

"Right here, Nefret. She has just told me that her name is Merla." Lenobia replied. Merla shied away from Nefret. There was something about her that she didn't like, something in the way she carried herself. She shook her mane, stretching out her neck to nose at the High Priestess. Nefret shifted away from the contact.

Merla spend the day resting in her stall after the poultices had been taken off her hooves. She would be allowed a little light work with the third formers. Lenobia had found her an old copy of The Fledgling Handbook for her to read. It took her a while to master the art of turning the pages with her lips, but then she settled down to read in peace.

Zoey Redbird showed a new fledgling to Merla's stall at the start of the sixth hour. The fledgling let herself into the stable. Merla looked up from her book, hauling herself to her feet and going to nose at the girl.

"Merla, this is Rachel, Rachel, Merla." Zoey said with a smile. "Rachel will be looking after you for now."

Rachel gently stroked Merla's neck before running her hands over the half-healed cuts on her flanks. The mare shied away from the touch.

"Sorry, girl," Rachel murmured, slipping out of the stable.

Within half an hour, Merla found herself in the arena, trotting round in circles on a lunge line. Lenobia and Rachel stood in the centre of the ring, encouraging her onwards. Merla shook her mane, leaning heavily on her back hooves. She was allowed to stop, and was taken back to her stall. Rachel spent the rest of the lesson carefully grooming every inch of the mare's black coat and plaiting ribbons into her mane and tail. As one of the first of her kind, Merla was going to join in her first ritual at the house of night.