Note: Thanks, wizard 116, for my. . . only reviews. Haha, no, i really am grateful : ). Any tips? This is gonna be a really different story. A really different, and yes really freaky story, i hope.
It was too early.
That was the first thing Maie noticed as she stumbled out of the cottage. A faint stench of sweat and grime and burnt cooking followed her out, clinging onto her. The first rays of sunlight had barely graced the cottage roof, flickering, fickle, over the shafts of wood.
It was way too early.
She glared around at her surroundings through sleep-fogged eyes, and trudged on towards the paddocks, where her 'horse' stood, unusually tense, at the gates. It was then that she noticed something else.
It was way too quiet.
Oh,birds were chirping, but few and far between. And they were not happy chirps. They were chirps of anticipation, chirps of danger.
Chirps of warning.
The birds were giving warning. Her spooking horse was giving warning.
Something was wrong.
Maie shook off the thought immediately and lugged her horse's feed bucket into the store room, leaving the obviously frightened beast pawing relentlessly, piggy little eyes dilated in fear and dark nose and snorting in small, panicked bursts.
She was imagining things. She was still a little spooked from last night's nightmare. Of course it was reasonable to imagine things.
Scooping chaff and oats into her horse's bucket, she gave herselfa little mental scolding.She had absolutely no right to jump at nothing, no right to let her daydreams and nightmares plague her into being in one of her war-torn fantasy lands in which shewas the hero.Harsh, harshberatings, whichcontinued as she dragged the faded yellow feed bucket back to the paddocks.
Stupid, stupid girl. Daydreaming gets you nowhere. Nightmares get you even less far.
Except maybe nightmaresdid gether a little farther than her daydreams. Because one was there right now, blocking her way to the paddock.
Eyes as red as dripping blood, massive jaws, massive teeth. Long, unkempt mane and tangled tail. Legs of bone and sinew and muscle. Hooves of power. Hooves of death.
Maie did the only thing she could think of.
She screamed.
