The Secret revealed

Gleed sleepily rolled over in a worm, soft bed. He was so comfortable he just wanted to fall right back asleep. He almost did so until he heard a soft humming in his ear. He opened his eyes to see a horse's head right in his face. Immediately he shut his eyes again. Where was he, what was a horse's head doing in his face, and most importantly, was he even alive? Then all at once his memories hit him and he remembered everything. He opened his eyes again to find, not a horse's head but a boys. The boy looked a little older than him. This boy had red eyes and his pupils were slits, like a cat. However, that wasn't all; the boy also had short dark purple hair. "Hi I'm Jason! I was the one who shot you with the tranquilizer gun. You've been asleep a long time, I thought you might have died."

Gleed yelled and jumped out of the other side of the bed only to find himself in the grasp of a strong man. This man had eyes like the boy but he had red hair instead of purple. It was all Gleed could do to stop himself from fainting.

"Sit down and it won't be necessary to hurt you," said the man sternly.

Gleed knew that was a threat so he sat on the bed and looked around. He was inside a medium sized room that had a stone fireplace. To his astonishment, the horse that had been in his dreams all this time was curled up on a rug next to the fire.

"We need to talk," the man said looking Gleed over "I see you found the ring I left you."

Gleed looked at the ring and remembered how he had seen red eyes under the trap door. "Wha? .… who are you?"

"I am Jay Wentworth. And I understand you will have many questions to ask me, so let me get a chair before you start.

As Jay got up to get a chair Gleed saw a clear path to escape. But something held him back. When Jay came back with a chair he said, "now, ask away"

Gleed was totally bewildered and had no idea to ask. "Why am I here? And why did you shoot me?" he asked , almost angrily.

Jay laughed. "I'll answer that one later. I know there are other questions you want answered. So lets get those over with first."

So Gleed thought for a moment and then finally said, "What is that thing?" as he pointed to the winged horse by the fire.

"Oh her, she's a peddit. They're flying horses."

"She?" Gleed asked

"Yup, her name's Safire" Jay looked proudly over at the peddit.

After a pause Gleed asked, "The peddit is on my ring and I've had dreams about it…and I've also seen its foot prints. Why?"

Jay reseated himself in a more comfortable position then answered, "This is a tough question so allow me explain more than you asked. You see, most peddits have white hair. Nevertheless, the color of their manes, eyes, and tails vary from horse to horse. Every peddit has a rider. These peddits know instinctively from birth who will become their rider. When the time is right the peddit will set out in search of their rider with a ring giver, that's me. The ring giver lets the rider find the ring of power-"

"The what?" Interrupted Gleed.

"Look at your finger. The ring you wear is one of the many rings of power. You see, all riders wear that ring. It will help you gain extra strength where you cannot get it your self. Remember how you grew from being so short?"

"You mean this ring was what made me tall? Wait, how do you know that I grew?" Gleed wondered if he was being stalked.

"I saw you trip and fall that night you got knocked out under the trap door," Jay explained.

Gleed thought about that for a moment then asked, "Will it help any of my other problems I have?"

"Yes, the ring will, but it only helps you when you're least expecting it. So you best forget about it altogether."

Thousands of questions were buzzing through Gleed's head but which ones should he ask first? "Does this mean I will become a rider?"

Jay took a deep breath, "Yes, but let me finish with your first question first. When the rider starts figuring out similarities between their dreams and their ring and start to get suspicious, that's when we take them in, explain everything, and start the big change."

This was too much for Gleed, "The what?"

"You'll find out what the big change is later. Any other questions for now?"

There were thousands of questions but witch one to pick? "What do riders do for a living?"

Jay chucked to himself, "we keep peace of course." He said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"That seems pointless." Gleed roughly said.

Jay eyes flashed, but he kept his voice steady. "Be careful what you say boy. Now, keeping peace is harder than what you think. There aren't only good riders in this world."

Gleed looked at him puzzled, "You mean there are evil riders too?"

"Yes. They're known better as the dark riders. You can tell if a rider is dark because his or her ring turns black and they ride a peddit with black hair. They've been trying to take over our empire for years. We've be constantly at war with them. If we could only find their base, it would be much easier to defeat them."

Gleed thought about that. Would he end up fighting evil his whole life. What fun was in that? "Is that what every rider does?" he asked, hoping for another possibility.

"Well of course not, some doctor riders and peddits, some explore new lands before the dark does, and there's lots more."

When the man said "explore", Gleed felt a funny feeling in his stomach. He imagined himself riding a flying horse, or peddit, whatever the man called them, exploring new lands. That was his most favorite thing to do. "Can I do what I want to do?"

"First you have to spend a while being a warrior." Jay said, "Then you can do whatever you want."

There was a slight pause while Gleed thought.

"When you fly around, of course people see you. Why isn't it all over the news?" Gleed had never in his life had heard anything about riders.

"Those who don't know can't see," Jay said as he chuckled as he said a common phrase known to riders.

"Huh?" Gleed had no idea what that meant.

"It's an old saying. It's quite simple really; those who don't know about riders can't see them while they ride. They can't see peddits either. I can only last one more question so choose wisely."

Gleed thought for a moment and then asked, 'Why is your hair red? And why is Jason's hair purple?"

Jason had been patently waiting. He was stroking the peddit on the rug and looked up as he heard his name. Jay looked relieved that this question would be easy to answer. "You'll see."

OoOoOoO

Jay led Gleed and the peddit, who was disappointed to leave the warmth of the fire, down a hall into a small room that was lit by torches. It was a dark cold room and Gleed did not like this. He was starting to become uncomfortable with the situation. Jay led the two into the room. "Stay here and I'll be back in a while to get you."

"Uh, what are you going to do? Why can't I stay in a different room?" Gleed looked around the rock walls. It felt like somebody died in here. He just hoped it would not become a prison cell as soon as Jay left the room.

"The thing about the big change is that I can't tell you… sorry." Jay really did look sorry.

When Jay left the room, the door locked behind him. There were no windows on the walls; however there was a small one on the door but Gleed could not see out of it. Safire looked him straight in the eye. Her eyes were so intense he looked away. But something made him look back.

Gleed cautiously walked over to Safire and put his hand out for her to sniff, hoping she wouldn't bite it off. She sniffed it and took a step forward as if she wanted him to touch her. He slowly ran his hand down her neck. As soon as his hand touched her fur he felt a shock run up through his arm and felt like he was going to be sick. Gleed's legs fell out from under him and he fell to the floor.

The horse stood above him, but she looked just as startled. As he hit the hard floor Jay came bursting through the door.

"I…I'm so sorry I d… didn't mean to make an…any harm." Gleed stuttered.

"That ok." Jay comforted, "that's the big change. Although we didn't have to wait as long with you as we did with Jason."

"What? What changed?" This was all really confusing to Gleed.

"Here look at this." Jay pulled out a small hand held mirror.

Gleed took the mirror and looked at himself. When he saw his reflection he yelled out and dropped the mirror.

In his reflection, he saw that his hair was now light blue and he had red eyes with slits like a cats. He curled up wrapping his arms around his legs.

"Understand now?" asked Jay

Gleed nodded, "Is Safire ok?" He looked over at the peddit who was now lying down on the floor. She looked exhausted.

"She'll live. It sure did drain a lot of energy out of her though. You too. You should both get some rest."