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Chapter 8

The rider paused in startled shock as a brilliant streak of lightning filled the sky, almost directly over them.

The horse snorted and shifted to a halt, surprised by the sudden tightening of his reins. He raised his head and breathed in the cool breeze that had suddenly became rather cold and rough, as it blew leaves and other debri harshly all around. His nostrils flared as his sense of smell indicated it was going to be something no living creature would ever want to be caught out in, and he stamped his foot and tugged firmly against his bits, wanting to get home. The sudden fear that had welled up in his master at the sudden change in weather only urged the horse's feet to get going. Quickly.

The rider gasped as thunder growled menacingly in the distance, looking up fearfully at the thick, inky clouds that had seemingly popped up out of thin air to darken everything. Only a minute ago it had been pleasant and breezy, a perfect day, and now this. It was as if the storm had just. . .happened.

Tendrils of uncertainty tightened around the rider's chest, and she turned her head to briefly look back from where she'd came, a darker, flattened path in the knee-length grass meadow winding back into the darker stretch of forest behind.

Her horse worried at his bits and she laid a hand on his neck to calm him as she frantically pondered on whether to go back or keep going. Another streak of lightning and rumble of thunder forced her hand and she loosed her mount's reins while simultaneously tapping his sides with her boots.

'If I get caught out in this, Mother will worry herself sick,' she thought. 'And its far too late to go back to Dalben's now, I'll never make it! My best bet is to get home fast.'

Her mount needed no urging and all but leaped forward in his eagerness to be off, tossing his head in relief. He immediately broke into a smooth canter and leveled out as they entered another stretch of forest and hit the deer-trail that would take them home, his hoofbeats vibrating through the ground like an earthquake. The wind yanked at his mane and tail in a jealous manner but he paid it no heed. The girl held his reins and saddle horn tight and silently urged him on as the wind pulled at her clothes and hair roughly.

'Home, boy,' she thought, casting a quick glance above her. The thrashing tree limbs nearly obscured the black sky but another growl of thunder made her stomach clench.

'Hurry!'

She had known from the start she wouldn't make it home, but she didn't know she would still be so far away from it when the storm began in earnest. Much like the black clouds had descended with no warning, the rain followed suit, not bothering to give so much as a sprinkle before crashing down in massive sheets.

Being beneath the thick cover of the deep forest trees would've helped a great deal if the wind hadn't kept using the branches like wet towels, slapping through the air to instantly soak the horse and rider down below.

It was now pitch black, which made the near constant lightning all the more brilliant. The girl's stomach clenched every time it flashed, but she wasn't about to let go of the saddle or reins to cover her ears. The thunder was just as loud as the lightning was bright, and every time it cut loose she felt the ground shake beneath her horse, and the sheer pressure of those decibels hurt her eardrums. Her mount normally liked storms, but this one had him worried too, she could tell by the way he carried himself. He was racing along in a swift and steady canter, heading straight to the warm stable and thorough brushing he knew awaited him at the barn. They had traveled these forest trails so much together they knew them all by heart, and he needed no light to see by. He knew exactly where every little rut and dip was.

The girl had been trying to estimate where they were ever since it got too dark to see, but it was difficult. The lightning provided light, but the rain that poured into her eyes without stopping made everything seem blurry and surreal.

'Mother's probably pacing the floor right now,' she thought as yet another boom of thunder made her flinch and grip the leather tighter, noticing uneasily how wet and slick it had gotten.

'I'm on my way, Momma, I'm on my. . .'

CRASH!

The entire forest filled with a bright, blazing white aura as a blast of lightning came down and struck a tree by the trail, only a few dozen yards ahead of them. The tree lit up from the inside with a white, then purplish wave of light, before bursting into flames that snarled angrily, trying to burn anything in reach as the rain instantly began extinguishing it.

Both horse and rider screamed in terror, the galloping horse sliding to a halt on the muddy, soppy track, his eyes rolling. The girl was nearly unseated, her ears ringing and an odd numbness creeping over her head as her mount thrashed about in the mud, regaining his footing. The reins began to slip between her fingers as he half-reared and flailed wildly. . .

BOOM!

The blast of thunder that followed not even a moment after the strike shattered any false hope she may have had of regaining control of her terrified horse. He reared and lunged like one possessed and only her years of experience in the saddle prevented her from coming off. The world had lost all meaning to her dazed, panicked mind. the only thing of any importance at all was hanging onto the saddle.

Branches slapped her face hard, nearly throwing her off again as she grabbed desperately at the soaked saddlehorn and clung to the leather for all she was worth. Holding on was all that made any sense right now, and somewhere in her panicked, barely conscious thoughts she realized they were off the trail, traveling at breakneck speed in uncharted territory, and she had lost her reins.

She went to search for them in the dark but her horse jolted hard and nearly unseated her again, and she gripped the horn with both hands in a panic.

The image of her horse tripping over the reins and falling, throwing her off into nothingness, possibly killing them both, was the only thing that made her reach out in the darkness to skim over the pitching mass of her horse's neck and mane to search again. Searching, searching, searching, all she felt was hide and hair. Her fingers came up the left side of his neck, then the right, feeling desperately.

And then she found the strap of leather between her fingers, resting precariously right behind her horse's crownpiece, his ears being the only thing that had prevented it from flying over his head.

The wave of relief that washed over her was immense, but unfortunately temporary as her mount stumbled over something in the darkness. He lurched forward violently and nearly went to his knees, a small sapling tree giving to his massive plunge being the only thing that kept him from going down completely.

His rider effortlessly left the saddle behind and went airborne, flying up onto his neck, further unbalancing him.

As he thrashed about in the undergrowth in a panic the girl was tossed off his neck and came off completely. She gripped his mane with her left hand for all she was worth, clenching her right fist around the reins.

Another leap lifted her feet right off the ground and her skull collided with something rock hard, sending a sharp pain down the right side of her face, stemming from her forehead. She shouted at her panicked horse to calm down, trying to be heard above the wild storm, but she couldn't even hear herself.

He lunged forward again, ready to continue his mad dash, but she kept a firm pressure on his bit, turning him constantly to the right in a swift circle, her other hand still buried in his mane. She thought she spoke calming words to him, things she always told him when he got frightened, but she couldn't hear a word she said.

Come to think of it. . .she couldn't hear anything. She could see the lightning still slashing the sky to pieces and the thunder vibrating hard beneath her feet, the rain and bushes slapping her face as she continued to turn her horse in mad circles, but she couldn't hear them at all.

The horse finally slowed down to a walk, stepping on his rider's feet a couple times in the dark, earning a shout of pain from said rider, his sides heaving heavily. The whites of his eyes showed plainly in the flashes of lightning, wide with terror as he tried to shy away from another flash above his head.

Not daring to release either the mane or the reins, the girl took advantage of the moment when he was only shying and dancing in a relatively slow circle and used his mane to help pull herself back into the saddle after the lightning helped her see where the seat was. After finding her stirrups with her feet she loosened her horse's reins a little, knowing he would work himself into a frenzy if she made him stay still.

He nearly leaped forward but her firm hand on the reins only allowed him a swift trot, nothing more. She rubbed his neck and called softly to him in a reassuring manner as he fought his bits fearfully, before realizing for the third time that night that she still couldn't hear a single thing.

She rubbed her horse's neck and shoulder below his mane, staying low to the saddle as she felt a low-hanging branch scrape her back. Lightning flashed again, and after a few moments she thought she heard a soft rumble of thunder.

A soft swishing noise tickled lightly in her ears, and she rubbed them against her arms to make the irritating sound go away. After another moment or two it fleshed out into the sound of wind and very heavy rain.

'I must have lost my hearing for a second when the lightning hit,' she realized, as the sounds of the raging storm came back to her now completely, like a closed door to a loud party being opened up.

After re-orientating herself she rubbed her horse's neck again, staying as low to the saddle as possible. Being off the trail in pitch darkness wasn't safe, but sitting up in the saddle would be downright stupid. A low-hanging limb would make short work of the connection she had recently restored with her horse, and she really didn't want to be left stranded out here.

"Its alright boy, its ok," she soothed as gently as she could, trying not to flinch when another flash lit up the sky and forest.

"Its ok. Just calm down."

Her horse didn't seem to be listening and jumped when thunder rumbled loudly through the air, but all the adrenaline and fear-crazed energy he had used up in a couple short minutes had taken its toll on the already tired animal, and he blew loudly through his nostrils in a resigned huff, flicking his ears back now to listen to his master. After another minute or two of letting him get the fear-kinks out of his muscles she lightly tightened his reins and asked him softly to walk.

Too exhausted to trot any more, and feeling his rider rub his neck in the soothing, encouraging way she had, he complied.

Now that she had the horse more or less calm and back under control, some of the tension she'd been holding in was released, and as the adrenaline left her body she was left trembling from exhaustion and a small drop of relief. They could very easily have been killed earlier, and she thanked her stars that nothing worse had happened. The area above her right eye still hurt quite a bit, and she guessed she had somehow hit her head against the horse's in the wild fracas.

Her feet throbbed where he had stepped on her, and when she shifted slightly in the stirrups for a more comfortable position, sparks of pain erupted from the joints, making her groan softly.

"I know you didn't mean it, but I'm going to have to think about that extra-long brushing I promised," she told him, rubbing his neck to take the sting out of her words.

"When we get home I might not be able to stand up!"

The storm raged on, as loud as before, but after all the previous excitement it didn't seem like such a problem. It sounded somehow muted and not quite so important, like the background hubbub at a public gathering.

The main problem was that now, in the middle of the night, with no light to speak of and in the pouring rain during a thunderstorm, the girl didn't have a clue where she was, or where her horse was taking her. She could only hope he was taking her home. Horses seemed to have a perfect retracing map inside their heads that enabled them to go home from any area they were. It didn't matter how far away. She envied him extremely at this moment, because she had lost track of everything when her horse had left the trail.

The horse walked along, exhaustion in every step, and tension in every stare he took all around him. He would gladly break into a faster pace again if it would get them home sooner, but his master had said no. . .he had a vague idea of where he was, and a part of him knew he was heading in the right direction. He just had to keep walking. . .

He stopped suddenly, his nostrils flaring as he raised his head with a little more vigor than before. Flicking his ears forward, he scanned the darkness and sniffed again, blowing it out firmly to keep the rainwater from going up his nose. He'd know that smell anywhere! Oats! And apples! He turned himself here and there, trying to pinpoint where it was coming from. . .but it came from a different direction than where his internal compass pointed. He paused. Which one to take? After a moment he turned to the left and started off to the direction of the scent. Where there was food, there would be warmth and blankets for he and his rider both.

Home could wait.

Her horse had changed directions quite a ways back, and she hadn't hindered him, figuring that he knew where they were going better than she did. The wind and rain suddenly struck against them even harder than before, nearly blowing them off balance with the force of it, and after a moment the girl realized they weren't in the woods anymore. Rather, they were in what appeared to be a meadow of some sort. Another bolt of lightning confirmed that they had left the trees behind. If they were in a meadow (that was the only place the girl could think of) the grass had been beaten completely flat by the pounding rain, and the ground was very muddy and sucked at her horse's feet.

Straightening in the saddle, groaning again as her feet protested, she gave him a sympathetic shoulder scratch, feeling how exhausted the poor animal was.

'When we get home, your getting an extra apple,' she thought.

'You deserve it.'

It was impossible to tell how much time had passed, but after a time she felt the ground beneath her horse change after a while from flatland to something else. An experienced rider can tell many things by the horse's movement, including where they're walking. After concentrating a moment, she realized it felt almost felt like. . .

'Cobblestones?'

She thought in confusion.

'There's no cobblestones or anything like them way out here in the middle of nowhere. But, then again, I don't even know where "Here" is.'

A brilliant flash of lightning lit up the sky again, and she caught a glimpse of some sort of structure up ahead. Another flash confirmed that there really was something there, and the next one made her gasp and pull up her horse in shock.

Outlined and accented by the near-constant lightning, standing tall against the sky. . .was a castle. It loomed over them like a behemoth, and she felt herself shrink to her horse as the stone mass leered down at her. It was so. . .huge! She was struck by its sheer size. And the fearful aura it gave off accented that.

The storm did not help.

'Where AM I?' The girl thought, utterly baffled and a little bit afraid. 'The only castle I know is the royal family's back in the city, and this is definitely not it.'

She rubbed her horse's neck for comfort as she thought to herself, no longer wanting to speak out loud for some reason, 'WHERE in the name of Orion did you TAKE us, boy? This is. . .crazy. . .'

The horse, having taken in everything he wanted to see, pulled his bit again, telling his rider he wanted to keep going. The smell of the food was getting stronger, and his exhaustion and hunger had worn him down. The place did feel unusual, but first things came first. And the first things were food and warmth. For both of them.

Too tired to really argue with her mount, and trusting him, she let him walk on. After several more moments of staring wide-eyed up at the towering piece of architecture the rain had filled her eyes completely and she was forced to look at the ground, blinking hard. As lightning flashed she could tell that it was indeed cobblestones her horse had been walking on, and they were heading over a wide wooden drawbridge. There was nothing but darkness off to the side and she could guess it was a long way down to the moat.

'This is like a dream,' she thought in a mixture of awe and confusion. 'Nowhere around here has a castle except the big city, and its impossible this is the royal family's. Where in the world am I?'

The horse hit cobblestones again, and the girl assumed it was the courtyard, between the flashes of lightning and the position of the castle directly overhead now, which now looked even creepier up close. Her horse, after pausing another moment, walked further down the courtyard, staying alert. His rider's anxiety had made him a bit wary, and he watched the shadows carefully.

Straining her eyes, the girl thought she saw something up ahead. Something vaguely bright. Guiding her exhausted mount toward it, she realized after a moment she was looking at a light. A light through an open door, throwing a yellow pool onto the cobblestones nearby, catching every droplet of water in its glow and illuminating them in flattering embellishment.

Without even double-thinking, they both headed straight for it.