Chapter 57

Avalina spent several hours in the stable with Mitternacht, telling him what a good, brave boy he was to do something like that.

She had tied rags around her hands, which were bleeding rather badly from the palms. The horse had yanked the leather reins through her hands so hard and so frequently in those few moments that her palms were not in the best of shape.

In the beginning, she had had no intention of taking him right up to the Horned King, merely stopping him at the ten-foot mark. Because if she couldn't do it, then it would be unfair to expect Mitternacht to do such a thing.

But when she had gotten up there, she had realized that if she allowed herself (And by extension the horse) to back out and stay in the comfort zone, then this whole deal wouldn't really profit anything at all.

And she was so glad she had gone completely through with it. The look on the Horned King's face had been priceless, and that torrent of emotion in the air had been more than worth it. It may have been exactly what the Horned King needed.

Judging by the way he had pulled himself together at the end, though, Avalina wasn't expecting he'd be like that tonight at the dining hall.

Mitternacht was extremely proud of himself and only too anxious to be fawned over, glorying in the attention.

When Avalina finally left the stable it was nearly completely dark. For some reason she had half expected the Horned King to still be sitting on the bench, and was mildly surprised to find that he was not.

The Invisibles had put proper bandages on her hands, along with a cool salve of some sort that took the stinging burn out of the wounds.

Supper was an awkward affair, like always, and Avalina felt the icy chill in the air around her captor. He hadn't changed a bit.

'I should have guessed,' she thought, a little bitterly. 'He doesn't know the honor he was given today.'

After the meal, she was ushered out of the room by the Invisibles and taken downstairs to the fire in the entrance room of the castle.

The Horned King was already there.

Avalina saw his horns sticking up over the top of the chair and stopped halfway down the steps.

'How in the world. . .Oh, right,' She remembered.

'He teleported.'

Coming slowly around she stood uneasily by the fire, watching him. This was something new.

'What's going on?' She thought to herself.

This had never happened before.

She was about to get her answer as she heard the Horned King pull in a rattling breath. Her hair stood on end when he spoke.

"Why such a name?"

Avalina knew he could only be talking about Mitternacht.

"Well, sir, it f-fits him, don't you think?"

A pause.

"I do not recognize its origin."

"Oh," Avalina answered as it dawned on her, "It means Midnight in Mrenagy."

She felt his stare even more, and she dropped her eyes to the rug.

"Why did you not simply call him Midnight then?"

"I. . .I wanted something original, something special for him, not something everyone else calls their horse. I wanted something individual. Don't you think he deserves it?"

A pause.

"I suppose."

Another pause.

Avalina slowly rubbed her hands together as she watched the Horned King tapping a finger slowly in thought on his chair arm.

"Tell me, how did a mere peasant come to possess and sit astride an animal that would be considered royal property under any other circumstances? He is a mount fit for a knight, a king even, and yet he belongs to neither."

"It surprises you, sir?"

"It intrigues me."

"Well, you see," Avalina said nervously. "Its kind of a lo. . .long story. A really, really long story."

The Horned King gestured toward the other chair near the fireplace, across from his.

"Sit."

Avalina, trying to keep her shaking to a minimum, obeyed. Carefully she sat down in the chair, surprised at how comfortable it was.

"Begin."

Avalina knew that was not an offer. It was a command.

Taking a deep breath, she complied.

"Momma, look at that!"

"Avalina, quit pestering Mother and help me," Arran groused.

He stared disapprovingly down at his ten-year old sister. She hadn't shut up once since they had entered the city. It had been one Momma-Look-At-This, Momma-Look-At-That moment after the other from the start, and it was wearing on his nerves.

"Let her be, Arran," Mother said gently as she piled some things into the cart. "You were the same way when you saw the city for the first time."

"No way," he told her. "I was never that bad."

Mother only chuckled.

"Momma, can we go see the fair?"

Arran gritted his teeth as her bright voice piped up again. The reason there were so many people about was that the yearly fair was going on in the town square, and he had no desire to go there.

"Momma, can we?"

"We need some things that are sold there, so yes, we'll be going."

"YAY!"

"Mother," Arran groaned, "You can't be serious. Do we HAVE to go in there?"

Two and a half days of walking and sleeping on a hard wagon bed had made him rather irritable.

"Alright Arran," his mother sighed.

Arran mentally brightened, thinking he had won, but was brutally shot down the next second.

"Since you don't want to go, then you can stay here and watch the cart."

"Wh-what?" Arran asked in shock.

"You heard me. Don't want anyone taking the things we bought with our own material."

"Bu-but. . .but. . .Hey!"

But his mother and sister were already gone, leaving an infuriated teenager sitting in the seat of the wagon.

"Now, Avalina dear, stick close to me," Mother cautioned. "This is a very big place, and if I were to lose you in this mass I'd never find you again."

"Yes, Momma," the little girl said solemnly, putting on her best grown-up face, "I'll stick close."

"Remember, if somehow we were ever to get accidently separated, go as close to the castle as you can without angering the guards and wait for me there."

"Yes Momma."

Her mother smiled down at her, and Avalina couldn't help smiling back in joy. She had never been to the big city before! There were so many big buildings and people! And she wanted to see the fair! From this distance it looked absolutely grand!

Avalina stared all around, trying to take everything in at once as she followed her mother to a booth. As her mother made purchases Avalina was taken in awe.

This place was Huge! And colorful! and so, so loud! The highlight of everything was some weird guy on a platform near the center, juggling swords, while another weird guy was doing magic tricks on the other side, calling people out of the crowd. It all looked so interesting!

"Hey, Momma, can we go over-ah!"

Something jolted her roughly forward, nearly making her fall. Avalina looked around herself to see what had hit her, only to find that she had been swept up into the moving crowd of people. It was so crowded she could hardly breathe!

"Momma, what are we gonna do next?"

Avalina looked happily up beside her, where her mother had been last, only to see. . .total strangers.

With a jump, Avalina turned around behind herself, then off to both sides again, instantly realizing that mother wasn't there anymore.

"Momma!"

Tears of fright sprang to her eyes as she looked around in a panic, trying to dodge people.

"MOMMA!"

Terrified, Avalina tried to fight her way through the crowd, looking frantically in all directions, but a small ten-year old girl in a heartless sea of adults was insignificant to everyone and anyone. No one listened to her or stopped to help, and she found herself sobbing uncontrollably in terror as she was swept along with the crowd, looking for her mother.

"MOMMA!"

But she was gone.

'I'm lost!' Avalina thought in panic. 'I'm lost and I don't know where Momma is. What am I going to do? I'm lost, I'm lost, I'm lost!"

The crowd was packed even tighter now than before, and Avalina couldn't see, couldn't breathe. . .weakly, she tried to fight the crowd, tried to get loose. . .but she just couldn't.

Things were starting to get fuzzy, and she realized that she had never felt so hot or thirsty in her life. Her throat ached from screaming, and her eyes blurred with tears.

The crowd surged suddenly, someone shoving her out of the way. She fell hard to the ground, and was immediately stepped on.

Screaming in pain, she fought to get up, but there were so many people. . .

'How do they not see me?' She thought in terror. 'I'm right here!'

With a colossal effort, she managed to get to her feet.

After an unknown amount of time, (It felt like hours) Avalina managed to break free from the mob of people and stumble onto another street that was mercifully empty.

She stood there, panting in exhaustion, tears streaming down her face, shaking in fright, staring at what she had just broken free from.

She could breathe and see now, but there wasn't much to see, and her mother was gone.

Fighting another wave of sobs, she looked down the other end of the street, and saw the top towers of the castle, standing tall above anything else in sight.

'The castle,' she remembered. 'Momma said to go to the castle if we ever get split up.'

Taking a deep breath and straightening her shoulders, she headed in that direction.

It took longer than she could have possibly imagined. The castle was a lot farther away than she thought, and her feet were killing her. Not to mention she was very thirsty.

As she drew near, there was some sort of racket going on in a large pen off to the right, and there seemed to be quite a crowd.

Not bothering to go near the castle gates, she went to the crowd instead, wondering what it was that was causing so much racket.

There actually wasn't that many people, now that she was closer. Maybe a couple dozen or so.

Squeezing in between them and getting close to the rails of the pen, Avalina's eyes widened at the scene that was unfolding inside.

Just a quick note for ya'll. Mitternacht actually means Midnight in German, but Germany and Prydain don't co-exist in the same world, so I scrambled Germany's letters for the random language XD. Also, to anyone that may not have figured it out already, Mitternacht is pronounced Mitt-er-knocked. Another interesting fact ya'll may or may not care about is this. Mitternacht is a song by the German band E Nomine. I think they're pretty decent for the most part. That's where I got the idea for the horse's name XD.

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