Chapter 67
Creeper had hidden by the bottom of the steps and listened to Avalina's story. He had expected to be bored and was surprised he was not.
He had quietly left when it was finished, not wanting anyone to catch him eavesdropping.
Over this past week, the Master had not called for him once, and Creeper couldn't have been happier about it.
His Master's recent behavior was confusing to him. He didn't understand it all.
After his Master had saved the girl from the wolf attack, things had been somewhat. . .different. Creeper didn't know how else to explain it. It just was, and his little mind could only comprehend so much at once.
This afternoon, Creeper had saw the entire incident through the window, his jaw nearly on the floor, watching the scene unfold below him.
It was something he'd never seen before. A living creature walk right up to the Horned King and stare him down.
And that girl. . .she controlled that demon horse like it was nothing! How did she DO that? Creeper could only stare as she turned the lathered animal around and walked him back into the stable like a soldier.
Creeper himself felt better than he could remember feeling in a long time. Any day his Master didn't send for him was a good day, and he'd had a week straight of good days! It was a record.
After his master and the girl had retired for the night, he had came across a small wagon in one of the halls, filled to overflowing with brightly colored paper wads and ribbons.
He had heard the Invisibles talking just a couple rooms down. . .he grinned suddenly. This would be perfect revenge for all the bad treatment he had received from his Master because of them.
Getting behind it, he had pushed with all his might against the wagon, and to his surprise it moved!
Grunting, he shoved it to a sloping part of the hall, where it teetered for a moment, before one last shove sent it over the edge.
He watched as it rocketed toward the door below, silently willing it to open, and as the Fates would have it, it did!
Right before it shut.
The Invisibles that had came out started bellowing in joy and flung the door open again, allowing the wagon's front wheels to catch on the threshold and throw its load inside.
They had yanked the wagon back out of the way, shouted something about rainbows and then slammed the door shut. The bellowing of a very angry Invisible could be heard on the other side.
"Ahahaha, that was Great, little buddy!" One of the Invisibles laughed as they came up to him. "You read our minds!"
". . .I did?" Creeper asked, completely befuddled. He had expected them to be angry, and yet, here they were, laughing their heads off, while the raging of the other Invisible was dimly audible down the hall.
"Yes!" Another one sobbed in laughter. (Or was it the same one?)
"That was glorious! You'll be a great minion! If we were allowed to have minions, that is. . ."
"We'll hide him!"
"Yeah! Quick, to the supply room!"
"NO!" Creeper shouted. "I am NOT your minion!"
"Ok, ok, sheesh," an Invisible answered. "You're not our minion. What are you, then?"
"HOPTOAD!"
"BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Creeper stood with his arms crossed, glaring at the air, tapping a little foot. He was not amused, and this only seemed to make them laugh harder.
"That's not funny."
This brought on another wave of laughter from them, so hard he felt the stones shiver slightly under his feet.
"I'm going to bed, its way past my bedtime."
Stomping off, the last thing he heard before he shut a door behind him was, "But don't you want some rainbow mushrooms?!"
Snarling, he slammed the door, hearing them crack up even harder.
"Servants."
The Horned King stood by the window in his chambers, staring out into the pitch black night. The silence was nearly suffocating, save for the cool little breeze that rippled the tattered old curtains by the window in an eerie manner, but the Horned King paid it no mind.
The wooden 'door' of the window tapped against the stone by the force of the breeze, despite being tied to the wall.
He had been so deeply engrossed in Avalina's story, he hadn't realized she had finished for a while. She described things very well, and he could almost see it himself, the trials, triumphs, highs and lows she had gone through while training the horse.
He felt calmer and more relaxed than he could remember feeling in a long, long time.
The horse's history intrigued him. He had expected it to be an average run-of-the-mill story about a girl and a horse, but it had turned out to be so much more.
'That horse was called Death by everyone,' he thought silently.
'Feared, hated, despised by all. His reputation preceded him everywhere. And yet. . .Avalina proved them all wrong. She dared to put her life on the line to save him, and she succeeded, because she saw something nobody else did. Rather, something no one else tried to see. She said so herself. Would anyone else have seen it if they had looked hard enough?'
The breeze tugged at the curtains a little harder, gently ruffling the hems of his robes.
'Probably not. It takes a fine eye to find something that well hidden, and few people would have tried riding him again, especially at her age. Grown men would not have tried that. And now he would do anything for her. He proved that this afternoon.'
The window tapped again, allowing him to alter his line of thought.
'The horse, after the initial sighting, showed no more fear of me today. When he looked at me, I felt (If I could feel, that is) something I've never felt before. Or if I have at some point, I no longer remember it. This is. . .completely unexpected. All creatures fear me, as they well should. For I am a monster.'
The Horned King narrowed his eyes as the breeze picked up a little, before falling deathly silent.
'And yet, today. . .neither the horse or Avalina flinched away from me in the courtyard. For the briefest of moments, I thought I felt. . .something.'
He bared his fangs silently at the thought, mildly disgusted with himself.
'But that is impossible. I cannot feel. I haven't in centuries. But today. . .today was. . .different, somehow.'
His fingers drummed slowly on the pane in puzzlement.
'If I knew such a thing, I might be fooled into thinking that I felt. . .Hope. But that is impossible. I cannot feel. I have no heart to feel with.'
Turning away from the window, he closed his eyes for a brief moment.
'If I were able to feel, and if there truly was anything under my monstrous image worth seeking, and if it were not such a weak, foolish, *mortal* emotion, I might be able to hope. I might be able to hope that my. . .situation. . .was reversible. But it is not.'
A faint sigh, all but completely indistinguishable from the breeze, escaped him as he buried the incident that afternoon in his mind, refusing to dwell on it anymore.
'For I am heartless.'
The cool breeze swept over her, ruffling her hair and skirt, as the warm yellow sunbeams warmed her body from the outside in. The grass swished against her bare feet, and she leaped high in the air, laughing in joy at the sensation. It was wonderful.
Racing, she ran through the green meadow, which was lavishly sprinkled in beautiful wildflowers, as she fancied she heard the pounding of Mitternacht's hooves right behind her, drumming through the earth.
Knowing better than to waste time looking over her shoulder, she laughed and ran over a small rise, before hiding behind the only tree in sight.
The horse whooshed past her and kept right on going, bucking and twisting in the air, snorting loudly.
He disappeared over another rise, and she stifled a giggle. He knew where she was, he was just playing.
Turning, she took off in the other direction, clearing the rise she had just went over.
The entire landscape below had now changed, from a wide, grassy meadow to a sunlit forest, but it didn't bother her.
Ducking under some monstrous limbs, she slipped inside.
The peace the forest radiated was soothing. Butterflies flitted through the air, while a squirrel leaped effortlessly from limb to limb, almost seeming to fly, high above her head. His tail streamed out behind him like a banner, before he disappeared into the sunbeams.
Looking back down, she headed down a little deer trail that had been used rather recently, judging by the tracks.
Using the utmost stealth, she knelt and hid in some bushes by the path as she saw a beautiful family of deer come into view, feeding off the forest grasses. The does grazed warily, snapping up bites of grass, before yanking their heads up to stare all around, constantly on the alert for danger.
Little fawns bounced and chased each other all over the place, clearing the undergrowth and stamping their tiny hooves as they challenged each other to mock fights.
A butterfly rested on her arm as she grinned in joy, watching the deer.
Life was perfect.
A faint whisper came to her on the wind, causing her to carefully lift her eyes from the herd and look up, trying to see where it was coming from.
Suddenly, the forest grew very dark, as if a thick cloud had covered the sun. The wind picked up and suddenly felt cold, where it had been pleasant only a moment before.
The trees whispered muffled warnings in the wind as the deer bounded away and the birdsong grew silent.
Avalina felt a chill run up her spine.
Something was coming. Coming down the path. She sensed it rather than saw it. And it felt threatening.
Knowing better than to raise up, she carefully huddled herself as deep into the bushes as she could, praying she wouldn't slip and cause one to rustle and give away her position.
'Don't see me, don't see me,' she thought in terror, as the sensation of something coming grew stronger.
'Please don't see me.'
Daring to peek carefully through the tiny gaps in the greenery, her eyes searched for anything that moved, something that could distinguish who or what it was that was out there, but she couldn't see anything.
As she pulled back slightly from the bushes, she realized with a start they weren't green anymore. They were withered and brown.
So was the grass. And the undergrowth. And the trees.
All of this was comprehended in a second, before something gripped her shoulder hard from behind.
Screaming, Avalina leaped up, wrenching herself free from its grip, only one thought entering her head.
'Run!'
Which she did.
Crashing through the brittle undergrowth, she ran and ran and ran, dodging cracked, twisted old trees.
Her sides hurt. Her head hurt. Her legs hurt. So did her lungs, but she did not dare to stop. To stop would be her death.
She wanted to scream, but she had to conserve every bit of air she could inhale to fuel her burning muscles.
It was gaining on her.
In her exhaustion, she was moving so slowly, it felt as if she were simply running in place, unable to get any speed back.
It was toying with her. It could catch her anytime it wanted.
Avalina tripped over a root and went sprawling into a small hollow, her momentum rolling her for several feet before she stopped.
Stunned, she lay motionless on the ground, knowing it was over. She wanted to move, she wanted to run, but her muscles wouldn't work.
Not that it mattered. It was right there anyway. She wouldn't even be able to try.
The tall shadow fell over her, and her blurry vision just barely made out the shape of something reaching toward her face.
Terrified, she tried to scream, tried to move, anything, but nothing.
Her chest constricted so tightly as it gently brushed her cheek, she felt like she would suffocate.
Dimly, she wondered where her horse had gotten off to.
'Mitternacht, where are you?'
Avalina's eyes snapped open like lightning, staring in fright at the wall. Her heart was hammering madly inside her chest, and she realized she was gripping the sheets so tightly her hands were sweaty.
It was hot in here.
Tossing the blankets off, she pulled open the window, sighing as the breeze cooled her off and helped to slow her thudding heart.
The silence was eerie, and she fought with herself for several minutes on whether to leave it open or not.
Her dream tugged at her mind, but it was so *hot*. . .
Exhausted, she left it open and slipped back under the covers, her eyes already closed.
'Just a dream, Avalina, go back to sleep.'
She sighed as she burrowed into a more comfortable position, her exhaustion overriding her fears.
'Just a dream.'
Don't forget to leave a review of some sort! ;) Oh, and to the new person that reviewed yesterday and stuff, thank you so much for doing so! I won't call you out by name, but you're awesome! :D I would have replied to your review privately but your PM thing-a-ma-jig ain't activated XD. Thank you for your encouragement, and don't worry, I plan to see this story through to the end, because if I don't, my editor will beat the tar out of me for lying to her when I said I wouldn't quit on this thing halfway through XD. Nothin' like a best friend. . .LOL Besides, I'm having way too much fun to stop writing now XD.
Thank you all for reading my fanfiction, it really means a lot to me:)
LBG