Chapter 96
The Horned King had stayed in the stable at Avalina's request for a short time, "helping" her brush down the horse before leaving them alone.
He needed to think alone.
Now, inside the castle, as he walked slowly toward his chambers, what had just happened repeating itself inside his head.
When he had touched that saddle leather, breathed in the horse's scent, felt the horse's hide ripple under his hand, the lich had seen something else. Felt something else. That faint feeling that tugged at his mind so often when he was around the animal or the girl had finally broken through the fog, and for the briefest of moments, he had a vision. Of himself swinging a leg over the horse's back and mounting, right before he had actually did so.
Only, it hadn't been Mitternacht he'd mounted.
This puzzled the Horned King. Mitternacht had been right there, but the Horned King had not seen him for a moment. Rather, he couldn't remember what he'd seen, exactly.
And then the horse had started walking, and that feeling returned again. That sensation. It was so rhythmic, so smooth. . .the Horned King had slid his heels down in the stirrups and loosened his grip on the front of the saddle before he quite realized what he'd done.
His body had shifted to move with the horse's, rather than simply sitting there.
This feeling was so alien, so completely strange, but yet. . .familiar. He couldn't explain it.
The second vision flashed before his eyes, a little stronger than the last, but no less fleeting, disappearing into the fog of his mind before he had a chance to grab it.
Even though he was alone now, he still could not recollect clearly what he had seen, but after much thought, he had reached the conclusion of what it had *been.*
Memory.
It had been so long. . .all he could ever remember in his entire existence was the river of blood he had spread from country to country, being . . .well, what he was now. Anything that had happened before that. . .that is, if anything else had ever happened at all, which he thought doubtful. . .had vanished from him. He no longer remembered being anything but. . .this.
Not that he had ever tried to remember, that is. Nor did he want to.
The Horned King had stayed on the horse as long as possible, before the incessant images running through his mind of things he was supposed to know had forced him to dismount. The pleasant feeling of being astride the horse had aided him in staying on as long as he had, but with the dismounting, the images had finally ceased.
Avalina had noticed something different, but he had shrugged her off.
He had remembered something. Or at least, that was the only thing that made sense. He wanted to tell himself that the brief recollections had been nothing, but he could not deny something this strong.
'So, it is a memory,' he grudgingly confirmed to himself, feeling oddly disoriented at this unexpected revelation.
'A memory from what? I have no recollections of riding before. Animals fear me. Everything fears me. I do not remember what I saw. But there can be no denying that it was there. A memory. It makes no sense.'
His head heavy with these confused thoughts, he entered his chambers.
'I recognized it, but I do not remember ever doing anything akin to the actions I carried out earlier. So why does it seem so familiar? And yet so completely unknown?'
After a moment, he thought of something else.
'A memory from another life, perhaps? Another time?'
The Horned King did not know what to make of this. Any of this. He did not appreciate unexpected difficulties. He also disliked not knowing exactly what to do when a difficulty arose, and this had promptly left him nonplussed.
Standing over the large table, he slowly drew a red X over the third village Creeper and the gwythaint had scouted over the day before, and gritted his fangs in angry frustration.
The trees were not quite bare, but they had lost enough of their leaves to make hiding the gwythaint borderline impossible, thereby halting the Horned King's search for the Pig-Keeper until spring.
Several months away.
The lich realized how little time he had left, and a faint ripple went through him at the memory of the Cauldron. The occasional flashbacks and near-constant whispering of the wretched thing inside his head kept his memory sharp concerning what awaited him when his time was up.
With an effort, he shoved the images away and tried to think of something to drown out the whispers.
The Pig-Keeper had to be in the last village. If not, then he was a brush farmer living around here somewhere. Those were the only two explanations as to why the lich hadn't found the boy yet.
His eyes flashed red with hate for the boy, then irritation at himself as the whispers from the Cauldron made themselves known again, as he kept his mind working to try and drown it out.
He should have stayed with Avalina longer.
'Avalina.'
The Horned King did not see his features soften the slightest bit at the thought of the girl, staring out the window and down at the stable where she was, no doubt.
She had smiled at him today. It wasn't the first time, but everytime she did so it felt like he was receiving it as such. It created that faintly warm feeling deep in his chest and banished the Cauldron from his mind.
He didn't notice the voices had fallen silent.
"Creeper, is something wrong with Addie?"
Avalina and the goblin were inside the gwythaint's stable, brushing the creature down after their race. Avalina had left Mitternacht alone to eat in peace, since he didn't like being brushed while he ate, (Although he was too well-mannered to do anything but shift his weight from one leg to the other in a pointed action) so Avalina had went across the courtyard to help Creeper.
The gwythaint loved the attention and stood still, allowing Creeper and Avalina to work.
"Nothin's wrong with her," Creeper said defensively. "She flew good today."
"I didn't say she didn't," Avalina replied, trying to keep things from boiling over.
"I was just going to ask you if she's been off her feed lately."
Creeper thought for a moment.
"I don't think so," he said, before bristling.
"What makes you ask that?"
"She looks tired in her eyes."
Creeper had noticed this several days ago but refrained from saying anything, privately thinking the gwythaint wasn't getting enough rest. All the scouting over the past few weeks (that he had been ordered to keep secret) had taken up a lot of time, true, but he couldn't see how that could tire the animal. They were predators, they could fly for hours searching for prey and still have enough energy for the chase. This tiredness the gwythaint was exhibiting was unusual.
"She wanted to race today, she must not be that tired," the goblin answered.
"Addie would never turn down a race, Creeper, unless she was dying. She's like Mitternacht in that area."
The goblin gave a soft sound of agreement.
They worked in silence for a while, the gwythaint lapping up the attention, until Avalina said, "Creeper? Has she started eating more?"
The goblin huffed, about to snap something nasty, but then stopped, realizing that he should be keeping up with how his mount was doing.
After thinking a moment, he managed, "Actually, I think she has. But why do you ask?"
"I think she's putting on weight."
Creeper started at this, before ducking his head under the animal's neck to see the girl on the opposite side.
"She gets lots of exercise!"
"Creeper, I never said she didn't," Avalina said, taking a deep breath.
"I just said she looks like she's put on a little weight. That's all I'm saying."
The goblin huffed and went back to work.
What the girl said niggled at him, and finally, after several minutes he swallowed his pride and stepped back to look the gwythaint over.
"Ok, so she's a little well off in the midsection," he finally groused, earning a soft giggle from Avalina.
"I can fix that."
'You're missing something,' the little voice in his head told him.
'Look again.'
Irritated, he stepped back to look the animal over again, taking in all the details.
"Creeper?" Avalina asked, before looking over at him, "I have a theory."
"So do I," the goblin grumbled as he came back up to the gwythaint and rubbed her side.
"And I don't think this is normal. Gwythaints are supposed to be streamlined, aren't they?"
"Creeper?"
"What?!" Creeper snapped.
"For the love of the Fates, what do you want?!"
Avalina looked startled and a little hurt at this statement, and the goblin ducked his head, not wishing to meet her eyes and feel guilty.
"I just wanted to ask," she told him, rubbing the gwythaint's side, "What does this look like to you?"
Grumbling, Creeper shook his head.
"I don't know."
"Come here."
Avalina placed his hand on the gwythaint's side and bade him to keep it there.
After a moment, Creeper looked back at the girl, his now-confirmed suspicions written all over his face.
"You mean. . ."
"Yes!" Avalina cried, barely able to stand still.
"This is impossible!" The goblin cried, searching the girl's face for a smile, a look, something to give away the punchline.
"You have to be joking!"
"Creeper, we have to tell the Horned King!" Avalina cried, dancing on her feet in so much joy she could hardly keep from screaming.
"Addie's pregnant!"
"The gwythaint is. . .what?"
"She's pregnant, she's pregnant!"
The Horned King stared in shock at Avalina as she danced in place, so excited she couldn't keep still.
"She's gonna have a baby! Isn't it wonderful?"
The Horned King's mind had gone temporarily blank.
'The gwythaint. . .pregnant! How? There aren't any more gwythaints in Prydain. Unless, of course, she was before her mate perished. . .Hmm. If it's just now become noticeable it must have been very soon before. . .that.'
"How long does a gwythaint's pregnancy last?" Avalina asked excitedly, nudging the Horned King out of his train of thought.
The Horned King had not researched much on the gwythaint's reproductive cycle. It was common knowledge that gwythaints mated for life, and should something happen to the male during the gestation period, the female would usually die or abort the baby herself. As with any predator, being a single parent did not bode well when there were mouths to feed. A gwythaint carrying a pregnancy after the death of it's mate was so rare it was practically unheard of.
"Usually around a year," The Horned King replied, trying to recollect himself.
"If I recall correctly, she has apparently been pregnant for about eight already."
Avalina counted it off her fingers before looking up at him in barely restrained excitement.
"That means she's gonna have her baby in. . .four months! It'll be born around the first of Spring! Oh, I'm so excited! Won't it be great?"
"I suppose," the lich answered.
"You suppose?"
Avalina looked back at him, her excitement fading slightly.
"You're not excited about it?"
"I do not think so."
"Why?" She asked, looking puzzled.
The Horned King felt a little puzzled at this himself.
After some moments of thought, he slowly answered her.
"The heart is where emotions and feelings stem from. Since I do not possess one, I suppose I cannot feel anything about this, although it no doubt to you is something worthy of being excited about."
Seeing Avalina's broken expression, the lich softened slightly.
"Do not try to understand. It is fruitless."
"I can't help trying," Avalina told him softly.
"I. . .I feel like I should. . .or need. . ."
'That's not right,' she thought in frustration.
"I want to understand," she finally managed out.
'It wasn't supposed to sound like that!'
The Horned King fixed her with a surprised look.
"For whatever reason? Why would you want to understand something like this?"
"I don't know," Avalina said, looking down, embarrassed.
"Maybe if I could understand, I feel like. . .maybe I could help you."
The Horned King, catching on, slowly shook his head.
"No, child. I know you mean well, but this is something no one can "help" me with. Do not dwell on it."
"It's hard not to," Avalina admitted.
"I think about it sometimes."
The Horned King arched a brow ridge faintly at her, surprised by this statement.
'She thinks about it? What does that mean?'
"Sir?" Avalina asked, drawing his attention back to her, "Were you alright today? When you got off Mitternacht?"
The Horned King bristled faintly.
"It was nothing."
Avalina flinched at his tone and said no more.
The lich composed himself, trying to shut out the tiny voice that niggled back at him.
'If it was really nothing, then why are you so defensive about it?'
"I am pleased that you are looking forward to the birth of the gwythaint," he dredged out, attempting to ease the girl's wariness that had sprang up at his last statement.
"It will give you something to look forward to."
Avalina nodded shyly.
"Yes. Have you ever seen a baby gwythaint before?"
"No," he answered.
"What did the Creeper think of the news?"
Avalina giggled.
"He thought I was playing a joke on him at first, then he went into shock. He can't hardly believe it."
"It takes a lot to get something through his head," the lich rumbled in reply.
After a moment, Avalina asked, "Would you read The Emperor and The Nightingale to me again tonight?"
The corner of the Horned King's mouth twitched up faintly.
"Again? You should have memorized it by this point."
"Listening to it is better."
The Horned King slowly shook his head at her.
"Your logic makes no sense."
"If I did memorize it, would you still read it to me?" She asked him.
"No."
Avalina laughed.
"Then my logic does make sense!"
"You enjoy it when I read to you?" He asked.
"Of course," she told him.
"I've told you before."
The Horned King felt his chest grow a little warmer at the notion, but simply nodded, not having anything else to say to this.
So, no welcome back party or anything? For shame! Lol
Reviews greatly appreciated, y'all! :D