4
I woke up to somebody shaking me gently.
"Maia!" Malon whispered. "We're here!"
I opened my eyes. The mellow sunlight filtered through the wagon's top and beamed onto my face. I sat up, shaking the sleep out of my head. I pulled the blanket off of me and handed it to Malon.
"Oh, you can just leave that here," she told me.
I shrugged and dropped it.
Talon, who looked deathly tired, came around the back and helped me down. I was limping slightly because my ankle was still sore but other than that I was fine. Tempest was still tied to the side of the wagon. I undid his reins and checked his injury. It didn't seem to have changed at all over the long walk, just that it was crusty and the blood had dried. I untied him and steered him back around to Malon.
"I still think that your horse is so pretty," she breathed.
I smirked.
"Come on," Talon yawned. "Let's get your horse in the stable and..." the rest of his sentence was lost in an exhausted mumble. But I got the point. Take Tempest into their stable.
I looked to Malon since I didn't know where their stable was.
"Come on," she said beckoning for me to follow her.
I clicked my tongue to get Tempest to go along. We walked side-by-side, both of us favoring our legs. My right leg and Tempest, his front-left leg.
I followed Malon through a huge gate at the entrance of the ranch. There were buildings on either side of us. Only three doors. We emerged from the narrow path onto a spacious corral. Horses were running freely around without a care in the world. Malon led me to the right.
A huge door was on the other side of the building. Malon banged on the door.
"Ingo!" she yelled. "Open this door for me please? It's Malon!"
A harsh raspy voice came back. "Why can't you come through the door for humans?" it challenged.
Malon didn't miss a beat. "I have an injured horse with me!"
There was a moment's pause, then, with a grinding screech that made my ear drums scream in protest, the door slid open, revealing the stable. Inside the stable were numerous stalls. Inside the stalls were cows. By the just opened door was an unstable-looking man.
He was very scrawny. He had thick eyebrows and a scruffy mustache that seemed to have minds of their own. His hair was dark. His whole body was shaking uncontrollably, like he had drank a bit over the usual limit. I couldn't even see his mouth. He was slouching awkwardly and sort of backwards, the little flab of stomach he had bulging. He gripped a pitchfork in his left hand and rested it on his shoulder. His knees were turned in and he had a natural look of anger and annoyance on his face.
"Maia, this is Ingo," Malon introduced. "Ingo, Maia."
Ingo glared at me, at least it seemed like he was glaring. He stumbled towards me.
"So this is the injured horse?" he asked.
I nodded, backing away with Tempest.
"Where is the injury?" Ingo demanded.
I hesitated slightly, then pointed to Tempest's leg.
Ingo crouched down and examined the wound. "How long has it been since the injury was inflicted?" Ingo asked not looking away from Tempest's leg.
"Overnight," Malon answered, proud that she knew this information.
My upper lip curled slightly. Sure, she could speak and be proud for the knowledge she held. I couldn't speak and my knowledge would never be known to anybody. I couldn't tell anyone about that man or my real name or Tempest's name or...
Ingo stood, brushed himself off, and looked up at me. My snarl vanished immediately.
"I'm going to need to tend to your horse for a while. He's going to need to be kept in the stable for an hour or so," he announced.
I shifted my weight front foot to foot. I was not comfortable leaving Tempest alone with this man. I looked helplessly to Malon.
"Ingo is very kind to the horses," she assured me. "He'll know what to do. I promise he'll be good to your horse."
I sighed and turned back to Ingo. For a minute we just stood there staring at each other.
"Well?" Ingo broke the silence.
I huffed and begrudgingly handed Tempest's reins over to Ingo.
He nodded stiffly. He rubbed Tempest' neck, pulling him into the stable. Then with another screech, he pulled the door shut again.
I just stared at the closed door for a moment until Malon, grabbing my arm, snapped me out of my thoughts. I turned towards her.
"Come on, let me show you around the ranch!" And she took off, dragging me along with her. I let her pull me around the ranch, showing me everything.
"This is the corral! And, hey, when your horse is better you can ride him around in here and jump fences and all that!
"This is the storage tower. We keep the cows' and horses' feed and hay and water in here. We've also got a secret room behind this block here. But nobody can move it. It's really strange."
Malon was indicating to a block in front of the wall. I squinted at it trying to make sense of it. It was almost as big as me and looked like it weighed a ton. It had two odd symbols engraved into it. The one on the left was a large circle with a line touching the left of it. The one on the right was two lines crossing diagonally over each other with two small circles at both ends of the line crossing from the top right to the bottom left. I didn't recognize them but they seemed familiar somehow. I was distracted again by Malon latching onto my arm and yanking me out the door. Despite it being out of my presence though, I still couldn't help but feel a strange magnetic pull to the block. I shook my head violently, trying to snap out of it with little effect.
With some effort, I turned away and followed after Malon.
"This is where we keep all of the cuckoos. My dad and I sleep up here..."
I pretty much zoned out at this point. My mind was elsewhere. And by elsewhere, I mean I was thinking about that block and the symbols on it. I came to a conclusion; I had to move that block and get into that room Malon was talking about.
An ear-splitting screech brought me back to reality abruptly.
"Hey, it's Ingo!" Malon announced the obvious. She let go of my wrist, which she had been clinging onto the whole time, and bounded from the room.
I sighed and trudged after her. How did she manage to remain happy all the time? I didn't get it.
She had already skipped from the building by the time I got down the stairs. I saw Talon passed out in front of a box with the cuckoos jumping all over him. I chuckled silently and slowly tip-toed past him, making as little noise as possible, not wishing to wake him. When I got outside, I was surprised to see the sky a deepening indigo in the fading twilight. I made my way over to the stable and saw Malon kneeling by Tempest. She glanced up and saw me.
"Maia!" she cried waving me over.
I stepped over to her.
"Look at this!"
I crouched down next to her and examined Tempest's ankle. The only thing indicating that a cut was ever there, was the lack of fur in that area. My mouth opened and closed multiple times as I tried to make sense of this. I couldn't. I stared at Ingo in astonishment. He had a smug look on his face that screamed, 'I told you didn't I, girlie?' I wanted to smack it off.
It was almost pitch-black.
"Your horse can stay in the corral," Ingo said. I nodded.
Malon stretched her arms above her head and yawned widely. Ingo and I both yawned as well. We glared at Malon. She didn't notice.
"I don't know about you guys but I'm going to bed." She yawned again. "Ingo can you show Maia her roooommmmm?" she asked, the last word stretched out by a long yawn.
*Stop yawning, dang it!* I thought angrily as Ingo and I yawned after Malon yet again.
Ingo grunted and nodded stiffly.
"Come on, kid," he said to me. He walked ahead briskly, taking long strides. I had to run to keep up with him.
He opened a door next to where Malon had showed me the cuckoos.
"Guest room is upstairs," he said gruffly, pointing to a narrow staircase against the wall. I nodded and began walking in that direction when Ingo grabbed my arm, yanking me to a halt. I turned to him questioningly
He said nothing but his face changed. His hair, even his eyebrows and mustache, thinned almost to wisps. I could see his mouth and he was grinning creepily, showing two rows of teeth, his canine ones more pointed than they ought to have been. His eyes were red and bloodshot.
I blinked and he went back to normal. He released my arm.
"Have a nice night," he grumbled quickly before side stepping out of the room. He shut the door behind him.
I stared at the closed door, slack-jawed. That was the second time this had happened. I shook it off an climbed the stairs. I opened the door revealing a small bedroom. A bed was in one corner of the room and a bookshelf with an assortment of books was in the other. A wardrobe was up against the wall. I opened it up and found a white blouse and thick leather brown pants and a pair of boots with thick black soles. I took off y scarf and hung it over the rack. Then I closed the wardrobe back up again.
I locked my door so that nobody would see my neck and the metal slates in them. There was also a small window cut into the wall overlooking the ranch. I could barely see. On a nightstand by the bed was a candle. I fumbled with it for a moment before successfully lighting it. I carried it over to the window and set it on the sill. Not too long after that, my candle was the only one still flickering. I waited a few minutes after just to be safe. When I was sure that everybody was asleep, I blew out my candle. I pulled the scarf back around my neck and unlocked my door. I opened it and stepped out. I almost walked straight off the staircase. Multiple times. When I finally reached the bottom I had twisted a few of my fingers and had a purple bruise blotched on my shoulder.
I exited the building and shut the door quietly behind me. I silently padded across the ranch almost running into the horses a few times. When I finally reached the storage tower my eyes and ears were so attentive that I'd hear a soft footfall from across the corral even with the thundering hoof beats. I softly opened the door and stepped inside, pulling it closed behind me. The few cows in there looked up at me lazily then, seeing that I wasn't a threat, they went back to munching on their chow.
There was pretty much no light in here except for the block. It was pulsing a strange multicolored glow. It was green, then it was orange, then blue, then purple, then red, then yellow, and lastly gold.
I just stood there in awe for a few moments. The colors glinted off of my scale-adorned clothing and danced about the room.
One of the cows mooed loudly, snapping me from my trance. I slowly approached the block. I reached out and prodded it with one finger before jumping back, getting into defensive position. The block remained idle, having no reaction whatsoever, to my touch. I crept forward again and placed my whole hand against it. When nothing happened I went around the side and placed both hands flat on its side. It began to pulse brighter. I pushed it. It didn't budge. Frowning, I pushed harder. The light shone even brighter. If I could've grunted I would've. I was gasping and panting with effort. When I was just about to give up my lips parted open unintentionally and a word I didn't recognize escaped my lungs.
"Drastin!"
Suddenly, the block shone so brightly I had to close my eyes. The light still shone through my eyelids. Then the block shifted underneath my force. Screwing my eyes shut even tighter, I shoved the block with all of my might. It skidded over the ground and then escaped my grasp. I toppled and fell flat on my face. I stayed there until the light dimmed back to its steady pulse. I carefully picked myself up. There was a hole in the wall behind where the block had been. I hesitated for only a second. Then I ducked my head and began walking carefully down the passage.