Chapter 6: The Birds and the… Horses? I don’t know I didn’t pay attention in Sex Ed

  -Stephanie-

  I forced myself out of bed. It was still early, but I only had the room for another hour. Whatever that dream was about this time, I didn’t really feel ready to deal with that. I mean, a girl created from my imagination was confused that I was a real person! The implications of that were… worrying.

  I heaved myself over to the sink and washed up. Then I pulled out some fresh clothes from my bag, some tight bck pants and a light green blouse. Finally I slipped into my light blue coat, grabbed my bad and made my way downstairs.

  The breakfast at the inn was something to get used to. Leftover soup from the evening and some stale bread. At least it was free if you had a room. Once I gulped down the st spoonful of soup, I handed back the keys to my room and went outside. I still had a long walk ahead of me.

  It was about four to five more days on foot to Omar. I could try and find a horse to loan, but from the few stables I walked past yesterday it didn’t look like there were many horses avaible for loan. It couldn’t hurt to ask around, though, if I passed another on my way out the eastern road. It was still retively early. The sun had just fully risen above the horizon and the cool of the night still hung in the air. Eventually I did pass another stable and decided to take a peek. There were two people inside.

  A well-aged man, with a lithe figure but a decent amount of muscle was feeding two of the horses. He had short brown hair that had the faintest streaks of grey starting to creep their way through the curls. His beard was short trimmed but full and he wore a simple grey-beige shirt and some baggy brown pants. Further down the stable was a young woman, not much younger than me. She had simir brown hair to the man, but her curls were tied into a ponytail that fell all the way to her waist. She was a bit smaller than me and wore dark blue overalls over an off-white shirt. She was currently brushing one of the horses.

  I softly tapped my fingers against the rge doorframe and both of them turned around. “Oh hiya there girly, be with you in a jiffy,” the man shouted cheerfully. The girl have me a once-over gnce and then went back to her horse. She finished up brushing and started heaving a rge saddle on its back while the man quickly fed the st bits of food to the other two horses. “So, what can I do you for?” he said melodically, as he sauntered over to me.

  “Hi uh… I’m Sephie, I’ve been wondering how much it would cost me to loan a horse to Omar?” I asked carefully, as if the price were some kind of beast, come to sy me.

  “Grand, you can call me Sunny,” he greeted. “To Omar huh? That would be two to three days there. Cassie here is headed there as well, so she would take the horse off you once you’re there. We only got these two beauts here avaible right now. Left one’s Kare, nomad breed, far south. He’s the faster one. Cost you about five gold a day.” He pointed to the rge, athletic bck and brown stallion. “Right one’s Mishka, northern breed, doesn’t like the summer weather much, so she’s a bit slow this time of the year. Cost you a gold a day.” Mishka was a small mare, not much rger than your average pony and she was covered in long, white hair that looked incredibly soft.

  I was mostly looking to safe myself some energy and a three-day trip with Mishka would still cost me less than even a one-day trip with Kare, so I quickly settled for the small mare. By now the girl, Cassie apparently, had made her way over as well, the chestnut brown and white mare she had saddled up in tow.

  “So you’re headed to Omar as well? I figured you mage types would all be rushing to the capital right now, not the other way.” Her voice gave off a cheeky impression and the rge sputtering of freckles on her nose and cheeks didn’t help that image I had of her.

  Wait what was that? Something with mages going to the capital? “What do you mean? Why would I want to go to the capital?” I asked, furrowing my brow in confusion. Had I missed something important? Marlon was going there as well, I remembered.

  “There’s some competition going on. Magic duels and such.” She motioned her hand like she was casting some spell. “Most of our horses been taken that way. Figured you’d be another one,” she added.

  Why would Marlon take part in a magic competition? I mean he was good at martial magic, but back at the boarding school he never took part in the tournaments. “So what are you headed for Omar for?” she continued the interrogation.

  Before I could answer, Sunny shooed her off, “Cass stop harassing the poor girl. Make yourself useful and get Mishka ready, will you?” The little troublemaker rolled her eyes and stormed off to the little horse.

  While she got Mishka ready, Sunny and I haggled over the price and I managed to get him down to one gold and five silver. In return I had to keep an eye on Cassie on the road. I didn’t mind the company, although I was worried that Cassie might, but half price off was more than worth it. By them time we were done with our deal, Mishka was all saddled up and ready. Cassie rolled her eyes again when she heard about our deal, but she seemed mostly fine with it. We did travel the same road after all. And once we were in Omar, I would have to find her anyways, to hand back the horse.

  A few minutes ter we headed out of the stable and were slowly trotting our way down the east road.

  *****

  “So… now that my uncle’s not here to pester us… What are you doing in Omar?” Cassie looked at me expectantly. I was a little surprised. It was about midday. The sun had been gringly hot today and for the st couple of hours Cassie hadn’t said a single word to me.

  “It’s… complicated,” I replied. That was obviously not what she wanted to hear and her face showed her displeasure clearly.

  “We’ve got time.” She raised her eyebrows and gave me a cocky smirk. I sighed. She wasn’t gonna let this go.

  “I’m trying to find someone. I don’t know who yet, though. But I know they are in Omar. Or will be anyways.” I hoped that answer would satisfy the curious minx, but of course it only got her more curious.

  “What are you trying to find them for? And how do you know they’ll be in Omar?” she asked excitedly.

  “Look Cassie it’s really complicated okay. I don’t want to go into the details. I just know that I will find them in Omar.” The girl huffed and blew away a rogue strand of hair on her face.

  “You’re waaaay to tense you know that? We’re about the same age. You’re way too young to be all worried and stuck up.”

  I opened my mouth to reply but thought better of it. The more I said the more answers she would want. I snuck a gnce over to her and she looked like she was going to pester me again when her eyes went wide.

  “Sephie what’s that golden thingy!” she almost shouted, pointing at me. My heartrate spiked. Had she seen the compass? I thought it was well hidden under my blouse. I quickly looked down, then back at her again. Her eyes weren’t fixed on my chest though. She was gncing just past me. I turned to the right and a glittering golden paper bird was flying directly in front of my face.

  I jumped. Mishka suddenly panicked and started sprinting and I had to hold on with all my strength. I almost fell off multiple times until I got her back under control. Cassie was still ughing her ass off as she rode back up to me.

  “Hahaha, oh my gods, that was hirious! You’re such a scaredy cat Sephie! Hahaha!” She had to wipe away the tears of joy from her eyes.

  “Not funny,” I grumbled as Cassie continued to wallow in her schadenfreude. The golden bird was still fpping right next to me and after calming myself down, I grabbed the little messenger.

  I slowly unfolded the paper. She golden glow flickered away as the spell ended. I began to read.

  ‘Sephie,

  I hope this letter finds you well and quickly. Gerden told me you are out travelling and we recently heard some grave news.

  A pack of Goblins slipped through the ranger’s defences and is running rampant throughout the reach. If you are currently on the road, please find a caravan quickly.

  I love you very much and I hope you stay safe. Write me back sometime.

  Marion~’

  I stared at the cute little flourish after the name. Then I stared at the name. But… she was only part of my imagination? Had I somehow willed her into existence? But then what happened to Marlon? The little flourish was something he had always added after his name whenever he signed something. This had to be him. But it was Marion! I mean I could see the dot clearly! My head was spinning and my mind was thrown into chaos.

  “You okay there Sephie? You’re looking a bit shocked,” Cassie piped up next to me. I looked up from the letter. She had a worried but gentle look on her face.

  “I- Uhh. It’s… Bad news, I guess. And confusing news. I’m feeling a little dizzy,” I managed to say in between breaths. I shook my head and focused on the main part of the letter again. Right. Goblins. Caravan. “Okay Sephie, get it together,” I mumbled to myself, although from Cassie’s look she had clearly heard me. “It’s a letter from my friend. There’s a pack of Goblins somewhere out here in the pins and we should look for a caravan for safety.” Cassie’s eyes went wide in fear and she was breathing heavily. For the first time since meeting her she looked completely dishevelled. “Are you alright Cassie?” I asked softly. Our horses had come to a full stop now. Cassie shuddered and let out a shaky breath.

  “Yea. Uh. Fuck. I- I will be. Hopefully. Just- shit. I don’t…” her eyes gzed over as she stared into nothingness. I slowly rode up closer to her and put a comforting hand on her back. My soft strokes seemed to calm her and I felt her breathing stabilise. “I didn’t check the caravan schedule before setting out,” she finally managed to say. “I don’t know if there are any behind or in front of us.”

  I gave a soft nod. If we turned back now, we would be in Littlehorn by sundown. If we continued on it could be another two days until we were safe. There was a very good chance I would also miss the blue needle if I turned back now. But I also promised to look after Cassie. If anything happened on the road, I would be responsible. How likely was it that the Goblins had gotten this far north though? There were way too many things to consider. I felt the dizziness creep back into me.

  The horses were clearly getting impatient. Cassie and I gave ourselves a little snack break to properly think things through. Half a day on the road and wait for the next caravan, or two days on the road, with no guarantee of safety. Those were our current options. Cassie seemed especially scared about having no safety going forward, but she also had her reasons to reach Omar. She didn’t go into any details though and unlike her, I didn’t want to unch into an interrogation.

  We about half-emptied our waterskins and we shared one of the apples I bought at the market yesterday. Our pn was a little risky, especially with poor Mishka. We would try to make as much distance as possible today and ride till midnight. Then we would rest for a few hours and continue before sunrise. If we hurried, we might reach Omar by tomorrow evening. The only problem was that Mishka wasn’t much of a runner and the heat didn’t help her much in that regard. Our pn set; we continued our journey. Instead of slowly trotting along the road, we picked up the pace to as much as Mishka could take over long distances.

  The first streaks of fiery orange began striking over the horizon when we sat down for our second break of the day. We found two rge oak tree’s that spanned over the Moorest ke. The road was following along it’s shoreline for the second half of today’s journey. Mishka was very exhausted and immediately ran off to drink from the shore of the ke. Cassie’s mount, Rael, followed closely behind, although the mare was barely breaking a sweat. Vilesian runners like her were made for tougher rides than this. We both filled up our waterskins and I pulled out two more apples and a small loaf of bread for the two of us.

  We were both leaning against one of the oak trees, watching the sun go down and enjoying the st of our meal, when Rael and Mishka became agitated again. They had been rather restless ever since our first break and, as Cassie told me, while it was normal for Rael, it was weird for Mishka. She had obviously still not fully recovered from the st few hours. Yet she was rearing to get back on the road.

  It was only when I looked past her, that I started to understand what riled our mounts up so much. In the south, on top of a small, bald hill, a kilometre or two away, stood a single rider. From what I could see from the distance, neither he, nor his ride were very tall. But the shape of the mount was what troubled me. Canine. And while small for a horse, it was very rge for a wolf. The small nky creature on top of the wolf had obviously spotted us. He gave his ride a tug and both of them quickly disappeared behind the hill.

  Then we heard the howls.

  Muffin_Maeve