Fear

Everyone pays, no one helps, and everyone fears me. Sacha. What makes you so different? Why are you not in the mansion where I left you? It’s too late to be intrigued by her, she is gone. Only one woman will have your heart tonight, when she comes again to finish what she started. Miranda.

The quiet took him and so did sleep.

SACHA APPROACHES THE CLEARING finding the horse with no trouble, right where Legarde said  the horse would be. This would have to be quick if she wants to get back by sunset. She approaches its black mane shining in the descending sun. It is larger than any horse she has tended. She admires its muscles and loves the hair falling over its feet like little skirts. If you could fall in love with a horse, this would be the one. It’s stared her down as she approached.  And at his front hooves was the bag protected between them.

The horse stomps. A, don’t come any closer.

Her voice came gentle and soothing. “Fear.” She reaches out or its head and made a cautious step forward. “Fear, Your master sent me to retrieve that bag you guard so well.”  

The horse shook its head and stomped again.

“Fear, I am to take it back to him. Could you, maybe just, move to the side.” She was trying to move around the horse since it was so focused on her. To get him to step away from the bag. But he only pivoted with it keeping it under foot.

“Is that how we start with lies?”

She straightened. And looked around to confirm that there was no one else around. And what she just heard actually came from the horses moving lips. She stared at him.

“I am more than capable of taking a bag to my master when he calls. He wouldn’t need you for that. That is not what he told you to do.”

She remained silent. Telling her brain to make sense of it. And simply came up with. Magic Man, magic horse. She took a step back, and it took a step forward.

“Sacha! What did he tell you to do?”

The sound of her name made her jerk. It knew her name. He turned. If horses had expressions, this would be annoyance on his face. He went back to his original position. Bag between hooves and now dismissed her very presence.

“He told me to take it and ride to the nearest city!” She said the words with great resistance, as if saying them would actually make her do it. She had no intention to.

The horse turned back to her, as if now she was making sense.

“Then get on.” Said the horse grabbing the bag’s straps with his teeth.

He allowed her to take the bag and secure it to him, and with effort Sacha mounted the horse feeling a little strange to be up quite so high. When she was settled the horse began to move, but not in the direction she wanted. She grabbed the reigns and pulled.

“What are you doing?” Fear pulled his head back causing her to let go and grab unto him for support.

“We cannot go back to the city. We have to go to him.”

“You are defiant. I will not go against his command.”

“Then you will have no master to command you.”

She dismounted falling to the ground.

“What are you doing?”

“Going back!” She stomped off, back in the direction of the abandoned city. This was a waste of time. She could have been gathering some herbs for medicine or sticks for the fire. Instead she was arguing with a horse.

“Where are you going? It is not safe! He is a mage he will heal.”

The horse followed but argued with every step. She marveled at the stubbornness of this magic beast. It would follow her but would not take her. She tried a few times to mount it again. But it would do the same thing every time. Try to lead her to the city. She would dismount, he would argue and then follow her. After a while they walked in silence and the abandoned city’s crumbled columns came back into view.

HE DIDN’T WAIT until she was inside the house. He yelled at both of them while she tied Fear to the fence.

“Sacha why are you back?”  She ignored it and finished tying the horse to the fence. Legarde continued to yell. “Fear! Why did you take her back here?”

“Your gem was being difficult.” The horse said normally more for Sacha to hear than Legarde.

She rubbed the horse’s head and patted his side. “We could have been here a long time ago. You were the one being difficult.”

She took the bag inside. Then went back to get the blankets the horse was carrying. They would be more comfortable now. Even if it wasn’t for long, like he was predicting. She knew she could speak to the guardian and she had to try.

He watched her as she dragged the bag in to him. He knew how heavy it was but she was doing well. She was more modestly dressed than when he had first seen her in the mansion. Looking like an ordinary street girl, and not like a Lord’s prize. But her beauty still shone and her curves were affecting him.

“Put a knife in me Sacha, I cannot bear this.” Was it his intensions that were making him overheat or was it the wounds. His eyes drifted to her breasts and he loved how firm they looked nestled beneath the cloth of her blouse. He handed her a dagger from his belt.  He had better behave himself. If she was not going to leave he needed her trust.

She took it, only because it looked interesting. The blade made of two different metals the swirled together and his name etched in the centre. LEGARDE.

“I won’t need it you can’t even move.” She rubbed her finger gently over his name. Would he really have her stab him with a dagger that bore his name?