Chapter 8
I lay on the embankment, my breathing uneven. The man stares down at me. His warm hazel eyes have a slight glint.
“Are you okay” he asks as I wrap my arms around my knees.
Ouch! My leg burns.
“Let me look.” The man kneels beside me. He tears the shredded fabric from around my wound.
I suddenly become faint. Blood oozes steadily from a gaping wound. My bone is protruding from the torn flesh.
His face becomes pale. He pulls out a slim black mobile phone. My head begins to spin as the warm liquid trickles down my leg. A small pool of blood begins to form at the base of my feet.
The man is talking. I cannot make out his words as his voice drifts into the distance. My eyes blur. Black creeps around me, threatening to take me. A blue glow of light lights up the darkness as my leg becomes warm. The searing hot pain subsidies. My vision clears. The darkness slowly retreats.
Chris’s face hovers over mine. His expression is hard to read.
“What the hell were you thinking? You could have been killed.” The coldness in his eyes startles me.
“How was I to know that there was a monster hiding in the woods?” I spit back at him.
“Let’s go.” He grips my hand and pulls me to my feet.
“What was that thing?” I ask, crossing my arms. Maybe they have some illegal breeding system or something.
“A guardian, of the gates,” he replies, shrugging his shoulders. A guardian of the gates, what gate? Everyday a new question burns in my brain.
“What is a guardian of the gates?” I ask him, waiting for a load of lies and make believe.
“Nothing which concerns you,” of course not, that thing just tried eating me alive like I was a snack.
“Why won’t you tell me anything? If I don’t know anything, then what’s to say there are no more monsters lurking. I can easily walk right into another one.”
He stares at me. Fire burns within his iris. He really does not like questions. I step back from his heated glare.
“There are things that you are better off not knowing. Knowing can lead to more trouble.” If I knew there was some strange animal living near the waterfall, I would never have dreamed of going near the place. Or maybe my curiosity would have got the better of me, but he does not know that.
How much more trouble can I get into. I almost got eaten alive by an ugly half-alligator half-monster beast. Still, I am curious.
“Like, curiosity killed the cat?” I ask, pushing him one more time.
He runs his hand through his hair and sets off walking forward. “You are impossible.”
“I am not impossible; it is not hard to answer a simple question.” God this man is frustrating.
His head tilts to the side as if he is concentrating on something.
“Justin, make sure she gets home safely. No funny business or games.” With a nod of Justin's head Chris disappears, tiny blue lights dance for a second where he once was standing before they too disappear.
I gasp. Pinching my skin. Yeah, that hurt. I look back at the spot he was standing moments before with wide eyes. Where did he go? My mind struggles to come to terms with his vanishing act. I must be dreaming; I will wake up soon.
We walk in silence. At the end of the field, we cross through blackberry bushes. Justin plucks a hand full of blackberries from the bushes and devours them. I scrunch my face up in disgust. The blackberries have not been washed anything could have crawled all over them
As we step through the opening, a large, gated field appears. Pink, blue, white, and all the colours of the rainbow are dotted around the field.
Today is getting weirder by the minute.
“Why are the horse’s multi coloured? Have they been dipped in dye? You do know that is classed as animal cruelty, right.”
“They are mystic horses,” he answers as if the multi coloured horse are no big deal.
“Has that horse got a tusk on its head?” My excitement physically showing as I run towards the fence to get a better look.
“Oh my god, that one has wings, look.” I point at a light blue horse that is grazing. He laughs a deep crackle.
I love horses. I love to ride them. They are magnificent creatures. As I watch them, some of the sadness weighing down my heart lifts.
In the distance, a white horse lifts its head up. The horse’s head tilts to the side, before trotting over at a steady speed. The thundering of hooves echo off the ground as the stallion gallops through the bleak landscape. The wind wisps his mane. His muscles ripple from under his freshly groomed pelt and his powerful legs.
Justin pulls me back as the horse nears.
Slowly, I reach my hand out. Gently I run my hand down the horses’ smooth mane.
“Do careful, Faraway dose not generally socialize. He can be quite unpredictable,” Justin warns. I look at the horse who seems overly friendly and back at Justin who watches wearily, like he expects the horse to go crazy at any moment.
“Faraway, I like it, do all these horses have names,” I ask, looking around at the surreal landscape draped with beautiful unbelievable horses.
“Yes.”
Justin steps closer, resting the palm of his hand on my back.
“He seems to like you,” he says quietly.
Smiling, I continue to pat and stroke Faraway.
“Can we ride them, please?” I ask, turning to face him. I plead with him, using my eyes like Misty. The puppy dog eyes always work on me.
“Fine, we can take one to the outskirts of the village.” He whistles. A deep brown blur rushes towards us, and the horse comes to a halt just in front of us. My heart stops, then speeds up. I was sure the horse was going to run straight into us.
The horse is huge, taller than an average horse by around three feet.
“This is Kane.” Justin introduces us.
Looking from the huge horse towering over me to Faraway, I sigh.
“I want to ride Faraway.”
“No way,” he says as he climbs onto the horse gracefully. He reaches his hand out for me to take. With remarkable strength he pulls me up. With Justin perched firmly behind me, my body is fully aware of his presence. The heat of his body spreads down my back.
I shiver. He wraps his arms around me tighter and pulls my body closer to his.
“Hold on tight.” Before the words are out of his mouth we shoot forward.
The landscape becomes a blur, the wind strong and fast as my hair blows wildly. In the distance a black blur shoots towards us.
“Justin, I think a twister is coming straight for us!” I shout in a panic.
“Shit, that is no twister. That is Shadow,”
Shadow skids to a halt in front of us. Dust and dirt block my view. As the dust settles Shadow stands on his hind legs, releasing an awful sound.
“He won’t let us pass unless we get off this horse,” Justin explains.
Shadow stands back on all fours. He bares his teeth. Justin slowly climbs off Kane. Shadow snaps at his legs as he helps me down. My body trembles.
“Thank you.” I pat Kane, showing him my gratitude.
“Why won’t the horse let us pass?” I whisper keeping my eye on the huge black beast.
“That horse belongs to Chris. They have some freaky bond thing going on.” He turns to look at me. The intensity of his hazel eyes makes me suck in a breath.
“Chris is not someone you want to get involved with or mess with for that matter. Just be careful, there is something off about him,” he warns me.
Twenty minutes later we enter the town, and the sky becomes black, the stars shining brightly. A half-moon glows a soft white light and the air chills quickly. My body shivers from my damp clothes.
Curious, I step back through the trees. Daylight floods over me as the sun’s warm rays kiss my skin. I do this a number of times. Justin watches me, amusement in his eyes, and a grin on his lips.
“Why is it daytime and warm beyond the trees?” I ask, not holding much hope for an answer. I really need some sleep; people are not kidding when they say jet lag is a killer. First, I imagine that Chris evaporates into tiny blue lights then disappears, then that one part of the land is in daylight and the other part is nighttime. A goodnights sleep is what I need.
He takes his jacket off and wraps it around my shoulders. A strong smell of damp dog and musk fills my senses.
“Enchanted falls is made up of the four seasons. The town is the same as the weather in Scotland,” he answers to my amazement.
Pulling his jacket closer to my body, I smile. At least someone is willing to answer my questions. However, he could have explained more. But I am not complaining. I will take the small pieces of information I can get.
“So, what is the guardian of the gates” I ask hoping he will shed some light onto at least one of my critical issues.
“The guardian of the gates protects the portal to the land of Harmony, which is where the ancients reside. The ancients are the first ever angels to be created,” I stare at him in disbelief at his answer.