The Lights Under the Lake

Chapter 4 - Loyalty

*Author's note*

Hi. 

Thank you to everyone as per usual - you are all amazing and I appreciate everything. Please continue to comment/vote/read. It keeps me sane. 

Have a magical week :)

Enjoy. 

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KERES JERKED AWAKE. SHE gripped the horse's mane tightly to prevent herself from falling. She had been riding for hours, having stopped twice for the night. Her horse whinnied and shook his head at her, continuing his sluggish pace.

She patted his head, and stared around. Her surroundings were unfamiliar; thick woods, trees with strange coloured leaves, snow falling gently to the ground. She wiped it off her face, shook still more out of her hair.

It was silent, still. Keres felt strangely calm - like she was floating above the pain of the last few days. There was a hollow kind of desperation in the pit of her stomach, an ache. She dismounted and turned slowly in a circle.

She needed peace. Somewhere quiet. She listened. In the distance, she could hear the trickle of water. Water. She needed water.

She pushed her way through the undergrowth, following the trails that the animals left. She had left the path behind days ago.

It was a lake. A huge, still, clear lake - it's waters icy cool and deep. Trees fringed the far bank, and stretched in front of her was a huge rounded beach, full of pebbles. The trickling sound she identified as a small series of rockpools fed by a tiny waterfall.

They crunched under her feet and she made her way forward. She washed her face in the water, and stared across the mirrored surface.

This would be perfect.

Keres opened her eyes slowly. She had fallen asleep watching the stars moving overhead. The night was silent and still. She stood up and stretched hugely. The glass surface of the lake was even smoother than in the day - not a wave could be seen.

There was a huge gust of wind, whipping her tangled hair into her face. Keres pushed it out of the way, and stared in wonder. There was a horse on the opposite bank. Waves spread out from where it stood, shattering the calm surface.

As she watched, it started towards her, it's feet touching the surface of the water, but not sinking.

It was glowing a ghostly blue, and its eyes were lamplike in the darkness. As it approached, the outline became clearer and clearer - more defined.

Its mane was damp, thick and wavy, full of pondweed. Water dripped off its flanks, splashing into the lake, leaving blue trails behind it in its wake.

Keres scrambled backwards, wrenching at the nearest branch she could see. To her surprise, it came away easily with a cracking sound that echoed across the clearing. Her breath came in wild gasps, and she held the stick in front of her. As she watched, gold tendrils stretched out from underneath her hands, and wrapped themselves around the staff. It felt warm in her hands.

The horse stopped a few feet away from her. Its eyes, glowing dully, fixed on her. The lake behind it was glowing the same blue that seemed to be emanating from the horse.

Keres stood her ground, the golden tendrils reaching out as slowly from every part of her body, meeting the blue glow, and pushing it back. She heard her horse's desperate whinnying, as he ripped himself free of the tree she had tied him too.