The Trip

Chapter 7 Hold Your Horses.

After a wild ride of dodging out of trees in the forest, we came to a trail. The horse stopped galloping and continued at a steady pace.

"Sorry for the bumpy ride," Gabriel said happily.

"Sorry, my ass! You could have warned me!" I snapped angrily.

"You wouldn't want to ride if I had told you it would be bumpy," he said, his cheery tone still evident.

I sigh. "So, where are we heading?" I ask, changing the subject.

"To a small town at the forest's edge," he replies.

"What's the town called?"

"Gidae," he says, with no further explanation.

"What's your horse's name?" I ask as I scratch the horse's neck.

"His name is Dunkel. Dunkel Ritter," Gabriel answered.

I looked up at him; he still had a smile, but his eyes looked grey again. He seemed in a good mood, so I took that as an invitation to keep asking questions. I look back towards the trail.

"What exactly is this place? Like, where are we, and where are you taking me?"

He was quiet momentarily and then said, "This forest is called Velorener Wald. I am taking you back to your home where you belong." I could hear the sadness in his voice when he said he was taking me back to where I belonged.

"You can always come to see me when I'm back home," I said, trying to lighten the mood.

"Yeah.... you're right. I can," Gabriel replied, sounding more upbeat.

I wanted to ask more questions but decided against it; I didn't want to make things uncomfortable. As we rode on, I wondered how Gabriel knew me. How had he found me? Was it just a coincidence that he happened to be out in the woods when I was about to be eaten by those wolves?

"Aye, you can take a nap; it's going to be a while before we get to town," Gabriel said, snapping me out of my racing thoughts. He wrapped his right arm around my waist and pulled me closer to his chest. Gabriel was very warm. "I'll wake you up when we get there," he said close to my ear.

Feeling secure and wrapped in Gabriel's arm, I settled against him and soon fell asleep. When I woke, it was to the sound of an agitated Dunkel. The horse had stopped because someone was blocking the path. From his place in the saddle, Gabriel stared straight ahead at the figure blocking our way with stern eyes, not blinking once. The person blocking the path came closer, allowing me to get a better look at their appearance.

The figure before us was an ashen man with red markings all over his body. The marks looked like burns that were scattered all around his body. He had spiky silver hair and eyes so black they looked empty. This man was nothing short of scary. Taking in his overall lack of clothing—he wore only pants, no shirt, shoes, hat, or coat—I wondered if he could feel the cold. It didn't look like it. The longer I stared at him, the less human he seemed.

"Looks like I found where that beautiful smell was coming from," the man said in a delirious tone, staring at me intently.

Was he talking about me? I looked up at Gabriel, who still had not broken his stare.

"An easy target, too," the stranger said nonchalantly. He had not acknowledged Gabriel's presence.

At the man's comment about me being an easy target, Gabriel jumped off the horse quickly, still staring directly at the black-eyed man.

"Dunkel, get Amara to town. I'll be there shortly," Gabriel said to his horse.

"Wait, Gabriel, what are you..." but I couldn't finish my question and was cut off by Dunkel galloping away at Gabriel's words instead. As we passed, the black-eyed man tried to touch me but was quickly kicked away by Dunkel. The kick was so powerful it sent him flying towards Gabriel. "Gabriel!" I screamed as Dunkel continued to gallop away. We were quickly out of sight of the two men, and all I could make out was a loud crash from behind me. I wanted to try and turn around and go back to Gabriel, but Dunkel was not having it. I will try to get help from someone in town. As Dunkel continued toward our destination, I thought about how Gabriel had responded to the stranger in our way. One thing that stood out to me was that Gabriel's eyes had turned a bright red instead of their usual warm gold.