The Golden Winged Horse

Chapter 4

When I woke the next morning, it took a good few seconds for my current reality to sink in. Then the excitement came. I'd met a fairy. Me, Faye, had actually met a fairy and had a conversation with him. This was unbelievable.

My instant reaction was to grab my phone and call Macie. But then I remembered I couldn't. She knew nothing about this, and I'd already lied to her to cover myself. I showered in record time, threw some clothes on and raced downstairs. Being almost nine a.m., I knew Dad would have already left for work, but I headed outside anyway to check the garage, just to be safe.

As expected, the garage was empty. I had three days off work ahead of me which meant I had plenty of time to work out this mess that had suddenly dropped into my life. The summer sun had taken the chill off the morning air making me want to go out for the day somewhere, but I couldn't afford to.

With Dad at work, I made a beeline straight for his office. To my utter surprise, the door was ajar. I guessed he knew where I'd go this morning. Then a thought struck me—had he moved the golden horse elsewhere, somewhere I couldn't find him and release him?

I pushed the door open, half expecting to see Dad smiling at me for some reason, but of course, he wasn't. My focus automatically went to the top shelf where I'd first found the magical little creature. With a heavy thud, my heart stopped dead. The shelf was empty.

Panic swarmed me in an instant. Just as I started to curse Dad in my head, a voice said, "I'm over here."

I glanced towards Dad's desk to see Tristan, still encased in the glass dome, sat on Dad's huge desk pad.

I ran over to him and breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness, I thought he'd hidden you where I couldn't find you."

He lifted a tiny hoof and knocked it against the glass, making an ever so cute clinking sound. "He left you a note."

Looking down at his desk pad, I saw his scrawled handwriting in huge capital letters—THIS HORSE BETTER BE HERE WHEN I GET HOME OR SO HELP ME GOD, I WILL DISOWN YOU.

Sitting down, I sighed, put my elbows on the desk, and rested my head in my hands. "Well, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if he disowned me."

"You don't mean that," Tristan said, twirling around in a circle.

"Oh, I think I do. I can see why my brother got out of here as soon as he could. It's like I'm a forgotten child. We're self-sufficient now so why do we need parents is how Dad views it."

"I don't know a lot about relationships but what I have learned over the years is that you humans have extremely complex ones. In my world, everything is black and white, clear cut, but here—" he shook his head, his golden mane turning into a shimmering wave "—here you seem to have this murky grey area where people can make excuses for justifying their actions. And it's strangely accepted."

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

"In my world, if a child goes against their parents in the slightest manner, they are severely punished. Here, excuses are given and accepted."

I smiled. "It's called compassion."

"Rules are rules where I come from. There is no in between."

"I met one of you last night."

He stepped back, as if in shock, bumping his golden behind against the glass. "Really? Who?"

I thought over the conversation I'd had with the fairy last night and then remembered that I hadn't actually gotten a name. "I don't know. He didn't give me a name."

"What did he look like?"

I grinned. "He was very handsome. Carried a spear and a shield, topless, lovely muscles, fantastic blue eyes..." I stared off into the distance as I pictured the fairy as an actual man. Tristan cleared his throat. I jolted back to reality, my cheeks flaming with heat. "Sorry," I said, giggling.