The Boogeyman's Lullabye

A Town Named Greed

  The horse was close to us now, and stampeding close to the edge of the road that was already far too small for this passage.  I didn't realize until the Sandman in front of me cursed and stumbled backwards that the horse was far, far too close to us.  Had he not quickly backpedaled, taking me backwards with him, the massive animal would have stormed straight over us.  Instead, the man's sudden movement must have startled the vision of the animal, though how I couldn't possibly understand with the beast's head held so high, because suddenly it let out a deafening whinny and reared up.

  I gasped and grabbed hold of the man's shoulder, both of us already ducking down as massive hooves the size of my head flailed into the air and the animal's underbelly flexed to us.  People around us screamed, but were drowned out by the cry of the monster above us, slamming it's hooves down onto the ground hard enough to crack the stones beneath, eyes wide and head flailing furiously, almost to the point where it might do more damage to itself than the things around it.  The man pressed me back against the side of the inn's steps and stood to the horse, as if there were anything his small frame could do against it.

  Luckily for him, he didn't have to do much of anything except curse at the roaring animal.  The coach had already jumped from his seat and was rounding to the front of the animal, shoving the man on his way around.  I cringed, and stood quickly to grab his arm, knowing his outburst and that now wasn't the time for more chaos.  He struggled a bit, retching his arm from my grip as the coach pulled a handful of sugar cubes from a red pouch on his hip.

"Hey girl!  Heeey!  Eat up now, darling.  It's okay, the people won't touch you.  That's a good girl, eat up." He soothed, the horse pushing its muzzle into the man's dwarfed palm and pulling the small white cubes into its mouth with large lips, snorting out heavy tufts of breath.  The coach was calmly soothing the animal, rubbing a hand up and down it's massive face, while the people around shook and inched back even further.

"What's wrong with your bloody horse?  It damn near took my head off!" My eyes widened and I reached for the man's arm, but once again he pulled it from my grip, turning to the coach who looked around for the voice, apparently not remembering shoving the man on his way to the horse.  I cringed and muttered,

"Stop it, let's just go!  You're causing such a fuss!"  The people were looking at us, and I turned to the man to avoid their eyes, wanting to pull myself away from this carriage and the horse.

"Not until he apologizes for driving like a complete-" The man then went into a tirade of curses, stopping only when the coach turned his nose up at the man and scoffed, looking him up and down.

"Please, sir, step aside.  I'd rather not get your kind of filth anywhere near this kind of expensive equipment.  Your repulsive language aside, by the looks of you Jasmine reacted accordingly.  Heaven forbid she brush past and catch whatever disease you both carry."  When I was mentioned, my will to stop the man went down significantly.  The man continued shouting, and I let out a heavy breath, crossing my arms and glaring at the two red-faced men. I tapped my foot, bit my lip, and waited for them to be done.

"Oh, please!" I exclaimed, to no avail as their squabble became more about insults than anything else, "You both are acting like toddlers!"

"Oh now, I've seen toddlers much more well-behaved than this."

  I turned, arms falling to my sides in surprise.  Because neither of the still-bickering men had said that, and the gathering people around were silent.  The voice had come from the carriage.  From the man with the golden hair.

  He sat now to the edge of his seat, closest to the edge with an arm up on the side, a pristine-gloved hand tapping the perfect wood beneath.  I gazed up at him, and saw the features of a boy a few years older than me, possibly the age of the Sandman except...better kept.