The Horse Man

Reason

Kiera watched Hyn as he danced on Bellerephon's back. Bellerephon was fully collected, maneuvering himself in a passage, a standing in motion, fluid movement going nowhere. Hyn danced to a song playing on his sound system, something with heavy bass, drums, and a flute soaring over it. Kiera watched in bafflement. His movements had similarities to ballet, but no ballet dancer had ever moved like that, boneless yet powerful. As the stallion danced in place beneath him, he described elegant bends, swooping leaps and twirls, swift foot patterns and dazzling acrobatics that Kiera's confused eyes refused to interpret as human. Then, in a smooth motion, he settled into a rider's position just as Bellerephon sprang up in a full mezair. It was now Bellerephon's turn to shine as Hyn sat straight and unmoving on his back. Kiera sighed. Sometimes Hyn depressed her. She had ambitions of being a horsewoman, but when Hyn and his horses danced, she felt inadequate and clumsy.
"Hyn, where did you learn to dance?" she asked when he had finished and was lying on his flat belly, admiring his horses.
"Oh, everywhere I go, I see something I like to try." he replied, casually. "I think that some of my favorites are from Iberia and Gaul. You call them France and Spain. Although Austria has some nice dances done with a partner, and a modern dance called Tango is interesting and applicable to many adaptions."
Kiera's heart leapt. Hyn was in a rare talkative mood.
"Can you teach me one?" she asked, squirming with excitement like a puppy.
"Oh, why not? Aristides will bite me if I make him capriole one more time today. Let's do a Valdz."
"What's that?"
"It is a partner dance from Austria, popularized by Johannes Strauss. Slightly slower, but very elegant without being excessively stately."
"A waltz?"
"Ja, daß." Hyn replied, walking  to his sound system and turning on a Strauss CD.
"Now, one must move with meticulous fluidity in this dance, for it is deceptively simple. It relies on the muscles of the leg and haunch as well as abdomen. The well-trained dancer makes his movement look easy and effortless, so we must practice often. Hold my hand like this, no, your wrist must be elegantly loose, yes, and put your other hand on the curvature of my forearm, yes. Now look into my eyes. Do not drop your gaze! I shall be offering to you visual cues when we move. One, two step forward. One, two, step back. Let me lead you, I will draw you subtly and you will follow me. One, two, step. One two, step. Yes. Now glide. No! You must not stiffen and push your leg forward! You must glide! Like wading in deep water. Yes, better. Step, yes, glide."
Kiera felt Hyn draw her into the glide, and it struck her suddenly that Hyn was extremely strong. So strong that to physically pick her up and glide with her would be effortless. In fact, inhumanly strong.
"Hyn?"
"Yes?"
"How old are you?"
"Old enough, young enough."
"But, how many years old are you?"
"Do not break eye contact! Muscles in your legs, your abdomen, use them. Wade as I draw you forward. I have no idea how old I am. I stopped keeping track many, many years ago."
"You mean, you don't celebrate your birthday?" Kiera was aghast.
"My birthday? I do not have a birthday. I was created, not born, I bethink me. I have no memory of a mother."
Kiera sighed. Hyn did love to play mental games. She turned her attention back to waltzing, and then thought of something.
"Hyn?"
"What?"
"Are you a vampire?"
"Why would you ask something so stupid? Do I look like a bat? Put a little spring in your step, a little like bouncing after a jump... Yes that's good."
"No, I mean like an immortal person who drinks blood, not a bat!"
"What? Where do you come up with these things, Kiera? To the best of my knowledge, there has never existed a predatory person who drinks blood for sustenance. Sometimes people drink blood as part of satanic rituals or as part of a victory celebration, but these practices are not by any means connected to immortality. Sometimes stupid people think that the devils will give them the life of an enemy to add to their own if they consume the arterial blood or eat the heart... Kiera, pay attention! Step, step, glide! You know, you look a little strange. Your freckles look very dark indeed, and your lips are whitish. Do you need to eat?"
Kiera gulped a few times before answering.
"Hyn, where do you come up with the things you tell me? That's not funny. It's really icky, and it's kinda scary."
Hyn turned his inky eyes down at her. "Kiera, I don't know what to tell you other than the truth. The native people in this land, they have some strange and bloody practices to please and appease the ancient spirits of the land, but they are mostly very reasonable, and the ancient spirits have long since been sent away from this realm of being. There is no need to fear them. There are very few places in this world where one need fear the ancient spirits. And from what I can see, the people are mostly like fat cattle these days, scarcely the types to drink blood."
"Hyn?"
"Yes?"
"What are you, really?"
Hyn shrugged. "I do not really know, Child. I once had... Well, I suppose one would call them brothers and sisters. Guardian spirits and so forth, we walked the land with a sort of kinship with one another, though we were seldom friendly. I was very much the least powerful, I thought it was because I did not know my purpose. But after a time, my brothers and sisters grew cruel with their power, and found foul uses for the gifts that our Great Lord's children gave to us. They called themselves gods, and began to demand tithes and sacrifice. I did not. And then our Great Lord took my brothers and sisters and thrust them into the shadow world, where they could only look at the domains they once ruled. Our Great Lord left me here. I do not know why, and I have never known. Perhaps I have a purpose which I do not yet know. But for now, I have my children, precious and beloved, which I shall cherish and guard for as long as I shall be here."
"It sounds lonely," Kiera commented.
"It isn't." Hyn replied casually. "To what end should I wish for the companionship of Man? There are no people left worth knowing. The Children of Atlantis are dispersed and gone, and there are no others in whose minds dwell the fullness of understanding with their horses."
This was hard for Kiera to comprehend. "Hyn, I love horses, maybe not as much as you do, but still quite a lot. But don't you think there are other things in the world worth loving?" she asked this hesitantly.
Hyn shrugged. "No. Once I had a friend, one of my own kind, who looked upon me with favor. To attract my notice, she took the form of a beautiful white mare, and glamorized herself using her powers. But her mind held the poisons and cruelties beyond a horses'. I did not love her in a manner which would afford me the patience to spend my life with her. However, she spent much time with me and mine, and soon discovered some of the blessing which can be had in the faith of a fine horse. When she left us, she spent her days guarding all horses in the form of the white mare. She did learn a wondrous thing among my dear ones, and she taught Man to care for them out of fear of her. Perhaps she was at last worth loving, but she was also cruel to men if not to horses, and our Great Lord sent her away with the others. In the end, horses are all that will be worthy of the inner secret of your soul."
Kiera thought that Hyn was what Da would call cynical.