The Golden Bridle (Open novella contest)

Chapter Two

Ella's POV

It's impossible – the rational part of my brain knows it's impossible but so is the whinnying I've heard for the past two nights running, so within myself I know this is Pegasus' Bridle, the one Bellerophon once held. It looks like a modern Bridle, one that would be unremarkable if not for its colour. If I hadn't grown up with the story, perhaps that would've confused me but then the object is a magical bridal made for taming the only winged horse on earth, so I guess normal rules don't apply in this situation. 

What matters more is what to do with it. Bellerophon got the bridle after meeting Pegasus, not before. I decide to do what he did, sort of in reverse and what he did was go to a spring where Pegasus was drinking. We don't have a spring near here but we do have a river, right next to our local stables actually. If I were Pegasus, that's where I would go. However, I can't go there like this. I run back up the stairs towards my room, I decide to leave a note for Louise about all of this. I also decide to tell her the whole truth. I record as much as I dare. Throw on my riding gear, take my purse and stuff in to my pocket, and again as quietly as I can, I slip outside. I make my way towards the river and perhaps it's just wishful thinking but I think I can feel the bridle react as we get closer. When I reach the river, it is fast running. Dangerous. I've lived here all my life, so I have no fear. I let the bridle rest in my hand and it instantly begins whinnying. I don't even feel time pass before a shadow falls across us and the most beautiful horse I've ever seen lands.

 There is no doubt about it. It's Pegasus. His coat is white, but white like that of an ordinary horse - not the pristine white we usually associate with him. I've been horse mad for years, so I instantly recognise that all his muscles are normal except for those in his back, where the wings join the rest of his body and I can only assume they are modified for flying. He is so much more real than any picture and yet wilder, more untameable, simply because he is so real. I'm not sure how I will be received so I move closer, very carefully as if I was with a normal skittish horse. I get so close I could almost touch him before he moves but the way he moves, tells me that he'd known I had been there all along. He did however, let me get close enough that I could throw the bridle over his head. It doesn't land correctly like it should on a horse, but the moment it touched him he moves his head up, somehow shifting it so that it sits right. I move forward to tighten it and still slightly in shock I rest my hand on Pegasus' back. "Hello, great, great, however many greats uncle", I whisper not caring how ridiculous it is to say that to a horse. After all, this isn't any other horse. 

"What the fucking hell are you doing here?" I hear shattering the mysticism of the moment. Catching sight of Pegasus, wings outstretched, all my twin sisters sass desserts her like she never had it and looking so like me as she stared open mouthed at the magnificent creature behind me, and once more I have a wave of understanding.