I woke laying down, a horse laying next to me. I frowned and looked closer, and saw that the horse had wings and everything from before I blacked out came rushing back to me. I groaned and the mythical animal lifted his head, gazing at me in worry with his soft brown eyes.
I sighed and set a hand on his nose, “So it is true. The stories of Pegasus and horses with wings.” The pegasus nuzzled his nose into my hand, sneezing. I laughed and scrunched up my nose, “Eww, pegasus snot…” He made a laughing noise in the back of his throat and I laughed even harder, clutching my stomach.
When I finally calmed down I breathed out a long breath and brushed a hand down his side. “So, what’s your name?” I asked, smiling as he nuzzled my face with his nose, nibbling on my hair. “Hey! Don’t eat my hair, it’s not straw!” I laughed, pushing his face away. He snuffed and got up, being careful not to trample me.
I grabbed the stirrup and lifted myself up, standing shakily as I glanced at my names stitched on the side. The pegasus bent down, leaving room for me to climb on and I looked at him warily. I had ridden horses before, but I stopped when a horse bucked me off, crushing my ankle underneath me as I landed, and I never really trusted a horse after that...but I felt a strong, strange connection to this pegasus and I grabbed the knob of the saddle and lifted myself up, settling into the saddle as I clutched his sides with my knees and I threaded my hands through his black mane, getting a grip since there weren’t any reins.
He huffed and took a few steps back, his gaze fixed on my mother’s three floor-to-ceiling windows and he started galloping towards the windows, before I ducked my head, pressing my face into his neck as he crashed through the glass windows. I screamed, feeling us fall down the three stories of the building before he stretched out his wings, soaring upwards and into the sky.
I stared at the city below and I glared at the pegasus, slapping his neck softly, “Don’t scare me like that, I thought we were going to die!” He shook his head and twirled in a circle, and I instinctively clutched his mane and I squeezed my thighs into his side, waiting until he leveled out again before I looked up. “Seriously? You had to twirl in a circle?” I growled at him, rolling my eyes as he laughed at me again.
I looked down again and gasped as I saw a camp… with strawberry fields and cabins everywhere, ordered in a U shape. It looked Greek. “Um, hey is that where we’re going?” He neighed and nose-dived towards the ground, landing in a gallop as he came to a stop in front of a boy with blue eyes and black hair. He smiled and lifted a hand towards me, “Hello newcomer.” He laughed, “Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. I’m Xander Tule, son of Hephaestus.” He said, his eyes sparkling as I reached out a hand tentatively and he wrapped his hand around mine, pulling me to the ground and into his arms, “I see you’ve found your pegasus, Elizabeth.” he mumbled as he separated from me and I stared at him, wondering how he knew my name, when the stitching was on the other side of the saddle, facing away from him.
“How do you know me?” I asked, looking into his eyes.
“You don’t remember, do you?” He sighed and brushed a hand down my face lovingly, and I backed away, unnerved.
“No, I don’t, and don’t touch me. I don’t know you.” I said werily.
“But you do, Elizabeth. We love each other.” I glared at him and climbed back onto the pegasus.
“If what you say is true, then you’ll know when I’m telling the truth. I, don’t, know, you.” I hissed down at him, and I asked, “Now what is this pegasus’s name?”
“His name is Tyro. He’s your pegasus.” He sighed, his eyes sad.
I glared down at him, “Thank you.” I threaded my fingers through Tyro’s mane, “Let’s go, Tyro. I need to get away from him.”
Tyro lifted his wings, spreading them wide before launching into the sky, and as he did this I thought, I need to figure out how that boy knows me, and why I don’t know him.
