Moonlight

The Stables

Kyle ran. He ran like a coward. Ran as far away from a shot at happiness.  Why?

He wasn't sure of that either.

He stopped to catch his breath, and turned back to look at Brightmoon. The lights from the party lit up the night sky and he sighed.

Why. Why am I the way that I am. He thought.

He so desperately wanted to go back, and be with him. To be amongst his friends. Yet, he found himself turning around again.

To his surprise, he was face to face with a heavy wooden door. He backed up, and realized that through his blurry vision he had missed the strange building in front of him.

It looked like... It looked like a stable. He turned and looked back at the party. From here in the woods, he could hear the band. He could hear the laughter.

And with that, he opened the door to the stable, and shut it behind him.

It was dark inside, dimly lit by the light from moons outside, trickling in from the roof like rain during a storm. Hay covered almost every surface, and the pins lay empty, no horses in sight.

He walked over to the back of the stable, and sat down on a hay bundle. It wasn't comfortable, but at the same time, he'd rather be uncomfortable than be back at the party.

Kyle wasn't sure what the plan was. He couldn't go back. Not after that. After embarrassing Bow and himself like that in front of all those people. He felt the waterworks start up, and slowly, tears ran down his face uncontrollably, like water bursting from a dam.

All those eyes staring at him. All the people. It was too much. It had always been too much. Too much talking, to much fighting, just too much.

"Are you alright?"

Kyle shot up, and searched around him, desperate for the source of the voice.

"Right behind ya bud."

Kyle quickly sprung around, and came face to face with...

"HORSE!!!"

It's a common fact that most horses do not talk. That was common sense. It was also common sense that horse didn't have many facial expressions. Or that they had horns or wings.

However, it seemed all common sense was out the window, because standing directly in front of Kyle, was a horse, making the most disappointed face he had ever seen.

"Wish I had a sugar cube for everytime that happened. Are you done freaking out now?"

Kyle took a step-back.

"Talking horse. There is a talking horse." He took a deep breath, and started to laugh. "Wow, I've hit a new low!"

Swift Wind watched on, clearly annoyed at this point. His eyes followed Kyle as he placed around madly.

"I mean, you're a freaking TALKING HORSE! What's next! Talking squirrels?" His laughter stopped, as his tears started to return.

"Oh..." Swift Wind muttered softly, his expression changing to one of sadness. He moved towards Kyle, who was now sobbing on the hay bundle, his face red and splotchy and his slicked back hair now messy.

"Hey, hey, it's alright. I know, it's weird but I'm real. Do you want to pet my feathers? That usually cheers up the little kids."

Kyle sniffled and looked up at the horse, still bawling his eyes out.

Swift Wind looked away embarrassed.

"This isn't about me is it?"

Kyle shook his head no.