Ivo Phillipson And The Trojan Horse

I - The Discovery

Ivo

I sat up in bed sweating. My nightmare had been one of many. They were all the same. I was in a hallway. A long, dark, thin hallway. More like a corridor really. I was running, trying to get out but I couldn't. Running because I was afraid of what might be chasing me. Running from any unseen dangers that might be lurking in the dark of the shadows. I kept hearing this voice in my head constantly saying, Come to me. You will find me where you least expect it. I am not what think I am. The voice was male. Rough and tired but possessed a tone like the speaker expected me to obey. I looked outside and the moon was still high and the night young. I calmed myself and went back to sleep.

I slipped out of bed yawning and opened my shutters and quickly turned around, momentarily blinded by the light. While my eyes adjusted I slipped on a shirt and walked out of my room for breakfast. When I got to the main room my older sister, Juliet, was sitting at the fire place already halfway through a bowl of porridge. Gathering from her ruffled, shoulder-length, blonde hair and tired demeanour she must have only got up a couple of minutes ago.
"Morning" I said brightly.
"Morning" Juliet half murmured half groaned. I walked to the pot of porridge that was hanging over the fire in the fireplace on the wall of the main room of our small, wooden house and ladled a large serve of porridge into my bowl. I quickly ate my breakfast and got ready for the town's teachings in the main building. When I walked out of my room after getting changing into clean clothes I literally ran into Mother who was cleaning the main room.
"Mother!" I exclaimed, obviously surprised, "good morning."
"Ivo!" She exclaimed, mirroring my surprise. Then she composed herself, "how did you sleep?" She looked tired. She tries to hide it but it is always there beneath
"Not too bad." I lied. I hadn't told anyone about my nightmares for fear they might overly worry and make me see a healer that specialized in mental health or something like that.
"Good, how long till you're ready to head off?"
"Not long. If I don't waste any time I can ride there."
"If you can do that it would be really good because then you're sister can walk with her friends and I can get to work on the chores early."
"Ok." As I walked back to my room to pack the saddle bags on Grey's saddle when I heard Mother shout out:
"Remember, it's the first day back so don't be late."

I was ready within ten minutes and I left promptly, after hugging Mother good bye. I got Grey out of the stable, put my foot in the stirrup; swung up onto him and galloped him towards town. It was great to be riding Grey again. He pranced happily on his hooves as we rode into town. The wind ruffling my short, blonde hair, the steady drumming of Grey's hooves on the hard dirt as he galloped was somewhat relaxing, the sun was shining and there was a slight tail breeze. It was a perfect day for riding.
Just over halfway I saw one of my best friends, Alice, ahead of me, also riding to town. Her long brown hair flew behind her as she rode. I brought Grey to a walk and shouted, "Hey, Alice!" She turned around and saw me. She waved and I waved back. I saw her slowing down so I flicked the reins and Grey quickened his pace. Then Grey ran faster than I though was possible. When I got to her, she was already off her brown mare and leaning against a tree acting all casual like she'd been waiting for 20 minutes. It made me wonder how she had done that so fast, it was unnatural. Those thoughts left my mind as I got of Grey and hugged her in greeting.
"Ivo, it's so good to see you again."
"Good to see you too."
"How have your holidays been?" She asked, stepping back as she did.
"Good. How were your holidays?"
"Drantag's teeth they were so boring." She complained invoking the God of Misfortune. "We spent most of them at my grandparent's place up on the North Coast and since that they haven't had kids stay there for longer than a week for ten years there was absolutely nothing to do."
"It couldn't have been that bad," I interrupted.
"Oh yes it was, there weren't even any chores for me to do! If there were, believe me I would have seized the opportunity immediately but Nana and Pa did them all before we came. But that doesn't matter and it's good to be back."
We rode the rest of the way together talking idly about stuff fifteen year olds do.
When we got to the main building we put Grey and Bella in the stables and went to find Will. After about five minutes we found him with some of his other friends pegging small stones at each other.
"Hello." He said as we approached His red hair flew in the breeze.
"Hello Will, how were your holidays?" We asked in unison.
"Good," he replied stepping away from the game, ignoring the complaints of the other players. "What about you?"
"They weren't too bad." I replied
"I had to go to my grandparent's place." Alice said. Will winced. The three of us went there two winters ago. I only stayed for a week, whereas Will stayed there for three more days. Clearly the three days make a difference, though I still thought it was really boring. "How bad was it?" Will asked, concern spreading on his face.
"Horrible." Alice said. Then she repeated what she said to me to Will who winced when she was explaining how there were no chores.
"Well," William said trying to lift the mood. "Guess what I found."
"You found a secret passage out of the city?" I said excitedly.
"No."
"You discovered a species of cute bears?" Alice guessed.
"No." He said a little puzzled, "No more guesses? I found a spell that creates a portal to takes us to another world" Will continued without pausing. "I was going to try it out on the sixth-day. Do you guys want to come?"
"Ummm," I said, "I'm not sure. It seems quite dangerous. I should be home anyway. We have plenty of chores and I'm the only one who does them. Well, by that I mean mum and I do them. Juliet doesn't do anything at all."
Ever since my father disappeared six years ago, mum has been always tired and Juliet has stopped doing stuff for the family. I took on a lot of the responsibility of running the family but not as much as mum. Her hair has started greying and she has always been tired. We don't know where father disappeared or why. He just snuck out one night. No one saw him leave the city, not even the men on watch. Some people say that he went and hid in the forest, but died sometime in the last six years since no hunting parties have seen him during their hunts.
"Better that than staying with my grandparents," Alice mumbled, "but no. I agree with Ivo. We have plenty to do and the lack of knowledge of where we are going worries me." Alice said.
"Come on, it will be fun." Will tried.
As I heard people being called inside in the background I wrapped up the conversation. "Come on guys, we better not be late otherwise Mrs. O'Leary will come down hard on us."