Dark Horse (On Hold)

Chapter 5

"You seem to be in such a good mood today," I stated to Ellara as we set off towards the Boarderlands. "Especially considering the fact that last night you threatened to kill me." I was suspicious, it was as if Ellara was completely oblivious to what had happened the previous night.

"Oh I'm keeping to my word," she casually dragged her hand across the dry trees as she spoke. "If, at the end of this adventure, I have wasted my time with you...I will kill you. But I do have to get along with you because I have a feeling that we won't just be going to that forest. You do realise, actually, that you won't get all your answers from there?"

I nodded, already aware of the fact that I'd have to delve in deeper to find out more about the relic. Of course I had already knew a bit about it, but I was more concerned about finding a way to get Caleb back. That was all that mattered to me.

"So this...friend of yours," Ellara spoke up as she was looking around the dry forest whilst walking. "Why is he so important to you?"

I remained silent before answering, I wondered whether to answer her. After all, I didn't know whether to trust her yet or not. I repeated the question in my head, unaware of why he was important to me. After all, I had only just met him. I knew it wasn't a 'love' feeling, I knew I didn't fall in love that quickly. I suppose I just felt like he didn't deserve what fate served him.

"I don't know," I finally answered. "It's just...he doesn't deserve this."

I went back deep into thought and looked into the eyes of the woman beside me, her eyes glinted a slight positive feeling. I felt uneasy, it was as if she had a complete personality change overnight. Maybe she did, I never knew that her race existed so I certainly wouldn't have known what powers her race had. I thought back to the night before.

"You know," I spoke to her, not breaking my eye contact to her face. "You never did tell me what you know about the relic."

She looked at me and shrugged, not even flinching at the word 'relic' like she would've done before.

"I honestly don't know much about it," she smiled to herself. "I suppose the only thing I know is that when it's activated it curses the world, an obsidian man on a dark horse will ride upon the planet and take whoever to somewhere where nobody knows."

"Huh," I gazed forward to see an opening up ahead, sunlight shone between the trees as they gradually split off to reveal a dessert-like land . "It sounds like that old story I was told when I was younger, to scare me so I wouldn't run off by myself."

"Story?" Ellara darted her eyes towards me, her pupils serving curiosity.

"Oh it's just some child wanders off into the forest when his mother told him to stay with her," I explained with an uninterested tone. "And then he finds something, picks it up and he hears a horse. He turns around thinking it's his farther but it's this guy who...takes him...away."

Suddenly, I remembered what Ellara said about her kind being almost 'mythological'. I stopped walking and stared at her. Could that story have been true but happened so long ago that it became a myth? Could that being have roamed the planet long before?

"Oh my..." I was too gobsmacked to say anything.

"Are you seriously thinking that a fable, told to scare young children, was actually something that really happened?" Ellara laughed and looked at me with a disbelieving expression.

"I'm not thinking, I know," my thoughts were suddenly racing. "And if it is something that actually did happen then surely somewhere someone must have wrote down what happened and how to send him back to where he came from."