"Here is where I store my horses for my chariot," Hades said as we walked into a stable.
We had finished the tour of the palace (which was twice as beautiful as the throne room) and were now outside on the palace grounds. Outside wasn't the nicest, the ground was covered with pebbles instead of grass and there was no greenery. Just gray, brown, and more gray.
It was depressing.
The sky, however, was beautiful. It was the prettiest blue I have ever seen. It was much prettier than the sky up above, it reminded me of blue daisy's.
There was also a sun which was a little weird considering were underground. The entire plot of the Underworld is weird.
According to Hades, he asked Apollo to craft an artificial light for the underworld. Every 365 days the artificial sun explodes and is remade by Apollo, the stars do the same. The sun in the underworld wasn't quite like the sun up above but it still got the job done by shining brightly.
"These are my 8 horses. Only 4 pull my chariots while the other 4 are just for riding and show." Hades explained as we walked into the stables.
The skeleton stable workers walked around, examining and petting the horses.
Oh, yeah did I mention that workers in the underworld are skeletons?
Apparently, the ghost that Hades first hired was unreliable so he hired a bunch of skeletons to work the palace and keep it running smoothly. They did a fabulous job. The floors of the palace were shinier than my future.
The windows in the palace were so clear and clean that I could see the stress zit that was beginning to sprout on my forehead.
I may or may not have knocked the head off one skeleton maid, in my offense, they startled me and my reactions to fear are very strong. Hades fixed her by placing her head back on her neck bone and twisting it.
It...strangely was not the oddest thing I had seen in the Underworld.
No, no the oddest thing I have seen so far would be the four black horses standing in front of me with burning red eyes currently.
The four terrifying horses stood in their stalls, tall and gleaming. Two of them were eating one the other two were whining softly to get the skeleton stable workers to come to them.
I turned around, ignoring the odd horses just to be faced with even odder horses. Just to be encountered with something even creepier.
In front of me stood what I thought was the same as the type of terrifying horses as behind. I took a step closer and gaped in amazement, in front of me stood 3 skeleton horses that had a black coat glamour on them. I watched as the glamour dropped thanks to Hades and revealed skeleton horses with flaming blue hair and tails.
I don't know what was weirder the fact that their hair was flaming or the fact that they had no eyes—but yet they were staring directly at me.
I confidently walked up to the skeleton horse and scratched its skull, being cautious not to touch the flame. I strangely felt more comfortable rubbing this horse then I did the other terrifying ones.
The horse's head was smooth and hard and strangely didn't feel rough like I thought it would.
I held my hand out and formed a carrot and fed it to the horse, the horse nudged the carrot with its snout before eating it.
I watched in horror and fascination as the carrot chunks fell straight to ground after passing through the horse's mouth.
"Aww buddy I'm sorry, I didn't know," I said as I continued stroking its head. The horse neighed s nudged me again.
"His name is Spooky. Those two are Scary and blade." Hades said as he pointed to the other two skeleton horses. Next to the third stall was an empty stall with nothing but a hay bale, water trough, and horse riding equipment.
I burst into laughter at the name of his horses. Hades sure knows how to name his creatures. First Spots now Spooky, Scary, Blade and-
My face scrunched in confusion as I counted the horses, there was only 7.
"You're missing a horse," I said pointing to the vacant stall. Hades did say he had 8 horses.
"No, Casper just likes to play invisible," Hades said as he walked to the stall and unlatched the door. "Casper come."
First, nothing happened, then the door to the stall creaked open and hoof prints appeared on the ground. The prints continued all the way to me where they stopped and I felt air blow on my face as if something was breathing right in front of me.
My eyes widened and I felt my breathing quicken as I stared at whatever stood in front of me.
This isn't weird. (Note my sarcasm)
I can handle the skeleton workers, the skeleton horses, three-headed dogs, and the creepy-looking horses with bright glowing red eyes but when it comes to things I can't see I draw the line.
I took a step back nearly tripping over myself. I'm pretty sure I could outrun whatever stood in front of me.
I may not be the fittest of people but I can run if my life depends on it.
"It's okay he won't bite," Hades reassured me as he came closer, running his hand along with something.
Hades gently grabbed my hand and pressed it against something soft and hairy. It felt like a horse and I realized as it appeared in front of me it was a horse.
A horse with wings!
"A Pegasus! I yelled excitedly. A smile grew on my face and all traces of fear went away as I pet the gray-colored Pegasus. His wings were a dark gray color and his hair was black. He had white-colored eyes that were a little creepy but not as creepy as red eyes of the demon horses.
"A ghost Pegasus." Hades corrected.
I formed an apple and held it out to eat for him to eat. He shouldn't have troubles like the skeleton horse.
Poor skeleton horse.
Casper the friendly ghost Pegasus, sniffed the apple before taking it out of my hand and graciously eating it. His rough tongue scrapped across my hand leaving behind saliva.
"Ew." I frowned and turned towards Hades whose eyes were wide.
Hades began shaking his head and holding his hands up in surrender. "No-no-no. There's a sink over there!"
I rose an eyebrow at him and grinned. I charged forward and took Hades by surprise. We both fell to the floor with me on top of hades. Caught in the heat of the moment I swiped my hand on Hade's chest leaving behind a trial of Pegasus saliva on his black turtle neck.
It wasn't until I stopped laughing that I realized how close Hades and I were. I was straddling his waist and I could feel his heart beating beneath my hand.
It was beating rather quickly and strongly as Hades gazed up at me. It looked like his bronze eyes were alive and on fire. Being this close to Hades I began to realize the different features on his face. Like how he had light freckles on his face that weren't noticeable if you were standing next to him or how he had a barely noticeable stubble growing in along his jaw and chin. Red catchfly's and red carnations bloomed all around us.
Youthful love and admiration.
My eyes tracked down to his lips that look impossibly soft and inviting.
So inviting.
I didn't realize I was leaning forward with my eyes closed and lips perched until a voice interrupted us.
"Um hello, random girl? Who are you and why are you on my man?"
Damnit.
3/2/2020
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