AllFreeNovel
Share Us
One
Blaire
“STOP! STOP IN THE NAME OF THE KING!”
I am not going to stop. Stopping is the very last thing I’m going to do. Out of all the options available to me in all of existence and creation, stopping is at the very bottom of the list.
Hooves are thundering behind me, turning the golden soils and clear blue skies I was enjoying moments earlier into the set of my personal horror show.
I don’t need to swivel my head to know that trouble’s coming. All I have to do is listen to the sinking of my gut and the fizzing of nerves that came racing through my belly and spreading through my chest as soon as those distant hoofbeats grew a fraction louder. My fingers curl in my stallion’s mane, preparing for the burst of speed and power that’s about to be unleashed.
“Giddyup boy! Let’s see what you’ve got!”
I am sitting atop one thousand pounds of prime muscle, hard hoof, and flowing mane. More than a horse, this beast is descended from Earth’s best and hardiest stock, flung far across the galaxy and perfectly conditioned by generations of evolution into the perfect mount for this world.
He didn’t need the giddyup. That was for my benefit. He took off the second my lower leg squeezed his flank, bounding across the plains that make up his territory. This isn’t my world. It’s not the world of those chasing me either. It’s this stallion’s world. It belongs to animals and beasts. If I’m an intruder, then so the fuck are they.
Seconds pass by. That’s all it takes for me to know that I am in trouble. My boy is fast and strong, but their mounts seem to be faster. They’re gaining. They’re gaining fucking fast.
Unlike my stallion who protects his band and moves at a pace to suit himself, their beasts have probably been worked over long distances day in and day out. They have the stamina that my mount might not. Even if he was trained to run intruders down, rather than just chase them off, it’s not in his nature to run. Yes, he’s a prey animal, but he’s a hulking tonne of prey, and he likes to fight.
“No, boy!” I try to urge him on as he wheels about to face the oncomers, but there’s no moving a horse that doesn’t want to move. He rears up, striking with his front feet in a display of wild ferocity. I stay on by gripping the base of his mane and moving with him, keeping my balance as parallel to the ground as possible. Right now, I’m grateful to every ratbag pony and green broke mustang that ever tried to throw me because it means I stay on.
The stallion beneath me is more than equal to the task of escaping them, but the problem with stallions is they don’t run. They fight. This stallion is no different. He’s a magnificent beast, dappled grey with a flowing golden mane. I spotted him from far across a dusty valley and spent two weeks earning his trust. I’ve followed him, and I’ve become part of his world. I’ve ‘grazed’ while he grazes. I’ve become part of his band. More than one curious mare has taken the carrot and apple treats I’ve brought with me.
He allowed me to mount him yesterday, and I thought I would die of happiness. The fact that horses let me ride them is one of nature’s greatest gifts and I’ll never take it for granted.
Five minutes ago, I was blissed out on nature and connection with it. Four minutes ago, half a dozen riders came over the far ridge and headed straight for us. I headed away from them, not wanting to make any contact with the locals. Epona Prime is a big empty planet with no law. That means I can do what I want. It also means any of the other occupants can do whatever they want to me.
Now they’re going to do just that.
They’ve caught up to us, and they’re circling us, side passing and cracking whips, generally threatening me with their wild alien appearance. Being shirtless is in fashion for these alien warriors. They wear strapped leather harnesses, but no real clothing except for over their legs. I am surrounded by muscular, lightly furred men, whose faces are just human enough for me to read their expressions as being threatening. They have large eyes, ever so slightly angled in an exotic and one could even say enticing fashion if one were not being scared shitless as one’s horse rears like a maniac, screaming stallion fury at the horses which have been brought into his territory.
My mount rears up again, hooves swinging through the air. He lets out a shriek that to untrained ears would sound more like a dinosaur than any kind of mammal. A stallion’s cry is threatening and primal. It sounds like reality being torn in two.
