Alone in the Dark

Hunted

The next morning was a slow one for Nerini, as she battled the desire to sleep with the ever-brightening room as the sun rose and the inn began to hum with the sounds of life. She had spent the night asking questions of the innkeeper, who knew less than the stable boy, and watching the crowd moving through the tavern. 

She had hoped that the stable boy would have gotten out word quick enough to lead to someone coming to the inn that night, but if he had, she had not been able to identify anyone hunting for her. In the end, she had given up and gone to bed, trying to figure out her next step, though she was at a loss as to where to look next for her older brother. There had been no trace of him, as if he and their family's guard had disappeared into thin air.

Her only source of information was from the horse, formerly an unshakable animal that carried her brother into several battles. Though it was now a frightened animal, barely brave enough to stand and eat on its own. It unsettled her, as she remembered the animal's terror from the night before while she stood to dress.

Nerini tried to settle her mind on what her only clue pointed toward, her eyes searching out the dark forest that waited beyond the village. She frowned, knowing that whatever had taken her brother and scared his horse so severely was out there, somewhere. A small part of her mind told her that the same forces that had decimated Cleandria were behind this and that whatever it was, it would not be good. That same voice whispered that Kanny was long dead and that she would soon follow if she persisted on this fool's errand.

She shook her head and shrugged into her brown cloak, opening the window and climbing down the trellis into the backyard of the inn, striding towards the stable in the morning shadows. She had rented the room for several days but wasn't ready to have her every movement noted by whomever may be watching the main door. In a village, so small, anyone with half a brain was bound to be able to track her but she would do her best to not be completely transparent. That included not using the main pathway out of her room, to at least give herself a head start.

"Morning, My- Lina..." Tom said, grinning shyly to her from where he was cleaning out a stall.

"Morning Tom, do you need help?" She grinned back and picked up another pitchfork, moving to clean out another stall without waiting for him to answer. "Once you're done with this, can you come with me on the road? Cassidy seems to trust you a bit, if we can get her out there, I want to see what she can tell us."

He thought about that, looking a little confused to see her working alongside him. But finally the poor boy nodded.''Alright. She wouldn't leave her stall yesterday, but she seems a bunch calmer today. You think she'll show you where she run'd from?"

She smiled wide to the surprisingly adept boy. "Exactly Tom. You're a quick study."

"I just know horses, and how they can tell us things when we give them a chance. They remember and think more than most people think they can." He shrugged, blushing again, falling into his task without much more conversation, leaving her to follow suit.

It was barely an hour before they were tacked up and guiding Cassidy on foot through the bustling morning streets of the village. Walking with Cocoa, the black charger barely noticed as the village fell away to farmland, though she danced a bit and pawed the ground as Tom mounted her and they rode into the woods.

Tom followed Nerini's lead, just focusing on keeping Cassidy calm as they moved deeper and deeper along the road that led into the dark forest. The civilized world melted away and the day seemed to be a constant state of shadows and hidden sunlight.

Nerini was looking up to the sky, watching the shadows grow along the treetops when Tom let out a curse and Cassidy began bucking and shying away from the right side of the road. The poor horse bounced between either side of the path, as if afraid of the trees, clearly spooked.