Page 21 of Lucent Academy 2: Trinity Awakens
As I drew closer, I saw they weren't idly discussing the horses. Instead, their conversation looked serious. They had their heads together and seemed to be conspiring about something.
Another wave of shame made my face turn red from my cheeks all the way to my ears.Gods, must I always be so judgmental?They could be discussing something completely ordinary. I was really becoming rather paranoid.
Feeling dejected, I asked one of the stable boys to help me saddle Chance, a black gelding with a snow-white mane, white hair on his hooves, and a long, lush tail. I'd been riding him the mostsince starting with the lessons. He was a very sweet and gentle horse. As I led Chance out the gate to the assigned trail, a sad smile crossed my face. I recalled how excited Amber had been when we'd gone riding for the first time. Our riding instructor, Mister Chatsworth, had assigned Felicity, the beautiful honey-colored mare, to Amber, and I swear the girl had been in heaven that day and every Saturday since.
By now, both of us were accustomed to riding without the instructor. It was an easy trail, and the horses knew it by heart. Seeing as Felicity's stall had been empty, I had wondered if I wouldn't find Amber out there on the trail somewhere. There were scenic overlooks all along the trail. We'd stopped there before to have a gander at the spectacular view of the valleys and mountains surrounding Lucent Academy. I was sure that if Amber were out for a ride this morning, I'd be able to find her at one of these.
Chance and I set out at an enthusiastic trot. He seemed eager to get a sip of crystal clear water from one of the many springs. In my pocket, I had a few apples, pilfered from the breakfast table, that I planned on giving him when we stopped at the halfway mark. It had become a favorite routine of ours, and the horse was looking forward to earning his reward.
Bright sunlight flashed through the tree branches, and a pleasant breeze caught on my clothes and danced through my hair. I was wearing it untied down my shoulders today. I took a deep breath through my nose, and the mountain air, crisp and clean, was like nothing I had ever experienced before coming here.
At a stream, we stopped for a few moments, and Chance got his sip of clear mountain water. Idly, I stuck my hand in my pocket and felt something in there that wasn't an apple. I pulled it outand looked at the smooshed candy bar. It was the one Ursula had given me the morning of the demonstration. It was still edible, so I shrugged and unwrapped it. Waste not, want not was a saying I had grown up hearing a lot.
After finishing the chocolate bar, I put the wrapper in my pocket and climbed back onto the horse's back. As we trotted down the trail again, I smiled. I was feeling relaxed and happy for the first time this week.
My thoughts were a million miles away when a nearby branch snapped loudly, its echo bouncing off the trees and rock formations at the side of the road. I froze and stared around me. I didn't see anything in the tree line, but my good mood had suddenly evaporated like mist before the sun.
Chance gave a loud whinny, and I leaned forward to stroke his neck to reassure him that my sudden nervousness was just me being silly. I was sure I'd heard somewhere that horses were very attuned to the moods of their rider. I didn't want to scare the horse. If he bolted suddenly, I knew I wasn't experienced enough of a rider to stay on or get him back under control.
The tension was just starting to leave my body when I heard another stealthy movement in the woods to my left: footsteps, the crackle of branches, the snap of a twig. When I looked in the direction from which it had come, I thought I saw a shadow disappearing behind a thick tree trunk.
Suddenly, the woods no longer looked bright and cheerful but seemed ominous and creepy. It was as if a cloud had moved and blocked out the sun, making the shadows longer and darker. Like they were creeping closer, crowding around me.
When the same noise came from the same direction, even though I kept moving, I knew someone was following me.Someone or something was tracking my progress, moving beside me on the trail but just out of sight.
"Hello! Is someone there?" The sound of my own voice, the way it quivered with fear, only increased the tension. It was already thick enough that it seemed like it was enveloping me, trying to smother me. "If you're trying to scare me, it's not funny!"
Chance and I had slowed down and now stood still as I surveyed the tree line.
Was that the echo of my own voice, or was someone mocking me, mimicking my voice perfectly? Once the thought had entered my mind, it was difficult to shake off. Surely there was nothing dangerous in these woods; the instructors would have warned us and would never have let us ride here alone. Hadn't I heard that Lucent Academy was one of the best-protected places in the Empire? It would have to be, wouldn't it, seeing as we were the Empire's future army?
These arguments did little to reassure me as I nervously scanned the trees.
My body ran cold when I heard a slithering noise. This time, I could see the tall grass shake. Something was coming. Something low to the ground but large enough to be noticeable was emerging from between the grass, detaching itself from the shadows. It looked like sentient oil as it pushed forward on its belly, breaking away from its covering to finally reveal itself. I felt a moment of disgust so deep and so primal that it blotted out my internal sun.
From somewhere deep inside, I recalled a memory from my childhood. I'd been playing outside in the garden. The next moment, something cold and unbearably alive had slithered over my foot. I had let out an earth-shattering scream, and myparents had come running. They had panicked and had asked me what had happened. I must have been very young because I could distinctly recall being so lost for words that explaining what had touched me, what had moved over my bare and innocent foot, had been so horrible that I hadn't even had a name for it.
It had, of course, been a snake. I had a deep-seated fear of them that I couldn't really explain to anyone.
Now, the thing I saw moving toward my horse slithered as if from the bowels of my every nightmare. It was black and glistened in what sunlight there was in this section of the woods.
I was completely frozen in fear and ice cold, as if I had died and was just a stunned corpse. As my eyes grew more round until they felt like they were going to pop right out of my head, I tried to open my mouth to scream, but my lips felt like they'd been welded shut.
I heard something moan pitifully and realized it was me, sounding like an animal caught in a snare. The snake, with its jewel-like scales and slitted yellow eyes, seemed to regard me with otherworldly intent. It opened its mouth and hissed. I saw its fangs. They seemed enormous, and I swear I could see them dripping venom. Then the creature, still approaching, seemed to change. It grew larger by the second. When the first legs started sprouting out of its body, I finally managed to kick Chance in the ribs, to let him know we were getting away from here.
Either I kicked too hard, or Chance had seen the monstrosity crawling out of the woods as well, because he took off like a bolt. I clung on for dear life, hoping against hope that I wouldn't fall off, that he wouldn't leave me to fend for myself if I did.
I looked behind me to see if the thing was following. Now, it was enormous, and it no longer resembled just any old snake. I felt the world shift as a feeling of unreality washed over me. The thing standing on the road behind us, the thing watching us coldly, was a Kigyo Hydrus, a lizard-like reptilian monster with six legs and two heads. It was huge. It was a mythical creature I would've sworn only existed in legends.
I was terrified beyond all reason, past the point of knowing or caring where Chance was carrying me off to. We were riding off-trail, and trees flashed past us, branches zoomed dangerously close to my head, and some of them scraped across my face and arms.
Up ahead was a clearing. I could see a break in the trees. Panting, desperate, still in the grips of the worst terror I had ever felt, I sent a prayer up to the gods that it was the castle grounds.
Just as we broke through the edge of the clearing, something leaped into our path, blocking it. "No! It can't..." I screamed because it was impossible. It was the Kigyo Hydrus. Was it that fast, or was this another one, maybe its mate? Did they hunt in packs? Surely, this couldn't be the same one, but two of them existing when one was an impossibility seemed like a spectacular coincidence.
I didn't think about it, I just acted. Without knowing what I was about to do, I drew from the power inside me and released. It was almost instantaneous. A perfectly round ball of pure fire popped into existence, and I pushed it at the creature. My magic hit it squarely in the face, and the thing seemed to shimmer, then it disappeared. There was no smoke, no burning corpse, no awful smell. It just popped out of existence like a soap bubble.
Chance may have been more frightened by my sudden burst of magic than he had been by the monster, because he reared back and made a sound that was like a scream. It surprised me, and I couldn't grab the reins in time. My hands moved sluggishly, as if they'd been dipped in treacle. The world was growing fuzzy around the edges, and I could feel my heart hammering away as the world grew dimmer and narrower.
