Deliberating, you weighed up your choices for a moment. The big black stallion was clearly a lot bigger, muscles-whys, than the mare standing beside him, but for all that he seemed more a kind of gentle giant. Hearing the word 'stallion' you’d initially expected him to be more physically intimidating and at the very least more aggressive than the other horse, and while he was certainly a large animal, looking into his big soft eyes he didn’t look like he’d hurt a fly. That more than anything put you at ease. Unlike Jessie, who, you noted with concern, had begun twitching; frantic shivers were running through her body, causing her to shake all over. You wondered if maybe she was just hyper-energetic, or something had spooked her, either or, she might get skittish during the ride and throw you were something to happen that scared her further.
Harry on the other hand came across as immediately confident, and utterly at ease with his surroundings. He had such a calm demeanour; it was obvious he’d been well domesticated, and that more than anything made him your natural choice.
“I think that I’ll take out Harry,” you said finally, “while the mare seems nice, she does, like you said, seem quite nervous, I don’t think she’s the kind of animal a sort-of beginner like me should be riding.”
“Great!” the attendant enthused. “Just give me a minute or two to get Harry kitted-up and the two of you can go for a ride,” she said ushering the stallion out of his stall, she gave him a short brush down, before placing a pad on his back, then putting a brown leather saddle over the top of that and letting the stirrups and straps hang down.
While she was working she turned to you, “you know Harry really is one of our best stallions, he arrived here about 3 years ago now, and nobody has ever had a bad word to say about him, in fact everyone who ever took a ride with him once never wanted to ride with any other stallion ever again.” Amusement danced in her eyes briefly before she returned to her work, tightening the girth strap around the stallion’s belly she gave the saddle a little tug to be sure it was fitting him snugly.
Seemingly satisfied, she disappeared for a moment, before coming back with a bridle, then standing beside the stallion’s neck she moved the bit against his lips and simply said “open,” to which Harry obediently allowed the bit in. After that she pulled the bridle over his ears and secured it around his head.
With the stallion fully outfitted for the ride, you watched, astonished then as the attendant placed a hand on Harry’s long neck, and began to whisper something up to him, that in and of itself wasn’t particularly impressive, what was really astonishing though was that the stallion actually bent his large head down to the attendant, flicking his ear over to hear her better. After whispering several indiscernible instructions into his ear the horse nodded his head stomping his hoof at the same time.
“It’s like he understands what you’re saying!” you exclaimed amazed.
“Oh, Harry’s very smart for a horse, that’s why he’s such a prize,” the attendant smiled.
“What did you say to him?”
“Oh, I just told him to take good care of you out on your ride together,” she replied, smiling at you as she offered you the stallion’s reins.
Taking them from her, you ran your hand up and down Harry’s neck, smoothing down his mane as the attendant pointed you towards a map affixed to a nearby wall and began telling you about the several riding trails located on the grounds around the Stable.
“…while all those trails are fully marked, may I make a suggestion about where you go…?”
“Of course,” you said.
“Well, I always advise all first timers to take the eastern path, here through the forest,” she gestured toward a wide vaguely elliptical line on the map, “there’s plenty to see along that trail this time of year and there’s this little lake I know of that you’ll come to about halfway round that’s just beautiful, I’d spend all day there if I could, but then who’d pay the bills?”
You started to ask something more about the trail but were cut off as a loud screaming whinny sounded out behind you, concerned you spun about to see a ginger-furred filly being taken to her stall by her keeper, the rebellious animal though was resisting with everything she had, digging her hooves into the dusty ground, the horse had locked all four of her legs and was tossing her head this way and that, pulling back on her halter with all her might. It looked to be touch and go about who was going to win this impromptu tug-of-war, but then with the arrival of two more attendants it was only a matter of time before the mare was subdued.
As a last resort the mare’s crazily rolling eyes roamed around the barn for any possible escape route and finding none, they finally landed on you, meeting her gaze you saw her eyes grow soft, and almost pitying for a moment, then they became full of fear and anger once more as she was dragged kicking and whinnying into her stall, fighting all the way; you stared bemusedly at the scene until the attendants had closed the gate, leaving the furious animal alone. Passing by where you were standing, you noticed the mare’s keeper sending a nod and a grin towards the attendant waiting on you which she returned with a knowing smile on her face.
Though you wondered what that strange, silent exchange had been about, there was a more pressing question on your mind, “what was the problem with that mare?” you asked, “it was almost as if she was scared of her stall.”
“Oh don’t worry, Allie there is a troublesome little filly that arrived here a few of days ago. We think her last owners might have mistreated her in some way, and that’s why she acts the way she does. We’ve got her sorted out on a training schedule, trying to help her get past it but…” she lifted her hands letting them fall to slap against her thighs. “I fear what will become of her if she doesn’t mend her ways soon.”
At her words you physically shrank away from her, you didn’t mean to, but the sheer menace in her tone of voice, the anger and promise of violent reprisals if she didn’t get her way, alarmed you. You got the distinct feeling that anyone who trifled with this woman would quickly live to regret their transgression.
“Well, it’s good though that you’re trying to help her,” you coughed uncertainly, “I’m sure she’ll appreciate it in time.”
The attendant then smiled at you, and with that the sudden pall of black anger that had descended upon her like a storm cloud suddenly lifted as if it had never been. “I hope so. Now, it’s a beautiful day, why don’t you and Harry go and have some fun, just please do remember to have him back here before the Stable closes at 5:00pm.”
After assuring her you would, you led Harry out of the barn before sticking your foot into the stirrup of his saddle and climbing up onto his back. It’s just like riding a bike, you thought to yourself nervously as you sat astride the stallion, you’d forgotten just how tall you were from up here, and how very far the ground seemed from you.
Trying to remember your lessons from years ago, you got yourself into the proper position on Harry’s back. Try to relax, you reminded yourself as you gave the horse’s sides a gentle squeeze with your legs, giving him the signal to start moving, you soon got him walking out of the stableyard and towards the distant forest.
It was a beautiful day, you thought as you exited from the stable ground and out onto the open track, the skies were sunny and bright, there was a gentle cooling breeze in the air that ran through your hair, carrying with it the sweet scents of flowers and shaggy summer grass.
Looking over the wide open rolling expanses around you, you became filled with a feeling of freedom that swelled your heart and lifted your spirit.
The sprawling complex of the stable soon disappeared from sight as you got more and more comfortable riding the horse, half-recalled tips and tricks you’d learned long ago coming back to you so quickly that soon you felt up to trying something a little more daring.
Giving Harry a little nudge with your heels you got him up to a trotting pace, moving into the more western posture, you raised yourself up in the saddle a little, letting your knees and ankles take the brunt of the horse’s body moving beneath you.
At this quickened pace it only took a few short minutes before you had ridden up to the edge of the forest. Bringing Harry back to a walking pace, you looked at the signposts and quickly located the path the attendant had advised you to take and directed the horse to follow it.
Strewn with the detritus of growing things, and lined with a wide variety of beech, maple and oak trees, the dirt-packed path wound deeply into the forest ahead of you. The ground had been so well-travelled by foot and hoof-steps that it had been shaped into a deep groove that scored its way across the forest floor.
With the trees hogging so much of the sunlight, you saw that most of the lower dwelling flowers and bushes had little to no chance of life, only a few hardy ferns thrived in the shadows, and most of these were in the one or two patches of ground where the trees were not so thickly clustered.
You’d only gone a short way in when you noticed the sounds of the Zoo and Stables behind you had faded away and been replaced with the sweet trill and tweet of birdsong, the whistling of the wind through the trees, and the light crunch of pine-needles and leaves on the dirt path being squashed beneath Harry’s hoof-steps. The air smelled of dry dusty earth, bark, musty sap, decaying vegetation and all things native to a wood.
The signs and sounds of wildlife were everywhere, from the squirrels that chittered and darted up and down trees, to the birds, who disturbed from their perches by your passing, took flight in your wake. You even happened upon a deer peacefully grazing only a few feet away from you. Proud antlers were tilting this way and that as he moved to nibble on the next piece of ruffage, at hearing your approach his head snapped up, both ears swivelling to focus intently on you for a moment, then with a kick of his hindlegs he darted away.
Around ten minutes later the trees began to thin out and soon gave way to open space as you entered a wide, grassy clearing strewn with small rocky hillocks.
"Woah, woah there boy," you called, reining the big black stallion to a stop, you turned your head this way and that to better survey the panoramic landscape before you.
Bordered on all sides with the lichen-covered trunks of evergreen and deciduous trees, the clearing was a picture of pristine natural beauty, wildflowers grew in such abundance amongst the thick stalks of grass that everywhere you looked you saw a vibrant tapestry of reds, yellows, and whites. With not another soul to be seen or sound of civilisation to be heard, the place felt almost sacred.
At the centre of the clearing was the lake the attendant had told you about. The water within looked so crystal clear, and invitingly cool you thought it would be nothing short of criminal not to spend a few minutes resting in such a visually stunning spot.
Swinging down from your mount, you soon located a likely looking tree and loosely tethered the horse onto a low-hanging branch, before digging in your pocket for your mobile phone and bringing up its camera.
After taking a few pictures at various angles around the edge of the lake, you glanced at your watch and saw you had plenty of time left before you needed to return Harry and so you took a seat beneath the shade of a large oak tree and began checking each of your snaps.
Satisfied with your pictures, you put your head back, taking a moment to rest under the boughs of the tree, your eyes drifted upward to watch as the wind stirred the leaves above you, small shafts of sunlight were flickering every so often between the greenery, the almost hypnotic sight slowly relaxing you, filling you with a pleasant fug, you soon felt a warm leaden weight pulling down on your eyelids.
God, you were so sleepy, which was strange, you rarely felt this tired in the middle of the day, it was decidedly odd. You still had to find Jessica, you reminded yourself, you should return Harry now and get on with looking for her, but you couldn’t seem to hold that thought in your mind as your head began to nod.
“Just five minutes, that… *yawn* that won’t hurt anything…” you mumbled to yourself, allowing your eyes to drift closed, your breathing soon shallowed out as you dropped off into a deep sleep.
So heavy and unnatural was your sudden lethargy that you didn’t notice nor did you feel anything as your body began to shift and change, your ears shifting up to the top of your head and growing outward into dagger-like points, a tail sprouting out from the base of your spine, your fingers and toes fusing together into shapeless masses that shifted and changed before growing a hard coating of nail, your arms lengthening forming into a new pair of legs, your face pushing outward into the nose and muzzle of a horse, your skin becoming covered with a short coat of fur, your body growing, growing, larger and larger until every article of your clothing was ripped asunder.
Harry stood by watching the transformation dispassionately, the stallion had seen the same changes play out so many times before that it no longer interested him enough to watch, pulling his lead free, he turned his back on the soon-to-be horse and trotted off a short distance to graze, he’d wait for the cracks of bone, muscle and sinew to end, wait for the man to wake up and see what had become of him.