This choice: A knight from the beyond arrives to save Aris and Jared • Go Back... Jared carefully moved his neck away from the frozen Other’s nail. He relaxed a moment, confused by the sudden cessation. The Other at his neck suddenly bent and kneeled. The two holding Aris knelt as well, dropping an equally confused Aris.
“Beravas, li torea bram cek manda tyresa,” the voice echoed through the woods again.
The Other in front of Jared snapped his (her?-- Jared wasn’t aware of the process of determining an Other’s gender) head up and whined. It was a loud, high-pitched squeal followed by a low, angry, guttural groaning.
“Warg ytotre le wetgu delaste reys abaratistals?” the voice echoed, this time threatening and challenging.
The Other bowed his/her head again. “Megrabe vy, fey abara.”
Jared mouthed a silent “What is happening?” to Aris, who shook his head and shrugged. Slowly, Jared began to back away from the Others. Aris, catching onto his lead, did the same.
Jared’s Other snapped his/her head up again. “My friends! Wait!”
Jared froze, as did Aris. “Why?”
The Other rose, as did the other two. “The gods have commanded we honor you by speaking your language, and take you into our village.”
“Gods? What gods? Vishnu and Hidra?”
The Others snorted, chuckling. “The piece of driftwood and our former latrine rock? No, friend. Our gods are much more powerful, and very real.”
This time it was Aris who snorted. “As if. If Vishnu and Hidra do not exist, then it is not reasonable for other gods to exist.”
“Maybe not gods, but perhaps something else,” a new voice cut in. The three Others dropped to their knees again, and this time Jared heard the clop clop clop and snort of a horse. He spun around to face the new intruder. His hand was at his scabbard, but his shock caused him to freeze and gape. Aris couldn’t even hold back a cry of surprise. “By the gods!”
Out of the woods came clopping a horse. But this horse not just a regular sorrel stallion, as was common among the knightry, but a lightning blue mare, with a golden mane, tail, and hooves. White feathery wings sprouted from the horse’s shoulder, an unheard of feature not even wild enough to appear in myth.
What really stole the show, however, was the winged horse’s rider. She was little, probably around five feet. But she was dressed in a full suit of armor, with the blue-ruffed helmet peeking out of her saddlebag. Her skin was tan and wrinkled, and her hair was long and white, portraying a woman in the age of carriages and sedan chairs. But Jared suspected from her garb that she was not the sedan chair type.
“Fey araba,” the Others spoke as one.
The woman smiled. “Rise, my chosen ones. You have done well.”
The Others rose from their knees to a squatting position.
“What are you doing?” the woman demanded
“It is disrespectful to raise one’s head higher than a goddess’s.”
"Oh, poppycock! You're eight feet tall! That's how tall I made you, and I want you to use all eight feet of that height at all times!"
"As you wish, fey abara."
The woman smiled as the Others rose back to their feet. She then turned to Jared and Aris.
"My name is Dame Melrose Marinafeather. I am one of the nine knights of the beyond, the queen of the Mars, or as you know them, the Others. Please, come with me, that I may help you with your quest."
581 words   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
| Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
<<-- Previous · Outline  · Recent Additions © Copyright 2024 CJ Reddick (UN: azulofegypt39 at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
Creeper Of The Realm has granted Writing.Com, its affiliates and syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work within this interactive story. Poster accepts all responsibility, legal and otherwise, for the content uploaded, submitted to and posted on Writing.Com. |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author