butchiesmom

Zare stood sleeping in his stall, dreaming of a certain mare’s tail with a saucy swing to it. A handsome and intelligent stallion, the groom taking care of him would remark he could swear Zare understood what was said to him. He often told the story of how he’d been grooming Zare and as a joke, asked the horse to do something. When Zare did what the groom asked him to, the man said he nearly fell on his butt. He’d thought of turning in the stallion to the head groom but realized the animal was just accustomed to the routine, but still, sometimes, he could swear…

Docile for women and children, Zare was also a spirited stallion for others. Some of the older more experienced stable hands swore they hadn’t experienced an animal such as him before. He was a likeable animal, obeyed all commands, rarely challenging a human yet there was a certain something about him they couldn’t quite pinpoint.

Something had disturbed the stallion’s slumber. He wasn’t sure what it was but it had abruptly taken him from the mare he was about to cover. He opened his eyes, shook his head to clear out any sleep cobwebs and snorted. What took me from that mare?

Zare poked his head out of his stall, looked left then right for the cause of his awakening. He saw nothing unusual. Uneven footsteps outside the open stable doors were what finally caught his attention. He pricked his ears forward in an attempt to hear them clearer. It was the footsteps, as far as he could tell, of Jaded, a frequent rider. Zare hoped the human wasn’t coming to ride while ill. It was said horses could catch some of the same illnesses as humans and didn’t want to be ill when that mare came in season.

The human came into view and Zare could tell something was wrong with him. Perhaps he had been drinking from the wrong trough again. He staggered, falling several times as he came through the doorway. Zare hadn’t thought it possible to hit the side of the huge doorway but Jaded proved him wrong. His aura, something which the other horses couldn’t see, faded in and out with each spurt of life fluid coming through a hole in the human’s clothes.

He heard another set of footsteps as the human fell, face down, to the floor of the stable. Another human with a shiny thing entered the stable. The man lay as dead on the stable floor though his aura continued to glow weakly. The other human, one of which the other horses spoke of as being cruel, walked up to the human on the floor pointing the thing at it. Zare held his breath. He’d not seen what the thing could do but he’d asked his friend, Za’ed as they romped in the exercise corral and Za’ed told him of how other humans had fallen after having that thing pointed at them.

The standing human nudged the human on the floor with the point of one hoof. How do they walk on only two feet? Zare thought as he and the other horses nickered and snorted, tossing their head, their nostrils wide with the scent of blood and the stench of near death close to them. Even Za’ed, who’d been around it before was unsettled. When another, harder nudge of the standing human’s foot didn’t bring a response from the human prostrate on the floor, the human turned and called to other human outside and left the stable leaving the other human alone. Zare could still see the man’s aura still faded in and out though it grew steadily fainter. The hair on his back rose and muscles jumped a bit when the human on the floor moved. His friends drew back into their stalls but Zare wanted to know what the human would do. He stayed where he was though he was frightened by the scent of life fluid and the smell which often accompanied that scent.

He snorted, tossing his head more than once, but kept watching Jaded’s progress. The human looked as if he should not be walking, yet there he was, staggering toward Zare’s stall. He thought of pulling his head back but couldn’t. Jaded’s eyes were locked on his and he could hear a Steady boy in his mind, which didn’t steady him, yet he didn’t rear, didn’t cry out in fear though he wanted to. Another Steady boy didn’t catch him off guard again. A memory of the day a snake threatened to strike him came into his mind unbidden. He could see the snake, and hear Jaded’s voice in his mind. He watched as Jaded forced the lizard to leave, uncoiling and slithering off in an opposite direction. He’d been surprised he’d understood when the man explained to him the creature was just as surprised as they were since it had thought it was sunning alone. He wasn’t sure which had been more unsettling, the snake or that he understood humanspeak. Now he understood.

It had been piecemeal, one word at a time, but he gradually understood more humanspeak after that. He’d spoken to his friend about it but Za’ed warned him against trying to contact a human. Za’ed said one other of their kind had spoken to his rider while out on a run. Zare moved into that horse’s stall soon after. He’d tossed his head in acknowledgment of the warning and said nothing to the humans.

Zare watched Jaded struggled to regain his feet after falling against the neighboring stall door. He could hear as Za’ed shied back further into his stall. Jaded took time for a breath then took the last two steeps to Zare, grabbing his neck as his legs visibly shook. The human’s aura surrounded Zare and he understood, in that instant, what he needed to do to save his own life. Zare reared, frightened by the surge of power and knowledge to his mind. The man’s own aura faded away as Zare’s disappeared, Jaded fell lifeless to the stable floor and Zare settled down, still tossing his head nervously, as the grooms came running to find out what had just happened.

He allowed his groom to calm him as the other humans carried out the body of his former rider. He and his friends were glad to be out of the stable as the life fluid was cleaned. His groom cleaned the blood from his head and neck and brushed him down then sent him out to visit with his friends in the stable yard. Zare watched from as other corpses where carried out of the palace, most of which he’d had on his back at one time or another.

His head throbbed painfully with his thoughts, as he stood in his stall that night his friends sleeping nearby. Zare thought of the warning he’d heard as Jaded’s power was transferred to him and the human crossed over, Beware! Guard this secret well or you will also suffer this fate!