I Will Pay Any Cost - 3
Wednesday, August 18, 2010 (11:18:41)

Posted by TerishD

Sapphire and Cindy in -
A Dream of Meeting Friends
Story Two: I Will Pay Any Cost
Chapter Three

...
“Sky, stay with that lady. She will protect you.”

Sapphire turned to Cindy and saw her with a stern expression on her face as she watched the man leave. She had a disgusted gaze when she turned to her mount. Her eyes did not stay with him for long, but she quickly turned to whisper to the mare.

“I believe that he meant I will protect you better than he will.”

Sky whispered back, “He probably did.”


Exactly what are the loyalties of certain people are definitely suspect.


Sapphire and Cindy in -
A Dream of Meeting Friends
Story Two: I Will Pay Any Cost
Chapter Three

Seeing the arrows coming toward him, Edward began making jerking motions, Sapphire wondered if it was a dance, while saying, “Not me, not me, not me.”

Cindy reached out to grab the mare’s reins, then said, “Sky, Sapphire, both of you together and down.”

The purple horse felt some comfort both in the young’s lady taking charge and in having the mare close to him. As he knelt down he noticed Cindy release the bedroll from behind his saddle. As she quickly spread it out, she called Edward over.

He stopped his odd movements to roughly asked, “What are you going to do with that?”

“Hold it up over us.”

“That won’t protect us.”

Cindy pointed out the material as she said, “Sir Hivarn gave it to me. It is not simply cloth, but leather as well. He was worried that I would face danger again.” She then increased the volume of her voice as she commanded, “Now, quickly, the arrows are almost upon us!”

Sapphire was worried that the missiles would be upon them before the man would comply with the order. He however noticed that Cindy did not fully unwrap the sleeping bag, and acted with a feeling that a double thickness could indeed protect them. Sapphire lowered his head and saw that Sky did as well. That allowed the two humans to crouch low as well while still holding up the covering.

The arrows all flew over them. A few did fall short, but those were disrupted by the thick layer of plants in front of the alcove. Only a couple fell on the bedroll. From the sound of the missiles striking the earth, the purple horse felt that they would have definitely hit them had they been standing up. As it was, they simply impacted against the bare ground or the wall of the hills rising behind them.

Cindy quickly rose to yell, “We are all right, Ellemon!”

“Good to hear it, Dearie!” Came a reply from not far beyond the foliage. “There will be less to none next time!”

Sapphire turned from Cindy to the large plump man as he mumbled, “This ain’t right. This ain’t right at all.”

The purple horse watched as Edward moved to Sky. He took a sword from a scabbard connected to the saddle in the same way that Cindy had her sword connected to the saddle of her magic horse. The man brandished it, took a couple of steps towards the foliage, then turned back to his mount with an expression of having forgotten something.

“Sky, stay with that lady. She will protect you.”

Sapphire turned to Cindy and saw her with a stern expression on her face as she watched the man leave. She had a disgusted gaze when she turned to her mount. Her eyes did not stay with him for long, but she quickly turned to whisper to the mare.

“I believe that he meant I will protect you better than he will.”

Sky whispered back, “He probably did.”

The young lady moved up to look into the face of the mare before saying, “I cannot believe that a man like that raised you. He definitely looks too old to have a magic horse, although he acts rather immature.”

“Too old?”

“All that I know of as gaining magic horses were young. You are younger than Sapphire, but Edward looks older than me.”

“Oh.” Sky went silent for a moment, then spoke so softly that Sapphire could barely hear her. “I remember another. He was very young. I thought of him as the same age as me. One day however Poppa came out and said that Edward was my owner. That is all I remember of the other.”

Sapphire asked before Cindy could, “Poppa?”

“Edward’s father.”

Cindy more spoke to herself than to Sky as she said, “If your original owner died, you would be dead as well. Do they speak of him?”

“No… yes… I don’t know.” Sky tried to explain as she said, “They don’t talk about him, but I hear comments that I believe are about him. They talk about caring for someone named Bubba, but they also talk about something bad with Bubba. That is all I can say.”

“Well, we are in a bad situation being around Nixoops. I remember them setting the land on fire in a display of them not being afraid as they tracked Sapphire and me.” The purple horse smiled as the young lady came to hold him, even though the tone of her voice was sad. “We had to leave Alledia because of that.”

The mare looked to Sapphire as she replied, “You mentioned a Princess Alledia.” She turned to Cindy to ask, “Is that the same Alledia?”

“Yes. She was, and is, a good friend. We played together. It is because of her that I have Sapphire.”

The purple horse heard again the story of his birth. He listened as Cindy told of her life as a poor girl in Dachion. It was her father’s birthday, and she was afraid that he would not get home in time to enjoy the meal that his wife and daughter was preparing for him. Cindy had thus gone out to the river to gather mussels that were used by him to make buttons, so he would not have to spend time doing so. When out by the river, she heard Princess Alledia screaming in pain. She had been riding her horse when somehow the animal went down and in going down herself had broken her leg very badly. Cindy had rushed across the river, then helped her friend back to the castle. Baron Gordalac had his concern for his daughter fuel his anger toward those who were supposed to watch after the princess, then mentioned that another young lady, especially a friend like Cindy, would be a better companion. In order to assure that the girl would know how to ride and treat a mount, Baron Gordalac promised Cindy the next horse born in his stables would be hers to care for and learn how to ride. That horse happened to be a magic horse with purple hair and red tail and mane.

Sky added at the end of the story, “Sapphire said that he was named after a jewel owned by Princess Alledia.”

“Yes, it was a rather big gem set in a lovely gold necklace. Alledia said that my horse was worth more than it, so to return some value to it she named my horse Sapphire. Like I said, we were good friends, so I did not argue.”

“The only story that I have is,” she altered her voice to have it sound something like Edward’s, “’your coat is the color of the sky, so you were named Sky.’” Her voice returned to normal as she added, “There is nothing special about me.”

“That cannot be true, Sky. Magic horses were born for a reason. A great curse was enacted in this kingdom that tied together a number of local curses while making a number more. The purpose was to make a special trade good to impress those from other lands. The result however was that our land suffered death, as you could not breed magic horses or control to whom they would be born, so those wanting to trade in magic horses had to deal with young people with families who did not want to give them up. As the Nixoops wanted the best profit and were willing to do anything to get their commodity, they abased themselves to the point that to get the body of a magic horse in perfect condition they would kill the rider. Kill the rider and the magic horse fell dead without a mar upon its body.”

Sapphire added, “The problem was that we magic horses would actually bring our riders to their death. I took Cindy into some very deadly situations.”

Sky replied, “I would not mind taking Edward to one of those.”

Cindy shot back, “No, Sky. While the curse was broken, we cannot be certain about the relationship between the magic horses and us riders. I care deeply for Sapphire. I don’t know about the relationship between you and Edward, but you have to keep him alive so you can stay alive.”

“If he is my true rider.”

The young lady moved to in front of the mare and pointed her finger at her while saying, “No, Sky! You are not evil. You might be the product of a curse, but you, yourself, are a blessing. Sapphire is the most wonderful thing that ever came into my life. You are a lovely creature as well. You do Edward right. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it protects your life as well.”

“Lady Cindy,” Sapphire and those with him turned their head to Fimmish who was kneeling at the opening in the foliage, “we need to get you away. We have broken the Nixoops, but they know where you are.”

The young lady moved to gather her bedroll as she replied, “Certainly. It would help if we went by Edward’s camp. Not only should it have some necessary items for Sky, but we might be interested in other things that we find there.”

“Well, that mare’s rider went with the Nixoops.”

“I am saddened, but not surprised to hear that. That however makes going to his camp even more important.”

As they passed back through the foliage, Ellemon hugged each of them. His hands acted as if they wanted to move about the body of the young lady. When he hugged Sapphire and Sky, his hands did move about their bodies looking for wounds. Cindy watched the man, turned to scrutinize Fimmish, then turned back to Ellemon.

“You were the one directly confronting the Nixoops. Are you saying that you are not hurt?”

“Ah, Dearie, nothing worse than has been done to me before.”

She moved up to stand in front of the man as she said, “ Don’t speak like that, Ellemon.”

“Dearie, I was paid to fight battles. I am thus simply doing my job. You however are to be the wife of Chordan’s brother and a ruler of a land. You are also pretty. I can get hurt, but you cannot.”

“Don’t spoil your looks, Ellemon. You will someday make a lady a good husband.”

“Yeah, I protect my face, Dearie, and one other place as well. I hope to have many children.”

Cindy moved away to finish putting the bedroll back connected to Sapphire’s saddle, then led the two magic horses out of the natural enclosure before saying, “Sky will need to lead us.”

The mare replied, “This is new territory for me as well, but I believe that I can find the way.”

Sapphire could tell that all were wary as they moved through the forest. All reacted to almost any noise. Ellemon and Fimmish eventually moved off in separate directions. A couple of times he heard one or the other become involved in some activity, but most of the time one of the men would appear before them after they paused simply to signal that they could keep moving.

The purple horse found himself remembering the year before when he moved through dangerous territory with Cindy, Sir Hivarn, and Therox. He had been scared then, but determined to overcome the threats facing him. At that time he still considered himself the same age as Cindy, and as the man in the relationship he felt it his place to protect her. While Sir Hivarn repeatedly told him to stay away from danger, Sapphire kept remembering a desire to prove himself able to protect his rider. Moving now in fear of being attacked, he wanted to act to display his strength to Cindy, but in the past year he had learned to trust in the abilities of others and not make rash actions himself.

Finally, Ellemon appeared with a hand raised indicating for the group to stop. Sapphire could smell a fire. Another aroma could be detected that he recognized as food for the humans, although the odor did not particularly please him. Sapphire did stop in order to better hear the words of Fimmish as he spoke in the distance.

“Good day, Sir. I am sorry, but we were led to believe this would be the camp of another.”

“Well, I am camping here with my boy. If you are returning his horse, I will thank you kindly.”

The voice of Fimmish came back a little strong as he replied, “I don’t believe that I know anything about any horse.”

“Listen, rustling is one thing, but rustling a magic horse is another. Those things are worth good money, and I believe that certain authorities will be interested in what you men are doing.”

Sapphire shot his head around as Cindy said, “I’m not putting up with this.”

She dismounted, then turned to draw her sword from its sheathe. Ellemon had stepped up to her, but she spun to put her finger in his face. With no fear of the man showing in her voice, she spoke to him.

“Don’t you stop me. Fimmish is my responsibility, as his wife is part of my family, so I am going to give him support.”

She strode through the trees, then Sapphire heard her voice declare, “Yes, let us summon the authorities. We are still in Mashuv, and the king of Mashuv is my friend. I spent a few weeks with his wife. I believe that he would be real interested to learn that Nixoops are still working in the area.”

The voice of the strange man replied, “And just who are you, young lady?”

“Someone looking for a nice place to camp.”

“I will charge you.”

“Add it to my bill, as I plan on discussing just how much you believe Sky to be worth.”

The mare whispered to Sapphire, “Can she do that?”

Wanting to hear Cindy, he softly and quickly returned, “We cannot let the Nixoops have you.”

Both magic horses went quiet as the voice of the strange man could be heard to say, “She is not worth anything to you. You cannot breed her. Magic horses do not breed true.”

Cindy’s voice could be heard to reply, “She is only worth money to the Nixoops if she is dead. I will pay to keep her alive.”

“I hope that you have a heavy purse, girl, as the Nixoops will pay quite a bit.”

“If you will agree to any price to kill Sky, then you do not deserve to have her.”

“Girl, I would not say things such as that around here.”

Ellemon suddenly reacted. Sapphire had been focusing on the distant voices, but he also noticed movement in an unexpected direction. While Cindy might have thought it safe to confront the man claiming to be Edward’s father, the purple horse became worried that she had walked into a trap.


Well, they were already in dangerous territory, so things do get bad.