I’d never ridden a Pegasus before, but how hard could it be, really? No harder than a horse I imagined. Though I had been told that they could be fierce at the best of times. Surely this lovely old steed had been extremely well trained over the years. Yes, I told myself, Everything was going to be fine.
Jack still seemed hesitant to mount the young black Pegasus though the animal seemed quite elated to be receiving attention as Jack fed it scraps of meat as a peace offering. I gently stroked the nose of my brown Pegasus and it closed its eyes as though it were enjoying it. Hopefully he would remember me from my numerous visits to these stables in the past. The plaque on the front of his stall read ‘Cloven’. He seemed quite docile and indifferent as I opened the door to his stall and slowly stepped beside him. Cloven’s wings twitched and I noticed a few missing feathers here and there. R?ven watched silently from the rafters as I wondered how on earth I was supposed to get on this monster.
Jack had just finished putting the saddle upon his black Pegasus who I could now see was called Merrick. I had absolutely no idea how to fit a saddle to something that flew so I simply waited for Jack’s help. A few minutes passed during which Jack showed me how the saddle worked and before we knew it Cloven was ready to be ridden.
Jack gave me a leg up as he noticed I was beginning to struggle to get my footing right. Sitting astride the steed I felt my heart pounding as it pumped adrenalin through my body. I was going to rescue Hawthorne. I stroked Cloven’s mane in a reassuring way and took a deep breath. Across from me Jack was hoisting himself upon poor little Merrick who was still not fully grown though was quite big nonetheless. Merrick whinnied excitedly and bounded forwards before Jack had secured himself properly though he managed to hold on. Merrick flapped his wings and trotted in circles while Jack grappled with the reigns, cursing under his breath. Cloven seemed rather bored by the adolescences display.
“Come on Jack.” I frowned, “We need to get going.”
“You try controlling him.” Jack hissed.
The next moment something rather unfortunate happened. Everyone froze, including Merrick and Cloven, to see the stable door creak open and a curly red head in rather professional attire enter the room. Camryn stared and drank in the scene before her. Her face was one of shock for a long while before realization dawned upon her.
“Jack?” She breathed, “Avalon?” She stared between us, “What are you doing?”
“I can explain.” Jack said quickly.
“I thought you were both dead!” Camryn exploded, her face turning pink, “You both vanished and you have no idea what I’ve had to put up with! Questions left and right! ‘Where’s Jack? Where’s Avalon’. I’m lucky I wasn’t locked up too!”
“You don’t understand.” I began helplessly, “Please Camryn you have to let us go, we will explain later.”
“Go?” Camryn yelled making Merrick jump, “Go? Where are you going? With my Pegasi!” She added rather hysterically.
With all the noise Camryn was making I feared that she would draw attention to the stables. I thought I could hear voices outside but perhaps I was just being paranoid. We had no time to explain to Camryn, she was far too hysterical. Though I did feel quite bad about what I was going to do next, I felt it was for the best.