Chapter 3

“Great. The past few days have already been like a scary movie and when it comes to scary settings we’ve just hit the jackpot.” Alex was walking while the girls rode on their horses.
“Stop complaining.” Gwen pushed her hair behind here ears. “You don’t even believe in ghosts.”
“You might become one some day. Aren’t you supposed to wear helmets?”
Gwen scoffed at the idea. “And, who’s gonna stop me? It’s not like these horses are dangerous.”
“She’s got a point.” Robin put in. She was staring at the ground with her dark eyes and her hair veiled her face. “You’ve got to take into account other factors than you and the horse.”
“But you’re not either!” Gwen objected and Robin ignored it. Alex laughed to herself about it.
“Feel lucky that we’re in a reasonably safe environment. There are no cars in the forest and we’re not in an area where there are lots of fierce animals.”
“Well…” Alex included. “There are the rumours of the Puma and the cheetah… they got an expert to look at some prints in the forest near Dinas area and in Crymych and they confirmed they were real… and then there’s the barking, mad… hehe! Get it? Barking mad? ... well… there are the barking, mad escapees.”
Robin rolled her eyes and looked at Gwen who glanced at her and said “I think it’s time to dismount.”
Alex laughed. “Cowards!”
“Hypocrite.” Gwen uttered as she put both feet on the ground and clutched the reins. The horses’ back was as high as her head.
“Why do you even bring the horses if you don’t even intend to use them?” Alex asked.
“… Because….” Robin started. “Despite what mum says, the horses need to be ridden often. She says they shouldn’t be seen by any one. So, who’s gonna be watching us at this time of night in this place?”
“No one.” Gwen even had her finger in the air and a wide smile on her face.
“I see.” Alex sighed.

It was quiet. A few owls hooted here and there and the infamous wild dog howled in the distance. The horses whinnied as they walked next to Robin and Gwen. Alex was looking around suspiciously.
The streaks of auburn in her hair were hidden in the dark. Cold pinched her cheeks and a breeze picked up the ends of her coat. Her arms were crossed over her chest, to keep the coat closed, and her gloved hands were rolled into fists. “Why is it so cold?” She said to herself. The others had walked a little far off.
Pillars stood as trees all around them. This was the less dense part of the horticulture college. It was quite untouched. There were short grasses, with long stalks for their seed heads, all around and in some places were mock fairy circles where the teenagers had been mucking around. Of course, Gwen swore that there were a couple of real ones lying around in there and that there was a ghost of some woman who’d stumbled into one and disappeared.
Quiet lay over the entire forest. The trees whispered among themselves, with the shivering of leaves in a high breeze. Some small mice scuttled around on the floor, but Alex didn’t catch a glimpse of them as they passed by.
There was a sudden rustling in the bushes at one side. “Girls.” She paced forwards quickly and the girls turned around to stare at her.

“Hey, Alex.” A very different voice whispered form behind her.
She gasped a huge lungful of air and span with her defensive stance, ready for anything. Gwynedd stared back at her but didn’t look as shocked as he should have. He was grinning but something had changed about him and she couldn’t quite put a finger on it.
Gwen walked closer to him, holding the reins of her horse in one hand. “Have you seen any horses wondering around here?” She asked.
He paused and looked at her carefully. “Err… you’re standing next to one…”
“No, I mean other than ours. We’re looking for Mr Jenkins’s horses.” She explained. Robin stood a little further behind her, with her hand on her hip. The horses seemed a little uneasy. They were shifting from side to side with what seemed to be panic. Robin stared at them with worry then the howl answered their unasked questioned. It was a little too near for comfort.
“We should get out of here. The chances are that the horses have found their own way home, they always do, and now it’s time for us to find ours, too.” Robin nudged Gwen. “You feeling masochistic, Gwynedd?” She smiled.
“What?” He looked surprised in his eyes, narrowed by the creases of his grin.
“Well… You don’t look particularly scared.” She pointed out, talking to him but she meant for the girls to notice it. She didn’t feel secure and didn’t know why, either.
“Uhuh.” He laughed.
“Shh…” Alex signalled with a hand in the air. They all stood still. Gwynedd grinned. Gwen was smiling innocently, as she always did, but there was the usual glint in her eye every time there was something remotely mysterious. Robin looked worried.
In the quiet, they heard very quiet hoof beats. Robin was certain they weren’t the ones of Mr Jenkins’s horses. They weren’t heavy plods but almost quiet gliding of the ground, more like her horses. However, they were as still as ice.
“Hear that?” Alex said again. “Maybe…” Alex was staring at the ground and hadn’t noticed anything at all.
Robin span on her heel and was the first to see him. His hat was wide brimmed. His coat was long and made of worn, brown leather. He covered the lower part of his face with a grey bandanna, which was tied under his dark hair. His grey-blue eyes settled on Robin for a second, while she studied his ride. A magnificent black horse.
Gwen turned to follow her gaze. “That… That’s like ours…”
The air grew cold, very quickly, as they watched him slowly lift a crossbow- loaded with a black tipped bolt. A glint of light glided along the shaft.
“Gwen, get behind me.” Robin grabbed her and pushed her next to Taliesin, the horse. “Stay back and close your eyes.” Alex stood next to Gwen so she was in a box of safety, while Gwynedd backed away. He stood next to a tree, his grin wiped clean from his face.
They heard the click of something falling into place and another before the unmistakeable hum of the bolt through the air. Then, there was a ping as it hit the tree and wobbled. Robin was the only one who was looking. She was the only one who saw.
Her brother’s form changed at the instant before the bolt sped through his shadow. From a great cloud of black smoke, fluttered a sheet, dark as night. It rose into the sky, limply and uneven, and gradually took a shape more like a bird. It was a huge thing, at least five times the size of a buzzard.
Gwen turned to see the bolt protruding from the grey bark. Its uneven black, tinted with blue, surface was coated with a thick crimson liquid. The moonlight sliced along the shaft with a shining line of silver. The clouds drifted apart in the sky so even more light filled the space they stood in- as if wanting to taunt her.
However, there wasn’t light for long. A sick feeling rose in her throat and the world started to spin before everything turned black.
“Shit! Robin! She’s fainted!”