literature

TTW Ch. 6

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Jo and Dusty found Rosa to be an extremely good companion and guide, her sweet and innocent voice kept their spirits up - if they lagged behind she would give them a playful nip, and she had an amazing sense of direction. It was almost dawn, and they decided they could run the rest of the way, after all, it was only half a mile until they would reach the village. They figured they had time to rest before they made the last leg of the journey, though.

‘So, what are we doing? Looking for Lust?’ Jo shook her head
‘No, not yet, we need to find out about him first, so we know what we’re up against, we don’t even know why he hates people! If we knew, we could use it against him.’ Rosa cocked her head to the side, thinking about what Jo was saying.
"That makes sense… I suppose. But what is the point of all this? Why are we searching anyway? Maybe they'll do to you whatever they did to Lust and then you'll hate people too! And you'd be smart. Humans are sneaky things. They hide and shoot at us with arrows or magic rocks!”
“Magic rocks?” Jo wondered what on earth she could mean, when it hit her. “Oh, you mean bullets. I don't quite know, but there's something important that we have to do. And I have a feeling that they won't hurt us. I think.” She sounded more confident than she felt, though. It was hard for her to imagine how people might react to her – she still somewhat thought of herself as human, since that was what she had been for most of her life. Dusty nosed her gently as her mind drifted into the past.
“Jo. You okay?” He asked, his eyes searching hers.
“Hmm, just thinking.”
“Okay.” He didn't sound convinced, but he wasn't going to push it. “Do we have a plan, or is it just pretty much walk in on them and see what happens?”
“When you say it like that, it sounds completely mad.”
“That's because it is. You can't expect them just to let us go – they'll probably try to catch us and tame us. What will happen then? How do you expect this great plan or whatever you heard from the spirits to work then?”
Jo turned away from him and sighed.
“I don't know, okay. It's just that... I'm feeling this pull towards the village. I know that we have to go there. I'm just not sure why.”
“So if this tugging in your gut told you to jump off a cliff, you would?”

Rosa, who had been watching the conversation between her horse friends silently, chose now to speak up.
“If spirits tell blue horse to go, blue horse must obey. Bad things happen if you do not obey the spirits.” Jo and Dusty looked to each other in confusion.
“What do you mean, Rosa?”
“The pack that I'm part of, they are called “Cursed Blood” for a reason. Our ancestors displeased the spirits. Now if ever we find one that we truly love, we die.” The horses gasped in astonishment.
“Rosa, that's horrible!”
“It is... because I'm the only one left.” The little wolf looked away into the distance, as if she was trying to find her lost family. Jo glanced at Dusty who nodded. She sat herself down next to Rosa and wrapped her neck around her in a motherly hug.
“Oh sweetheart...”
“It's all my fault... my family, because I loved them...” She buried her head into Jo's neck and started sobbing. Jo cooed to her and soothed her
“It's alright, sweetheart, it's not your fault. Just let it all out. Okay? You can't help loving someone. That you even try not to, shows that you care. There's no winning against a curse like that. We'll take care of you, and we'll break your curse, so that you can find the one you love and never lose them – okay?” Rosa paused and looked up at Jo, then.
“Can you really do that?” She asked, her voice, for the first time, filled with something like hope. Dusty came over and looked down at the little wolf with a smile.
“Well, we'll try our damn hardest, kid, and you better believe it.”

With Rosa somewhat cheered up, they decided to head off. They were still apprehensive, but confident that they could make it through whatever trials were thrown at them. Dusty seemed to have relented a little in that he stopped questioning Jo's reasoning, and she was glad of it. Yeah, she was super scared right now, though she didn't like to admit it, but this was something that she – they – had to do.
“Shall we?” She said, turning her head so that she faced Rosa and Dusty in turn. The both nodded, and they cantered towards their destination.

When they reached the village, they were surprised to find that there was a man sitting at the entrance – as if he had been expecting them. When they got closer, he looked up at them with a kind, sparking eyed smile, which stretched his wrinkled face into a shadow of what it might have been in youth.
“Welcome, young friends, to our village.” Dusty and Jo looked at each other, wondering whether or not to speak. Rosa, however, walked towards the old man and licked his hand. Wondering at her strange behaviour, Jo and Dusty were puzzled.
“You have a kind smell” Rosa told the old man.
“Why thank you, little wolf.”
“You can understand us?” Dusty asked in astonishment. The old man met the young colt's eyes.
“You understand me, do you not?” After a pause, Dusty nodded his head, still watching the human warily. “Is it so hard to believe, that with the right training, our kind may remember some of the ways of speaking to the earth's creatures?”
“I... I suppose not. But we came here to find out about Lust. What made him... the way he is?”
But the old man just shook his head and smiled. He would talk no more, but pointed them in the direction of the paddock. They tried to get him to explain, but in the end, they followed his directions. Waiting in the half-moonlight, was the stallion in question. He had his back to them, but he swiveled his ears as he heard their approach. He lifted his head and looked at them, with a kind of rueful half-smile.
“I suppose you came to hear my story?”
Okay, so it's been a LONG time since I've written any of this, but =OceanLoreGraphics gave me a bit of a push to get it going again :) Hope you like it!
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