Fear of the Unknown

“Easy now,” said a young man on the back of his fancy-looking horse who was wading through a deep part of a river.

The horse in question was an elegant Loshenka; a lighter variation of buckskin and with black contrasting markings that went along the mare’s body as if she had ink dropped on her. She used to have a different name, given to her by the rider currently on her back. A young man who appeared to be in his early twenties, slim in build and had shaggy dark hair that reached past his shoulders. He was dressed for the weather, which was mild in temperature and had grey rolling clouds slowly floating in the air – a sign that rain was incoming.

The mare waded through the relatively strong currents of the river, taking deep breaths and snorting with each big step she took. Once her hooves touched dry ground, she shook the water off her neck and let out a heavy sigh from the sudden workout before continuing with the ride down the chosen path.

The man patted her on the neck and muttered ‘good jobs’ before his brown eyes focused on the path ahead. They had been at it for a while now since he left the nearby town, with the trail having been relatively peaceful and quiet. He had only ridden past carriages and single riders here and there, greeting them when possible (and if they wanted to). The man slowly settled into the saddle, whistling a song he had once heard from a man playing the guitar and singing so nicely.

Small birds chirped nearby, possibly looking for a potential partner or warning the other animals around them of their presence. The trees swayed gently from the breeze and the wind was crisp and fresh. Usually the trip would take him an hour or a little more depending on the weather, and he believed he would reach the family home in no time at this current pace. The grey clouds, however, were growing darker and darker the further in their walk they went.

The man sighed, glancing up at the large clouds above them and reaching forward to pet the mare’s neck again.

“You think it will rain soon?” He asked the horse who did not respond, but clearly heard him with how her ears shifted back in his direction. “Yeah, probably. I suppose we will have to get a move on then.”

The Loshenka mare was subsequently brought into a trot and let out another deep sigh as she carried the man through the uncomfortably quiet woods. A cold gust of wind flowed past them and she grunted. She never truly liked the cold, especially not if the winds were cold. She was the type of horse that would rather walk around when the temperatures are mild and the winds completely still. Still, she could deal with it as long as they did not get rained on during the trail.

It must have been only a few minutes since they had left the river and wandered through the woods when both horse and man picked up distant sounds growing closer and closer to them. The man was mildly nervous about the strange sounds, but remained alerted and fixed his eyes forward towards where the source was coming from. The mare was not as nervous, but she sensed it from her rider, and as such grew more alerted as well. Her ears were pinned forward and head raised up.

There, in the distance, the shape of a horse grew closer and closer to the pair. It was frantically galloping and appeared to have a rider on its back. The young man squinted, taking a close look at the approaching horse, waiting for it to come close enough. Once it did and once it rode past them, however, his eyes widened in shock and he grew pale. His mare snorted loudly, growing more uncomfortable by her rider’s uneasiness and swishing her tail discontently.

Feeling horrified and growing ill by what he had seen, he made his mare move faster until she was in the canter. He did not want to stay in the forest any longer than necessary. There was so much blood. So much blood. It was fresh. It was recent. Whatever had happened to the rider; it was not good.

“Let’s go!” He said to his horse who had shifted to a full gallop. His heart was beating fast, terrified and desperate to get home. “Go! Go!”

As if on cue, a low droning sound emanated from the forest. It was so low, yet so strong in intensity, that he felt his chest vibrate. His mare squealed from the sensation and galloped as fast as she could through the forest, no longer following her rider’s cues and deviating off the designated path. The droning sound remained near them, around them, within them. It was growing more and more intense by the second, so much so that it felt like his eardrums were rupturing.

He did his best to calm his mare down and lead her back to the path, but she was too panicked to listen. He ducked and avoided low branches, giving him no time to react when he suddenly felt his body get briefly air borne. Everything felt numb, slowed down and impossibly loud all of a sudden.

The mare had jumped off a short ledge, which she landed incorrectly and slipped. She fell onto her back with a heavy thud at the bottom of the ledge. The sounds of snapping and cracking caused her to shoot up from the ground and run away in full panic. Warmth trickled down her back and to her legs. Something was being dragged after her, only encouraging her to keep on running until it detached from the stirrup.

She ran for the longest time in no particular direction, terrified of what had happened back in the forest. Her mind was so occupied with escaping an invisible enemy that she did not stop until she reached a house.

She ran through the fence which surrounded the property and scared the only human around to see it. The lone human, who had been busy tending to flowers, jumped when the horse appeared out of nowhere. Seeing how spooked the horse was, they dropped what they had been doing and carefully walked over to calm the poor mare down. The mare snorted, grunted and squealed, terrified out of her mind and briefly reared when the human approached her.

“Woah! Woah! It’s okay, it’s okay, girl!” They said, lowering their tone as they approached the large animal. “It’s okay… It’s okay. I got you, I got you,” they added as they managed to grab ahold of the bridle.

The mare took heavy breaths, eyes alerted as the human wandered closer to her, but slowly grew calmer once the human comforted her. It took a moment for her to fully calm down with the human speaking softly to her, patting her gently on her bloodied neck.

“Good girl. You’re so good. You’re safe now,” they said, pale eyes staring at the absolute bloody mess on the horse’s back. It covered the entire saddle, having dripped down to her legs and left stains on her tail and neck. There was mud covering her body as well as what they thought was a piece of fabric stuck to one of the stirrups.

“What the hell happened to you…?” They muttered to themself, before returning their focus to the mare. “Don’t worry, you’re safe now. You are okay.”

A loud rumble emanating from the darkened sky made her squeal, aggressively swishing her tail as it reminded her of the noise back in the forest. The human gently shushed her and hastily led her into the small and old barn next to their house.

”It’s for the best that you stay here for a while,” said the human before temporarily tying her up and shutting the doors behind them.