Beneath the Morning Light

She was asleep before her head even touched the pillow, drawn deep into another existence as her breath slowed and then deepened. She dreamt of the Grey One and of Brody who had followed her. She dreamed that they were riding together on the back of The Grey, amongst rivers of mist and fireflies. Mystical and awakening were the visions that filled her slumber. He had stayed with her to keep watch over her whilst she slept, because he was worried about the strange connection she had with the Netherby. He knew he could protect her psychically but on a deeper level...? That went beyond his capabilities. 

In an adjacent bunk, he drifted off himself after some time sleeping lightly as was his custom as guardsman of the village. But his sleep was not filled with fanciful dreams instead his subconscious was drawn to the encounter he had had with Malishka and how close he had held her to him. Reflecting on those moments - likely seconds of time, he recalled now how she smelled, and felt under his touch. He begun to develop a sense of warmth within himself thinking about her.

Then as if she sensed his thoughts, she started to stir under the blankets on the bunk, rolling over to lay on her side she opened her eyes slowly and rubbed one with the back of her hand.

    "Oh, hello there." She spoke somewhat slurred towards the watchman, who seemed to be smiling back at her beneath his blonde scruffy facial hair. "Have you been there all night?" She asked him. 

    "Hello, aye that I have." Brody responded as he scratched his chin asking her, "Slept well?"

She finished rubbing her eye and sat up a little in the bunk, realising that she was still wearing her cotton dress, she felt relieved momentarily. "If you could call it that!" She blurted, feeling uncomfortable slightly from his questioning eyes, she played with one of her braids. 

    "I thought as much. That's why I stayed with you." He said.

    "Oh right."

    "These kind of things don't happen to just everyone ya know Malishka. I had to be sure the Netherby wasn't going to linger..."

She looked back at him at that point, straight into his pale blue eyes, 'was that him?' She wondered, his real self, not his role talking. 'Did he care about her?' She had never given it a moment's thought before now, even the times when she walked past him at his post in the village, she knew who he was, but she never gave him a care of thought until now. Until this very moment when their eyes seemed to meet across the bunks.

TBC...

The first encounter with the Netherbies

She shivered as the darkness folded around her, grasping tighter the thick coat between her whitened knuckles. It was this time of evening that welcomed the onslaught of Netherbies from the mountains that protruded beyond them. The coat's warmth provided a shelter between the chill night air and her cotton dress beneath. Suddenly she sensed a movement to her right, and there alongside her stood a dark figure, almost as though it was nothing more than a shadow of the trees around them, but the figure had an all to familiar smell about it. It stood awaiting the danger that was about to step forth. A hand was thrown harshly across her face as if to stifle a scream, but it was too bitterly cold for that. All she could smell was pine brush as the hand grasped tighter across her mouth, she was pulled back towards them and in amongst the undergrowth of the trees. She didn't know who had followed her all the way to the grove from the village, and in the darkness she couldn't tell who it was. 

    "Ssshhhh." The figure growled into the side of her head, she could smell more than the pine bark now, she could smell him.  But surely that gruff voice would have been a dead giveaway for Brody, one of the village's night guards. Had he truly seen her dashing away into the woods after the sun had set, and why would he feel the need to follow her.

    "Mmmph" She muttered, trying to catch her breath and squirming a little under his grasp. He was so much bigger then her and stronger too. She stopped suddenly as the two of them froze catching sight of the Netherbies galloping towards them at unimaginable speeds. Can they see us? She wondered silently, swallowing the dryness in her mouth. It felt like all the air had been sucked out of her as the wild spirits approached. Yes, they were evil, but strangely she wished she could capture one and ride it away up the mountains. As if she didn't think Brody could hold her any tighter he squeezed her with his other arm closer into his coat, she nearly stumbled backwards over his boots in the movement; feeling tears welling up in her eyes as she feared that they would be seen, but Brody was solid enough to withstand the evil spirits.

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We were always told as youngins, by the elders of the village, that the Netherbies were the lost spirits  of the wild horses, the ones that rode the mountains before us. Before the time of the great Burning the Nomads people would hunt the Netherbies for their meat and there skin taking only what they needed and leaving the poor beasts to die cruelly. The Elders stories induced fear in us as children and that was the point, because they did not want us to wonder off alone into the woods; especially once the sun had set and the darkness fell. 

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A shrill scream filled her ears as she caught her breath again, her heart thumping in her chest as if in time to the thunderous hooves that raced across the ground. But it was not her scream, it was the shrieks of the Netherbies as they galloped past them standing there silently and in darkness, against the trees. She realised for the first time that their hooves didn't even touch the ground, this was her first time seeing them. Her first time hearing them and unbeknownst to Brody - her first time feeling them. 

She had always thought these spirits were black probably because they encompassed all the evil of the past acts. But when she saw them all moving through the woods around them, she spied a grey one, but how could that be? She thought to herself. It was the grey one's spirit she felt reaching it's tendrils inside of her mind as if her own soul was molding with it. Is this what the elders meant? The words seemed to cross her mind as she watched the almost graceful beast galloping away through the woods. There would have been at least fifty of them passing through, but where were they headed? No one ever knew the answer to that. Every night at twilight when the sun melted into the land and darkness fell all  around the Netherbies galloped down from the mountains and into the woods where they would envelope the spirit of any unsuspecting villager nearby; and send them into a mindless stupor. Or at least that's what was infused in us as youngins in the village.

    "Malishka... Malishka..." It was Brody calling her name softly, she hadn't realised the Netherbies had already left the woods, and passed on through back to the mountains. It was just the two of them now, and Brody had moved from behind her and was standing peering into her face. Gently shaking her shoulders as if she had fallen into a daze, "Malishka, they've gone now." He told her, in a reassuring tone. They might not be physically there, but she could still feel that one grey spirit. It was strange though, not like she had been led to believe the spirit would be like. She didn't feel like her own soul had been taken, she felt like the spirit of the grey was inside her, she was feeling wild and free. And although she stood there looking back at Brody silently, her body wanted to dance, it wanted to move. Did he sense this change in her too? 

    "Are you okay?" He asked her with some concern in his husky voice.

    "Um, y-yes." She stammered in reply. "I think I am, Brody." He was watching her eyes curiously as if trying to capture what had just happened. "I feel alive" She told him. "I wasn't expecting to feel this way, I actually thought they stole our spirit. I don't understand it." He was listening, observing her quietly. "It's like I can feel the spirit of that Grey one." 

His  hands left her shoulders and he glanced back through the woods again to see if the Grey one was still lingering nearby, it was not, so he spoke calmly to her, "It's okay Malishka, I understand that feeling, I too have felt that before and it is rare for the reverse to happen to one of us. But it is always with the Grey. In fact you may not be aware of it, but each of the night watchmen have the spirit of the Grey." She looked at him with a tilted head, yes, she thought, that makes sense now.

    "Although I understand the feeling you have, I do not understand the reasoning why it connected with you." He rubbed his head briefly before continuing "We will ask the Elders in the morning. Come along Malishka we best get back to the village." He gently touched her shoulder to motion they turn and head back along the path to the village. She turned with him but didn't speak, her thoughts wild with the Netherbies, the elders stories and the Grey.