his father’s large stable of horses. His father, the Duke of Lancaster had bought her expressly for her bloodline, to improve his own stock, for she came from a famous line of racehorses. I was sure that Marcus wasn’t supposed to be riding her, but little things like rules rarely stopped my friend when he had a notion to do something.
It was easy to guess at the rough details of what had happened. He had ridden her close, to watch the river as it raced along. He had gotten off and led her close to the bank, as the mare had enough sense to balk at being ridden so close to the roaring water. That was when disaster struck. The weakened river bank had collapsed under the weight of the horse, and while Marcus had managed to scramble back out of the way, the mare had not been so lucky. She was trapped in the river, struggling to keep her head above the water. The torrent had swept her up against a fallen tree where she was trapped, unable to climb up the steep muddy bank. Star’s panicked cries wrenched at my heart as she desperately strove to keep her head above water.
Without thinking I began scrambling down the slippery embankment, trying to get close. It should be readily apparent that my thinking at this point was not clear as there was no possible way I could free the trapped horse. The crumbling bank was steep and narrow at the water’s edge, which would make it impossible to get the horse out of the water, even if I were strong enough to accomplish such a thing. At the moment she was near to being swept under the lower edge of the fallen oak, which would lead to a swift drowning as she would most likely be caught in the large limbs dipping into the water. Still I approached her without a clear plan, drawn by her plight.
“Mort! You’re gonna get yourself killed!” Marcus was usually the more reckless of the two of us, but today he was showing a lot more intelligence than I seemed to possess. “Get back up here before I have to explain your death as well!” For a moment I considered his words, and I realized he was right. I started to turn, to make my way back, common sense finally overcoming my foolishness, but then I met Star’s eyes. That was when my life changed. That was the moment that swept everything before it aside and set me, and my friends on a course that we could never turn back from. The historians would have much less to write about if I had not looked into that frightened mare’s eyes.
At this point I’m not sure how to describe what I experienced. Probably some of you who read this have been through moments of crisis and felt the surge of emotions that sweep over you in an instant, the timeless moment of clarity in which you can think a thousand things in the blink of an eye. This was one of those moments, and as I looked into that noble creature’s eyes I felt as if a window into my own soul had opened. My world shrank, until it contained nothing, nothing at all but Star and myself. Her eyes were wild with fear and her breathing was loud as her lungs heaved, despite the rushing water. My own body seemed light and insubstantial, and soon I lost all sensation of it, falling into her gaze. Now there was only Star, and Mordecai was gone, as if he had never existed. My body and indeed my very ‘self’ were no more, everything had been replaced. I should rephrase that, my body still existed, but it was different now, much heavier and it was cold. I could feel my heart pounding so hard I thought it might burst from my chest. I was mostly submerged in the cold river, and I could feel it chilling me, sapping my strength as it pushed me against the tree, drawing me downward with an inexorable pull.
I could see a young man on the river bank, slowly sinking down, like a puppet with its strings cut. He was slipping into the water as well, and I wondered who he was. I fought to stay above the water and in my desperation I had one clear thought. If I just had something firm to stand upon, I might be able to get myself up and out of that freezing water. My hands hit something hard, next my feet found it as well and I began to rise. Stepping up I found something else solid to stand on and I began to walk out of the river. As I emerged my hands felt strange and looking down I realized they were now hooves. That seemed rather silly, since I was quite sure I wouldn’t be able to climb up the embankment without hands, so instead I walked up the river until I came to a place where the bank rose at a gentler slope and I chose that spot to walk out.
Looking back I saw a second man, and I recognized him. It was Marcus, and he was dragging the other boy out of the river and back up the embankment, although he wasn’t having much success. The mud was steep and crumbling; it would be impossible for him to carry the other person back up it. Instead he was trying to get under the stranger and push him up and over the edge where it had crumbled away. It was obvious that he would never be able to get him up high enough so I decided to help him. Walking up the rise I got close to the edge and looked over at him struggling with the young man’s limp body. He pushed him up again and since my hands seemed to be useless, I stretched my head down and grabbed the teen by the collar, using my teeth. Had my neck always been this long? Pulling back I got him awkwardly onto the grass and dragged him until I was sure the ground was firm.
By now Marc had gotten himself up as well and he was shouting something at me. Looking at him I realized the colors were strange. It was definitely my friend but he looked different to me. Glancing down I stared at the unconscious stranger. There was something familiar about his face. He had long gangly arms and legs and his head was covered with thick black hair. At last it hit me, and a cold shock ran through me as I recognized myself lying there upon the ground. With that realization I felt a surging sensation and felt myself rushing toward my empty body, and then there was only darkness.
Sunlight filtered in through my closed eyelids, which made me wonder how I could have slept so late. Normally my mother would have awakened me with the dawn to start my daily chores. The bed was comfortable however, so I decided to sleep a little longer and see how long I could manage before she came to rouse me. Then I felt warm breath on my face and heard a snort, as if one of my father’s horses had somehow gotten into my room, but that couldn’t be… could it? I cracked one eye and was startled to see Star looming over me, with Marc sitting on the other side of me.
“Thank the gods you’ve woken,” he said. “I had begun to think you were going to pass over to the other side.” His face held a slight smile, though I could see tension written in his expression.
“Why am I lying on the ground?” Even as I said this I realized it was true; I was lying on the damp grass, not far from the river. I started to sit up and everything began to twist and turn around me as waves of dizziness washed over me. I have a stubborn streak though, so I sat up anyway and stayed that way till the world quit whirling about.
“I was hoping you could tell me that,” he replied. “For some reason you felt you could drag an entire horse out of the river by yourself, and even worse, you promptly passed out as soon as you got to the edge of the water. You nearly drowned.”
“How did Star get out?” I had a strong suspicion that I knew exactly how she’d escaped the river, but I still couldn’t believe it.
“The best I can tell she’s been possessed by a water spirit.” Marc stared pointedly at me as he said that, and I knew him well enough to tell he had a different opinion. “Right after you passed out she walked up and out of the water, walking over the top of it about thirty yards before she made her way onto dry ground.” He paused then, as if to see what I might say, but I held my tongue. “Then she walked back up over the top and proceeded to drag you up and over the edge of the embankment with her teeth. All in all I’d say her behavior was rather unhorse- like.”
I looked down, unsure what to say, “Well…”
“You might as well tell me. I’ve already seen several unbelievable things today; I’m not likely to call you a liar at this point.” Marc and I had been friends since we were small children, so trust wasn’t an issue; it was simply that I couldn’t understand what had occurred either. I gave up attempting to understand, and just described my experience as best I could. It took a while, but Marc was a good listener. After a while I ran out of words and just sat there, looking at Star grazing nearby.
Marc looked pensive. He had a brilliant mind, when he chose to employ it, and I could see the gears turning as I watched. Finally he spoke, “Let’s lay it out in plain view. You sent your spirit into the horse and took control of her body. Then you used some sort of magic to allow Star to walk on top of the water…”
“Now hold up,” I interrupted, “I didn’t use any magic, nor would I know how to!”
“What else would you call it Mort?” He stared at me; his gaze was direct and unwavering.
“Ok, well obviously something amazing happened, but that doesn’t mean that I was the cause, source or principle agent behind the…” I had lapsed into our most familiar form of speech, the type we used when discussing matters of science or philosophy. He wasn’t buying into my circumlocutions though.
“Bullshit,” he interrupted.
“What?”
“You heard me, bullshit. Don’t try to talk your way around it. You’re not talking to your parents, or any of the other dullards we know, so don’t try and feed me a bunch of crap. You need to own up to it and face what
