“So, I’ve met everyone you wanted to introduce me to. Now what? It doesn’t seem like anyone else even wants to look at me,” I said as I followed Clara towards the northern side of the village.

  Clara nodded, slowly chewing on her share of the bread.

  “They’ll warm up to you,” she finally said once her mouth was clear. “As I see it, we have two more places to go today. To visit Thyra, and to see your horse.”

  Kaylee immediately perked up. “Mer?”

  “Nightmare isn’t your horse,” I muttered at the cat. “I may have purchased her to help with the rescue, but the plan was always to hand her off to the girls so they could ride back to the coven while you and I escaped in a different direction on my broom.”

  Clara chuckled. “Well, that sounds like a good idea, in theory, turns out there’s a slight issue with it.”

  “And what might that be?”

  “It seems that horse of yours won’t listen to anyone but you,” Clara said as we strolled out of the northern gate.

  A couple hundred meters away I could see a large, crude paddock. Nightmare was galloping around, tearing up the ground, making a mess of the place. Just across from her I could see Thyra standing next to a crude stable, yelling. “Come back here! I’m not asking you to abandon your master, all I’m asking you to do is talk to me!”

  Kaylee purred lightly at the sight.

  “It’s not funny,” I berated her.

  It didn’t take long for us to get up to the paddock, and as soon as we started following it around towards the stable both the individuals inside noticed us. Nightmare trotted right up to the fence, demanding pets, while Thyra held her head in her hands.

  “Why won’t you listen to Thyra? Hmmm? Is there a problem with her?” I asked lightly, scratching the horse on the head. Kaylee slowly rose up onto my shoulders then pounced over to the horses back before sitting down, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

  I looked at the cat suspiciously. “Did you put her up to this?”

  “Mur!”

  “Yeah, like I believe that.”

  “I’ve been trying to get that horse to cooperate with me for the last week, and the instant you walk up she’s as compliant as a kitten,” Thyra said as she walked up.

  Both my animals turned and gave her a hard look, so she threw up her hands. “No offense meant.”

  “I see you took up our offer to stick around,” the giant woman remarked casually, as she turned to look at me. “Olivia was convinced you’d run off given the chance.”

  “From what I understand, I still have that option after I look around. Thought I’d at least give this place a chance first,” I replied quietly.

  “Good,” Thyra remarked quietly, before turning back to my horse. “Don’t know how you managed to find yourself such a loyal animal, but you should be proud.”

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  Nightmare threw her head up in a dismissive way, then started to trott away, Kaylee on her back. “I have no idea. I’ve only had her a couple days, and she didn’t act so wild when I was in town. Maybe it’s something to do with the area around the coven?”

  “Maybe it has something to do with you,” Clara countered. “You know how quickly animals can bond to a witch, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, but that’s usually because they find nature magic soothing. That’s something I lack,” I replied, watching the horse trying to show off.

  “Well, maybe this one reacts better to whatever you have running through your system,” Thyra suggested curiously.

  I glanced over as the red haired woman casually hopped the fence, and headed over to stand by Clara and me. Thyra asked, “Have you done a full tour yet?”

  “I’ve seen the village, and the Anabelle’s house, but I haven't met that many people,” I replied leaning back against the fence. “Anabelle is convinced they’ll come around, but I’m not so sure.”

  “The old woman is more perceptive than most people give her credit for,” Thrya laughed heartily. “Give it a couple weeks, you’ll see.”

  Stripping off her rawhide gloves she gently patted me on the shoulder. “I’d love to say and talk, but I need to get going. You caught me at the end of today’s session.”

  Clara cleared her throat. “Before you go, Harmony wanted me to ask if you’d allow Zoey to join the hunters. If I held onto her weapons, until we left Coven grounds.”

  Thyra paused for a moment, thinking. “That’d probably be alright. If she’s ever caught running around the coven with them, without cause, there’ll be trouble.”

  She tucked her gloves into her belt, nodded to both of us and turned to go again, but I felt the need to ask Thyra one last thing. “Anabelle mentioned that you’re the one I should ask about what Graves is doing. Can you tell me about it?”

  This time Thyra froze. “Why do you want to know?”

  “While I was in town things felt wrong, but in a believable backwoods brainwashed sort of way. On that train though? I ran into something, well someone really, that shouldn’t have existed. I spent a lot of years as Coven guardian, and my instincts are screaming at me to investigate,” I explained.

  Thyra rubbed the back of her head, stared at the ground, but didn’t turn around. “Alright, but not now, I don’t have the time. How about Clara takes you out hunting tomorrow, and you come by my place the day after. I’m warning you now, it’s not pretty.”

  “I can handle that,” I said. “See you in a couple days.”

  I watched as Thyra jogged off, back to town. The woman didn’t look back even once. Once she’d disappeared from sight, I glanced over at Clara. “She seems like a decent person. I really didn’t get the impression that she was on my side while I was in that tribunal though.”

  “The whole point of a tribunal is to evaluate someone as impartial as possible, at least around here,” Clara replied.

  “Someone should inform Olivia that,” I hissed under my breath. When Clara looked at me strangely I just smiled. “So you have anywhere else you want to go today? Or is it back to the cell?”

  “We have the time to go for a horseback ride, and I can show you the fields if you want. I’m going to be honest though, there’s not much to see around here.”

  “Eh, we can do that tomorrow. I’d like you to show me the Coven’s boundaries, so I know what my limitations are, before we actually start hunting. I assume that’ll take a fair amount of time.”

  “Several hours by horseback,” Clara confirmed.

  “Then tomorrow.” Raising two fingers to my lips I let out a quick whistle, which brought Nightmare running over. As soon as she arrived she stuck her head over the fence for more scratches.

  Kaylee jumped down onto the fence, fur wild. “Mow”

  “Don’t blame me, you’re the one that wanted to ride around bareback. You should have been prepared for the wind during a full gallop.”

  Clara looked at me strangely. “If you’ve only had Nightmare for a couple days, how did you know that whistling was going to work?”

  “Instinct, I guess? Even though I can’t talk to animals anymore, besides Kaylee, I still remember how it felt. I think there might be some vestigial remains of my magic buried deep down. I can’t do everything I used to, but I can still heal faster, and kind of understand animals,” I said, scratching Nightmare’s mane.

  “Hope for the future?”

  “Or some part of me is holding onto the past, either way it’s only a tiny sliver of my previous power. Hardly even worth mentioning.” Stepping away from the fence slightly I placed a hand on Nightmare’s head. “We’ll be back tomorrow, go for a ride then, okay?”

  Nodding, the horse neighed, before licking Kaylee and running off. Hair on her head standing straight up, The cat just stared at the retreating horse in horror.

  “Mur!”

  “Don’t be mad, she’s just being affectionate. I’m sure she didn’t do it on purpose, to get back at you for something you said.”

  Eyes narrowed, the cat slowly turned towards me.

  “I said she didn’t do that,” I said with a small smirk. Based upon the look Kaylee was giving me, she didn’t believe me.

  “Come on, it’s time to go anyway. We’ll be back tomorrow, and you can give Nightmare a piece of your mind then.”

  The cat pouted, but still climbed up my arm and settled around my shoulder once again. Before promptly smushing her head into the side of my neck in revenge. I didn’t even give her the satisfaction of reacting.

  Instead Clara and I started making our way back towards the village, and my tiny shack beyond.

  Smiling slightly I whispered to the cat, “Tomorrow, we ride.”.

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