Nova Cove: The Portal of Arx (chapter 4)

Chapter Four: The Discovery1

Annali had never been as scared as she was that night. She was exhausted in everyway. Even though it was now day time she was still very cautious. She approached the river in a slow slumped stroll. When she got to the river she closed her eyes and dipped her head in the water and shook it around. Then she pulled her head out of the water looked around then dipped her mouth back in the water to drink. Her eyes were darting all over as she gulped up gallons of water from the river. When the ripples in the water stopped she could see her reflection. Though the water was murky from the disruption she saw what was clearly an object coming out of her forehead. It was a shiny black cone shaped object about 4 inches long with a pointed end. 2

Annali pulled her nose out of the water and shook her head fiercely attempting to throw the object off. She looked again in the water seeing that the object was still there and began to buck and shake her head even more. She did not feel the pinching or pressure or even pain from before but now there was some object on her head. Looking around for a rock or tree to rub it on she finds a sturdy oak. First Annali attempts to bat it off by swinging her head from left to right, knocking the object against the base of the tree. Every time she hit’s the tree she feels it like the object is a part of her. Annali backs away from the tree and points her head directly at it. She then runs forward stabbing the object into the trunk of the tree with all of her might. She expected to be hurt by this but it was surprisingly painless and she had accomplished her task. The object was now stuck in the trunk of the tree. Annali dug her hooves deep into the ground and pulled back with all her might, hoping to pull it off of her. After several seconds of pulling she object came loose from the bark of the tree and Annali fell backwards onto the ground clumsily. 3

Annali sat in that spot for a while thinking of ways to remove it but came up with nothing. Suddenly she remembered she had been distracted by this thing and she must get back to the Curriculum. Scrounging up what food she could and taking a few last gulps of the river, Annali began back on her path as fast as she could almost forgetting about the object.4

No one back with the herd expected Annali to make it back on the second day. It had never been done before. It had always taken at least three cycles of the sun for any horse in Nova Cove to complete the Curriculum. Annali knew that if she just kept her pace she could make it back and be the first. She galloped as fast as she could with thoughts of how she would tell the tale about the night wolf or whether she would tell anyone at all. She had completely forgotten about the object on her head. She was now more concerned with whether others would believe her. A story about lights that came out of nowhere to help her, the sound of it made Annali wonder if she might be crazy herself. She also wondered if others would believe that she had run the whole distance. Annali had fallen asleep for a whole day and yet still was almost all the way around Mount Procella. It did not make sense to Annali, she could not expect it to make sense to others.5

Annali did not notice that she was making larger leaps then before and her speed had increased dramatically also. Trees and scenery were whipping by her head faster then ever but Annali did not see it because she was so focused on the path ahead. Annali’s muscles had stopped burning from the nights run even though she was now pushing them even harder to complete the final stretch. Two bickering squirrels in a near by tree stopped their quarrel and paused in awe as the white streak that was Annali zoomed past them. It was almost as if a fuzzy white light was surrounding Annali as she ran and streaking behind her as she passed. One of the squirrels, eyes fixed on the passing lighted horse, dropped the nut they were fighting over without even noticing.6

Before Annali knew it, she was already running through a familiar field of grain. During one of her strides Annali takes a deep breath and inhales a familiar smell. The wild flowers in this area are very fragrant that is one of the reasons Annali’s herd likes this area so much. Leaping over familiar logs and bounding through piles of leaves Annali comes around a rock bend at full speed towards the finish line. While she approaches the camp, Annali sees that no one is there to receive her. She reasoned that no one would be there if they thought Annali would finish tomorrow. Sure enough when Annali got closer she could hear random shouts saying “Annali is back!” 7