Star Stable: The Legend of the Storm Rider

Chapter One: To Valedale Village

As the sun rises, it had casted golden beams of light upon Jorvik. The landscape had changed dramatically. The city was long gone behind her. The bus had went its way through a mountain pass. Craggy green mountains loomed overhead, some still wearing the last vestiges of snow on their peaks. An eighteen year old girl had jolted awake with a gasp from what she had seen in her dream and calmed herself down as she leaned her head against the window. High mountains, gentle rolling hills and slopes, and a rich shade of emerald green that almost looked photoshopped. The sparkling, vast blue sea around the island seemed endless. It brought the stories of colorful fairy tales she'd read when she was little to life.
She inched closer to the window, not willing to be seen by anybody. The girl waited a few hours and watched as the others they either gotten off the bus or had gotten onto the bus. But it wasn't long till she had seen the yellow buildings of Fort Pinta appearing before her.
The teenage girl had jumped out of the bus and looked at the fort warily. The wind gently ruffled her long, wavy sandy-blonde hair behind her like a golden river. As the sun continued rising into the sky, the girl's deep blue eyes sparkled like the depths of the sea. Her skin is lightly tanned from her time in the sun. She's dressed in a long-sleeved blue shirt and has blue pants with a bright blue scarf that's wrapped up to her left side and her pants is folded at her dark brown riding boots. She has a black riding helmet in her hands and fingerless riding gloves on her hands. Her suitcase was pulled behind her, slung over her shoulder was a brown travel satchel and on her back was a blue backpack.
Her name is Irma Stormheart, but she's a total mystery to others.
She had a rough and tumble past in Jorvik City. When her father, Graham Thrymson, was a teenage boy, he had went out to the countryside of Jorvik to learn who he was. Graham had heard tales of riches, but he wasn't interested in destroying the gorgeous lands of Jorvik. There were tales of farming, but he was too adventurous and curious for his own good back then.
It wasn't long till he found an advertisement in Silverglade Village. They were looking for new riders to help keep an eye on the cows, sheep, and unclaimed horses. The animals were owned by a nice older couple. They kept a few hundred animals under control in the fields. Riding wasn't as easy as it looked. Graham had saddle sores and pulled muscles, but he eventually gotten used to it and bonded with his English Thoroughbred black stallion named Midnight. He didn't mind the simple food and long hours of work.
But during the annual Light Ride by himself and Midnight when he was unknowingly joined by another rider and her mare, who had spotted him and his stallion by accident. After he had went through Aideen's Whisper with only Midnight for company, he heard the gentle sounds of hooves and spun around to see the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. When their eyes had first met, he almost forgotten to breathe. That's when they fell in love with each other.
Her mother's name was Marayna Stormheart. She was raised in an orphanage when she was adopted by the druids in Valedale Village and had bonded with a beautiful silvery-gray Jorvik Warmblood mare named Estrella. She was friends with Elizabeth Sunbeam, Rhiannon, and Catherine Moorland. But her mother had passed away when Irma was four, Irma doesn't remember much about her mother and only heard stories about her from her father.
To bury his grief, he took Irma to Jorvik City and sold their horses to Rhiannon in case he might come back. But Irma was forced to fend for herself in the city and her father was busy with work, which doubled her loneliness.
Irma struggled to calm down the raging emotions storming through her when she saw the woman from the picture that she had seen a few days ago. She was leaning against a horse-drawn carriage that's being pulled by a flaxen chestnut North Swedish Horse with a unique lightning bolt marking on his face that Irma recognized as Nex.
"Rhiannon?" asked Irma as she hesitantly approached the woman and Rhiannon turned around to look at her.
"Hey Irma." Rhiannon smiled at Irma as she approached the woman. "I'm so glad to see you again." She smiled and ruffled Irma's hair, in which she smiled at. "You've grown so lovely."
Irma smiled as Rhiannon put her suitcase and satchel into the carriage as Irma petted Nex's chestnut coat. Nex nickered softly and she smiled softly at the stallion's greeting. "Hi Nex."
"Lets get going." Irma soon climbed into the wagon and sat down. She turned to see that Rhiannon had sat down in the front seat and it wasn't long till Nex had started pulling the wagon onto the Hollow Woods trail.
Irma checked her phone, but there was no new messages on it and she sighed sadly. Rhiannon saw that at the corner of her eye, but she didn't say anything. But Irma peeked out of the wagon and saw a completely destroyed, burnt down house on the top of a rocky hill and halfway hidden in the trees.
Irma suddenly had a dizzy, tilting feeling that the hill was sliding down towards her. Darkness flashed before her eyes, and then a strange image within bits and pieces like a puzzle being put together.
She saw that the house has been sent on fire and felt a faint cold chill could be felt in the warm air when she suddenly heard screaming from inside of the house as it went up in flames. But that's when Irma thought she had saw an outline of a man on a black horse with aflame torch in his left hand through the smoke.
The sight had faded away from Irma's mind and looked around warily, feeling slightly startled and nervous from whatever she had saw earlier. Irma took some deep breaths and struggled to calm down her trembling from her vision. She placed a hand over her chest as she felt the rapid beating of her heart and calmed herself down with exhales.
What just happened? Irma thought as they continued heading towards the village. What was that?
"We're here." Irma poked her head out of the carriage at Rhiannon's voice. It's an hypnotically beautiful landscape surrounding them. Her eyes roamed over the unique, crooked roofs of the druids' houses. A waterfall can be seen in the distance as it filled the river with its water. On the other side of Silversong River was an open-fielded stables filled with Irish Cobs, Fjords, Haflingers, and North Swedish horses accompanied by some more druid houses and a bridge over the river. She saw horses grazing in the meadow below the cliffs. There's a few shops that sells riding gear, clothes, and food that lines up towards the riding club's arena, along with a thin inn a little away from the stables and the stores. She saw gorgeous rose bushes in some particular areas. Everything was peaceful and beautiful, like a painting. The vision that she had earlier seemed to have disappeared like it was just the brush of a bad memory or a dark thought.
Once the horse-drawn carriage had came to a stop, Irma gotten out of it carefully with her bags and gain a a better view of the village around her to see it was bigger than she first expected. A wide, stony road ran the length of the village. There's some homes lining both sides of the road. The architecture was a hodgepodge of its own design. There were no crowds, no street noise, but there's a few people in cloaks or tunics.
She saw some people walking around and had horses with them, but Irma had caught the eye of a city-looking girl on the beach with her horse. The girl has long, tawny hair and an open, lively face that brimmed with courage and wisdom. Her bright hazel eyes shone with hidden leadership and mischief. By the girl's side is a small, muscular golden chestnut horse with a long, wild yellow mane and tail. The horse is actually really pretty, with an unruly forelock and mischievous air. But when Irma realized he was looking at her, his big brown eyes felt almost... human? If she didn't know any better, she would have thought he was trying to tell her something. That made Irma feel really uncomfortable, so she looked away.
Who was that? wondered Irma as she started walking away and looking around the village curiously. Is it true about those horse rumors? If it is, how come it feels like I'm the only one who feels it?
But now, she wants a partner more than anything in the world. Not just a human partner or a pet partner... She wants a horse partner to be at her side. She had seen a huge deal of people with their horses and they almost seemed to be... bonded with each other somehow. Irma wants to have that bond too with her own horse just as well.
Irma's eyes shone with a stunning light as she remembered her dream and continued walking past a good deal of horses that were either in the stables or in the pastures.
Irma smiled when she saw a paddock filled with horses. About a dozen horses stood inside of the circular fence. Some were drinking water, others were standing about. A couple were grazing, clearly wanting a snack. A few playfully nudged one another, clearly friends. A few foals chased after each other as if they were playing a game of tag. They varied in the colors of bay, brown, flaxen chestnut, palomino, gray, black, white, and much more. Some have white markings on their coats.
It wasn't long till Irma was brought towards Rhiannon's home and the young woman brought Irma's things into the cleaned up attic. She gazed at the small dresser and writing table complete with a stool to sit at in awe. There was a sleeping bunk with a blanket and a pillow by the wall too. Between those items alone, the other half of the room bare of anything other than the bags of stuff she'd brought with her. There's also a window that faces the forest and the river. It was perfect.
Irma smiled at the simple sight of it. It's nothing fancy, but she likes it anyways. Though, she has a slight heartache as she remembered how grim and lonely she was, roaming the city's streets and everyone had started avoiding her for some reason. Many people tried to avoid her for some reason and she does the same, but some people hurt her and she keeps away from other people. Irma was all alone and she felt the familiar pang of loneliness creep into her chest. She would think that after living in the city with her father for years, she would get used to being by herself... but she never did. Her nomadic lifestyle was fun and beautiful in its own way; no fights with anyone, no set schedule, she was living off the land, taking on challenges, and so on. But she longed for one thing: friends. The people she usually came across out here were either liars or thieves, so there were no real opportunities for friendships.
She looked at the window and hugged herself as she struggled to push her thoughts away. Irma closed her deep blue eyes with a weary sigh and gazed up at the sky wearily.
It was the only time when she suddenly felt that she wasn't alone anymore and the only friend she might find in the countryside. With any luck, Irma might finally find her own soul partner.