Star Stable: The Lost Legend

Chapter Four: The Fire Incident

She was looking around warily too see that she wasn't camping by the mountain druid paddock anymore, but Erika seemed to be standing in the center of an ancient Fort Pinta in the middle of the night. She took in the sightings and noticed that the people in the armies were wearing clothes from the Middle Ages. She eyed the area around her warily and realized that she was seeing a lost memory of the past, maybe that's why nobody was acknowledging her sudden presence in the area.
That's when she suddenly realized that the whole entire place was under attack. Back and forth, everybody was fighting on either horseback or on foot all over the fort. There seemed to be fire spreading all over the place from the walls and buildings of the fort, lightning flashed overhead and rain had started pouring down hard from the sky, and the fierce battle cries had echoed throughout Fort Pinta that scared Erika to no end. Some of the fire was being used by a young man on a black mare.
Through the confusion, Erika narrowed her eyes to gain a better look of the man and his horse. He seemed to be age of forty. He had curly, light blonde hair and bright green eyes that seems to be glowing through the spreading flames, while his skin is much like hers and bares no injuries of any sort. He was wearing a black tunic and on his hands were black riding gloves, while his black trousers ends at his black riding boots and his emerald green cloak flowed behind him during his battle. He was riding a completely black mare that resembles a Shire horse and has intelligent amber eyes. The mare has a medieval, Y-shaped, and baroque-styled war bridle, while the brown English saddle was on top of a green riding blanket.
Erika gave an inward flinch as the rider and his mare had started galloping towards her, with a flaming sword in hand. But she was tired of being afraid, she could feel the loneliness and intense feelings that she couldn't make out from him. She stood her ground firmly and stared up at the riding horseman with an unflinching gaze.
She barely even flinched as the rider had pointed his flaming sword at her chest, but Erika stared up at him with a firm, but calm expression and kept her calm posture in front of the intense warrior and his fierce mare. But she was surprised to see his regretful bright green eyes has a slightly startled look, almost as if he could see Erika, and had lowered his sword from her chest. Erika looked down at his trembling sword and up at the horseman in the eyes calmly, despite the rapid beating of her heart.
If she didn't know any better, she could have sworn that he was trying to tell her something when Erika saw the desperate look in his eyes. He seemed to have became really agitated for some reason, but Erika wasn't able to hear what his situation was to her for some reason. She looked up at him sympathetically and had a helpless expression.
"I'm sorry. I don't understand." Her worried bright blue eyes showed this to him and offered her hand to him, in which he and his mare could see from her and was considered rare for them.
Before anything else could happen, a massive explosion had happened in the courtyard and...

Erika had suddenly bolted awake in her bed to hear the sounds of yelling, screaming, and panicked horses crying out in fear. She felt a massive wave of fear washed over her. No, it's not for herself. It was for her horse partner, Nemain. Erika was worried that her mare was caught in the spreading wildfire. She quickly gotten ready and ran into the village with a horrified expression. She could see the panic in the village and the stables had somehow caught on fire. Everyone was rushing around in a massive panic as they struggled to put out the raging flames.
"Nemain!" Erika looked through the crowd as she searched for her mare in worry. "Nemain! Where are you!?"
A shrill whinny was heard as a familiar horse with a black coat had started galloping towards her. Erika narrowed her eyes and cried out in joy when she saw her partner galloped through the smoke and stopped in front of Erika.
"Nemain!" Erika wrapped her arms around Nemain's neck as she hugged her partner and the mare lowered her head, returning the embrace. "I'm so glad you're safe."
But she and Nemain broke the hug to see that the fire was blocking the only exit in the stables and was trapping the panicked horses inside. The druids made sounds of anguish and the children started crying for their horses. It touched Erika's heart and was determined to help the partners reunite with each other. She looked up at Nemain and the mare nodded her agreement.
"We have to help them." Erika found the freshly cleaned tack that's been passed down in the family for many years. It wasn't long till Nemain was wearing unique tack, including a brown English saddle and in the center of the saddle collar is a bright silver pendant that resembles Erika's amulet. There's a medieval and baroque-styled bridle that looks like it came from the Middle Ages of Jorvik. While the riding blanket is green and sparkles like gems has been sewed into the fabric.
It wasn't long till they had started helping out with the fire emergency by getting buckets of water from the Silversong River and towing wheeled barrels of sand to take out the fire with Erika's lassos. But the fire was really relentless as it spread around the village and started heading towards the forest.
"Oh no." Erika had caught sight of the jumping flames as Nemain knocked down another barrel of wet sand with a horrified expression. "We have to pick up the pace."
"The fire had jumped into the trees!" yelled Avalon as he helped out with the fire beverage.
"We're all going to die!" a druid screamed, only to be yelled at by another druid.
No, thought Erika firmly with narrowed eyes and tightened her grip on Nemain's reins as she glared at the hot, blazing flames that surrounded everyone. Not if I have anything to say about it.
The fearful panic of the horses that were all trapped inside of the stables and the cries of fear from the druids had made Erika more determined to stop this mess once for all and save everyone from the similar mess that she had been in the past. Everybody may be in panic or in fear, but she wasn't afraid as everyone else was. She was both calm and determined to stop this mess for everyone's lives.
"Erika. We must use our power." A familiar strong, warm voice was soon heard echoing through the strange space, in which reminded Erika of the sea. The voice is clearly a female and sounded human, but inhuman at the same time. She knew it was the voice of her partner.
Erika's bright blue eyes shone with the flickering flames and her inner inner has begun to roar. Her fierce blue aura soon revealed itself from behind her and the blue aura had also started radiating from Nemain. Their auras are radiating bright blue from behind Erika and Nemain. They felt it burn strong and bright like a fierce fire, but the power of it wasn't touched by them till now.
Erika felt something deep within her soul set aflame and felt its warmth spread throughout her body. She felt something deep, powerful going through her and lifted her right hand that has a ball of blue fire crackling in her hand. She couldn't see it, but her blue aura started glowing even brighter in the palm of her hand. Erika was surprised to see a unique druid marking had appeared onto the palm of her right hand in a flickering blue light.
She closed her eyes and concentrated on pulling the flames back and into herself. She imagined she was a giant vacuum cleaner sucking up a pile of dirt from the floor. Only this wasn't flour they were controlling, but the raging power of the sun. Erika and Nemain continued to combine their powers as one. For a brief moment, it almost looked like Nemain was on the edge of revealing her true colors to Erika. It wasn't long till a marking that looks like three intertwined circles with a pair of triangles poking into the middle circle had suddenly appeared into the palm of her left hand and had became permanent, much to her shock and curiosity. At the same time, the same marking had suddenly appeared in a small flash of light on Nemain's neck and the partners didn't notice it as the wind blew through her mane and tail.
The wind has started to increasing in speed as it started circling Erika and Nemain, creating an updraft had suddenly blew through the woods and the village. Underneath them was a silvery circle with the symbol of the moon in the center of the magical circle. The moon flashed in the distance, outlining Erika and Nemain in its pale sunlight. It was like being inside of a breezy, hot tornado as the wind had started to pick up through the woods.
As Erika and Nemain concentrated harder, she felt the flames obeying their commands. Erika's core temperature was dropping. The fire was growing smaller and easier to contain. Erika gritted her teeth in powerful determination and she suddenly looked up, her blue eyes glowing like blue flames against the gray gloom as she and her partner continued pushing their powers to the very limit. In the next moment, everything changed. They started glowing brighter and brighter until a flash of blue light had occurred from the rider and the mare. The blue light shone up towards the approaching night sky, causing the horse constellation to be aligned and the stars was sparkling with renewed strength.
It wasn't long till the heat of the flames had diminished with a massive gust of wind and only the faint scent of smoke could be seen from the aftermath of the wildfire. The panic and fear from both humans and animals had started to fade away, much like the fading smoke around them. Erika had let out a breath and Nemain sighed in relief. She almost fell off of Nemain, but the mare shifted her weight and Erika leaned against her horse's neck.
"Erika!" Rhiannon ran towards Erika and helped her dismount her mare. The woman offered her hand to her apprentice, in which she takes, and Rhiannon slipped an arm over Erika's shoulders. Behind them was both Nemain and Nex, who both seemed to be protecting the two of them from the onlooking druids and animals. "Are you okay Erika?"
She calmed herself down with a deep breath and met Rhiannon's warm brown eyes with weary smile.
"We'll be fine." Erika chuckled as Nemain laid her head on her left shoulder and noticed the fog around the woods.
"I have a gift for you." Avalon walked towards them with a sheathed sword in his hands and gave it to her. "Your father wanted me to give this to you."
Erika carefully pulled the sword from the sheath and realized it's an ornate sword: it has a sparkling silver blade, laced with pure gold with a silvery-gray hilt that had unique carvings on the it and in the sunlight, it looks as if fire is dancing off it. She remembered seeing this sword, but she doesn't remember when or where she had seen such a magnificent blade. Despite that, Erika had buckled on her sword belt and sheath around her pants.
"Thank you Avalon." Erika mounted Nemain and the mare whinnied at the sight of Erika as she pulled out the glimmering sword in the teenage girl's hand.
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In the Spirit Realm (aka Galloper's Keep), everyone felt a slight shift in the realm. Galloper Thompson was stunned and glanced down at Morrigan. The dark mare shifted restlessly as she noticed that one of her younger sisters had disappeared without a trace. Most of the portals have been sealed shut till Halloween comes around.
But Morrigan felt it. A sudden wave of warmth washed over her and Galloper Thompson. The fire seemed to flow even more radiantly than before. But a flash of pain had entered the horseman, much like lightning.
My sister has bonded with Galloper Thompson's last living descendant, thought Morrigan as she remembered what happened in the past. In a sense it was like a repeat of the past. The great child of Gunnar Thrymson might be able to meet Galloper Thompson.