Encounter with the Stallion

"Almost there"

Alex's ears were almost burning from hearing them repeatedly. Dylan had been repeating it for more than hour, yet they still weren't there. His feet were already sore, and his ankles ached like crazy.

They crossed the other lane of the street and Dylan paused as soon as theye entered the wood. His brown eyes fixed on the book.

"Are you sure you know the place" Alex asked, "We've almost trekked the whole town, yet we still haven't gotten 'there'"

"Weird… I bet this is the place."

"You're joking right, this place is…" Alex stuttered as he glanced at the place he could only describe as a forest of green trees.

"I'm sure this is the place. We once…" Dylan abruptly stopped and looked at Alex. "I mean, maybe it's some sort of secret base. We'll just have to try and get his attention or invoke him."

"Invoke? Where you get the idea from?" Alex blinked a couple times.

"Probably from an old book," Dylan just rolled his eyes at Alex, "that's probably the only way to get in touch with supernatural beings."

"You seem to have come to the conclusion that this Sharon guy is supernatural."

"Duh, anybody that can see the monsters in this world ain't normal. And from what is written in this book, this guy knows about them."

Alex nodded, "So how are we meant to…invoke him. Burn some sticks?"

"That's right, we should probably start with yours…since yours is shorter."

Alex looked at Dylan in confusion. "I…"

"That's true; your stick wouldn't be enough, so we might have to add one of your balls."

With that Alex understood what Dylan was trying to say. His eyes couldn't help but stray to the part of his body below his waist, his eyes digging deep and almost enough to tear out the zippers of his pants. "D…did you say…my stick is small."

"Yeah, very small," Dylan laughed, but after a full minute and Alex was still staring at his pants, Dylan knew something was wrong.

"Hold on bro, that was just a joke. Don't tell me …"

The reason why Alex was still looking at his pants, was because, the first girl he wooed said the same thing, and now Dylan. Was his…

"It was only a joke." Dylan repeated tor the hundredth time. "We only have to shout his name and, hopefully he'll appear."

"Are you sure," Alex finally snapped out of his daze,

"Trust me, this isn't the first time…never mind,"

He counted up to three and they both yelled "SHARON!!!"

A minute, ten minutes, half an hour. They waited but no one showed.

"Hum," Dylan looked embarrassed.

"C'mon let's get outta here before we get caught and be forced to switch to 'run for thy life Mode'"

"You're right, we should…"

WHOOSH!!! A lump of sand erupted in air, and dust filled their visions. When the dust cleared, both boys were surprised to see a man in front of them.

With a smile on his face "Looking for someone?"

Alex blinked a thousand times to express his confusion, but even then the view in front of him didn't change. HE turned to Dylan who also seemed to have same expression.

"Are you Charon?"

"Nope." The man replied "You're probably looking for me"

"Why do you think so?"

"Why would you be looking for that guy, except you're ready for death." The man scoffed, "Nonetheless, I'm Chiron, but you can call me…never mind."

"Did you just call yourself Shy-run," Alex joked.

"Hmm, yea," the man nodded, "I'm kinda shy and I also love to run. You'll see about that soon enough"

He was the same man in the little book, except there were few changes. In the book, they'd seen him as a man sitting on a white stallion, but here; right in front of them, he was the man, and also the horse –literally.

From the waist up, he was a man with long curly brown hairs. He wore a neon- orange leopard- skin summer suit which had a hoof print on it. He wore a black leather glove and right behind his cheek was a lip shaped bam.

From his waist down, he was a horse with white smooth hairs. His black hooves drummed the ground like he was trying to stampede some invincible ants.

"You're certainly not human" Dylan said "tell me I'm right"

"The main question is –." Chiron said "Are you?"

Alex had no idea what he was trying to say but something told him he was right. He remembered what his mum had told him some nights before he ran away from home.

He'd asked her why he always get into troubles. Why people loved bullying him and why he does see illusions of strange creatures (though he now realized they weren't illusions, they were real).

She knelt beside him and kissed his forehead. "You're a lot more special" She had said, "and therefore your life is bound to be a lot more complicated"

"I do not understand" he'd said "you said I'm special and more dangerous. Those are…like two opposite terms"

Mum smiled wryly. She sat on the couch beside him and embraced him like a baby.

"I'll tell you a story my dad told me when I was younger –about your age." She said, "It's a story about a blacksmith."

Alex sat upright. One of the many reasons why he liked her was, she never seemed to run out of stories. And he was about to listen to another one.

"I can't remember his name but he was a blacksmith in a very small village. He was hard working and so poor people referred to his as a church rat –

"Then one day, a rich man went to his workshop and gave him a work to do. After the rich man left, the poor old blacksmith realized he left something. The thing was small, but it glittered and shined. He thought of returning it but he was in love with the object already. So the next day, he went to a soothsayer"

Alex thought of who a soothsayer was but managed to beat down the thought inside of him.

"He demanded to know what the object was but instead of giving an answer, he tried to kill the blacksmith but luckily, the blacksmith escaped"

"Why?"

"You'll find out soon enough" she continued "on his way home, he got attacked by a gang of thieves who demanded to collect the shiny stone but the blacksmith swore not to give it up and he ran"

Alex chuckled "he's really got luck on his side"

"like that wasn't enough, that night, his son tried to kill him so as to get the stone and in the process, the blacksmith murdered his only son" she paused to make that sink into his head. "Out of shame, he fled to a neighboring village where he met and told the king of his tale. Instead of offering help, the king ordered his guards to kill the blacksmith and bring back the stone to him. Though the guards executed the man as the king ordered but neither did they return, nor did they take back the stone –they fled with it. That's where my father stopped but I'm sure hundreds of people will die just to get the stone"

"What's the stone?" Alex could not help but ask ask. "Pearl, gold, silver, ruby or diamond. What's it called?"

"What the stone is called doesn't matter" she said "it's its potential and what it stands for that matter"

Alex stared into her face and predicted what next she would say

"Moral lesson" she said just as he predicted. "What did you learn from the story?"

"Uhm…" He beat his laps as he thought of what to say, "We should never become a blacksmith? Never run away after killing your son?"

Alex almost laughed at that. He knew he was very wrong, but like his mum had always been. She only shook her head, "Nope, Think of something else."

Alex thought of something better. "Greed" He finally said feeling proud of himself. "The whole problem started because the blacksmith was greedy"

Mum nodded with a beaming smile "Q2. Why did they find pleasure in killing each other all because of a stone?"

Alex shook his head. He couldn't answer that.

"That's how you are" she said. "The rarer you are and the more potentials you possess, the more greedy and evil people will like to have you"

A bird chirped across the window.

"You are different from anyone else around you." She said solemnly. "Though, you look a lot more like them, but you're totally different. Your type is rare and therefore filled with more dangers"

Alex remembered all the while he and Dylan had been attacked by monsters. Despite the fact that they were totally different from normal humans, no one seemed to notice them except the two of them. It was like something was covering their eyes from seeing certain things.

Chiron laughed. "Funny." He said. "You do not even know who you are"

"Can you tell us –?" Dylan looked at Alex. "Who are we? We're very sure we are different from others."

The man took out a can of coke from nowhere. Maybe he had pockets in his tummy. He took out the cap and it produced a funny sound which seemed to please him. "Well, I'd be delighted to tell you but I'm in no position to do that." He said. "The lesser you know, the lesser the danger you're in."

The two boys exchanged looks.

"Uh, I think he's right" Alex was the one speaking, "So the reason why we're here"

"About to ask that,"

"We saw the book," Dylan said waving it in the air.

"Yea" the horse man said "so you want to be one of my students. That will require some extra payments. First –"

"Not really," Dylan cut in. "we're wondering if you could help us with a favor. Do you know anybody by the name Lutis

The horse man rolled his eyes at us and spread out his arms like a come – to – daddy doll.

"You're looking right at him" he screamed.

Again, the boys exchanged looks, the confusion clearly expressed on their faces.

"Look here boys. I've been called a lot of names and Lutis just happens to be one."

There was silence, before the horse-man broke it by drumming his feet…hooves on the ground.

"Now, now. I'm wondering why two godlins would be looking for me."

Alex and Dylan made a silent conversation, before Dylan searched through his bag, and this time pulled out a scroll with golden rim around it.

"You should understand this if you're really who you claim to be." Dylan gave the book to him.

At first Chiron had a look of curiosity but as soon as he glanced at the scroll, his expression shifted to one Alex couldn't explain.

"Apo…" He looked at them, then back at the scroll. "We have to leave."

Without a warning, Chiron grabbed them both by the arm, and with a flip threw them on his stallion back. He let out an ear bursting rear and galloped through the woods.

* * * TO BE CONTINUED * * *