A bolting steed

Shayn counted the seconds the anomaly maintained its existence. It was only slightly larger than the biggest he'd seen before, but a different color. Brownish in the center rather than pink or rainbow. 

When he got to twenty, Victoria had run back from the wagon, and exclaimed over the anomaly before cutting off her sentence in the middle. It seemed this wasn't the first she'd seen. 

It was the strangest he'd seen. It began to change shape, from circular to a bubbling sort of stretched oblong shape. His eyes widened. 

Some sort of thing was coming through. He leaned closer and began to dismount. 

"DON'T TOUCH IT!" Screamed Victoria. 

"I wasn't going to," He replied, a little irritated. The king had already warned him against doing so, who was this girl to give him orders? She'd made him lose count of the seconds. Twenty-five? Thirty? 

Just before the anomaly vanished, a strange noise like a frantic buzzing resounded. 

As quickly as it appeared, the warbling floating light was gone. The noise continued, but Shayn couldn't pinpoint its source. 

Like a large insect, almost. He squinted around him, the shade of the trees and dappled, filtered light of the sun making it more difficult to discern what might be making that odd noise. 

Suddenly, Simone screamed, and her horse bolted, taking a hard right off the road and into the trees. 

"Stay put, I'll get her!" Shayn yelled as he dug his heels into his own steed's flanks. The trustworthy horse, the same he'd had for the last few years, leapt forward after its counterpart. 

Simone's horse had a short head start and panic to fuel its speed, so it was over a a minute before he could begin to gain on them. He could see Simone struggling to cling to the saddle. Her scream must have terrified the animal for it to be so recklessly galloping away.

He urged his horse to catch up, and was managing to slowly gain ground, mostly due to Simone's intermittent efforts to pull on the reins and get control of her mount. 

The frenzied horse wove between trees and let out occasional cries of fear. 

His own, more careful horse was wary of getting too close, and it was minutes before he drew alongside the pair. He thrust his hand out, grabbing Simone's reins and trying to slow her panicked horse. It reared, and Shayn's heart froze for a moment in his chest as powerful hooves came much closer to his head than he ever wanted. 

His own horse responded in kind for a moment, frightened by the other animal's now-contagious fear. 

Wonderful. Instead of one runaway horse, he now had two panicked ones. Great job, Shayn. The officers of Klain would be proud. 

He put the thought aside as Simone's fear-filled eyes met his. Begging for help. Trusting him to do something. The moment only lasted a split second, but it was enough to awaken some primitive protective instinct within him. 

Keeping hold of the reins of her horse, he kicked his feet free of his stirrups and leapt to the ground, putting all his strength into bringing her mare's head down. 

"Woah, woah," He tried, as firmly as he could. The horse was much stronger, but he was more determined. "Calm, girl. Calm." 

The horse reared once more, and Shayn was nearly lifted off his feet. He grabbed the other side of the reins as well, and pulled both down as hard as he could. The horse finally began to quiet. 

He tied the reins to a tree branch, giving his own horse a fleeting glance to make sure it wasn't wandering off, and moved towards Simone. 

She looked terrified, nearly in shock. The run must have scared her badly, but… hadn't she screamed before the animal bolted? 

"Medical kit. Do you have a medical kit?" She asked vaguely. 

He looked up at her with concern. "Are you hurt?" 

She swung her leg over the horse's back and flopped uneasily down to the ground. He held out a hand to steady her, but she looked at it warily instead of taking it. 

"Over here," She said, leading him around the other side of the horse. She was acting very strangely. 

"Shh…." Simone patted the animal gently, as if afraid it would spook again. "It's ok, I think it's gone." 

"What's gone?" Shayn blinked at her, and she cut him a sharp glance. Some thanks he got for saving her life! 

Her expression changed from frustrated to surprised. "You really didn't see it?" She asked. 

"See what?" He took a deep breath. Maybe she'd hit her head on a tree branch during the ride. He should get her back to Victoria for a check. Surely a doctor's daughter could help now. Simone huffed impatiently and pointed at the horse's neck, on the side he hadn't seen before. 

A deep cut, about the length of his forefinger, gaped there, oozing blood. 

"What happened??" He exclaimed with sudden alarm. "Did she scratch her neck on a tree?" 

"No! Of course not! She was attacked!" Simone sounded like she was explaining something to an idiot. He was beginning to feel like one, everything was making so little sense to him right now. 

At least one of the two of them needed their head checked. Maybe both?

"By what?" He tried again, slowing his question down. 

"Don't get condescending with me, Shayn!" Simone glared at him. 

"Please, tell me from the beginning, what happened?" He asked her as he took a clean kerchief from his pocket to press against the wound. The mare didn't like it, but the bleeding should be stopped. Once it slowed a little, they could walk the horses back to the road. 

"The anomaly. Something came out of it. I couldn't see it clearly at first, it flew so quickly, but the buzzing noise its wings made was loud enough that I could kind of follow it. And then it landed on her neck." Her eyes widened as she recalled the memory, and then her head swiveled as if expecting the same thing to appear again out of nowhere. 

"Please describe it. A horsefly?" Shayn asked. That would be the most logical thing he could think of. 

"No, it wasn't a horsefly. It was… a locust, sort of. Large. Its body was the length of my hand, but it had…" She paused. 

"Yes?" So far she hadn't described anything particularly out of the ordinary. Locusts didn't normally grow quite that big, but he'd seen stranger things. 

"It had a face. And hair like a woman. And a long scorpion's tail and pincers. It was the pincers that wounded the horse. I screamed, and she bolted. I don't know where the creature is now." Simone swallowed. 

Shayn took all this in with silence. The woman before him wasn't hysterical, and hadn't hallucinated previously as far as he knew. He saw the cut on the horse, and had seen the anomaly and heard the buzzing, as well as Simone's scream. 

It would be a very odd story to make up. 

"Let's make our way back to the wagon. Perhaps Victoria saw something as well, she was close enough," He decided. 

"You don't believe me." Simone accused, anger flashing in her sky-blue eyes. 

"I didn't say that at all. But shouldn't we hurry back to make sure the others are all right?" He tried again. 

"Oh! Oh no! What if it hurt them??" Simone asked in alarm. "Let's hurry!" 

"I'm not sure about riding her, with an open wound. The reins might brush it and hurt her, making her bolt again." He said. 

"We came some distance, it will take a while to walk back, and they may be in danger!" Simone fretted at him. 

Shayn closed his eyes, not liking the remaining option. He walked over to his own horse, and mounted. 

"Come on." He said, offering his hand down to her. Simone's eyes widened. 

"Um, are you wanting me to ride in front of you or behind?" She asked uncertainly. He sighed.

"Which do you prefer?" 

"I don't know! I've never done either!" She frowned in concentration. 

"Then get on behind me." He rolled his eyes. It would be easier to steer the horse without her in front of him. 

He kicked his foot out of the stirrup on her side so she could use it for purchase, and pulled her up with his arm. Soon she was sitting behind him, awkwardly rigid without being sure how to hold on. 

He clucked his tongue at his horse and moved close enough to untie her mount's reins from the branch and secure them to his saddle. The injured horse meekly followed, seemingly ashamed of its fear. 

That accomplished, Shayn tapped his heels into his horse's sides and moved into a faster pace back towards the wagon. 

Even if Simone was grossly mistaken about what she'd seen, something wasn't quite right. He wanted to get back quickly. As his mount picked up on his anxiety, it transitioned into a smooth, slow version of a canter. 

Simone gasped, and he rolled his eyes. He couldn't be THAT distasteful to touch, not even for a prideful, snooty, ridiculous librarian. Reaching back with one hand, he found one of hers and put it at his waist. Her other mirrored the action on the other side, stiffly at first, and then more firmly. 

He sighed impatiently, ready to have this experience over with.