Dawn of Darkness: Part 1 (Where the Shadows Stalk)

by Adam Watson

  “He was only playing, he’s a horse, he doesn’t know his own strength,” said Kane, defending his mount - it wasn't the first time he had been in this situation.

  “He tried to kill him!” shouted Greegan, emphasising each word. “Just like he tried to kill me two summers ago!”

  “Are you still going on about that?!” yelled Kane, throwing his arms in the air. Every time there was an argument over the last two years, Greegan would bring up that encounter.

  “And that’s not the first time he tried to kill me either!”

  “Here we go … here … we … go!” roared Kane. “Let us enter the life’s story of Thunder: the killer pony. A pony so vicious, so heinously savage it has sent our entire town into a world of fear. Lock your doors and run for your life, there’s a killer pony on the loose! Fear me … for I am the ‘Pony of Death.’” Greegan was so red from his anger that his head looked like it was going to explode.

  “If you say the word ‘pony’ one more time old man I will rip off your head.” Greegan’s voice was cool and remarkably calm, considering how much anger he felt.

  “You might be bigger than your old man, Gigantus,” answered Kane. “But you’re not smart enough to even think about taking me on.” Deanna had listened to all the macho bickering she could take.

  “All right you two, either take it outside or sit down and be quiet. I’m trying to take care of Aiden here.” The two men went silent, and after an intense glare at each other, they calmly sat down in chairs on opposite sides of the room.

  After sitting in silence for half an hour, Kane finally decided that he had had enough. He looked at Greegan who was sitting in his chair half asleep. He looked at Aiden; he seemed all right, Deanna had left the room ten minutes ago which was a definite sign that everything was good. So he’s got a couple of bruises and cuts but really … this is going beyond the realm of reason.

  “Aiden?” blurted Kane, breaking the silence. “Aiden? … Come on, this is ridiculous. You’re blowing the situation out of proportion.” Aiden said nothing but gave his father a look of extreme disgust. “Come on Aiden, tell me what you’re thinking.”

  Aiden turned to his father once more, a sneer on his face.

  “I want that thing stabled!” demanded Aiden, spittle flying from his lips. “You can’t even walk around in your own backyard without that crazy black bastard coming for you!”

  “Yeah!” Greegan added, waking up so he could gang up on his father.

  “He’s not crazy!” yelled Kane. “He was only playing!” Aiden eyes widened with indignation.

  “There’s something wrong with his mind Father! He’s not right in the head!”

  “Yeah!” Greegan added again.

  “And we want him stabled!” continued Aiden, sending another spray of spittle through the air.

  “Yeah! That’s right! ... Stabled!” Greegan added, throwing a pointed finger in his father’s face. Kane simply rolled his eyes.

  “But we’ve already tried that,” he said, in a rather bored tone. “And you know what happened. He went mad and destroyed his own stable.”

  “But you made that out of bojah wood, didn’t you?” yelled Greegan, as though that was the most idiotic thing Kane could have done.

  “Make it out of oak if you have to,” Aiden added. Greegan turned to Aiden, and they both nodded their heads in agreement.

  “First of all, there are no oak trees in this part of Amalicia,” stated Kane, as though talking to little children. “Secondly, do you know the price of oak? Do you have any comprehension of how much it will cost to build a stable out of oak?” The two brothers sat in silence; they couldn’t argue with their father about that, oak was an incredibly expensive building material. “How about you two geniuses give me the money and then I’ll build you a stable out of oak.”

  “All right!” yelled Aiden. “So we won’t build it out of oak, just build it out of something stronger than bojah!”

  “Yeah, stronger than bojah!” Greegan added, emphasising Aiden’s suggestion. Kane sighed, he was never going to live that down. It seemed like a good idea at the time, so what if bojah wasn’t the strongest of woods, you could still make a stable out of it - if you had a normal horse that was.

  “All right,” he said, slowly nodding his head. “I’ll talk to Master Kaleck, and we’ll see what we can do.” That seemed to satisfy the two brothers. Master Kaleck was the village carpenter, and he was very good at what he did. If anyone knew the answer to their little problem, it would be him.

  “All right then,” replied Aiden. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to take a little nap.” With that Aiden turned over, pulling the blankets over his shoulder. Kane and Greegan both stood there looking at Aiden’s back. There was nothing left to say, so they took a final glance at each other, shrugged and walked out of the room.

  ***

  Aiden woke up the next morning absolutely starving. He was so famished, he could have eaten a horse - the saddle and all. There was an aroma in the room, and the aroma smelt like … Bacon! Aiden began to salivate. Mmm … yum. Breakfast must have already started. He jumped out of bed and got dressed; he felt like a new man today.

  When he reached the kitchen, he found the rest of his family already seated and digging into a hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast.

  “Yeah, thanks for waiting for me,” remarked Aiden. “I appreciate it.” Deanna looked up and smiled her most motherly smile.

  “Oh Aiden, we didn’t want to disturb you that’s all, you needed to rest.” Kane nodded with a grunt of agreement.

  “That’s right,” he added with a mouthful of toast. Aiden sat down, his breakfast was already on the table, even before he came into the room. How did she know I had even gotten up? Aiden contemplated the incredible sixth sense of his mother. She just said that I needed rest, so she clearly wasn’t expecting me to be up and yet breakfast is already on the table. Aiden shook his head in disbelief.

  “What’s wrong Aiden?” his mother enquired. “Don’t you want your breakfast?”

  “Yes, of course I want it!” replied Aiden, quickly leaning over and putting a protective arm around the plate as though Greegan or his father might suddenly snatch one of his rashers. “It’s just …”

  “Just what?” asked Deanna, leaning forward, a knowing smile on her face. Aiden thought about what he was about to say.

  “Never mind.”

  He shoved a rasher of bacon into his mouth and started chewing in the hope that the conversation would end. Deanna simply laughed as though Aiden had said something funny then proceeded to join her family at the table.

  “So, what are we all up to today?” she chirped cheerfully, a broad smile on her face. Greegan shrugged, Aiden took a mouthful of toast.

  “Well, I thought we might go to town and speak to Master Kaleck about building a stable for Thunder,” replied Kane, as though he had been thinking about doing this for weeks.

  Deanna looked at Kane curiously, something was going on here, they had owned Thunder for twenty-five years, and he had never needed a stable before. Well actually … there was that one time, but that never worked out. Thunder didn’t seem to like stables.

  She remembered back to the time when they had made a stable out of bojah wood for him. It was about five years ago when Aiden was still a teenager and Greegan a young man. She had warned him not to, it was a ridiculous idea, there was no strength to bojah, but Kane thought he knew better and built it anyway. Once the barn was completed, they tried to put Thunder in it, and of course, he refused to enter. In fact, he would go no closer than ten yards to any part of the stable from any direction.

  Eventually, Kane got him inside, by bribing him with a trail of sugar cubes leading to a bag of sugar on the far side of the stable. Once inside Kane closed the barn door, trapping Thunder within.

  Approximately two minutes later - the time it took him to eat the bag of sugar - he went crazy. Banging and crashing echoed from within. No-one dared open the d
oor to let him out, for fear of being be trampled to death. Instead, everyone headed for the house and waited for him to calm down - it was a long wait.

  “Do you think it’s a good idea to build another barn?” Deanna asked, with a concerned look on her face. “After what happened last time?” Aiden looked up.

  “It’s not only a good idea Mother, it’s a brilliant idea, isn’t it Greegan?” Greegan nodded his agreement fervently.

  “It’s perhaps the best idea Fathers ever had. I’m all for it, but we just have to make it stronger this time.”

  “I don’t know,” said Deanna doubtfully. “Horses like Thunder are not meant to be stabled.”

  “Mother, can I ask you a question?” enquired Aiden, stabbing one of the bacon rashers on his plate.

  “Of course you can Aiden, go right ahead,” replied Deanna cheerfully, and with the rasher still on the end of his fork, Aiden proceeded with his question.

  “Have you ever been trampled, almost to the point of death, by a horse?” Deanna smiled wryly.

  “No, I have not.”

  “Well then, you just wouldn’t understand how important this barn is. If in fact, you had been trampled, as both Greegan and I have, only then could you possibly understand.”

  “Aiden?”

  “Yes, Mother?”

  “Don’t speak to me like I’m the village idiot.”

  “Sorry Mother,” said Aiden, bowing his head subserviently. Deanna looked around the table. Greegan was finishing off the last of his breakfast, whilst Kane, who had already finished his meal, sat in his chair looking rather bloated. She rolled her eyes, what was she going to do with this lot?

  “Well lads,” said Kane, slapping his overfull belly. “We better get going. We have a lot of work to do today.” Greegan stood up and proceeded to walk out of the room. Seven Hells, thought Aiden. I only just sat down. He was about to protest, but he already knew it was too late.

  “You ready Aiden?” asked Kane, slipping into his jacket. Aiden muttered under his breath, he hated being rushed, especially when he was eating. “We’ve got to get going.”

  “All right!” yelled Aiden, stabbing four pieces of bacon with his fork. Seeing as how everyone was in such a rush, he had no choice - he downed the lot in one mouthful.

  “Ready!"

  ***

  The journey into town to visit Master Kaleck’s workshop was peaceful and relatively uneventful. Kane pulled up his horse and cart and tied it to a rail located in the street out the front. The brothers had ridden their own horses into town and tied them up next to their father’s; Aiden’s a slender grey mare called Swift and Greegan’s a huge brown chestnut called Brute. The trio walked up the steps to the door.

  “It’s locked,” stated Greegan, when the door failed to open.

  “What do you mean, it’s locked?” huffed Aiden, nudging his way past to try the door for himself. Kane pointed to the window.

  “Look!” There in the window was a sign that clearly read ‘CLOSED.' Aiden threw his hands into the air.

  “Well, that’s just great!” he yelled, irritated. “We'll never get this stable built.” He could still feel a dull throbbing sensation whenever he moved, but he was lucky - lucky that his grandmother had taught some of her skills to his mother that is, otherwise he would be feeling more than a dull throb right now. “Well, what are we going to do now?”

  Kane thought about this question, and whilst he thought about it, he found it hard not to laugh. He knew that Master Kaleck would not be there this day, and that was the only reason he let his sons drag him there. That and the fact that he had to go to town anyway. Now it at least looked like he was making an effort. If he hadn’t had gone, he would have had the two boys at him day and night until he did. Two days and they’ll calm down, they’ll get sick of complaining, and I won’t even have to build this bloody barn. All he had to do was wait it out.

  “Well, I don’t know about you two, but I’m not waiting here all day. I’m going to the store to get some supplies.” Greegan rolled his eyes, he looked just as irritated as Aiden that the shop was shut. He had warned the family about the horse and the need for a barn numerous times, but it had fallen on deaf ears, and now, when he finally had Aiden angry enough to back him up. They find that the shop is shut, and Master Kaleck isn't even there … still, what could he do?

  “All right,” he sighed. “I’ll come with you.” He didn’t really have anything better to do anyway.

  “And what about you?” Kane asked turning to Aiden. “Are you coming to the store?”

  “I’m going to wait out here for a while,” replied Aiden. “And see if Master Kaleck comes back.” Kane nodded.

  “All right then, Greegan let’s go.” Kane walked off to his horse and cart, followed by Greegan and soon the two were down the street, turning a corner and out of sight. Aiden sat down on a wooden bench located just under the window of the shop and began to ponder the situation.

  Where was Master Kaleck? Today was not the day of leisure, he should be in the shop working - it didn’t make any sense. Another peculiar thing was how quiet it seemed, he had been in this part of town many times over the years, and he had never seen it so quiet.

  Kaleck’s Woodworking Shop was located just west of the centre of town, as all the trade shops were, in one convenient plaza called ‘The Workshop.' Master Kaleck was the town’s master carpenter but he also had quite a few people working for him, which was why Aiden found it strange that the shop was closed today.

  He sighed, waiting for Master Kaleck wasn’t exactly exciting, and now the warm sun was starting to make him feel tired. Yawning, he decided to lay down. Could be here for a while. After getting himself into a more comfortable position on the bench, he closed his eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep.

  ***

  Two and a half hours later, Aiden was awoken by a loud commotion. There seemed to be some sort of procession travelling through the town; two soldiers on horseback, followed by a gloomy looking coach, with another two soldiers bringing up the rear.

  This seemed odd, although nobody else seemed to be taking any notice; it was just a coach with an armed escort, nothing unusual about that, but Aiden began to wonder who was inside. Something’s not quite right. The coach seemed ordinary enough; black, enclosed, probably seating between six to eight people. Not really something a merchant would travel in, nor a noble - it looked too shabby for anyone of noble status, but still, someone had to be in there and why did they need an armed escort? Aiden decided this was worthy of further investigation; he rose up from the bench and began tailing the coach.

  The coach was heading toward the eastern side of town, and luckily for Aiden, they weren’t travelling too fast. He had decided to leave Swift at Master Kaleck’s to avoid drawing too much attention to himself; figuring it was much easier to remain out of sight on foot than it was on horseback. Nevertheless he hoped they didn’t have too much further to go - he was starting to build up a sweat.

  Aiden was now in what was known to the townsfolk of Thorngrove as the ‘rougher part of town.' The eastern side was a distance from the main street, and the people were not as well off as the merchants and traders on the western side of town. The people here were mostly labourers, farmhands, and craftsmen.

  Aiden continued to shadow the coach, it was out of sight, but he could still hear its rickety wheels rolling across the cobblestone path not far away.

  A few minutes later the coach pulled up, it had turned into the courtyard of the Lion’s Claw Tavern - a tavern notorious for being a rough hangout amongst the locals. Aiden watched from a distance as the soldiers dismounted. Stable-hands rushed out from the rear of the tavern, and the soldiers gave them their horses, who were then taken around the back towards the stables where they were to be watered and fed. By this time the barkeep himself had emerged from the tavern to greet his guests. The soldiers had now taken up a guard around the door of the coach awaiting the passenger’s exit – they were clearly some sort of
armed escort.

  A few moments later the carriage door opened, and a man dressed in a dark orange robe of the finest cut stepped out. The man was greying and bald on top, he had a grey beard, and his robe was fastened by a golden rope; he looked like someone of high authority and power.

  The barkeep waddled up to the old man; his width being almost the same as his height. He greeted the man with a handshake, and they proceeded to walk inside the rear of the inn; escorted all the way by the four soldiers.

  I wonder what they’re up to. This was all getting very intriguing, he made his way to the front of the inn. Above the door was a sign that looked battered from the weather ‘The Lion’s Claw.’ On either side of the title was a lion carved in such a way that they looked like they were holding the title up as one entered the building. Aiden noted that the door looked even more battered than the sign.

  Inside the inn was a huge crowd, easily a hundred people and they all seemed to be gathered around a raised podium in the centre of the room. Interesting. Aiden pushed his way through the crowd, he hadn’t been expecting this - the place was full to the brim. They must be having some kind of meeting here. Considering the number of people in the room, the place wasn’t as loud as one would expect.

  Serving girls made their way deftly through the crowds, taking away the empty mugs as they passed. Most of the patrons were drinking bredwah, the local brew and despite the Lion Claw’s reputation the crowd was reasonably well behaved.

  Aiden suspected that the inn wasn’t normally this packed or this subdued; it seemed as though the crowd was waiting for something to happen. He continued moving towards the bar, where he ordered himself a pint of bredwah. Once his drink was served, he made his way back through the crowd to a spot with a good view of the podium - there was nothing left to do but wait.

  Half an hour later Aiden was beginning to wonder if anything was actually going to happen. It was starting to get warm in there, too warm for Aiden’s liking. There were too many people, crammed into too small of an area, generating too much body heat - the crowd was starting to get restless. Something better happen soon, or there was going to be a riot.