Bab 15: In search of Morpheous - 4

Bottling up the memories of the past, Balthazaar sighed and stared into the blank. He had no idea how to regain his strength back. All he could do was to sit there and pray for the safety of Nicholas who had set upon the most daunting task of his life ever.

'Clip-clippity-clop…'

'Clip-clippity-clip…'

Nicholas galloped with his horse as fast as he could. He had been riding his horse for almost two hours and he could sense that his horse was getting a bit tired from the rhythm of its hooves, but he couldn't afford to rest.

After one more hour, he reached the forest of the forbidden. It stretched for miles in length and breadth. He was familiar with the tales associated with this forest as he belonged to Eresos village which was adjacent to that of Ambracia.

There was a path to Ambracia that outlined the forest, but it was quite lengthy and would easily add an hour to his journey, so he decided to take the one that passed through the woods. 'It is broad daylight now. What can go wrong?', thought Nicholas, trying to comfort himself and marched ahead.

It was called the forest of the forbidden because it was assumed that the souls of people who couldn't pass through the gates of the land of the dead, used to reside inside these woods. It was a hot spot of paranormal activities, so wandering into these woods at night was equivalent to digging one's own grave.

So Nicholas tried to focus only on the path and didn't dare to look around for he was a bit scared to see anything out of the blue. Even the rattling of the leaves was getting on his nerves. Being friends with Balthazaar over the last couple of years, he had already known that there are things that existed around which were beyond the capacities of human explanation but he could never understand his theories, his stories about the world of God.

He kept galloping ahead, distracting his mind with this thought and that thought when suddenly he saw someone sleeping under the shade of a giant birch tree. He decided to ignore the man and go-ahead, but to his utter dismay, his horse started slowing down and came to a halt next to this sleeping man.

"Haissshhhh...."

Exclaimed Nicholas and started patting his horse hard. But his horse stood standstill as if it was possessed by someone.

"Argghhhh...."

A frustrated Nicholas got down slowly from his horse, afraid to make any sound. He didn't want to wake the man up for he didn't know if he was even a man. After getting down, he decided to slowly walk away along with his horse by pulling its reigns assuming that it was just tired. But the moment he held on to the leather straps to pull, the horse neighed out loud.

Startled with the voice, Morpheous got up.

He looked around him in search of Damianos but he was nowhere to be seen, instead, there was a man standing with a horse in front of him. It was hours past the morning. The sun was scintillating high in the sky and he could already feel its warmth through the sunlight which was playing hide and seek amidst the foliage.

"Who are you?", asked Morpheous, as he got up, and dusted himself.

Nicholas looked at the man standing in front of him. He was tall, his height itself was quite intimidating for him. From his built, he looked muscular, his face looked like royalty but from the linen surrounding his waist, he looked poor as it was tattered at places.

'He seems poor. Must be a normal man like me,' thought Nicholas.

"Who are you? What are you doing inside this forest?" Asked Morpheous again. His voice has a weird authority that made Nicholas answer instantaneously.

"Erm... I am Nicholas, a horse keeper at the kingdom. I just came to looking for someone. I need to go to a nearby village but my horse just stopped galloping. Perhaps it's tired, so I got down to help it walk."

'Gosh !!! Why did I give out my identity?' Nicholas lamented himself and tightened the cloth around his face which covered his mouth and nose.

Morpheous craned his neck and looked at the mighty fine horse behind that man. That horse was definitely a royal breed. Its torso was quite muscular and the hair of its mane was glistening as it reflected the sunlight.

Trying to avoid any conversations with this man, Nicholas tried to pull the reign of its horse again, but that animal didn't budge even an inch.

"You seem to be in a hurry," Asked Morpheous looking at Nicholas who was trying his best to make his horse move.

"Yes, I have an important matter to deal with," said Nicholas and continued pulling the reign.

"Stop !!!", said Morpheous and coming close to the horse, he gently rubbed underneath its neck and then patted on its mane. Then turning towards Nicholas he said,

"Your horse is good to go. It's not tired," said Morpheous and started walking towards his village.

Nicholas was surprised to hear his words and before he could ask anything further he saw his horse taking a step ahead, coming close to him. 'Did he just speak with the horse or do some magic?' thought Nicholas and that spooked him a bit.

He looked at that mysterious man walking ahead in the same direction as he was supposed to go, so climbing back on his horse as he crossed the man, he stopped and asked,

"Where are you walking to? I can help you reach there faster?"

But the very next moment he bit his tongue. 'What is wrong with you Nicholas? Why are you offering help to this strange man?' He cursed himself but he couldn't take back the words that had already been spoken.

Morpheous looked at that man for a moment. Leaving his family he had strayed into these forests yesterday night. 'They must be searching for me. Eva must be worried.' Morpheous thought and asked,

"I need to go to Ambracia. Which way are you going?"

"What a pleasant surprise? I am also going towards Ambracia. Hop on !!!" said Nicholas and then slapped his mouth. 'What is wrong with me? Why am I saying things that I do not want to say?' He wondered and got worried as Morpheous hauled himself on the horseback.

The moment Morphous sat, the horse started galloping with a speed that Nicholas had never seen. He tried controlling the speed with the reigns, but nothing seemed to work out.

'Why did I dare?'

'Why did I even think of going through this forest?'

Nicholas screamed from within.

The speed of his horse was too much for Nicholas to handle. The wind had started pinching his eyes. He couldn't look ahead anymore. It was then that he realized that the man behind him was sitting without holding on to anything. Afraid that at this speed he would probably fall back, Nicholas tried to hold the arm of the man behind him and said,

"Hold me tight, else you might fall."

Morpheous smiled hearing his voice and said,

"By the way, my name is Morpheous !!!"