Hardwicke supposed he couldn’t really blame it – it had been a while since he’d shifted, and these days he was more often behind his desk than out doing field work.
Literal field work, in this instance,Hardwicke thought, unable to restrain a small –internal – smile as the pegasus took off at a gallop across the paddock.
Do you believe that you are being amusing right now?the pegasus asked, with a haughty toss of its head.I assure you, that’s not the case.
Well, the pegasus never reallydidhave much of a sense of humor, Hardwicke supposed. He’d thought his joke was pretty good, actually.
We should only take off once we reach the cliff,he cautioned the pegasus. He could already feel its wings twitching, as if it was eager to be in the air.The wind is strong – we’d be better off launching from there rather than trying to take off from the ground.
The pegasus gave another contemptuous snort, as if it was insulting to suggest that it should care about anything so petty as the wind conditions, but itdidat least seem to heed his warning and stayed on the ground, its hooves beating against the firm earth.
Now that he was in pegasus form, Hardwicke could definitely feel there was somethingnot rightgoing on somewhere quite nearby. He couldn’t actually see anything yet – no aura of darkness, no waves of magic – but he could definitely sense something strange.
It’s coming from somewhere over by the ocean,he thought.Near the lighthouse, just like I thought before.
Hardwicke was so focused on training his senses on the dark cloud of magic he could sense over the sea that he almost didn’t notice it until it was too late – a tug on his consciousness, and then the flash of color in his peripheral vision.
Wait – stop –!
His pegasus tossed its head, almost ignoring him – it was relieved at being finally free, and swiftly cantering to the edge of the cliffs where it could at last unfurl its wings and leap into the sky – but at the last moment, Hardwicke managed to gain control over it.
Stop – we’re not alone!
Thatpulled the pegasus up short, halting mid-stride. And, sure enough, there it was – the thing that had been just a flash of color a moment ago resolved itself into the shape of two children in orange jackets, bolting across the paddock toward him.
“Stop! Horsey!”
He could see them more clearly now – one was a young boy, and the other was a girl probably in her early teens. Hardwicke paused, internally cursing himself. His encounter with Celeste must have scrambled his brains more than he’d thought. He’dnevermade a mistake like this before, allowing himself to be seen in his pegasus form. There was no way to hide now, and no way to shift back into his human form without them seeing it. Theyhadto know he wasn’t a regular horse – a regular horse didn’t have wings, for starters – but maybe from this distance it simply hadn’t registered to them yet.
Either way, he didn’t think it was a great idea to keep going to the cliffs and then to plunge off them over the sea – he could fly, of course, but the kids didn’t know that. It might be important that no one find out that pegasi existed, but he also had no intention of traumatizing innocent children to avoid it.
“Horsey! How did you get away from the parade?!”
The childish voices, carried to him by the wind, came to him again.
Oh – I see.
Hardwicke understood what had happened now, and why they’d come racing to try to capture him. They assumed he was one of the island horses who’d been roped into the Christmas parade and had managed to escape and run off somehow – maybe that even explained why they weren’t surprised by his wings. Mrs. Shelbyhadsaid the schoolchildren had been dressing up the sheep and horses – maybe they thought he was just a white horse that had been dressed up with wings.
Well, that illusion would be shattered if he allowed them to get any closer, he thought – it would be all too clear to them that his wings were very real. He couldn’t shift in front of them, so he supposed he had no choice but to run.
A pegasus does notrunfrom anything!The pegasus snorted out its disgust, plowing furiously at the ground with its front hooves as Hardwicke tried to convince it to get moving.
It’s not running, it’s a tactical retreat,he told it.Come on – do youreallywant to get roped into a parade? Aside from revealing the existence of shifters to the world?
Unfortunately, Hardwicke felt a small tug of interest on the pegasus’s part.
What kind of a parade?it asked, just as Hardwicke finally managed to urge it to movement, wheeling their shared body around and heading back the way they’d come. Perhaps if he could make it to the rock he could shift again, out of sight.
No such luck,he thought grimly, as a couple more children appeared over the crest of the slight hill the rock sat on. Maybe a horse actuallyhadescaped from the parade, and they’d been sent out to look for it.
Whatever the case, that way was closed to him now too. Changing directions again, Hardwicke realized his only option now was to head back toward the town. Maybe he could slip between two houses and shift there – it was risky, but right now, he didn’t think he had any other options. He’d been careless, he thought, cursing himself. His brains must have been scrambled by his near miss with Celeste. This was the kind of rookie mistake he would have dragged any of his agents over the coals for, and yet, here he was, having allowed himself to be seen in pegasus form, running away from children, and having to take a massive risk in an attempt to fix his own stupid mistakes.
Well, I can berate myself about that later,he thought grimly, as he took off back toward the line of houses on the edge of town.Right now, I have to fix this. Somehow.
He could hear the children calling, but he ignored them. He could outpace them easily at a canter, and it wasn’t long before he was at the edge of town again. He didn’t want to shift while standing in someone’s garden, so he passed by the fences that ringed them, hoping that he’d come to an alley or something without any overlooking windows. But of course, Portsmith just wasn’t that kind of place – it wasn’t a city, with darkened back alleys or secret lots where he could be unobserved. It was all pretty open, with small cottages and houses with open gardens. There weren’t a lot of places to hide.
But still, there has to be somewhere… there!
