Fable (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale #3)(50)

His face turned a weird shade of brown. “Uh, I might have mentioned it.”

Mina rolled her eyes and continued to watch one of the most beautiful scenes she had ever seen. One horse, then two, turned and disappeared into the river’s waves. Then a third left, followed by a fourth. They were leaving. Only one kelpie remained with the white one. It was a smaller horse by a few hands and it still looked young, but it followed the white horse bravely to where they stood. When the little horse reached the embankment and stepped out, his watery coat turned a dark red.

Mina stood and stared at his coat. This wasn’t a shade of red that had ever appeared on a horse; it was blood red. She had to wonder if the other kelpies had actually stepped out of the water, what color their coats would have been. This was the Fae plane. Nothing came in average packaging.

Both horses came and stood in front of them. The white one leaned down, and Nix nimbly leapt upon his back. The red one followed suit, and Mina did her best to not embarrass herself as she fumbled onto the kelpie’s back.

The horses turned and began to run alongside the river. Mina couldn’t help but feel the excitement of riding a mythical creature in a foreign land and grin. She laughed out loud and wrapped her fingers around the red kelpie’s mane. Nix looked over his shoulder and laughed with her at their exhilarating ride. They ran unbelievably fast. The trees, boulders, and forest whisked by, and with every step the kelpies took, a clear wet hoof print was left behind.

She reached down and patted the horse’s neck, and whispered, “You’re magnificent.” She wasn’t positive, but it seemed like the horse shook his head at her and proceeded to show her how magnificent he was by racing ahead faster, catching up to Nix’s horse and then passing him at a river bend. Mina couldn’t help but turn around and blow a playful kiss at Nix as they sped past him. His face showed complete shock, but he leaned forward and whispered to his horse, and then the race was on.

The kelpies raced neck and neck through the woods. They were as playful on land as they were in the water, taking turns, letting one horse run ahead, then running up a separate pass to jump in front of them in surprise. When Mina was once again in the lead, they ran too close to the riverbed, and a huge wave erupted out of the river to dump right on her head.

“EEEEEEK!” Mina shrieked as Nix ran past again. “That’s not fair!” she called after him. Red, for she had no other name to call him by, took off like a cat after a mouse and did something completely uncalled for. He jumped into the river and disappeared beneath her, forming into water again. Mina flailed in the water, thinking the horse was completely gone, but then she could feel him, like a giant current that had her in the palm of his hand, and they were speeding along the river at breakneck speeds, even passing Nix and the white horse.

It was the oddest and scariest thing she had ever done, to whiz down a river at such speeds. She thought she was going to smash onto a large rock, but the current of water that was the kelpie moved her out of the way. When they were ahead of Nix, the current picked up Mina and literally threw her out of the river toward the rocky embankment. Mina screamed and flung her arms out in front of herself to try to break her fall, but at the last minute, the wave flowed after her and then under her. Reappearing as the red kelpie, the horse made a watery snicker and kicked up its heels at the horse behind them.

She clutched his mane and cried out loudly, “Please don’t do that again. Or at least give a little warning next time.” She wasn’t sure, but she thought he bobbed his head in agreement.

The horses calmed down their crazy Kentucky Derby after Red was the obvious winner, and then they slowed to a peaceful pace.

“So tell me about yourself,” Nix said.

“What? Now?”

“Yes, I want to know what it’s like to be human, and why you would sacrifice everything to save your brother.”

Mina thought for a minute and then began to tell him about her life. How they always moved from state to state until the curse found them. She told him of how her friends would sometimes get wrapped up in the tales as well. When he became increasingly interested, she decided to tell him a little about each of her friends.

“Who’s Nan?” he asked when she described the Snow White quest.

“Well, Nan has been my best friend ever since I moved to Kennedy High School. She kind of took me under her wing and refused to let me become the obvious wallflower. She adored my brother Charlie, is a huge reality TV fan, and loves…loves her cell phone.”

Nix’s face took on another odd expression, and she realized that he didn’t know half of what she was talking about. He probably didn’t know what a high school was, or a TV, or a cell phone. It was so easy to just assume that since Jared and Ever knew, that all of the Fae on this world also knew.

“Brody is—” She sighed and felt herself get a little dreamy. “Brody is the most handsome, most popular guy I know, and he also happens to be really sweet. He plays on the water polo team at school, and I think you would like it. It’s a game with a ball and net played in a swimming pool.”

Nix’s eyes lit up at the mention of water polo. He made Mina spend the next half hour describing everything about this wonderful game played in the water. Mina was sure that she only knew enough about the sport to fill two minutes, but she found out that she knew more than she thought she did.

“I sure would love to play this water polo here on the Fae plane. Might be a little difficult finding a water creature with the right appendages and limbs to play.” Nix then became lost in thought as he obsessed over trying to re-create the game here. “I could make a net out of the forever weed.”