* Calimiel cast a shuddering gaze between Alearindu and Andreth. * The Stables, outside, yes!
* Grabbing them both by the hand so that Andreth was on her right and Alearindu on her left, Calimiel pulled her new companions into a run at breakneck speed, smack dab into ... and straight through ... the maliciously shimmering haze that formed Celumëomaryu. Calimiel screeched and shivered, dropping the hands of Alearindu and Andreth, for Celumëomaryu had sent out a blast of icy wrath straight to the heart of Calimiel. Calimiel staggered, bumped the door frame, continued her mad run. *
* The stairs carried Calimiel down as if in a nightmare. She sped around corner after corner. Finally the chill night air grasped her face. It was 2:00 a.m. by now. Father stood in the entrance, with four others of the household, and a small knot of strangers. Calimiel didn't care who anyone was at this point. Somehow she slipped past Father, whose mind seemed intent on other things, and found herself out the door. *
* Turning right, she headed for the Stables ... then stopped suddenly, heart beating, breathing labored. A black horse roamed unconcernedly about in front of the Stables, snorting disdainfully at tall brown stalks of dead grass. A majestic black horse, with no saddle, and on Father's property! Calimiel's horse, now. All hers. For this moment. Until Celumëomaryu, or Father, or Tiroedrath came to stop her, anyways. Time was precious. *
* Midnight backed away from the dishevelled, stumbling stranger. The woman, however, leapt a desperate lucky leap, landing far enough up the black war steed's side to cling tightly to his mane and pull herself astride. Midnight shrieked a ferocious, drawn-out neigh, launching into a spooked gallop. Rounding the corner and coming in view of the front entrance, Midnight saw the old grey-cloaked man laying on the ground, looking to be in distress. Midnight slowed, turning towards the familiar grey man, wanting to go to him ... and was soundly cuffed about the ears by the strange woman. *
* The woman wailed a whole bunch of things that Midnight could not understand, apart from the word "NOOOooooo!" What Midnight DID understand was that the stranger was pulling his mane, hard, as though to tear it from his neck by the roots ... and that she was stopping him from aiding the grey man. *
* Instead, she steered him towards a small gate in the wall. Midnight reared up on his hind legs, thinking to throw the woman. The woman dangled, hanging on by one arm for dear life. Another furious shake from Midnight, and the woman could hold on no longer. Thrown she was, into unyielding granite. Hair matted with blood, she sank down unmoving, lay still, breathed her last. Only some had eyes to see when moments later, the faint milky glimmering spirit of Calimiel rose up kneeling beside the prone and broken form, to bewail the cruelty of fate. *
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