The Fates
Chapter 1

October was coming to its end and the smell of decomposing leaves filled the air around Celia as she stumbled through the forest, leaving a trail of blood behind her on the yellowing leaves.

Celia could hear her own erratic heartbeat whooshing in her ears, one beat for every shaky step that she took.

The sight of her dead mother torn to pieces, was still present before her eyes, making it hard to see where she was going and she stumbled again and again as sobs racked her body.

The sound of the terrifying beasts were coming closer and she knew that the same horrific fate awaited her, there was nowhere to hide, no where to run.

Celia’s mother had with her last breath pleaded for her to run and so she tried.

The leaves were wet under her feet making her slip again. Celia did not even register the mud that covered her as she forced herself up on her feet yet again, willing her legs to run faster.

Unable to see through her tears Celia ran into something solid and she fell backwards.

Celia moved her hand behind her to catch herself but her hand slipped on the leaves too.

A searing pain shoot up through her back as she landed clumsily on the wet ground.

The sound of the beast's heavy footsteps grew closer still and with panic rising within her Celia tried to stand up again but her body was done, there was no fight left inside of her.

This was it, she knew it. She was going to die. Celia closed her eyes hard, accepting her fate as quiet tears fell down her already tear stained cheeks.

Cilia awoke with a start, her heartbeat still beating wildly from her dream.

No, not a dream, it had been real.

She really had seen her mother being torn to pieces by those monsters, she could hear her mother screams in her head.

Celia's mother had yelled for her to run and she had. Celia had not been fast enough and she really had expected to die, to join her mother in the afterlife.

But she had not died.

Celia looked around the room, slowly coming to her senses.

There was only one dusty window, so dusty it hardly let any light in at all.

Only a few candles were lit, making it a bit hard to see.

Celia strained to remember where she was, her memories still a bit hazy.

She forced herself to sit up and the small cot made sounds of protest as she did, her back protesting too, reminding her that she had hurt herself when she had fallen. Memories hit her like a stone wall and she put her head in her hands as she thought back to what had happened after she fell.

The solid thing that Celia had run into and that had made her fall backwards had turned out to be a blessing sent by The Fates.

As Celia had been laying there, trying to brace herself for her own death she had heard the monster's bone chilling snarly growls echo around her.

Celia had also heard the soft whisper of steel being drawn, although she had not known what it ment at the time and she had kept her eyes firmly closed.

The impact that she was awaiting never came and it had grown quiet around her.

She had lied there for a while, listening to the silence around her. Celia had expected to hear the beasts again and when she hadn't she slowly opened her eyes.

Celia found herself staring at a man, although he had looked more frightening as the beasts he had slayed, he had for some reason saved her.

But where was he now?

He had offered Celia to take her somewhere safe. At first she had been ready to decline but the severity of her situation had made her falter, what else could she do?

Her mother was now dead and there was no one left that would look after her, she supposed that she could have begged the owner of the local tavern to let her take her mother's place as a server. But deep down Celia knew that her mother had done so much more than just serve tables to insure their survival. She also knew that she could never do whatever that was.

Celia was too timid, too shy and too inexperienced to do whatever it was that her mother had done. Celia did know that it had something to do with men but she knew very little about the opposite sex.

There was no place for her now in the small village that she had been brought up in.

Celia was not even sure that there was a place for her anywhere in the world anymore. Perhaps it would have been best if she had followed her mother on to death.

Celia’s mind left the dark room again as more memories flooded her mind.

"What is your name?" Celia had timidly asked the scary man in front of her

"Rhale" He had answered gruffly and Celia looked at him in surprise. It couldn't be, could it? Celia had heard his name before, many, many times in fact.

Rhale's horse had made a sound and Celia had turned to look at the huge dark animal. She had never seen a horse so big, it was more beast than a horse in its size.

"May I ask what your horse name is?" Celia's voice had been raspy and uneven, she had lowered her gaze to the forest floor in shame.

"Taurus" Rhale had answered as he reached down to help her up.

It was him then, Celia had like everyone else heard the stories, the mighty half god Rhale and his trusted horse Taurus. Rhale was as big and frightening looking as she had been told and he had been nothing but ruthless to the beasts he had slayed. It had merely taken seconds for Rhale to take down the monsters that had been after her.

Even though Rhale was terrifying in his appearance Celia felt strangely safe in his presence. Mabey she had gone mad after what she had witnessed, she didn't know why else she would have agreed to go with him. In all the stories Celia had heard about Rhale there was one thing they all had in common, Rhale was as brutal and dangerous as the monsters he fought.

Celia blinked her eyes, coming back to the present and she looked around the room again. Rhale was nowhere to be seen.

After she had agreed to go with him he had lifted her up on Taurus and they had made their way here. It had taken all day and some of the late evening but they had eventually reached the small hunting cabin where he said that they would be safe for the night.

The cabin was dusty and terribly drafty.

It was dark and gloomy too, the one small window was doing very little to let any light in, but she had not complained, she had fallen asleep almost instantly, her mind too tired and too broken for anything else.

Would he leave her here? Celia’s instincts had told her that she could trust him but maybe she had been wrong.

Celia had never had the need to use her instincts much.

Before she had a chance to panic about what she would do if Rhale really had left her here the door opened and Rhale's big form blocked the entire dorway as he stepped through it.

"The sun is rising, we better leave so that we won't be stuck outside when it's dark." Rhale told her as soon as he saw that she was awake.

Celia nodded her head and tried to stand up but her back was too sore and she felt panic rise within her, surely he would leave her if she could not even stand. It would have been a kinder fate to let the beasts have her than to leave her here.

Seeing her struggle Rhale walked over to her and squatted down, still he was a good head taller than her and he became even taller as she herself sunk down on the cot.

"Are you hurt?"

"I am fine, I just hurt my back a little when I fell" She absolutely hated how weak her voice sounded and the fact that she did not dare to look Rhale in the eyes, instead she kept her eyes on the unclean floor.

How was she supposed to act?

She did not know the social protocol of interacting with Gods.

She heard Rhale sigh and she felt his calloused hand touch her cheek softly, his hand was warm and a tingling went through her at his touch. Slowly he raised her head until their eyes met, she knew that she had looked at Rhale's eyes yesterday but she hadn't really seen them, not really, her mind had not been quite right.

Today she did see, even through the darkness of the room she saw the deep blue color, like an endless stormy sky with a fleck of brown that kept her from getting swept away.

"Will you let me see where you are hurt?" Rhale's voice was deep and dark but somehow calming to her. She could only nod at his request, not really trusting her voice at the moment.

Silently he sat himself down beside her and she turned her back to him, he lifted the too big tunic that he had given her to wear last night instead of her broken and dirty dress. She could feel her cheeks getting warm and her hands shook slightly but she managed to make sure that the blanket was covering her lower body so that only her back was showing.

She swallowed her mortification and focused on her breathing as she felt Rhale's big hands touch her back.

She felt so small next to him, like a tiny bird next to a bear.

"Your back is badly bruised and you might have a cracked rib. It's painful but not dangerous." Rhale told her and lowered the tunic carefully around her again.

"With Taurus the ride is only a day long. We are going to a man named Amos, at his estate you can rest and heal. You will be safe there."

"Thank you" She said and managed to give him a small smile.

Without another word Rhale picked her up and carried her outside where he put her on top of Taurus with ease.

Celia stifled a moan of discomfort, it was only a day's ride, she could manage that at least. Rhale handed her a piece of stale bread.

"The forest is too thick here to ride fast so try to eat, it's not the best but it will fill your stomach." She took the bread and nibbled on it as Rhale mounted Taurus behind her. She did not feel any hunger even though she had not eaten anything in a long time but she ate the bread that Rhale so kindly had given.

They rode quietly, the only sound was Taurus heavy hooves as he maneuvered through the closely grown trees.

"Why are you being so kind to me?" Celia asked after a while, the question had been nagging her. She was a lowly born girl, there was nothing special about her.

That was not her being self conscious, she did not have much to offer anyone, especially someone like him. She knew that she was considered beautiful and her mother had always said that she was too beautiful for her own good, but that had only ever been a nuance to her.

Her mother had never let her do anything, she had spent most of her life inside their small cottage or, if ever outside, stuck to her mother's side.

Celia doubted that Rhale would care about her looks and she knew that she had no way of repaying Rhale's kindness to her.

"What do you mean?" Rhale asked after a while.

"You saved me and now you are helping me and I do not understand why. I do not know how I will ever be able to repay you."

"You are alone and you are afraid, you have just witnessed your mother getting killed and chances are that half the town you lived in suffered the same fate. Are the stories about me so horrid that you believe I would not help a damsel in such distress?"

Celia instantly felt shame at his words, she hadn't meant to insult him. "I apologize, I did not mean" she struggled to replace the words "I'm not used to someone helping another without wanting something in return." Now that was true, her mother had taught her that if you were given a favor you would have to give back twice as much as you were given.

"Hm." Was all the response that she was given. Celia promised herself that she would not insult him again and if she somehow made it through all of this she would replace a way to give back the kindness that he had shown her.

"We are soon out of the forest and we will pick up speed. Taurus is fast so hold on tight."

She felt one of Rhale’s big hands come around her midriff and he held on to her securely as they left the cover of trees behind.

Rhale had not been lying, Taurus started to gallop and she had to hold on for all that she was worth, she hadn't known that a horse could ever be this fast. But then again the story's said that Taurus was not an ordinary horse but a gift from the gods to Rhale to help him in his quest to slay monsters.

Celia believed the stories now as they almost flew forward, her long blond hair got stuck on her face and she had to keep her head down to not get the wind in her eyes.

How Rhale was able to see where they were going was a mystery, to her everything was blurry and went past too quickly. The good thing was that she was too focused on not falling off to care about the pain in her back.

Celia wondered how far away they were really going and if they were going to ride this fast for the entire day. If so they would soon be further away than she had even dreamt of going.

They must already be miles and miles away from her home and she wondered if she would ever see it again.