Page 162 of Sigils & Spells

Without bothering to get dressed, I fell into bed, and was out.

* * *

In another universe,I woke up a couple hours later, feeling well rested, ate some steamed broccoli, and maybe filed my taxes or something. But in this universe, of course, that’s not what happened.

It didn’t feel like I’d slept. Or any time had passed at all, though it must have. The moment I woke up, I knew something was wrong. Definitely not in my bed. It was too hot, and the air felt sticky against my skin. Whatever was under me was scratchy, like dry grass, and the air around me smelled like… well it smelled like shit. Like manure.

Slowly, I creaked my eyes open, as if that would change what I was about to see.

The very first thing I saw was… the underbelly of a very large animal. A horse. I stifled a scream and crab clawed my way out from under the horse. She was asleep, so the large, chestnut animal didn’t react to my movement.

I sat up. I was in a horse stall. Manure and large piles of hay filled were lit by a dim light that I realized came through a window. Evening light. It must have been hours since I laid down for a nap. Why on earth was I in a horse stall?

And… Why the hell was I naked? I rubbed my eyes hard until spots danced, and I blinked at the ground.

What the fuck?

I stood, wiping dirt and hay off my ass and legs. Standing I could see the rest of the stable—because that is where I was, and there were horses in the surrounding stalls. The one across from me, a pretty white and gray piebald mare stared at me with blank marble eyes.

I didn’t know where it was, and I didn’t know how I’d gotten here but the first thing I needed to worry about was covering my junk and getting home.

I rubbed my eyes hard until spots danced and blinked at the ground. I was still in the stall, staring at a horse’s rear.

I stood, wiping dirt and hay off my ass and legs, trying not to be completely overwhelmed by the little voice in my head that screamed incessantly in fear and confusion. Standing, I could see the rest of the stalls. It was a huge barn, with more than 30 horses sleeping and snorting in their stalls. The horse in the stall directly across from me, a pretty white and gray piebald mare stared at me with big glassy eyes.

I averted my gaze. I didn’t know where I was. Where in town kept this many horses. I felt a little addled, and the only place with a stable coming to mind was the Brambles farm, but I was pretty sure they only had one or two horses. Not thirty. Where mattered less, what I really needed to worry about was covering my junk and getting out of here. The horse had her head hanging over the door as she slept, so that eliminated the most obvious way out, unless I wanted to wake the beast up. And for some reason confronting a horse with your dick out felt like a bad idea. The stall itself was empty as if it had been recently cleaned. Nothing helpful like the horse blankets they put on them in movies. I may have worked at the rodeo, but Minho was the cowboy. My experience with any of the bigger animals was minimal. Horses might be the gentlest creature in the world for all I knew but people got paid to avoid getting killed by these creatures the size of a Honda Civic. No thank you.

Suddenly, a distant creak of an unoiled gate interrupted my unhelpful ponderings. The stable was mostly quiet, so the sound seemed to echo, greeted by rustling and some snorts of stirred horses. I cursed and ducked back down, pressing up against the wall, knees into my chest. Footsteps stomped down the aisle between the stalls.

“Sunflower!” A girl’s voice rang out in an excited sing-song, and to my dismay, the mare in front of me stirred, supposedly reacting to her name. I was once again incredibly aware how big the horse was and how easily my gangly naked body would be to trample.

“Hello pretty girl! How are–” the voice stopped right as the girl’s head appeared over the stall door, her gaze unfortunately falling directly on me. Her jaw fell slack.

“It’s not what it looks like!” I blurted, my voice coming out high and strained.

“I… Have no idea what this looks like. What are you doing in there? Are you naked? Did you try to fuck my horse?”

“No!” My voice cracked. “Of course not!”

Her eyes widened, “You can’t say of course not! There is no ‘of course’ about this! How’d you get in there?”

“I don’t know!”

“What?”

“I don’t know how I got here. I know that sounds like bullshit, but I just woke up here. I think I might have been sleep walking or something.”

She narrowed her eyes at me, and I had enough wherewithal to register the thick winged eyeliner. “Uh huh. If you don’t remember, you might have tried to fuck my horse.”

“I swear I didn’t try to fuck your horse.”

“But you don’t know for sure.”

I must have looked at her with either too much desperation or patheticness for her to continue. She just looked at me, emotions chasing around in her face. I wasn’t sure what else to do, so I just kept squatting, propped up against the wall. She was very small, short with a round face and dark eyes, with thick black hair that had been dyed teal at the ends, just brushing her shoulders in a bob. She looked familiar.

“You’re Pickle Girl!” I exclaimed as soon as I realized, startling the suspicion out of her face.

“What?”

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