On The Right Side Of The Lake

Here I am, riding the back of this magnificent white/silver look-alike horse.

I was just lying in the grass, hours ago, by the lake, where I saw a movement coming from the water; I had sat up startled and perhaps a bit afraid, although I didn’t know why I was afraid. I saw a flash of movement, before the creature, whatever it was, drove back into the water and out of site.

I sat there, still, for a few minutes, thinking to myself ‘what is it? What if it was an animal and was hurt?’ panic had begun to kick into my senses, I stood up and walked over to the lake, peering down, looking for that unknown creature. Underneath the surface of the water, I saw it. It was a horse; well it looked like a horse anyway. It looked up at me and blinked.
When I saw it, my first thought was that it was tied down to the water and had tried to free himself. But then, all of a sudden, I saw him move, and he rose steadily upwards. Finally, he was standing on top of the water, and to my utmost surprise he did not sink. He stood on top of the water, looking beautiful with his big, bright turquoise eyes and gorgeous white mane of hair. He was simply beautiful; there was no other way to describe him.

What stood out most were his eyes and his silvery white mane. His eyes were so bright that I could only compare them to the topaz jewellery I often see girls wear, and his mane was like a white, shiny, sheen of silky hair. I just wanted to go to him and pet it, but something panged inside my head bringing me back.

I could smell the water that was dripping of his body, back into the water. It was such a strong smell, almost sickly, tainted, I almost mistook it for poison, but I could tell just by looking at it that it was water; the smell was so strong I could almost taste it.
He looked at me, his eyes locking onto mine, I could have sworn I saw something close to maliciousness in his eyes, but I couldn’t be sure because as soon I blinked, the look was gone, replaced with a kind of lost look.

He slowly but steadily took a step towards me, cautiously, as if he moved to fast I would run. He took another slow, cautious step and neighed softly at me, almost whining. I just stared at him as if in a trance, he looked so incredibly sad and lonely.

A sudden clap of thunder broke that kind of trance I was in and suddenly I realised, the horse had stopped moving and was at the edge of the water, if he took just one more step he would be on land, and stared intensely at me.

The sky darkened dramatically and started to rain, and a sudden hesitance washed over me, telling me to just turn around and go home, I was in danger. I ignored the voice and took a step towards him, with the same amount of caution he had shown me as not to scare him. He stayed where he was, and neighed again, a bit louder this time, but still soft all the same. I thought I had stepped to close and scared him. But still he stood there, waiting for me. I reached the edge of the land and looked up at him, towering above me. He bowed his head and looked at me still, through his long lashes, urging me to stroke him; I raised my hand and carefully placed it near his nose, so he could smell me, so he could feel safe and trust me, he nudged my hand softly making a small ‘snuff’ noise. I put my hand on his head and rubbed slowly, he was still wet so his fur was a bit rough, then again waited to make sure he was comfortable with my hand being there, I didn’t want him to get nervous.

I ever so slowly moved my hand to run along his wet neck, and down his broad, sturdy back. For some reason he fascinated me and made my alarm bells scream loudly inside my head, telling me to get away from this beautiful thing, and never go back, but I couldn’t even tear my eyes away from him, let alone leave him.

I had so many unanswered questions like... How could he stand on top of the water and not sink? What has made him so sad and so lonely? Why didn’t he step onto the land? All these question raced through my mind as I stroked him.

His head turned to look over his shoulder and at me, his eyes capturing mine yet again and just as I looked at him; a thought ran across my mind.

Would he let me ride him?

I slowly prepared myself to mount onto his back, ignore the voice inside my head telling me to not do it and leave, but once again I ignored it and waited to make sure he’d let me. I looked into his eyes and saw that same malicious look, but as soon as I saw it, it was gone, instead I saw them gleaming with happy eagerness, at that point I knew. That was what he’d been waiting for; he wanted me to ride him. And despite that increasingly annoying voice inside my head, who was I to refuse? If it would take away that lost, sad and lonely look from his eyes I was willing to do anything.

In one swift, fluent, easy movement I was mounted and ready to go.

I stroked his neck soothingly, gentle and then lightly tapped his sides, telling him I was ok, he walked away from the land and walked deeper into the water, he turned his head to look at me, and at that point I saw a certain viciousness in his eyes and unlike the other times, it didn’t go away or change. Then without warning he ran into a gallop and leaped into the air, diving downwards, me clinging onto his neck terrified for my life.

At that split moment I realised my utterly stupid mistake, this was no horse, nothing like a horse due to its certain personality, this magnificent creature was a kelpie, and kelpies’ drown people.