Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 238

Chapter 238: Run away!
Ford looked at Mia in panic.

“They’re coming,” He whispered.

This was his worst fear. Her parents would probably kill him on the spot! They wouldn’t believe for a moment that she had asked him to come along after making this decision on her own…

“Let’s go,” Mia dug her heels into her horse’s sides, and Ford’s mount followed as they took off at a gallop.

He clung to the saddle, unprepared for the race. They’d walked and gone a sort of medium speed, but the sheer velocity of the animal underneath him now was unprecedented in his life.

Mia looked more than comfortable in the saddle as she cast a look over her shoulder to make sure he was following her.

Their rest and steady pace must have cost them precious time that allowed her family to catch up. He wondered how much distance could have been covered if Mia hadn’t worried about his pain.

Clearly she was at ease at a much quicker pace than he was.

She turned her horse suddenly, and thankfully his followed. They were kicking up some dust, and the noise from their hooves was surely echoing far into the canyon. Weren’t they giving their position away?

He wanted to call ahead, to question her wisdom in making this move, but she didn’t look back at him again. Her movements were purposeful, and as he had no visible alternative, or even any real ability to control his mount, he simply clung on and followed.

How long could a horse run?

White foam was gathering on Harley’s skin, and Ford didn’t know what that meant. Was it like sweat for a person, or was it worse?

He was so distracted by it that he didn’t notice until it was too late that Mia was leading them directly towards the river.

Her horse plunged into the water without hesitation, while his own bucked and shied before reluctantly following. He was almost thrown from the saddle.

They turned upstream, alongside a cliff. The water quickly rose up to the horses’ chests. Ford’s shoes were soaked by the splash and rush of the river’s swift current.

What in the world was Mia doing?? He’d told her he couldn’t swim!

The water became deeper still, and he could feel when his horse switched from walking on the river bottom to swimming. He panicked, and held to the saddle as tightly as he could.

At least they seemed to float!

The horse found her footing again quickly. The river ran through a gorge that was low and fairly accessible on the Foundrel side, but increasingly steep and treacherous on this side. The river was wide enough that crossing would be very difficult, and Ford wondered whether they would make it.

He was sure the cave was on this side of the border, so where was Mia taking them?

Much to his surprise, they weren’t crossing the river at all. They were alternately walking and swimming upstream, though the latter made him panic inside.

He glanced across the water, seeing a place where it should be relatively easy for the horses to get out. Turning forward, he was shocked and horrified to find that Mia and her horse had both disappeared entirely.

Where was she? Had her horse been pulled under and drowned? Wouldn’t that have made some kind of noise? Were there monsters in the river that could have swallowed them both whole?

He’d heard stories of oceans and the giant fish that lived there, but he’d never spent enough time around water to care until this moment. Did they swim upstream?

His instinct to call out to her was thwarted by his self-preservation. He didn’t want the people pursuing them to hear, and didn’t want any monster that was still hungry to have reason to come after him as well!

Ford’s horse, thankfully, had a more level head than the human who rode it. Harley turned with the current and picked her footing up into a narrow crevice in the cliffside, to a dry place that rose above the riverbed into a sort of alcove.

Mia and her horse were already there, shaking off the river water and drying out on the smooth floor of the strange place.

Ford’s horse came to a stop, and he looked around curiously.

“What is this?” He asked her. “Is this an entrance to the cave?”

He didn’t see any obvious openings in the rock. The gorge they now occupied was an oblong cleft within the cliffside that had enough room for the two of them and their horses to comfortably rest, but not much more.

“No, I don’t think so,” Mia said thoughtfully. “When I heard the horses, I stopped looking for the cave. Instead, I decided we needed to find the perfect hiding place where we wouldn’t be found.”

Ford gaped at her for a moment. The quick thinking involved, the brilliant use of her magic… it made him envious.

Even if he had magic, would he have used it so skillfully?

“And you didn’t think about the fact that I can’t swim,” He hid his envy behind anger. “I could have drowned.”

“You weren’t swimming,” Mia tilted her head. “You were doing what you were born to do.”

“What?” Was she crazy? A miner was not made to swim, by any stretch of the imagination.

“Your mother named you ‘Ford.'” Mia said slowly before she broke into a grin. “And now, you have! You forded the river!”

Her declaration was one in which she obviously took great pride, but the man was unamused.

“You risked my life for a pun?”

“No, I took a calculated risk while following my magical gift to a safe hiding place,” She rolled her eyes.

Ford glared at her. “The ‘calculated risk’ was that I might drown.”

“Harley’s a strong swimmer, though she hates doing it, and your arms are plenty strong,” She pointed out. “I knew you’d be able to hold on with your life at stake. Although…”

“Although?” He refused to be dissuaded from his ire just yet.

“Although, I didn’t exactly know how deep or swift it would get,” Mia grimaced. “Sorry about that.”