At the strange sound, Nick squinted his eyes while tilting his head. His brow furrowed as he offhandedly swiped back the blond locks that fell into his eyes at the slight movement. His stance wary, he crept into the dark barn. The moonlight seemed the only light in the shadowed barn, the white beams slicing through the dusty air from the stall windows.

The muffled grunt and shuffle came again, the source an enclosed stall at the end of the barn’s hall. Nick paused, not sure if he should continue. Soon though, his young mind curious, he shrugged his apprehension off and approached the closed stall. He stopped before the door and looked back and forth, having an odd sense of being watched. Nick shook it off, frowning as he pressed his hand to the rough wood door.

A sudden bang came from within the stall and caused Nick to jump back, blue eyes wide with fright. He gasped in short, erratic breaths, trying to calm his racing heart. Finally, after several moments, he took in a deep breath and stepped up to the door again, now more determined than ever to find what kind of horse could be locked up in such a secluded way.

Hesitating only slightly, he gripped the door again and opened the latch. He swung the door open wide and looked up to be greeted with the sight of an immense, pure white stallion, the moonlight reflecting off the towering figure and causing the animal to almost glow white. The blue glass eyes glared at him in a burning rage, nostrils flaring as it snorted in hate. The stallion shook its finely sculpted head, long neck arching as it pawed the straw bedded stall.

It was the most beautiful creature Nick had ever seen.

He stared in awe, struck motionless. That is, until the stallion screamed in challenge and reared up, steal shod hooves slashing the air above the blond. Gasping, Nick stumbled back, falling to the hard wood floor as the stallion towered over him.

The white stallion screamed again, glass eyes bright, and then plunged back down. Nick screamed and threw his arms over his head in terror as the slashing hooves closed in on his defenseless form...

.