Escaping into the Night
Tony leaned over in the saddle and glanced nervously down at his horse’s feet. He could feel its hooves slipping slightly on the stone path, and it made him nervous. When he was young Howard had insisted he play Polo, so he knew well the dangers of riding. They had been grilled into his head, and one of those things was icey stone roads and steel horseshoes did not mix well.
Sherlock rode a good three or four yards behind him, and looked very uncomfortable in the saddle. This surprised Tony, considering horse was still the primary mode of transportation.
“You alright back there?” Tony called over his shoulder.
“Quite fine,” Sherlock tried asure him, but sounded very unsure, “Maybe we could slow the pace?”
Slowing down probably wasn’t the worst idea. There was no sign that the killer robot had followed them, and the amount of slipping going on was making Tony uneasy.
“Alright,” He agreed and rained the horse into a slow canter. They now rode side by side down the side of the road. Tony had forgotten how much he actually enjoyed riding; he had always pretend to hate it just because Howard had wanted him to ride, and in his young age he had refused to let on that his father was right about something.
His horse flicked its ears back. It heard something, so did Sherlock’s. Tony suddenly felt like they were being watched; he cast a quick glance over his shoulder. Nothing. His horse increased its pace, not by much, but just enough for him to tell.
“I think we should pick the pace backup,” Sherlock said just loud enough to be heard over the sound of jingling tack, and clatter of hooves. Despite not being as attuned with horses he was still observative which meant he had probably noticed the same things Tony had.
“I was just about to suggest that. I also think we should get off the road,” Tony suggested.
“Why on earth would we do that? It’s hard enough to see as it is. We don’t need to be riding through the woods blind.”
Sherlock had a point, but Tony really like the idea of pushing the horses while on slick pavement.
“If we need to move fast, the horses will traction on the normal ground. We will be able to go faster.”
“Unless we get hit by a tree,” Sherlock pointed out, “Plus it would be to easy to get split up.”
Tony made a low angry grumble in his throat, and then gave his horse nudge to go faster. He didn’t like this in the least, but Sherlock had a point. Tony tensed with every slight slip of his horse’s hooves.
Something huge and metal landed in front of them on the road. Tony’s horse whinnied and skidded to a stop, sparks flew under its feet from the steel scraping on the rock road. The horse reared angrily. The robot rose to its feet in front of them. Tony restled the rains and managed to get his horse under control. Sherlock was having some issues. Tony put his reins in one hand, grabbed Sherlock’s riens, and quickly angled his horse off the road. They took off into the woods.
“I got it now!” Sherlock said indignantly snatching his reins back.
“Okay, I wasn’t sure. You looked like you were struggling there.”
The heavy crashing behind them told Tony that the robot was following them. He felt a little guilty for dragging Sherlock into this.
“Maybe we should split up,” Tony shouted Sherlock.
“Why would we do that!? That is the worst idea ever!”
“No its not, think about it. The robot can only chase one of us, and it obviously wants me, so if it chases me then you can get away,” Tony reasoned. It wasn’t fair for him to continue pulling Sherlock into his mess. Everybody always got dragged into his mess, and more often than not things ended worse for them then then they did for him.
“No, we are in this together,” Sherlock insisted.
“Look we split up and regroup at the Tower bridge tomorrow at three,” Tony argued.
"Or we don't split up at all,"Sherlock argued,
"Look that thing can only chase one of us," Tony countered, "We need to split up."
“Fine.”
Tony was grateful the argument didn’t continue.
“You go right, I’ll go left,” Tony ordered and pulled the horse to the left; he could still hear the robot crashing behind him. Good, it had decided to follow him. He gave is horse a kick and it increased its speed. Tony cept his head low as they charged through the woods; getting hit in the head with a tree branch going this speed was not ideal.
A short time later they burst through the tree line out into a hilly field; no longer having to worry about tree branches Tony gave the horse another kick and it increased its speed farther. They tore through the snowy field leaving the robot farther and farther behind. The sun was rising slowly behind them, and the light from London gleamed slightly in the distance.