Contest Entry

My entry to Wandering_Spirit's contest

Character- Ashe
Horse- Bella
Human by day, demon by night...

The word "mare" is comonly used as a word meaning female horse but in old english the word mare or maere could refer to a demon...

Nightmares-

there are a few different legends about nightmares, one being that a nightmare is caused by demons. A demon would come at night while people sleep and sit on the chest of the sleeper causing their breath to quicken and spawning dark dreams.
another legend is that a woman, who appears human by day, takes the form of a malevolent spirit at night. She would visit people as the dreamed and was also said to sit on the chest of the sleeper. In both cases the sleeper awakes terrified, short of breath and sometimes unable to move, but in this case the state they awake in is called "hag ridden"

a little side note here, horse stalls are built in a way that allows air to circulate through the enclosed area keeping at a comfortable temperature most of the time. Before stalls were built like this, the design would trap air in and keep it much warmer.

A summer day a man may wake to find his horse, stalled the night befor, covered in sweat. This condition was also called "hag ridden" because of the tale of a witch who would steal peoples horses and ride them until they could run no longer, then return them to the stall she found them in.
I found that kind of creepy.

the horse is there because of the word "mare" but also by inspiration from Henry Fuseli's picture "The Nightmare"

His picture can be seen here-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Johann_Heinrich_F%C3%BCssli_053.jpg

please excuse me if i got some facts wrong, it's late and i'm tired...