Brumbies on the Beach

A dusty and battered taxi pulled up in font of an equally dusty and battered house at the shore of a beach. A girl with strawberry-blonde hair stepped from the backseat dragging a large suitcase with her. She dropped the suitcase on the ground, put her hands on her hips, and smiled at her surroundings. Waves crashed at the beach leaving foam bubbling on the sand. The sky was clear and blue with the occasional wisp of cloud drifting lazily across the horizon. She turned around and waved goodbye to the taxi as it pulled away, before proceeding up the door. Her hand was just about to knock lightly, (heavily and the door would fall down!), when the door opened.

"Robyn! It's good to see you my girl!" An old man stood on the hearth with his arms wide open and a toothy smile.

"Good to see you too Grandpa", she smiled back.

"Well, come in, come in! Don't want to keep you waiting outside!"

And with that, the girl walked into the dusty and battered house.

***

Robyn sat on the shore of the each, letting grains of sand fall through her fingers. She scanned the National Park around the beach, looking for the Brumbies. Robyn sighed. Of course. There wouldn't be any. A bush fire has swept the National Park last year, and the horses had all died. Their charred bodies had been found tangled in the barbed wire that they had so bravely tried to jump. Their skin scorched and stuck to the wire. There were no more wild horses for miles around, especially not up on the headland. Robyn had used to love the Brumbies. She would search the beach every morning looking for the hoof-prints left in the sand and listen every night for the stallions calls. Most people of the beach were glad the Brumbies had gone. They ruined the natural bushland and they trampled crops, but Robyn loved them all the same.

'If there were any left,' Robyn thought bitterly to herself, 'They would all be captured and broken.' Robyn loved the Brumbies because they were wild. As wild as the sea, as the wind. As wild as fire. As wild as life. She stared out at the sea, letting the waves calm her nerves. Robyn didn't know how long she sat there, but the next thing she knew it was dusk, and she could hear her Grandpa calling her for dinner.

***

Robyn was woken by the sound of a horse neighing in fright. She had gone straight to bed after dinner, and slept soundly, but now she was wide awake. The sky outside was still dark and the moon hung like an orb in the sky, the stars studded like diamonds.

"Another farm horse out disturbing everyone's sleep", Robyn muttered to herself. But Robyn was not cruel hearted, and the horse sounded like it was frightened. Robyn slipped on her boots and a dressing gown and tip- toed out the back door as to not wake her Grandpa. Robyn's Horse Riding Helmet was on her bike handle out side and she grabbed it as she went past.

"Just in case", she whispered to the cool night air.

Gum leaves crunched underneath her feet as she followed where the sound was coming from. Robyn stopped. She was sanding in front of the national park fence. A large sign nearby said in large letters, 'DO NOT LEAVE THE PATH! DO NOT DISTURB THE WILDLIFE!'. Robyn looked at the sign, then back to the fence, then back to the sign.

"It's for a good cause", she reassured herself. She slipped through the thin wire fence and continued searching. Then in a clearing she saw it. A mare was thrashing about as she attempted to free herself from a wire that had entrapped her. But this was no farm horse. It was a brumby. There were no brandings on her and every horse near the sea had one. She was a petite dapple grey horse and her muzzle and legs were a dark sooty colour. Robyn walked slowly towards the mare, making sure she was well out of the way.

"Come on girl, it's Okay.." Robyn tried to calm the horse but this action seemed to make the horse all the more frantic. Her back leg was stuck in the wire, and as she reared and plunged the wire rubbed painfully on the leg. Come morning she would be found and the whole beach would know there was a brumby. Robyn looked again at the mare and her eyes widened in shock. The mare was recently in foal. But that meant there were more Brumbies, or at least a stallion.

"They must have escaped the fire!", Robyn said in shock, just a bit too loudly, driving the mare into hysterics again. Robyn cringed. She slipped on her hat and buckled it tightly.

"Shhhh girl, I want to help you." The horse made no sign that it had heard at all and continued to thrash about. Robyn walked slowly towards the horse, ready to jump out of the way if she had too. Robyn reached out a hand and..

"Ow!", Robyn said snatching her hand back. The horse had bitten her! The mare eyed her warily. Robyn tried again and this time the horse let her stroke her cheek softly, though her eyes were rolling in her head. She ran her hand down the mare's hind leg to the wire. The horse flinched but made no other movement. Robyn carefully untangled the wire from the horses foot and looked at the leg. The fur was rubbed and the skin a bit raw, but apart from that the mare would be okay. Robyn stood up and patted the horse on the rump and instantly the horse regained it's wild nature. The mare reared, flaing it's legs, and swiftly disappeared behind the trees. Robyn sighed, and rubbing her hand said:

"What? No thank-you?"

***

The next morning at the kitchen table Grandpa was very serious. He was looking at Robyn carefully.

"Pity there are no more..Brumbies, hey Robyn?"

Robyn gagged and looked up at him quickly.

"Yeah", she said as warily as the horse the night before.

"If there were any more they would be captured and made tame."

"Hmmm", she nodded in agreement. He wasn't going to trick her into giving anything away that easily!

"That would be sad, wouldn't it?". Robyn's Grandpa was still looking at her very carefully.

"Yeah", Robyn said in monotone, as not to reveal anything. Her Grandpa nodded to himself and then walked outside. Robyn was just wondering whether her Grandpa knew more than he let on, when she fancied she heard a horse call coming from the bush. A horse call thanking her.

Thanking her for her freedom.