Devin

Chapter 1: Black as night

The normal silence response of the forest was shattered when a gun shot echoed through the forest, causing birds and small animals to flee for a safe place. The trees rattled, shaking from left to right across the blue sky.

Suddenly, two horses galloped free from the woods. One of the horses was a chestnut stallion, the other a gray mare. The girl who road the gray kicked her horse faster, her blind hair streaming behind her like a banner. The boy couldn’t help but look behind him, wondering why the man was shooting at them. His sandy hair covered his eyes and he held his breath.

“What is he shooting at?” he said to himself. The soft sound of hoof beats against the forest floor seemed to loud, who ever was chasing them could probably hear it!

“Stop!” the sandy haired boy said to the girl. “Stop!”

They both came to a halt side-by-side in a small clearing. The boy listened to the silent forest, holding his breath, thought there wasn’t much he could hear against the pounding of his heart.

There was nothing, just the smell of pine and the sound of water trickling in a near by stream. The boy let out his breath with a gasp. “Are you okay, Arianna?” The boy said to Ari, the blond haired, blue eyed girl. “I’m fine,” she said. She patted her mare’s neck. “And I think Amanda’s okay too.” She wiped a tear off her eye and looked at him. “Are you okay, Troy?”

“Me?” Troy said, “I’m fine…. Fine.”

“And Max?”

Troy patted his chestnut. “I think Max is okay too.”

“Good,” Ari said. “What was the old idiot shooting at anyways?”

“Us,” Troy said, slap-jawed. “….I think.”

“Mr. Cadwell has lost his mind!” Ari started. Troy laughed. “Mr. Cadwell lost his mid a long time ago, Ari. Get with the program.” They both broke out into giggles when they thought about the man. He was the owner of Rocking R Ranch and he was a former horse trainer. He got old and mean though. He was broad, and pretty big. But old and wrinkled, like a prune. His barn was Ari’s and Troy’s barn’s rival. It wasn’t their barn, but they worked there as stable hands.

Mr. Cadwell’s son was the scary one. His name was Perry, and he would do anything for a little cash. He was thinner, but taller with short curly hair and mean brown eyes. He was about twenty two and didn’t have a job, other then being working on his father’s ranch, witch he rarely ever did.

Rocking R Ranch was small and dirty. Most of the horses there were pushed to the limit and were unrideable. It was more like a desert then a farm, with dry sand and dust everywhere. The horses were almost never feed and mostly skin and bones.

Ari and Troy’s barn, on the other hand, was nice and grassy, with rolling plains of grass and pastures. The horses were well feed and taken care of there, and some were great show jumpers. It was called Golden Stone Farms.

Ari and Troy road in western saddles, above two wonderfully built horses. Amanda was a show jumper and Ari road her English most of the time, but liked to take a break once in a wile with western.

Max was an X-racer. He was trained for the track, but when he became to much for the owners to take, they sold him to Troy at Golden Stone.

“C’mon, Ari lets get back to the farm.” Troy directed Max to turn around and Ari did the same, but what they saw stunned them and prevented them from moving any closer.

A huge, black warmblood mare stood at the edge of the clearing and looked at them with deep brown eyes. She was dirty, and skinny. But finely muscled and as strong as an ox. Her tail was long and tangled, her mane un- kept. Her hooves were long and cracked, but black as night and iron hard.

Troy opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out.

“….Beautiful….” Ari said softly, careful not to scare the wild creature. The mare watched them for a moment, then flicked her head to the side. She reared back up on her hind legs, pawing the air with fury, her mane flowing long over her withers.

“Whooooaaaa….” Troy said in a mollifying tone. “Easy, girl, easy.”

The mare came back to earth as lightly as a feather coming to rest, she looked directly at Troy for a moment, making eye contact with him. Troy knew a horse never really did that unless they had a real connection with a person. He turned his attention to a bloody scar on the mare’s rump that was almost painful to look at.

Finally, the mare turned and darted down a narrow path, running at a full gallop with blinding speed that seemed to have surpassed the normal.

Without thinking, Troy spurred Max, sending him forward in a gallop down the path the black warmblood had took. Ari flowed them with Amanda, racing behind them both.

Despite her size, the mare was quick and agile, she thundered around each turn with ease, leapt over each log effortlessly, and ran through water with no change of pase what so ever.

When that left the forest, they got into the desert part of the area, where Mr. Cadwell’s horses would try to find some grass to graze on.

A huge jump loomed ahead, bigger then anything Troy had ever gone over, even in an English saddle.

The mare gracefully leapt over it, like a low flying bird.

Crap! Troy thought. Max isn’t a jumper! But it was too late, he was galloping striate toward it, his ears pricked at the sight, deciding whether to jump it or not. Troy prayed he would.

Suddenly, Max stopped short in front of the jump, making Troy fly over his head. The sandy haired boy flipped in the air and landed on his stomach, cutting his chin, knees and shoulders.

All the excitement as disappeared. Every thing seemed to stop as Troy coughed up dust and sand that had found his lungs. He sat up in a fetal position, letting the dirt spill of his shirt.

He then heard a horse nicker low in her throat.

He knew it wasn’t Max.

He looked up and saw a pair of black hooves just a foot away from him. Then he saw black knees, a broad chest, and then a bid nose in his face, blowing softly in his hair.

“Oh boy,” Troy said nervously. He closed his eyes and waited to feel the hard pounding of the mare’s hooves against his back.

So I had this dream about my pony the other night and thought it would make a cool story, so I wrote in down and am planning on the other chapters!