Cally looked out the window at the ground. No snow, but it would fall any minute. She just knew it would.
She sighed as she looked out at the darkening sky. Snow wasn't what she truly wanted this Christmas.
No, of all the wishes in the world, Cally just wanted a horse. Any horse really, although she truly wanted a gray stallion that had turned white to match the snow. Then she'd have both her horse and snow.
She could see such a stallion out there now. Only it wasn't there. It was in her mind.
Cally went to bed knowing she'd get no such stallion. Her parents could afford to care for one, but they didn't have the money it took to buy a stallion.
Never would a beautiful gray gallop through the cow pasture with such freedom as a wild thing. Never would a whinny be heard.
A whinny! Was that what she just heard? She listened again. Not a sound rang through the air.
Cally gave up and crawled from the windowsill. She'd said goodnight to the household and just needed to climb into bed, which she did feeling suddenly weary.
She couldn't wait for tomorrow to come and yet she dreaded it. Still, she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
She awoke to the sound of whinnies. She thought they were horses from her dream except she heard them again as she sat up.
She jumped up from her bed and ran outdoors. In the cow pasture stood a gray, turned white, horse looking at her with sparkling eyes through a long thick forelock. He trotted off from the fence and whinnied again as if to encourage her towards him.
It took no other persuasion to get Cally to run toward him. She slowed to a walk as he snorted and backed away from the fence and he came forward again in order to sniff her outstretched hand. The strange thing was the fact that he didn't need any urging to put his head over her shoulder to allow her to wrap her arms around his neck and hug him. It was then that it decided to snow. Cally laughed as the horse snorted and shot off across the pasture, bucking and kicking the air before he came back to her.
"I shall call you Wish for that you are what I wished for last night," she whispered near the horse's ears.
He only tipped his ear forward to catch her words, snorted, and breathed softly in response as the light snow fell around them.
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