April 7th, 2013
Journal,
I woke early, a big smile on my face at finally having somewhere to call home. I decided to let the girls sleep in awhile and after a quick breakfast of canned peaches, I went around searching the grounds outside. What a bunch of pleasing surprises I found.
I took the back door out of the house and walked up the flagstone pathway to a small shed beside the barn I'd seen yesterday. The door was sealed up tight with a chain and padlock, I'd have to find something to break it open. A heavy hammer should do the trick.
I put the shed to the back of my mind and decided to check out the barn instead. I walked through the large double doors and down the center of the barn. Stalls lined the walls, some of them with nameplates hanging off of the gates.
"Utopia, T.T Style, Mr. Purple, Beau." I read as I walked through the quiet barn. I came across a tack room near the end of the barn and walked inside.
There were saddles hanging from racks on the walls, each with a name from the stalls embroidered on the sides. Bridles, reins and bits hung alongside the saddles. Shelves along the walls held big brushes, picks and first aid kits. A large wooden trunk set against the wall held saddle blankets and leg wraps. Looks like whoever left here had a few horses. I wondered what happened to them as I walked back out of the room and left the barn.
It wasn't long before I found out. An excited yelp followed by a tinkling laugh came from the right and I wandered up the pathway from the barn, quickly spotting Karen standing by a fenced off pasture, scratching the ears of a large brown Arabian horse. He nuzzled into her arm and snorted, stamping his hoofs excitedly. I closed the distance between us and softly patted the horse's nose. Another horse stood a ways back, wary of its new visitors.
"I found their gear in the tack room." I told her.
"They can come in handy if we can get them to trust us. This guy doesn't seem too skittish at all." She laughed as the horse, seeming to understand she was talking about him, pushed on her arm.
"I wonder how they survived..." I thought aloud.
"They were in this closed off pasture the whole time." Karen said. "The fence around it is pretty high so I don't think many undead could have gotten in. The pasture itself is huge." She pointed around the closed off area. "You can't even see the other side of the fence from here. They're really thin now but they had enough to live off of. Good thing we found them when we did though because the grass in here is getting low, they wouldn't have lasted much longer."
As she spoke, another one of the horses came closer. Though she was dirty, dusty, you could see the beautiful, pure white beneath the filth. She was a bit shorter and more compact than the Arabian.
"How much do you know about horses?" I asked Karen as I reached out to try and touch the white horse. She flinched away and backed up a few paces.
"I grew up on a ranch and boarding facility. So a pretty decent amount. It's been a long time but the knowledge always stuck with me." She clicked her tongue and put her palm out toward the white horse.
I waited and watched as Karen remained standing there, palm out and perfectly silent, only clicking her tongue every few moments to keep the horses attention. The silence and waiting paid off as the timid horse finally walked forward and put its nose onto her palm.
"Let them smell you, sense you, like a dog." She said softly, never breaking eye contact with the horse. "They're very good judges of character and they're very in tune with a persons emotions." She softly rubbed her palm up the horse's nose, coming to a stop between her eyes. She rubbed her head into Karen's hand and the bond was formed. When Karen pulled away the horse followed, stepped closer and rubbed against her side.
