Runaway Horse

Chapter 6

I grab a scarf out of my bag, and use it to tie Beau to a tree. I need to go exploring, and I don't want Beau to get lost or hurt. I start to walk away, and hear him whine.

"I'm sorry but I just want to keep you safe baby boy," I sympathetically say.

I amble away, no destination in mind. The forest seems to last forever, but I've probably only been walking ten minutes. Up ahead in the distance I see a green field, and what looks like a barn. As I get closer, I notice horses. So many of them, grazing in the pasture.

I finally get out of the forest, and look around to see if anyone is coming. The coast is clear.

I walk into the barn, and look at the stalls. They are all empty but each has a name tag with a picture of the horse on it. There are twelve labeled stalls, although there are two empty ones.

I hear hoof beats on the in field outside, and creep around the corner to peek and see what's going on.

Eleven horses are crowding one man, nuzzling him affectionately and searching his pockets for treats. He gives each horse an alfalfa cube and slips out of the pasture. He seems so good with them.

I see him walk around the back of the barn house, and I follow him. Maybe he's keeping the other horse there, because there were only eleven in the pasture.

What I find is appalling. A dirty, muddy buckskin paint stallion is galloping around a tiny round ring. He's definitely a mustang. The man who was so good with the other horses is cracking a whip at this one, and yelling at it.

"You worthless piece of shit, you're a nothing of a horse," he yells before bringing the whip down on the stallion's body. The horse rears up, and lets out a shrill noise that can only be described as a scream.

"You get him boy," I whisper.

After the mustang gets too tired to go on, the man hooks a lead onto his halter and starts to lead him towards the barn. I hide behind a tree until the man has secured the horse in the stall and gone back into the field to feed the other horses. I notice that he didn't feed the mustang, and sneak over to the barn.

I open the barrel that the man got food out of, and grab a handful of the food pellets. I cautiously approach the stallion, and reach the food out towards him.

He eyes my hand suspiciously, but his hunger takes over and he quickly gobbles the feed down.

"Good boy," I coo. I reach out and stroke his mane.

I see the man coming in with the horses, starting to put then away for the night.

"I have to go now, but I'll be back," I whisper. Then I bolt out the back end of the barn, and into the woods.

Today, I've had a strange sense of déjà vu as I walked around the barn. And it hits me... this is the barn that my parents owned. These trails are where I last saw my parents. This forest is where they... where they died.

A/N next chapter you'll find out what happened with her parents. =] Thanks for reading. Please comment I love feedback. And vote =]

Author's Feedback to Past Self: Okay 12-year-old-me. You should probably know that you shouldn't ever leave your dog tied up! Especially a puppy in the middle of the woods!!! That makes him easy prey for wolves or coyotes or falcons etc. etc. etc. That was a bad move by Taylor!!! Also, you kind of dropped that whole deja vu thing suddenly. One moment Taylor's walking away, and the next moment she's like 'Oh, this is the place my parents died!' My advice to you, past me, was to drop hints and foreshadow a bit instead of just dropping it out of the blue!