The waves devoured the sugar looking sands, as if it almost tasted so. Energetic dolphins broke through the gravity of the dark water, soaring above the sea, breaking free of their limitations. Wind painted wild mustangs danced across the shore, as if every time their hooves licked the land, it tickled. Anastasia sat on the white grains of premature glass, her toes buried as the water reached for her feet, never quite making it.
When the first sign of dawn became clear, Anastasia slowly stood up. When she reacher her full crest, a dashing five-feet-five-inches, she bent over and scooped up her horses halter and reins. Living so close to the ocean had its benefits, accompanied by its atrociousness. There was the constant access to freedom and endless adventures, and then there were the storms. Luckily, Anna (ahn-yah) hadn't been in the presence of a hurricane in all her 17 years.
Anna looked at the mighty pacific ocean as the bright oranges and pinks finger painted the grey sky. She turned her back to the water, directing herself towards the wooded area. Her horse, Montey, or as she called him Mo, was grazing on a patch of beach grass to her far left. She whistled and beckoned for him to start her way, "Mo! come on boy, we gotta be back before mom wakes up." Montey trotted her way, with extra pep in his step. As they met, she took the halter and slid it over his nose, and up over his ears, throwing the reins over his neck, she mounted his bare back.
Montey was a large horse, 16.3 hands. In normal people talk, not horse people talk, he is 5 feet 7 inches at the tip of his withers. Taller than her just at his back. He was a solid dun, with the standard dorsal stripe and tiger legs. He was 6 years old and trained for western pleasure. Anna got him on her 15th christmas, and hasn't looked at another horse since, because Montey, he was her soul horse.
With little to no time until her mother would wake up and make breakfast, she clicked at Montey and without skipping a beat he catapulted into a dead gallop. Being a fast horse, and only living half a mile from the shore, it only took them 5 minutes to gallop across their private property and reach the barn just before the sun rose. She grabbed his halter off his head, put him into his stall, and bolted to the house.
She softly danced up the porch and gracefully stepped around the creaking patches sprawled out across the old wood. As she opened the heavy oak door, she stepped inside and turned away from the door, closing it gingerly. Turning to the stairs, hoping to make it up without causing some sort of chaotic mass of sound, she was aghast by her mothers voice.
"Out night riding again?" Her mother set down the dish she was drying and stood in the common you-know-you-did-something-wrong pose. She approached Anna and looked at her reproachfully, "There are too many copperheads, bears and alligators in this area for you to be riding ALONE, may I remind you, at night." Anna looked at her bare feet, plastered with dew, sand, and grass. "I know... There was a meteor shower last night and I just knew it would be astonishing by the cove. Im sorry, if you will compromise with me, I wont go without you."
Her mother looked contemplatively at her, "Alright." Anna smiled and hugged her mom. Her mother huffed and went back to washing the dishes she used to cook breakfast, she must have gotten up early this morning. Having nothing else to do Anna went back to her mother and began, "Mom?" Her mother replied with a simple, "Hmm?" Anna smiled to butter her up, "Since its morning now... Can I go back out?" Her mom, finishing the last dish in the sink, looked at her, "Anna.." She started in a doubtful manner. Anna, having heard this start cut in with a mocking tone of her mothers monotonous voice, "Watch for copperheads, bears, and alligators." Her mom rubbed her head, mussing up her hair, "Thats my girl." Anna smiled and ran out the door.
'I know why she does that every time.' Anna repeated the sentence in her head, scrambling for the shards of reflected memories her mother had told her. In fact, they weren't even her memories. They were her mothers, recited, rewritten, replayed. She continued brushing Montey. Remembering her father was always fatiguing. She could understand why the situations would happen, how they'd come to happen, but she could never remember them happening. She tried not to think of him very often because she'd get sucked into this state of uncertainty. She would question the most backed facts in the book. It didn't take much for her to become a state of mind and not even a person. She could say the most harsh things and never feel bad about it. Not because she was heartless or had no feeling, but because she would black out. Anna hoisted herself onto Montey and laid back on him, changing her thoughts from her father, sitting up she clicked at Montey, and they headed towards the beach.
