Trails Weary

Chapter 1 ~ Trails Weary

Chapter 1

The trail we traveled on had a chilling sense about it...The wind blew steadily through the trees bringing out sounds close to the appearance of a stranger. We could not breath easy, not knowing our where abouts. The moon casted shadows beneath the thicket that were hard to tell apart from something, or someone. Though restless and weary, we pushed on in hopes of finding our own little place of solitude and peace. We carried with us our unfortunate past, and looked to the future ahead in hopes to find better for ourselves.  

The separation was superb, until nights like this... We all know that chilling feeling of an unknown presence... It never fails to send a chill down our spine, and you wonder if it was really your eyes playing tricks on you, or if what you think you saw was really there. 

It was so long ago it seems that we decided to face the world alone... Our past left scars on our hearts and questions in our minds. I often lose track of time. The days and nights always run together... I lose track of how long we've been gone, what direction we travel... I guess it all becomes a big jumbled mess of time after a great deal of time.  

With no desire of direction, we pushed on only traveling by night, because we were too scared to let our guard down while it wasn't light. We'd sleep by day, and travel by night, never staying in one place for long. We weren't sure where we were going... In fact, I don't think either of us had a clue. All we knew is we had to keep going, and not stop. It seemed we could never put enough distance between us and "home"... The memories stuck in our head - repeating like broken record. We couldn't escape it, but we could escape more of it, if we could stay clear of people.  

We were oddly silent for most of our travel. I spoke little to no words, and she stayed so very quiet. We concentrated on nothing but distance.

Dark had come and gone again like all of our previous lonely nights, and still no sign of life. It was pretty much what we were running from, but we knew we couldn't stay out here alone forever... It was seldom that we came across water, and there was very little to eat. Our bodies dripped with sweat and our stomachs growled, until starvation mode set in and we lost hunger.

The wind had just picked up that night, which felt good to us, but was not a good thing. It made it near impossible to tell what was what. I was on edge, and so was she. I kept a firm grip on my saddle horn, and paid close attention to the quiver and tensionof my horse. Often my mare would pause for a moment and listen...She would stand perfectly still...So still that she wouldn't even breath for a moment. Her head would raise, her eyes would become wide open, her ears would go firmly forward and her stiffen and quiver. For a minute, it would be hard to tell if she was being cautious, or if she was about to run away from something she saw, smelled, or heard. Though scared, I always knew she would keep us safe. She had the flight instinct of a horse, but was sensible and trusting unlike one. I knew she would get us out of danger in the blink of an eye - so no matter how nervous I was, I could reassure myself by knowing that she could out run anything that was out there...As long as she saw it coming. I always kept an eye out for both of us, and so did she. My mare would carefully and cautiously step around every rock, and walked near silent. Her ears would twitch every which way, listening for anything, and everything.

The wind was still blowing steady, and hard, as it was earlier that night, and we were still on edge, but the chance for a drink of water was among us. We had come across a gently flowing stream, as crystal clear as one could imagine. The bottom, was filled with clean rocks and all the dirt had been washed away from the water's path. The sound of gently trickling water was music to our ears. The moonlight softly eliminated our path to the waters edge. As glad to find this as we were, we'd be taking a risk stopping here... Other things enjoy fresh water as much as we did, and that meant potential trouble. The main issue was our surroundings... Trees sheltered the water's edge and it's presents... The moon lit the bald spots, but left the rest in a unfaithful appears much too dark to see - and without sight and sound - which was overpowered by the stream, we'd have to rely strictly on my mare's sent of smell to keep out of harms way.      I slowly released my right stirrup and grabbed a chunk of mane while holding my reins. Then I slowly swung my leg over, and lowered myself to the ground while releasing my other stirrup. I straitened my long time, bent, stiff legs and slowly walked forward to put the reins over my mare's head so she could drink. She paused for a moment, sniffed the air, and waited... My head clenched the reins, and I stopped breathing to listen closer, and my heart was beating rapidly. She smelled something... I just didn't know what... I feared for my life, and hers. I widened my eyes to try and see something - anything... I began to shake... Then, she sighed and relaxed. I had a sigh of relief, and I could breath again. There was one thing that was still bothering me though... The question being that I couldn't tell if she had mistakenly thought there was something there, or if there was, and it left... I tried my best to let that thought go. I needed to drink. We were a little shaken up, but glad that everything was okay. We began to approach the stream again. Her with her head down, and I on my knees. The first sip of water I took was so very refreshing. The smooth, cool, cleanness of the water ran through my mouth like velvet. And I was so thankful to have it. My mare's eyes softened as she sipped the water into her mouth, and soon, like myself, she was gulping ravenously. The clean water was a refreshment to our dried mouths. Suddenly... In the background was the sound of a small rock rolling into another! I sprang up onto my feet, and my horse threw her head up in a state of panic - water dripping from her tightly sealed tense lips. We turned and faced the sound, both with a similar look of horror. It wasn't a question of gravity, because it was flat, so something was definitely there! My mare snorted, and her whole body went stiff... There it was again! But twice! And faster this time! I grabbed onto her saddle horn - swinging myself up, and before I could grab the reins, or even sit down and out my feet in the stirrups, she took off in a shear run!! We went crashing through trees so thick, and rocks so tall, that I wasn't sure we could make it! I was holding on for dear life, and dodging branches best I could! I couldn't look back, but she kept running, and running, so I knew whatever it was was chasing us! My horse ran in panic, through the dark of night, and I could hear her hooves and legs crashing over rocks! As our path started to open up a long ways away from where we started, I was able to slow her up from a dead run, to a less dangerous pace, but still fast enough to keep whatever it was behind us. It seemed as if we ran for miles. I still could barely breath I was so frightened... And all I could hear was my mare gasping for air. Her neck was coated in sweat, and she was still so stiff and scared. Then, bam! I didn't see it coming... A low branch under a lone tree out in the middle of the field we just started to run through, pierced my side of my stomach! The pain was so intense that I nearly went blank, and screamed of agony. It was too much to bare... When I hit the branch, it almost ripped me off my horse and then it broke free, pulling it's self back out of me. I was trying my absolute best to keep my wits about me just to stay on my horse.. I slumped over onto the front of my saddle and her neck, with one hand rapped around her, and the other holding my side because of the pain, and to try and slow bleeding. The moon light was just barely bright enough that I could faintly see, so I released my hand for a minute to see my wound. I could see an indention in the side of my stomach bellow my rib cage and just above my belt. My immediate thought was that I missed bones, so now it was just a question of what it tour apart on the inside of me... I could see copious amounts of blood down my side, onto my leg and onto the fender of my saddle. I could hardly breath... Tears were streaming down my face and I was moaning in extrema pain. I was in shock over the pain, and how it looked.  The wound was about 2 inches deep, so I repeatedly reassured myself that I was going to make it. It wasn't all the way through, and it didn't hit bone... I kept telling myself that skin can heal... Skin can heal... My body trembled and shook out of control, and soon I felt very cold. I couldn't concentrate on anything but the pain... Thankfully my horse slowed down to a walk by this time, because it was right about then that I slumped off of her and landed and a lump on the ground. It was a patch barren of rock in the field luckily, because I had absolutely no control over what I was doing. I laid on the ground in a featle position, crying, moaning, gasping for air, and holding my side. I got enough awareness to look to see if my horse was still with me, and saw that she had stopped just in front of me. Her head was low, staring at me, and her eyes showed her emotion perfectly. She was confused. I then noticed her condition... She was covered in sweat, she was breathing very roughly, and her legs were marred with small cuts and scrapes... I sulked for her... I began to cry harder. My wound quickly directed my complete attention as it started throbbing and dispensing more blood.  I took a the bandanna that I had around my neck, off, and although it was so painful, I pushed it down into the wound and pressed firmly on the surface.  I wasn't even thinking about my surroundings... Or if we were far enough away from whatever it was that we were running from... I was in way too much pain. I laid there hopelessly in the dark as the horizon slowly faded from dark to light. My horse came up an nuzzled my head, and all I could make myself do or say was, "I promise I won't leave you."