Kingdom of Refuge

Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon

All was calm, but my heart was still racing. Was there the slightest possibility that Tor liked Drew? If she didn't, it wasn't going to end well for Drew.

In less than an instant, that peaceful mood changed. Tor whinnied loudly and reared up as far as she could reach in an attempt to throw Drew, her yellow and red fur illuminating like the power of lightning that she just took on.

"Whoa! Easy girl! Easy!" He cried, trying and failing to calm the irate horse.

Tor's only response was more violent bucking and distressed cantering. My heart skipped a beat. What could I do?

"Tor! Stop it!"

She either didn't here me, or didn't care.

"Tor! Calm down!"

She didn't even hesitate.

"TORCHICK!!!!!!!!!! SNAP OUT OF IT!!!!!!!!!!!!" I screamed, in my panic calling her by her full name.

She stopped for an instant, seeming to realize that her full name had been called. However, the instant was over too soon and she was back to trying to throw Drew.

Not good, not good, NOT GOOD!!!!!!!!! When Tor was in crazy mode, there was no stopping her until she settled down by herself. It wouldn't make a difference how many times I called her name.

I mentally scanned through the extremely limited possibilities of what I could do in this situation. And by extremely limited, I mean one.

The only thing I could really do at this point was wait until Tor threw Drew and try to rescue him before Tor accidentally does anything in her uncontrollable rage.

I have to admit: Drew is a Good rider. Most people would have been on the ground by now, but he was hanging in there. However, it was obvious that he was struggling and wouldn't last much longer.

With one final jolt, Tor threw him. He landed on his side, and it heard a slight crack as most of his weight landed on his left arm.

Tor reared. If one of her hooves hit him, I don't think he'd make it.

"NO!!!" I screamed, throwing myself in between Drew and Tor. She would never intentionally hit me, but in the position she was in there is no guaranty that I wouldn't be struck.

Putting yourself in front of a horse is never a good idea. Especially not a crazy, rampaging horse. However, if I didn't, Drew would be in front of said crazy, rampaging horse.

"Tor!!!!" I screamed. "Stop this right now!!!!" Tor seemed to recognize her rider and came down calmly, not on me or Drew. Thankfully.

To be honest, I don't really know why I just risked my life for him. Maybe it was because I didn't want to feel responsible for what my horse had done. But somehow, I just really didn't want him to get hurt.

I grabbed Tor by the reigns and quickly pulled her into an empty stable stall, and shut the door. "Stay here Tor." I whispered. "I'll explain later."

I ran back outside to find that Drew was still on the ground, eyes wide with shock and surprise. I knelt on beside him.

"Are you alright?" I asked quietly.

"I- I think so..."

"Can you stand up?"

He slowly rose to his feet. At first I thought that he had gotten off easy, but I was soon proven wrong. He was carefully cradling his left arm, and most of his weight was balanced onto his right foot.

I stepped forward and gently as possible touched his left arm. "It's broken." I said flatly. "Can you walk?"

He took a few steps forward, but he was limping badly.

"You're not going to be able to make it up to the castle by yourself..." I said, thinking aloud. "And you can't ride up there without your arm getting moved... Hmm... Thanks a lot, Tor."

"If you can get something to brace my arm until we get back to the castle, I should be fine. Absol is really smooth. Oh, and by the way. Nice job getting me off that insane horse before I got hurt."

My eye twitched. "I was the one who warned you not to ride Tor in the first place..." I muttered under my breath, deciding that this probably wasn't the best time to get into an argument.

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-five minutes later-

I found a sturdy stick around the right length, and made my way back to Drew.

"Here." I said placing the red bandanna that I found this morning around his arm and the stick. "This should stabilize it."

"I just have one question for you." He said. "Why did you call Tor 'Torchic' at one point?"

My first instinct was to panic. Had I just given myself away? What would he do to me?

"Just a guess. Tor is a very unusual name, so I guessed that it was a nickname to the slightly more common name Torchic. Kind of like Drew is to Andrew."

I felt him tense, and I inwardly smirked. Looks like someone hates being called by his full name. I'm going to have to keep that in mind for when he's really ticking me off.

"Just go get Absol." He grunted, making it even more obvious that I had struck a nerve.

By the time that I got back with Absol, (which wasn't that long considering how agreeable that horse is) Drew was back on his feet. Or more like foot.

"Do you need any help-"

He place his good foot in the stirrup, and agilely swung into the saddle.

"I guess not."

He smirked. Uh oh. Snide remark coming my way. "Even with a hurt foot, I can still get onto the saddle ten times more gracefully than you ever could."

*twitch* That Grasshead *twitch* annoys me *twitch* so much! *twitch twitch*

"Meanie head..."

"Really? That's the best you can come up with?"

No, I can think of quite a few others, you *insert some very unladylike things*, I thought.

"I'd rather not voice what's going though my mind right now."

"Oh, I'm so scared."

"You... You..." I managed to shut my mouth.

"Exactly."

"Grr..."

The rest of the trip to the castle was held in silence. I was a little disappointed, though. We seemed to get a long this morning, but it didn't last long. Someone, save me please.

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