Aries

Chapter 5:

Morning. Well by morning I mean half past three in the morning but it's a normal time for me to wake up. I crawl out of bed and walk over to my closet. Oh, it's empty, of course, it is. My clothes are all packed in bags in the corner of my room. I walk around a bit to try and wake myself up. My mirror was leaned up beside the wall so I decided to place it beside my window hanging up so whilst I'm doing my hair I can watch the horses sleep or in Butters case, try to wake everyone up by whinnying for food and attention. During the night they have feed buckets and large haystacks in their pasture that I placed out before watching the stars last night. I turn my Cd player on, grab my brush and hair ties and start to battle my hair.
I finish brushing and tie it up into a low ponytail. I then grab a plaid shirt and dark blue jeans for this morning whilst I am mucking out and manuring the pastures. Opening my door I see a post-it stuck on the outside it said
Courtney, I know you wake earlier than I so here is what I would like you to do with Carrie and Butter; take Butter out for a nice trail and a quick lunge after. Then could you practice with Caramel with her cross country skills? After all that please give them both a nice wash before letting them out into their pasture.
That's nice of him. I'll have to fit in some flatwork with Gala. As I walk across the dark landing I hear a small meow followed by a purr. Looking down I spot Pearl laying flat across the first two stairs. Carefully, I edge down the stairs around the spoiled cat. Each step creaks as if the steps are in pain. Once I get down to the kitchen I look out the window to see the sun slowly climb over the roof of the indoor arena. Well, the half roof from what I hear from Dad. From here it didn't seem so broken but I guess this is under the saying don't judge a book by its cover. Something may look fine on the outside, perfectly normal but inside it is damaged and broken. Just like
Mouse, seems perfect with the young foals and fillies when her past seems broken and tragic.
I leave the house out the front door and start walking down to the stables. As soon as ruby sees my she gets up as quickly as her little legs would let her and she canters up to the fence.
"Hey, Ruby!" I say giving her little face a scratch, "How's my little filly?" She flicks her head up and down and trots in a small circle before coming back to me."Happy huh? Me too Ruby!"
"Cute foal!" A female voice says from behind me. I turn around a bit too quick and my hair flicks Ruby in the face. I look around for the owner of the voice when I see a silhouette of a girl and she looks around my age. "I'm sorry if you were spooked by me." She apologizes and steps closer up the path.
"No no, it's perfectly fine. I just wasn't expecting anyone else to be out here this early." I gesture at the sunrise and give a faint laugh.
"It is five am now most of us are up at this point. Sunrise or dark." She laughs and introduces herself "I'm Maiya Rosewood, I live in the ranch next door. You must be a whistler." I'm shocked that our arrival has spread so fast in such little time.
"Yes, I'm Courtney. "
"Nice to meet you and your foal." She walks up to the fence and strokes Ruby.
"Her name is Ruby, she is our most recent rescue, and if I'm being honest my favorite." She Laughs and looks out to the rest of the horses and smiles.
"It's nice to see these pasture full again. They haven't been touched since you last lived here. The mayor four years ago wasn't living here when you guys were here so started to plan the demolition of this area but only managed to scratch the roof of the indoor arena before we stopped her. She hated horses and didn't care for the happiness of her townies. Only herself and money."
"How did you stop her?" I ask confused.
"We may have stretched the truth a little. Ha no her daughter stood in the arena with us all and she couldn't risk hurting her little princess." She says the princess part in parenthesis " it was only a week until re-election and she was alleady losing so gave up. Now we have Mayor Michael and she is running again next month. "
That's a lot to take in. My home and love could have been gone if it wasn't for the people of West Victoria . my star gazing spot could have been replaced with bricks and fake dirt running along beside driveways of millions of identical houses. I grab a shovel and say,
"I'd better get working. Lots of poo to dispose of." Maiya grabs a wheelbarrow and says:
"I'd love to help! " her smile expanded across her face as she said it and we begin to clean out the stalls.