Chasing the Stars

Apier

(DISLCAIMER: Most of the stuff used in this book is for ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. If you are ever supposed to or want to work with an equine, please, please, PLEASE consult a professional before working with them. Thank you, and stay safe. This chapter will also contain some darker themes, such as depression, panic attacks, and talk of death. If those make you uncomfortable, you can just skip this chapter. Thank you.)

I've started to wonder if I'm dead.

This nothingness I'm floating in ... it's never-ending.

But then again, if I'm wondering, I can't be dead.

Argh.

I start to hear voices call my name. I can hear sobs, fear, pain, and regret mixed in with them.

But Calias voice is the clearest, and sharpest.

"Cleo, please!"

This voice snaps me out, and I push through the nothingness towards a light that has appeared.

"Cleo, please!"

"I'm trying!" I wail helplessly. The light is getting farther away.

And then I'm splashed with water.

I wake up with a start and look around my stall.

It was just a nightmare. Well, a memory.

As for the splash, I it must have been my water bucket. It's on the floor, soaking the bedding around it.

Calia is blearily blinking her eyes, and peering over my stall door. She has been sleeping in a cot in the tack room across the hallway.

"Is everything okay, Cleo? I heard a crash." she notices my water bucket on the floor and laughs softly.

She gives me a pat on the head, and checks my sprained knee. "We're lucky you didn't hurt it more. It's almost fully healed." she says goodnight and goes back to sleep.

But I can't. My dream has shaken me up too much.

So much time has passed since I was abandoned on that island.

But it hasn't left me.

I'm still so afraid that I'll be abandoned.

Forgotten.

I eventually drift in and out of an uneasy sleep, filled with dreams of the humans and horses I care about saying "We don't need you. We don't care about you."

A small sliver of the sun has barely risen, when I give up on getting a good nights sleep.

"Up with the sun." I sigh.

Calia gets up too.

And boy, is she not a morning person.

her eyes are half closed and groggy, and her hair looks like it turned into an exploded hedgehog.

She notices her hair and glares at me. "Don't. Say. A. Word."

"What?" I nicker innocently, before bursting out in laughter.

She grabs a brush, and smooths out her hair, retrieves a hair tie from the desk, and pulls her hair into a silky braid.

Then she closes the door and gets changed into her johdpurs (special horsebackriding pants) and a clean shirt.

She comes out and gives me a kiss on the nose. "Cleo, I love you, but next time, don't wake up  at 4:58 am."

"Sorry." I shrug.