A girl and her Horse

Chapter 4 - Awake

The sun's rays woke Alex, causing her to raise a hand over her eyes with a mumble from the brightness. She looked around, blinking away the blur from sleep to see she was still in the old barn. Did she sleepwalk out here? Slowly getting up to her feet with a stretch, a yawn, and a very odd groan, she was left to wonder if the dream was really a dream. Hearing the nicker of their old mare behind her, she turned and nearly fell right over. Their old bay horse was reaching her head over the small gate to brush her upper lip against the sleeping beast of a car. Alex had to remind herself to exhale, and when she did, the car shifted slightly. Alex watched as the creature relaxed, the sound of crunching dirt and dry hay under its weight taking over the air before she quickly and quietly walked outside.

"Morning kid!" Levi greeted, getting a glare from Alex.

"You left me in there?! With that th-" Alex's rant was cut short by his hand over her mouth, surprisingly gentle but forceful. He leaned in towards her, shoulder to shoulder before taking a sharp inhale.

"Some of the guys saw my truck out last night," he whispered, "And honestly I don't want them to know about what you found."

"OK, I get that," she whispered back, "But why are we whispering?"

"They're at the house talking with Deb, we're not that far from them with the window open."

"You really think they'd go all Hollywood Scifi film on that car?"

"You think they wouldn't? I can name one who would stop at nothing for some extra cash." Levi straightened himself, pat Alex on the shoulder before returning to his normal tone of voice.

"Besides, Ol Shadow loves the company on the warmer nights! She's a good mare, though I think she could use some more hay." He strode off confidently, as always. Alex gave a heavy sigh, knowing it was another day of chores no matter who was at the house.

"Oh goodness!" Debbie held a handover her mouth, standing in the entryway of the barn and looking at the mangled vehicle beast that laid almost still. Alex and Levi stood on either side of her, both gently pulling her in and closing the door behind her. After a day of work, they had decided to expose their real truth instead of the lie that they found a lost and scared steer.

"Well, it is... different." Debbie finally managed to say, all three freezing as Jaslo turned her front to look at them with very tired eyes. Alex calmly walked over and puta hand on her hood, feeling the vehicle let out a deep exhale as she shut her eyes again.

"I've been using what we have on her, seems like most of the stocked up horse items we had are helpful to her," Levi stated as he went over to look through what they had left on their small work bench.

"What are you going to do once it can move around? Honey, we don't have the room for it, or even know what it eats!" Deb was already going through the motions of planning with finances and general space. Alex just stood there, not really sure what to think about it all.

"Deb, we don't even know where it came from. Honestly, best bet is to keep it safe until we can figure out either how to get it home or some place it can be left alone. "The couple came closer together to talk about the future, hiding this beast and how to get it help. None of this mattered to Alex though, as she just couldn't believe this was real. She turned and sat down against the front fender of the weird car creature, leaning against it with a loud sigh. She didn't even budge when the creature behind her started to purr, and how it slowly rumbled through her own body.

"I'll take care of her," Alex said suddenly with a smile.

"What?!" came both Levi and Debbie, looking over at the smug teen leaning against the creature without an ounce of fear.

"Yeah, I found her anyways. Besides, I'm the only one that seems to actually know her name." The two adults just lowered their shoulders in defeat, she was right on this and stubborn enough to defy them anyways.

"Fine, you will take charge of everything she needs on top of your chores. Once that thing starts moving on its own is when we will talk about the next step." Levi crossed his arms. Was he trying to scare her out of this decision?

"I'm certain Jaslo and I can figure out something once she's feeling up to it. Besides, she owes us big for hauling her sorry tail out here!" Alex used an elbow to nudge Jaslo, who responded with a low grumble. Poor Deb jumped at this, and Alex just chuckled. It was going to take a lot more time and money to get her back up, but Alex was willing to see it through.

The hum of various insects in the night flooded through the open parts of the barn, but Alex paid no mind. She was comfortable, sitting against Jaslo's fender while she read one of the old books about horse care. Despite the book itself being weathered more than the wood of the barn itself, it still had some useful information, even if it is was for draft horses that used to work on the farm and their various harness types. She turned to look at the car and made a mental note to try and google some pages on car repair as well. After all this craziness, she thought best to be prepared on both aspects of the beast rather than just one. Jaslo let out a soft snore, from where Alex couldn't figure out. Still, it was kinda adorable and she settled in for the night. With a full body stretch, Alex re-positioned herself next to the vehicle and shut here yes. If this was the most of her worries, then maybe it wouldn't be so bad living here with that couple after all.

Light. Warmth. Alex brought a hand to her face to block out the direct ray of sunlight from hitting her in the eyes. As she turned her head away to blink away the tired and the blinding light, suddenly the light vanished. Blinking a few more times, her vision focused and she froze, seeing a large wing being held above her, partially folded and with torn up bandages hanging on it. Her breathing became scattered as she quickly flipped to her hands and knees, looking up to the car in shock. Jaslo was not only awake, but using the other wing's clawed digit to hold the same book she was reading the night before on the hood, close to her eyes.

"This book is rather accurate on equines," Jaslo said softly, her voice sounding dry and harsh still, "Too bad I'm not just equine." She cleared her throat slightly, or at least what it sounded like to Alex. The other wing carefully folded over Alex and came to help the other claw to gently shut the book before picking it up awkwardly and placing it on the floor.

"Holy shi-" Alex shook, sitting on her feet in disbelief.

"What?" Jaslo asked, bending her body slightly to better look at the human from the corner of her vision.

"You like... talk talk. Like not just grunt and simple talk... like... you know what equine is?!" Alex was trying to make sense of all this.

"Yeah? Just now felt ok enough to speak, sorry. Also, I never knew of 'equine' before reading that book."

"But you know it's part of you?"

"Yes, because I can understand that one." Jaslo used a wing to point out the slightly opened door at the horse who was happily grazing in the field. Alex just kept looking between the horse and the car, doing double and triple takes on both. What on earth was this thing?!

"You understand Shadow?!"

"Yes, but I don't understand why her name is Shadow." Jaslo coughed, rather loudly as well, which caused Shadow outside to jolt her head up and whinny. Alex never let her eyes off Jaslo, even as she gave a low nicker in response. Alex slowly stood up, brushing herself off and pulling debris from her hair, still trying to figure out what she just heard. Before either of them could actually speak again, Levi came into the barn, looking at both before just pointing at the torn bandages.

"Yeah, I'm getting to that," Alex just said bluntly, quickly going about removing the old bandages without much resistance from Jaslo.

"It's awake and alert!" Levi stated.

"I have a name you know," Jaslo hissed, regretting this as soon after the man went very wide-eyed. Maybe the hiss was a bit much. Levi stumbled halfway back out the door and sat against the fence, getting his hat stolen by Shadow. Jaslo and Alex just watched him as he wiped his face and went through the motions of trying to understand what went on.

"Whoops," Jaslo whispered with as light twist in her expression. Regret.