C6
Cora’s POV
Assault and I were laying down in the shade of a red wood tree. We had jumped the last fence caging us inside of the farm before heading into the woods at the base of the mountains. My dad had sent riders after us but they didn’t stand a chance, we were out of sight before they were off the farm. Apparently assault gets out a lot because as soon we got in to the forest he took control and brought me here.
I was beautiful, there was a waterfall in a clearing, walls around it and a river connecting to the pool under the water fall. The tree we now laid under was in the center of the clearing and forest berry bushes scattered at the edges of the clearing. The tree was on a ledge before sharp edges plunged in to the sand by the river. Before we got here there was a ledge over a larger waterfall looking over the canyon and my dad’s farm.
As we rested I snacked on the berries, hey don’t judge he ate some and didn’t keel over, they are delicious. A couple hours later assault was chewing on grass and I had a feeling that we should be going back soon. I sighed and got to my feet, catching assaults eye. I walked up to him and put my head on his, stroking his muzzle. “I suppose we’d better head back,” I said.
Assault made a sound and took it as he agreed with me but wasn’t happy about it. I scratched his ears before swinging myself on to his back. We started off at a trot and jumped the rock at the entrance before settling in to an easy lope. We hadn’t been going very long before we found the search party. The irony the search party is supposed to find us, not the other way around. We even followed them for a few minutes, they didn’t even notice us.
“She can’t be this far in to the woods, it’s not like the ass would let her ride him,” one of the men said. He had red hair and green eyes, even had a Irish accent.
“You never know, he let her ride him off the farm,” it was the guy from when I woke up.
“Or maybe, he was using her just for that reason,” irish man retorted.
“I bet she made it to the end of the woods before the ass dumped her but,” the other guy laughed. Okay, that hurt. The guy had blue eyes and brown hair, he’s kinda cute too.
They were laughing with him and then I decided to cut in. “Well if I can’t then you can’t see, blinder than a bat boy,” I said with a fake smile on my face. Their faces were all comical, shocked, embarrassed, and even relieved, “you must be the worst search team I’ve ever seen.” I concluded.
That shocked them out of whatever they were thinking, “Oh,” one started. “Shit,” the rest finished. “Please, don’t tell the boss,” one of them begged.
“Fine,” I sighed, “if I get names and ages.”
“Oh, how rude are we, I’m Felix,” irish man said, “I’m 18.”
“Jude Cross, 17,” blondy said.
“Dale Bucks, 17,” blue eyes winked at me.
“Cora Halewell, 17, aka animal whisperer, and Conner’s daughter,” I grinned motioning to Assault.
“You must be for him to let you ride,” felix whistled.
“Yeah, anyone else would have been trampled on sight,” Dale agreed.
“He was just scared and in pain, when I took that halter off he had burns and most of the hair on his face was rubbed off,” I defended him, “when was the last time he was allowed outside without that halter on, or at all?”
“We can’t let him out without him jumping over the fences and ever since that other crazy horse took over the indoor arena we couldn’t use it.” Jude responded looking me up and down.
Speaking of which I should give that horse a visit, I thought to myself. “Where did you get that horse from,” I asked out loud.
“Found ‘im up on the mountain, he’s as wild as they come,” said felix, “winded three of our finest and took seven of us to get him in to the trailer, while tranquilized.”
I thought it over and grinned, “sounds like my kind of horse.”
“I doubt your dad will let you get near to him,” dale said gravely, “ever since he almost broke some hotshot rooky trainer’s back the boss won’t let anyone near him, especially his daughter.”
“He doesn’t rule me, he doesn’t even know me. Until we can trust each other to do the right thing I’m doing to exact opposite of what he says,” I reply firmly.
“Boss won’t like that,” Felix said.
“I don’t care,” I reply offhandedly and turned assult around, “time to get back, don’t you think,” I murmured to him. He nickered back and we set off back to the place we knew would be our prison for awhile.
