Circle of Aideen ~ Soul Riders

Chapter Three

It wasn't long till Freya and the others had arrived to South Hoof Peninsula and started getting off of the boat. But she stayed close by Skip's side as they walked onto the wooden port. Freya looked around as she approached the beautiful landscape and has to reveal herself to her. Gone were the towns and villages. She could see rocky cliffs that and some scattered stone on the light greenish-yellow grass covering up almost the whole entire island and is accented with and some purple dead-nettles within the grass.
Freya smiled at the sight of the small town as she and the others approached it. A wide, stony road ran the length of the South Hoof town. There's some buildings lining both sides of the road. The architecture was a hodgepodge of design, from Spanish stucco to Western facades. There were no crowds, no street noise. But on the right side was garden of fruits and vegetables behind the stony fence.
As Freya continued walking, she saw a barn and a broken down round corral by the broken down the Horseshoe Farm. There's some ponies and horses by the barn with some pigs and chickens. But Freya noticed a broken down barn with a stony house and some, smaller broken down buildings that were probably for feeding and watering, cleaning, and medical care.
She looked at the crowd and took note that there's about twelve of them in total before they continued following Skip to the ranch. Freya saw Hugh Shepherd, she recognized him as a retired military man with his fake left leg and from the website. She felt some respect for him as she and the others gathered him.
"Welcome everyone," said the man. "I'm Hugh Shepherd. I was originally from the military, but I retired and became a veterinarian." He smiled at everyone warmly. "I'm going to need everybody's help to fix up this place to make it a Rescue Ranch for both human and animal to recover in." Hugh gestured towards a clipboard that's by one of the stone walls and a supply house. "You will find your jobs on the clipboards and you can set up your tents around here." He smiled at them. "Now, lets get to work everyone."
After Freya finished putting up her camping supplies, she went towards the clipboard and looked at the clipboard curiously when she saw her names in pretty much everything on the papers. Her eyes flashed with determination as she looked at the amount of tasks on the papers.
Later on that day, the temperature in Jorvik had soared. It was surprisingly warm in the center of August. There wasn't a cloud in the sky.
A good day to explore Jorvik, figured Freya restlessly. But not to work nonstop underneath the hot sun on the stables. She and the other workers had started fixing up the place as different members of the teams. Freya has started to lend a helping hand with the others with the repairing of the new Rescue Ranch. But when she was fixing up the wooden fence, she thought she saw a horse galloping across the fields and disappeared quickly as it came. She shook her head and continued fixing up the fence with her tools.
"Freya." She looked up to see Hugh standing on her right with a warm smile. "Come with me."
She nodded and gotten up to follow her boss. Freya saw some volunteers and Hugh's family engaged in a conversation about the latest Jorvik news. To her left was a blonde, middle-aged woman tending to her laundry in front of the house. A couple of Jorvik terriers were playing around with their toys and each other. Wagon wheels leaned against the exterior walls and there's a wagon nearby. The sights were so different from the ones in the city. Freya smiled when she walked past the corral.
About a dozen horses and ponies stood inside of the circular fence. Some were drinking water, others were standing about. A couple were grazing, clearly wanting a snack. A few playfully nudged one another, clearly friends. A few foals chased after each other as if they were playing a game of tag. They varied in the colors of bay roan, cremello, flaxen chestnut, palomino, liver chestnut, light gray, black, and much more. Some have white pinto markings on their coats or have regular white markings too. Freya recognized some of them as ponies, due to their smaller statures and smiled at the sight of them.
But Hugh didn't stop there and Freya continued following him towards a hill that gives them a clear view of the waving plains and the sparkling sea. She closed her eyes with a peaceful smile as she felt the wind whooshed past her gently and casting the mixed scents of both the fields and the sea towards her direction.
"Freya." She opened her eyes and looked at Hugh by her side. "Do you have a home to stay at?"
She opened her mouth to retort that she does, but she suddenly earned a calming and sympathetic look from Hugh that made her sighed and looked back at the fields that starts to remind her of the ever-moving sea.
"I want to help you," Hugh said softly. "But I can't do it, if you don't tell me."
"It was a long time ago. I had a fun childhood when I was younger. I used to live in an apartment with my parents and grandparents," said Freya as she gotten ready to reveal her tale to Hugh. "But something terrible has happened when I was eight years old." She shuddered as she remembered the fire and the panic. "A fire had somehow broke into the apartment. My mother saved by bringing me to the fire escape and giving me most of our important possessions." She sighed as she struggled to keep her tears at bay. "Me and a few others were lucky to escape. But my folks..." She clenched her right hand tightly and shook as she struggled to keep her emotions under control before looking back at the fields in front of them. "I've been staying on the streets by myself for ten years and keeping to myself for a long time." Freya chuckled bitterly. "Despite what happened, I'm going to keep moving forward and find the path that I'm searching for."
"Freya." Hugh placed a gentle hand on Freya's shoulder. "I will like you to stay here with my family. I'm sure Madison will enjoy it and I could use your help with the injured people and horses."
She blinked in surprise and her expression softened as she looked at Hugh with a smile. Freya had never been offered by something so generous before she met Skip and Hugh. But this man sees potential in her and he's offering for her stand on South Hoof Peninsula.
"I'll take you up on that offer." Hugh smiled at Freya before he looked back at the plains. "Hugh." He looked back at her in confusion, but her gaze never left the plains. "Thank you."
That's when they saw something rushing across the great field of the island. There was a dot on the plains, a mass of mixed colors that was moving slowly across.
Freya gasped in amazement when she saw a herd of horses stampeding as fast as the wind, their hooves thundering against the earth like a massive thunderstorm.
They varied in color — some were bay roan, a few were black with white markings, a couple were light gray, one or two were liver or flaxen chestnut, and a few others were palomino.
But Freya soon caught sight of a strikingly beautiful mare running ahead of the herd. Her coat was silvery-gray and white, like the color of the moon completed with a silvery mane and tail flowing behind her like a pair of moonlit rivers. She almost seemed to be glowing like a blessed horse. She pulled ahead of the herd, managing to keep ahead of the herd.
How could a horse run so fast? Freya felt herself shivering with excitement and amazement as she watched the beautiful mare. She was the most beautiful horse she'd ever seen. The mare galloped closer until she was parallel to her and Hugh. The mare turned her head, as curious about her as she was about her. Freya noticed that her eyes are in the same shade as bright hazel. But before Freya could gain a closer look of the wild mare, the wild horses galloped away from the small village and towards the other side of the islands. Freya couldn't help, but feel as if she was going to see that beautiful mare once again and cross paths with each other.