Peppermint Winter

Chapter 2

We ride through the beautiful trees covered in frost, and turn off the main trail onto a smaller animal trail.
We have been riding for about 20 minutes, when suddenly General starts acting up.
"Whoa, easy boy," a pat his neck hoping to calm him. His nostrils flare and he rears, nearly dumping me. Just when I think he's calm again, he darts. Galloping full speed through the thick brush to who-knows-where. I grab the reins and try to wheel him around, but they catch on a branch and get flicked out of my hands. I have no control over him, so I just hold on for dear life and let him run it out.
General has been running for about 10 minutes now, and the whole time I've had my eyes closed. I was afraid if I left them open they might get stabbed by a branch. (We are in extremely dense forest) I'm sure he can't have much energy left, but he just keeps on going. The reins I'm sure have been stepped on and broken by now, I'm just surprised he hasn't tripped ye-
My thoughts are halted when General trips over a log, sending me flying. Thankfully I land safely In the snow, but it was still a painful fall. I lay there for a moment before getting up to check on General.
He is kneeling in the snow beside me, and I thank The Lord that he didn't land on top of me.
"Easy boy, easy," I pat his neck and pull what's left of his reins to make him get up. Once he's standing, I check all of his legs to make sure he's okay. Thankfully he seems alright. I just wonder what spooked him so bad.
Once I'm mounted up, we start towards home. As we walk along, I search for the trail. Suddenly, a great fear of being lost out here strikes me. It would be quite easy to get lost out here, and with General galloping through the forest aimlessly, we seem to have strayed far from the animal trail. I look up at the sky, but the sun is hidden behind the huge mountain looming next to us. It is getting very late, and I don't want to be out her all night for sure.
"Come on boy, take us home," I whisper to General.
He takes off trotting away from the mountain. I am very thankful for him, because I would surely be lost out here without him. The mountain is our only way to tell where to go. I can tell by how close to it we are, we're very far from home.
I suddenly realize there's no way we can make it home before dark, and I decide it would be best if we just stopped and made a camp for the night. General walks for a while and stops when we come to a nice big clearing and a pit with rocks surrounding it. I realize someone else has camped here before. I dismount and clip my extra lead onto General's bridle, then tie him up to a tree.

It's nearly dark now, but at least I have a little camp and a place to sleep. now all I need is a fire. I go over and dig through General's saddle bag until I find a box of matches. It takes a while, but I finally have a fire to keep me warm. I huddle close to it and lay my head on General's saddle. He is standing near me tied up and untacked. I close my eyes and drift off to a restless sleep.

"Just five more minutes..." I say groggily as something soft and warm nuzzles me. it starts nibbling on my hair, and I giggle.

"Okay, okay General. I'm getting up." I slowly open my eyes and gasp at what I find.
A beautiful black and white horse, standing right over me. when it sees me wake, it jerks back, clearly unsure what to think of me.
I just lay there, still as stone, not wanting it to leave. it slowly inches it's way over to me, nuzzling me again. I Take a closer look at it-her i correct myself. she appears to be a mustang. a WILD mustang. she is absolutely stunning, with a coat white as the snow she stands on, and Jet black splotches on certain parts of her. her Main is long, but very tangled.
A deep rumble roars from the mountain, breaking the silence. And then the snow is coming, coming straight towards us.