Little Red Riding Hood

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I climbed down the ladder and headed around the house towards the livestock with two pails in hand. Each was filled with food for the animals. One was vegetable scraps mixed with hay and another had chicken, turkey and duck feed.

As I walked I swung them back and forth humming to myself. Behind the house we held all the towns livestock but each owners animals were separated by fencing. Except for the horses which were all placed together so they had company and enough space to ride around. We didn’t have many horses, 13 to be exact but they were used to carry stuff when travelling or for hunting and protection in battles.

Not that we really had any battles, it was really just in case. But my papa had bought me a horse. It was the best thing I had in the whole world besides my family. I loved him to pieces. His name was Eruphial (e-roo-f-ial). He was the best horse in the whole village and some of the children were jealous of me but I ignored them and sometimes let them play with Eruphial. Eruphial was a dark brown horse with a light brown mane. He had a white blotch around one of his eyes and had some white spots in a clutter on one of the sides of his body. He was a tall and very beautiful horse. I took great care of him, making sure he was well groomed and fed till he was full but not too much that he would get fat.

Not that it was necessarily possible for Eruuphial because he loved to be riden. And if no one would he would go prancing with some other horses or he would just wait by a tree in the middle of the field for me. He loved me to pieces. He wouldn’t let anyone else ride him but me.

When my father found him in the woods he was only a young horse, older than a calve but still huge. My father couldn’t tame him because Eruphial wouldn’t let anyone ride him. My father was going to kill him for meat because there was no use for a untamed horse. But I had walked into the field when one of the townspeople had their gun ready. Everybody watched as Eruphial walked towards me, sniffed my hand and knelt on the ground. It had been love at first sight. I hopped on Eruphial and he pranced calmly with me. It had been the most fun that I had ever had. People were astonished. Great memories I have.

Once I reached the other side I was met with grunts, quacks and clucks. I opened the fence clumsily spilling some of the feed. I shut the gate firmly behind me so the animals didn’t escape. Once before I had left the gate open for 3 seconds, only 3 and some of our best animals escaped. I was punished severely because the day after was going to be a great feast.

Some lambs were prancing around my feet obviously hungry. Some pigs began to wonder over and the  chickens and ducks pecked at the ground absentmindedly. Some of the horses from the small field began to approach still cautiously. Horses were very smart. They would not eat from someone who they didn’t trust. But now that they had caught a glimse of me they were neighing happily.

I went to one of the troughs and poured in the scraps and hay. The pigs and lambs began to scoff down the food even though the sheep like to eat the grass. I then went to the next trough which was smaller and higher up that the others so the birds could eat their food without it being stolen all the time. Lambs and pigs could be quite selfish.

I went up to the horses and pouted. I had no food for them because I was only one person. But they still looked sad because they had to watch others feed before them. I petted one of the horses and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll be back soon with enough food to feed you all and more.”

The horse neighed happily understanding my words. I walked back and forth collecting bucket and buckets of food. Each horse ate one bucket of food so I had to collect 13. Hard work in the morning. We had 3 serious farmers in our town. They harvested the scraps and left them in the sheds for the animals. It was pretty reasonable because there happened to be a lot left over because we had such a small town.