Running Wild

Chp 2

A/N just a quick warning, I have never been to a horse auction and I didn't pay attention to the only auction I have gone to so some of this might not be 100% accurate but I hope y'all enjoy it nonetheless

Loud, screeching metal on metal woke me up and I scrambled to my hooves, scanning my surroundings. A man stood in the doorway of the trailer, a halter in his hands.
"Let's see if we can get this on ya..." he muttered, stepping closer.
A loud crash from outside fueled the adrenaline pumping in my veins and I scrambled from the cage, shying away from the hands of other strange men as they reached to stop me.

"Momma!" I cried, my mind pulling up a blank as I tried to recall what had happened. I trotted uneasily past a few of the men, ignoring their plight and ignoring the pitied looks the other horses gave me.
Metal fence panels created small spaces where several horses with tags on their tails were placed together, some big some small and all a variety of breeds and colors.
The men were inching towards me as I slowed my steps, the realization that I've been taken from my momma slowly setting in.

"That's it." The man who'd opened the trailer door whispered, stepping closer and sliding a halter over my dished face.
"Thanks for nothin' Charlie!" He called over his shoulder, pulling my into a stall with two mares and a filly. The mare with the filly was a palomino paint, which explains where the filly got her yellow ish coat. The other mare was young, probably still technically a filly, with a chestnut coat, four white socks and a white blaze over one of her brown eyes.

The man unhooked the halter and I immediately shot over to be comforted by the other horses, ignoring the man as he spoke with a scary looking woman.
"He stole another foal." The palomino mare huffed, coming over to my shaking form and gently nuzzling my back.
"where are we.....?" I inquired, half hiding behind her.
"The auction house dear. It's where horses go when their owner doesn't want them or can't take care of them. The human who pays the most for a horse gets to take it home and do whatever with it." She explained, her ear flicking towards the filly as she began to approach from her place in the corner.

The filly was a lot smaller than me, the tip of her ears only reaching my chin, but she approached anyway, peeking under her dams neck to look at me. If I could frown I would've, I don't remember much from before I woke up in the trailer, but I thought my momma would've made sure our people kept me.
"What's your name little boy?" The chestnut mare asked, keeping her distance.

Caliban.....

I flinched, my eyes widening in their sockets at the sound of the unknown voice.
"Did you hear that?" I nickered softly, afraid I'd imagined it.
"Hear what?"
"The voice."
"No sweet boy, we didn't hear any voice."

Your name. It's Caliban.

"There it is again- you really don't hear it?" The mares shared a knowing look before nudging my shoulders.
"No, but why don't you get some rest? I'm sure you're tired from the trip here."
I didn't bother telling her I'd slept the entire way, I'd definitely need the sleep for this... auction... thing.

I lowered myself to the ground as far from the gate as I could get and rested my bed in front of me, barely registering the feeling of the filly laying down beside me before I clocked out from reality.

~~~~

The sound of a latch sliding from its place woke me up this time and I quickly scrambled to my hooves, watching as four men each with halters and leads stepped in.
"They're going to take you out there with the halter and lead, walk you in a few circles while people bid and then you'll come back here until the end of the day. If someone wants to get you then at the end of the day they'll take you to their place and you'll have to live with them."

"I wanna go home." I whinnied softly, trying to use the mares bodies to hide so the men couldn't catch me.
"Get the girls out of there and you won't have such an issue." The only man I recognized ordered, rolling his eyes.
The men rushed to do as he said, putting halters on the mares and filly and pulling them out into the walkway while the last man came at me with the halter. I sighed heavily and gave in, allowing him to shove the halter roughly onto my face and tug my out, following the short line of horses through a door that swung shut the moment I walked through.

We stood in a large bare room with a few other horses and one by one -with a few minutes between each one- before finally it was my turn. The man who was keeping me on a tight lead as we walked through another set of doors. We entered a room with dozens of chairs with people filling them on one side separated by the empty space I'd entered by a few metal panels.
A man stood on a block of wood with something he spoke into, making give voice echo sharply around the room.

"And here we have a gorgeous yearling Arabian colt, just came in, number 222. We're gonna start the bid at $1000." The loud man announced, pointing at the humans who lifted some sort of board with a number on it. The man spit out words too fast for me to comprehend.
The man leading me walked me in an oval shape as the people lifted their boards.
"Sold!" The loud man shouted, pointing to a young man in a chair.

A couple of people clapped for the man as I was led back out and they brought in the next horse. I was brought into a different stall -closer to a large door- where the others i was with before were nibbling on hay. The filly greeted me with a high pitched whinny and the mares watched closely as the man took my halter off and allowed me to hide behind the other bodies.
"What's happening....?" I asked softly, peeking under the chestnut mares belly.
"A man bought us, the same one bought you and Holly, the mare you're hiding behind." The palomino mare began to explain simply.

"We're all going to go to his farm or wherever where we'll be his pets."
"Everything will be ok, he looked nice." The chestnut mare, Holly, promised, nuzzling my withers.
I nodded my big head and played with the young filly, who's name was Josie, for hours until the sunlight began to fade and the man who'd bought us neared our pen.

"We'll get them loaded up and taken to the ranch." He muttered to a young woman as he laced their fingers together.
"And after the checkup?" She questioned, smiling softly at me.
"They'll go with the other horses we'd gotten from auctions. Maybe not the exact same place, but you know, the general area maybe."
"You're too soft." The woman shook her head at the man as the large door was lifted.
"Let's bring 'em home boys!"