Bangled

I see the light.

The sun rose in the early morning, illuminating the world and shining warm rays of light through the trees, painting the sky a clear blue. Deep in the woods, Dan and Ajit lay sleeping at their makeshift campsite, Dan having wrapped his hair around himself to keep him warm, holding his frying pan and Buzzy close to him as he slept while Ajit lay curled up with his head resting surprisingly comfortably on a moss covered rock. A small droplet of water landed on his cheek, half asleep he shook it off, happy to ignore its existence until another landed next to it. Slowly blinking, he shook his head and opened his eyes. "Mm, what?" He looked up to find an extremely angry looking white and brown patched, soaking wet horse staring down at him as furiously as a horse could possibly look at someone and snorting. Ajit raised an eyebrow, "Well, I hope you're here to apologise." He quipped, closing his eyes and laying his head back down on the rock.

Moments later a loud, bloodcurdling, terrified scream rang out, jolting both Dan and Buzzy out of their sleep in a panic. Dan looked over just in time to see a horse dragging Ajit away by his foot. "No, no! Stop it. Please put me down! Let me go!" The thief yelped, desperately grabbing onto clumps of grass in a futile attempt to not get dragged away.

In any other situation, Dan probably would've laughed but instead he jumped up and grabbed hold of Ajit's arms, effectively starting a tug of war between himself and the horse with Ajit being the rope. "Give me him." He told the horse as sternly as he could while trying to pull his friend out of its grip. The horse shook its head fiercely and pulled even harder on its end, resulting only in pulling Ajit's boot off his foot, causing both Dan and Ajit to fall backwards onto the grass from the force of Dan still pulling.

The horse landed on its hind legs, boot in mouth, then shaking off the confusion got up and prepared to charge at the two boys. Dan scrambled to his feet, holding his hands up in the air in front of the horse while Ajit backed away as far as he possibly could into a tree trunk. "Woah, woah, woah! Easy boy." The blond tried to calm the horse, "Easy! Calm down.." He coaxed, holding his hands out and talking calmingly until the horse finally settled down, Buzzy joining in by climbing onto Dan's head and motioning for the horse to settle down. Once the horse finally seemed to calm down, Dan smiled, "Now sit." He told it, watching as the horse reluctantly lowered itself to the ground, "Sit." He prompted again. This time the horse sat down properly on the ground.

"What on earth...?" Ajit murmured, watching all this from where he'd scrambled partway up the trunk of the tree he'd backed into, honestly not sure what he was watching.

Dan pointed at the ground, "Now drop the boot." The horse whinnied in protest. "Drop it..." He repeated.

The horse spat the boot out onto the grass.

"Aww, you're such a good boy!" Dan cooed, petting the horse on its muzzle. "Yes you are!" He laughed. Ajit watched in awe as the horse began to wag its tail like a dog. Who knew the horse that had nearly killed him was so easily won over? "Are you really tired from chasing the bad thief?" Dan asked the horse jokingly.

Ajit choked out a laugh, "Excuse me?"

Dan moved closer and began to stroke the horse's neck, "I know, I know... Nobody appreciates you, do they?" He asked, still joking around as the horse nuzzled its head into his shoulder. Which was something Dan had never thought he'd experience, being hugged by a horse.

"He's a bad horse!" Ajit called out from the tree, half joking back, half still annoyed about the horse almost getting him killed.

The older boy looked over at him and stuck his tongue out, "No way, he's a big sweetheart, aren't you?" He turned back to the horse, who neighed in agreement. "Isn't that right..." He paused, scratching the horse's chin, reading the name on the plate on the horse's collar, "Lightning?" The horse whinnied happily again.