Spy School Out West

Chapter 6

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I also feel like I need to clear up a few things because whenever I showed this to anyone they would ask this. I know the Pittsburgh NFL team is the Steelers. However, their university is the Pitt Panthers, and it's the only non-high-school sports game I've ever been to, so I decided to incorporate it. Second, a "jog" is the same as a trot (more or less) which is the pace above the walk (like a jog for people.) The "lope" is a canter, which is in the middle of jog and gallop (sort of like running, but not sprinting.)

There will be a plot soon, I swear. I just have to put in the fluff since I always hate when authors pull the "today we went to the zoo and got mauled by tigers and were tried in court for the theft of a rock, before being kidnapped and performing the musical Annie. I went home, and then I really give an extraordinary amount of detail about this one conversation and nothing else."

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Ben's POV
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Circle Z Ranch
Bozeman, MT
June 5
0800 hours
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"Wake up, Ben!" I could hear someone urging. I pried open my eyes and heard Erica rooting around in the drawers as she implored me to wake up. "The ride is at 0815 hours! Get dressed!"

I sat up in bed, yawning. "You can stop now," I protested sleepily. "I'm up." I pulled on a pair of jeans, forced on my cowboy boots, and slapped my Stetson on. It was already routine. Everyone else was at the lodge already, so I grabbed a mini box of Froot Loops, intending to eat it on the ride.

We mounted up quickly, and Catherine decided to take us to this waterfall you could ride up behind, then go wading underneath. We were told to bring bathing suits, so I picked a pair of board shorts and tucked them into my saddle bag.

The ride out was much more comfortable now that the ranch had padded my saddle. We also started jogging and loping on the trails, and we crossed a few open fields that were actually fun to ride so quickly on.

Catherine told us we wouldn't even get to see the waterfall from the front until after we'd seen it from the back, and then assured us we wouldn't regret it. We started riding up through a big cave-tunnel, where Catherine had to pass out headlamps just so we could see each other. At one point, it got so dark and narrow that we had to lead the horses by foot. Mine was perfectly fine with this at first and even tried to stop and eat some kind of weird cave bush, but Chip's started tossing her head up and trying to skitter away from him.

This spooked all the horses, mine included, so we had a bunch of antsy horses in a dark, enclosed cave. Very safe. "Watch your feet, children," Catherine said soothingly. "We'd not like to get stepped on in such a dark spot."

We kept going for ten more minutes. It was silent, save for the sounds of the horses clip-clopping through the cave and the occasional pained cry or grunt as someone was stepped on by a hoof.

Suddenly, we rounded a bend and there was a feeble light up ahead. As we got closer, we hooked a right and saw the waterfall.

There was a rough circle in the rock, which opened onto the shifting cascade of the waterfall. We could faintly see some greenery and sky behind it. The sunlight filtered through the waterfall into the gap, giving the area a glowing white quality.

Zoe gasped and turned to me. "It's gorgeous!" She exclaimed.

Throughout the cave, everyone else was coming to a similar conclusion. We hung the horse's reins over the saddle horns and dismounted, drawn to the brilliant light like moths.

A mist from the waterfall had dampened the rock, so it was cold to the touch. I sat on the edge of the ten-foot drop to the river below, swinging my feet over the perfect abyss. It occured to me, perhaps too late, that the water probably wasn't that deep and wouldn't be able to break my fall. Balto settled next to me.