Whisper Of The Free

Chapter 1 Running With Wild Horses

Ten years later...

Olivette

The breeze tickled my neck just like the grass that spiked through my uncovered toes and scratched at my ankles. My hair blew and danced with the air. The plains were a vibrant green showing how fertile and healthy the land had become after the many decades of dedicated rebuilding.

The war ended, not long before my father had been born and my grandmother had suffered the loss of her husband. She joined her husband not long after my tenth birthday. I missed her dearly every waking moment, even eight years later. I hope she'd be proud of who I have become. Who I continue to become.

Gallops of horses rang in my ears as I turned my head slightly. Met with the gaze of a boy from town who had become quite fond of me as the years passed. He was still far in the distance as he sat upon the horse. The horse who had not yet been broken and tamed yet.

I sighed at the blatant foolishness as he flew off with one quick jerk from the horse. I made my way over knowing the boy who I'd become so fond of as he with me over the years would be unscathed. I arrived at the pen and the horse, still stomping and fearful, more beautiful than ever. The boy, now outside of the pen, stumbled his way over with a jolly grin.

"Hey, let's say that didn't happen." He spoke with a chuckle.

I smirked and ripped my eyes from the horse, "Oh, I'm definitely gonna remember that one. He threw you like a rag doll."

"Come on Olive," He drawled, "he barely threw me. I just let go of the reins for my own safety."

"If you were so worried about your own safety you wouldn't have ridden a horse that has yet to be tamed." I crossed my arms and bit into my cheek. It wasn't his first time doing something so reckless. For instance he tried to ride my fathers personal horse, Peach, and she threw him over the pens wooden fence. He ended up mostly fine other than a bump to the head and probitale brain damage.

"I didn't know she wasn't tamed! As far as I knew she was newly tamed." He countered.

"That she," I pointed to the beauty of an animal that stood on the other side of the pen nibbling on the grass beyond the fence that caged him, "Is a he!"

"Oh," He paused, "My deepest apologies dear sir I never met such a beauty of a horse such as yourself." He said with sarcasm and forced formality.

I rolled my eyes at his humor, "Shouldn't you be at home? Last I heard your father needed help with milking the cows."

"He can do it himself, it isn't that hard." He shrugged his shoulders.

He was a stupid farmer's boy that's for sure, "Then perhaps the tending of cows or even the dressing of the meat they provide."

He dramatically frowned, "If you wanted me to leave you could've just said so."

I frowned slightly, not meaning for the words to convey a feeling of unwantedness, "It's not that I do not wish you here I just see it as disrespectful to help others father before helping your own."

"Yeah yeah yeah" He waved his hand in the air as he walked away.

Night fell shortly after my encounter with the boy, his name is Chet. A part of me felt guilty for speaking the truth so viciously however, I knew that I had done little wrong. I knew why he had been so quick to help my father, rather than his own.

His father is a kind yet stern man, not cruel but harsh, not boorish but crude. His father nonetheless was kind and very traditional. Perhaps that was why Chet had been pestering my father so much, attempting to make conversation with the stoic man.