and a horse called Straton

Chapter 8

Caitlyn woke to see Straton standing by himself! His sore leg was supporting a most of his weight and he neighed to her. "Oh my gosh." She murmured. "Oh my gosh!" She said louder. Tears spilled down her face as she realised how much easier her life would be and how much more food she could store up.

She ran to him and threw her arms around him then pulled herself up onto his back with her new strength. She laughed at herself, riding bareback with not even a halter in her underwear. 'Well, it's a bit like a bikini,' she jokingly thought to herself.

Straton surged beneath her, showing off his power and noble head. They walked along the stream for a while, undisturbed by most things, aside from a lizard that had scared Straton at first. But once they got to the beautiful willows, Caitlyn heard the stereotype rustle coming from the trees.

There was a tense moment of silence as Straton stood statue still and Caitlyn strained he eyes to see what was there. Suddenly a wolfish form leapt from he bushes and pushed her off of Straton. It was a wild dog! She screamed in pain as she hit the ground and heard a cracking noise come from her arm.

The dog barked at her and she hit it with her left arm that wasn't broken. He snapped and bit her pushing hand, leaving a huge wound. She punched him again in the nose and he stumbled back a bit, whimpering.

But once he had moved she noticed three more dogs circling the still slow Straton. She screamed at them and tried to run them off but they snarled at her and then turned back to the large horse. She ran to the creek and picked up a big rock and threw it at one of the dogs, he yelped in pain and bit her leg.

She screamed in pain and tried to hit the dog to get him off. She hit them off and they finally ran off, finding that the feed wasn't as easy as first thought.

Once the adrenaline wore off, Caitlyn crumbled into a ball and cried. As she felt the stabbing pain in her broken forearm she began to hyperventilate and her heart started to skip and pause. The wound on her hand wasn't too deep thank goodness but it was bleeding quite a bit.

Her unbroken arm and her legs twitched and shook from fear.  Her breaths sounded raspy and she felt she couldn't get enough oxygen into her lungs .  

After around 20 minutes of pure panic she managed to think somewhat rationally.  The wound on her leg was a different story. It was a deep wound and she struggled to keep the little food she had down. She crawled over to the river and held her leg in it to try and stop any infection and pain with the cold water.

Straton quickly walked over to Caitlyn as she hunched around her injuries. The water was staining red from the blood as it came from her foot. He hadn't gotten any major injuries but he had a scratch on his back from when the wild dog pushed Caitlyn off.

After about 20 minutes Caitlyn stood up and began to hobble home. Straton stayed next to her and kept her standing as she slung her left arm over him. The walk home took a lot longer than going as with all things. Once they were home it was well past noon.

Caitlyn looked at the plants she had planted with such high hopes to see them alive yet slightly wilted. The sun beat down on her browned skin and dried up the ground, leaving Caitlyn to water them if she were to have any chance of survival.

***

She sat down for a while because her calf ached and her broken arm throbbed beneath the lump. There wasn't any hope of her going to get any plants for a while so she tried to remember through the haze of pain if any she had were pain relieving.

She gathered her paper bark from her saddle and painfully hobbled over to the water and held it in there for a while. Once she had done she took out the useful part and wrapped it around the break as a cast. She bit her lip to stop herself from crying out in pain but the tears refused to stay at bay.

After about half an hour of waiting for the pain to subside a little she hobbled over to the lemon grass and billy goat weed.

She kept the weight off her injured foot as much as possible and finally sat back down with the billy goat weed and lemon grass in hand.

She used her flat rock and a random stone nearby to grind the billy goat weed leaf into a pulp and she gently dabbed it onto her calf and hand. She winced because she had to move her broken arm and nearly cried out from the pain.

After that she waited yet again for the pain to subside. She gritted her teeth as she stood again to put the lemon grass out to try to make into a tea for the ache.

She ate a few berries and lit a small fire that night. She wasn't very hungry, the fear had made her body resort to only completely necessary functions like a heartbeat.

She had a thought just before she went to sleep near the fire with the horse blanket on her. She grabbed out the wichettty grub from the store that she had slept near and poked it onto a stick. She scrutinised it for anything that might indicate it was off.

It was off and so were the rest. She groaned and decided to see if she could cook it anyway if she were to find some more. 'Some fish might be nice.' Was her last thought before she slipped into a painful and not so restful sleep.

A/N
So so so so sorry it's late! I didn't mean to! I've been not too great lately, oh well, gotta push on through ;)

So please vote, comment and whatever!