The Fire Horse

Chapter 13 - Thunder

     I woke with a start. Something wasn't right. I slid gently out from under Nina, who had fallen asleep leaning on me, so she wouldn't wake up. I trotted away from the group and up a small path to a cliff ledge. There I let myself see what was wrong. One of my powers was that when something bad was happening to people I know well I could see it briefly. Images flashed through my head of them fighting with Dark Core and worst of all, Ace. Dang it! I thought. The scene looked to much like two years ago. I always tried to push those days out of my mind, but I knew I could never forget. I had seen many things in that time, I lived as both a wild horse and a tamed one at times. But I could never forget the battles I'd seen and fought. I'd finally hidden myself from the world hoping to escape it all. But I'd learned you could never run away from your problems. Now as I watched my friends fighting for their lives, I saw that everything I'd tried to escape had become reality once more. The vision ended and I stood on the mountain ledge memories I'd tried to hold back for to long flashing through my mind. I raced back to others and neighed to wake them all up. When I told them that our friends were in trouble, Jacqueline and Shadow flew off to try and get to them quickly. I knew we'd need an army to win with the size of Dark Core's forces. Then it hit me. We had an army. I looked at all of these horses that were here and suddenly realized I recognized one. "Sunny?" I asked looking at a palomino mare. When I had been in the wild I'd become the leader of a herd of horses. When I started fighting with Ace and Dark Core I'd told them to leave so they wouldn't be in danger. The herd had stubbornly refused, and insisted on fighting with me. During that time Sunny had been my second in command, helping me direct the other horses when we had to fight. "I'm ready Thunder" was all she said. She had known exactly what I was going to ask her. I knew Nina couldn't understand her and sure enough Nina just looked confused. I'll explain to her later I thought to myself. I'd figured out how to control when she heard my thoughts which was a good thing. She didn't need to see any memories that came to my mind. There were some things I wouldn't even show her. It wasn't because I didn't trust her, it was because I wanted to protect her. The more she knew the more danger she'd be in. I pushed these thoughts out of my mind as I saw Sunny had organized the horses. They all wanted to fight even the ones that had been human, because they felt they owed us for saving them. I told them twice they didn't have to but they insisted. Finally I just agreed. Nina got on my back and we took off galloping. I knew a shortcut to Everwind Fields, there was a magical portal there in a hidden cave. I never had figured out how it had gotten there but I'd used it before so I knew it was safe. I led the group in that direction praying we'd get there in time.