Born Wild {Completed}

Wolf

Chapter 20

Wildfire's POV
I get stopped by a boy and get a halter shoved on my face. Caught again?! He leads me down the road and into the woods, I see a leopard Appaloosa stallion and I snort. I don't really notice the mare grazing behind a tree but she looks familiar. Wait, is that... It is! Willow!

Willow's POV
I nicker to him and he anxiously nickers back. Liam pulls him away and ties him to a tree ten horse lengths away and Annie jumps up to tie me back up to the tree. Liam unzips his backpack and pulls out a rope, tying it around Riptide's neck and to a tree. It's almost silent, except for the creek, trees and owl, that night. Wildfire paces, lashing out at his lead every now and then. Liam and Annie have fallen asleep but Riptide keeps his eyes on Wildfire. Sometimes, he would swing his rear towards me and paw the ground, almost protecting me from my best friend. I can't explain it to him because he is too far away. I give up and fall asleep, listening to my surroundings. I don't dream much that night, but I do remember one:

' I jerk my head up and blink until everything is clear. I am in a field with my herd. There is a nudge on my flank and a little chestnut paint filly nurses from me. Wildfire trots over and nuzzles me,
" How is our little Aurora doing?" he gestures over to the little fully nursing from me,
" She is fine, stop worrying!" I sarcastically nicker. Aurora trots up and nuzzles us, playfully nipping Wildfire's ear,
" You better gallop!" he chases her off and she turns and faces him. Then bolts off to a bay colt and plays with him.'

I flash open my eyes and sniff the fresh pine scent in the air. Wildfire nickers over to me and I nicker back, I kinda taught myself how to untie a knot from a lead. So, I undo my lead and walk over to Wildfire, trying not to make a sound.

" Hi! I haven't seen you in forever! Oh my gallop! Why are you so skinny?!" I ask, noticing his ribs.

" You know the place she got you? Well, they are the opposite of what you think they are. They starved us!" he whispers back.

" Are you okay?! Here, let me undo this." I pull the rope down and the lead hangs loose, almost touching the ground. Annie wakes up and noticed that the new stallion and her mare are together. So she jumps up and tries to separate us, but we just try to stand side by side. She sighs and unclicks our halters.

" You know what?! You all deserve to be wild. Thank you for all your help and getting us this far." She kisses my nose and unclips Riptide's halter, waking him up. He sees Wildfire and races up in between us, pinning his ears and stomping his hooves.

" Hey, get away from her!" I nudge him, reassuringly and he relaxes the slightest bit.

" It's okay Riptide, he is a friend. I grew up with him." I nuzzle them both and trot away to graze.

" Don't you dare hurt or harm her." Wildfire snorts.

" I wouldn't think of it. And that's like the same thing!" I stomp my hoof.

" Girls, stop the violence and graze!" I sarcastically order. They both shut up and graze beside me.

After eating and drinking, I explain to Riptide who we are, and where we come from. He is confused at first but I made sure he knew what I was talking about. I kinda lost focus of what I was talking about.

" But we should go up and over the mountain, across the river and then take the meadow." we argue.

" But if we go through the forest and jump the creek, we could get there faster." I realize what we are talking about now, so I stop the talk. We start to lope through the forest, with me leading the way.
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We walk slowly down the mountain. Riptide weakly moves forward and Wildfire stumbles over the tightly packed snow. We haven't slept in two days because we usually get caught in a snow storm and nearly freeze to death. I am the weakest and thinnest of us all, Wildfire has most muscle on his bones. The sky becomes dark and the air is as frozen as ever. Wildfire leads us off the trail and finally, we have found a tree. Riptide leans against it and I lean on him. Wildfire leans close to me and they share their body heat for me, because they know that I am weak and cannot stand alone or else I could freeze to death. I fall asleep quickly and feel the sharp pin pricks that the snow leaves as it falls on my back.

The morning sun shines through the clouds, warming the earth beneath us and heating us up. I take a look around and the stallions wake up. Wildfire yawns and then sharply inhales.

" Grass!" He steps forward then halts. Looking at me.

" No, Willow has to have it." I don't know weather to eat or not.

" But you should have some too! Without both of you, I couldn't survive!" He shakes his head to rid the snow from his face.

" Okay, but you eat as much as you want." I eagerly step forward and dig my muzzle into the short grass. The clump slides down my throat and hits my stomach, begging for more. I eat most of it, leaving some for the stallions. They race in, chowing down. They squeal and kick at each other, trying to get each bit. The amusing moment changes when I smell something disturbing. It stinks of blood. I toss my head into the sky and sniff it out. Following the scent, I reach what I was smelling out. A dead animal, torn to shreds. I squeal and the stallions quiet down, trotting over to comfort me. Riptide steps forward and inspects it.

" It appears to be a young coyote. It has a fresh of scent of wolf on its meat." He pins his ears and trots off to inspect the trail for more animals or wolfs. I bury my face in Wildfires mangy mane and he nuzzles me.

" It's okay. It was-" I cut him off.

" It was probably minding its own business before being attacked and killed by those terrible things!" I squeal. Riptide trots back and breaks us up. He says something that I had hoped he wouldn't say.

" There coming. We have to run!" At that moment, there is a ear pricing howl. We gallop down the mountain but I trip and fall. I jerk my head behind me and my eyes widen. Five wolfs.

" Keep going!" I squeal at Wildfire. He tries to help me up and I gallop but limp away. I feel a pain in my hip but kick the dangling wolf off of my hip, trying to ignore the searing pain.

Authors note-
Yay! Chapter twenty! Well, maybe the last part is not so 'Yay' but I'm done it! I am thinking of finishing the book in between chapter 25 and chapter 30. What do you think?
-Acacia
{Edited}