On the front lines

Chapter 9

I was hitched up to a cart as soon as the sun burned its mark of light onto the ground. It took some getting use to pulling something again. It felt strange not having someone not riding me but I knew that this was for the better.

I began to pull the slightly heavy cart along the wretched ground as it cried in pain as the wheels rolled over it. I plodded along the ground hoping that the day would go smoothly. The sun began to rise but unfortunately the weather had different plans and the sky began to cloud over with dark rain clouds.

We began to reach the trenches and the same stories could be heard but this time there were some different ones.

"Did you hear about the horse who saved her rider after she fell off her other horse"one soldier said

"I heard that after the horse ran off petrified of everything going on" the other soldier replied

I instantly knew that they were talking about me and Zoe.

'Wow I guess word gets around then' I thought to myself

I felt of splash of something on my eyes. Then another and another. Soon the clouds drenched the ground with cold wet rain. You could hear the rumbles of thunder in the distance. It sounded like the same storm that occurred when we were being shipped over to France.

I pictured Zoe singing her song which lifted my spirits a slight bit despite the fact that the weather hated every bit of my soul. Soon it felt like she was right beside me singing her sweet tune. I let out a huff of contentment as I let my mind replay the sound of her singing over and over again.

The reigns were pulled back causing my head to jerk back all of a sudden. I realised we were stopping to pick up the first of the wounded comrades.i hadn't noticed that we were in the place that everyone dreaded to be. We were in the area that no living soul would dare to enter willingly.the sounds were even more terrifying than before since I didn't have a single horse standing next to me to share the pain of war with me.

The first soldier only just made it to the carriage without collapsing. We pulled the cart along some more and we reached an area with basically an entire section of the cavalry wiped out cleanly. The very few that remained to live were slowly dying from blood loss so at that point we had to turn back.

By the end of the first day on the job we had successfully taken back eight soldiers. It would have been 11 but three of them died of blood loss. I was glad I was the one pulling the cart and not the doctor who rushed over to the cart back and forth to collect the injured.

After I was unhitched from the cart I was taken to a small cramped stable. There was barely any hay. It was so small there was no room and it was so small that it was merely impossible to turn 180 degrees without bashing against a wooden wall which would make the 'shack' creak. The stable would creak and squeak like a mouse every so often.

I had no company at all. I felt isolated in there. Every person who walked past wouldn't even care to glance at me. Not another horse to be seen in the stables next to me from the big, thick oak walls that restricted view to the others and only the soldiers who would occasionally walk past.

The stable was placed next to the camp's measly make shift hospital making it easier to transport the patients from the cart to the so called hospital.

Night began to take its place from the evening and I soon drifted off into a not so peaceful night's sleep.

The following morning I was woken up by tapping on the door. I opened my eyes to see a younger man leaning over the gate door.

"Hey buddy! ready to be superheroes and go save some lives cos' I sure am" he spoke with an optimistic tone

It was strange to see someone so bubbly in a time like this. He sure looked young like he was about eighteen or nineteen. I'm guessing he must have never seen the horrors of the front since people who have been out there have a face as dead as death.

He opened the stable door and lead me out and hitched me up to the same heavy cart I pulled yesterday.

"You know what? I almost forgot to introduce myself to you midnight. My name is James and I've recently been taken out from battling on the fronts since I got a leg injury and here I am now." He said sounding as bubbly as ever

Guess I was wrong about him then.

The day was almost the same as yesterday but this time we didn't take people from the cavalry since they didn't go out today. This time we took back the brave soldiers who willing risked their lives on the dangerous front lines.

The cart was so heavy this time I hauled back at least 14 fully grown men. All I could here on the way back was the heavy breathing and slight murmurs of pain from men. However through all of this James never lost his lively personality. He kept talking about how we were saving these men's lives and how we were super heroes.

We arrived back and James helped unload the cart. The cart was finally unhitched and I felt like someone has just taken a giant boulder off of my back.

"Hey midnight, I think we should give a quick check on your hooves to see if they are okay because you must be in pain and I'm sorry about that" he said

He lead me back to my cramped up shelter and shut the gate door behind him. James picked up my first Hoof and picked out all the bits of twigs and grass out of it. He did this to all of them and my hooves felt refreshed and pain free.

After that we just sat around and stroked my striking black coat

This continued for the next year or more as I continued to take the injured back to safety. All through that time James would continue to talk about us being superheroes which was always funny since i don't even know what a superhero was. Everything was fine until one day when we received the news

I'd be going back to the cavalry