I'm The Alpha's Challenge

19

A chuckle sounded behind me and an arm wrapped around my waist. Josh pulled me away from the Millers and down the hallway where we passed some stairs. The hallway lead into a huge dining room with a back door, where pictures of the family hung on the wall. Most of them were in front of a huge white building with a golden statue on it. I stopped to look at them; there were multiple pictures in front of multiple buildings. They all had different structures and the same statue on a spire, and yet they were all the same. Some had all the kids, and in some they were younger and a couple of the kids were missing. There were two of the parent's wedding picture in front of the building, the spire towering above them.

I almost didn't hear Josh come up behind me. "That's the temple. There's about 140 in the world. We try ta visit 'em as much as possible." He pointed to a picture with just the 'temple' in it. "This is the Washington D.C. temple, but it's in Maryland because they can't have any buildin' taller than the capital buildin' in D.C. Well, 'cept for the Washington Memorial, but that's a memorial, so it's different." He shrugged.

I nodded, studying it, still not sure what it was. "We go ta do baptism a lot with whatever ward we're in, and usually the family comes along." He pointed to the picture of his parents wedding. "My parents got sealed in the Palmyra temple in New York. Getting sealed is a big thing for us; it means your family can be together in heaven forever. So when they got sealed to each other, they also sealed all of their future children to them."

I nodded, finding one when Josh was younger. "If ya like, we can go sometime. We couldn't go inside, but we could go inta the visitor's center. The missionaries would know so much more than me."

I shrugged, turning back to him. "C'mon, let's go." He lightly touched my waist and I followed him out of the hallway/dining room, and out the back door. The wind immediately whipped my hair around my face, blowing harder than it had been earlier. It whistled in my ears. The first thing I saw was green; green pastures with green trees in the background. A white wooden fence told the outline of the pasture, which held three huge horses. A large red barn overlooked the paddocks, only a few feet away from the house. I looked at Josh, but before I knew it, he was headed towards the barn. I scurried after him, glancing around.

The barn stunk of horses, but it was to be expected. I froze momentarily when I suddenly saw a man in the back of the stable, mucking it out. He stood and looked our way as soon as Josh came in. I almost gasped; he looked almost exactly like Josh, or well, Josh looked like him. He had the same chestnut brown hair, only bit shorter and his eyes weren't as bright. "Hey, Dad." Josh said, going to the back of the barn with his father and pulling down two bridles. "Can I take the horses out?"

His father glanced at me, and then his gaze turned back to his son with a smirk on his face. "Sure, but you need to feed Anthem first."

Josh sighed. "Alright." He beckoned me over, looking in the stall right next to the one his father was cleaning out. Hesitantly, I went over to him just as a little white foal threw its head over the stall door. "This is Anthem. He's a grey shire colt. Did you want to feed him while I go get our horses?"

I nodded slowly, reaching my hand out to stroke his nose. His coat was a grey/white and his mane was a little lighter. His eyes were big and dark, just like any other horse. Josh abruptly handed me a bottle of milk to me. "Here ya go. He should take it in an instant. Just hold on tight." He winked and walked out with the bridles in his hands.

Hm... how do I do this? Anthem was going wild, stomping his feet and tossing his head around. I offered the bottle to him and he immediately grabbed it in his mouth and began wolfing it down. He almost ripped the bottle out of my hand, but I tightened my grip on it.

"So you're Danny, hm?" a voice cut into my thoughts, making me look up at him. I smiled shyly and nodded.

"And you really don't talk?" he asked, paying attention to the stall and not to me. "Hm...I thought he was just exaggerating."