Heart and Soul (rewrite)

Chapter Eleven

I found Annie quickly. She was trying to stand up, her breathing shallow, the salty tang of tears attached to her normal scent. I nuzzled her. She turned around to face me, burying her face in my neck.

"Whiskey! Thank God you're okay! My brave, brave girl." She hugged me tighter. The moon had vanished by now, leaving us the stars. She leaned on my withers and clucked quietly. "Let's find a way out."

We walked for about ten minutes before a sharp, biting pain made itself known on my cannon bone. I snorted in surprise, and tried to back up, but something bound my legs together, and the pain grey worse as I tried to move. Annie turned around and cursed quietly.

"Barbed wire? Of all the ditches we could have fallen in, we had to fall in the one with barbed wire!" She reached for my legs and I pinned my ears at her, threatening to bite. She backed off, hands raised in a pacifying gesture.

"Okay, easy. I can make the pain go away, but you have to trust me. Okay? Trust me, please."

I allowed her to untangle the barbed wire from around my legs, and when she backed off her hands were stained with blood, both mine and hers. She rubbed my star, staining it pink.

"See? I'll never hurt you." I dropped my head and rubbed it against her shoulder as if in apology and she smiled, then picked up my reins. "Okay, let's get out of here." I followed her until quiet cries reached my ears. I pricked them at the sound but Annie walked on, oblivious. Humans are half deaf. After thirty more feet she turned her head.

"Do you hear that, Whiskey?" I snorted. Of course I did.

"Should we investigate?" She turned her head in the other direction, trying to pinpoint the sound with her flat ears. I shook my head no. She continued walking until the sound was at our feet.

"Oh my," She gasped, crouching down. I pinned my ears. I wanted to go home. My legs had begun to swell and were hot and painful. My thoughts kept returning to the thick, clean bed of shavings waiting for me, and the cold water bucket that was sure to be there. I heard her croon quietly and pricked my ears at her. Was she calling to me?

As she picked up a small black and white puppy, his tail a bloody stub, I realized she had been talking to these small coyotes.

"Look, Whisk!" She smiled, holding the puppy before her. I cautiously extended my muzzle to sniff him, and noticed he lacked the wild scent the coyotes carried. He squired to get away from me and Annie obliged, putting her body between us. I watched with curiosity as she coaxed a skew bald pup out of hiding, and swept them both up in her arms. We continued our walk as she hummed to us, and I became more and more lame.

The sun had taken on a rosy hue by the time we found a bank low enough for me to scramble up, and I could barely walk. But Annie trusted me to lead her home, and I followed the quiet tug back to the grey and white barn. Paloma thrust her head over her door and nickered at me. Vikingo watched in silence, hay hanging from his mouth. Mom stepped out of the tack room. Annie hissed quietly, stepped in front of me to hide my legs, and gave Mom her best smile.

"Where were you?" She demanded, a mix of emotions pitching her voice higher than it usually was. I could smell them pouring off her: anger, desperation, relief, fear, disbelief, apprehension, anxiety, and several others I couldn't identify.

"Went for a ride." Annie replied casually. She held the two puppies forth as if providing an offering. "I found these guys. I'm thinking Oreo for the black and white pup and-"

"Annie Victoria Cassels, you of all people should know not to go riding at night! You, and the horse, can get hurt like that! And Whiskey is a valuable polo pony, and you're my daughter! You're one of the few things I have left to hold on to in this world! Now go get dressed, and put your computer and phone in my room. We'll talk about this more later. I'll drive you to school." She reached for my reins and Annie stepped aside. Mom saw my legs, swollen, bloody, and beginning to ooze. She gasped. "What... what did you do?!" She was screaming now. "What happened to this horse? Where did you take her? What did you do with her?!"

Annie sighed. The story had to come out. "We were just walking, when coyotes surrounded us. Whiskey was so brave, she bolted, and I fell off, but she came back for me, and stood while I climbed back on. Then we galloped, the coyotes on our heels, and she jumped a two foot fence. Then we came to this ditch. She went for it, and it would have been an awesome jump, but she misjudged it, and we fell in. We were both okay, but then she got tangled in barbed wire. But Mom, she let me take it off! Then we found these little guys," She indicated the puppies in her arms. "and then we found a way out."

Mom broke down into sobs. "You could have been killed!"

"I know," Annie replied, standing beside Mom. "But Whiskey took care of us. I'm okay now." Mom nodded, and Annie turned to go inside. I was untacked and hosed down, then my injuries were cleaned and bandaged.

That was the end of our midnight rides, and unfortunately, the beginning of the end of my time with the Cassels.