Rescue Heart

Chapter Nine

IT IS HERE! It is not edited, because I appreciate that some of you (*cough*) are suffering from severe withdrawl sypmtoms and that's my fault. Sorreeee. I worked my little butt off to conjure up this very quickly, and I wante to deliver it ASAP hence the lack of editing. So no complaining about typos, they will be sorted soon :3 I hope this chapter was worth the wait, enjoy my little rescue friends!!

C h a p t e r  N i n e

Despite my distinct lack of any substantially restful sleep, life went on, and after being wakened three times during the night to feed little Warrior, I got up at my usual horrendous time in the morning to deal with the other horses. Each time I had woken to feed Warrior, Ollie had stumbled sleepily down to the stables to check up on Gladiator and Duchess, who were both exhausted but were well and displaying otherwise normal behaviour. So there was less of a burden of worry weighing upon me when I woke up.

I left Ollie sleeping, not wanting to disturb him. His face was a picture of blissful innocence, as he lay with his eyelids shut, long lashes resting upon the black bags beneath his dark eyes. He was in a deep sleep, hardly stirring as I stood up and whined at the screams of protest emanating from my hips and lower back. Sleeping rough didn’t do much for my old injuries, that was for sure.

Warrior, however, was disturbed by my movements, and the sleepy little filly lifted her head, staring at me through drowsy doe eyes. Her petite nostrils flared as she curiously watched me shrug on a warm hoodie, and I paused on my way out to drop a kiss on her forehead. “Morning, sunshine,” I said softly, scratching underneath her fluffy forelock. I was so relieved that she had made it, and although still very frail her chances of survival were still strong.

The dogs followed me down to the yard, and there was a spring in their step as the light and warmth of sunrise lit up their spirits. And the horses seemed to be in a much better mood too, with Fergus calling cheerfully to me as I made my way down to see them. Diva also stood at her door, and though she didn’t shout to me in a friendly manner, for once she didn’t pull an evil face at me, she simply nudged me as I glanced into her stable to make sure there was nothing untoward before I made my way over to Duchess and Gladiator.

Duchess stood at the back of her stable, dozing, but she looked round at me and offered me a small nicker under her breath. It was unusual to see her stomach looking a little less swollen, although she would still have a mummy tummy for a while. Beneath her lay Laddy, who seemed monstrously large compared to his poor sister, and he stretched out his long spindly legs before jumping eagerly to his feet without difficulty. He then turned and he nudged his mother rudely before diving in to suckle, lashing his tail belligerently.

“You’re going to have an attitude,” I mused to myself, seeing that the doting new mother was going to have her work cut out for her with her naughty little boy.

I carried on with the morning’s yard duties. In my zombie-fied state, I actually found it peaceful to be getting on with work, seeing as my brain didn’t have enough energy to functionally worry whilst concentrate on every task I was presented with. By the bright and early time of nine o’clock in the morning, all that remained to be done was turn out Diva and Fergus into the pasture.

When eventually I turned the little and large due into their field, the sun was splitting through what remained of the cloud cover from the day before. The two equines were out rug-less, and typically Diva found the muddiest part of the field to have a satisfying roll, drenching her now glossy coat in a thick layer of slimy dirt. Suitably pleased with herself afterwards, she performed a little sequence of bucks and corkscrews, before tanking up the hill to catch up with little Fergus who had already found himself some good grass to be munching on with.