Phantom in the Fire

A Hard Truth

        The next morning Phantom woke up to sun shining on her through a break in the trees. She had a fitful sleep last night but she didn’t care. She got up and stretched then picked up a fast canter heading to the river. She stopped on the beach and bowed her head taking a drink. She pinned her ears and backed up slightly then bounded forward and vaulted over the river. She made it to the other side without touching the water and dug her hooves into the ground and bolted off for the lake by Valedale.  When she got up there she turned sharply right to avoid Mr. Anderson and went down the track. She acted as if she was racing. She pounded her hooves into the ground and took off over jumps like it was nothing. She did a hard stop next to the bridge and went up by the waterfall and through an old gate leading up to the old Dark Core place. No body went up there. She quickly made the climb and started going back down. When her hooves met metal she dived towards her left and onto a small ledge. She stopped hard then went to a walk so she wouldn’t fall. She jumped up and off of the ledge and landed in a crystal clear pool of water at the middle section of the waterfall that fed the main river throughout Jorvik. She looked around flicking her ears listening to the cool water flow around her. The water went up to her knees but it wasn’t a strong current where she was standing. She loved to come up here and lay down, so she did it alot. She let the water flow around her and go over her back. It was getting cooler so she wanted to enjoy it while she could. She loved coming up her with Michelle and sometimes she would think about those days but most of the time she could keep it out of her head. She stood up, shook off, and jumped from rock to rock to get back to the ledge. Michelle used to call her a mountain goat because of it. Phantom slipped slightly on some rubble but kept going. She went back to the lake once she was up. Mr. Anderson spotted her walking along the ridge. He whistled and Phantom flicked her ears and, out of habit, she ran over to him.

His eyes lit up. “It actually is you, Mist. What happened girl?” He asked rubbing her neck gently. He felt his hand go over something and moved her mane and saw a burn mark. “Easy girl.” He noticed it was kind of getting old now and healing a bit. “Is this what happened? You got caught in a fire with her?” Phantom snorted softly and dropped her head. Mr. Anderson rubbed his hand over her ears and down her face as she put her head back up. “It is OK Mist. I know you didn’t mean it.”

Phantom smiled slightly and muttered, “He is someone who really knows horses, even if that isn’t me anymore I guess.”

He walked to the gate and grabbed a halter and walked back to Phantom. Phantom looked up and saw the halter and her eyes went wide showing white at the edges. She put her ears up and reared. Mr. Anderson put his hands up and dropped the halter. Mist came back down hard and snorted, tail flicking. “Easy, now girl. I won’t hurt you and you know it. You don’t want to go back? They might have found Michelle. She may be alive even… Please.” He bent down and picked the halter up slowly. Phantom didn’t calm down but with some reassurances Mr. Anderson got the halter up on her nose and buckled it by the end of her jaw bone. He clicked on a short lead rope and led her over to a post and tied it loosely. Phantom shook her head slightly but knew that her little outburst would have got her this either way.

Mr. Anderson called Michelle’s parents and talked to them for a while. They said they would like their daughter’s horse back and that they would come right away with a trailer. They also said that they had not found Michelle. Mr. Anderson hung up a little while later and talked to Steve for a while saying what happened even though he already knew. He learned about Phantom’s part in all of this and he agreed she could stay in her stall and he would feed her for a while but then Michelle’s parents would have to pay a little a week at the very least.

Michelle’s parents arrived at the lake about an hour later with a small trailer. They thanked Mr. Anderson and went over to Phantom. Michelle’s father led her up to the trailer but then Phantom froze. This was wrong to her. She wanted Michelle. She planted her feet and whinnied softly. Mr. Anderson walked over and saw the her eyes widen and how fear seemed to pool in the crystal blue in her eyes. “Mist, she isn’t coming back. They never found her, just let it be.” Phantom flicked her ears listening. She gave no notice of what Mic's parents thought now. She reared up on her hind legs lashing out. She almost got Mr. Anderson and did get Michelle’s father. He dropped the rope and tripped backward from being kicked in the shoulder, falling flat on his back with the air knocked out of him. Mr. Anderson grabbed the rope and wrestled to get her head down. He managed to slip off the halter so she wouldn’t get caught in shrubbery or on a fence and then Phantom bolted. She didn’t care where she went. She didn’t even think about it. Her legs flew and she went straight to the forest. She hated that they had not found Michelle and she hated herself for not going back. She stayed out in the forest and roaming around Everwind for quite some time and little by little she became wild again. She stayed alone but stayed uncaught. She knew people had by now heard the rumor and it grew into an actual story. Sometimes she would bolt through Silverglade and look into Michelle’s house just to check and people would freak because she only came at night and she looked like an actual phantom to them. She didn’t care for when the men would chase her but they would always either be scared away or she escaped. She was getting good at running away from them but sometimes she would get caught. She would just bite the lock and then bolt out after kicking open the door because of how she bites it makes part of the lock break like before when she would go out and ran in the mornings before Michelle came to get her. Sometimes she would see Chase and Blaze and she knew that his dad was probably mad at her for escaping the men he paid so many times over but she also had a feeling Chase wasn't doing anything to help her out with it.