Wild and Free #1: Freedom

CHAPTER THREE: GOODBYE, LIVIA

Sable begins to walk about five minutes after his birth. The humans watch on, Claire jumping up and down with happiness. Livia couldn't have been prouder of her new son!

Now, horses can talk amongst each other, and of course humans cannot understand them. But horses are very intelligent, and can pick up the human language very quickly, whatever language they are surrounded by.

This is exactly what happens to Sable. By the time he is a week old, he already knows what his name sounds like when the humans say it. Then, with the help of his mother, he has learned most of his humans' basic language by the time he is four months old.

Sable also begins to grow closer and closer to Claire Timmons. He grows to love her parents very much, too. He starts to believe that all humans are like the Timmonses, but this is mainly because he has never met any other humans before.

He is also close to his mother. Every day she tells him stories about a wild horse named Kelay, who was the leader of her herd. They are stories that Sable's grandmother told Livia when she herself was a foal, according to what Livia said. These stories are always full of action and adventure! They are about Kelay saving the herd from bears, or rescuing a foal from a raging river. But Sable's favorite story is when Kelay leads the whole herd to safety through a wild forest fire.

"Please tell me the story of Kelay and the forest fire!" A young and excited Sable asks.

"Alright," Livia says with a smile. "It goes like this:

"It was a dark, stormy day. The herd was lost in the forest, unable to find a way out, when suddenly a bolt of lightning came out of nowhere! It struck a tree, and started a forest fire. The herd was terrified. More terrified than they had ever been in their entire lives! They were choking on the thick smoke, knowing that this was the end. But their brave leader, Kelay, knew the forest inside and out. She led the whole herd through the burning trees and bushes, and through the thick, gray smoke to safety!"

"Yay!" Sable shouts. He thinks that his life is the best! He has a kind, affectionate family of humans and a gentle, loving mother who tells him his favorite stories. What more could a horse want?

But one day, unbeknownst to the young foal, all of this was about to change.

That day comes very soon, marked by a large, blue truck with a horse trailer in the back that pulls up the Timmons's long, winding driveway. Livia and four-month-old Sable are grazing in the pasture. The foal sees the truck coming, and out of curiosity he runs to the edge of the fence to get a better view of the new vehicle.

Sable watches as a man wearing a blue vest, faded jeans, and a bright red cowboy hat hops out of the truck. The man looks like he is about in his late fifties. He reaches back into the driver's side of his truck, and honks the horn. This horn is very loud, and it pierces the air. The foal winces as the blast hurts his sensitive ears.

Hearing the loud horn, Mr. Timmons peeks his head out of the barn door where he has been cleaning out Livia and Sable's stalls. He rushes out of the barn and runs to meet this stranger.

Sable tries his best to listen in on the conversation between Mr. Timmons and the stranger. The foal can't understand most of it, but he understands enough to know that the two men are arguing about his mother.

Livia walks up behind her son. When she sees the stranger arguing with Mr. Timmons, she gasps.

"What's wrong, Mother?" Sable asks.

"N-nothing, dear," Livia replies calmly. But Sable can see the worry and fear in her eyes.

"That horse is mine!" The stranger shouts.

"No, actually she's not," Mr. Timmons replies. "You sold her to my father, and my father left her to me."

"Well, I want her back!" The stranger shouts back at Mr. Timmons.

"Why do you want her so badly?" Mr. Timmons asks.

"That is none of your concern," the stranger says. "Just give her to me!"

"I can't do that sir," Mr. Timmons says as he turns around to head back towards the barn.

There is a short pause.

"I'll give you $10,000 for that horse!" The stranger yells to Mr. Timmons, unwilling to give up.

This causes Mr. Timmons to stop and think. A year ago, there is no way that money would have ever caused him to think about getting rid of his father's favorite horse. But right now, they really need that money, and it is just a horse... even if she had been his father's favorite. After hesitating for a moment, he turns back around and finally replies reluctantly, "Okay, fine."

This causes the stranger to smile.

Still listening to the conversation, Livia and Sable gasp. They watch as the stranger writes out a check to Mr. Timmons, then Mr. Timmons runs off and disappears into the barn. When he comes back out, he is holding a bridle and a lead rope.

Sable immediately buries his head against Livia's chest.  "No, they can't take you!" He cries. "They can't!"

"I'm sorry Sable," Livia tells her son sadly. "But the humans have decided who I must belong to."

Mr. Timmons walks up to the fence, and then opens the gate and steps into the pasture. He walks over to Livia, and puts the bridle and lead rope on her. The whole time he is doing this, Sable is neighing as loud as he possibly can. He is screaming, kicking his hind legs, trying everything he can to stop them from taking his mother.

But to his dismay, none of this works. Mr. Timmons still leads Livia out of the pasture, ignoring Sable, and locks the fence behind him.

Sable shoves his snout into the spaces of the tall fence as far as he can, and neighs to his mother as the stranger in the bright red cowboy hat loads her up into the horse trailer hooked to the back of his truck. As the stranger pulls his truck out of the driveway, Livia lets out a responding neigh to her son, telling him goodbye.

Sable watches sorrowfully. He continues to neigh and neigh, until his voice is hoarse and his throat hurts. Finally, defeated, he whispers, "Goodbye, Mother," to himself softly. He then walks away from the fence with tears in his eyes, knowing that there isn't anything he can do about it now. The rest of the day he wanders around the huge, empty pasture.

Alone.