Wild and Free #1: Freedom

CHAPTER NINETEEN: THE TRUTH ABOUT MEEKLA

"Where are we supposed to be taking everyone?" Zanzeph asks as he, Marista, and Relment run through the pouring rain. The whole herd is following close behind these three horses, and getting soaked by the downpour.

"Just right into the forest," Marista replies, still having to shout over the loud, blowing wind. "It's not raining as hard under the shelter of the trees, but it's too dangerous to go too deep into the forest!"

Everyone follows these three into the forest, but to Marista's surprise, it is still raining inside the forest as hard as it is raining outside of the forest.

"Great, now what?" Zanzeph asks, sounding annoyed.

"It's probably still safer in here than it is out there!" Relment replies.

A bright flash of lightning lights up the sky. The horses hear a loud crackling sound, as if someone nearby had cracked a whip, only about a thousand times louder. All of the horses turn around just in time to see a tall tree light up in flames. As it comes tumbling down, the herd runs out of its path, screaming and neighing in fright.

"So this is safer, huh?" Zanzeph says to Marista sarcastically.

Marista looks deep into the forest. Where is Sable? She wonders worriedly, as the herd continues to erupt in a loud frenzy of frightened neighs and whinnies.

Sable is still stunned by Zedly's remark. Tears flow down the foal's face as the young leader stares into the darkness of the cave, unsure of what to do.

"But how?" He finally manages to say.

Zedly hesitates. He isn't sure whether he should continue or not at first, but he decides to go ahead and tell Sable.

"My mother died because I was a coward." He pauses to take a breath, tears still streaming down his cheeks, but then he continues:

"My mother and I wandered away from the herd together, but just for a short time. We needed a little mother-son time to ourselves."

Sable nods his head understandingly as he recalls moments like that of himself with his own mother back on the Timmons's empty horse farm, in what seems to be a time so long ago.

"Inside the forest, we found a small spot that had some really sweet-tasting grass," the foal relates, reminiscing. "So we stopped and began to graze. As we ate, I saw a snake slithering towards me. I screamed, and Mother came over to see what the matter was."

Zedly sniffs back a tear, but still continues.

"When Mother saw the snake, she immediately began to try and pound it with her hooves. I looked at her as she stomped the ground, and I saw fear in her eyes. It shocked me, because I had never seen my mom so worked up over a snake before.

"Somehow, the snake managed to escape from my mother, so she thought that it was gone. Suddenly, I heard a strange rattling sound that I had never heard before, and I saw the snake slithering up behind Mother. I was too afraid to stomp it for her, to scare it away from her. I just stood there watching, frozen in fear, too scared of what might happen next to even speak a word.

"Again, I saw the fear in Mother's eyes. It was then that I realized this was a poisonous rattlesnake. It crawled behind her, and bit the back of her leg. The venom from the rattlesnake must have flowed through her body very quickly, because she was dead by sunrise the next day."

Zedly pauses now.

"No one else was able to find the bite from the snake," he adds, "and I never told them what happened. I was afraid of what they might think of me." The foal finally finishes his story, and begins to cry again.

Sable feels sorry for Zedly right now. No wonder this foal had been acting so terrible lately! He has been through a lot, even at his young age.

But there is still something Sable doesn't completely understand. "Zedly, why would you think that it's your fault that your mother died?" He asks.

Zedly looks up at the young leader. "Don't you see?" He replies. "If I hadn't screamed, she would have never come over, and the snake would have never bit her. I could have either run, or pounded the snake myself!" He once again bursts into uncontrollable tears.

"And so, since you think that you were scared when you shouldn't have been, you tease anyone else who seems to be a 'coward' like you think you were?" Sable guesses.

Zedly thinks for a moment. "Well, I never really thought of it that way," he replies. "But now that you said it, I guess that's what it is."

"Zedly," Sable says reassuringly. "You can't beat yourself up about this. It wasn't your fault that your mother died. It was the snake's fault. It bit her, and that's why she died."

Zedly continues to cry, but he thinks hard about Sable's words. After another long pause, he looks back at the leader. "Thanks," he says under his breath as he manages to smile.

Sable can't believe what he has heard! "What did you say?" He asks the foal.

"I just said thanks for, you know, talking with me and everything," Zedly replies. "And for showing an interest in me." He smiles wider, and then adds, "Jerrist would have never done anything like you did for me tonight."

Sable smiles back at Zedly. "You're welcome," he says, beaming. "I'm just trying to do the best that I can as the new leader."

"I have to admit," Zedly says. "You can tell that the whole leading thing is new to you, but I guess you're doing a pretty good job at it."

Sable smiles even wider now. He is surprised at how nice Zedly is being. It is as if this colt's entire personality has been completely flipped upside-down! But now he understands what Marista said before, about how Zedly used to be so kind and well-behaved when his mother was alive. He is seeing that side of this foal himself.

The biggest thing that he can't believe, though, is that Zedly is acting this way to him.

Sable now looks outside of the cave. "It looks like the rain has died down some," he tells the foal. "Let's try to find the rest of the herd."

Zedly also looks outside of the cave, and sees that this is true. The rain is sprinkling down now, barely enough to even wash out an anthill. Zedly agrees with Sable, and then follows him into the gently sprinkling shower of rain to search for the herd.