Wild and Free #1: Freedom

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: ZANZEPH'S ANGER

A few days pass. Zedly, now officially counted as Copious's son, hardly ever leaves her side. He still misses Meekla a lot, but he likes having Copious as his mother, too. He even kind of likes having Zanzeph and Tellis as his brothers! Well, mostly Tellis.

And Tellis even feels the same way about Zedly. He loves being a big brother! He treats Zedly a lot nicer than Zanzeph treated his little brother.

Zanzeph, on the other hand, is not too thrilled with having another little brother. He practically ignores Zedly all the time, and barely speaks to him. He barely speaks to anyone. He is mad at his mother for adopting Zedly. He is mad at Marista for making him apologize to the foal. He is mad at Tellis for actually liking the new foal. He is mad at the rest of the herd for making him participate in the Adoption Ceremony, which he didn't approve of. And he is even madder at Sable than he was before, for approving the adoption himself.

Zanzeph continues to glare at the leader, to watch his every move. He can't believe all the changes his life has had to go through just in the space of a few days, and it all started when Sable showed up!

"That new leader has been nothing but trouble for me," the angry horse says to himself one day. "And I'm going to do something about it!"

Sable stands on a nearby hill, watching Zedly with his new family. He is a little bit surprised at how well Zedly has adjusted to his new family, but as long as the foal is happy, so is Sable.

As the leader continues to watch the foal, he notices that everyone in that family is present, except for Zanzeph. "Where could that horse be?" He asks himself. He isn't sure that he likes being unable to see where Zanzeph is. There is no telling what kind of trouble he might try to make!

Sable runs off to find Relment. He finds the stallion grazing out at the edge of the herd.

"Zanzeph is gone, and I was wondering if you could help me find him," Sable asks the gray horse.

"Sure, I'll help," Relment replies. He stops grazing, and runs off with Sable.

"You probably know Zanzeph better than I do," Sable says to Relment. "Where do you think he would be?"

"Actually, I have no idea where he would be," Relment admits. "Zanzeph has been a strange horse, ever since he was a foal."

Little do the two know, though, that Zanzeph is actually behind them, following them.

"You're mine now, Sable!" Zanzeph says to himself. He then lets out an earsplitting neigh, and begins to charge at the leader.

Sable and Relment spin around. Once Sable sees Zanzeph rushing at him, he automatically begins to run himself.

"Stop running away like a chicken and fight like the leader you say you are!" Zanzeph calls to Sable, but the leader continues to run.

Sable knows that he can't stop right now. If he were to stand up to Zanzeph, it would not be a very fair fight... a wild horse against a tamed horse. The wild horse --in this case, Zanzeph-- would definitely win. But right now, he has no clue what he is going to do. His only choice, it appears, is that he lose Zanzeph.

But how?

Sable considers, to save himself some time, running through the forest, and possibly losing Zanzeph while winding through the trees and bushes. But he'll have to do something else along the way, too, because this horse seems very determined.

As Sable heads towards the forest, he also considers running to the river where Jerrist fell in, but he doesn't want Zanzeph to be swept away like Marista's father was. But he has to do something! He can't keep running like this forever! His legs are already beginning to feel weak again.

While his mind races on how to lose Zanzeph, he rushes past the rest of the herd. But neither of the horses stop there. Zanzeph lets out a furious neigh at Sable as they continue to run.

Tellis hears this neigh, and immediately recognizes it as his big brother's. He had been playing with Zedly, and hadn't even realized that Zanzeph had disappeared. Now, he sees his brother chasing their leader off into the distance.

"What is he doing?" Tellis says to himself, shocked. Quickly, he leaves Zedly with Copious and takes off after his brother. He runs as fast as he can, trying to catch up with them.

As soon as he is about to catch up, Sable unexpectedly swerves into the forest, and Zanzeph does the same. Tellis hadn't expected this to happen, so he slows down a little bit. But he doesn't stop. He continues to chase after his brother and leader, now into the forest.

Sable and Zanzeph haven't noticed their follower yet. Zanzeph is just focused on what he is doing right now.

"You'll regret the day you became the leader of this herd!" Zanzeph shouts at Sable.

Tellis is shocked at how venomous his brother is being! He knew that Zanzeph could be mean, but he never would have expected his brother to do something like this! He desperately tries to think of a way to help Sable out. He doesn't want to hurt his own brother, but he doesn't want his brother to hurt the new leader!

Suddenly, an idea pops into his head. He follows Zanzeph and Sable for a little while longer, and then he swerves to his right, off of the path going through the forest. The forest is thicker here, and he disappears amongst the trees and shrubs.