A Country Girl.

Chapter 58

Hailey

We rode all the way to the gate of patches enclosure, I jumped off, Ty following, grabbed the lead rope and opened the gate. We walked out and headed to the barn. Amy came running from the house "what was all the commotion?" She asked once reaching us. At the question I went back to the scene of the fight. My hands started shaking again and I had to close my eyes for a second.

"Hailey? Are you ok?" Amy asked concerned, I opened my eyes "yeah just, calming myself down." She looked at me confused "why? And what happened?" I looked at Ty then back at Amy. "A mountain lion attacked us" "what!!!! Are you ok? Are you hurt" Amy asked as she ran her hands over my arms, checking for any injuries. "Yeah we're fine thanks to Patches" at the mention of his name Patches walked forward and laid his head on my shoulder. I smiled at him and stroked his nose "how?" Ty answered this time "he attacked the lion head on and killed it" he said stepping forward and petting the horse "really?" We both nodded " Well that would explain the blood on his feet and the claw marks on his neck but where's the cat?" "Still in the paddock" "oh." "Sorry Amy but we need to get him cleaned up and bandaged" I said "oh right sorry I was just worried. You go do that and I'll talk to Granddad about getting rid of the carcass" "thanks." Amy nodded then headed back to the house and My and Ty lead Patches toward the back of the barn to the cleaning stalls for a bath.

Once we got back to the stalls I tied Patches to the hitching post. He started pulling on the rope and his eyes grew wide. He let out a shrill whinny and pulled harder, "hey, hey" I yelled grabbing the rope. He continued to toss his head back, in response I pulled on the rope, which was a mistake.

Me pulling down on the rope just increased Patches terror and he reared pulling me down, right under him. I heard Ty yell my name but it was faint. I was too focused on the horse above me, it was as if time had stopped. I stared up at the horse that about to crush me 'I caused this' I thought 'I caused him this fear.' Suddenly time started again and Patches started falling back down. In a split second I rolled out of the way just before his feet hit the ground.

I heard the faint sound of Ty yelling, wood shattering and hooves beating the ground. "Hailey" Ty said rushing over to me, I barely heard him and only caught a glimpse of his worried expression before I passed out.

Thunder crashed as I ran through the forest soaked from head to toe. Heavy hoof beats followed and drew nearer, I ran faster, trying to escape what ever was after me. I ducked under a large branch and heard the sound of it splintering as the creature barreled throughout it. I made the mistake of looking back behind me and tripped on a tree root. I fell, then quickly flipped onto my back just as the hooves of a large horse came crashing down. I shut my eyes, screaming.

I woke with a start, sweat and tears covering my face. "Hailey whats wrong?" Amy asked rushing in from the other room. My breathing was labored and I could barely see straight. I shook uncontrollably and found it hard to hold back the tears. There was also this ear splitting sound that caused my head to pound. "Hailey? Hailey!?" Amy called her voice getting more frantic, I covered my ears with my hands and shook my head. "Stop! shut up!" I screamed "Hailey!" "No!"

Papa and Ty ran in, Papa rushing to comfort me. "Hailey" he said in a calm voice "it's ok your safe." He went to tuck a piece of hair behind my ear but I slapped his hand away. I sat curled up in a ball with my hands over my ears crying, praying for the painful sound to leave.

The others watched on, unable to do anything. Not even Ty could calm me, he tried, they all tried in some way to calm me down but nothing worked. I was stuck in my mind, replaying the nightmare over and over in my head. Trying to hold on to the real world that slowly slipped away and soon went dark again.