Wild

Chapter Two

Fire of the Phoeniox, a flame red chestnut filly twisted to resist the pressure on her face from the thing called a halter on her head. She kicked out in vain, trying to nail one of those creatures that was forcing her on the trailer. She bolted forward onto the metal box with wheels and heard something bang behind her. Struggling to see what was happening and why, Phoenix let out a long remorseful whinny.

She cocked her ear back to hear the voices coming from behind her. "Can't believe you want that thing, but she's yours now. Don't want her back!" A hardy laugh followed with the smell of whisky. Phoenix hung her head at this, knowing that she was "That Thing."

A smaller more gentle voice spoke up, "Thank you for your time. Here's your money. I should get her home now." Phoenix wondered what "home" she meant. There had 5 "homes" in her life, only one of which worth remembering, though she struggled to remember even tiny bits of her first "home."

A girl of medium stature and long brown hair startled her by saying "Hey, baby. How are you girl? We're gonna take you to a nice place where you'll live. You'll like it there." She reached out to stoke the filly, but didn't react when she jumped back. "Sorry, girl didn't men to scare you, then."

A shorter red-haired girl peeked in, before grabbing the girl's arm "We should go before that man gets any drunker, we don't want him hurting this poor little horse any more." The brown haired girl frowned, then followed her sister away.

Phoenix hadn't meant to jump back, it was just her natural reaction. She hoped the girl stilled liked her, maybe she'd find a real home with her. She dozed slightly for the first time in a while, as the wheels began to spin and take on her way.

* * * * *

The little mare opened her eyes a little, as the trailer pulled into the driveway of Blue Ledges Equestrian Center. She lifted her head to look out the side window. Horses grazed in huge pastures with a small creek trickling through. Her lonely foal-like whinny carried across the fields causing some horse to lift their heads and reply to the strange horse.

When they finally stopped Phoenix was anticipating her new home, maybe she'd even make some friends. When the back windows opened light flooded in, causing her to blink and squint her eyes, as she turned to see what was going on. The back bottom door came down, yet the bar behind her hindquarters stayed up. The same girl from before came around and held her halter. The bar slowly came down and the divider was pushed to the side and Phoenix backed out into a high fenced round pen.

She felt the girl guide her out, but followed willingly, afraid to anger her. She found herself standing in medium sized round pen with a water tub, hay and tall wooden fencing. The girl's grip was released, but the filly only stood taking in her surroundings. She made a snorting noise and began to gallop around the area shaking her head and kicking out at everything.