Wild

Chapter Seven

"Hey, look! A barn!" Moon cried as he came to a weathered barn with maroon paint peeling off the sides. It's once cozy look had turned into a look of something haunted, as some of the local kids told their friends. "Maybe we can spend the night here, while it rains" he said as he considered their options.

"Well, we can stay, I guess" Samurai said irritably as the rain began to come down. They rushed into the barn, whose stalls once home to horses. The doors hung open, the locks that held them had been broken off at a previous date. Out of a want for routine each horse occupied one of the seven stalls, except for Moxie, who found the doorway a bit low and had knocked her head upon trying to enter.Standing in the tack room she slept silently.

Samurai stared out the barred window at the end of his stall sadly, wondering whether he would ever see home again. Of course it wasn't their fault that they'd ran away, but he considered how he might be sleeping in a run-in with a round bail and all his friends. He had all his friends plus one, but it wasn't quite the same.

Yawning, he turned and faced the entrance to "his" stall. Through his half closed eyes, he thought he saw an animal, but dismissed it as a shadow. He laid down and tucked his legs neatly under him and dropped his head. Before long he was asleep.

* * * * *

When the Phoenix awoke she was the only one up. The rain was still falling and she saw no reason to wake the others so she held her head out sideways to catch some rain. Though she was still nearly asleep her mind registered a noise behind her and she was wide awake, but... there was nothing there.

She turned lazily and walked back in twitching her ear to the side occasionally to listen for any other strange sounds. Giving and angry snort she moved back into her stall for a chance to let her brain and senses relax.