The Beautiful Stranding

Chapter 4 The Ride

After a couple of days of secretly going off to see Magic, my father starts to get suspicious. "Where are you going?" He asks me.

"Oh just to go find some nuts," the reply roles off my tongue easily.

"Ok. But you better be back here at camp by sunset, or else you'll be in trouble." He says, yet I know all that will happen to me is that I will have to sleep on the ground. He can't really do much more to me here.

As I walk towards the spot where I meet Magic something grabs me. I almost shriek in fright until I realize that it's just Chris. "What do you want?!" I say very coarsely. It's like I was another person almost.

"I know what you've been doing." he says. "I know all about the horse and that you named him Magic."

"How do you know all this? Are you STALKING me?" I say louder than I probably should.

"No. I just come here every day to get water. And I think that it's good that you made a friend." he says, almost too happily.

"Try telling that to my father for me."

"Right. Just try and keep things low key. And I'll send him off of your trail for you."

"Thank you so much Chris. But you should get going though. My father probably needs you."

"Okay. Have fun Dylan."

After a few minutes Magic appears.
I pet him for a little while until he turns his back towards me. "Is this you asking me to get on you?" I ask.
He just neighs back in agreement. At least I hope it was in agreement. So I jump on to him gently and say "come on boy let's go see my father."
I know that it's a gutsy move to just show up at camp on Magic's back but, it's the easiest way for me. When we show up no one is there. "Dad?" I say "Are you there?" He emerges out of the bushes and immediate this eyes lock onto Magic.