Chasing the Stars

Storm

Lightning splits the sky and thunder booms above my head, making the sea thrash like I did when they took me onto this cursed boat.

Meaning very wild and very, very dangerous.

The boat sways from side to side, making me slip and slide down the slippery floor, my jet-black mane flying everywhere.

The crew yells from the deck, their shouts almost lost in the wind.

Thankfully, I'm not the only horse below deck. There are four other horses, a bay gelding named Walnut, a gleaming golden stallion named Sunfire, another stallion named Apier, who has fur as black as night, and a paint mare named Chestnut.

"This storm is so frightful!" Chestnut paws at the stall door, her eyes wide and afraid.

"Oh, I cannot wait for when I am back with Maya!" Walnut agrees.

"I do not belong here, in this dark and dank boat, I belong back on the land, winning all the competitions with Charlotte." Sunfire snorts, tossing his mane and glaring at all of us.

"Oh, do be quiet, Sunfire. We're all stuck here for a while." Chestnut shoots back.

Sunfire whinnies a furious response, but it's lost to my ears. I miss my owner, but I'm never coming back to them.

My owner was a young man named Jacob, with copper-coloured hair, brown eyes, and tan skin. He was very kind. I was born on his farm, and we've been together ever since. Well, actually until two nights ago. Two humans - a man and a woman came to the farm and talked to Jacob. When they left, he seemed upset. The next morning, he led me down to the docks and put me on this boat.

He never said goodbye.

And I've been on this wretched, stinking, cursed boat ever since.

For the first few hours, I was the only horse on the boat. Just me and the crewmen. Not that they cared about me.

Then we stopped at the docks for another town, and Chestnut and Walnut boarded. They explained to me that their owner was sending them to a training school because their owner didn't know how to train horses. They said their owner was a 40-year-old woman named Maya who has a husband named Jamie, and two children, Jack and Mia. Maya has short, coppery curls and worried hazel eyes that always have bags under them, while Jamie has silky blonde hair and kind blue eyes and a smile that says "It'll be alright." Jack is six and has blonde hair and his mother's worrying and her hazel eyes. Mia is 14 and has her mother's coppery curls, while she has her father's can-do attitude and blue eyes. When Chestnut and Walnut boarded the boat, they smothered them with hugs and kisses and tears and "Goodbye, we'll see you soon!"

The next morning, Sunfire joined us, and he snootily told us how "He was getting sent to a far-off land so he could participate (Well, he said win, but I'm not so sure about that ...) in the most prestigious and complex championships that all the best riders and horses participate in." His owner, Charlotte is a 16-year-old girl with black hair and blue eyes. She's tall and lean and has silver wired glasses. And yet she came to say goodbye to Sunfire. "It'll be alright, boy. I'll see you in France." she smiled and rubbed his cheek. "I'm taking an Airplane - I get seasick so easily. Let the other horses know that you're better than them."

"Isis?" Walnut asks, jolting me back from the past. "You okay?"

"Never better," I mutter. "I'm stuck on a boat, in a storm. Even worse, I'm stuck, on a boat, in a storm, with Sunfire."

Sunfire raises his head indignantly, sputtering, as Chestnut and Walnut snicker and laugh.

"She got you there!" Walnut teases Sunfire, shaking with laughter.