Wild Horses

Orientation:

She knew that the horses were distressed and galloping away, but she couldn’t get her mind on what could be troubling them. Suddenly, a rogue thought popped into her head: what if the horses were running from a predatory animal? It didn’t make sense, who would want to eat such graceful animals? Her health teacher always told her to trust her gut feeling, but was this thought accurate? She did not know. By now, the horses were just a speck on the mountainside, as if staring at the beautiful sunset that was now visible. Looming over her pocket watch, she realised the time and started to wander back to her small gothic home, where she knew there would be dinner waiting.

Complication:

“Hello, honey! Are you okay? Me and your Dad here have been waiting for you!” her Mother exclaimed as she walked through the door. The hallway that led to the study was an eerie sight, with bronze lanterns lighting the way. The roof was damp, and the light from the lanterns was barely strong enough to cast light even a few metres away. She had a feeling where her Dad would be: she turned out to be correct, as her father was busily typing away on his old styled computer, probably looking for a chain handle to hold his precious medieval painting on. The girl’s family was oddly obsessed with the idea of gothic furniture: this has been the same ever since she found out that she was related to Votholin, a great medieval king who had many victories under his earl grey smock. Under the wind, the girl thought that she could just make out a howl in the distance. As quick as she possibly could, the girl grabbed her fur coat, a piece of rope, and started sprinting outside and toward the noise. In her line of vision, she made out a terrible sight: a lone wolf was carrying the bleeding body of the lead foal from the herd she had discovered earlier. Under the cover of darkness, the wolf scurried toward a dim light in the distance, the animal’s eyes glowing like fiery embers with a sickly yellow hue, filled with hatred for all of his prey.

Resolution:

She screamed out as she felt the animal’s pain, as if she was linked to it in some strange way. She had never felt this before, but boy did it hurt. The wolf moved like a blur, darting from shadow to shadow, avoiding the half crescent moon that cast a dim white light on the landscape. This had been a successful hunting session for the wolf: his sharp teeth had dug deep into his prey’s neck, paralysing it with fear and remorse for her decision to go outside and into the dark landscape around her. The poor animal hoped the dog-like predator had not discovered her home of twigs and leaves deep in the oak forest, just outside the boundaries of the girl’s gothic home. Jolted back to the desperate scenario, she ran after the foal and attempted to free it before it was eaten.

Story Close:

Soon enough, the wolf suddenly halted, and, taking a strange turn of events, started to dig into the ground, creating the effect of a small crater’s hole, after having cascaded into the earth and soil we call home. After a while, a large cavern became visible at the bottom of the hole. Grunting, the wolf hopped into the cave and quickly navigated the twists and turns, as if he’d been there millions of times before. The girl was hesitant to follow him, because of the pressure that was in her soul to save the mysterious foal from the clutches of  the wolf, who could easily swallow and devour it. The mound of pressure toppled over her like a skyscraper, but she knew deep down inside that she could do it, her mother’s words of inspiration flowing through her veins like an ion pulse. “I can do it” she yelled “I CAN DO IT!!” All of her previous courage flooded through her like a tsunami colliding with an ancient civilisation. With renewed inspiration, she bolted toward the cavern, trusting her strengths in the unit of navigation. Keeping up her speed, in no time she located the vicious beast, and started swinging the rope around, hoisting the knotted piece of string around the wolf’s mouth and body, stopping it in its tracks.

“I knew that rope would come in handy!” she exclaimed as she attempted to drag the wolf along with her. The beast tried to escape what would be his end, but was in extreme pain from the tangled rope, and was too weak to claw itself out. Snarling in shame, he dropped the previously doomed foal onto the ground of the cave. Relieved by the wolf’s newest action, she swung the foal onto her back and started to take the long journey home, where she would deposit the wolf in an animal centre. As she came to a halt with the horse in her arms, it started to open its eyes, being able to do this from the help of the centre, and neighed softly. A tear trickled down the girl’s face as she remembered how beautiful the foal was, and, saying goodbye, let the foal gallop off into the mountains.  The End