The Unexpected Partner

Chapter 4

Not being able to sleep, Claire waited for dawn to come so she could go to the mines. The wait was painful. When she saw the first sight of the mountain dew, she ran outside to get Fancy. Please, please, please, be alright, she prayed. She wanted her father to be fine. She knew she couldn't live without him.

Once outside, Claire saw Fancy laying down. At the sight of Claire, the young brown horse stood on her feet, showing loyalty and respect to her owner.
"Hi Fancy," Claire said, smiling weakly while uniting the reins. Fancy neighed loudly.

"You're so funny," Claire laughed at the sounds that Fancy made. She got on the horse and put her canteen on the side. Number #1 rule: always have water.

Fancy and Claire immediately rode through the grass, this time not towards the town but in the other direction, towards the mountain. I guess today is the day I get to see those mines, Claire thought to herself. She had never been interested in going to the mines because although the Montana mountains looked idyllic on the outside, they looked scary to be inside.

Moving past the tall pine trees and the dirt paths, she headed on the path for the big hills. "We're going to find Papa, isn't that right Fancy?" Claire talked to her horse. Fancy stayed quiet. They moved slowly through the plains, not wanting to trip on anything that couldn't be seen in the dawn.

After they had been riding for some time, Fancy suddenly started neighing loudly. "What is it?" Claire asked her softly, getting scared that she could not see everything. Fancy kept neighing and threw her front legs up in the air, causing Claire to fall abruptly off the saddle and on the dirt.

"Ow," Claire stated, feeling her back ache from the trauma of the fall. "Fancy, what are you doing?" Fancy ignored Claire, started sniffing the ground, and went to look behind a tree a few feet away from where Claire was.

"What is it?" Claire asked, pushing herself off the dirt. Fancy spotted something, jumped back and started neighing even louder as Claire rushed to her, finding the most horrendous thing she could have seen.

"Papa!" Claire yelled, seeing her father laying down and leaning on the tree. His eyes closed, his face bloody, and his body not moving. "Father!" Claire threw herself on the ground and put her hand on her father's face. The tears rolled down her eyes as she touched her father's bloody skin. Her father was laying on the tree with a huge cut on his head, making his face drip with blood, there was so much blood covering his face, but Claire still noticed that his eyes were swollen shut. His arm was crossed across his chest, as if it had been broken. He was in agonizing pain.

John could not move nor say a word. "Papa, please, say something." She whispered, touching the gray hair on his face and trying to shake him up. Checking his chest, she saw that his heart was still beating, making her jump with joy that her father was alive. That joy quickly died down when she realized that her father was not waking up.

Fancy's noise died down when she saw the grassy area and began to chew on the green pasture. Claire continued to try to help her father, using all her muscles to get him to stand up rather than lie down. When she did that, his eyes opened a little.

"Claire..." John started.

"Yes, Papa, it's me. I'm here."

He continued, "Claire, don't do what they say. Don't do...," his words get cut off by him coughing up blood.

Claire took out her handkerchief and wiped the blood from his mouth. "Don't do what?"

Before John could answer her question, her eyes noticed a paper on the ground, crumpled up and blood on it. "What is that?" She asked, leaning over and picking it up.