Horse By Day

chapter 15

Luca slides to a stop suddenly deep in the forest. I nearly slam into him. The horses behind me already guess what's going on and slow down. I sink down to the ground and gasp for air. Luca moves over me and nudges me lightly. "Amber what's wrong?" He Nickers softly. The other horses dance nervously as they smell my blood in the air.

"I cut my shoulder." I grunt and touch it with my muzzle to show him. The whites of his eyes show as he stares at it. "How bad is it?!" I panic. The pain starts suddenly and I let out a strangled snort. It felt like a knife had been slashed through my shoulder on the left.

Luca nuzzles me to keep me calm whe he looks to the other horses. "Do any of you know anything about doctoring!?!" He looks to each of them. A silver stallion steps foward. His mane is black and his coat shimmers in the few rays of light that make it through the leaves.

"I know a bit, Not a lot. After all I did own a Clydesdale breeding farm." He grunts. I look at him weakly. My mind felt fuzzy and I'm pretty tired now. The horse steps foward and studies the wound. He looks oddly familiar...

"I feel as if I know you." I murmer. He lets out a coughing laugh. I snort and narrow my eyes at him.

"You'd think you would know a guy after staying in his house." He teases. I stare at him and my mind makes the connections.

My eyes grow wide and I look him over. "Wow Sebastian." His eyes take on a sparkle of humor. "You look different."

"Well thanks to you I'm a horse shifter now." He snorts and nudges my shoulder lightly. I wince and snap at him when he prods again. "Easy, ee need to get moving Luca." He grunts and nudges me. "You need to get up too."

I struggle to my feet and lean on sebastain next to me. Luca took a few glances at us but kept quiet. He starts our small group deeper in to the woods and Sebastian helps me as we move along.

I learn the other two horses names, Sarah and William. Sarah is a little paint mare who stays quiet. William I would guess is about 9 or 10 in human years. He's a very young horse. He likes to talk a lot too.

"I was never taken." He tells me," I was bred there. I dont know my parents becouse I was taken away from them after birth." I glance at him as he looks and explores but never wanders to far.

"William get over here!" Sarah snaps. I glance at her and huff.

"He's fine as long as we can see him I think it's ok." I tell her. She narrows her eyes and flicks her tail at me and canters up next to Luca. I stare after her and wonder if she was a lead mare...the attitude confirms it. She talks to luca who in turn gives a horse laugh.

Sebastian nudges me slughtly. "You ok? You keep staring at them." I nod and look for Will. The colt of a horse was playing in a hole. He let out a squeal as an angry badger swipes at him. He runs for me and sebastain and hides behind us. He was a full grown horse. Even though he was young. He has a spotted coat like a Dalmatian. I glance back at Sarah. Her coat is a dark brown and white.

How had both these people end up in such a situation. Will was bred in to. Whats the operation that was going on?

"So ecactly what's going on back there?" I ask Sebastian. He tells me about the breeding program they had. They wanted smarter horses to train and work better. Ones that could do it on their own. So scientists came together and made a human minded horse. Later in that same horse was bred but then turned in to a human. They wanted her dead but she got away.

The idea was set that they could make the horse shifters as slaves. But they would have to incorperate slavery back in to the world as a legal thing in the US.

I listen slightly disturbed and sickened. I could have been a slave? A breeding tool? I ask about his transformation. He tells me that it wasn't dramatic. Tbey injected him with the syrum amd threw him in the stall. He had been out in the cage a few days then luca and I busted our way out.

"I became a lead stallion and I talked with the other horses." He says.

Will listens and walks beside me. He is oddly close and at my side. Like he was my foal. I dont mind it, it seemed kinda sweet. It got darker and we broke through the trees when the sun was disappearing. I had been stumbling over my feet. The bleeding in my shoulder had stoped and Sebastian said it wasn't bad but needed cleaning.

The meadow we walk on has a small stream running through it. Sebastian changes and I close my eyes as he works to clean my shoulder. When clean Sebastian changes back and we bed down for the night.

I reflect on all that I have learned. Gosh...I really just want my mother...