Rob
Howard pushed open the barn doors.
"Hyah! Hyah!" Jack ordered his horse, James.
"Let's go." I ordered.
"Hyah! Hyah!" He ordered him again.
"Hyah! Hyah!" Nell ordered Belle.
"Hyah!" Gus ordered his horse, George.
We stopped our horses.
The thunder rumbled.
"I'll search the Ridge." Jack told me.
He took off in the direction of the Ridge.
"I'll take the South Meadow." Gus told me.
"Katy!" He called, taking off in the direction of the South Meadow.
"I'm gonna check the Creek. You should go back." I told Nell.
I turned around.
"Not a chance." Nell told me.
"Katy!" I called, taking off in the direction of the Creek.
"Katy!" She called, taking off in some other direction.
I was riding along the Creek.
"Katy!" I called.
I continued riding along the Creek.
I spotted blood on the ground.
I got off Ryder.
I examined it with the flashlight.
It was a huge puddle of human blood.
"Guys? Anybody there?" I talked into the walkie-talkie.
"Here." Jack answered.
"Here." Gus answered.
"Here." Nell answered.
"You're looking for a blood trail."
"A blood trail?" She questioned.
"Yeah."
"I'm on my way to the Creek. Don't go without me." Jack told me.
"You got five minutes or I'm leaving without you."
"Okay."
Three minutes later
He arrived.
"There is no way Katy just got up and walked away after losing three pints of blood."
"I don't think she did either."
"So, what? You think Flicka yanked her somewhere?"
"Yeah. I do."
"And probably saved her life."
"Yeah."
"Where is a place Mountain Lions wouldn't go?"
"A cave. Everybody who Ranches in the Mountains knows that."
"And any horse knows that?"
"Yeah. They do."
"Then I think I know where Flicka dragged Katy. But it's a long ride from here."
"I think I know too."
"Let's go get your daughter."
We rode off together.
"Or just follow the imprints her body left behind." He commented.
I laughed.
"Who else on this Ranch is this small?"
"Nobody."
Howard joined us on Chariot.
"If Flicka is protecting Katy, the only people she's gonna let into that cave are ones who smell like Katy."
"Mm."
"I smell the most like Katy. Since I was with her the whole day. And he smells like her because she was feeling sentimental and hugged him today."
"Lucky. I can't get Katy to give me a hug."
"That's freaky."
"Not that way."
You heard Flicka growling.
It was Gus she was growling at.
"She won't let me pass."
"Let me handle this, huh?" I questioned.
I approached Flicka.
She sniffed me.
Flicka moved her butt behind her.
"You pull her all the way here, Flicka?" Howard questioned.
He was rubbing behind her ears.
Katy was laying on a big rock.
"Oh!" I commented when I saw all the scratches on her face.
I grunted, sliding next to Katy.
"Katy?" I called her name.
I was leaning over Katy.
"Oh, baby. It's gonna be okay, baby."
I stood up from beside her.
"Come on. Daddy's got you. Come on."
I easily lifted Katy up into my arms.
"Daddy... The Lion got me." She told me.
Katy was shivering in my arms.
I was walking out of the cave with her.
"You're gonna be alright, baby." I told Katy.
"It's alright." I whispered.
Flicka huffed quietly behind us.
"Flicka." She called.
Katy cried in my arms.
"It's alright. It's alright." I told her.
"What do you want us to do with her?"
Katy looked up at me.
Flicka whined.
"Hose her down. Put Flicka in the barn."
"Got it."
"We'll see what's gonna happen tomorrow."
She wrapped her arms around me.
Howard smiled.
He sighed.
"How much trouble am I in?"
"He hasn't made a category for this one." Katy imitated Howard.
"You're in as much trouble as I am, Sweetheart."
"What's he gonna do? Put me to work? Send me back to school?"
Katy laughed.
"I'm already going back to my personal hell in September."
"High School is your personal hell?"
"Boarding School is my personal hell. I'd rather get mauled to death by a Mountain Lion a thousand times over than go back there."
