The Black Horse - a star stable story

Chapter 5

     I woke up early the next morning. I got dressed quickly and went out to the barn. Shadow was waiting for me his head hanging out of the stall. "I figured you'd come kind of early" he said "and I'm glad to get out of here after seeing...." he trailed off as if he didn't want to say any more. I didn't question him, I'd learned by now he tells me things when he's ready to. I went and got his bridle out of the tack room but it looked strange so I looked it over. The cheekpiece was broken but it had been fine yesterday. It looked almost like it had been cut. If I hadn't noticed it would've broken completely in half while I was riding. Great I must have an enemy around here somewhere I thought to myself. I walked back out to Shadow and said "Looks like we're going without a bridle" "Why?" my horse asked curiously. I told him about what I'd found with the bridle. "Well another good reason to get going I guess" Shadow said. I got on him feeling a little awkward without a bridle but I trusted him enough to listen to me without it. I walked down into the arena to find Nina, Alex, and some other girl waiting. "Who is this?" I asked looking at the other girl. Her horse stood out with his strange blue mane. "This is my friend Lisa" Alex said "she's going to come with us and another friend of mine is waiting in Valedale for us." I noticed Shadow didn't act nervous around her. He was starting to get good around new people. "Um can her horse talk too?" I asked kind of awkwardly "Yeah" Lisa said with a laugh "That's probably the most awkward question I will ever ask anyone" I said laughing too. "What happened to your bridle?" Nina randomly asked noticing its absence. "Oh yeah, I totally forgot to tell you about that!" I said. I told them about how I'd found the bridle in the tack room. "Well we'd better get going before everyone else gets up then" Alex said sounding kind of bothered by my story. We trotted out of the stable gates and then cantered to Jarlaheim. I'd never seen a city with so few cars before. Instead of cars there were horses everywhere. I wish I could stay on this island longer then just one summer I though looking around. We crossed the city pretty quickly and started galloping. I almost never galloped while riding back home and when I did it was only around an arena or on a short cross country course. Here we could gallop for miles and we did just that. "Tell me if you're getting tired" I told Shadow as we ran not wanting to exhaust him. "Don't worry, I can actually run a lot longer then most horses!" Shadow said excitedly "I can go a lot faster then this too!" He then bolted ahead of the others. I let him run, he was so happy I didn't want to stop him. "Just wait for us at bridge!" Alex shouted as we ran past. Shadow is without a doubt the fastest horse I've ever ridden. The woods rushed past us and within ten minutes we were at the bridge. "The others will need at least another ten minutes to get here with how fast we went" I told Shadow when we stopped. We rested for about five minutes. Suddenly Shadow perked up and looked into the woods. I followed his gaze and saw that brown horse again! "Oh great" I whispered. Shadow was tense but didn't run yet. We couldn't go back the way we came, the horse was blocking it. Suddenly the horse started to glow a dark color and shot some kind of energy at us. I screamed and Shadow ran towards the bridge. The horse moved unnaturally fast and blocked the bridge. Shadow swerved left almost throwing me off and raced straight towards a cliff. "Um there's a cliff there!" I screamed panicking. "I need you to trust me" Shadow said frantically glancing back. I was terrified but I knew I had to. "Alright" I said "I trust you" I closed my eyes and felt my horse jump.