The neverending story....

Um... well... what can I say?  Then after writing all of that the well went dry.  Your contribution leaves me a bit of thought though, as I'd kinda thought of their time as being in the nineteenth century when my Father's people's legends and stories were still being told and believed.  Challenging picking up after that nice bit though.  Hmmm... I'll come back later today when I've come up with something or other.
 
Ah, ah!  No I've got it! 
 
 

"You sound like humans were part of your life once," The Mare replied thoughtfully.
 
"They're  not now," MP said walking slowly up to Glimmer.  He placed his head against hers, forehead to forehead so that he could look directly into both of her eyes at once.  "You can call me whatever you want as long as you do it often and never stop."
 
Way... way... to intimate for The Mare as her eyes widened and she jumped backwards.  She tossed her mane, twirlled her tail and took off for the north and the distant mountains, "No time to waste!  C'mon slow poke," she excalimed!
 
MP had really been taken aback by her reaction.  His lack of experiance with mares left him confused and somewhat concerned that he had gone too far.  Still, she was a really nice looking filly and still friendly, so hope wasn't completely extinguished.  He tossed his heavy mane and reared up (hoping of course she noticed), and then took off at a dead run to catch her.
 
They had to slow down at the edge of the meadow as the leading trees  of the forrest became a bit difficult to manoevre around at that pace.  However, the delight at having someone to run with, and be with, kept them both cavorting and playing tag around the trees for some time.  After a few miles of this...

. . . the light suddenly disappeared from around them, and they skidded to a halt, craning their necks to look at the dark span of clouds covering the sun from the direction they were headed, and every direction thereafter.

The Stallion looked around and turned to The Mare, "Follow me," he commanded.
 
Glimmer wasn't sure what to think, but the wind was now rising quickly and it had a sharp tang of rain on it.  The Chocolate Stallion led her closer to a rock escarpment that rose suddenly out of the trees not far distant. 
 
"Hurry, it isn't far, but we don't have much time before it gets here and you really, really, don't want to be caught out in this," he called over his shoulder, picking up the pace considerably.
 
The Mare slipped and slid over the loose stones and rocks strewn about the foot of the escarpment.  She saw the Stallion suddenly disappear between two closely growing Fir trees.  She cautiously followed.  What she found behind the trees was a rather deep hollow in the face of the escarpment where the fir and pine trees grew in a tight matt right up to the edge.
 
"This is where I was born," he explained simply.  "This place is safe from all but the worst storms.  Even then you only get damp, never wet through."
 
About then the wind whipped up to a shriek as if to prove his point.  Glimmer shrunk against his side in fear of the violent storm and the moaning, creaking and whipping trees.  He nuzzled her and said...

"You're safe."  He felt her relax a little.  "You may sleep if you wish.  I will keep watch."  His mind continued the conversation in silent thought "You will always be safe with  me Glimmer". 
 
As if reading his mind, she raised her eyes to meet his and searched for something to prove his trustworthiness.  "Please let me stay with you.  I do feel safe with you."  He moved his face along her neck and gave a nudge.  She lay down in the shelter of the hollow as the storm raged outside.  She slept peacefully.

She awoke when MP gently eased himself out from under her side and fingers of cold air crept in.  He walked to the edge of the hollow and peered out at the storm, still raging.  The thunderous sound of the rain pounding on the trees and rocks came and went with the gusts of wind.  The giant trees groaned and creaked as they were forced into a tortured dance by the storm.  MP jumped back as one of the smaller trees gave in the wind and fell, crackling down, slamming into the soaked earth with a "whump!"
 
Glimmer shivered at the sound.  "How long do these storms usually last?"
 
"Sometimes for days" said MP.  His stomach gurgled and he looked at her with embarassment.  Her stomach burbled too and they both snorted in laughter.  "I could use a mouthful of that wonderful grass about now."  she murmured.  "Me too." he agreed.
 
She got up and shook off the dry leaves from the floor of the hollow and joined him at the entrance.  The air was fresh and cold, alive with the wind and the energy of the storm.  "So.... we were talking about your name..... and when you were with humans?" she continued.

"The name, though odd, is a plesant memory.  The sojurn with humans was not."  He paused for a moment deep in thought, "The latter started with my father,   He had escaped from... oh, what do the humans call those..."  Again he paused in thought, "Oh yes, I remember a Ratch!  No... Raunch... no... Ranch, that's it!  A Ranch is what he escaped from."
The storm interrupted him with a rather spectacular flash of lightening, from which both he and The Mare shied instinctively back from.  They peeped out through the sheltering boughs of the trees at the storm again.
 
"Nasty one, this," MP commented thoughtfully, "however when they're this tempremental, they don't usually last long."
"Why is the storm so violent?" asked Glimmer, shivering from the cold draughts of air pouring down the slopes above them.
"Mother used to say the clouds are angry at having had to climb the mountains to get here," he explained, "so they take their anger out on the lower slopes as they finish thier crossing."
"I wonder what's on the other side of the Mountians," Glimmer mused thoughtfully.
"Mother said it's water.  She called it the Ocean and that she came across it from another place," MP explained.
"Really, your mother came from another place?"  Glimmer asked.
"Yeah, my Father came over an Ocean on the other side of the Prairie," he told her.
"Speaking of which, how did he escape the Ratch," she asked, wanting him to get back with his story.
"Raunch... Uh, I mean Ranch," He corrected a bit awkwardly, "Well... they imprision the horses in these... pens, or paddocks they call them.  Then they'll bring mares to the stallions to be bred.  Sadly, he never gets to spend much time with them before the mares are taken away.  I was the first of my Father's get that he ever got to know.  I and my siblings," he reflected, then brightened, "Did I tell you I have two brothers and five sisters?"
"No, all that from your mother?  Or did your mother belong to a large herd," Glimmer asked?
"Well, being that my Father was the biggest, fastest, strongest stallion around," he continued (with just a touch of pride), "he had a large harem of mares.  My mother was his favourite though.  I only have one sister through her.
"That's what the humans were after though.  Somehow they can test us by poking little sticks into us to tell who is the get of whom.  They first rounded us up and forced us back to the Ranch so that they could determine whom were the children of my Father.  Apparently he's very popular with the humans.  He can run faster than any other horse.  In fact, that's how he escaped," MP went on. 
 
Now that he was warmed up to his Father's story MP seemed to want to go on for a while.  Since the storm made going out to asuage their hunger unsafe, Glimmer was willing to get comfortable in the back of the hollow and listen.  So she let MP prattle along about his Father as Glimmer was enjoying the story.  So they moved to the back of the hollow and she settled down comfortably to listen.
 
"One day, the humans put my father out in one of the larger, outer pens.  He used to live in another place, like Mother, and they took him across the water to this Ranch as well," MP went on.  "In his first home, Father used to do a type of running where one has to jump over these things in the way.  Oh, bushes, banks, sometimes water too!  He used to tell me all kinds of thrilling stories about that.  So when they put him out in that outer paddock it was easy..."

No one was around to stop him, so he took a running leap and. . . "
A crack of thunder finished the sentence for him and Glimmer flinched against her will.
"How did you get away?" she asked, as flashes of lightning lit up the room around them.

"Well before the storm so rudely interrupted me, I was going to say he lept the fence.  All the same, he didn't want to leave my Mother and I or any of our herd behind.  So, he lept back across the fence and no one was the wiser about his knowledge of being able to escape.  Dad was cunning, if he wanted to be," explained MP with a wink to Glimmer.
 
"But what if they moved him in closer to the center of the Raunch," She asked with bated breath?
 
"He told me that they might.  However the pen he had been moved into was one of the largest.  Usually, the humans put mares in there that they wanted bred with the better stallions," he went on.  "Having lived there before, oh and it's Ranch, not Raunch.  Anyway, having lived on that Ranch before, Dad knew what they would do.  The trouble was, he also knew that it was unlikely they would put his mares all back with him.  Some of them would be sorted out and sold.  Others might be returned to the people who previously owned them.  My mother was one of the latter two.  She belonged to a Ranch on the other side of the Prairie.  The Ranch hands were familliar with her and considered themselves lucky to have caught her again.  You see, horses that have belonged to Humans usually have a mark on their lip, ear, backside or some other place, identifying themselves and who their owners are.  Both my Mother and Father had these.  However, they were both of different types.  So, I'm not as valuable to them as my Father was. 
 
"There was talk about cutting me, whatever that means, however I didn't like the sound of it and determined I would escape as soon as possible.  I was just over a year old and they thought I'd be a fine Ranch horse.  Yet another of their slaves, I suppose.  Mother and Father along with the herd was the issue.  How were they to get out?  Then late one night, about two months after being captured, my father came trotting up the road that separates the pens.  He was looking for me.  Dad showed me how to jump the fence (as it was relatively low there as well), however not being as practiced as Dad was, I caught the fence and fell.  That's what the little white mark is on my left hock.  The wire caught me on the forward part of my leg and cut all the way around.  We practiced this several nights in a row, till I could do it easily.  It was painful, however I was determined to escape, if I could.  Thankfully, the cut didn't swell up or get nasty.  I kept licking away the dirt and such thus kept the wound clean and the flys away.  During this time we explored, very carefully, the inner parts of the Ranch each night.    We were both out looking for Mother and the rest of the mares.  Finally one night we decided it was time to leave. as we now knew where the others were kept.   We found most of the herd in the Ramuda pen.  This was dangerously close to the Ranch and Bunk Houses (where the Humans live) and the main barns.  His mares started loudly calling to him, when first we found them, till he quieted them.  We promised to come back for them, though how Father was going to get them out I didn't know.  The Ramuda pen was a lot higher than the pens we were in.  They were glad to see us each night and were quieter about it thereafter.  It was a terrible moment when we realized that Mother was in one of the barns.  We went back to the Ramuda pen one night, and Father showed me another advantage of having grown up around Humans.  He knew how to open  some of their gates.  The Ramuda gate was one of these.  Dad explained that he had already opened the main gate to the prairie and we should go as quietly as we could for it at the end of the main road between the pens.  He would go back for my Mother."
 
"Oh my!"  Exclaimed Glimmer excitedly, "He could have been caught!"
 
"Yes, he knew that," agreed MP.  "However, Father felt that she was his responsibility as she was not only his favourite, but the lead Mare.  The herd would be difficult for him to manage without her.  Also, he was black with no markings and could sneak around more easily than the rest of us."
 
"Yes, my mother was also lead Mare.  She was always complaining how so many of the other horses were so stupid," Glimmer related thoughtfully, "I kinda thought she was being unkind, but they always did seem to need  watching over."
 
"Well, somewhat like my Mother's attitude as well."  Agreed MP, hesitantly, "life on the Prairie, the Mountains and forests is difficult.  We live and we die.  But to live there is to live free.  That is what my Father wanted for me and for all my herd including my Mother.  He felt that though living with the Humans was often comfortable and pleasant, it was slavery.  Some horses are very lucky to get loving and caring owners.  His experiance was that most horses didn't have this benefit.  He had always been cared for by hired people who really didn't care about more than that my Father had all he needed and performed what service they demanded of him.  Beyond that, he was nothing more to them than any other possession.  Thus he didn't want me, or any of his other get, trapped into that slavery.
 
"So, I and the herd escaped quietly into the night along the road to the Prairie and freedom.  Most of the herd just spread out onto the Prairie and played in the moonlight for a while.  Then they all gathered together in a group and went to sleep.  I kept pacing around nervously waiting for my father.  This herd wouldn't listen to me, even though I had just led them to freedom.  They would listen to my parents though.  But where were they??  It had been a few hours and would soon be dawn.  If Father and Mother didn't come soon, I'd have to get the second Mare to round up the herd and get them going at as quick a pace as she could manage.  At my age the Second Mare wouldn't likely do this without a fight.  But I had to do it.  Otherwise, the Ranch Hands would soon have us back in the pens and watched all the closer.
 
"Then, after what seemed like hours, with the moon setting and dawn just a hairs-breadth away, I saw my father's familliar figure coming up the road with my mother behind him.  I cried out with joy and ran to meet them.  My father was very displeased with my carelessness and chastised me severely, striking and biting me for my stupidity at possibly waking the Humans so close to their time of rising.
 
"The three of us gathered the herd together and made all speed back to the Prairies and mountains.  However, we were too late to make it without persuit.  My foolish cry to my parents had awakened them.  We ran as fast as we could.  However, Humans have machines that can go faster than a horse can run.  As valuable as my parents and much of the herd were, spurred them onto a fury to catch us as quickly as possible," he paused thoughtfully.
 
"Yes, go on," encouraged Glimmer all a quiver to know what happened.  "So what happend then?"
 
"Did you know that Humans have huge insects that they can fly in?" MP asked her. 
 
Glimmer gave a horrified gasp.
 
MP continued, "They used one of these horrible creatures to terrify the herd and drive them back to the Ranch.  My father fought bravely, however four of the Hands subdued him.  Only my Mother and I escaped to freedom.  The last thing I heard from my father was him screaming to us to run as far and as fast as we could," he answered her sadly.
 
"So, only you and your Mother escaped in the end," Glimmer asked him, her lip quivering?
 
"Yes, we were all that got away," he replied, "not easily either.  My Mother was apparently valuable and they wanted her back pretty badly as they searched for us, using that horrible insect too, for over a week.  However Mother was as good or better at hiding then the deer.  So, we alone escaped.
 
"The lonliness though was too much for my Mother.  One day she told me we were going on a long journey to a place that would grant her the one thing she wanted most," he paused with a shuddering sigh.
 
"You went to the lake, didn't you," guessed Glimmer.
 
"Yes," he said simply.  "We started out on the same journey you and I are doing now."
 
"The storm seems to have died down," observed Glimmer.  She wanted to say something to kind of break the tension a bit and yet wanted him to continue.
 
"We can't stay here much longer," MP reminded her. "the storm is blowing over and seems to have vented its anger.  We should get going soon.  I can tell you the rest of this while we walk."
 
So the two horses left the shelter of the little hollow.  MP and Glimmer had kind of liked the place.  Glimmer rather hoped to come back in time and make it home.  In the meantime...
 
 

When they emerged from the hollow, she was surprised at the rush of noise.  Drops of rain slid off the tips of the tree branches and fell, plopping into the puddles on the ground, creating a sound similar to walking through gravel.  Birds also appeared, ruffling their feathers and breaking into song.  Suddenly, the sun burst from behind the departing clouds above and the world around them awoke and shimmered with rainbows as the light went through the raindrops like prisms.  
 
MP glanced at Glimmer and was momentarily stunned by her beauty as the reflected rainbows fell across her white coat.  She was unaware of his admiring glance and he took advantage of it to really look at her while she was gazing around at the beautiful scene surrounding them.  "Amazing." he murmured and she agreed "Yes, it is...." then turned to look at him and saw he was looking at her instead of the forest.  "Oh!" she said and ducked her head..... "Um, we should get going I suppose."  He ducked his head too, embarrassed at having been caught staring at her so blatantly.
 
"This way, toward those mountains." he said and they set off, side by side, stomachs rumbling, heads swinging back and forth looking for some grass to give them energy for the journey.

I'm tired of waiting for someone else to kick this story  back into gear, so here it goes! [] I'm not sure if that was a snowstorm we left off at, but it is now!
 
Behind them the sky showed traces of the storm moving on, and so did the land they were walking on. A fresh sheet of snow lay down, their hooveprints following them like a shadow. It wasn't the light sparkly snow that happens on Christmas Eve however. It was reflecting the grey of the sky and it was deep and heavy. Glimmer caught a week spot, and she fell in, up past her knees. MP helped tug her out, and they continued onwards.
 
"It's cold," Glimmer declaired.
 
 

She felt weak as she struggled along in the ever deepening snow.  MP could see that she was weakening and felt anxiousness in him as they floundered along.  They reached a clear spot under a tree and stopped to rest.  Glimmer's head hung as she caught her breath.  It had been so many days since she had gotten a good meal.
 
"Why don't you rest a while and I'll scout around for something to eat." MP said and headed back out into the snow. 
 
Glimmer didn't want him to leave her.  What if he didn't come back?  She felt his absence sharply, even though she had only known him a few days.  His presence filled her with a sense of security she hadn't felt once she lost her herd.

She wondered if she was attached to quickly, and whether or not it was ok to be this attached. She worried endlessly, until MP came back, pulling a. . .

MP came back pulling a huge Manzanita bush that had also taken a quantity of grass with it's roots.
"I found it in a land slide not too far from here.  There's berries on it.  The leaves are bitter, but they'll give you energy," he explained.
"What a huge bush!"  Glimmer exclaimed, "You dragged that all the way here too!"
"Yeah, well, the slide isn't all that far," MP explained a bit embarrassed, digging in the gravel with his hoof.  "When you're done with that, we can push through the snow over to the slide.  There's a lot of grass exposed and we can get something to eat.  It's pretty frozen, but still eatable," he continued.

"Yes, the grass is frozen," Glimmer said with a touch of disapointment in her voice.  She was remembering the beautiful, delicious grass by the deadly sward.
"Sorry, it was all I could find," apologized MP slightly sheepishly.
"It's wonderful, and such a huge bush." replied Glimmer.  She intuitively understood that he needed a bit of encouragement.  "Did you say there was more grass at the slide?"  She asked.

"Oh yeah, lots and lots," MP enthuasticly replied.  " We have to be very careful though.  The whole area is really unstable and we could find ourselves sliding down the mountainside in a heartbeat if we're not."

"Does it always snow this early here," Glimmer inquired whilst nibbling at the bitter leaves and berries.

"Yes, though the snow rarely lasts long.  I don't think the weather will allow this to last more than a day or so," he postulated, "All the same, it will make the going harder even when it's gone."

"How's that," asked Glimmer.  She was growing more concerned as an edge had crept into MP's voice.  An edge of concern bordering on fear.

"Well..." he hesitated for a moment or two and then plunged on, "Mother and I ran into this.  Going into the valley of the Lake is bad enough normally.  But when the weather is like this, it's downright dangerous.  We must be extra careful," he cautioned her.  "Also, it's a long way yet.  We have to avoid several Human settlements as well."

The mention of Human settlements gave Glimmer a shudder of fear.  Their machines were something that always frightened her and they always smelled so bad anyway.  Almost like the preditors and the dog-man her mother warned her about so many times.  In fact, Glimmer could remember the last time her mother had spoken about the Dog-Man...

"Darling, little one!  Don't wander so far from the herd," Mother called to Glimmer.  She had wandered up a slope into some rocks after choice grass shaded by the rocks.

"Oh Mother, you speak to me as if I'm as little as my sister at your side," Glimmer responded to her mother.  She didn't come down from the rocks quite yet and went back to gleaning the sweet grass.

"Glimmer, come down here right now!  The Dog-Man likes to hide in places like you are in and I fear for you," her mother called out.  The edge of fear in her voice spurred Glimmer to obey.  Besides, it was so rare that her Mother used Glimmer's name, it underscored her mother's concern.

"Mother why do you call him the Dog-Man?" Glimmer asked curiously as she made her way back to the herd.

"Because that's what the ancient people who used to live here called him," her mother replied matter of factly.  "They used to say he had the intellegence of Man though the body of a dog."  She explained, "He is one of the most dangerous, though also most cowardly, of all our enemies.  The Dog Man will only willingly attack the weak and young."

"Mare, obey your mother!"  ordered her Father.  He bared his teeth, and laid back his ears, warning her that she would be severely punished if she did not.

"Thank you my Lord, but I believe I'm quite capable of managing my own herd," her  Mother  chastised him.

"Sorry, my Mare, I was just..." he replied, somewhat chagrined.

"I know perfectly what you just,"  she replied, her eyes twinkling in amusement.  "You just go back to keeping a lookout for Dog Man and the worse threats as you so well do."

Father drew up his beautiful head and tossed his long mane proudly.  With a swish of his tail he vanished into the Chaparral that covered the hillsides.

"Mare... Glimmer?"  Asked MP, drawing Glimmer back to the present.  "Are you all right?  Did I say something wrong?"

Glimmer looked at this beautiful Stallion.  He was at least as young as her.  At most, not more than two season's turnings older.  Yet, he was so... innocent.  So lacking in the conceited pride of most males she'd met.  In her own herd, he would have been banished by her Father by now.  Glimmer herself was of an age that the rogue stallions had been calling to and flirting with her.

"Is there something wrong?" MP asked again.

"No, no... nothing wrong.  I was just remembering my Mother talking about the Dog Man," Glimmer explained a touch sadly.

"Dog-Man... do you mean Coyotes?" asked MP confused.

"Yes, the new humans call them that," Glimmer answered, "But the ancient people called them a different name, the Dog-Man."

"Look," Glimmer cried out happily, "you were right!  The snow is melting away already!"

Whilst they had been devouring the bush and MP made sure Glimmer got all the grass underneath, the sun had come out and the slushy snow was rapidly retreating in it's weak warmth.

"Let's try for that slide now," suggested MP.