"Just keep him at a nice, easy canter all the way around," Codi's father instructed, squinting up at her. "Give him a workout, but don't kill him, alright? Codi? Codi. Earth to Codi Morgan Ross--"
"What? Sorry, Dad." Codi jumped slightly in the saddle and blushed. "Sorry," she repeated.
Her father frowned. "What's wrong? You've been spacing out all day."
Cody looked down. "It's nothing."
"It's those girls again, isn't it?" he said, scowling. "What do they have against you, anyway?"
"They're just pissed off that a freshman is on the team—and beating them," Codi said, half proud of her success on the college track team and half depressed about the consequences of that success. "They wouldn't have a problem with me if I wasn't on their team. Which is dumb, because I help the team win. Stupid cows."
"You shouldn't let them get to you," her father told her sternly. "They're just petty, jealous, catty little girls who need to grow up."
"I know, Dad," Codi sighed. "It's just—they're so horrible. The other day they wrote 'spank me' on my shorts with a Sharpie right before a meet. And then all the guys saw it and started trying to smack my ass."
"What?" her father cried, outraged. "I'm going to call your coach. That's completely out of line--"
"Dad," Codi groaned. "That'll just make it worse."
"You can't just let them walk all over you," he protested. "Codi, you've got to stand up for yourself."
"I know, I know," Codi muttered, and headed out on Moondancer, a promising gray filly her father was training for the Sheridans, who owned the farm Codi and her father lived and worked on. The Sheridans had been in horse racing for generations and the farm, nestled in the hills of West Virginia, reflected it. Although Codi adored track and planned to pursue a minor in Linguistics, she knew her life would revolve around horses, just as her father's did. She would probably train horses—at five foot five inches, she was really too tall to be a jockey unless she dieted all the time or threw up everything she ate to compensate for extra pounds of muscle. Which she wasn't going to do—she liked food too much.
As she rode, Codi's mind returned to the Evils, as she thought of the five upperclassmen bitches from hell who made her life so miserable. She shared three of her four events with them—two were high jumpers and three were long and triple jumpers. Thankfully, none of them ran the high hurtles, which was her best event. Codi attended the local community college even though she'd been offered positions and a few scholarships at more prestigious schools. She wanted to stay close to home—and to her horses. Codi grinned. It seemed only fair that she run as much as her horses did. Moondancer was lucky she didn't have to deal with horses becoming jealous of her and pulling stupid pranks.
Before long, the fresh spring air and cool breeze drew Codi out of her depression. Moondancer was a joy to ride, and loved to run. She was Codi's personal favorite, for she had been present at Dancer's birth and had all but raised her herself. Codi smiled, remembering the dapple gray's first, wobbly steps. She'd grown so much in just two years! Soon she'd start racing and Codi just knew her filly would blow all the competition out of the water. Dancer was a big, strong, athletic animal and was already beating her male age-mates in training. Codi was proud of her.
As they came out of the woods, Codi frowned, seeing that the sky had grown overcast. Odd, she thought, stripping dark brown hair away from her face. The wind had picked up as well. It had been sunny when she left the barn. Codi shrugged and tried to ignore her growing unease. But Moondancer was bothered as well. She snorted and tossed her head, trying to break into a gallop. Codi calmed her as best she could and looked at the sky again. It wouldn't rain anytime soon, she decided, but the wind had turned decidedly chill.
As she came over a hill, Codi slowly eased Moondancer to a stop and stared. Where was the lake? She was sure she hadn't taken a wrong turn in the woods—there was only one other trail and she had definitely not turned onto it. So where was the lake that had been there for all her nineteen years—that had been there just yesterday? Lakes did not dry up in the space of twenty something hours. Nor did they get up and walk away.
Moondancer, sensing her rider's agitation, began to fidget and prance. Codi soothed her with a gentle hand and turned back toward the woods, thinking to retrace her steps and find where she went wrong. But she was sure she hadn't turned onto the other trail—and that trail led into town, anyway. She hadn't left the trail, either. So what the hell had happened?
Codi slowed once more when she reached the tree line. The path was gone. She rode up and down the edge of the forest three times before stopping and staring around in baffled silence. Something was seriously, seriously wrong. She'd never gotten lost before. Not once, not even when she was younger. Codi bit her lip and tried not to panic. Find help, she thought. There must be someone—there were plenty of farms near hers.
Codi rode away from the woods at a canter, trying to ignore the tight, queasy feeling her stomach and keep Moondancer in check. She was picking up on Codi's nervousness and was becoming upset herself. Neither horse nor rider was reassured when they had seen no sign of civilization and no familiar landmarks in the twenty minutes they'd been riding. Even the mountains were different, Codi realized. This was not right. This could not be happening. Even if she had somehow gotten off the trail, there was no way that the mountains themselves would have changed.
Feeling tears threaten, she pulled Moondancer to a stop and swung off her back. Knowing that Moondancer was far too well mannered to wander off, Codi walked a few yards away and proceeded to throw the biggest temper tantrum she had ever thrown in her life.
"What the fuck is going on?" she shouted at the sky. "Where am I? Where the hell is my farm?"
With a wordless scream of rage, Codi threw her brown jacket on the ground and started jumping up and down on top of it, cursing extensively. Then she threw herself down and sobbed into the grass. Dancer, curious about the odd noises her rider was making, whuffled into Codi's hair in a questioning sort of way. Codi sat up and wiped her eyes. She didn't usually lose control like that—normally, she was rather shy and reserved. She didn't like drawing attention to herself. But she did feel somewhat better for venting.
"Sorry, Dancer-girl," she muttered, then sighed. "We're sure as shit not in Kansas anymore."
Dancer nickered and bobbed her head, as if agreeing. Smiling weakly, Codi sniffed and swung back into the saddle just as a company of riders came into view. With a cry of relief, she started towards them, only to stop again as they kicked their horses into a gallop—and they didn't look like they were rushing to help her. Losing any semblance of control, Codi wheeled Dancer around and let her loose.
Dancer fairly flew away from their pursuers—running after all, was what she was bred to do. But when Codi glanced back, she saw three crossbows pointing straight at her. Her heart turned cold. She hadn't really given much thought to why they were chasing her, but it had never crossed her mind that her life was at stake. Grimly, Codi turned Dancer as sharply as she dared, taking cover briefly behind a group of boulders. She managed to hold them off for all of five minutes before they got her.
Dancer was still going strong, but one of them got lucky with his crossbow. Codi felt the arrow graze her arm. She cried out and, in her shock, lost her balance just as Dancer swerved to avoid a rock. With a yell of surprise and fright, Codi tumbled out of the saddle. She hit the ground with an explosion of pain and knew no more.