Phantom Stallion: Wild Fire
Chapter One: Meeting Wildfire
Brrrrrrring. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrring.
What a horrible way to be woken up on a Saturday morning Samantha Forster thought as she rolled over on her back in bed. She lay awake looking up at her ceiling a moment before realizing her Dad and Gram probably wouldn't let her sleep much longer anyways.
"Sam, you awake?" Gram called up the stairs. "Phone's for you!"
Sam groaned as she pulled the covers off and put her feet on the floor.
"Coming!" She called back down to Gram before slipping on some jeans and a new T-Shirt.
She opened her door and stepped sleepily down the stairs to the kitchen where the phone was. On any other day she would have hated talking in the kitchen were everyone could hear her, but today she was too tired to care.
"Hello?" She said into the receiver while trying to keep from yawning.
"Hey Sam!" Her best friend Jennifer Kenworthy exclaimed.
"How can you be so perky this early in the morning?" Sam asked her friend.
"Simple," Jen replied and even though Sam couldn't see her friend she knew she had an ear-to-ear grin on her face.
"What?" Sam asked. "Come on, I'm too tired to guess," She added yawning.
"Oh you won't be too tired when you see the gorgeous new palomino my dad just brought home!"
Sam's eyes widened. "You guys got a new palomino stallion for Fire and Ice? That's great! Jen I'm so happy for you!" Sam exclaimed.
"So are you coming over or not?" Jen asked eagerly.
"Yeah, give me a bit so I can grab something to eat rather than have Gram bite my head off," Sam said hoping Gram wasn't listening, but since she was in the kitchen, she was.
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20 minutes later Sam had had a quick breakfast, unsuccessfully tried to avoid Gram's reply to her comment, and finally saddled Ace.
Now she was riding across beautiful open Nevada range between her family's Ranch and Jen's.
She sighed, enjoying the calm, cool morning knowing it would get much hotter out later.
Ace whinnied, breaking Sam out of her trance.
"You're right boy, no time to waste, let's go!" Sam said patting Ace on the neck before sending him into a gallop.
They covered countless miles effortlessly. Sam smiled at remember how this morning she thought today was going to be a bad day. Now she knew that no day that she had off of school, and got to spend with horse, could ever be called a bad day.
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Immediately when Sam arrived at Jen's house she noticed two things. One was Jen, standing nest to the round pen, waving her arms frantically as if Sam wouldn't have noticed her otherwise, and two was the magnificent honey-colored palomino stallion that was in the round pen.
It stood, eyes fixed on something in the distance and then suddenly raised it's front hooves in a rear, pawing at the sky.
Sam stopped Ace right where he was, surprised, but when the palomino brought his mighty hooves back down to Earth Sam continued, urging Ace towards the hitching post.
Sam dismounted, loosened Ace's cinch and tied him to the rail even though she didn't need to, while Jen walked over.
"Isn't he amazing?" Jen asked.
"Yeah, he sure is," Sam said patting Ace on the shoulder before turning towards her best friend. "What's his name?"
"Wild Fire," Jen pronounced the name elegantly and carefully. "My dad knew a friend of a friend who insisted he'd be perfect for our breeding program. The previous owner just couldn't afford to keep him, but he let us have him for cheap."
"Wow," Sam breathed. Her gaze shifted back to pen which held the beautiful horse. Except now, there was someone else in the pen with the horse. Sam narrowed her eyes trying to see if it was anyone she recognized.
It was a male, she could make out that much, and so she could automatically rule out Dad because Gram had informed her this morning that he and Brynna had went to breakfast in Darton.
She looked closer. It wasn't Jen's Dad or Jake, so Sam didn't know who else it could be.
"Alright, I give up," Sam said. "Who's the one in there with the lead rope?" She asked Jen not moving her gaze from the pen.
"Oh, that's Josh Stevenson," Jen said as she and Sam walked closer. As they did Sam noticed the look of determination on his face but also his gentle eyes just below his reddish-orange hair tucked neatly under a black Stetson.
"Uh, Sam?" Jen snapped a finger in front of Sam's face.
"Oh, uh, what?" Sam asked shaking her head. "What is it?"
"I just wanted to know if you were alive?" Jen pronounced the word 'alive' as if it was something Sam was incapable of.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Sam managed just as Josh walked over.
"Hey Josh," Jen said. "Josh this is my best friend Sam. Sam this is Josh, the original owner of Wild Fire."
Josh extended his hand and Sam shook it. "Nice to meet you," She said politely.
"Nice to meet you too," Josh replied. "It's so great to know Wild Fire's going to a good home. I'll be sad to see him go." He said.
Sam couldn't help but smile when she glanced at Jen and said, "Yep, he sure is going to a great home!"
Just then Dad and Brynna pulled up in the Buick. They climbed out and walked over.
"Hey Sam," Dad said all at once a little too sweetly. He put his arm around Brynna and smiled a very unlike-Wyatt Forster smile.
Something around here is getting fishy Sam thought. She glanced around and then understood.
Jake Ely was riding Witch, and he was headed straight for them.