Rolling over on his side of the bed, Six Shooter wrapped three of his six arms around my shoulders and pulled me in tight. Although I loved his gentle touch I pushed and pulled myself away. He rolled over onto his left side, as if the slight struggle had never happened. He had had a hard day and was beat, I was wide away, thinking deeply about the corralled horses behind Castle Green. There were four horses in the corral. The only stallion in the corral, a dark bay with a wide blaze and two white stockings, was pacing and whinnying crazily at the sky. The three mares, one of them was my own, were half sleeping. I could hear Madonna, my chestnut colored mare with a star and snip, snoring and whisping away the pesty flies from her back legs with her orange colored tail.
With one last whinny, which was carried by the wind into our room, I couldn't take it anymore, I swung my legs out of the bed and collected the blue jeans and blue button up shirt that I had worn earlier that day and tip toed silently out of the room into the hallway. I heard Six Shooter's snores grow silent until they disappeared. Pulling my long dark brown hair into a pony tail, I opened a door and walked outside. The smell of horses, the Earth and an upcoming storm filled my nostrils. Jogging towards the corral, I slipped and fell, scraping my knee in the dirt. I clinched my teeth, trapping the scream of pain inside. The stallion must have heard me, because I could see his ghostly shadowy self leaning against the corral gate.
"Hello big boy," I gently cooed to the horse. "it's okay, no need to be afraid."
The stallion must have understood because he moved away from the gate, allowing me inside with a halter and lead rope. I slipped the halter on the stallion's almost black head and connected the lead rope to the little loop underneath the halter. He followed me all but five steps to his stall, then a crack of thunder made him rise towards the heavens. I pulled him back down and gently rubbed the white blaze on his nose. My eyes and his became one, a few seconds later he walked into the stall without further fight. The other horses, a pretty red roan mare, her face and legs were red while rest of her was a body was red, almost pink, her mane and tail were red with a few pink and white hairs thrown in, and a chocolate colored mare with light mane and tail, a stripe running down her face, walked to their stalls almost on their own, Madonna though gave me the most trouble.
At first she wanted to play, she ran around the corral with her tail held high whinnying. I couldn't touch her, she was so fast. When she felt the halter on her neck she bolted and crashed into the corral side almost breaking it. I quickly discarded the halter and lead rope, this wasn't the first time that she had bolted at the touch of a halter. At the age of three, Madonna had been given to an abusive owner that had put on a tight halter that had almost caused her to lose an eye, the halter had become embedded in her flesh and had had to be surgically removed. I understood her fear and I understood her. Her rich brown eyes swung and she looked at me, she took a timid step towards me.
"It's okay Madonny," I said gently to her. "I'm your friend remember, I won't hurt you."
Tossing her head up, Madonna trotted to me and pushed her dished head into my chest. I kissed her nose and stood up, she followed me out of the corral and to her stall. There was a crack of thunder and it started raining, she flinched, her tail whisked back and forth, but she didn't leave my side. She walked into her stall when I pulled the door open and slowly layed herself down in the straw. I wished her a goodnight and then went back inside. By this time, I began to notice the pain in my kneecap.
Grabbing both a towel and some gauze, I disappeared into the bathroom. With one hand I dried my hair, with the other I dabbed a little alcohol onto my kneecap. It stung, I almost allowed the yelp of pain through my tightly shut lips. Blood had dripped down my leg and I could feel it in the boots that I had placed by the door earlier that night. I quickly removed both of the boots and placed them to the side, with one hand I held the gauze to my still bleeding kneecap while the other was searching for a bandage. My jeans had been ripped open, I could sew them up before anyone noticed or I could just cut the legs off and use the jeans as shorts.
My knee bandaged up, I stepped out of the bathroom into a still very dark hallway, since I didn't want to wake the others I had kept the lights off. I could hear the snores from the room beside my and Six Shooter's. Judy had pulled me from the beach one day and had pushed me into her car, a wide smile on her lips and a cell phone held tightly to her ear. We had driven from Long Beach to Pasadena, California in less than a few hours. Since Judy had had two cell phones at the time, I was allowed to use the extra. That was until I got the call from Six Shooter that had almost stopped my heart in excitement.
"Howdy Sugarplum." he had said.
"Si...Six Shooter?" I remember stammering.
"How ye be?" he had asked.
"I'm doing fine," I said. "I never knew you was allowed to use the phone."
"Yep, I shur can use to telyphone." Six Shooter had laughed. "how's bout ye an' Judy come over to our place an' stay fer awhile?"
"Are you serious?" I had screamed into the cellphone.
"Yep, I shur is." Six Shooter giggled.
Blade and Jester snored, not as much as Six Shooter though. This was my second day at Castle Green, and my first night sleeping at the beautiful hotel. Since this was my first night staying here I wasn't getting any sleep because of my excitement and his snoring. It did make me laugh though when he rolled over and pushed his head into my neck, tickling me with his lips. I have no idea what Judy, Blade and Jester did the frst hour we were at Castle Green, they disappeared. Me and Six Shooter walked a few trails, talking, and we had introduced Madonna into the corral of other horses. We had also gone horseback riding a few hours later. Madonna, as always, had bucked and bolted when she saw Six Shooter's mount, the dark bay stallion, fall behind. If I hadn't been in control, she would have rose high in the sky and I would have been dumped to the ground.
Stripping myself of the blood soaked jeans and the blue tank top, I deposited the jeans in the back of my suitcase, I slowly and carefully climbed back into bed. Six Shooter didn't move, he was fast asleep on his side snoring like a baby. I giggled a little then fell asleep, dreaming of the fast running horses in Montana and wanting to be one. I believe Six Shooter was dreaming the same, he rolled on top of me a few times. The night ended a little to early, at 5:00 am the alarm went off in my head. I climbed out of bed a little to fast, almost waking Six Shooter, and I stubbed my toe on my suitcase which was lying on the floor. I collected a clean red button up shirt with black tassels and white beads hanging from the neck and a fresh pair of blue jeans, which were ripped at the knees.