Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Phantom Stallion characters. I do own any characters you don't recognize though.
Glitter Trail
By Solo Rider
Chapter One
A neigh more like a scream awoke Sam early one Saturday morning. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she stretched, and realized the neigh was not from one of the Riverbend ranch horses. She knew every horse's neigh, and that was defiantly not one of them. The neigh sort of sounded like Dark Sunshine's, over a year ago when she still belonged to the wild horse rustlers.
Getting out of bed, she went to the window and peered into the darkness, hoping to see the horse that had neighed. She could barely make out the outline of a fully saddled, but riderless horse standing in front of the big ranch house.
Acting quickly, Sam pulled on a pair of jeans and an old green sweater. By the time she got into the kitchen, Dad, Brynna and Gram were already there.
"Woke you up too did she?" Dad asked. Sam nodded. Dad and Brynna were pulling on their boots, so Sam did the same. Gram was making coffee.
"She'll get too scared if there's too many people, I'll just stay in here." She said, practically pushing Sam outside.
Outside, Sam could see the horse more clearly. It was a small mare, a Thoroughbred mare it looked like. She was a bay, with a big blaze and two socks on her back legs. And she was bleeding. There were cuts and scratches all over her body, and all of them looked fresh. Her reins were hanging down, dragging on the ground, and the saddle was muddy.
"Easy girl, easy. We won't hurt you." Dad said in a soothing voice. The filly rolled her eyes and backed up a few steps, staring at Dad. Slowly, Dad inched closer, but the filly kept backing up.
Finally, Dad was close enough to grab the reins, and he did. When the filly felt a little tug on the reins, she went crazy. With another screaming neigh, she reared up, pawing the air with her front legs. Dad just managed to get out of the weigh as she came down and immediately reared up again. When she touched back down again, she charged.
"Watch out!" Brynna yelled as the filly ran straight for Sam. Sam wanted to run, she really did, but she was frozen to the spot.
The filly was only feet away when she stopped; dust spraying Sam in the face. With a snort, the filly regarded Sam, her head turned to one side so she only looking at Sam with one eye.
"Sam! Are you okay?" Dad asked, his face white. Slowly, Sam nodded, afraid to move fast in case she startled the filly.
Slowly, Dad pulled on the reins, asking the filly to come to him. She did, acting like nothing had happened.
"I'm going to unsaddle you and put you in with Ace and Sweetheart. Then Brynna and I will saddle up and go look for your owner. Sam will call Jake and then the two of them will go look too." Dad said, pretending to talk to the filly, but really he was talking to Sam and Brynna. Brynna nodded and went to the barn and grabbed two halters. She caught Jeepers Creepers, a young rattail appaloosa, and Nike, a bright sorrel gelding.
"Sam, go call Jake." Brynna said softly. Sam nodded, and quickly went into the house, glancing at Dad before she did. He was leading the filly into the barn.
Gram was in the kitchen when Sam went into the house. Grabbing the phone, Sam quickly dialed the Ely's phone number and waited. She was just about to hang-up when Jake answered.
"Hullo." He said. Sam smiled. As annoying as Jake could be, he was still her best friend.
"Think you can be over here in an hour for a search party?" She asked. There was a pause.
"What'd you mean?" Jake asked.
"A bay thoroughbred filly showed up here, fully saddled, but without a rider. She's in pretty bad shape too, all cut up and stuff. Dad wanted to know if you could help me look, while he and Brynna look too." Sam said. She could hear Jake take a breath before he answered.
"Fine, but I want to take a look at this filly before we go." He said.
"Fair enough, just hurry up and get here!" Sam said.
"Have you called everyone else? Sheriff Ballard or Jen?" Jake asked. Even though Jake couldn't see her, Sam shook her head.
"No, I will as soon as I get off the phone with you." She said.
Ten minutes later, Sam was outside, leaning against the barn pen, watching the thoroughbred filly munch on some hay. Dad and Brynna had already ridden out towards Wild Horse Valley, Jen's parents had ridden out towards Willow Springs Wild Horse center, and Jen and Ryan Slocum were checking out all of the land Gold Dust Ranch owned. Sam and Jake were going to check War Drum Flats out. As soon as Jake got here that was.
"I wish he'd hurry up so we could go find your owner." Sam said to the filly. The filly snorted and trotted a few feet away. She stopped and looked at Sam wearily. Slowly, she inched closer to the hay, keeping her eyes on Sam at all times.
"You poor girl, what happened to you?" Sam asked, studying all the scratches over the filly's body. They had stopped bleeding now, but the cuts were still ugly looking.
"That's what were going to find out, as soon as you saddle up Ace." Jake's voice came from behind Sam. Turning around, Sam looked at the boy who looked more like a bad-guy from an old western movie than a sixteen-year-old teenager. Beside him, instead of Witch, his black Quarter Horse mare, was Star, his black pinto filly. Sam was surprised. She hadn't seen Jake ride Star since a race they had been in a few months ago.
"Is that her?" Jake said. Sam nodded and turned back to the filly. She had stopped eating and was now standing by the fence, her head hanging over it, looking eagerly at Star. Star nickered to her.
"She seems friendly." Jake said. Sam nodded. Though she hadn't really paid any attention to Ace or Sweetheart yet, the filly hadn't been mean to them. And Ace and Sweetheart didn't seem too interested in her.
"Hurry up." Jake said after a minute of silence. Sam glared at him. He had just gotten here and he was already bossing her around!
Sam grabbed Ace's lead rope, and very carefully slipped into the barn corral. Right away Ace came over to her, nudging her softly.
"Hey baby, want to go for a ride?" Sam asked with a smile. Ace snorted softly. The little mustang leaned against Sam and sighed. Smiling, Sam clipped the lead rope onto Ace's halter.
"Hurry up brat!" Jake said. Sam glared at him, but she led Ace towards the gate. Then, before either of them could do something, the filly, who had been eating beside the gate, totally uninterested in them, ran for the gate and hit it with her chest, knocking Jake down. With a buck and a rear, the filly was free.