Hidalgo's Journey

Chapter One: The End of that Day

The end of the day brought unhappy thoughts to the black horse's head. Hidalgo remembered the torture, the nightmares he had encountered that day. His race for that day had included a rough ride through the mountainous terrains of the Alps. His rider wasn't the best, and halfway through, a horse that he had been behind tripped, scaring the rider to death. This made Hidalgo angry, because any good rider knows to never race directly behind another horse! Also, that experience made the rider hurt Hidalgo by pulling on the reigns and kicking him. So when he had gotten back to the stables, Hidalgo kicked the rider's front teeth out. That will show him. Hidalgo thought. Unfortunately, the manager of the rider got very, very mad about this, and wanted to get Hidalgo shot. Hidalgo's owner begged and begged, but the manager wouldn't budge, saying that he would press charges on the owner if he didn't obey. So, amid a flood of tears, the owner of Hidalgo bid him one last adieu. And as the owner took up the high powered rifle to shoot Hidalgo right through the head, Hidalgo had a 2 second stroke of genius. He fell to the ground, motionless, as the owner thought that Hidalgo's old heart had just given out. So he went the the manager of Hidalgo's former rider, and told him that watching Hidalgo die was even worse than any charge that he could press. But Hidalgo was very much still alive, barely even daring to take a breath until his owner was gone. As soon as his owner walked out of the big double doored stable though, Hidalgo thrust himself up, his knees working better than they ever had before. His escapee life was just about to begin.

Hidalgo, seconds after he had gotten up, got an immediate burst of horse adrenaline and broke through the double doors, much to the surprise of everyone outside. He ran as hard as he could toward the small fence separating the stables from a sheep pasture, only stopping after he had leaped over the fence with grace. Now I'm starting to miss my owner already. Hidalgo thought with sadness. WHIZZ! A bullet went right past Hidalgo, almost striking his shoulder. Apparently the rider's manager got trigger happy, even though Hidalgo would be gone anyway. Hidalgo saw a little ravine no more than 50 feet away from him, but unfortunately he would have to wind through the many sheep grazing in between. Another bullet shot by and grazed his shoulder, then hitting a sheep. It fell with a agonizing bleet. Immediately, Hidalgo realized that if he wanted to live, he would have to make a run for it-and fast. So he burst into action, hearing another bullet hit another sheep. To Hidalgo, now sheeps' lives didn't matter anymore. He plowed as quickly as he could through their herd, shoving them to the ground where they could at least dodge a bullet. Suddenly, the rider and his manager started shooting. Hidalgo was just 10 feet away now. Then 5. 4. 3. Hot pain gripped his rear as he realized that he had been hit by a bullet.

Hidalgo's front legs gave in, and he went flying into the ravine head first. Managing to use his legs as a shield, he kept himself from snapping his neck. Finally, he came to rest in the middle of the ravine. A little creek ran over him, cooling him down, and easing the pain on his blood-oozing wound. Hidalgo, being a smart horse, knew that in order to keep from getting infected, he would have to get the bullet taken out of him, and his wound cleaned. So he decided to go to his mother's owner, even though she was dead. Hidalgo walked, stumbled, and even dragged himself, he was so desperate to get to his birth place. Eventually, after 5 nights of agonizing pain, suffering, and misery, he was there. But what he saw disturbed him greatly. There were no signs of life at his old barn. None. But what scared him the most was in the house. When he poked his head through the screen door, he found the cut up bodies of the rancher and his wife. Hidalgo whipped his head out, glad to be out of that foul stench. He judged that they had been there for a few days now. A rustling noise disrupted his thinking, and before he knew it, the rancher's kids were upon Hidalgo. One of them had a knife, and both of them had strange looks in their eyes-along with different colors now. Hidalgo tried to run, but they tied him down with a rope...

The boy, whose name was Mickey, began building a fire and dragged several pans out of the bushes. They are going to cut me up and eat me! Hidalgo thought. Rachel, the girl, took the knife and began to sharpen it on a stone. Hidalgo started thinking, and decided that he had better kick the girl, so that the knife would at least be out of the picture. Apparently the girl had forgotten the rules of horses, for she was right behind Hidalgo. This will be too easy. He thought. With a sudden WHAM, the girl was on her back, crying. The knife flew into the bushes, with Mickey jumping for it. Luckily for Hidalgo, it went deep into the bush area, where no one could find it. After minutes of hitting and kicking Hidalgo, Mickey finally stopped. And when Rachel got up, her eyes had changed back into their normal color; the look had become regular again-not the bloodthirsty look she had had before they met. Since Rachel was a smart girl, she deduced that the kick had ended her "disease". So she proceeded to do the same to Mickey. He took a frying pan to the face. Normality returned to him, also.

"Man, what happened?" Mickey said.

"I think that we were under some kind of spell or something..." Rachel said before collapsing onto the ground.

"Rachel!! Uuh.." Mickey said, before falling onto the ground too. Those were Mickey's and Rachel's last words. Hidalgo thought with sadness that he had afflicted their deaths, but quickly forced that thought out of his head. With nowhere else to go now, and with all of his options failed, Hidalgo began to wander.