Disclaimer: I do not own Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron or any related characters.
Chapter 1
The herd had been running for hours now. The two foals, although fast, tired quickly and were falling behind, which was very dangerous for them. They would be easy prey for the cougars in the area. Spirit knew the herd had to stop, but he had smelled something out of the ordinary for a while now and wouldn't run the risk of leaving his herd somewhere dangerous. Esperanza ran up beside him and whinnied. She was getting tired and so was the rest of the herd. Although she trusted him with her life, he was still young and didn't realise that his herd didn't have the same stamina as him. He'd nearly lost one mare to exhaustion already. He snorted at her and sniffed the air once more. He couldn't smell anything now, so he led the herd to an open, grassy meadow, not unlike the one they'd just left, but this one had a large, fresh lake. The mustangs behind him snorted in appreciation.
Spirit stopped at the top of a small rise and made sure that his whole herd was with him, before descending down to the lake himself. He'd just taken a long drink of cool water when he heard one of his mares let out a desperate neigh. The mustangs raised their heads towards the noise. The mare that had cried out was Cherokee, a sorrel chestnut mare. She was also the mother to the two twin foals. Spirit trotted over to her as she neighed again. As he approached, he noticed she only had one foal with her, Akecheta, who was standing at her side dejectedly. He nickered to her and stretched his neck towards her in an attempt to comfort her, but she huffed at him and looked away. Spirit wasn't used to being disrespected and snorted at her, but before he could do anything more, Esperanza came over to him and stood between him and Cherokee. Although Spirit may be the leader and protector of the herd, Esperanza was the lead mare and his mother. She decided who could be disciplined and when. Esperanza nuzzled Akecheta, who had raised her head when Spirit and Esperanza had approached, but had gone back to looking sadly at the grass before her. Spirit turned to look at them again and realized that he had to find Helushka. Akecheta and Helushka meant 'fighter', which was exactly what these twins had needed to do their whole lives in order to survive. Not only were they twins, which is a miracle for any horse, but they'd also been small and weaker than normal foals and the herd had needed to move three hours after they were born, due to Spirit smelling cougars in their surroundings. Although they were very brave foals, Spirit knew Helushka wouldn't be able to survive on his own for very long. He nickered to his mother to watch the herd whilst he was gone, and set off the way they'd come. He wasn't about to lose another foal again.
Helushka had been wandering the grasslands for what felt like days. In reality, it had only been about three hours, but he was only young and was lost, scared, hungry and thirsty. All he wanted was to be back with his mother and sister in the safety of the 'd been separated from the herd whilst they were on the move to a new grazing area. He'd stopped for a few seconds just to rest and eat a bite off grass, but when he'd looked up, his mother, sister and the herd had dissapeared. He had thought he'd heard some horses in the distance, but he couldn't figure out which direction the sound had come from. He had walked off in hopes to find some water, but he'd managed to get himself hopelessly lost.
He was completley exhausted now, but he knew he couldn't stop and rest, because he didn't know how to defend himself from predators and he knew that they'd come after him first. He wandered on for a few more minutes before he came across a stream. His eyes lit up when he saw it and he cantered over to take a long drink. Little did he know that he was being watched.
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