Chapter 43

Winter finally broke on the high desert. It seemed like everyone and everything took a sigh of relief when the snow started to melt and the temperatures warmed up during the day.

Sam started riding George again away from the house. Jake came over after school and he'd take her out for a ride. He would help instruct her on her riding, teaching her and showing her what she should be doing.

A lot of the time, they would just ride in silence, Jake staring at the ground tracking something. Sam never saw anything, but he'd whisper that there was a deer in the sagebrush and point, then the next minute the deer would jump out and run off. Sam was amazed.

"How do you do that?" she asked.

Jake shrugged. "Grandfather says it's in our heritage."

"Whatever that means," Sam responded.

"I'm not sure either," Jake confessed. "I think it means that some Indians can do it." He shrugged again.

"So if I get lost, you'd come find me?" Sam asked. She was instantly sorry she had.

"Nah," Jake teased, his tomcat grin on his face. "I'd let the coyotes get ya."

"They don't eat people," Sam scoffed.

"Sure they do," Jake told her. "Especially when they're a shrimp like you."

Sam didn't like that little bit of news. She looked around, almost as if she expected a coyote to jump out of the trees and grab her and eat her.

"Look," Jake got her attention away from worrying about coyotes. He pulled in Duke and pointed towards the scrub trees.

Sam stopped George and instantly looked towards where he was pointing. She saw the wild horse herd. The gray stallion was watching them as closely as they were watching him.

"That's the Phantom," Jake told her.

"The Phan…," Sam looked up at him.

"Phan-tom," Jake pronounced it for her. "Grandfather says there has been a gray stallion out here for a long time."

"He's old," Sam looked at the stallion.

"It's not all the same one, Brat," Jake rolled his eyes.

"Oh," Sam felt dumb. Sometimes Jake made her feel like an idiot and he tried to sound so superior.

"They're all related though," Jake gave in a little.

Sometimes he just had to prove to her that he knew more than she did, but then she'd pout or cry and he always felt badly afterwards. He wasn't sure why.

Suddenly stallion turned away from looking at them and gave a challenging neigh. Jake and Sam looked towards where he was looking and saw another horse approaching.

"I bet that's another stud horse," Jake murmured.

"What's that?"

"Another boy," Jake was too intent on the other horse to roll his eyes like he normally would. "Let's get closer." Jake swung down from Duke and held George's bridle while Sam dismounted.

"Be quiet now," Jake warned her as they crept forward.

Sam tripped over a sage root and would have fallen if Jake hadn't caught her. He shook his head both in amusement and disgust at her before they started forward again.