A/N: Ok, brief summary of last chapter for those too young to read: The filly's father and mother were slaughtered. She was about to be killed, but an old guy came and took her and another mare away in his comfortable horse trailer. There, you missed nothing but gory details.
Disclaimer: I do not own Kelly Clarkson's song "Miss Independent".
I was scared. It wasn't dark or smelly or terrifying inside the trailer, but I was scared of what would happen to me. The mare next to me, a dark bay, was quiet. She seemed happy and somewhat relaxed, but I was still thrashing around, trying to get the halter off. I whinnied frantically.
"Somebody help me!" I cried. The mare gave me a look.
"Shut up, kid, we're safe now."
"No we're not! We're with a human, we're gonna die if we don't get away!"
"No, we're not, kid, calm down. The place we were at is as bad as it gets, we can only go up from here," she replied with relief in her tone. I thought she must have been crazy.
After an hour or so, we stopped. The mare was calm, but I strained against my rope even harder. The man came and opened the back of the trailer.
"Mark, come and help me with these horses!" he shouted over his shoulder. A middle-aged man with blonde hair and glasses hurried over.
"Ah, you've been down to De Kalb again, eh? Who'd you bring back this time?" he asked as he peered into the trailer.
"A pair of mares. The older one caught my eye; I think she might be good in the riding program. The other one's a Mustang. Young, skinny, wild, but she has potential," the older man said while he climbed into the trailer and started to untie the mare's lead rope. In a moment, he was backing her out of the trailer while talking to her in low, soft, gentle tones. Once she was out, he handed her lead rope to Mark and cautiously climbed back into the trailer. I was about to kick him when he started talking to me in that quiet voice.
"Easy there, girl, easy, you're gonna be fine. It's ok, I'm just gonna untie you, ok?" he whispered as he edged his way over to my head. He placed a wrinkled hand on my neck and slowly petted me, moving his hand down my neck and almost to my shoulder before moving it back and petting me again. Despite myself, I calmed. My head dropped and I relaxed.
"That's a good girl. Easy, now." He untied the lead rope and quietly back me out of the trailer. The only scary part was when I was about to put my foot down and I felt nothing but air. I froze.
"It's fine, your hoof is a couple inches above the ground," the bay mare said in an almost bored tone. I nervously set my hoof down and was relieved to find solid dirt underneath it. There wasn't much trouble after that.
The man stood next to me in the driveway, patting my neck as Mark just shook his head in awe.
"You have a real way with horses, sir," he said while barely holding back a grin. The old man smiled softly and patted my neck once more before he started to lead me to the barn. I was scared, but I trusted him enough to know he probably wasn't going to hurt me. Suddenly feeling cocky, I pranced and playfully pulled on the rope, acting like I could get away at any second. The man smiled at me and sighed.
"You're a feisty little one, aren't ya?" he said with a long, slow grin. A door banged against its frame somewhere to my left, and I spooked. The man gave me plenty of rope so I could turn my head to look for the source of the noise. A skinny girl with shaggy shoulder length brownish-black hair and a blank expression was walking about twenty feet ahead of us. She wore black jeans, a black t-shirt, and a silvery choker around her neck.
"Raen! Come here!" the old man said as loudly as is wise around horses. The girl stopped and gave the man a "what now?" look. Reluctantly, she trudged over with her hands in her pockets, head down, not looking at us.
"What?" she growled. The man gave her a stern look.
"You skipped chores again, Raen, that's the second time this week. If it happens again it's no riding for a week," he said with a cold edge to his tone. She didn't answer, but I could tell it upset her. After a few moments of silence she spoke.
"It won't happen again, grandfather, I promise," she said in the same growling voice. She shuffled her feet in the dirt, sending up a small cloud of dust.
"So what do you think of the new horse?" her grandfather asked. Raen looked up for the first time. She had round silver eyes with flecks of a darker grey in them; they seemed to see everything and nothing at the same time. Her eyes held no emotion whatsoever, yet there was some dark secret locked deep inside her that flashed briefly as she caught my eye, then vanished just as quickly. We stared at each other for a long time before she broke the quiet.
"She's beautiful. Mustang, I assume?" she asked in a low (but not growling) tone. Her grandfather nodded and offered my lead rope to her.
"Want to bring her into the barn?" A shadowy smile appeared on her pale face. Taking my lead rope in her right hand, she reached over and stroked my neck. For a moment we stood like that, she running her hand over my neck and me standing there, watching her. Then she started walking towards the stable and I followed. I retained the air of one who could easily break free and run off into the darkness, but I wasn't about to leave. Something about these people compelled me to stay.
The next day, early, Raen came into the barn and started feeding the horses. She was dressed in dark clothing as usual; today's wardrobe consisted of a black tank top, black jeans, and the silver choker from the day before. The only difference was that her hair was in a loose ponytail. When she was finished feeding the horses, she started giving us water. She didn't stop to pet any of them except for me. She gave me water last, dragging the green hose over to my stall door and open the top half of it. All the stall doors were double doors, with an upper half that swung open when unlatched. Raen stuck the end of the hose into my bucket and listened to the slow splash of fresh water hitting the old. My bucket was almost empty, so she maneuvered the hose end so that it would stay in the bucket of she let go. Once it was in place, she opened the bottom half of the door and stepped in.
"Hey there, girl. Guess what my grandfather said?" she asked. I snorted questioningly.
"He said I get to name you. Isn't that cool?" she continued with one of her slow, mysterious smiles. I bobbed my head in answer. Raen seemed to be far more open with horses than she was with people. She stood there for a minute, absently rubbing my forehead (something I normally didn't allow humans to do), and thinking. She looked around as though trying to get inspiration. She sighed at last and starting humming a rock and roll song to herself. After a moment she started singing it to herself very softly. The lyrics were hard to catch, but after a while Raen stopped singing and snapped her fingers.
"I know what to call you! Miss Independent! Like the song. We can just call you 'Indi' for short!" she said excitedly. I bobbed my head again in agreement. It sounded good to me too. By now my bucket was full and Raen turned the hose off. She glanced at her watch and groaned.
"I've gotta go for school, Indi," she said in her growling tone. She pulled her ponytail out and shook her head to make her hair messier. She swiftly closed my stall door and put the hose away. On her way out of the barn, she stooped down next to the door and grabbed a shabby black backpack. With a wave, she was gone.
A/N: Ok, not too great for chapter four, but I've had Writer's Block and only just got inspiration. Read and Review! I've had little feedback from this...