Hello and welcome to my one-chapter stories. Here you will find many stories that I never finished for what ever reason. If you are interested in one and want me to continue then send me a message. Otherwise these stories will stay, unchanged forever… or until I get bored one day.

This is a story I stared for school when we were doing a Renaissance period. I tried to make it as least magical as I could but at last I gave up. Instead I wrote another story and this one was left in a dusty corner.

Horse Whisper

The gypsy caravan had entered the town at dawn and by moonrise all they were all set up. The gypsies took their stations, whether they were inside the wagons telling fortunes or outside playing music and dance, asking for coins. Syeira was one of the people outside. She was in the makeshift corral, making sure no one was going to make off with her famous horses and also entertaining those who came her way. They were lucky in this town that the people were caught up in the excitement of the caravan unlike some of the other places they past who only looked at them in disdain.

'Whatcha doing?' asked a little boy, who was watching Syeira.

'I'm taking care of the horses,' she made a motion to one of her mares who then went over and knocked off the hat of the boy. 'Like that.' Syeira was the horse-whisper of the caravan. She did not actually talk to the horses, but she had raised the and spent all her time with them so she knew how to get them to do what she asked and what their signals meant.

The boy looked up at her in an idolatry way, 'How did you do that?'

She shrugged, 'It is my secret and my way of earning money.'

'But my mum says that all gypsies are thieves,' the boy said, now staring at the ground.

Syeira waved off the peevish question, 'We work for our money, we never steal. We are a very respectable gypsies.' The boy did not reply for his mother called him and he ran off to tell her about the gypsy girl he had been talking to. She sighed and turned around to find herself face to face with Russel, one of the boys who also part of the caravan.

'Well, princess, you seem to not be doing so well today,' he teased. Her name was an old gypsy name that meant princess so that made him and his friends think that had liberties to call her princess. 'I overheard you-'

'You mean you eavesdropped,' Syeira interrupted him.

He gave her a look that would usually quell anyone who didn't know him well, but she just laughed. 'May I continue?' he asked sarcastically.

'Of milord,' she said with a bow.

'As I said, I overhead you talking to the boy. It seems like you don't need lessons in stretching the truth. Unlike others in this camp, you make it sound as if we are on some pilgrimage.'

Syeira grinned, 'As in I can lie about us stealing when we need it?' Their camp did steal but only when they had no other choice. It was the right of a gypsy. Everyone of the children learned how to get what they wanted and would keep those skills sharpened as a game. The problem was that a few of the children thought that they could take whatever and they could not get in trouble for it.

As some more people came up to the corral she turned to Russel, 'I sorry I must end this wonderful discourse, but I need to earn some money.'

'Oh yes, that reminds me of why I am here.'

'What, you now need a reason to annoy me?'

He shook his head, 'Of course not, dear princess. But your father asked me to tell you that he had something to give you, so he would be coming up here later.' Then with a flourished bow, he walked away.

Syeira motioned to another one of her horse and watched as the stallion went up to Russel and tried to hurry him out to the corral. Russel replied to that with a shout, but Syeira ignored him and went on to entertaining her crowd.

The last crowd was leaving when Alden, Syeira's father, came. Syeira was thinking about what she was going to do that night when she saw him waiting at the fence. The horses were acting as if something inauspicious was going to happen and she didn't want something bad to occur if they became too frightened.

'Alden,' she called out to him as she walked toward that part of the corral, 'the horses are spooked so I think I'm going to stay out here tonight.' It was lucky for her that it was a hot summer night. It was harder to sleep outside when the nights got colder and colder.

'Do you want me to bring you food or will you come into eat?' he asked calmly.

Syeira thought for a moment, 'I would prefer it if someone brought me food. And Russel said you had something for me, or something like that?'

Alden showed her a kitten he had been holding, 'I found her for you and thought you might like her, her owners where going to drown her.'

She took the kitten and looked her over, seeing why she may have been drowned. One of her paws was slightly deformed. 'Does she have a name?'

He shook his head, 'I thought I would leave that for you.'

Within moments, she had a name. 'Kisa,' she told the piteous kitten. 'That is your new name.' People were always giving animals to Syeira, whether it was because the animal was born wrong and they knew that she would take them or because they want her to train the animal. No matter what the problem was, she would only have the animal a few months before the owners took the animal back, proud of the difference or someone else adopted the creature. She was just good with animals and when they were with her they animals seemed to change.

'I will go get your dinner then,' Alden said, leaving her captivated by the kitten. Syeira carried Kisa to the horses where she introduced them. Her caravan was very careful with their horses. They were the most beautiful, most intelligent, and strong horses anyone could find and they did not get sold or given away easily. The horses where the heart of the caravan and they were careful not to have any lamentable problems.

She was still playing with the kitten when Russel and more of his friends came out with her dinner. She ignored their comments, feeding her kitten then made one direful remark, 'Do you have anything better to do? We are in a new town, which means new people decided that it is not sinful to steal from gyps.'

From the guilty looks on their faces, Syeira could tell that was exactly what they were suppose to be doing. They quickly disappeared to their assigned places. She finished her dinner and fed the horses and fell asleep under the starry sky with Kisa curled up to her.

Syeira was awoken by the sound of the stamping hooves and Kisa meowing in her ear. 'Is it already morning,' she asked, not wanting to get up. When she opened her eyes she could tell it was still night from the full moon that lit up the corral. She quickly moved to the horses, trying to calm them down. Once the horses were mostly calm, she wrapped herself warmly in her cloak, picking up Kisa, and tried to find out what had frightened her horses.

She tried to purge her thoughts of imaginative things that could have scared the horses. There could be wolves or robbers hiding out in the woods that surrounded the gypsy's camp. She tried to reassure herself that whatever scare the horses would not turn out to be some calamity and was probably just an unfamiliar… rabbit. Even though Syeira knew that the horses did not spook easily, but there was still a chance it was nothing.

'There!' someone shouted behind her. She spun around and saw men in uniforms pointing her way. Her eyes widened as she recognized some. They were the men who had been asking about her horses and must have come to steal them. She also realized that to get past her caravan making that much noise, that had either drugged the entire camp, which was unlikely, or killed them.

She quickly motioned to the horses, telling them to escape, but it was to late, the men rounded them up. The captain of them pulled Syeira up on his horse as she tried to run and she stared at him coldly, feeling indignant. She checked to see if Kisa was fine since she had hidden her under her cloak when she had realized her plight. The kitten could not make it alone in the foreboding forest and Syeira did not want to know what the pernicious men would do to a poor kitten.