Sorry for not updating. I have this stupid English poem project to work on and its boring…I slipped this chapter in when no one was looking.
Disclaimer: I only own the horses and people I make up myself. Woo Hoo!
The sun peered over the horizon. There were fewer clouds today, and it seemed that it would soon clear up and the weather would be nice again. Still, it did not brighten Raven's mood.
She had the continuous feeling of being watched and followed. Now she knew what a horse really felt like as being prey, but the scariest thing was that the thing following them seemed to be another horse.
Raven shivered as she stood up after blinking the sleepiness from her eyes. Beast Boy stirred, and he seemed to be waking up too. The two horses trotted over to the stream, swollen from the previous night's rain.
Raven couldn't understand how Beast Boy didn't seem to share her uneasiness. He walked about like nothing in the world was wrong. Even when they sheltered under a tree that night, he went right to sleep, while Raven stayed up, staring around looking for their followers.
After their drink, the two set out, following the trail of hoof prints. Unwavering it went in a straight direction for miles. The sagebrush was still, and the air felt thick and hot.
For the morning and most of the afternoon, Beast Boy seemed to be bored. Raven braced herself. When Beast Boy got bored he was bound to do something that annoyed her. Raven faced him.
After five minutes, he did nothing. Raven was surprised. Maybe, perhaps, for once he would keep quiet and let the peace pass. Sadly for Raven, the silence lasted only ten more minutes.
Beast Boy suddenly opened his mouth and really loudly sang, "OOOoooOOO…… Ninety-nine pounds of tofu on the wall, Ninety-nine pounds of tofu! You take one down and pass it around, now you have Ninety-eight pounds of tofu on the wall!"
Raven pinned her ears to her head, in attempt to drown out the infernal noise, but it wouldn't stop. Beast Boy just kept singing and singing.
Raven started taking deep breaths. She should just keep calm. After all, he hadn't had anything in his opinion fun in weeks, and he was taking it really well. Maybe she should just let him do something annoying, just this once?
And so, one hour later. "……Fifty-three pounds of tofu on the wall, Fifty-three pounds of tofu! You take one down and pass it around, now you have Fifty-two pound of tofu on the wall!"
Raven was searching desperately for something to distract him with, or she would end up yelling at him. There was a little cloud of dust, and another little patch of mud off in the distance, but they were no help.
Raven ground her teeth. She was going to burst like a volcano and yell, when something caught her eye. There seemed to be different tracks in the ones they were following. It looked like a whole herd of animals with hooves that were split down the middle, had walked here.
One word came immediately to her mind: Cows. There had been a boat load of cows here. Mostly cows came with humans, and if that was true then they were following the trail of humans.
Of course, there could have been a herd of renegade, or wild cows, but Raven doubted it. Still, it was a possibility, but if they were with humans then this trail led to a city or town. That would mean that they would have to go back and find the trail Robin and Cyborg took, and they would most likely find Starfire.
But they had to go back and look at when the hooves came into the trail, and when they left. "Beast Boy," She called, trying to get the stallions attention.
"……Forty-five pounds of tofu on the wall, Forty-five pounds of tofu!" He sang, blissfully unaware that Raven was trying to get his attention.
"Beast Boy," Raven said a little louder.
"……You take one down and pass it around, now you have Forty-"
"BEAST BOY!" Raven finally yelled, at the end of her patience.
"What?" asked Beast Boy, "You don't have to yell."
Raven sighed, brushing her frustration away for the moment. "Look" she said indicating the cow hooves.
"So?" asked Beast Boy, "There've been a lot of cows here.
"It means, " Raven said angrily "That we could be following humans, and obviously the wild horses around here and would not go this path. If the cows were with humans, then that means Robin and Cyborg are following Starfire and we're not. We need to see where the hooves came in, and where they exit. I'll go back and look for where they come in. You follow the path and see where they leave, ok?"
"Wouldn't splitting up be a bad idea?" asked Beast Boy, "You remember what happened with the Brotherhood of Evil when we split up."
Raven nodded. "But they're gone, and nobody but us and that hooded lady knows that we were turned into horses, and I doubt that anything on the human trail would be that dangerous." Privately, she disagreed with what she said. She didn't know if those strange horses were still following them. Their scent seemed to have faded.
To her relief, Beast Boy nodded. "We'll be quick," said Raven in an unusual comforting tone. She had no idea why that came out of her mouth, and she shook the thought away.
The horses turned and went their separate ways. After a mile or two, the sky turned dark again, and stars peered out. Soon Raven saw that the cow hoof prints had veered onto the path. Surrounding the cow prints were horse prints, and a small set of dog prints. They all appeared to have shown up at the same time.
Then that settled it. They were going the way of the humans, and Starfire was not here. She already knew that Beast Boy would probably find a town or something at the end of his trail. She turned and trotted after him.
Suddenly the feeling of being watched returned and Raven shivered. Her pace quickened with nervousness. Up ahead there was a small group of bushes and trees. Raven walked up and was about to jump over, when she caught Beast Boy's scent, and another horse's scent too.
She looked over the bush and saw that Beast Boy was talking to another horse. A mare to be exact. She was a light brown with a white mane and tail. Raven narrowed her eyes and had a feeling that she could not identify.
Is it jealousy? She asked herself. Why would it? I have no reason to be jealous. After all, it's not like I like Beast Boy…
Raven heard hoof steps behind her, and turned to see two Stallions. One of them she recognized as Carrion. Raven glared as she prepared to fight…
Beast Boy had followed the trail forward, when, out of nowhere, a mare showed up. He had to admit that it was a pretty mare, but he wasn't really a horse, so he gave her a simple polite greeting.
"Why are you following the human trail?" The mare had asked, "What do you want with them?"
Beast Boy then knew that he didn't need to follow the trail anymore. It was human, as the mare had clearly pointed out, so now, he had to get back to Raven.
"I'm following the wrong trail," he said, "I need to get back to my friend now." He tried to go back, but the mare got in his way.
"What friend?" she asked, batting her eyelashes. Usually, Beast Boy liked attention from girls, but this mare for some reason was creepy.
"She's a raven colored mare," he said, hoping to get away.
"Raven colored you say? I think I saw her."
"You did? Where was she?"
"Oh, she went this way," the mare said, walking away. Beast Boy was about to follow her, when he heard a fierce neigh from behind the tiny group of bushes. He turned and saw Raven shoot out of them, followed by two Stallions.
Beast Boy let out a neigh, before beginning to run after them. The mare ran in front of him. "Pay no mind to them. They're my brothers. Always playful those two. Don't worry, they're only playing a game."
Beast Boy jumped over the mare, and heard her snort in frustration as he galloped away. He saw one of the horses was Carrion, and knew right away, that they weren't playing. The other stallion was catching up to Raven, but she put on a burst of speed and got away.
Beast Boy was closing in on Carrion. The Stallion wheeled around, and attempted to snap Beast Boy's neck. The green stallion reared up and slammed his hooves on the ground, nearly hitting Carrion.
Beast Boy turned around and used his back hooves to kick Carrion in the face. The other stallion stumbled back wards a bit, before rearing himself. Beast Boy managed to turn and rear at the same time. Their front hooves swung in the air, in an attempt to whack the other horse.
Gravity pulled Carrion back on all fours again, and Beast Boy lunged, biting the other horse's shoulder, deadly close to the neck and wind pipe. Carrion squealed and Beast Boy released him. The mangy stallion galloped away to safety.
Beast Boy once again galloped after the other Stallion. They had not gotten far, for Raven had stopped to fight him, when Carrion disappeared, but he was overpowering her. Raven turned around and started galloping again.
Beast Boy was closing in, when he spotted a glint up ahead. There was a barn, and around it a barbed wire fence that the horses were headed straight for.
Beast Boy tried to neigh for Raven to turn or stop, but she didn't hear him. When she finally realized that there was a fence, she had too much momentum and ran right into it. The other stallion had spotted it earlier, and managed to turn in time.
Beast Boy watched, horrified, as Raven hit the mesh of wire and it pierced her skin. She fell, and attempted to rise again, but the wire wrapped around her. She thrashed and she got tangled in the wire. She began to bleed fiercely, and since she was lying on the ground, it formed in little pools around her.
Beast Boy had stopped, and didn't know what to do. Suddenly he was blinded by two bright lights, and heard the roar of a truck. Two humans slid out and surrounded him. In the larger one's hands was a tranquilizer gun. Beast Boy tried to run, but they shot him.
He fell to the ground, and the last thing he remembered before blacking out, was the two crouching by Raven with knives. Then the blackness took him.
Yep. It's a cliff hangar. Mwahahah! Ok, if you review I'll be nice and update….so review!