Author's Note: Ok, this got a wee bit long compared to the others (maybe not... I'm doubting my ability to tell after all), but I just couldn't stop before I did. Such a perfect cliff hanger (though, a few paragraphs more and it would have been literal). I didn't wait as long before reading over this chapter, so there's probably even more errors. Feel free to point them out to me, and please, feel free to point out the good, the bad, and the ugly. I love constructive criticism.

Chapter 2

Shod hooves clattering, skidding across the cobblestones, we charged out of the town and across the bridge. The bite in my limbs told me that I was running as fast as I could on the unsteady surface without my legs sliding out from beneath me. My fellows were having similar traction problems, but fortunately, our mounted comrades expected this treacherous portion of the ride and held on tight. Still, I breathed a little easier when I felt hard-packed earth breaking apart beneath me again.

From there we followed the staggered trail of winded foot soldiers, leading us off into the forest. Watching the ground with increasing interest, attempting to avoid the burrows and roots that littered the ground, I had no warning when Thomas picked up the reins and hauled back. Thrusting my front legs out, I came to a halt and glared over my shoulder. This had better be good.

"Which way did they go?" Thomas was asking the final soldier who was leaning against a tree, face bright red and mouth gaping like a fish. The soldier just pointed down a perfectly obvious trail in the forest and then I had spurs against my sides once again.

Really? Somehow I had the mental capacity to be exasperated with my rider even while following the trail and watching my footing. He could have just asked me. The signs of the thief's passage were all but blazing. It seemed that he must have had others running with him to make such a mess; accomplices, probably, given the nature of what he'd just accomplished. I staked a mental red flag on that idea. After all, chasing a bandit into a dark hole was all well and good unless he had friends to outflank you.

THERE!

Just for a moment, I saw them charging through the trees. Then the leaves enveloped them again. Thomas gave me a kick then, as if I didn't already know that greater speed was needed. I could have just bucked him off and captured the thief myself… but people would probably frown upon that. Yet another injustice of my world. Taking the bit in my teeth lest he decide to start yanking on it again, I surged forward, my fellow horses hard-pressed to match my pace.

HAHA! There they were again! Not so fast now, and no wonder! Those two giants were lumbering behind Rider like elephants. I could probably follow them blind-folded with one hoof tied behind my back.

But wait? What were they doing? The fools! Didn't they know they were running straight into a little box canyon? Impressed with my knowledge? Well, you shouldn't be, I'd been out in these woods a time or two, and unlike humans, we horses tend to be extremely wary of our surroundings.

"Follow them!" I ordered the four-legged sergeant on my right. He didn't say anything in response, just ducked his head once in rhythm with his running and stayed on them. I, on the other hand, peeled off with those horses who had not followed the sergeant.

"What are you doing, Maximus?" Thomas shouted, giving me a couple good kicks in the side and sawing on the reins. Fortunately, I'm quite the stud and thoroughly built, so I just puffed out my muscles and took the beating. As for the bit? I already had it in my teeth, remember? Dear little Captain Thomas was just along for the ride at this point, and so were the rest of his men. Still, I managed to spare a moment to roll my eyes at the glorious soldier upon my back.

Three minutes later, I'm sure Thomas was ready to apologize profusely for treating me so poorly. Over a log, around an oak, through some tall brush, and then we were above and behind the box canyon, and not a moment too soon either. Flynn had already climbed out, and after a terrified glance our way – well merited, I assure you – he dashed off. Now, I'm not one to brag, but if we'd followed them into the box canyon as Thomas had wanted, Flynn Rider would have been long gone.

I could just feel Thomas' eyes widening at the sight of the bandit not forty-feet in front of us. "Get the crown, whatever it takes!" he barked out even as he gave me a more polite cue to speed up.

"Yes, Sir!" his men shouted back.

Of course, they weren't the ones needing to run down this fleet-footed and cunning foe. "You heard him!" I shouted to my stallions, hoping to solidify their determination.

"Yes, Sir!" came their echoing chorus.

Racing forward, we gradually closed distance with that weed of a man, but I had to give it to him, he knew how to use the terrain to his advantage, and however in-tune I may be with the natural world, I'm still roughly five-feet tall and eleven-hundred pounds. I'm no squirrel. It was leaping over logs and weaving through saplings, turns on a copper coin and sod getting hurled high in the air by thundering hooves, and always, he was one step ahead of us.

I felt a subtle breeze by my ear that would have surely spooked a lesser beast, but as it was, I merely blinked as a volley of crossbow bolts thudded into the log just in front of me. Huzzah for training! I hurdled the log as if it were no more than sprig in my path, then banked hard to keep with his zigzagging.

All at once a great, sprawling oak rose before us, limbs swooping down to touch the ground. Surely he was caught now! But no! He climbed through them with an almost feline ability. Briefly, I wondered if he had, in fact gotten away, but as I approached, the gaps in the bows widened before me, and I saw my chance. It would be a near thing, but perhaps I could manage it. Drinking in a deep breath, I coiled my muscles and eyed the gap.

ONE two three ONE two three ONE two THREE!

I leapt with all the strength within me, heart somewhere near my gag-reflex, I think. I'd seen foolish horses try to make such jumps before. I'd seen the price of failure and it made me feel sick. My hooves scraped the bark, sending chunks flying this way and that, but then I was through! My hooves smacked the ground and I was off again. Now it was just Thomas, Flynn, and I, and it was exactly the way I wanted it.

"We've got him now, Maximus!" Thomas shouted. How much better could this moment get? Finally, Thomas was starting to understand me, or at least it felt that way.

I admit, I was just starting to get cocky right about then. The maddening success of seeing yourself accomplish what should be impossible will do that to you. Unfortunately, arrogance comes directly before a major setback in most cases, and so it was that, while I thrummed along at a good clip, it suddenly dawned on me that I had no idea where the villain had gone. How could he have disappeared from sight so suddenly?

Then there was a 'thump' and a great changing of weights on my back. "YAH!" a strange new voice shouted from my back. I glanced over my shoulder in confusion; then all four legs went rigid and I skidded to a halt.