Ch 3
Startling awake a while later, the events quickly returned to his mind. He mentally smacked himself for falling asleep for… he didn't even know for how long…
Looking up again, he suddenly realized what had woken him: a bright ray of sunlight peaked through the leaves and shone straight into his eyes. Scanning the sky he noticed there was no sigh of the heavy storm from earlier. The sky was blue and the leaves were dry. Only the scene in front of him, even more gruesome in broad daylight, was a stark reminder of what happened. The tired horse, now lying still, only whinnying now and than; the blood from Riley's head wound turned brown as it had dried on his pants' legs, nearly the same color as the eyes staring up at him... Startled, Alex shot up straight in surprise, jostling Riley, who hissed at him: "Whoa, easy there sleeping beauty, careful with the wounded man down here."
"Well, look who's still spouting nonsense!" Alex answered with a giant grin, not in the least fooled by the younger man's tough act. Lines of pain were clearly visible around his eyes and the movement his upper body had made had caused him to hiss in pain. "Do you know what happened Riley?" Alex inquired, trying to assess the seriousness of the head injury. The younger man scrunched his forehead in thought, searching for his hazy memories of the past events. "Yeah, there was a storm and than you wouldn't listen to me when I told you it was too dangerous, but after that...no not really..."
Alex rolled his eyes at that, leave it to Riley to remember nothing but that one part. He quickly filled him in on what had happened to them, worried about the loss of memory.
Riley's eyes started drooping again, when he suddenly heard a soft whinny. Recognizing that sound immediately, after spending so many hours together; he gasped as he realized he must have been on top of his horse when the branch struck him. "Pilgrim?"
A louder and more desperate whinny resounded and suddenly pain shot up his legs as the dark form in front of him started moving. As the realization dawned on him that his horse was lying on his legs, still after this many hours, the pain and shock sent him gasping and he started to loose consciousness again. He fought against it and eventually managed to clear his vision enough to see the hazy outlines of Alex' face hovering over him...
Alex watched as Riley struggled with the pain and emotions as he quietly answered the question on Riley's mind...
Minutes turned into hours and the sun slowly started to move downwards to the horizon. Not much had changed in that time in the situation of both men. They had shared the last of the water and Alex had an increasingly hard time keeping Riley awake. Darkness crept upon them once again as the night approached, when suddenly swaying lights could be seen towards Alex' left. Blinking out of his stupor, he softly placed Riley's head back on the ground. "Someone's coming, help is on its way mate" he explained at the confused look thrown at his general direction with that action.
"Hey! Over here! We're here. We need help!" Alex started yelling, slowly moving in the direction of the flashlights, taking care not to put weight on his left foot. He waved his arms around wildly as the direction of the lights finally turned his way and the sound of hooves grew louder. He shielded his eyes as the bright light suddenly hit his face and tried to look around it to catch a glimpse of the rescue-party.
The two riders quickly dismounted and addressed him: "Alex, what happened? We got a call from Fiona saying you hadn't come home yet and you didn't answer your phone?"
"Stevie, mate, I've never been more glad to see you" Alex smiled as he limped towards his redheaded friend. "Where's Riley? " The other female asked worriedly. "He's over there, Kate" Alex responded, pointing over his shoulder, "He's hurt pretty bad; tree branch landed on him" Both women swung their flashlights in the mentioned direction, gasping in shock as they fell on the nearly conscious man and horse. Stevie broke out of her shock first, grabbing her phone to inform the emergency services of the situation, as Kate ran to Riley's side.
Half an hour later, night had set in, but the site of the accident was brightly illuminated by big lights, courtesy of the CSF, as they worked hard to position ropes around Pilgrim's abdomen and legs. Alex watched from his seat in the back of an ambulance, his ankle being checked by a paramedic. The horse was terrified but had stopped fighting them by the combination of Riley's calming voice and Stevie's gentle and soothing touch at his head. Soon the horse's hind legs were lifted far enough from the ground that Riley could be pulled out from underneath them. Paramedics immediately surrounded the dark-haired man, but the stubborn young man seemed to refuse treatment until he knew how his horse was doing.
Dave, after performing a quick physical exam on the horse, turned to Riley, who finally had agreed to lie down on a stretcher. "I'm sorry Riley, but Pilgrim seems to have no feeling or movement left in the lower part of his body. I fear the impact of the branch has broken his spine…" Riley slowly nodded, face carefully wiped of any emotion, having expected and feared that news. He turned to Stevie: "Give me your rifle please" he said, as he made to stand up. The paramedics once again protested, but Riley would not be deterred. Not being able to stand on his own, he was quickly supported by Kate and Dave as Stevie came back with the loaded rifle. Supporting Alex, they walked towards their friend, who had been lowered next to the horse's head. Pilgrim lay still, his eyes following Riley, whinnying softly as the man whispered soft words in velvet brown ears, slowly stroking his head. Nodding to his friends they pulled him upright again. Ignoring the pain flaring up in his legs and head, he accepted the rifle from Stevie and took aim…
The loud sound was followed by a heavy silence and for a moment no one moved, before the paramedics took charge again. Riley was placed back on the stretcher, hooked to an IV and dosed with painkillers, before being wheeled into the waiting ambulance, Alex sitting to the side. The 3 friends remaining outside pretended not to notice the tears pooling in the brown eyes as the doors closed and the vehicle drove off.
"How is he?" Alex asked one of the paramedics as the young man's eyes closed again, unconsciousness finally claiming him again. "He'll be fine I think. It'll take a couple of weeks, but nothing seems to be broken, just a lot of bruising and a nasty concussion. "
Alex finally allowed himself to relax at that, exhaustion settling in deep. Thankfully his friend would not keep any lingering problems from his foolishness. Well at least not physically. As for mentally, well he would just have to make time to try and fix that too. With the help of their friends, he was certain that would work out in the end too…
THE END