I stood in my box-stall, eagerly munching my hay and happy to get out of

the early October rains. Taffy, a little sparrow who I befriended when I was  

a colt, sat on the edge of my water bucket trying to predict when the weather would clear up.  

 “When do you reckon we can go out to pasture?” I asked poking my head over the top of my stall door.

“The clouds aren’t cooperating.” My grumpy friend mumbled her usual excuse and turned away from squinting at the sky.

I smiled and nudged her with my nose. “Why don’t you take a break from staring at gray clouds and do something fun?”

“Ugh, your friend is here.” Taffy grumbled as footsteps crunched up the gravel path. “She always interrupts my weather watching!” 

Too excited to answer I nickered and stuck my head out of my stall to watch Kamri walk up to us. Her brown curls bobbed with every step and her bright blue eyes twinkled when she spotted me.

 “Max!” She exclaimed, stroking my velvety, chestnut coloured muzzle.

“Hey, Taffy,” She added, nodding at the little brown bird, then laughing when she immediately turned her feathery back on her. “Looks like someone’s in a bad mood! Guess what Max? We’re moving!”

“Where to?” I whinnied excitedly, then noticed that Kamri’s wide, eager smile had faded and her blue eyes dulled. “What’s wrong?”

  Tears started running down her cheeks and she shoved her face into my coarse mane.

 “You...can’t... come... Trailering is... too expensive!” She whispered through gasping breaths. "And we’re leaving... today!”

My heart became a boulder, dropping all the way down to my hooves and a familiar wave of sickening loneliness washed over me.

My mind flashed back to when I was a small colt, alone in a muddy, barb-wire fenced paddock too weak to escape. Red hot anger filled my whole body when a blurry face popped up in the memory, locking the gate and driving away. I didn’t know then that I would never see them again, that there was such thing as kind humans. For a week I was there starving, my only friend was Taffy. Then a horse trailer appeared in the overgrown driveway and out of the cab popped a now very familiar face, full of love and concern.

  I nickered at Kamri and rested my chin on her shoulder.

“You can’t leave me now!” I said. “You saved me from the loneliness of being abandoned and now your leaving me?”

She sighed, a huge chest heaving sigh.

 “I’m not going to leave you here alone Max.” Kamri said softly,  glancing down at the scar on my right front leg, from when I attempted to escape the barb wired paddock before she rescued me. “The family buying our house is going to look after you.” 

“No.” I said firmly, deciding the best tactic was to dig in my heels. “I’m not letting you leave without me.”

 She sighed, an even bigger sigh than before (if that was even possible).

 “I need to go finish up my last bits of packing. Bye buddy. Stay safe.” Then she kissed my muzzle and walked away.

That night the rain was still going steady and there was not a single star to be seen through the thick clouds. Taffy was perched on top of my head, between my ears and we were trying to make a plan. Kamri had left a few hours earlier for their new house and the new people were only coming the next morning. 

“We have to follow them.” I said.

“No.” Taffy argued. “If we try to follow them, I’ll get cold.”

“Taffy,” I told her. “You’ll be fine.”

“I’m staying here.” Taffy responded stubbornly.

“Then I’ll go without you.” I retorted, shaking my mane, causing her to fly off my head and perch on my stall door.

“Well you can’t.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m the only one that can see for miles from above.” She taunted me.

Sighing I repeated my threat, adding. “If you don’t come, I might get lost and you wouldn’t want that would you?”

“Fine.” She mumbled. “How do we do this?”

I quickly explained my plan then we sprang into action. I reached my head over my door, using my nose to undo the bolt and gently nudged open the door. Taffy flew out above me spinning loops through the air. 

“I’m so excited!” She chirped. “I can’t wait to watch you jump the fences and gallop through rivers!” 

“Rivers?” I mumbled. “Ugh. Since when are you miss positive?”

- - -



I stared at the tall white fence looming over me. I tried not to think about the last time I tried to jump a fence, but I couldn’t help glancing down at my scarred right leg.

“You’ll be fine,” Taffy encouraged. “Just go for it!”

Taking a deep breath, I steadied myself on wobbly legs. One, I counted in my head... two... three! I took off at a gallop, heading straight for the fence. I knew I could do it, I’d jumped the same height in the arena when Kamri rode me. I drew closer and closer and at the small reminder of my friend I mustered up all my courage and leaped. A few seconds later I blinked at the fence as if it had sprouted wings.

“Hey! I’ve taught you well!” Taffy said. “You flew almost as well as I do!”

I scowled at her but was too proud of myself to say anything.

“Ok, now for the hard part.” Taffy grinned. “I’ll fly ahead to see if I can find their new house. I know the address and its not crazy far away.”

“Okay, see you soon Taffy.” I said.

- - -   

  Twenty minutes later Taffy returned. “They’re there alright! I know the way now too, so we should be fine.”

I followed Taffy down the path to the forest at the back of the property. At first the path was completely clear but soon it became obvious that nobody had gone that far into the forest in years. Suddenly, I heard the ferocious roar of a gushing river and as we rounded the bend, I spotted something terrifying. Water. And lots of it. It seemed to squirm and wriggle out of every crevice, not letting anything get in its way.  

“I can’t do this, we have to turn around.” I told Taffy, my voice disobeying my commands to stay steady.

“You’ll be fine. It’s just a small stream. Wade in, wade out. No problem.” She answered. “I’m going to go fly above the trees to check that we’re on the right track.”

I eyed the raging rapids trying to convince myself that I wasn’t going to perish in their grasp. I remembered all the times Kamri tried to convince me to walk through a puddle or jump a water jump. I could feel her disappointment in me every time I refused. I owed it to her, just this once, to take on the river. Slowly I walked down to the edge and let the water angrily nip at my hooves. Closing my eyes and taking a huge breath I plunged into the waves which felt ice cold on my skin.

I kept my eyes trained on the opposite bank willing my legs to get me there. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, I reached the other side, and realized...

 “Hey, Taffy! I survived!” I called. “But, I am NEVER doing it again!”

 When she didn’t respond I noticed that I couldn’t spot her! In fact, I couldn’t even see my own hoof! I was surrounded by fog. Lots of dark, swirling fog. 

“Taffy?” I called, but when she didn’t reply I shouted. “Taffy!”

“No need to be so freaked out.” Taffy’s teasing voice replied from somewhere behind me. “We do have one small visibility problem though.”

I stomped my hoof and swished my tail.

“Why didn’t you respond before I freaked out?” I demanded, then realized what the second part of her sentence meant and groaned. “Don’t tell me you can’t see where we are going through the fog!”