Spooked Stallion (3)

Something strange is going on...

 

 

 

The next morning Danny set off for school on the sole rickety old school bus the district could afford. That afternoon, tired and worn out from a day of tests, physical education, and more tests, he snuck past Joanne"who was busy writing something"and went out to the barn. He wasn’t supposed to ride the stallions without his father’s permission, yet he went ahead the opened Rob’s stall anyways.

          At the sight of him Rob began to jump, quivering with excitement.  Since his father usually took Clint out first, Rob loved it every time Danny came along for a ride. Clint just glared at him, motionless, as Danny threw a saddle on Rob. Climbing on, he rode out of the barn.

          The day was a sky blue hue, and the air, though chilly, was clean and fresh. Swarms of gnats darted every which way, hovering over the plowed fields like clouds in the sky. The melody of birds in the forest surrounding enticed a feeling of freedom, something Rob definitely caught on too.

  It was a day to just forget homework and enjoy. Rob liked it, and he galloped past the pumpkin patch into the fields beyond, knowing not to go past the fence marking the edge of the farm, yet to roam the land they had.

They galloped through the fields for what must have been little over an hour, Rob finally tiring and slowing down. Before he went in, Danny led Rob over to the pumpkins, meaning to check on them again. When he was about twenty feet away from them, Rob started to jump"trying to knock Danny off.

“Whoa! Calm down!”

Rob stood on his hind legs, Danny rolling backwards off the stallion. His arm smacked hard into the ground, and Danny thought he heard a crack. Dust flew into the air, and bright stars swam across his vision. Gasping and blinking in shock, he watched as Rob galloped off towards the barn.

Still blinking, he managed to prop himself up on a knee, and grimaced as he saw one of his left arm’s bones jutting out through his skin. As a thin line of blood made its way onto his hand he fell down again, his face towards the pumpkins.

Although he had just checked on them the day before, even in his haze of pain and blood he noticed something was off. The pumpkins"all five of them"seemed to grown twice the size they were yesterday; they looked almost three feet tall now.

Danny lay there on the soil, wondering if he was hallucinating as he passed out.

Author's Note

The third chapter, only briefly edited.