Stick by Me (aka: Where the Forest Begins)

A cynical horse is lazing in dense forest, old and tired. It had been hunted many times, for it's hide and for the fame it would bring to have brought down a war horse. Only one hunter had ever been able to hit it's left flank, lodging a portion of the arrow he had shot.

At a near by clearing, there was a baby cow which had lost it's mother and wandered off to the old horse. The horse was sleeping under a girthy tree. The cow climbed over it and fell to sleep. The horse soon woke and found the cow on top of him.

The horse leaned up to wake the cow, pushing him off. The cow falling off by the horse's side, cuddling up to the horse's leg. The horse angrily nudged it off as if a minor annoyance. The horse had a small flower under it's hoof that the cow chewed at, angering the horse even more. The horse lay back down on top of the flower. The cow tried to chew at it again, looping around the horse to see anywhere where the flower was exposed, instead of the flower, her found a shaft of an arrow. He bites ahold of the shaft and pulls it out. Exhausted from pulling the arrow out, it falls backwards, the arrow in it's lap. The horse is woken by this and turns in anger from the pain on it's left flank.

It softens when he sees the arrow gently laying in the cow's lap. He nudges the cow of as if to say "Follow me". The cow did, and was lead to the clearing where the heard of cows where, leaving it there to be lead by a new mother and father.

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Two years latter, a stampede ran by the horse, running from three hunters, two with bows, one disemboweling the dead cows. one shot was taken at a baby cow, but the horse jumped in front of the arrow, recognizing the baby from long ago. A arrow was lodged into his right flank, burying itself deep in the muscle. It shivered a little, but stood there, nudging the cow to leave. The cows outran the hunters and returned to the horse. The horse reared back kicking one of the hunters and downing another. The final hunter pulling his companion away and fired one final arrow at the horses right front leg.

The cow latter returned to the horse, as if to thank it. The horse was badly hurt, but could limp slightly. The cow lead it off to a cave mouth, and he lay with the horse, unsure of whether or not the wounds would heal. And there he lay.