Blazing the Trail (Sunshine & Shadow Book 5) by Alie Williamson Read Free Book Online Page A

swung her hind
end towards April and tucked her tail.
    “April! Run!” Kip
shouted, waving his arm.
    April’s eyes were still
glued on the mustang. She stumbled backwards a few steps, and then lost her
footing on the icy ground. She felt her backside hit the snow and her eyes
widened. She was now on the ground in front of a feral mustang.
    And the horse was in
pain, and angry.
    Kip and Caleb were
shouting, trying to divert the mare’s attention but all April could hear was
the sound of the animal’s breathing. She was just as afraid as April was. April
could hear it in the labored catch of her deep sighs. She was tasting the air,
waiting to see from which direction the next attack would come.
    “April, get up!” Her dad
was shouting from behind her.
    “She’s just a horse,”
April murmured. Then she repeated it louder. “She’s just a horse.”
    “A wild horse, April!
Move!” Kip yelled, wrestling with Charger again.
    “She’s not wild. She’s
scared. Look at her!”
    April held up her hands
and the horse leaned away, ears back. She lowered them slightly and the ears
flicked towards her again.
    “There,” she said,
sighing. “Everything’s okay.”
    She glanced down at the
mustang’s fetlock and held her breath. The blood was now flowing freely,
covering her hoof in crimson ink.
    Looking back into the
horse’s eyes, April could see the confusion.
    April smiled gently at
the mare. “It’s okay.”
    The mustang had a willow
branch tangled in her long, white mane. April wanted nothing more than to pull
it free and watch the flow of pearl cascade over the magnificent animal’s
shoulder.
    “Willow,” April murmured.
“Her name is Willow.”
    She made eye contact with
Kip and he looked away.
    “We need to get Willow
home,” her dad said.
    Kip and Caleb moved away
from April, urging the mare gently. She backed up enough for April to stand
safely.
    Mounting Chinook, April
looked over at her dad, feeling a smile appear on her face. It was the first
time in months she had been truly ecstatic. They had saved a life.
     
    Pulling the reluctant
mustang back to the ranch was a struggle. Kip and Caleb led the group, with
April and her dad pushing the horse from behind. Hailey and Adam were on each
side, stopping the mare from darting either way, and pulling a cowboy off their
horse. This arrangement proved difficult in the narrow stretches of the trail,
but soon the group was approaching Blue Haven, and April relaxed. She petted
Chinook’s sweaty neck.
    “We did it,” she
whispered to him.
    They turned the mustang
loose in the round pen, leaving the lariats dragging from her neck. April
untacked in record time and rushed to give her some water. She filled a bucket
from the well and carried it into the corral. The mare stood as far from her as
she could manage and April set the bucket down and retreated back to the gate.
Slipping out, she climbed the first rail and watched.
    “Come on, girl,” she
murmured. “Aren’t you thirsty?”
    The horse just looked at
her warily.
    “She won’t drink with you
there,” a voice said from behind her.
    April turned around as
Kip approached. He climbed the fence beside her.
    “She will,” she said,
stubbornly.
    “Come on, April. Leave
her alone. She needs to relax before she’ll eat or drink anything. Otherwise
she could colic.”
    April knew Kip was right
but she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.
    “I can do whatever I
want, Kip,” she said.
    Kip stepped off the
fence. “Yep, you sure can,” he said. He turned his back on April and she heard
him suck in a breath. He patted her on the shoulder. “You did good out there,
kid.”
    April smiled as he walked
away.
     
    That night, April dreamt
of mustangs with long, flowing manes and meadows filled with wildflowers. She
woke up restless. Looking over at the clock, she sighed. It was already
morning, yet she felt like she hadn’t been asleep at all.
    She pulled on her jeans
from the previous day and