January Story Contest

Kate's Crazy Life
By: Scoutgirl
Age: 12

Hi my name is Katelyn, Kate for short, I am 13 years old. I live with my mom.  My dad died in a fire when I was four.
My mom and I have 3 mares. I am an only child.  We live kind of far from town so it takes a good 20-30 min. to get to the store or a neighbor's house.  We live in the middle of 5000 acres of forest, fields and all the grass the horses could eat!  We go to the store about once a week to get what we need for our horses, and food for ourselves.
        
"Hey Kate I’m going to the store I’ll be back later tonight, so I want you in bed when I get home.  Oh and make sure to feed the horses!"
"Okay mom, see you soon!"
After my mom left I went out and fed and watered all of the horses. Then I went inside and made some dinner. I had Mac and cheese, not my favorite but it’s easy to make.  When I was full I took a shower and went to bed.

         In the morning I woke up around 7:00 because I hate to sleep in and it’s my job to take care of the horses. When I came in around 8:00 my mom still wasn’t up so I went to her room and she wasn’t there. I checked the garage and our car was still gone.  I decided to go look for here so I saddled up my favorite horse Penny a pretty chestnut that loves to run and is really fast and brave; perfect for trails.

We rode for a good 10 min. That was when I saw lots of police cars and an ambulance. I decided to go check it out, but half way there a police man stopped me and said I couldn’t go any farther. I asked him what had happened and he said a woman had been killed when her car brakes stopped working and she ran into another car.  The other family was fine. I asked who she was and they said they don’t know all they know is that there were grocery bags in the trunk.

Kate suddenly realized who the woman was… it was her mom! Kate decided no to tell the officer who the woman, was not yet that is.  Kate galloped home and put Penny in her stall, and ran to her bed and sobbed. Her mother was all she had left and she was gone! After she had calmed down a little she untacked Penny.  “I wish I could be a wild horse like the stallions I read in books that way I could take care of myself!” just as she said that something happened.

Kate felt her legs, and arms grow longer, her hands and feet turned black and were as rocks. She fell on her ‘hands and knees’, she felt her face grow long, and her clothes turn into dark black fur.  Her ears grew longer and pointy. She felt something grow out of her behind, long and bushy. Last but least she felt her inside change, from human to beast, female to male.  When she tried to yell for help all that came out was a NEIGH! Kate took a step forward and heard a sound, only to realize it was her feet or hoofs. Kate was confused.  A moment ago she was a 13 year old girl and now he was an 8 year old pure black stallion!

Kate, now named Flash, all of a sudden had the mind of a stallion not a sad teenager.  He went over to all of the stalls and unlocked them with his mouth and whinnied for the mares to follow him.  Penny is the lead mare. They galloped far away from the house into a large field. There were tons of yummy foods, and a small lake and just plain paradise!

The next year flash noticed something wrong. His mares would leave for a day or two and came back with a small little fluffy ball of energy and annoyance.  Some of these foals flash liked more then others but most were all the same. Flash and his herd were wandering around a small field when flash noticed something in the distance. He led his herd towards it. When they got there he alone went to check it out. It was some type of box that seemed quite familiar. It had a big box and a smaller box with little boxes inside the smaller box. It smelled of food, treats and most of all horses.  Flash all of a sudden remembered something a year ago when he was here.  He did what he did then and let all of the horses out of these little boxes. Most were mares, but there were a couple of stallions but he left them alone. 

He led the new mares back to the herd. Right when they got back to the herd he heard something. It was a high pitched voice, not a horse. It came from a two legged thing that had no fur on the body, just a bunch on its head. He remembers seeing one of these before, they were called humans.  He couldn’t remember where he saw one he just had. Then a second human appeared moments later. The second human saw them and came running after them. Frightened, flash and his herd including the new mares started to gallop away. Once they were a good distance away they settled down to graze.  While all of the mares were grazing he was thinking hard about where he had seen a human. Then he realized he couldn’t remember anything about his life before last year. He started to think that maybe just maybe he could have been a human. For a moment he wishes he was a human but right when he does, his tail disappears, his arms and legs grow shorter along with his face and ears! He now she was a human!

Kate is now 14 and has just found out that she can turn into a horse! She decides to go for a ride. So she finds Penny and gets on her.  When she goes to leave, the herd follows Penny.  Kate realizes she can’t ride Penny with out the whole herd following, and can’t be a human for long with out them being protected by there stallion. Kate decides to get on a different horse that was hers. She got on Buttercup, her mom's cream colored quarter horse. She rides back down to her old house and rides around there when some calls out “Hey you!”
Kate turns around it’s a man that looks kind of angry.
“What do you think you’re doing on my property?” he yells.
“I’m sorry I just wanted to look at my old house. We never moved out properly and I left some of my stuff here.” 
“Don’t lie to me girl! The people we bought this house from said the only person who lived her died a year ago in a car crash! Now get off my property!”
“Okay! I’m going!”
I see a girl around my age maybe a little younger behind him.  I wave, turn and trot off back to the herd.  With out a saddle or bridle she almost falls off but manages to stay on.  Luckily the herd is fine Kate wishes to be a horse and turns back into one.

 A year goes by and the foals are growing up and new ones are coming in. all of a sudden flash hears loud sounds. He sees lots of men on horses with ropes. There are helicopters, trucks and everything! Flash leads the herd away but they follow! They are all panicked. They all gallop through a small forest hiding every where they can. Several men catch a couple mares and foals but flash, penny, and some others are still free. All of the horses are running mad, as fast as there legs can go! Finally they manage to get away with still a few mares including Penny and Flash.

This happened every year to every other year; and each year Penny, Flash and only a few mares get out.  Each year most men try to get Flash as they think he is the most beautiful horse. This one year during the round up most of the mares get caught more then usual. Then this one man came up out of no where and caught Flash!  He reared, kicked, bit, bucked and did everything he could to get away, but just couldn’t.

When the roundup was over Penny was still free, panicking a little trying to find Flash and the other mares. She found 4 other mares, but not Flash.  Flash was put in a small fenced in area with lots of other horses not just the ones from his herd. Flash was panicking lots of people everywhere, horses being taken and brought. It was all new to him. Then Flash wondered if he could turn into a horse, could he turn in to another animal too?  He made up a plan that when it gets dark he would turn into a bird and fly away and if he can’t then he’ll turn into a human and climb over the fence.

When night time had come flash went as close to the fence as he could but before he tried to change to a bird he changed to a human. Kate climbed the fence quietly and carefully then went over all of the corals and opened them stallions first then mares and foals then she turned back into flash and led all of the horses away.

 They ran until they were far away. Flash was fighting the stallions off the whole time; he wanted the mares and foals for himself; so they ran and ran. Flash called out for penny every where they went. When they were a long ways away he heard a familiar neigh. He looked around and saw penny and four of his mares! He was very happy now he had everyone back plus lots more! They all ran a long way far from any buildings until they felt safe.

 Flash kept his herd safe for months, fighting off other stallions and predators.  Then one day he decided to go back to his old home. So Flash led the herd across fields to get back finally they made it and Flash turned into Kate.

Kate went up to the old barn and found the girl there and told her to follow her. The girl agreed and Kate led her a little ways away from the barn but not quite by the herd Kate told the girl that she needs her help to make something. The girl named Sierra asked what it was. Kate said I need you to help me build several barns with lots of stables inside and the biggest coral you can think of. The girl asked “Why do you need that many barns and why are you asking me? Why don’t you ask your family?” 
Kate told Sierra that this was her house before her mom got in a car wreck and she ran away before they sold the house. 
“But why do you need the barns and corral?” 
“Can I trust you to keep the biggest secret of my life? Please its either life or death if you tell, lots of lives would be in danger.” 
“Yes I promise no matter how big the secret is I will keep it.” 
"Stay here Sierra, I have something I want to show you".
Kate went behind a group of trees and turned back into flash.  Flash walked back to where sierra was. Sierra looked up shocked. She didn’t believe it was me so I knelt down and let her get on my back. We rode over to the herd where I let her get off.  She looked at me and the other horses in disbelief.  I turned back into Kate and said

“See this is why I need the barns and corral. See every year all of us are chased and caught and put into little pens. Then they take some away and we never see our family ever again!  I figured that if we are all in a barn or something then they won’t catch us anymore!” 
“Okay I can’t promise the stalls but what if we built a barn with no stalls just like a big arena that looks like a barn?” 
“Perfect! Then we can all be together! But where will we get all of the supplies?” 
“Hmmm… good point well we can sell stuff to make the money to buy it all. You can help too!” 
“Love to but I can’t if I leave for too long then other stallions will steal the mares. Oh, well you can put some of the mares in my barn; some one stole all of our mares.  We only have a couple stallions now.”  "Oh yeah sorry about that, they are over there. I’m not sure if they are all there but I think most of them are.” 
“Wait you stole our horses!” “Sorry I don’t know why I did, I just did.”  “Oh well its okay I forgive you.
The only problem with putting the horses in the stalls is that my dad would flip out if he saw wild horses in the stables.

Sierra ran inside and stayed for a little. When she came back she was holding tape and lots of posters that said:
“Help the wild horses! Please donate money!” Kate said
"That’s great! Good job! Thanks! Guess what! My dad is going away on a business trip so he won’t be here to tell us we can’t build it! Another thing I just remembered! My uncle is a builder and I bet he can help us build it or get some wood", said Sierra.
"Awesome hey can we put them in the stalls and corrals so I can help you for a while?"  "Sure!" she turned back and lead them over.

Kate turned back, trotted to his mares and foals and led them to the barn. They put the mares with foals in the stalls. There were just enough for them all! Then flash led the rest of them to the corrals. There were two big corrals; they put half in one and half in the other. Then Flash turned to Kate and asked "do you want to ride me or should we both ride?"
"Hmmm. Well we only have one saddle and bridle so, how bout I ride one of my horses and I lead you as a horse behind me".
"Okay, before I change back; go get your mare ready, oh make sure we can both ride her at the same time.  Get a halter and lunge rope, I don’t like short lead ropes".
Kate helped Sierra tack up her best mares.  She rides double with her friends all the time. Then Kate turned to Flash.  Sierra put a halter on Flash, clipped a lunge line on the halter and hopped on her mare named Sunny.

To be continued……

(None of this is true in my life)