My thanks and congratulations to Windancer (Wolflover10), who's title in the contest won. Also, thanks to Hunter (the wolf) and Aniu4life who were the runners up in the contest. Also, thanks to Baltoforever,  and emandem who also entered the contest.

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NOTE: In this style of writing the horses can talk, which is different to the stories I have written for this site before, so it was a bit difficult for me to write in this way. I am writing in this style to speed up the story and to prevent myself from settling into one writing habbit.

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The herd grazed peacefully in the valley, undisturbed by the cool wind. There were many horses, all mustangs of different varieties, sizes and colours. Among these horses were a family, a family bound together so strongly that it seemed that nothing could break them apart. Even if one went missing, they would somehow, some day, return home. It had happened before - it would happen again.

The family included an old, greying mare. Her elegant palomino coat glowed in the sun's warm blaze, and her chocolate eyes glistened with wisdom. She was aged, stiff, but she still felt young at heart. She had seen so much of her world change over her long years. She had lost her mate, and at one point, her son. But her foal had come back home, driven on by his untamable spirit, and that was his name. Her's was Esperanza.

Her son was a golden buckskin stallion. His muscles were strong and toned, his face majestic and powerful that made even the cougars cower in fear. He had the eyes of his mother, deep brown and a pool of wisdom. He had fought for his freedom and for his herd, and eventually he had won, bringing a new chapter to his life with his new mare, Rain.

Rain was a tobiano mare, chestnut and white with large patterns. Everything about her was curved: her nose, her back and her markings. She had beautiful blue eyes and a thick, creamy mane. The first part of her life had been spent in the Lakota village, far away, but she had been let free six years ago, and was now considered a member of the herd like she had been born in the wild. She had soon after had a foal with Spirit, a palomino filly with green eyes which they named Jade.

This mare was now well out of her childhood, both in mind and body. Almost three years ago she had been captured like her father and tamed to become a soldier for man. On her adventure she had met the most wonderful stallion, Durango, who she now shared her life with. His sorrel coat and deep brown eyes made him more handsome and mighty than you could expect, but with all his strength and combat experience he did not challenge his mate's father. He respected Spirit, and everything he stood for. And if he wanted their foal to have the best possible future, it had to stay that way.

Jade was heavily pregnant, her sides swollen and her mood unpredictable. At first the idea of her own foal was amazing news, and everyone was happy, until her belly began to grow and suddenly she wasn't allowed to do anything for herself. She hated that, she had survived so much - cougars, fires, snow storms - yet no one felt that she was able to care for herself in a situation where she was perfectly safe and happy.

Now, she stood grazing at the bottom of the hill, within the herd and under the watch of her father. She was standing next to her grandmother, soaking up the late spring sunshine and swatting at the flies with their tales. As they ate, they chatted, mainly about motherhood.

"When your father was born he was always getting into trouble: getting stuck, annoying other animals, he was a right handful! You were a much better behaved foal, dear," Esperanza chuckled, telling her granddaughter tales from years ago.

"Well let's hope that this one takes after my side," replied Jade, "Durango was always running around as a colt - no one could keep him still!"

She winced suddenly, the foal had kicked her but she was fine. "It'll be a lot easier when this little one is out in the real world, my insides will be able to heal their bruises," she joked.

"They're much easier to control when they're inside you, from my opinion," said a voice. Rain stepped forward to join the conversation. Apparently Jade had had her moments - not wanting to swim, she had hated the hard work involved with the lessons from her father and she never wanted to get up in the mornings. The three mares laughed and ate together, completely unaware of the events unfolding just outside their world.

Durango was scouting the edge of the valley, searching for any predators or rouge stallions. He was lucky himself not to have been banished by Jade's father, after all he was another stallion, competition for the mares in the herd. Naturally, he was interested, but deep down the only one in the Cimarron for him was Jade.

He crested a hill and shook himself when he reached the top. The ground was flat and stretched on for a couple of miles before it disappeared between two mountains. He remembered his journey through the snow about a year back, how he had travelled from even further than that point in the distance. It was incredible how he had managed to do that in his first winter in the wild.

He stretched his right hind leg. It always stiffened up after a climb or run because of the injury. He found some lush grass and grazed quietly for a few minutes, just listening to the insects buzz and the birds sing. He thought about the decent back to the river but knew that he needed to walk on level ground before he could test his leg again, so instead he trotted North West to check behind some trees.

After half an hour he was in the woods and had slowed to a walk. He had been there before but this time it seemed less lively. No birds were singing, and only the wind blew. On it there were strange scents, or at least scents that he didn't recognize at first. He followed the smell to the source and couldn't believe what he saw.

Tents, dozens of them, with half constructed log buildings all around. The humans were staying in a clearing, with stumps of trees all around. Already the forest had been cut straight through on one side, the mountains to the North showed clearly on the horizon. Durango remembered his days of captivity, and now he knew what he could smell, hear and see. Smoke and cooking meat, captive horses and the scent of felled pine wafted through the air. Men talked and shouted everywhere, and trees were being hacked at with axes. He realized what was happening.

The humans were building a new settlement right in the valley, and it would only be a short amount of time before they discovered the herd. Durango turned on his heel and ran back to the river, ignoring the screaming agony in his leg, because some things were more important than pain.

Jade was lying in the grass, trying to relax and soak up the sun's heat, when she heard the approach of hooves. Looking up, she saw Durango racing down the hill towards the herd, calling for Spirit's attention. The stallion saw him too and wondered what was wrong, so met the sorrel in the middle.

"Spirit," Durango panted, "man, in the forest to the north west."

Spirit thought for a moment, acknowledging the worried expressions on the faces of the mares, then announced to all of them, "We have seen man before, they are a threat but they are stubborn and easy to avoid. They will soon be on their way home-"

"But you don't understand!" cried Durango, cutting in, "They've already destroyed half the woods and are building a town to live in forever! They're not going to leave!"

A murmuring went through the horses. What would they do? Were the men a threat? Why were they building their home here? Jade had got up by now and walked over to her father. He looked at her, realizing that it would be difficult for her to run from danger in her condition. Finally he said, "Show me."

It didn't look good, Spirit knew that much. Several large buildings were already complete and more humans were arriving. He could see what Durango meant about the forest - it was so thin now that you could see daylight from the other side. Numerous campfires were burning all over the camp site and the grass was slowly being worn away, turning the ground dry and dusty.

He noticed a stabling area with a few horses, though there weren't enough to fill all the stalls. A few men were talking and laughing, ropes slung over their shoulders and their horses being saddled. Cowboys, it had to be, and they wanted to fill up their stables.

"Durango," he whispered, moving back into the tree, "you know what men behave like, if they were going to ride out to the herd, which way would they go?"

"They would ride along the ridge until it sloped down gently and then double back on themselves - they're too cowardly to risk going down the steep hill side, so that would buy us time. They'd follow the river and look for tracks and use any high ground nearby to search the land."

"How long would it take for them to find us?"

"An hour or less I'd imagine, all those men look experienced and determined to me," he replied. He shook his neck and said, "It's no use, Spirit, they'll find us soon. All we can do is try to lose them if they give chase, leave as little evidence as possible and keep moving around the valley. If they spot us upstream a few times then we might get away with crossing the river and going towards the