Great job to those who entered my Name contest! The winner is HayleyWolf with her name Oliver! She has earned a free lineart. Congrats!!!

Last time in the Starlight series.............I couldn't hear whatever she heard. She seemed to be listening to a conversation. "Oh, no," she exclaimed," We have to get out of here, now!!!"

I had no idea what was going on. Miyah kept looking around nervously, her mane flicking everytime she turned her head. She saw my confused look and told me she'd explain later. "There's a loose part in the fence right around here," Miyah said. Her hooves beat on the fence, and after a few kicks the board came down. By now the other horses had waken up and were staring at us, trying to figure out what was going on. Miyah galloped out of the corral, with me following at her heels. She bolted to where T.J. was just now arriving. "Whoa! Your friend is better already?" T.J. joked. "No time for jokes," said Miyah,"Run!!!" T.J. and I quickly followed her orders. We ran on for miles, wondering what was going on. Miyah skidded to a halt after five minutes of hard galloping. She explained to us that she had heard the enemy, the Colonel, telling his men from behind a bush when to attack the Lakota village. We all hoped that the people and horses there would be o.k. The sun started to set, and we all took shelter in a small cave. The cave wasn't exactly the most comfortable place in the world. Water was dripping from the walls; and every sound you made was echoed throughout the cave walls. Outside, it started raining. Hard. We could hear the rain pounding on the roof of the cave. Something in me told me this cave wasn't the best place to stay. But I ignored the feeling and layed down beside Miyah and T.J., our body heat kept us warm. The rain outside poured down even harder, and I could hear the wind howling outside. Suddenly, the ground started to shake massivly. Rocks and pebbles started falling from the roof of the cave. We all tried to escape the cave, but everywhere we turned, rocks were piled too high to climb over. We were trapped inside the cave.

Finally, our digging through the rocks paid off. A beam of light shone through the wall of the cave. We dug quicker until we were out of the cave. The bright sunshine blinded our eyes, and we quickly grazed upon the sweet grass. I noticed T.J. gazing at Miyah as she ate. She returned his gaze lovingly, then went back to eating. After five minutes of eating, we all walked back to the Lakota tribe. At least we tried to. Even Miyah didn't know which way to go. The sun started to set. We had been in the cave longer than I had thought. A clump of trees was over to our right,, so we spent the night there. Rain started to fall from the sky, and the forest wasn't much protection. But there was no way we were going back into the cave. The next morning, we stood up and shook ourselves, trying to get the massive load of moisture off our backs. "Hey, guys, I wonder what's going on over there," T.J. said. He pointed his head toward a group of travlers. "Guys, that's the tribe! Let's go!" Miyah ran over toward the travlers, who were frightened to see three horses galloping right to them. But when they saw Miyah, they calmed down. Miyah nuzzled Little Creek, glad to know that he was ok. I looked around franticly for Shawn, he had to be there somewhere. Unless... No, I pushed the thought out my mind. A shrill whinny pierced the air, and about ten feet behind the tribe, limped Shawn, who was being supported by Quiet Rain. I ran to him and gave him a horse hug. He gave one back to me, and I helped support him with Quiet Rain. Ahead of us, I could see T.J. and Miyah walking side by side, clearly they were happy. I heard the indians ahead of us talking. "Do you remember where were going, Big Eagle?" The other indian shook his head. An indian pointed out that Little Creek was taking us to the Calvary, hoping to make peace by trading some horses in for well needed supplies. "Oh. At least we have some new horses to trade." I was so surprised I almost reared. Little Creek was going to trade us to the Calvary, the worst place on earth, for supplies. I could never understand these humans. It was all too hard. I could easily run off, but then I'd have to leave Shawn, Miyah, and T.J. There was nothing to do except to hope and pray that Shawn would get better before we were taken to the Calvary. After days of traveling, Shawn lost his limp, and could easily trot and gallop as if nothing had happened. I knew this was the time to escape. Shawn wanted to escape too, and told his escape plan to T.J. and Miyah. T.J. was on it, since he was wild at heart, but Miyah wasn't too sure about leaving her home. After some thought, she gave in, and we went with the plan. The plan was to bolt, which would be easy since we weren't tied up. The hard part would be not letting the indians catch up with us; but we would have an advantage, the indians only had one horse. The plan worked. We were free at last. Shawn knew the way back to the herd; he'd left marks wherever he'd gone. It took him a few minutes, but he found the trail. We were going home.

My hooves ached from running. All I could think about was going home. Shawn looked like he was losing confidence. I gave him a 'are you o.k.?' look, but he just looked away. Miyah and T.J. apparently had not sensed Shawn's nervousment, because their gallop looked like it was dancing. Shawn slowed his gallop slightly. The lovebirds didn't seem to notice. For some reason, I felt uneasy, but not about Shawn's suckish navigation skills. I sniffed the air nervously, but I didn't smell anything. I tried listening really hard, but all I heard was our galloping hoofbeats. I searched the horizon, the forest, the few shrubs, and the canyons, but I couldn't see anything. The sky began to darken. Shawn shared my uneasyness. We kept staring at the sky, and the wing picked up. Even the lovebirds dancing gallop stopped and turned into a normal gallop. We slowed to a trot, then a walk. The wind was howling now, and it was a lot stronger than usual. The sky was almost completly dark now. Then, slowly, a little funnel started to form out of the clouds. We saw twigs and leaves fall around us, then get picked up again. Trees fell down. The funnel touched the ground, and we knew we had to get to shelter, and soon. We looked around for a shelterous place, but there was none in sight. The trees were a bad place to stay, all horses knew that. We would have to either outrun this thing, or be swept away by it. Shawn led us away from the tornado, but it kept coming our way. We would go to the right, it would go to the right. We go to the left, it went to the left. You get the point. Shawn tossed his head up and pointed to the canyons. Th perfect shelter, as long as there was a cave there, we would be safe. Shawn led us to the canyon, and of course the twister followed. We found a cave as soon as we galloped into the canyons. The twister lightly bobbed on top of of the canyon, and that was the last we ever saw of it. The sky soon cleared up, and the wind calmed down to a small breeze. We carefully peeked our heads out of the cave. Once we were sure the tornado was gone, we went back to going home. Let me rephrase that. We went back to galloping in circles. Shawn had completely lost the way. He tried to keep his cool and make himself look like he knew what he was doing, but I could see through that.  Again, the lovebirds saw nothing wrong, they were too busy giggling and staring at each other like love struck yearlings. It made me smile to look at them. We ran for about 5 minutes, but then we heard galloping hooves behind us. "Arg! Can't these guys just give us a break?" T.J. yelled. We all lenthened our stride, forcing ourselves to go faster. The horses behind us sped up, their humans bouncing up and down. The two-leggeds lassoed their ropes, spinning them in circles. We ran hard, but the trained horses soon caught up to us. Their masters smiled with pride now that they had four new horses for their own. Miyah suddenly had an idea. She ran into the two horses, sending their riders airborn. We ran until the humans were out of sight. Then the two horses introduced themselves as Alice and Arron. They were twins who had been taken away from their mother when they were 7 months old. Then they were tamed, and that's how they were there now. They asked us if we had a herd. When we told them we were in the Cimarron herd, they were overjoyed. They had been wanting to join that herd since they were little, and knew everything about it, including where the herd was. We were heading home.  

I could see the Cimarron herd ahead of me. All the horses looked up and greeted me along with my five new friends. My father and mother greeted me. I looked around for Night Hawk and Silver Owl, but they were nowhere in sight. Rain explained to me that they had died in a stampede. I couldn't help it; I burst into tears. 

(If you saw this in my image gallery, this is where it came from!)

 When I calmed down, my father sent the herd in a joyous gallop around the land. I felt at home here, but yet after my adventure, I felt like I wanted to flee, as in start my own herd. The herd slowed to a trot, and then to a walk, until all had stopped and began to graze. My father came up to me. "What's wrong? You seem to be gazing towards the humans." He paused. "You didn't make friends with any, did you?" I shook my head. My mother came over. She had one of those silent parent conversations with my father. " Starlight, if you want to make your own herd, you can