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Katie's Story

Help! Katie needs a title for her story, can you help her? Please send it in with "story title" in the subject line to Katie.

CHAPTER 3


This is where the bad stuff started happening. I met Jake and Ebony at the clearing and we headed out a jog to the paths. Jake led the way to the bridge which was quite a ways away. We talked and had fun. It took us a while to get to the old bridge but we made it before it was dark. Jake went over the bridge first. I remember him muttering something to himself when Ebony refused to go over it the first time. He led her up to it nicely, she's a calm horse, but she refused to touch it. He tried again a couple of times then finally Ebony agreed to cross it. I didn't think much of it. Sometimes horses spook at running water or maybe low hanging branches. No big deal. That's where I was wrong.

Ebony was a quarter horse, yes, but not a built one. She was much lighter than Duke and lighter on her feet too. The boards beneath her hooves moaned. She opened her eyes wide and looked down. The water was moving pretty swiftly. It was a very deep pool of running water, and the bridge was high above, a good twenty feet. Ebony and Jake made it across about halfway. I followed behind him because there was no room to travel abreast. I heard the boards moaning and I told Jake to hurry up. He picked up the pace and we tried to jog across the remainder of the bridge. I heard something snap and break. It was the boards beneath me.

Duke slipped and almost fell. Ebony, hearing the noise, stopped dead in her tracks. I had no where to go, but down. The boards beneath me began to break and snap more and more one at a time. I screamed and tried to urge Duke forward. Jake hurried across the bridge with Ebony and hopped off. Duke was neighing loudly and his eyes were wide. The water below us was tearing up the rocks below us. I looked down , it was so deep. Duke's hind leg was caught and bleeding, I jumped off him and grabbed his bridle hysterically crying. Jake ran across the bridge from the other side and grabbed the reins to. We wanted to pull him up without hurting his leg anymore. Pulling and crying, I begged Duke not to leave me. His front left leg fell through and splintered. He cried out in pain, I screamed.

The water was even louder now that it was controlling everything. Everything was racing through my mind. The rocks below, the water. Why wasn't there a sign to warn us? Please hold on I kept pleading to Duke. But the boards broke beneath him and he fell. I couldn't look so I couldn't give you details even if I wished. Jake just held me. The bridge beneath him had completely given way and we jumped back. We ran to Ebony and tried to keep her from hurting herself. I was crying so hard and so was Jake. We could not believe anything. I kept seeing Duke's beautiful face pleading to me not to let go. His panicked look as he saw the water below him. My life was over. Nothing could get me over this. Nothing.

I pushed Jake away and tried to get down closer to the water. It was steep but I made it. I felt nothing, not the twigs below me, not the thorn bushes that bit my skin and made me bleed. I went downstream where it was calmer. I saw Duke's body there. He was cut up terribly from the rocks and was stuck on the shoreline of bushes. I started to shake and I fell to the ground. My sight was blurry and I was screaming Duke's name. He didn't look up like he always did when he was eating hay and I called him. He didn't try to butt me with his head like a donkey, like he always did. He just laid there, on his side, underneath me. I hugged him and cried. He didn't move.

Those smooth gates of jog and canter ran through my mind. I saw him running through the pasture when I closed my eyes. I saw him in the mud rolling which always made me laugh. I thought I heard someone call my name but I didn't care. My best friend was dead. I'd never get to see him alive and happy again. This was the worst day of my life, yesterday. May 18 will always be a horrible day to remember for me.

Chapter 4

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This great story was written by Katie who was gracious enough to let us post it on our site.
Please do not take this story with Katie's permission first.