Chapter 2: Part 3
...Continued- I started to turn around but I guess Ebb didn’t think I should because he took off. I grabbed onto my saddle horn with both hands, as I couldn’t find the reins and I didn’t want to fall off and let whatever had spooked Ebb get me. I peered under my arm back behind us, there was nothing there! I shook my head and shimmied down Ebb’s neck to grab my reins. “Whoa, boy!” I shouted, hauling back on the reins and pushing my weight against the back of my saddle. He slowed and stopped, nostrils flaring. He had worked up and good lather and looked like I’d covered him in soap. I swung down from my saddle and looked around. Where are we? I looked back, Ebb clearly hadn’t been following any sort of trail. I turned to him, “Do you know where we are?” I asked. He just stared at me. “I take that’s a no, then” I said dryly. I had begun to sweat in my thick coat, I shrugged it off, tied it around my saddle horn, and pushed up the sleeves of my shirt. Ebb had begun to chew his bit nervously and I stroked his neck while contemplating our situation. I could probably get us home by following Ebb’s back trail, but Granny was sure to be upset…we could keep going up and try and meet up with one of the main trails. “Yes, that’s what we’ll do, a nice day on the mountain will do us good” I told Ebb. He just stared at me. I really don’t think he cared either way. He hated being cooped up in the pasture, and I hadn’t been doing a whole lot of riding lately. Come to think of it, I’d been neglecting doing much of anything with him lately. Just about everyone was wanting me to get together with one of the local boys, Elijah Moore. Elijah was nice and all, but I wasn’t that interested in him. I sighed. Probably didn’t matter. His father, Landon Moore, was my dad’s boss. I remounted Ebb and clicked my tongue. He started forward slowly, picking his way among rocks, dodging trees, and staying out of the way of branches. Most of them anyways.
We had been walking along for almost two hours and I still didn’t recognize our surroundings. I’d been up in this mountain range since I could walk. My momma loved the mountains, she took me everywhere, showed me everything. I bit my lip and a tear rolled down my cheek. I brushed it away and started thinking. The end of this range backed up almost in the middle of a suburb. We rarely crossed over to that side, it was wild and dad always said there might be people hiding out in that area. Anyone crazy enough to hide out in those woods would have to be in big trouble, so we just didn’t go over there. If I knew which way the ranch was, we could be there in about an hour. That was the problem, I didn’t know which way was what. “Where to now boy?” I asked, staring upward through the trees. “Oh, why didn’t I wear my watch today?” I never did seem to have the stupid thing when I needed it. My best guess was we had been out here between two and three hours, but sometimes hours can be minutes and minutes hours. I clicked my tongue and we started again. I thought I could feel a slight incline here, but I couldn’t be sure. I began to get worried. When had we left the house? I stared up, the canopy of leaves and crisscrossed branches made it almost impossible to see the sun. I’ve lived on this ranch my entire life, how on earth could I possibly be lost? I wondered. We were definitely too far to turn back now. I’d have to trust Ebb to get us somewhere.
I rubbed my eyes and yawned. I could feel late afternoon coming on. I had quit even trying to figure out how long we’d been going by now. Ebb slid from his borderline trot into a stop. I nearly fell over his neck. You need to pay better attention, I told myself, some horse woman you are. I clicked my tongue loudly, he didn’t go forward. I frowned. “c’mon buddy, work with me!” I tapped his sides gently with my heels. He still didn’t move. I slapped his rump and gave him a rougher kick. He didn’t budge. I sighed and dismounted. “Ebbs, what is wrong with-“ I shut up. Right there in front of Ebb, there was a guy in the path.