Day 8 since leaving my family behind. Eight long, exhausting days. It was just about noon when I found myself stranded in the middle of a large mossy plain...---
The air was dead. Like wading through a hot fog.
Atmospheric conditions appeared to be about 95 degrees and sweaty, with a chance of heat stroke. The tendriline steed squinted into the sun's angry white glare, a drizzle of sweat traveling down the side of his mauve-toned cheek. There was nothing you could do when the weather was this hot, nothing except lay down in the shade and wait for the night's cool embrace.
But he itched all over. At this point, swinging his tail did little but stir up the insects actively feeding upon his unreachable quarters. He wanted to give up, but something inside told him moving forward was better then laying down here, in the direct sunlight. Maybe he just needed to rest a minuet.
12 minuets later he lay, unmoved, sitting in the soak of his own sudor pondering the path of least resistance. "There was that stream I passed a while back," He reminded himself. "But I don't remember how long it took me to get from there to here."
Ahead of him was a stretch of field then a large hill covered in tall yellowy grasses. Deciding it was just too pathetic to turn back the way he came, he rose once more and continued toward the higher ground.
One hoof preceding the other he reached the foot of the hill and began to climb. Once on top he noticed the thin yellowy grasses he saw from the field were moving gently around his legs. There was a breeze blowing. It was the sweetest, freshest breeze he had ever felt. Mouth agape he breathed in the salty air through every pore and opened his eyes to behold the largest body of water he had ever known.
The hot dry field had crumbled into a bed of light sand, beyond which a lapping surf pushed and pulled in its natural rhythm.
Possessed by it's size and beauty, the small stallion stared wide-eyed into it's depths but could not comprehend its mysterious hold over him.
With a leap he bounded off the grassy hill and landed in a crater of smooth hot sand. The breeze whirled through his soppy hair and made everything cool again. A wave of euphoria struck him as he pounded his joints into a gallop. Like a foal unleashed from a young steeds form, he leapt head first into the wall of ocean.
He let out what could only be described as a horse's version of child screaming in laughter as the waves flew into his face, filling every open orifice with stinging salty water. He bucked up his front legs and playfully stomped and thrashed, nickering and shouting all he could between breaths. The mighty muscles of the ocean sucked him farther out with every passing wave, and soon he had drifted out so far he had to gallop above the seabottom to stay above the surf.
Slowly the endorphins pulsing through his veins began to give way to logical thought, when he realized staying afloat would take a lot more strength then expected. Taking a deep breath he watched as another dark soaring wave curled over him, pushing him into it's vortex. A surge of fear passed over him and he swirled and tumbled helplessly beneath the current. Through the chaos he felt his knee touching the sand and pushed with all his strength toward the surface. Lurching over the water barrier he gasped for air, and before he could wipe the thick wet hair from his eyes he heaved his body toward the shallows.
Landing face down in a puddle of wet muck and seaweed, nostrils raw and burning, he cleared his airways of any remaining water and burst into a slow uncontrollable laugh.
"Holy...crap." he wheezed, barely able to breath.
"That was incredibly...stupid." He tried to sit up, but ended up rolling off to one side, still chuckling and blowing bits of water and sand from his nose.
"Oh my God.
I almost died."
---
"huuh...heh....huff." He caught his breath, resting his waterlogged mane onto the cool wet sand. What an amazing and frightening experience the ocean had been. Looking absentmindedly down the beach he caught a glimpse of brownish horse moving in his direction. His flushed skin grew pale. "Oh god they must have seen me floundering out there and thought I was drowning!" He lurched himself upward, still in a slight daze. "Well, I guess I was.. Crap, they're coming closer." Quickly, he turned himself away as if not noticing the stranger. "Oh I'm so ******** mature." He chided, glaring out at the sunlit surf.
It seemed the young steed's fate to discover fellow equine when in only the most compromising of situations.~
