Gently tugging on the reins, Sid guided his mare to turn, continuing on down the valley. He watched with careful eyes as he rode, letting the mare choose her path as long as she kept the right direction. She was a keen girl, and always acted on Sid’s Will without hesitation. Before Texas, he wouldn’t have thought loyalty like that could be had from a horse. But he hadn’t thought much of horses at all before. That was different now. Many things were.

While Sid was eyeing the brush line off to the right, the mare halted. She stood quite still, and Sid looked at the back of her head. Her ears perked forward, and she whickered. Sid waited, looking in the same direction she was. After a moment, a horse appeared, up out of a ditch and riderless. Sid’s mare called out again, and the horse quickened it’s pace to meet her. Sid’s chest tightened and his heart beat hard, pushing his pulse faster. He knew, even before he could properly see him, that the horse was a big stallion with tiger striped legs and scarred jaw from a mountain lion. He wore a handmade saddle on his back, with an Aztec blanket underneath.

Gripping the reins till his knuckle whitened, Sid kicked the mare in the belly, just barely, and she began to run.

Sid only slowed her briefly enough to grab Dutton’s hanging reins, snatching them when the stallion tried to approach his companion. He jerked when Sid caught him, but was soon following without complaint. Sid urged them both towards the ditch, attempting and failing to hold back fear, and the horses could sense it. They did as told, but they were anxious and fidgety.

At the edge of the ditch, Sid paused. It was wide, twenty feet or so, and perfectly capable of taking a horse into, but there was a reason Dutton lost his rider in here, and while Sid didn’t know that reason, he wasn’t going to test it. Sliding from the saddle, he walked ten feet back and tied the horses to a small oak. He walked away, though his mare’s high whicker got him to glance back. She was straining the reins, gazing at him with bright eyes that he could see even in the near complete dark. He shook his head and she swished her tail. Dutton stood, silent and still, looking at the shadows in the ditch. Sid turned away from them and stopped, listening.

“Lucy?” His voice seemed loud in the quiet valley, though he was speaking just above conversation level. He waited, holding his breath.

“About time Sid.”

Abruptly, the tension bled from Sid and relief flooded him. His stomach swooped and his felt dizzy. He ignored it and scrambled into the ditch, searching until he found an old fence line, half the wire broke and on the ground. Thankfully, the moon was full and bright, and he could see reasonably well. He called for Lucy again, and when she answered she was startlingly close. Following the fence a couple yards, he found her on her back, the skin of her face and hands standing out in the dark. Her hat lay a few feet away, haphazardly sitting on a small bush, and her boot was hitched up on the fence, the upper and second wire in a twisted knot around her calve and ankles. Caught when she and Dutton ran by it undoubtedly. When he knelt down and touched the mess, he felt tacky wetness. When he pulled them back, his finger tips were black in the moonlight.

“You’re hurt.” It wasn’t a question. Lucy sighed, eyes glittering in the sliver light.

“Some of the blood is from my leg, some my hands.” She extended a hand out, showing more black blood. Sid nodded.

“I’ve got dikes on my saddle, I’ll get them.” But he didn’t stand yet. He shuffled closer on his knees and used the hand not stained with blood to touch her face. She smiled tiredly and he stroked her dirty hair back.

“You’re husband is going to be sick about this when we get back. And I might be too.” He told her. Lucy grimaced.

“I know. Not the only ones either.” She jerked her chin, gesturing behind him. He turned and saw the horses standing at the edge of the ditch. His mare huffed when she saw him looking at her.

“You and I both owe those horses your life.”