I raced into the village leaving Herbalist Hardandra trailing behind. I looked around frantically at the ongoing chaos. Where are my parents, I panicked, I can't see anyone! I spun around but all I saw were horses, panicking, kicking, rearing, their thunderous hooves smashing down inches from the Hunters holding onto them. To make matters worse it began to pour down rain making it even harder to see. I put a hand over my eyes in the hopes that I would be able to see clearer. No luck, there was too much going on.
"Mother! Father!" I shouted walking further into the fray. The village was filled to the brim with horses. The wild beasts thrashed around pawing at anything they could see. Where are they? Even as I thought it, I knew the answer, they were the Leaders, they would be in the center of it all. Not only that but if the Hunt went well they would be in the center of the chaos with Ocean. I slipped out around the wild horses and leaned against a building where I would be out of the way. I squeezed my eyes shut, searching out the familiar moonlight of my Sprititus Vinculum. Everything was blotted with the light from the villagers and untamed beasts. The golden lights each stained with a black core of fear, slowly devouring the golden surrounding. Then I caught a glimpse of silver, just as I thought, in the very center of the chaos was Ocean. Not only was his light the only silver one, but unlike everyone else, Ocean wasn't afraid. His light was stained red with anger, a wave of anger so strong and passionate you would think he was a fire descendent not a descendent of water.
I opened my eyes and took a deep breath. I have to get to them, I thought, I'm the only one who can stop them from tearing each other apart. I watched the horses around me dragging the villagers that held them around as they tried to escape. Without a second thought, I took off, running directly into the mess around me. I ran underneath the hooves of rearing horses and dodged around the humans holding tight to the ropes of a wild horse. It felt like forever to reach the center but in reality, I know it took only seconds.
And there they were. My mother shouting something to my father as father held tightly to a rope around Ocean's neck. In a flash, Ocean reared up and my father was yanked off his feet, the rope dragging him directly under Ocean's striking hooves! My Mother rushed forward to help him.
"DON'T!" Father yelled, causing her to freeze in her tracks. Ocean's hooves started coming down towards my father.
"OCEAN!!" I screamed and as if by some miracle he heard me and turned to the side at the last second, his hooves striking the ground centimeters from father's head. The ears pricked forward as he turned his head in my direction. He froze, and without even closing my eyes I knew that his moonlight would no longer be red. In fact, Ocean relaxed completely as if forgetting what was going on around us. In an instant, Hunter Kyle raced forwards and grabbed the magical blue reigns on Oceans neck. Flipping them over Ocean's neck and holding them like a lead rope.
It was as if a switch had been flipped, Ocean's deep blue glowing eyes stopped glowing, and his eyes transformed from deep blue to a blue so light it was almost white. Then the horses around us also stopped as if they felt their leader had been captured. Hunter Kyle shouted in joy, and all-around other Hunters joined in with their own victory cries, but I couldn't move. This didn't feel right. The Herd shouldn't be captured and kept in our village, they were meant to run free. I felt sick, still stuck staring into the bland eyes of my Spiritus Vinculum. I couldn't breathe, what happened to Ocean? Why did he seem so... Empty now? I took a hesitant step forward and as if in a trance I slowly reached my hand out as if to reach Ocean from all the way over here.
Suddenly I was yanked backward and away, slipping out of the trance as if it had never happened. I spun around to see a very worried looking Hardandra. "Are you okay?" she asked in which I just blinked at her, "You do remember they aren't going to kill him right? The Herd is going to be split apart so that each horse has its own stall and can be trained properly and separately."
"There is no Herd anymore," I said quietly, slowly looking up to meet Hardandra's gaze.
"What do you mean? The Herd is still here they are all just... Well... Here. Rather than running around, they are actually caught and in the village."
"Exactly, they are village horses now. They aren't wild and free anymore, we took that away from them, I mean look at them!"
"I see them, they are tired, scared, and really don't want to be here, but that doesn't mean they can't be trained!"
"They don't become well trained or very tame, Hardandra, look in their eyes. I mean deep, deep in their eyes, they become more and more broken. We break them and this is the first time I'm realizing it! These horses, they deserve to be wild and free not stuck here, forced to follow our every order!" As if hearing my words a paint mare began fighting again, thrashing around, and kicking vigorously at the air. In a second four Hunters had joined the two in holding her trying to calm her down, but it only made her fight harder.
She jolted to the side throwing a Hunter off of a rope and into the side of a house. The other Hunters began shouting to each other, trying to find a better way to hold the wild beast. Nothing was working, she continued to fight as if her life depended on it; however, I knew it wasn't her LIFE that depended on it, it was her freedom. She knew it too. She reared up high, her hooves striking the air with a strange viciousness and she fought for her future. She let out a shrill war cry as her hooves plummeted back toward earth.
Just as her hooves made contact with the ground a sickening BOOM echoed through the village and the paint mare collapsed to the ground. Someone had shot her. I stared at her body as it lay still in a growing puddle of red. I couldn't move, not even to look away. She fought for freedom and was killed, in a strange way she got what she wanted. Freedom. She wouldn't be broken or kept in a stall, nor would she run free in the woods or by the beach, but she would be free to make her own choices in the afterlife.
"Katie! Katie, we have to go!" Herbalist Hardandra shouted. I turned to face her once again.
"Why? Why do we have to run away? What if they need our help," I swallowed the bile in my throat, "putting the horses into stalls?"
"The Water Whisperer just arrived and as nice as everyone says she is, this is not the way you're going to want to meet her. Especially since your bonded to Ocean."
"Okay, where do we ne-" I froze again as Hardandra suddenly dropped to her knees holding her head. "Hardandra? What's wrong? What just happened?" She looked back up at me, tears pooling from her eyes. I have never seen her cry before no matter how hard things were, even if she wasn't smiling she NEVER cried.
"We," her voice shook and broke as she began to sob, "we n-n-need t-to go-"
"What's going on?!" I asked again, panic held tight on to me squeezing tighter and tighter around me the longer it took her to answer.
"Smo..." She said quietly, and that was all she needed to say. I crouched down pulling her arm around my neck and over my shoulder to help pull her back onto her feet. As soon as she was she wasted no time, just instantly took off running towards her house where we had left Mister Smokes an hour ago.