"Is that you, Lana?"
"I'm here, Aunt Nell."
Six-year-old Lana peeked out from the stables.
She wore a low-brimmed hat, and her tanned skin couldn't hide her natural beauty.
"I'm feeding Tyson. He's been in a bad mood lately."
Tyson was a young colt at the ranch, and Lana loved riding him around the fields, even though Aunt Nell always reminded her that she was too young to be riding horses at her age.
"You can give him some soybeans, but I already fed him this morning."
A young woman stepped out of the house. "I've been up since 6:15 cleaning manure, changing water, and feeding the horses. It's not easy work."
"That's why I can help you, Auntie," Lana said obediently.
"No, you're still just a child. What you should be doing is enjoying a carefree life," Nell said as she walked over and patted Tyson's back in the stable.
"Like reading books or playing at the playground."
"I don't like those things. I like riding horses," Lana replied.
Aunt Nell smiled at her niece. "Riding isn't easy. Horses can be stubborn, rude, and easily frightened. You'll spend a lot of time trying to deal with a horse that doesn't understand your anxious feelings. Sometimes, they even throw you off."
Lana bit her lip. "Tyson's not like that."
"All animals are similar in their nature," Nell said, not pressing the matter further. She instead asked Lana, "Your cold just got better. You should rest in your room."
Lana wanted to sneak out for a ride on Tyson, but seeing her aunt's serious expression, she swallowed her words.
At noon.
After Aunt Nell went for her afternoon nap, Lana quietly sneaked into the stable and untied Tyson's reins.
Feeling satisfied, she rode Tyson in circles around the ranch, imagining herself as a cowboy from the pictures she had seen, wearing a shirt, jeans, boots, and a cowboy hat.
Before long, the "lady knight" wasn't content with just circling the ranch.
She rode Tyson out onto the town's road. Despite being only six years old, she had an impressive riding posture.
After making a few rounds near the area, she decided to head back.
Unexpectedly, Tyson's leg got caught in a piece of wire on the road.
Startled by the wire, Tyson let out a loud neigh and bolted forward in fear.
Lana, now terrified, bent low and clutched the reins tightly.
"Bang!"
Tyson galloped into the fields, nearly throwing Lana off.
Her mind went blank, and she forgot everything her aunt had taught her about what to do when a horse gets spooked.
Meanwhile.
Clark and John stood frozen as they watched the panicked horse, and Lana clinging desperately to the reins, moments away from being thrown off.
John looked at the broken kite string in his hand, then at the wire tangled around Tyson's hoof, and immediately realized he was the cause of the trouble.
It was his kite string, falling from the sky, that had scared the horse.
He'd ridden horses with his dad before and knew when a horse was frightened.
Swallowing nervously, he shouted to Lana, "Hold on tight! Don't let go of the reins!"
Clark, on the other hand, was standing there, completely stunned.
The spooked horse rushed into a forest, with Lana holding on tightly but still being scratched painfully by the branches.
The jolts and weightlessness made her feel like she'd be thrown off at any moment. Tears streamed down her face, overwhelmed by fear.
Just when she thought she was going to fall, a figure suddenly appeared in the forest.
"Thud!"
Just as Lana let go of the reins, a stranger leaped onto Tyson, grabbed the reins, and pulled her into his arms.
The man who had jumped onto Tyson was Peter. He gently tugged the reins to one side and extended his other hand to grasp the horse's mane.
Feeling the pull, Tyson's head bent sideways, and gradually, the horse calmed down, eventually coming to a halt.
After gaining control of the spooked horse, Peter rode Tyson out of the woods.
Living on the farm these past few years, he had ridden plenty of horses. Being a cowboy, these maneuvers were second nature to him.
"Lana? Are you okay?" he asked the little girl in his arms, who was curled up in fear.
He knew this was Aunt Nell's niece.
The last time he saw her was about six months ago, and he was surprised at how much she had grown.
Lana looked up, her eyes full of tears.
"Uncle Podr?" she wiped her face and stared at him in astonishment.
She was shocked that Peter had seemingly flown over like a bird and jumped onto Tyson to calm him down.
"Uncle Patrick, are... are you a bird?" Lana stammered, forgetting her fear for a moment.
"I'm not a bird; I'm a knight who can fly," Peter said, patting her head.
Raising a girl sure felt different from raising boys.
He even wished now that the spaceship that had fallen from the sky back then had carried a baby girl instead of a boy.
Raising a girl would probably have been less of a headache.
Although girls could cause trouble, they certainly wouldn't get into as much mischief as Clark and John did every day.
He glanced at the kite string wrapped around the horse's hoof.
Lana, hearing that Peter was a "flying knight," immediately thought of the handsome knights from the picture books she'd read.
The image of the knight was gradually replaced by Peter's face.
Her little face suddenly flushed red.
Peter, still holding Lana, rode Tyson out of the forest.
John spotted Peter coming out and quickly ran over, holding his kite.
"Dad, you were so cool just now!" he exclaimed, having witnessed Peter's heroic act in controlling the spooked horse. He thought his father was amazing.
"Really? And who caused the horse to get spooked in the first place?" Peter shot a glance at him.
John immediately shrank back. "Sorry, Dad. I didn't mean to."
"It's my fault," Clark spoke up, admitting his mistake. "It was my kite that got tangled."
He glanced at Lana in Peter's arms, his face instantly turning red. He mumbled shyly, "It wasn't John's fault."
"Huh?"
Peter looked at Clark in surprise. Why was his face so red?
He glanced down at little Lana, noticing Clark stealing glances at her now and then.
Sigh
He took a deep breath. Could it be that Clark was already feeling the first stirrings of a crush?
You're only six, and you already like girls?
I thought John was the mischievous one, considering everything he'd done in his past life. He'd always been a troublemaker.
But it turns out Clark, who seemed honest and gentle, was the one developing a crush!