{the.return}

[>>BLACKiE! ]}]

- Rayne’s View -
I’ve always been afraid of horses.
Terrified, to be exact.
They were all just so… big and scary…
I used to love horses dearly. They had been almost as important to me as my family.
One thing you must know about me is that I once lived on a farm. It had been the most delightful little farm, packed with animals and humans, and many more things. There is one specific thing that happened at the farm where I used to live, one thing that is vital to this story.
It had happened on the eve of my tenth birthday. My sister, she who was not good at keeping secrets, had blurted out to me that I was to get a horse of my own for my birthday. She had managed to hold her tongue and not tell me the name of the horse, which had left me wondering. Curiosity had gotten the best of me, and I had hastened to the pastures, wondering which horse my parents had chosen to given me. As I dashed into a pasture, a nicker or two greeted me, uttered from the vocal chords of a couple horses. I had run directly in the direction of one of the most handsome horses in the pasture. The horse’s coat was a sleek and shiny white coat with splotches of brown – the color known as pinto. When I darted up to him, I didn’t know that he was a horse that were easily frightened. He reared up, eyes rolling back so that the whites showed. In surprise, I tried to run away, but I tripped. In his fury and anger, he brought his hooves crashing back down to earth… onto my head.
That was when I blacked out.

After that incident, life moved at a rapid pace. My parents took me immediately to the hospital. Afterward, they had decided that it wasn’t safe enough to live on the farm. They made the decision to sell the farm and to move to the city where I could make new friends. At the time, I hadn’t really known what was happening. My best friend, Addie had known, though. She had desperately stayed the last few months we had had together with me. I don’t really remember much from back then, except for a few short flashes of Anna with her brown hair framing her face and her hazelnut colored eyes full to the brim with tears. After the accident, it was like living in a dream. Nothing seemed all too real to me, except the growing hatred in me of horses.

- Addie’s View -
The image of my friend slumped in the dirt while a horse paced around nervously, grunting.
The image of my friend’s parents pacing as the horse did while waiting for their daughter to be okay.
Such pictures filled my mind everyday. There hadn’t been one single day in which I had been free from the burden of those pictures. They were like a heavy weight that had been set onto my shoulders, never to be released.
The sharpest image that remained in my mind, however, even if I had managed to forget all the other ones, had been the scene of my friend moving away. I remember that my vision that day had been completely blurred by all the tears that had formed.

A yawn pushed its way through my lips as I stared down at pictures in my scrapbook. I was gazing at one in particular – one that contained the image of my friend and me. There was me, pale and young with my friend standing next to me, her black hair cascading past her shoulders and down her back in faint ringlets while her green eyes twinkled with laughter. I gave a sigh and shut the scrapbook, putting it back in its place underneath my pillow. Slowly, I pulled my riding boots on and walked out of my room and left the house, Rayne still on my mind. When was the last time I had been in contact with her? When had I last called her? The true answer to this was about four years ago.
I was a couple of months older than Rayne. The accident had happened a little more than four years ago, making both of us thirteen. Teenagers.
It was all so strange. When I had been younger, I used to plan what I would do on the date I entered the teenage years. I had always pictured it as Rayne and I riding together on a trail, galloping as well as jumping over logs that got into our way. Instead of that wonderful fantasy, though, I had been stuck inside doing homework on my thirteenth birthday.

Turning my thoughts back to reality, I found myself wandering aimlessly about the barn. I ended up in front of the horse that Rayne had been supposed to receive on her birthday. When Rayne’s family had left, they put the horse in my care. Normally, I couldn’t bear to see the sight of the horse, for the memories it brought to me were too painful, but today, my feet just led me there. I lead the horse out and saddled him quickly, then mounted. Gently, I nudged my heels into his sides to tell him to begin walking. He instantly responded and then slid into an easy trot when I nudged him again. After I left the barn, I turned the horse towards a jumping course. I had been told to test Rayne’s horse over jumps before, but I had never done it. Summoning up my courage, I leaned down to get into my jumping crouch and kicked softly. With each kick, the horse lengthened his strides until we were in a smooth gallop. As we neared the jump, I closed my eyes, half prepared to fall off. I wasn’t a bad rider, but I was nervous to be riding the horse that Rayne had been supposed to receive. Suddenly, the horse sprang up and the familiar sensation of jumping rushed over me. He cleared the jump with a few inches to spare. I smiled and gave a relieved smile.
Now for the next jump.

- Rayne’s View -
I was lying on my bed as someone knocked on the door lightly. “Come in,” I said, wondering who it was. The door opened, and I saw my mom. She gave me a smile, which was almost normal, but I detected a hint of anxiousness and exhaustion in her expression. “What’s wrong?” I asked, sitting up. She walked into the room, now understanding that she couldn’t shield her emotions from me anymore. Sitting down on my bed next to me, she heaved a sigh and looked at me. “Rayne, promise that you’ll hear me out no matter what. Even if you want to protest,” she said, looking at me intently. Not knowing what was going on, I gave a nod as my permission. She gave another sigh before she spoke. “Rayne, I know that you’ve made friends here in the city and that you like it here.” She began slowly. After a long pause that was filled only with silence and the quiet ticking of my clock, she blurted the rest out as if she couldn’t contain it any longer. “We’re moving back to the countryside, back to the place we used to live.” With that, she got up and hurried out of the room, pausing only for a moment to say, “I’ll be here if you want to talk to me, honey.”
Instantly, as my mind processed those words, my thoughts were thrown into turmoil. What was happening? Was it true? Was I actually moving back to the country? How could it be? What was I going to do?
I didn’t have any tears, just confusion. Perhaps confusion was what was keeping me from sobbing. I didn’t know. This was all so sudden. Suddenly, I thought about the huge group of friends I had made in the city. Now tears began pricking my eyelids, and even one or two slid down my cheek. Soon, they were coming in a torrent. Trying to muffle my sobs, I stuffed my face into my pillow. Once I had quieted down, I sat up, my eyes red from crying. I looked at the doorway, almost wanting to run downstairs and try to convince my parents to stay in the city, but I stopped short when I recognized my mother standing in the doorway again. “Mom?” I asked in a soft voice. The instant I uttered the word, she walked into the room and faced me. “Rayne, I know this is hard for you. It’s hard for me, too,” she said. At that moment, I understood the drained and nervous expression on her face. How could I be so self-centered? But, did my parents truly know how much this move was going to hurt me? “But… what about Riley and Sara and…” I trailed off, knowing that my mom understood what I was trying to say. She looked at me for a moment and gave a sigh before she responded. “Yes, I know that you’ll miss all your friends, but are you forgetting about Addie?” she asked, looking at me. The minute I heard Addie’s name, I gave a puzzled look at my mom. I didn’t know anybody named Addie.
And then it hit me.
My mom was talking about Addie, as in my best friend since both she and I could even crawl! She had been my best friend up until I had moved away. How could I ever have forgotten her? What was wrong with me? Even though I hadn’t been able to get contact with her since so long ago, how could I ever have let the memory of Addie slip from my mind? Then my mom’s voice cut into my thoughts. “Are you okay now?” she asked. I nodded in reply and she walked out of the room, shutting the door quietly behind her. After she had closed the door, there remained just one thought in my head.
How could I have ever forgotten Addie?

- Addie’s View -
I returned back to my house with my cheeks red and flustered. As I stepped inside the house, I was greeted by the noise of cheerful chatter between my parents. I caught the words ‘coming’ and ‘soon,’ but I didn’t quite hear anything else because they stopped talking almost the same moment I had walked through. I didn’t know if it was on purpose or not, but I didn’t press questions. Scents of dinner wafted up to me as I spotted the multiple dishes that had been placed on the table. Flashing a grateful smile at my mom, I slid into a seat. Immediately, I began tucking in to the food. As I swallowed after a particularly large bite, I looked up and saw my parents looking at me, both smiling. Trying to ignore them looking at me, I started eating again, but soon their staring at me started to get unnerving. “What?” I asked, trying to keep the irritation out of my voice. They continued smiling for a few more moments and then my mom opened her mouth to speak. “Addie, do you remember Rayne?” she asked. The mention of Rayne’s name instantly brought back the sadness I had been able to forget when I had been riding her horse. How could I not remember Rayne? “Of course I do!” I exclaimed in reply. After a few moments of bemused thinking, I added, “What about her?” At the sound of my question, the smile on the faces of my parents widened. Still mystified at their extremely good mood, it was my turn to stare back at them. I didn’t have long to wait this time, though before my dad spoke up to answer my question. “Well, that’s good that you remember her. You’ll need to,” he said. With that, both he and my mom stood up walking away and beginning to talk excitedly.
What was happening?

- Rayne’s View -
I watched as the moving truck drove off. The last two months had been filled with busy packing and ordering things as well as having last minute ice cream sundaes with friends and seeing movies together. Oddly, I didn’t spill as many tears as I thought I would. Perhaps the anticipation of seeing Addie again kept me going at packing.
“Come on, Rayne, we have a long drive to go!” my mom called from the car. Interrupted from my thoughts, I was slightly dazed, but I gathered up a few more belongings of mine and rushed into the car. Images of the previous night flashed through my mind. I had spent the night with my friends, all of us sharing a last party together. I took the sheet of paper where I had written their names and all their contact information – something I hadn’t done with Addie. I regretted that, for I had lost insight on four of her years, but now I realized that I had another chance to catch up. Last night, I had stayed up, trying to sort out my feelings between sadness and excitement. I closed my eyes, satisfied with the fact that when I woke up from my doze, I would be back in the countryside.

After a while, I woke up. I glanced out the window and found that we had left the waste-clogged city. The clean, fresh country scenery lay in front of me like a painting. I rolled down my window and inhaled deeply but almost choked. From living in the city for so long, I had grown accustomed to the smog-filled air. The pure air here in the country was a big change to me, even though I had actually been born into it. The car moved along quickly. For a moment, I saw a few horses ambling about lazily in a meadow, and I felt a familiar twinge of uneasiness.

- Addie’s View -
For the past two months, I had taken Rayne’s horse out in regular intervals for a training session. Life had been pretty normal, except that my parents always regarded me now with bright smiles and kept on questioning me about my memories of Rayne. I always answered truthfully, but I always wondered why they were suddenly bombarding me with questions about Rayne when they knew I missed her terribly.

After one of their question sessions, I was leading Rayne’s horse out of the barn. I mounted and turned the horse in the direction of a different jump course than I had been doing. The jumps on this one were set to at least four feet high. Normally, my nervousness would’ve kept me from trying to complete this course, but I trusted Rayne’s horse. After the first three jumps, I noticed a car pulling in at the house Rayne used to live in. Nobody had bought the house because most who looked at it came from the city and couldn’t stand the smell of horses. Suddenly, my eyes briefly flickered in the direction of the ‘For Sale’ sign that had been posted for years. I hadn’t looked at it since Rayne moved away, but now I noticed that it was gone. Could that mean that I was to have new neighbors? The car stopped and a girl darted out of the back seat. She looked around my age. Then I noticed something peculiar. She had the same exact hairstyle and hair color as Rayne did. A sensation of excitement bubbled within me, but it soon died down. A lot of people had raven-colored hair, and a lot of people had hair that was slightly curled, and probably even more had both. Wait. How many people had green eyes the same shade Rayne had, plus the hair? How many people looked exactly like Rayne, dressed like her, and even… sounded like her? The girl that had came out of the car was running towards me, waving her arms and shouting, “Addie, Addie!”

- Rayne’s View -
“Addie, Addie!” I cried, flailing my arms wildly, running towards her. I slowed down my pace though because she was riding on a horse. Keeping my distance from the fence that enclosed Addie on the horse, I looked expectantly at her. She looked at me for a long while, gaping at me. “R-R-Rayne, is it really you?” she stammered. I nodded, a grin spreading across my face. She let out a little shriek of delight and dismounted the horse. Leading the horse up to the fence, she asked me, “Do you know who this is?” Out of fear, I took a few steps back as she brought the horse close to me. A look of confusion passed through her face, but the bright look on her face hadn’t been dulled by it too much. “No…” I began, and then trailed off. It appeared as if she were delighted that she would be the one to give me the information. “He’s the horse that your parents wanted to give you for your tenth birthday!” she exclaimed cheerfully. At the mention of my tenth birthday, a nervous sensation rippled throughout my body. Addie, realizing that I was uncomfortable at the mention of my tenth birthday, added quickly, “His name is Skyfire.” I had to admit that the name was pretty, but terror took the best of me. My knees buckled underneath me, and I almost fell to the ground. “I… I have to go!” I stammered out, running back towards the house to help unpack. The whole time I was lifting and pushing boxes here and there, a single thought burned in my mind,
“How was I going to explain what was wrong with me to Addie?”

- Addie’s View -
Oh, I was so thrilled to see Rayne again!
Life would be back to how it should’ve been these past four years.
Only, there was one worry in the back of my mind.
Why was Rayne acting so strange? For years, I’ve dreamed of her expression when she saw Skyfire. I always thought that her mouth would be wide open and she would give a huge squeal and fling her arms around the horse’s neck. Today, I had discovered that my little daydream of how she would react was wrong.

After she had left me standing there with Skyfire, I had led Skyfire back into the barn. After taking the saddle and bridle off the horse and feeding him, I walked back into my house, Rayne on my mind. That wasn’t going to be the last time I was going to worry about the way she behaved.

After a week, Rayne’s strange behavior had increased. Whenever I asked her to help me with a chore or two that involved horses, she always had an excuse ready. One day, I had been mucking in the pasture. She had come into the pasture, and I had regarded that she had yet another thick coating of light pink nail polish placed on her nails. I had noticed that she also had nail polish the first day she had come, but I thought that she would eventually stop. Rayne had asked me if she could help with the work I was doing, and I eagerly accepted her offer. After a few minutes of toiling underneath the hot sun, she began complaining that she was hot and tired. Pausing for a moment to look at her, I had realized that she was wearing an outfit that I had never seen her wear before. It had consisted of a pink tank top and a pink skirt. I had wrinkled my nose in disgust at the skirt and the whole entire pink of the clothing.
Day after day, I noticed the same pattern of her clothing as well as her attitude. Exactly what had happened to Rayne?

- Rayne’s View -
Why did Addie look at me everyday, as if I was an alien? I was the exact same me, wasn’t I? And what if I didn’t want to do the chores she asked me to do? Was I really such a horrible person if I didn’t do them? Then again though, it wasn’t entirely her fault she thought I was a little weird. She just didn’t know how much the accident had scarred me – not just physically, but mentally as well.

Then one day I was eating breakfast, and my mom asked, “Have you ridden yet?” I shook my head. Hopefully it was just a question and not meant for anything else. “How about you going and riding with Addie today on one of those trails in the woods?” she asked, smiling brightly. I tried to think of an excuse but found that this time I truly didn’t have one. Swallowing nervously, I nodded. “I’ll walk you over there now!” my mom said cheerfully, standing up and walking out the door, beckoning me to follow. I stood up, suddenly feeling weak. It was all I could do to put one foot in front of the other. After a while, my mom and I had reached the barn that was shared between Addie’s family’s property and my family’s property. Walking inside, I inhaled the scents inside the barn and almost gagged. Why did it smell so bad? I struggled to breathe as I spotted Addie. She, herself, looked right at home in the barn holding two horses by the reins. I instantly recognized Skyfire from the day before, but the other horse was unfamiliar to me. “You’ll be riding Skyfire,” she said, “Since your parents have now taken them back into their care and have given him to you.” Astonishment flooded through me. I opened my mouth to speak but was cut off by Addie in her excitement. “And I’ll be riding Stardust here,” she said, gesturing towards the other horse. She offered Skyfire’s reins to me. I accepted them, but the moment my hands touched them, images flashed through my mind of the day of the accident. I looked at Addie, wanting to tell her what was wrong with me, but when I saw the carefree and pleasant look on her face, I decided not to ruin her mood. We both mounted, although I had to make more than one attempt before I made it up. My hands were shaking as I grasped the reins tightly and nudged my heels into Skyfire’s side. Addie did the same thing with Stardust, although she was much more relaxed then I was. Walking our horses out of the barn, we turned them onto a trail. The trail was just wide enough for Addie and me to ride side by side. I was thankful for that, since I knew she was close by. As we proceeded into the trail, a silence rested upon the woods, only broken by the faint rustling of small creatures darting about or the sound of a birdcall. Although everything seemed calm and serene, I was not. Addie was apparently immune to how I felt because she turned to me with a grin on her face and asked, “Want to speed up?” Without waiting for a reply, she kicked Stardust repeatedly until the horse responded by breaking out into a trot for a few steps and then easing into a smooth canter. Not wanting to be left behind, I followed Addie’s example. When I got Skyfire to trot, I yelped out loud as I bounced up and down with the bumpiness of the gait. I attempted to keep on kicking, and after what seemed like a decade, Skyfire finally went into a canter. Although this speed was easier to manage than the trot, it was faster. I bit my lip to silence a scream as the scenery flew past. Although I was absolutely terrified of riding again, I couldn’t help but acknowledge the slight gladness growing inside of me of being on horseback again. Gradually, I got used to the even beat of Skyfire’s canter and even began to enjoy myself a bit. The fear still lingered, but it was almost all gone.

- Addie’s View -
“Let’s gallop!” Rayne cried to me after we had turned our horses around and had let them walk for a bit to cool down. With an excited nod, I continuously kicked Stardust until we practically flew across the hard-packed earth. Hearing hooves other than Stardust’s beating the earth, confirmed that Rayne had also gotten Skyfire to gallop. Together we raced past our surroundings, our hair streaming out behind us. Finally, we arrived back at the barn, our faces red from the wind that had whipped us mercilessly when we had galloped. When we dismounted, I was about to reach out to take Skyfire’s reins so I could lead him into his stall but found that Rayne was clutching onto them tightly. With a smile, I realized that she herself wanted to put Skyfire in his stall. Once we had put their saddles and bridles back into the tack room, Rayne and I groomed and fed the horses before giving them one last pat for the day. We separated and went to our own houses, but I paused midway and watched as Rayne walked into her house. As I watched with a smile on my face, I realized one thing.
Rayne was back.