Just Another Adventure - Sara Hopkins (positive books to read TXT) 📗

The soft nicker from my horse brought a smile to my face as he took a big bite out of his bucket of oats. I stroked his neck letting my hand glide threw his fur, while taking in his sweet aroma.
"You ready yet?" my mother yelled impatiently.
"Ya, almost." I replied even though I was know where close to being ready.
I quickly threw the saddle on and cinched it down tight. Interrupting his breakfast, I slid the bit in his mouth.
We set off down the road with our two dogs following close behind. The scenery was gorgeous as it passed us.
The clippidy- clop of our horses hooves echoed in the woods almost creating a rhythm to my squeaky saddle.
We had not a clue were we were going but that was the fun of it. There was an adventure every time we left the house.
The path we took came to a dead end, so we decided to make our own trail threw the woods. We weaved in and out of many trees. The brush started getting thicker and thicker as we pressed on. We finally made it to a clearing. It was beautiful. There were many giant oak trees scattered threw out the field. There leaves are golden yellow and blood red. It was getting closer to winter.
As we moved farther on we came to a stop when a river blocked our paths. It seemed to be moving pretty fast but we where going to cross anyhow. The first step mom's horse took sank to her knees. We know its going to be pretty deep.
The water was freezing as it hit my legs. The water was half way up our horses now and we were only half way across.
All of a sudden I heard the dogs yelping. They had jumped in after us but the current was too strong for them. I knew I had to act fast.
I quickly tied the lariat around my waist and tied the other end to the saddle horn.
"Mom. Take the reins!"
She knew instantly what I was going to do but before she could stop me I jumped in. Tears started to fill my eyes from the bite of the cold as I gulped for air. I swam with all I could. The dogs were in reaching distance when I felt pressure against my waist. The lariat stretched as far as it could but it wasn't long enough.
"Mom, untie the rope." I screamed hoping she would hear me but she didn't. Instead she started pulling me in. The dogs were farther down the stream. They struggled hoping to get away from the currents grasp. There was no hope of me reaching them now.
Mom was on the other side of the river now, puling me in against the current. When I reached the bank I was shaking uncontrollably. Mom tied the horses up and wrapped me in a blanket.
"Come on we got to set up camp and get a fire going before you catch a cold."
I was almost dried by the time night came. Mom had a roaring fire going. It felt good to sit next to it.
"Mom, What are we going to do about the dogs?" I asked.
"Well, hopefully they made it to one of the sides of the river and got out okay." She said doughtfully.
"I hope there okay." I sighed.
The morning came fast. The sun peeked up over the horizon, creating the sky to light up with different warm colors of the rainbow. Mom was cooking some breakfast over the fire. I went to the stream to fill up the water bottles for the day, when I heard a strange noise. It seemed as it was coming closer and closer to me. When all of a sudden I knew what it was. It was a Black Bear. I let out a short scream when I saw him but that was a big mistake. It came right at me. I decided it wouldn't be a good idea to lead him to the campsite so I ran downstream. It followed close behind. I could smell its horrid stench. It must of been rolling in something pretty old and rotten.
Tree branches reached out and grabbed at me, trying to hold me back. It was like nature was turning on me. Then I tripped. I tried to get up but I must of sprained my ankle or something. The bear was almost right in front of me. It stood up on its hind legs, showing off how powerful he was. He circled me once as if he was playing with his food. His paws were bigger than my hand, when he lashed out with it. His claw tearing at my pant leg. He barely nicked me, but it wasn't over yet. I scrambled around on the ground, trying to find something to get away from him but nothing was close enough. He striked out again, tearing at me knee. Blood was gushing out everywhere but it wasn't to deep. When he tried getting me for a third time he wasn't going to play anymore. He bared his teeth and snapped out at me but before he clamped down his jaw on my arm two black figures emerged from the shadows and blindsided the bear. The biggest figure was on the bear's back. His teeth sank into his fur creating agonizing pain. The second figure, the smaller one was on the ground biting at his feet. The bear had lost his balance and tripped over himself. I then realized what the two figures were. They were Weasel and Mouse. Our two hunting dogs. They where alive but not for long. Pepper was crushed beneath the bear.
"No!" I shouted.
The bear got up and ran straight for us. I grabbed Mouse collar so he wouldn't be killed defending for me.
That’s when a gun went off. It was shot from behind me. The bear tried to move forward but instead he staggered left and right like a drunk person. He collapsed, not even a foot away, shaking the ground beneath me.
I turned around to see who shot him. It was a Game Warden. He was holing a tranquilizer gun.
"You alright miss?" He asked.
"Ya. Good timing." I manage a smile. "But wait. What about my dog. I think he's hurt."
Mom appeared out of the bushes with a terrifying expression on her face.
" What happened!" She screamed.
She scanned what seemed to be a crime seen and came running over to me.
"Mom I’m find but Weasel isn't." I told her before she got all panicky.
She helped me hop over to were hw was lying. Weasel wined.
"It looks like he's broken something but we wont know for sure till we get him to a vet." The Game Warden said.
We packed everything up from the campsite and the Game Warden showed us to the nearest road. I called dad on the phone and told him where to pick us up at. When he arrived he took one look at me and the dog and started flipping out, but I guess that was expected.
Weasel ended up okay. After a couple of months of healing he was out hunting again. As for the bear, he was transferred somewhere where he wouldn't bother people anymore when they where camping. It terns out the Game Warden has been looking for him for months. I guess the dogs and I got lucky that the Game Warden showed up when he did. Now that this week is over I can't wait for wait next week brings.

Publication Date: 12-28-2009

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Dedication:
I dedicate this book to my mom for all the wonderful times we spent horseback riding together.