Chapter One

    Juan was so excited that he could hardly speak. His mom was finally taking him to the auctions. He had been saving up his money since he was three to buy a horse, and now he could. 13 years’ worth of allowances had given him enough to buy even a retired show Lipizzaner.
    “Juan, come along.” His mother called in Spanish.
    “Coming!” he replied excitedly.
    “Juan, you know better than to bounce off walls like a little boy with too much sugar in his system.” His mother snapped
    Juan settled down and knodded. “Yes, Mother. I’m sorry.” He said. His mother smiled and knodded.
    The ride to the auction seemed to take forever in Juan’s mind. When they arrived, he leapt from the car and ran to look at the horses. There were Friesians, Pasifinos, Thoroughbreds, Clydesdales, and most of all, Lipizanars.
    He looked at all the stallions. There were six Lipizanar stallions, all beautiful, but one captured almost all of his attention. The name painted on the wood next to the bidding number was Kravan.
    Then a voice spoke to Juan. “Whatever they say about me, its not true.”
    Juan looked around. “Hello!” said a very different voice. “Oh, dear boy. You don’t want THAT horse. He’s insane since his old trainor died. I suppose no one at all will want him.”
    That desided it for Juan. He bid $100 dollors, then walked off to look at mares to bred the stallion with. All the rest of his remaining $6,660 went to that.
    Juan really wasn’t suprized when he won both bids. His mom wasn’t extatic about having to trailer home two horses, not having expected him to win anything.
    "Thank you for this." said a male's voice. It was the same voice from earlier, from when he was looking at Kravan at first. Juan looked around again for the speaker. His mother raised her eye-brows at him, so he stopped.

"What's your name, boy?" the voice asked. "Think it. I can hear you like you hear me." it added.
    So Juan tryed. "Okay... Juan..." he thought.
    "Very good, Juan. I'm Kravan." said the voice.
    Juan was shell-shocked. "So, your the horse?" he asked the voice.
    "The horse" is not really what I'd prefer to be called, but esencilly..." said Kravan.
    "Yeah." thought Juan. "Sorry... I'm just kinda freaked out by this whole "My new horse can talk to me in my head." thing." he added.
    He might have imagined it, but Juan thought he heard the horse chuckly mentaly. "I supose it could scare a child at first. But soon, you will have to be brave. Dervisa doesn't like a challange, and his boy most likly won't either."
    That last part ment nothing to Juan, but he replied, "Yeah. Thats so important."
    Again, Kravan laughed. "You have alot to learn. the first is that you do not mock one with powers greater than your own. Second, Dervisa and the other two will not hesitate to kill you if you do not listen to number one. And three, belive number two." Then Juan was sure he heard the horse laugh in his head. His mother glared at him when he laughed aloud.

Chapter Two

    "Come on, boy. I refuse to be late. Get up." said Kravan. Juan was in the ring with the big Lipizaner, trying to mount him. It was three days later.
     "Yes, Kravan. I'm trying." he replied. Just as he did, he got lucky. He swung up onto the stallion's back, and imediatly, the horse took off. Literaly. Juan looked back in shock to see the ground already hundreds of feet away, and a short stream of flame trailing out behind them.
    The stallion tossed him head with joy and began to run even faster through the sky. "Half hour to make it to California in time. Bet I'll be there before Dervisa." he thought to Juan.
   Juan made a mental note that said, "Keep away from Dervisa." then moved on with life. So what if his new horse could fly? As long as Juan was along for the ride, Hell to the rest of it.
    Kravan landed about 20 minutes later on what seemed to be an empty cloud. Juan was puzzled at why the stallion seemed so pround.
    "What's so great about an empty cloud?" he asked.
    Kravan seemed to glare at him. "We are the fisrt ones here. Doesnt that mean something to you, boy?" He thought to him. Juan shrugged. He didn't really care if they were there first, but obviously it mattered to Kravan.
    After about ten more minutes, a golden Tennessee Walker mare arived. Kravan knodded to her and the blonde girl with her, but no one spoke. Next came an Arabian mare and her young girl.
    Kravan tossed his head in pride when the last horse to arive was a large Freisan stallion. But he charged in pure fury when the stallion introduced himself and his girl.
    "What's the matter?" Juan thought to the stallion.
    Kravan snorted. "A stallion should have a male partner. I will explain later. It's a long story that will take time to tell. Now, go meet the others, but stay away from Dervisa' GIRL." The stallion seemed to practcally spit the last word. Exept, he was thinking it.
    Despite Kravan's advice, the first person that Juan bothered to talk to was the girl who had come riding Dervisa. "Hola, Chicas. Como estas" He said, aproching her and the little girl who had come with the Arabian.
The girl, Mariah, replied instantly. "Moy bein, grasias. English, por favor?" she said rather confidantly.
"Figured I'd try." He said in English. Mariah smiled politely. Then Juan saw the confused look on the other girl's face.
"She's Israeli. Only knows a little English." Mariah explained.
Then, Jade walked over, and Juan compleatly lost touch with reality. At least until he felt something... Or someone looking around in his mind. The feeling was gone in an instant, and he thought he had just imagined it. Then he saw first Solay (the Israeli girl), then Jade look around in confusion. He glanced at Mariah, the only one who haden't jumped. Was it something she was doing? Was that why Kravan didn't want Juan near her?
"Yes. Or something else of the like. A girl with a stallion is bad news. I want her dead as soon as possible, but the others refuse." the horse sudonly thought. "Guard your thoughts, boy."
Then he was gone.

Chapter Three

    The ride back to Spain didn't take long. On the way, Kravan didn't talk unless he was prompted to.
    "Umm, Kravan. You were gonna tell me why girls shoudn't be partnered with stallions..." Juan finally asked.
    "I'm not in a good mood now, so I'll give you the highly abridged version. Pretty much, Nivia, Dervisa, Respina, and I are really humans under a spell. If we fall in love, we become human again. If that happens, the forces of nature become unbalanced and will create mass panic." thought the Lipizaner stallion.
    The rest of the ride was spent in silance, Juan lost in his thoughts. When they landed, he scrambled off the horse's back, checked on the mare, whom he had decided to call Nebrasca (after the American state), then he walked inside.
    "Goodnight." thought the stallion curtly.
    Juan hesitated for a moment before replying. "You, too, Kravan." he finally thought to the stallion.
    Juan tried to sleep, but he just couldn't. He was on Christmas break, so there was no school the next day, meaning no real need to sleep. It turned out to be a good thing that Juan couldn't sleep, because when he looked out his window, he saw a blazeing fire out in the corral.

"Kravan!" He thought, sending the message as strongly as he could. He could feel the stallion's mind, but he couldn't get the message to him. All he saw when he attempted to get inside your mind was panic.
    All Juan could think of to do was try to reach the other elemental horses. He cast his mind out to the next closest magical horse; Nivia.
    "Nivia! Please get help! Kravan is in trouble!" He thought despratly, trying to find the mares conciousness in the vast Middle East.
    He hardly belived it when he sudonly felt another mind slip into his. "What's wrong? I can get Dervisa if I need to. He's the only one in any possition to help right now." It WAS Nivia! Juan couldn't belive his luck.
    "Yes, it's serious! Please get Dervisa and Mariah here as soon as you can! There's a huge fire, and I don't think Kravan can get it under control. I can't even get in his head." he thought to Nivia,
    "Okay. I'll get them there as fast as I possibly can." Nivia replied. Then she was gone, just a whispered promise in Juan's shatteder and scared mind.
   It took about 10 minutes for Dervisa and Mariah to arive. Juan was paceing franticaly back and forth, and he didn't even notice they were there untill he saw the siloette in the shadows of the flames. "We're here. What do you need?" he felt Mariah think to him.
    "Yeah. Get Kravan and, if you can, Nebraska too, out of there. Once he's safe, Kravan and I can probobly handle it." Juan replied.
    Juan felt terrible standing by while Mariah and Dervisa dashed in to save HIS horses and stable. Gusts of wind, summond by Dervisa, no doubt, swirled in to attack the flames as they reached a hight of nearly twenty feet. Juan felt Dervisa going into he same panic mode as Kravan was in, but Mariah soothed the stallion with calm, loving words. It was like they had worked together like this for a million years.
    Dervisa and Mariah rode through the fire with ease, the gusts of wind parting the smoke and flames before them. The sight might have been awe-inspireing if it haden't been for the horror of it all. Over and Over again, Juan tried to Reach out to Kravan, but it only seemed to get harder. "Please hurry! I can hardly even feel him, now!" He mentally screamed at Mariah.
Then he looked up. Jade and Respina canterd in through the sky,droping dirt in clumps all around the fire, putting it out in places. "Keep that up, Jade!" he thought to the pretty southern-bell.
   "Yesir!" she thought back. Even her mental messages carried a country twang. Juan thought it was cute.
   "Everyone be safe!" he thought to everyone he could reach. Then he ran into the fire himself.

Chapter Four

Smoke stung Juan's eye's, but he couldn't go back untill he had found Kravan. If they were together, Juan knew he could help the horse. "Kravan!" he thought. He found that he could feel the stallion's mind in his. There was just so much pure fear and pancic in Kravan's head that Juan couldn't get a clear thought threw to him.
Then, finally, he got something. "Who's here? Dervisa and Respina, right? And their partners." Kravan thought to him.
Juan was so relived that he almost cryed out. "Yes. Where are you? I'm going to find you, Kravan. I promise."
There was no reply. Then he ran straight into the stallion. Without waiting for permission, he leapt onto Kravan's back. The horse reared and trumpeted out a call. Then he tossed his head, and the fire instantly faded.
Kravan dashed toward a safe area where Respina and Jade were already waiting. When Dervisa landed, Juan took Mariah's hand and helped her down from the stallion's back. She, Jade, and he waited while Kravan, Dervisa, and Respina thought to eachother privatly. Dervisa seemed angry, and Juan was proved right when the stallion turned away from the others. He must have thought something to Mariah, for she scrambled onto his back.
Before takeing off, Dervisa opened his mind to everyone, saying, "No one touches her. You do, I'll wrip you apart." Then he flew up into the air, flying faster than Juan could see.
"Catch them!" screamed Kravan mentaly. Both Juan and Jade mounted there respective horses. Dervisa was already out of sight bythe time they were ready to go. And they had to wait for Respina to contact Nivia and Solay. By the time they got there, with an extra passanger, a man of about twenty, Dervisa and Mariah could have already been safly home. Exept that Juan knew that Dervisa couldn't make it that far.
All three horses took off, all 16 hooves lifting off the ground at the same instant. Juan glanced over at Nivia and saw Solay and the other man whispering togethaer. Then he looked over to Respina and silantly watched as Jade braided and rebraided her long blonde hair over and over again. "Liken the daisy dukes?" Kravan suddonly asked.
"God, man! You kinda... scared me. And actully, I was looken at her hair, not her..." Juan started.
Kravan cut him off with a snorted laugh. "I was messing around with you, boy. You DO need to loosen up." Juan was confused. The world could end in a few minutes, or at least begin to,and he needed to loosen up. Okay.

Impressum

Texte: Kateri
Bildmaterialien: Google
Lektorat: Kateri
Übersetzung: Kateri
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 22.03.2012

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