A dangerous Reunion

[Valatone]

In the distance, a lone dingo cried mournfully through the misty hills. It help hide the sound of footfalls along a ridge, heading towards the Dead Horse Hut. Full of fear, the young brumby filly kept running on and on senseless of what was ahead of her. Not terribly knowing of what she was running from, the silver stopped in the dead of night. Throwing her head back, Yooralla then saw nothing coming for her.

It was only after she had trotted forward a few paces that she realised where her location was. In the small valley before her, a hut stood in the darkness. Smoke was coming out of the ancient chimney, and two horses stood, each in a seperate pen. Yooralla's eyes thinned as she agusted them, trying to reconise the buckskin colt. Something about him seemed familiar, but she wasn't sure what.

Just like her great grandfather had done, she leapt down the ridge and slowly paced towards the colt. Except when he had done it, it was for a mare and she was the trap. For Yooralla, there was no current trap and all was clear. Lifting her legs, she came closer and closer till she touched the colt's nuzzle, finally realising who he was.
Woorin

[Illu]

Woorin wasn’t sure what had awoken him, but something had. A feeling more than anything else, there was nothing to be heard, seen or smelt, the bush seemed normal. None the less, the two year old was quickly widely awake and suddenly anxious as he stared out into the blackness and dull shapes of the gently swaying trees.

His fretting woke up the chestnut mare in the pen beside him, who took one look at the buckskin and snorted her displeasure. ”Hey,” she whispered sleepily. ”Go back to sleep would ya? SOME of us like our R.E.M.”

”I think someone’s coming," he whispered agitatedly before circling his pen once to try and flush out the nerves. He knew Lori wouldn’t get it. Like other tame horses her instincts where highly underdeveloped, which sometimes made it hard for them to see eye to eye.

The mare took one look around, and after seeing and hearing nothing quickly shrugged it off. ”It’s nothing,” she hissed, then closed her eyes again. Stupid brumbies, it was a wonder they even survived, freaking out over every little thing like that. ”It was prob’ly just a cricket or sumthing,” she yawned.

Woorin was quite sure it was no cricket, but he didn’t argue the point. Instead, he walked up to the fence and watched nervously. It wasn’t long before he saw the moonlight dappling oddly in some places, and in that instant he knew. There was a silver horse in there, but there was no way he could warn them to stay away without waking the dog up, so he returned to flitting nervously around the small pen again, causing Lori to groan in annoyance.

As Yooralla wandered out of the line of trees and towards the pen as though in a trance, Woorin initially thought he was seeing things. The buckskin stood dead still in surprise as his half sister walked right up to the fence. She was solid, so she was here, and he was so shocked he didn’t even think to return her greeting. ”Yooralla?” he finally managed to stammer in disbelief. How had she gotten here? How did she find him?

Lori had opened her eyes again as the sound of hooves approached. That wasn’t Woorin, unless he’d somehow managed to get outside the fence without making a sound. Once she set her eyes on the creamy filly they widened in shock, and the flaxen quarter horse was on her feet faster than she had ever been in her life in order to get a close look.

”Brave of you ta come out, here, or stupid,” she whispered harshly, reaching her head up over the fence to try and sniff the newcomers mane. The filly interested her, she’d never seen a brumby in the wild walk up this close before, let alone a pretty one of such a nice colour. ”Nice J.D, nice. Where’d ya find this one?”

Woorin was completely ignoring Lori, and not bothering to make with formalities. It was incredible to see his half-sister again, but she had to leave. Now. ”Ralla, what are you doing here?” he whispered frantically, remembering how she had been the target in the hunt that got him captured. ”You can’t stay long, it’s too dangerous!”

[Valatone]

"I knew someone was out here," Yooralla replied to her half brother. She ignored the chestnut and her comments. Her brothers warning didn't set her off much, she was too involved with him. "Aren't you happy to see me?" she teased, now ignoring his words. "And how did you end up in this place, with her?" she asked, directing the last words at Lori.
'Ralla's colour shimmered under the moonlight, making her stand out in the darkness. But that was the least of her little worries, in fact, she had none at that moment. Meeting Woorin again ment a lot to her, and she completely forgot the fact that smoke from a chimney means man.

[Illu]

”Shh! Not to so loud!” Woorin whispered frantically, eyes fearful. Why couldn't she understand the trouble she could be in? But the damage was already done. Yooralla hadn’t even been speaking all that loudly, but her voice still filtered up and into the ears of the resident cattle dog, sleeping on the front porch.

The dog jerked its head up so quickly and alertly he might as well not have been sleeping at all, and the first thing he saw was a horse out of its pen. In a flash, he was up and running, only to be pulled up by his chain with a sudden, painful jerk. Instead, it did the only thing it could and started barking frantically for his owner as it strained against the collar, eyes narrowed angrily at the ‘escaped’ horse.

”Haha! Now you’re in for it!” Lori cackled gleefully, no longer even bothering to keep her voice down and probabaly waking everyone up within two kilometers. ”I hope you got a good set of legs on you, makes for a better chase!”

”SHUT UP LORI!" Woorin shouted in horror. "RALLA, RUN!!" Yooralla mustn’t be caught! She mustn’t! A warm light that suddenly switched on in one of the windows and a man's silhouette appeared as he looked out the window; trouble was on its way.

---

Argh? Barking! Stupid dog. Jack was about to shout something back at the dog when he suddenly realised Sam never barked. Ever. Not for anything except something serious. It was at moment he heard Lori neigh loudly, followed by J.D’s fearful, shrill call of a frightened two year colt. Crap, that was bad.

Jack quickly launched himself out of the couch he’d collapsed onto yesterday, quickly turned on the gas lamp and peered outside. It was dark, very dark, much too dark to see anything ordinary, but the coat of the silver filly shone out like beacon. Jack was rooted to the spot for a second. What was one of them doing here? They never went near men’s huts! They were supposed to be too clever for that!

Jack pulled himself away from the window, glad he’d decided to just sleep downstairs. A midnight gallop in ones pyjamas wasn’t exactly clever. Grabbing his jacket and pulling it on, he ran towards the door to loosen the dog. Hopefully Sam would be able to buy him some time, the filly did have quite a good chance for a head-start.

[Valatone]

Yooralla's eyes almost filled with tears of fright as the blue heeler began his frantic barking. The noise rang around her delicate ears, and the silouette of a man wasn't helping either. The creamy was mortified, never in her life had she been chased by a man. Woorin was lost in her thoughts as she was pinned to the ground, her legs wouldn't budge. "Run, run!" she told herself franticly.
Once the man opened the door, she broke into action. Leaping like a mountain goat, she swiftly disapeared through the trees and up the rough ridge, heading back through the thin ridges on which she came. Yooralla hoped that something, a blessing, would appear and keep the man at bay. A rough track would be good, or a big jump, or even a big clump of trees. A horse burdened with a man on it's back cannot go through rough track very well, and it often led to serious injuries. Unfortunately for the silver filly, the area around the hut was grassy. There were no giant jumps of cliffs, or mountains or streams in the direction she was heading. But there were lots of trees. It was her only hope.

[Illu]

With a split second reaction time Sam was off the chain and running after the filly, a black streak tearing through the grass and catching up fast. He knew his job too well to let the stray horse loose itself in the trees, and he dashed past her between her and the tree line to block her path, the stayed a little in front to both impair her way forwards and stop her going to the trees where she couldn’t be roped. This was why even Thowra had had a problem with dogs, annoying little buggers.

Back at the hut, Jack had already thrown open Lori’s gate and was just about to finish securing the saddle when Woorin suddenly reared up in desperation, neighing shrilly once more and striking at the fence between him and his new owner. Jack jumped back in shock, hissed at the horse to stop it, and was on the mare and away. He had no time to busy himself with calming the colt, that was a brumby fence, too high to jump, too strong to break, so there was no chance of the buckskin making a great escape by the time he got back. Hopefully Sam had decreased the fillies lead enough so he wouldn’t need to waste too much of Lori’s energy making up the ground.

[Valatone]

Yooralla's eyes widened even further when the dog dashed in front of her. Her ears pulled back and she whinnied in fright. Her path through the trees was currently blocked, she'd have to outrun the man. It was her only choice. Rearing on her hind legs, she looked for another path. "Geez, why can't something be simple for once?" she thought for a second. She heard the sounds of Woorin, neighing and striking his fence. Oh no, the man was saddling up Lori. She had even less time now.
Where to go, where oh where? Then she looked back at the dog- she'd have to go around him, onto the track that was easy for a saddled horse too. She gulped, and gave the blue heeler a small kick before leaping over the top of him and running the path that might be her capture.

[Tiggs]

Jason was contemplating shooting the darned dog before he heard his owner's cumbersome dash outside. Leaping up, Jason pulled on his boots and ran outside in just his loose cotton sleeping trousers. Once he was out of the door, his eyes spotted the creamy and they opened wide. Grabbing his saddle from the rack, he ran to Marie. The mare was watching the creamy mare making a dash for it, and whinnied in excitement. Jason got the saddle pad slung over her back and settled the heavy saddle on the bays back in record time. Once the girth was tightened, he untied her from where she stood under an open porch construction at the side of the hut. She was only wearing a halter, but Jason didn't have the time to get the bridle out and on her. Holding onto the rope of her halter, he trotted out from under her shelter and mounted. His saddle was already equipped with rope, so with a loud encouraging "Hah!". He and Marie raced past the newbie cattleman who was almost done with his horse and started after the creamy.

The dog was doing its job well, the filly had became scared and veered away from the trees: perfect. "Go by, dog!" Jason grinned as the blue heeler raced off around the other side of the filly as Marie gained. The plan was the bring the filly round, double backing so that cattle-boy would be able to catch up before Jason got into range to rope. If the dog knew is job, it would keep the horse out of cover.

[Illu]

||OoC|| Yeah, thought I might as well add this here just in case any lurkers get confused. Tiggs is controlling Sam as well, seeing as he’s just going to do anything Jason says anyway, it’s a bit pointless to just leave him to me.||

Lori felt a pang of annoyance as Jason and Marie shot past. She was younger than the brown, with a sense of misplaced confidence that lead her to believe she was a lot better and stronger than Maire. She’d never said it out loud, but now seemed as good a chance to show it. The second Jack was on her she was off and running, clods of dirt flying from her hooves.

Jack was caught off guard by Lori’s sudden dash. Apparently, he still had more ground work to do if she was going to take it upon herself and run off like that, but now was hardly the time to pull her up and correct her as he should. In any case, she was still going too fast in her effort to catch up and he had to rein her back to check her speed. Being a Quarter Horse, her strength was her nightmare speed in the sprint and he couldn’t afford to have her run out of energy by giving it all at the start.

Thankfully, Jason was on the filly’s tail too, and if there was a better wrangler at Dead Horse Hut, Jack had yet to meet him. All he really could do was combine with Sam to force the creamy right into Jason’s line of fire. Sam was already trying to head the filly off at Jason's command, which a look of resolve on his face that clearly said next time Yooralla tried to jump over him he was going to latch onto her forefoot.

[Valatone]

Ooc: LOL its getting confusing here!
Bic:

Yooralla was dashing with all she could muster up. Fear pounded through her entire body as she knew that not only was there one wrangler and his dog, but now another man. Both on horseback, something told the silver filly that she wouldn't make it. Especially with the dog about, there was no real way to lose them both. While still sprinting, she lifted her head to the sky and called out sadly to Nevada, hoping her stallion would come and rescue her.The filly knew that the way ahead of her was a dead end, a rock face.

Yooralla stopped dead still when she almost ran head-first into the rock face she knew was there. She let out a pitiful sigh and threw her head down, open for a rope to catch on. Atleast Woorin was back where she would soon be.