The Trespassing Crew by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview
Download the book in PDF, ePub, Kindle for a complete version.
Chapter 16
They woke to an overcast, but warm fall morning. Most spent a few minutes visually exploring their new habitat. The plentiful grass was consumed and then they walked to the river for a drink.
Charlie: “We’re going to be doing work today, aren’t we?”
Efscot: “Today or tomorrow, whatever you’re up to. We’re going to have to establish a rule we can all agree on. You all saw the coyotes on the trip here, I suppose. Because of that there always has to be at least one horse around the other animals for protection.”
Gunther: “I don't know if I want to be around a horse all the time.”
Dominick: “Neither do I.”
Charlie: “I’m already around a horse all the time and I like it.”
Gunther: “I like it too, ...... sometimes, but not all the time.”
Zelda: “This is the age old question of the desirability of freedom versus the safety of confinement. Nobody has come up with a definitive answer to date, so let’s not waste our time trying to do the same, perhaps undoable thing. I say let desire and freedom ring. Little animals, do your best to be around a
horse as much as you can tolerate. Coyotes are predominantly nocturnal so, you probably can enjoy safe private moments during the midday. And let’s leave it at that.”
There was no disagreement. How can anyone disagree with;
“Do your own thing.” They finished their water taken directly from the muddy river. Some started to gather sticks and dried grass. The horses nonchalantly started moving dead tree limbs.
Little by little all of the travelers pitched in, even Charlie and in one week they had made a barn similar to the one they were forced to leave. The process was longer than the first time due to a lack of human help with the roof. Without hands, it was difficult to get the precision necessary for lifting and placement of large tree limbs. It was a tedious and time consuming process, wherein a horse would first lift and flip the log to the structure top from its back. Then a goat on a horse’s back would make adjustments to the correct place. It worked; they were truly self-sufficient.
Many peaceful days elapsed, during which Pablo, Apple and Annabelle made some new friends. On some of their private walks the group discovered that there were wild horses in the area.
Now, a full sized young man, Pablo got the attention of a similar young lady from the wild bunch, named Jesse.
While running with her group Jesse would turn her head, with eyes showing curiosity, whenever she saw Pablo and he took special notice of her. One day when her group stopped at the river for a drink, Pablo was out wandering alone and decided that he too needed a drink. He slowly walked over and found a spot near Jesse. He tried to think of something bright to say.
If it wasn’t bright, he’d settle for different.
Pablo took a quick sip and ventured; “Did you ever notice that whenever you close your eyes tightly you see brightness?”
Jesse was genuinely surprised and said; “What?”
Pablo was silent and just smiled at her.
Jesse continued; “No, I never noticed that. Let me try right now and see what happens.” She closed her eyes as tightly as she could and did, indeed, see brightness. “I see it, but that’s probably just the sun shining through.”
Pablo: “It works in the dark too.”
Wild horse #1, seeing Jesse squinting, said; “What on earth are you doing little girl?”
Jesse: “I’m not sure yet. I’m trying something this guy told me about.”
Wild horse #1: “Well, watch it. You don’t know where this one came from.” He looked Pablo’s way.
Pablo didn’t know what to say, because he didn’t know where he came from either. But, he had accomplished his purpose. He
had established contact with someone who got his interest and he saw that she was playful. He continued to see Jesse at least three days a week and in a month was taking long walks alone with the young white filly with the long brown mane.
Apple was doing something similar. She saw a large young stallion, named Dakota. He was light gray with black markings and mane. Apple noticed him watching her solitary excursions into the wild. She saw him one morning about 10AM, walked over and said, “Did you ever notice that the moon is still out now?”
The results of her odd opening line were similar to that of Pablo.
And Annabelle was approached the same day, by a sizable male named Cody. He was entirely black and sported a tan mane.
He ambled next to her and said, “Did you ever notice how you can learn to tolerate the cold, but not the wind?”
Now everyone had a special friend; Efscot and Zelda, Charlie and Charlene, Dominick and Vanessa, Gunther and Hilda, Pablo and Jesse, Apple and Dakota and finally Annabelle and Cody. They spent some time together most days and they were happy. The group built an addition to their barn to accommodate their new friends, but the wild ones preferred to spend the nights with their feral herd, half of the time.
Seasons and years passed. They enjoyed many undisturbed days going about the things of interest to them. Some liked to go walking by the river, some liked walking in it, some preferred the woods, some the scrubby brush and some liked switching around. The original eleven gradually forgot about the restrictions of the barnyard and also forgot about Joe and Mary. Perhaps they wanted to forget.
With all the horses around, they didn’t see any more coyotes. They did notice paths that could have been established by them, but they could also have been made by any other animal travelling a regular route, maybe rabbits or skunks. As there were no scary incidents they gradually forgot about their one suggested rule of a horse always being present with the smaller animals.
Then one evening, about an hour after sunset, twelve very skinny, hungry looking coyotes came 100 feet away from the barn.
Most of the original group was safely huddled together in the barn. Annabelle was still out walking alone, hoping to chance upon Cody. Gunther and Hilda were idling by the melodious, long playing river.
The coyotes almost correctly sized up the situation. They spotted Annabelle alone, but in their haste did not see the goats, much easier prey. Normally, coyotes pick on whatever target would give them the least resistance, but this was
desperation. They hadn’t eaten in ten days. They knew that if they attacked the horse, the chances are that one or more of them would be severely hurt and that a severely hurt predator is a dead predator. But, an unfed predator is also a dead predator. So they decided to take no chance at picking off a chicken well ensconced in the large group and decided to go after the solitary Annabelle.
Annabelle thought that she had picked up the scent of Cody and was proceeding in that direction. Cody was actually not far off and he was with Dakota and Jesse.
The coyotes caught up with Annabelle in a small clearing and circled her. She saw them at the last minute and was surprised and fearful. She was under the impression that coyotes would never attack a horse, but this didn’t feel right.
The coyotes started yipping and showing their drooling teeth in the moonlight. Then three attacked at once. Annabelle let out a scream. One coyote successfully jumped up on her back and was trying to take a bite out of her upper hindquarters and the other two first wave attackers were on the ground trying to reach her lower back end. Nine more jumped around on the ground looking for an advantageous angle or cannily waiting for the others to do the dirty work.
Gunther and Hilda broke from their river rendezvous when they heard Annabelle and the coyotes and despite every instinct
in their bodies telling them to stay away, they ran straight for their distressed friend. The recalcitrant nine predators saw two easy marks coming, went right for them and sunk in fangs.
Cody, Dakota and Jesse also heard the scream and ran in its direction. When they saw what was happening they didn’t hesitate to run over kicking at the skinny coyotes. Very quickly six of the predators were lying motionless on the ground and five of them took off running, but the one that had gotten on Annabelle’s back had sunk in his teeth and crazed with hunger, continued to try to bite deeper. Cody ran over and tried to knock the coyote off, smacking it twice with his big head. This seemed to be more of an annoyance than a threat to the crazed little monster. Cody decided to fight fire with fire and bit into the coyote, holding him in his mouth and pulling him off Annabelle. He had bitten down hard and then dropped the coyote on the ground. The three healthy horses stomped the bloody mouthed attacker until he was motionless and then gave a few more kicks, just to be sure he was dead.
Cody saw the deep wound in Annabelle’s back, put his mouth to it and started licking to no avail. It kept on bleeding profusely. He tried pressing his head against it, hoping it would act like a tourniquet and just wound up with a bloody head. Jesse and Dakota went to Gunther and Hilda, who were lying on the ground and saw open wounds on their bellies, the
size of a dollar bill. They tried to use their bodies to apply pressure, but the hemorrhage continued. The blood appeared horrendous, but the wounds were more of a painful ripping of the surface and no doubt needed attention, but were not the severity of Annabelle’s deep gouge. The possibility of infection was probably the bigger risk for them, contrasted with the possibility of Annabelle’s dying from a loss of running blood.
The animals from the camp were roused by the sounds of commotion and they too came running and saw the horrid aftermath of the attack.
Zelda excitedly said; “What happened?”
Cody sadly, but calmly responded, saying; “Annabelle, Gunther and Hilda were attacked by coyotes. We three were nearby and were able to get rid of them, but one took a big chunk out of Annabelle and it’s bleeding like crazy.”
The new arrivistes saw the twisted, skinny carcasses in the dirt.
Annabelle bravely said; “It hurts, but I can still move my leg all right.”
Cody looked at Annabelle and with moist eyes said; “That bleeding has got to be stopped somehow.”
Gunther and Hilda painfully got on their feet. Their wounds hurt more when they moved. Gunther looked at Annabelle and said; “If she can handle it, I’ve got no complaints.”
Hilda shook her head and added; “We’re a bloody mess, but Annabelle is top priority.”
Pablo: “A long time ago, when we lived with Joe and Mary, they would get the vet over when one of us got sick or hurt.
We’ve got to go back there.”
Apple: “Do you think you are up to that long trip, Mom?”
Annabelle faked it for other’s benefit and said; “Sure, I could go twice as far if I had to.” She turned away from the others and grimaced.
Efscot: “Time for quick decisions. Are we all together?”
That question was met with nodding and grunting that indicated no objection, until Zelda stoically said; “I’m not going back there. I’d rather be eaten by coyotes than get stuck back in a stall.”
Efscot sighed, brushed up against Zelda and sadly said; “My place is with you. I’m not going either.”
Dakota and Jesse thought that they’d like to make the trip for added protection and they also were certain that their good friend Cody would be going. They looked over and saw Annabelle’s wound dripping blood to the ground like a persistent drizzle.
Cody: “Let’s get moving. We’ve got to get Annabelle some help. If we don’t like it there, we can always return.
Annabelle and I will be in front, since she’s the only horse
that knows the way back.” He paused and looked toward Pablo and Apple.
The siblings were at first mildly insulted by the commentary, but realized that when they made the trip many years ago, they were so small that they really didn’t remember much but the excitement. Cody continued speaking; “If the goats get on horseback they might be able to position their wounds against the horse’s flesh and control the bleeding. So, the line-up will be Dakota carrying Hilda, Apple carrying Charlie, Dominick, who will have to swim most of the way across the river and Vanessa ......
Dominick was compelled to interrupt, saying; “Don’t worry about me. I can hold up my end and if I can’t I’ll latch on to Vanessa’s tail.”
Cody said; “You’re a brave little man,” and rather than delaying things further Dominick was silent, but shot Cody a sideways glance, as if to say; “We’ll discuss this some other time.”
Cody saw it, nodded at the pug admiringly and continued;
“Bringing up the rear will be Jesse mounted by Gunther and Pablo carrying Charlene. You two at the end have to keep an eye out behind us and watch for any signs of trouble.”
They all were set to go on their mission when they looked over at Zelda and Efscot. The perennial duo had sad looks on
their faces. After many happy years with all their friends they would all of a sudden, probably never see each other again.
But, there was no time for tearful goodbyes. Everyone would have to rely on their fond memories.
Apple felt the same as everyone else, but had to say something. She came up with; “You never know. We may come back.”
Zelda choked out; “Good luck.”
Annabelle turned to Zelda and said; “Be careful.”
Zelda made the smallest of laughs and said; “Look who’s talking.”
Efscot whispered to Zelda, unheard by the rest; “You always have to have the last word, don’t you?” She smiled and they nuzzled.
With that everyone started to move, all eyes fixed on Annabelle’s dripping wound.