wolves and wannabe's

Steven smiled "its ok , you know I felt like that, being half cherakee in a full cherrakee world isn't easy " he looked at Andrew "but thats a story for another day , Im glad you and john are getting along your a like kinda " he said now feeling a bit out of his depth "you want to go ride those horses now, you can chose your horse " he said thinking about witch one he would chose he hoped the gray mare as she was soon to foal and he would have two horses one he could ride when the foal was weened and one he could train for himself.

"Sure. You pick," he said, starting to walk towards the farm. It felt good to walk. Andrew was used to walking for longdisttances, and it felt good to walk again. Sometimes that was the drawback of being in Hogwarts. The longest walk on the grounds seemed to be to the Black Lake, and that wasnt even all that far in Andrew's book.

When they reached Steven's barn, Andrew went inside and found the horses a bit impatient for some reason. He could hear it, somehow. He didn't know why, but they felt like they were a bit antsy to him. He went over to one of the horses, and heard her say, "Snake! Snake!' He looked around, frowning. He didn't see a snake.

"Is there a snake in here?" He asked Steven.

Steven walked and thought about how things had come to be the way they were , he liked the out doors and didn't mind walking it cleared his head a little. Soon they came to the barn wth its big red doors, opening the large doors he let the light stream in he was about to open the second when john said there was a snake in the barn. "ok, Andrew I want you to back out of the barn and let me find it " he looked at the horses then at andrew " Andrew can you ask shadow where she saw it?" he said hoping the horse would be calm with him. But steven still looked around moving from stall to stall ,as he carefully moved barrels that were stacked in one corner but found nothing.

Andrew asked the horse where the snake was and what it looked like. The horse told him it had slithered into the grain bin. Andrew was not afraid of any dumb old snake. He'd handled a lot of snakes. He went over the the grain bin and opened it. There was a fairly large ordinary garden snake. The snake was angry. It felt caught and trapped. Andrew could feel that much. Andrew found himself talking to the snake to reassure it he was just going to help it back outside. The snake was also hungry, and didn't like the stupid grain. Andrew reassured the snake there was plenty of food for it outside. He got the snake's permission to move it. He picked it up and told Steven he was going to take it to the creek to catch some food so it wasn't so angry. He reassured him that the snake had promised not to harm him.

Andrew walked the snake to the creek and set it loose there. The snake looked back at him and asked why Andrew hadn't killed him. Andrew frowned, "Because you're hungry? Why would I do that? That's dumb."

"Yes, but humans are dumb," the snake hissed.

"Not all of us," Andrew said, realizing this was the first he had ever talked to a snake. "Go eat, and stay away from the barn."

The snake gave him a rather disgusted look and slithered off into the water.

Andrew returned to the barn.

Steven samiled as he watched Andrew with the snake , He watched as he took it down to the creek and let it pausing as if talking to it again for a moment before returning to the barn "nice job, there " he gave him the rains of a grey mare with a brown leather saddle all ready on it , there on the side sat the initials A.D " so what you going to call her?" he asked moving to shadow and he calmed her and sadled her to ride, He watched Andrew wondering if he would notice the saddle and smiled as he walked shadow from the barn out into the yard as he checked once more his saddle then mounted her sitting above everything , now he felt like his old self.

Andrew did notice the initials on the saddle as he mounted easily. He did know how to get on. The unicorns had taught him that, even though he usually rode bareback with them. "Is this...mine?" he asked about the saddle. He knew saddles were expensive. He hadn't been prepared for anyone to spend so much on him.

"Name her? Doesn't she have a name?" he asked. He asked the horse what her name was. "Dove," she said. "My mother thought I looked like a dove that used to sit in a tree near her favorite grass spot. My name is Dove."

"She says her name is Dove," Andrew said, "I guess I'll keep it. She seems to like her own name. Are you coming?"

Steven looked at Andrew "yes the saddle it yours , dove is too , ow by the way she is expecting a foal so be careful we'll head towards the far creek buy the stone caves at the other end of the ranch " he said as he on shadow trotted past but then stopped brushing his head against Dove and steven chuckled "well, now I see who the father is " he said patting shadows neck "its ok Andrew will take care of her" he said softly adn in responce he whinined "he'd better" came the deep voice of shadow, Steven smiled he'd had a lot of animal talk to him today and almost forgot what it felt like. But as he rode he looked across at andrew shadow natraly picking up speed till he cantered .

Dove seemed to enjoy walking. Andrew had figured that anyone expecting and having a big belly would want to rest. "I can hear you," she said to him. "And no, laying around does not help. Walking helps, young one. Strength is key to any such difficult ordeal. You will learn that in your own time."

Andrew was a bit confused. He wasn't quite sure what she meant. He had laready lived through a lot. How much more was there? How more difficult could it possibly get? He really wasn't sure he wanted to know.

"Don't trouble yourself with tomorrow, young one. Take today for itself, and let tomorrow take care of itself. Enjoy the sun and the breeze. You need nothing else right now. You will know true trouble when it comes. Don't invite it."

steven and shadow stopped as they moved away "hes a good foal that one of yours " steven heard shadow say "his not mine, as in I sired him but I hope he is inside him" stephen said using terms he hoped Shadow would understand , with a whinne Shadow laughed " He is part of your heard? " he asked again steven nodded "yes you could put it that way" Shadow swished his tail "well the way he rides my dove is almost like you " he said chuckling again Steven smiled and patted shadows neck "yeah I noticed that , He did say he rode unicorns when he was younger near his home" shadow kicked at the ground showing he was ancshios to be on his way again.

Andrew tried to do what she said. He tried to just enjoy the sunshine. Suddenly she tried to toss him off. He righted himself quickly and asked her, “Hey! What as that for?” “I just wanted to see if you were paying attention,” she sniffed a bit egotistically, “Besides, I’m thirsty. Let’s go down to the creek.” “Fine,” he replied sarcastically, “That’s where I let the snake loose. With a little luck, it’ll bite you.” “I’m sorry,” she said. “I won’t do it again. Let’s not go to the creek.” “Fine,” he replied.

He looked over at Steven, feeling irked, and said, “Moody horse.” He didn't like her attitude.