Valerie was sure her ears were about to fail. She couldn’t tell what was happening. She wasn’t sure if she had closed her eyes or if she’d been asleep for a while. She slowly lifted the tarp off, watching to see if any kind of wind made it flutter. The storm still raged outside, but it seemed quieter.
She risked a peek over the hay. The doors were closed. On both ends of the barn. As if that wasn’t miraculous enough, all four of her horses were in their stalls, heads lowered. She caught movement on the bottom stair.
“What is it?” Moira sat up and leaned against the wall.
“I think I saw… a bunny?” She looked back at her horses, still resting.
Except for the new one. He met her gaze, and Valerie could have sworn he winked at her. “And… everyone is here.”
Moira stood and saw for herself.
“Kinda buried the lead, didn’t you?” She pointed. “Everyone is inside, and the doors are chained shut.”
Valerie’s mind started to race, and her heart struggled to keep up. There was a man here, somewhere. That was the only rational explanation. With the might of the wind outside, it was more likely there were at least 2 strangers in her barn. And she couldn’t see them.
The electricity was out, but the battery operated lights still glowed. It was still too dark to see everything clearly. She held up a hand to tell Moira to stay, and stepped as quietly as she could over to the tack room. Armed with a shovel and a flashlight, she crept over to the stairs. She whipped the beam up at her door, but all she saw was a terrified spotted bunny huddling in front of her door.
Moira came over to join her.
“What are you doing?”
“Someone locked this place up tight.” Valerie whispered.
“I noticed.”
“From the inside.”
“You’re sure it wasn’t you?”
“It might have been me.” Valerie froze at the sound of a man’s voice. She was right! They both turned in the direction of the voice. But all they saw was the new horse. Blinking and nodding at them. Valerie aimed the flashlight from one end of the barn to the other, but couldn’t see anyone.
“Mo, I’m not hearing things, am I?”
“How should I know?” Moira whispered.
“Come on out!” Valerie shouted. “You can stay for the storm, but don’t hide!”
“I normally don’t showcase my skills, but in the circumstances, I thought it was time to pull together.”
Valerie looked over at the new horse. His mouth seemed to be moving, but that couldn’t be the voice, could it? She moved to get a look at the side of his face.
“What’s with the bunny?” She asked. He tilted his head.
“Does she not belong here?” He asked. Valerie started and dropped the flashlight.
“Never seen her before.”
“Oh, Okay…” He looked at both women, waiting for a response. But Valerie was occupied with the question of exactly how hard she had hit her head.
“So…” She began. “You can talk to animals?”
“Val, I think the headline is that he can talk to humans…” Moira had a point.
“Have you got a name you prefer?” Valerie cleared her throat. “I’m Valerie, this is Moira, and I assume you know the other horses already.”
“I believe the name on my papers is Floyd, though my given name is Eternity.” There was no response, so he continued. “My parents were very literal. What name had you planned for me?”
“Well, I was going to wait til I met you, but I was thinking Twister.” A gust of wind rattled the barn doors. “Although, it seems a little ironic now.”
“It’s a cool name, but I’d prefer Floyd. Of all the names I’ve had, it’s the best one at letting me be myself.”
“Floyd.” Valerie nodded. “Nice to meet you.”
She glanced over at Moira, who had her arms crossed, and was staring hard at Floyd. Like she was trying to figure it out. Something occurred to Valerie.
“Circumstances.” She said. “Did you mean the storm?” Floyd’s face was grim. “There’s something more, isn’t there?”
“I feel like I should have a slideshow prepared, but you saw what the storm can do down here. What you didn’t see was what the storm was doing up there. Have you ever seen ice fly up from the dirt before?”
Moira and Valerie shook their heads.
“The good news is, it’s not trying to freeze your world. It’s a method of harvesting the moisture from underground. Freeze it, then it’s easier for it to dig its way up from underneath, but that means they’re greedy. For some reason they can’t wait for evaporation. They need the water now.”
“They?” Moira’s skepticism was palpable.
“I’m familiar with the method. But I don’t know who it is.”
“What’s the bad news?” Valerie still didn’t believe what she was hearing. A talking horse!
“There are more, well… efficient ways to harvest water from a planet. I’ve only seen this happen when the planet is abandoned, and they take the water for their journey to wherever they’re going. And frankly, it’s a lot cheaper to take the water from plants, animals… and any other intelligent indigenous life forms.” He waited for the impact of his words to be absorbed. “I’ve never seen a storm like this when anything on the planet was still alive. So whoever this is wants you all alive, but not for much longer. This feels like revenge.”
