Jag bölade rejält när jag skrev det här, jag blir för emotionell.
The moving trailer suddenly
stopped with a squeak. The horses began to panic in the dark, their big eyes filled with fear. Some started to stomp on the spot, while others tried to kick and prance even if there wasn't much space to move in/on. There were voices coming from outside the trailer and a rattling noise was heard then the ramp to the trailer began to open. When the evening light slowly made its way into the trailer the horses became both stressed and restless. Their flaring nostrils turned bright red and they started to breathe more heavy than before. As the ramp finally touched the ground with a low thump there was no time to linger in the trailer much longer. The mares and their colts stumbled out of the prison like trailer and ran into a long fenced pen with almost no grass on the ground and with barely enough space for a wild one to move on/in. Santa tried to keep up with her mother once more with small, jerky movements. The chase had hit her hard and she longed for nothing more but to lay down on the ground by her mother's protective side. Chester trotted past her to reach for their mother.
Left on the harsh, dirty floor of the trailer lied little Hammer. His small, kind eyes watched Santa and his own brother running after their mothers. He longed to run to them too but his hoofs and tiny legs ached so much he could barely feel anything but the numbing pain. He didn't try to make an effort to stand up. He didn't have the strength to move his body. The sight of his family turned blurry as he closed his eyes. He thought of his father, the softness of his warm muffle when they greeted each other. His father's watchful eyes when he guarded his family from mountain lions and other horses. Hammer wanted to be that stallion one day, he too wanted to take care of his family in the loving way his father had. He thought of how he'd played with Chester, Santa and the other colts yesterday morning near the river bend when the band took a zip of the cool water. He remembered Santa's high-pitched neigh which she always did when she was playful and excited. They had chased each other on the blossoming field that afternoon till they could hardly walk and he had loved every second of it. He loved Santa, he loved to be in her company, she was his best friend. He didn't care if Chester said he would have Santa as his best friend one day when they grew older because Hammer knew Santa would never choose Chester anyway.
Two men stepped into the darkness of the trailer. Hammer's ears flickered, who were they? Still he didn't open his eyes to see. One held a rifle in his hand. The men exchanged one single gaze then the man with the rifle aimed it at Hammer. It was total silence around them until the action of pulling the trigger broke it. As the bullet hit Hammer's head Lullaby lift hers (/her head) from the ground to stare at the trailer. Maybe she felt the spirit of her child leaving him? Maybe she knew that he wouldn't make it? A mother always feel when something is wrong with her child, so why shouldn't Lullaby feel it?
The man lowered the rifle while the other one put his hand on his shoulder. They looked at the motionless colt on the floor in front of them, perhaps to grieve a little?
It started raining outside, the heavy raindrops made an echoing sound inside the trailer. The two men who had spared Lullaby's child from his misery and pain would never know Hammer or his story, or his name. Just like they would never know any of the other horses out there in the pen who had been a part of that little colts life. Who had watched him grow this summer. They wouldn't know his father or mother and they would never know the love he felt for his friend. To these two men and all the other mestango chasers the free roaming horses were just animals with no feelings or names. They would never mean anything to those who had ordered the them off their lands, who had ripped several families apart. The little brown colt would never bring justice to his kind, he would just be another trespasser on public land. He would just fade away like so many others before him.
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