Chapter Seven

In my hand I held a picture of a girl back home. Her brown eyes and brunette hair were contrasted against her white skin. Her smile was the joy she was experiencing at that moment captured forever. One flick of my thumb and the spark came and the flame rose touching the photo...overtaking...turning it into black soot.

It was all over. There was nothing to go back home to. There was no anger, only registration of an empty life. I dropped the burning photo out the window of my Humvee as we sat in the longest traffic jam of the start of the Iranian war. Hundreds of U.S army vehicles crowded on a two lane desert road.

A distinct sound of a two beat rhythm came to my ears. I popped my head out the window in awe. Before my very eyes coming from the desert rode a dusty uniformed officer on a Belgian Draft mare.

Her hooves, striking in twos, drove away the foreboding silence. She plunged forward, from one shadow to the next, braving unseen dangers held within. We swept past dilapidated houses, abandoned trucks, feral dogs, and scavenged corpses. We journeyed where the living feared to tread.

We rode like bandits on lifeless streets on the lookout for men armed to the teeth. Her ears always alert for what may lurk. Standing tall and proud, they spun side to side on the hunt for the slightest sign.

The thick mare's neck stretched and flexed, always on the move as she searched for what lay ahead. We trotted by a red mustang sports car, out of place in this crazy world. We came to a four way intersection with dead traffic lights. They swung silently to themselves with not a soul in sight. Unreadable Persian on the street signs. Advertising their existence to nothing but the birds.

The mare sniffed the air, straining her neck as far as it could, ears standing at attention like armed guards anticipating the attack. She launched herself through the intersection taking a hard left, sucking in air and expelling it with force. We slipped back into darkness. The moon cowardly hid when we needed it the most.

On her back, I held onto her mane as it whipped into my face, eyes,nose, and lips with every bounce. Her hairs lathered my hands. Her scent invaded my nostrils. I held back with all my might till my resolve cracked. I sneezed, shattering the stillness.

She leapt into the air with me on her, floating weightless before we came down to earth together in one hard stop. She froze as did I united in our terror. We listened for the slightest hint of danger. Nothing came to be. We sighed in relief. Unfortunately, I landed on her neck which she quickly fixed herself. She eyed me while she trotted on. Even a horse like herself couldn't ignore her own nature.

We were like ghosts, passing by with barely a presence, never waving, always pressing onward. What few people we encountered stared at us with their lifeless eyes like we were a mirage. Something that could not be. Their shuffling feet told the story of their escape from the fighting. They were already dead to this world.

It happened gradually, a tiny unnoticeable shift in my posture soon became unwieldy for each step of her hooves. First the hips began to ache, followed by the back straining itself then the head leaned forward. Every bounce drove me further off center till my nerves began to fray as fear creeped in. My eyes dropped to the ground below the mare, seconds away from contact. Legs clamped onto her sides.

"Wonderful!" Elly slowed down to a gentle stop. She swung her head to the side to look at me. "It is becoming more of a pleasure to ride with you, I must say. I can feel the difference the way you sit on me."

As your prisoner, I bit my lip, with nowhere to go. Her mane fell from my hands.

"Have you not ridden bareback before?" She asked.

I shook my head. It was always the saddle, western saddle, reins in hand and boots in the stirrups. I had a good teacher or so I thought. Experience played no favors, not even to the digient. Was I good enough to go into an arena? Hell no! I was nothing compared to those born in the saddle.

"We are getting closer, My friend Banta is not far off. Depending on your moon, we can reach him before too long."

Elly stretched out her neck and took a hold of my pant leg with her teeth. She yanked it and released it.

"Relax your legs, no need to keep squeezing me."

I blushed while my hand smacked against my thigh. The sheer embarrassment flew down my spine. It took a force of will for my legs to relent.

"I- sorry...I didn't- know." I spat out the words.

"You were at your limit." She exhaled through her nose. Her sides were still rising and falling. "You must rest. Your body is weaker than mine and you do not have the endurance that I have."

Elly tilted her head.

"It takes time to build your muscles for a ride such as ours. You should not have pushed yourself. I will walk till you have recovered your strength."

I rubbed my legs, they were sore after all. It wasn't the length of the ride that was bothering me. It was the trotting with all the bouncing, forcing me to keep my balance. Now I could sense soreness in my back, beyond touch. I groaned.

Her ears twitched then faced separate directions. Her front hoof tapped the ground. "If you had asked to stop earlier, I would have."

A small ball of anger lit in the pit of my stomach. Was I not your prisoner! I only endured because you didn't show any sign of stopping. What a fool I have been. I bit my lip. Haven't previous generations of US Prisoners of war endured far worse from their captors and they never showed any weakness. I was letting her get under my skin. The wound on my chest itched.

"Why do I feel more like a horse than a rider?"

Elly snorted. "Is that so human?" She spoke in a woman's voice. "That is the first comment you made since we left." She gave her tail a twirl.

If you weren't riding me hard, I would have said more!

"Would you have preferred a canter?" The mare said sweetly.

A lump caught in my throat. Please God no.

Elly chuckled, pawing the ground then stopped. Her ear flickered and she yawned. A moment of peace for me.

She gave a sideways glance.

"I dare say I can make a rider out of you."

I gasped, biting my tongue. Damn her. Her sides vibrated against my legs.

Her head turned away to face her front. "Your displeasure is too obvious on my back." Her tail whooshed behind me.

If you only knew...I glanced away. I'll always be a prisoner. Elly began walking.

Small businesses and local shops all boarded up on both sides of the street in preparation for the war. The full might of America's military was coming like a hurricane to destroy anyone who chose to stay in their path.

An official looking sign plastered onto one of the store's windows. It must have been a mandatory evacuation order from the Iranian government itself or the local government. I don't think the Iranian government planned to hold this city for long being so close to the coast and the Iraq/Iran border. If the civilians evacuated towards the interior of the country where the fiercest of the fighting will be. They made the right choice to leave but at the wrong time. Life in the occupation would be a blessing.

I must be the first American soldier to set foot here. I looked at my left leg hanging more than a couple feet off the ground. The first one to visit I mean. I wonder if she'll let me down.

Elly's ears suddenly flipped to the left. She came to a halt midstep.

I shot up, my back straight as a rod.

"What is it?" I asked quickly

"I hear a machine." She whispered as her head veered left. Her neck stretched as high as it would go.

With caution, I peered down the dark street ahead, a two way intersection going right or left barely visible to the naked eye. Rifle came off my shoulder into my lap.

Fingers tapping the rifle's trigger guard with safety off. Her ears barely moved as seconds ticked by agonizing. Her right ear jumped right then did not move. I sighed quietly. I can't read a horse's ears as a divining rod. Might as well do something else. I dropped my rifle to my lap and using my free hand, retrieved the canteen hanging off my belt. Lukewarm water splashed down my dry throat, enough to quench it. I screwed the cap back on then slid it into its pouch.

"Can we avoid them?" I spoke up.

Elly drew her head back towards me. "We shall."

We took a right turn on the intersection and headed northeast further into the commercial district.

The echo from her hooves off the storefronts sounded like hammers pounding on asphalt. The noise gritted to my ears like metal scraping against metal. They would hear us coming yards away at the sound of her own damn feet.

Rows after rows of shops on both sides of the street and not a shopper in sight. All of them boarded up, like they were forgotten. Inventory was nonexistent no matter how hard I looked. They weren't even worth breaking into.

A big red colored sign with a model advertised some kind of soda pop in bottles and cans with white lettering. Her smiling pretty face taunted me from across the way. If it is so good, then why can I not find any? I could use a sugary drink right now.

Maybe I should ask Elly to use that big impressive nose of hers to scout me out a drink. She could sniff out a whole block to find me a dented can of lukewarm soda. Heck I'll take any flavor as long as it's not sugar free. Nothing would depress a soldier like me more than having to drink only sugar free soda.

What would she say to that? My shoulders slumped. Prisoners don't get to decide, do they? I was one from the very start wasn't I? I should accept that. Yet she lets me keep my rifle just in case...trouble happens. I half-smiled as I thought to myself. Let's see how much of one, she thinks I am.

I grasped a handful of soft strands of her mane and gave it a tug.

Elly's ears swung to me. "Yes, human?"

"I have to piss." I blurted out.

"You have to- oh." Elly came to a hoof scraping stop, then swung around to the side of the street next to a sign plastered grocery store. The mare's head turned to me. Up ahead, not a stone's throw away was a Iranian made white car parked on the otherwise vacant street.

"Can I get down?" I asked, keeping my face straight. Rifle back on my shoulder.

Elly glanced behind herself. Her nostrils flared, ears moving about. "I sense no danger."

She turned her head to the front and gestured with nose to the car. "I will let you down there."

What? You aren't going to lay down for me? No self respecting horse riding cowboy from my hometown would think a car is a mounting block, yet how would an alien horse know the difference? My eyes scanned the ground nearby, broken glass and paper trash littered every crack. Too high class for her to get herself dirty while I've been crawling in shit for the past three weeks with no shower.

Boots hit the roof of the car as I slipped off her back, rifle back on my shoulder. The car sank underneath my weight as I crawled down the windshield in the most undignified manner while she watched. Hilarious if I say so myself. I have to give up my pride while she keeps hers. Wearing all this gear makes doing anything simple a chore. Don't expect me to run in these boots either. I'm almost glad I get to ride instead of trudge on foot, almost . My feet touched the ground with a satisfying thud. Now to find a good spot…

A casual walk down the street taking a long sip of water from the canteen, out of the corner of my eye, my guard followed behind me, never allowing the distance between us to grow more than two of her strides. I felt like all those Iranian prisoners we took at the start of the war as they marched to the rear while being passed by hundreds of US army vehicles. The humiliation had to be as real to them as it was to me.

No matter, one step with those massive hooves were easily four of my own. Being on ground level I felt so small compared to her. On her back, I felt like a king as I towered over everything, smaller than they seemed below me.

Her expression seemed so human at times if she got upset with me or raised her voice. Most of the time she kept calm in her horse body which made it hard for me to even read her. Her ears barely showed any reaction unless it was something that annoyed her, even watching her tail or lips didn't give anything away. Either she was good at hiding or I was shit at reading horses, probably the latter. If I stared at her long enough...maybe I could learn to read her. I just haven't had enough time.

Her horse-like expressions were impossible to pick out! I know some horse expressions but what do they mean in the case of the talking horse kind? She could easily read a human like me no question but I could not do the same.

If she was a real woman, then she wouldn't be able to hide herself. She would have hands, posture, two feet and a very expressive face. I could easily read her mood as she glided across the floor, seeing how she holds her chin up or shoulders down. How her legs moved beneath her and the position of her arms and hands in relation to me. If only there was some way I could. How does one read a horse? Normal horses don't hide their emotions like Elly does. They freely express them because they have no reason not to be. But Elly was too proper to show any inappropriate emotions, like a wall that she wouldn't allow me to cross over. I licked my teeth. She was holding back, like a woman on a first date.

Behind me, the crunch of glass and the realization struck. It is her feet, all four of them! Impossible to hide, her hooves were her hands and feet and how she placed them on the ground reflects what her current mood is. A horse her size has to adapt to the space she occupies. If it is a small space, she'll have to place them carefully but if it is a large space then she can put them wherever she wants. If she has confidence, then she'll show no concern at all.

In my case, she is so worried about staying close to me that she would rather risk stepping on glass bottles than allow the distance to grow between us. And the best part of it? I didn't have to look her way to know.

A snort came behind me. I smirked, picking up the pace. Oh yes I shouldn't waste her time either.

I found a spot in a narrow gap between two stores. One was selling cell phones with bright happy green colors and the other was real estate. I had the feeling that property values were going to go way down when we won this war.

Elly turned around, her rear towards me. I grinned. Even she herself is too high class to watch someone like me. I finished and about faced, stretching out my arms and yawned in the most exaggerated way. Elly spun herself around and faced me.

"Are you done?" she asked, ears pointed behind her. The mare eyed the storefront behind me.

"Yes I am." I replied, kicking sand off the nonexistent sidewalk. Across the street next to a store's entrance sat a disused, rusting mechanical rocking horse. There came a subtle urge to sit on that instead of the real thing standing next to me. Any soldier would relate, even the ones we were fighting against.

"Then you must get back on me." She stated bluntly.

Hold your horses, woman- oh right. Is that a command or are you that eager for me to get back on? All I ask is for a few minutes. I stretched my sore legs and shoulders then walked in her direction.

Elly took a solid step back and pointed to the car with her nose. Seriously?

I grunted and climbed up the hood reaching the roof on all fours. She came to the side of the vehicle leaving a small gap between her and the driver's side door.

"Get on." She commanded, with a click of her tongue.

Fingers touched her spine as I lifted my boot.

"Slowly." She chimed with a lady's voice as she looked straight ahead. "I do not wish to be kicked."

As you wish, I groaned. My leg carefully lifted over her back, pausing then gently lowering myself down onto her. I scooted up her back into her preferred spot. Legs rested against her sides half extended. A hand taking hold of the withers. I adjusted my seating until I was comfortable enough for bareback at least. Riding this way was still a completely different experience than I ever had riding in a saddle. I was getting the hang of it bit by bit from my teacher...I mean captor.

My right elbow bumped into the rifle stock. Annoying, yes, I could try putting the strap around my waist with the gun in my lap. I don't think it would work for riding though, too much bouncing during a trot. It might work for a walk.

Elly remained motionless, not even attempting to move away from the car as any normal horse would be eager to do. I coughed, wiggling my legs on her sides.

"Do you hear them?" Elly whispered, turning one ear my way.

My head snapped behind me, eyes scanning the deserted road.

"Hear, who?"