Another story for those of you that like to read them! This is the Second part!

“Mary, wait!” he called after me, but his voice was far away now.
   I had come out of the pine stables and looked at what all surrounded me. There were fields full of grazing thoroughbreds of all colors and what lay ahead was the mile long track. It was used to warm up the horses before a race or just to exercise them. I took in a deep breath. I would become an exercise rider and then a jockey after that. I couldn’t wait! It would be great, racing against other jockey’s trying to see if the horse that they were riding was the best. I planned to fallow my mother’s and father’s footsteps. I would become a well known jockey that everyone wants and my horses would always win.
   Rocket saw the track and pulled me toward it. “Hold on Rocket, we’re almost there.” I comforted.
   We got to the entrance of the track and I slowly mounted Rocket. Almost immediately ha calmed down. I pushed him over towards the gate. When I was right beside it I opened up the latch and carefully let us inside and closed it behind. I tapped my heels on Rocket’s sides and he walked forward, toward the middle of the track. He needed to let out some of that energy. I bent down and tightened the reins a bit. He was restless, so I once again tapped him on his sides, but a little harder this time. He serged forward and began to gain speed as he sped down the track. It was just like flying. His hooves didn’t even seem to touch the ground. I screamed out in laughter. I loved this.
   Out of the corner of my eye I could see a still figure standing at the gate. It was John. I wanted to show him that I could do things on my own. I bent lower and kneaded my had in his neck and he gained even more speed. It was unremarkable. He wasn’t even tiring.
   I decided that we had shown off enough. I began to stand up in the stirrups and pull on the reins, but Rocket kept on going. My hair was bellowing in the wind and it felt as though I could fall backward any second. I struggled to stop him, but he wouldn’t listen. I heard the shouts of John as he tried to catch up to us. Rocket was gaining speed by the second.
   “Mary! Hold on!” he called after us.
   Suddenly something flew out onto the track and frightened Rocket. He reared high in the air. I screamed at the top of my lungs as I frantically reached out to wrap my hands around Rockets neck. He was getting higher and higher into the air. It seemed like Rocket would topple over at any second. “Help!” I screamed. Rocket landed on the ground again. I relaxed a bit when he rose once more. I wasn’t so quick this time. I barley took hold of his mane when he was as high up in the air as he was before.
   John was behind me somewhere. “Hold on Mary, I promise that I’ll help you, just hold on.” he encouraged.
   I tried to hang on as tight as I could as Rocket landed once more. Then he rose up. This time I couldn’t hold on. My arms felt as though they would rip off at any second. I struggled to hang on, I really did, but I slipped off backward and landed on something soft. It was John. The wind seemed to be knocked out of him by the way he was breathing. “Thank you so much John. Thank you.” I whispered to him as I hugged him harder than ever.
   “Your welcome Mary, your welcome.” he whispered back softly as he rocked me back and forth in his lap.
   End of Flashback
   Ever since then we had been great friends. John would always be in my heart, whether I was at A Winners Home or somewhere else in the world, he would always be with me. “John, would you always miss me if I ever left?” I wondered curiously.
   “Of course I would. We all would.” he reassured me, but I wasn’t reassured at all. He didn’t say that himself alone would miss me.
   I looked away sadly, maybe he didn’t care for me. “Yeah, I’m sure you would.” I told him calmly.
   “Well, don’t worry about that, you’ll be back and ready to mess around with the horses all you want.” he reassured me as he gave me another hug. Maybe we were just friends after all.
   There was a soft knock at the hospital door and John and I looked over quickly. “Excuse me sir, but it’s after visiting hours. If your not family, you can’t stay. “ the nurse informed us politely.
   “Well, ok. I guess I’ll see you later. I’ll come by tomorrow to see how you are ok?” he asked. I could tell that he didn’t want to leave. His eyes revealed that much.
   “Ok, that’s fine.” I answered.
   His eyes met mine and we stared at each other for a few seconds before he looked away and made his way out the door. “Bye.” I quietly whispered.
   He didn’t seem to have heard me. I slowly walked back to the bed and lay upon it. I sat there for many minutes, just thinking about what life was going to be like. Soon, after all the lights had been turned out and the hospital was in silence, I finally fell into a sleep like no other. I was riding Misty again, but this time is was in the sky. We were flying high above all the houses and towns below. We were racing against nothing. I patted her beautiful neck and leaned in closer. I rested my head on her long graceful neck. I wanted to stay with her forever.
   “Mary” I was startle away from her neck. Where had that vice come from? I looked around frantically, but I couldn’t find the source. “Mary, it’s me, Misty.”
   “What? Misty. But how?” I inquired.
   “Mary I can’t stay long, I’m only hear to give you advice. Open our heart to receive the love you have been denied and let people in, to see the real you. Open your ears to hear what is going on all around you. Listen for things that only your heart can hear. I will always be with you, but remember my words Mary. May they guide you onto the right path towards your future. I will always love you just as you have loved me. Bye Mary,. I will miss you.” Misty told me in a hypnotizing voice.
   Misty suddenly disappeared from beneath me and I was falling. I was falling faster then ever and gathering speed by the second. I started to scream when I hit something soft. I woke up immediately. I was back in the hospital in my bed.
   I looked over to me right and I saw John sitting there with a grim expression on his face. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked coldly. “You never said that you weren’t coming ack. I believed you. How could you lie to me like that?” there was pain etched across his face.
   “John, I didn’t mean not to tell you. I didn’t want to hurt you. I promise. Please believe me.” I begged.
   “I ‘can’t.” he said sadly as he walked out of the room.
   “No!! Come back, please! Listen to me!” I sobbed, but he was already gone.
   “Mary, Mary, wake up!” it was John. I opened my eyes to revel that it was all a dream. “Mary, are you ok? You were having a bad dream.” he informed me.
   “What but you said....” then it dawned on me. That was my conscience. It was telling me what might happen if I don’t tell John.
   “It’s ok Mary. You don’t have to worry about it. I’m right here.” he calmed me down, assuring me that he would always be there.
   “John, you don’t understand. You wont always be there. I’ll be on my own at one point and you wont be able to save me.” I told him. My heart was sore and my throat hurt. It was painful uttering these few words aloud.
   “Mary, I know that I won always be physically with you, but I will be with you emotionally.” he tried to tell me but I wouldn’t listen.
   “Please John. Please go, I’m suddenly not feeling well.” John looked hurt but he also looked understanding.
   “Ok Mary. I will be back here tomorrow at noon. See you then alright?” his voice sounded concerned.
   “Yes, alright. Perhaps, by tomorrow, I’ll be feeling a lot better. “ I lied. I wouldn’t be here tomorrow. I couldn’t stand to see him so hurt and if I did that to him, he would be hurt beyond repair.
   John slowly exited the room and that night I didn’t sleep. Instead, I packed up all my stuff into a duffel bag and made my way toward the only window in my room. Thankfully, I had a privet room, so I didn’t have to worry about another patient.
   I got to the clear closed window and slowly pried it open with a screwdriver that I found in the closet. The window made a small screeching noise like an owl. I stood there, frozen on the spot to see if anyone had heard. There was no shouting or scurrying of feet so I decided that everything was clear. I was on the 3rd floor so I threw my duffel bag on the ground. It made a soft thud as it hit the solid ground. I checked once more to make sure that no one was coming and jumped down beside the duffel. I felt a pang of pain in my leg ass I hit the ground. Being 3 stories up didn’t help any. I fought not to scream.
   Then I slowly crept across the garden into the parking lot. I had to get away. I had to start a new life away from this place.
   I ran till morning, stowing away in alleyways, broken down cars, shops, and other places. By morning, I had arrived in the country. It was far away from my old home. My feet were sore and it felt like my legs would brake any second now. I had arrived in Horse Rampage County.
   I had heard about this place. It was over 100 miles away from where I lived and this place was strictly horses. It has even been rumored that this whole town was actually one whole ranch, big enough to be called a county.
   I silently walked into the town. There were beautiful horses on each side of the skinny rode in many different paddocks. There were ones of all colors. There had to be at least 300 horses.
   I continued up the rode, seeing more horses than I had ever seen in my life! I couldn’t take my eyes off the horses’s gleaming coats. I could smell the sweet flowers and fertilized grass. It all seemed overwhelming. The way the sun just shined off the ground, making the grass on the ground look like a huge emerald. I could just imagine riding one of those magnificent horses in a race. They all looked like they would have spectacular speed.
   Little foals were running through the fields. I could see each muscle ripple under their immaculate fur.
   “Hey, lady! What do you think your doing in this town?” an old lady dressed in pricey cowgirl cloths, wonderful boots and designer tags on everything. Her hair was a cloudy white but she looked just as young as a 20 year old. Her voice was strong and confident.
   “ I was just, well I needed to get as far away from my home as I could. I just happened to come into your town. I’m sorry. I guess I’ll leave now. Bye.” I said hurriedly and I began to turn around and run out of the town.
   “Now wait a second, missy. We can sort this problem out perfectly well.” she shouted after me. I stopped abruptly. Now come here and tell me what made you run away from home dear.” this time her voice was caring.
   I reluctantly fallowed her into a workshop at the end of the rode. It was huge! In was the size of a Super Wal-Mart. When we walked in it, there were at least 20 workers making tack and many different horse accessories.
   I gasped out loud. This place was beautiful. The walls looked like they were shiny and brand new, but in reality they were at least 100 years old. I could tell by the way they were structured.
   “Now young lady, tell me all about yourself and I’ll tell you all you want to know about me.” The woman said calm and caring like.
   “Well, I’m 15 and I’m from A Winners Home stables back in Starring Town. My name is Mary Rennet and I am a trained jockey that has raced some of the best and well know horses ever known. I come from an excellent racing stable that breeds, trains, and races horses. I have many friends back home. I have trained horses myself and........” I couldn’t think of anything else really.
   “Well, I’ll be. Aren’t you the Mary Rennet that lost her horse a few months ago in a terrible race?” the lady inquired.
   “Y-y-y-es. Her n-n-n-name was Misty and s-s-she was a wonderful horse.” I stammered. Misty tears began to fill my eyes. It still hurt to think about Misty. I missed her a lot.
   “Oh, I’m so sorry dear. I should have know that that would be a sore spot for you. I’m so sorry.” she apologized.
   Well, now that we’ve gotten a pretty good idea who you were, tell me about why you ran away from home.” she persisted.
   I was hoping that she would forget this part of the deal but I guess not. “Well. Um, you see.”
   “Go on dear. It’s ok. I promise that I wont tell anyone else about our conversation.” she comforted.
   “Ok. Well, you’ve heard about the accident in the race right?” the woman shook her head. “Well I had fallen from the saddle and I had been kicked by other horses as they tried to make their way around my. I wasn’t so lucky though. I didn’t just get kicked around. M-m-my head got stepped on by a horse named Clumsy Lass. After that I blacked out and I woke up 4 moths later in the hospital.” I could hardly continue. My throat felt like it was closing up and salty tears filled my already tired eyes, threatening to spill over at anytime. Through this whole conversation, the woman showed sympathy and didn’t ask any questions and she didn’t laugh at all, so I tried to continue. “At that hospital, I-I-I woke up to find that my horse had to be p-putdown be-because she would n-n-never be alive without s-s-suffering really bad pain.” I was in tears now. They were spilling continuously down my pale face.
   The lady now seemed to have pain in her own eyes. “It’s ok dear.” she had swept up beside me and pulled me against her chest. “Go on. It’s ok. Let it all out.” through all of this she was patting my back and I became steadily warmer towards her.
   I stopped crying after about 30 minutes and wiped away the last tears. I continued my story with less difficulty because I had gotten past the hard part. “Then, my mother came and tried to comfort me, but I wouldn’t let her. I blamed her for Misty’s death because that day, I didn’t want to take her to the how, but my mom made me. I wanted to take her to the next day race, but it was no use arguing. She did it anyway. After we were done arguing, she forbid me to come back home and so I didn’t argue. Instead, I just let her leave. Later on, my best friend and stable hand, john came by. I was really happy to see him, but apparently my mom hadn’t told anyone that I wasn’t coming bac, so I lied to him. He was my best friend and I couldn’t bear to see his distrustful face after that. He left later and came back the next day when I was having a bad dream about what he would think if I found out. It was then that I knew I had to leave, so I acted like I was sick and he left. That night I escaped the hospital and made my way as far away as possible from that town.” my story was finished and I felt surprisingly better. It was like a huge weight had been lifted from my soldiers.
   “Well, that was really brave of you. I can see why you’ve run away and I understand. No I guess, it is my turn to explain myself. I am, as you may have guessed, Anna Daniella, owner of the largest ranch in the world. I am 67 years old and I have lived here almost my entire life. At this stable there are race horses, and show horses for every event ever. I have many studs and mares and many foals as well.” Anna informed me. I was flabbergasted. I was here with the famous Anna Daniella.
   “Now that we have introduced ourselves, I think that I might give you a tour. Would you like one?” Anna inquired.
   “Yes, I would really like a tour ma’am.” I answered politely.
   “Oh nonsense. Stop with this ma’am stuff. Just call me Anna. Lets get started then.” Anna informed me.
   I really liked her. She was a wonderful woman. “Ok. Thank you Anna.” and so we began our tour.
   We were walking out of the workshop and Anna stopped. She turned around and pointed at it. “This, where we have just exited, it the workshop where my stable hands and friends make saddles and other horse necessities.” we continued walking along the path until we reached the first huge paddock. It was filled with beautiful mares and their foals. “This paddock keeps the mares that have recently had their foals. There are 20 mares and 22 foals. Ah, now here comes Delila. She has had twins. Oh, here they are. This is Alice,”she was pointing toward a grayish foal that was jumpy and hyper. “And this is Wonder” she was now pointing to the other foal that was a black foal. This puzzled me because the mare was white and e was black, while his sister was gray. “We named him wonder because his Sire was gray and he turned out black.” she gently patted their heads and walked on. “I will introduce you to each horse later tonight or tomorrow night ok?” she asked but it really didn’t seem like a question.
   “Yeah, that would be great.” I exclaimed as we continued on.
   Then we stopped at another paddock. This one was as little bigger. “This paddock has the many studs of mine. There are 54 studs in here.” I watched in amazement. I had never seen so many studs at once.
   Then something totally awesome happened. This huge striking black stallion came over to the gate. I recognized him at once. He was Black Stallion Dream. He was a magnificent race horse that had won to Triple Crown 8 times in a row. He was retired now, but he was just as beautiful as ever. His coat looked like black silk and his eyes were as black as the midnight sky.
   “This,” she patted the black stallion, “is Black Stallion Dream, as I figured you knew by the look on your face.” I silently nodded my head. “Would you like to pet him?” Anna asked.
   I was awestruck. I could actually touch the magnificent Black Stallion dream. The most famous stallion in the world. He was worth well over 4 million dollars. “I-I-I can touch him?” I inquired. My voice was really high pitched.
   “Well of course you can, and tonight or tomorrow night, you will meet many other famous horses.” Anna informed me.
   I slowly reached out and patted the beautiful stallion. He was just like any other horse, but with fame surrounding his very name.
   Anna slowly started to continue down the path until we reached anther beautiful paddock. This one contain unmistakable, yearling. “These are my yearlings. I have never sold a horse of mine because they are all good at something. Some are good at racing, some at jumping, and some are good at other things. That is how I got a stable that contained horses that are good at every event. I had started at a racing stable and soon it grew when I tried horses at other events.” Anna explained. The yearlings were jumping around and racing each other. It was a beautiful site.
   Anna continued on. And we saw many other beautiful horses and many other things around this wonderful ranch. By the time we were done it was night fall and it was time to put the horses up. “Could I help put the horses up?” I wondered.
   “Well of course you can. Why don’t you go down to the mares with the foals and begin to put them up. I’ll send Charlie to help.” Anna assured her.
   I began my way towards the mares paddock and waited for this Charlie person to show up. After about 10 minutes I could hear footstep making their way down the path. I just thought that it was a passerby going to the stables or something.