Common

I break away from my perch to pace anxiously around the outskirts of the meadow, desperately trying to find anything at all that might be familiar to me. There were no fences, no people, no roads. No smelly automobiles or weird leaf-less trees that crackled and buzzed above my head. No human tracks or human smells.

There was nothing but me and a whole host of strangeness.

With each step, my heart sank further and by the time the midnight-clad giant approached me, I was one half-step away from melting into a puddle of frightened tears. As he approaches, I take half a step back, my mouth opening to clack appeasingly in his direction. He towered over me by at least a foot, dwarfing my petite figure and making me feel once more like the tiny abandoned filly I had once been.

When he doesn't move to attack or scold me, I prick my ears in his direction just as he begins to speak. Hope rises in my chest that I might understand what he is saying, but falls quickly as the words he speaks are just as garbled as anyone else. Üdvözlöm, he begins and I sigh but do my best to understand what it is he is trying to ask me. I may not understand the words, but I can tell from the way his voice lilts upward like a bird taking flight in the words that follow that it is a question I am expected to answer. Aer yuo lsto, kicsi, he asks.

For a long moment, I only stare at him with my golden eyes wide and afraid. He doesn't sound hostile, but for all I know he could be threatening to rip my limbs off one by one. I can feel my brow furrowing as I sort through the possibilities. I was certain that I looked lost and afraid, considering I was both very lost and very afraid. If I combined this with the way that none of the other horses around acted as if they were here with horses they knew, then I was pretty sure I could guess that this wasn't a herd of friends.

Maybe they were asking if I was alright? Or were they asking me if I was lost? Maybe they were asking what I was even doing here in the first place? Swallowing hard, I settled for an awkward and noncommittal roll of my shoulders and an affirmative nod of my head. Yes? Maybe?

homeless . loveinspired