Party Crasher
Late in the evening, the rescue center was peaceful (for the most part) as a small black car pulled up the driveway, headlights glaring off the wooden walls of the front building. It pulled to a stop and turned off, quiet laughter echoing from inside as the driver side door opened. Casey stepped out, fur neatly groomed and a content expression on his face. Walking around, he stopped at the passenger door and opened it up, revealing Charlie. She climbed out and stretched her arms over her head, a little stiff after the car ride,
“Feels good to be home,” She commented, shaking out her fur, then nudging her head against Casey’s shoulder, her expression turning playfully teasing, “I had fun though! Definitely topped last year’s date night,”
“Oh, hush, Charlie..” Casey sighed, but gently headbutt her in return, “That was a year ago, and I wasn’t the one that thought it would be fun to go to a rodeo on Valentine’s Day.”
“Well, clearly it wasn’t that bad because you’re still hangin’ with me, so, all things considered,” She retorted smugly and looped her arm with Casey’s. Another sound of exasperation from him before he started to guide her back to their home on the rescue. Stomachs full, hearts warm, and smiles on their faces, they were ready to get some rest. But, of course, rest is hard to come by around here. There was a cacophony of neighs and bellows coming from the main pasture, followed by a sort of crash. Before Casey could even lift his head, Charlie was already booking it down the path,
“Charlie!” Casey shouted and raced after her, “Charlie, stop, you don’t know what’s out there.”
Of course, Charlie wasn’t going to listen. Why would she? Her horses, her pride and joy, were possibly in danger, and she’d be damned if she let anything happen to them. It was dark, but her eyes had already adjusted by the time she practically leaped over the fence. She didn’t have trouble finding the small group, as the aggressive neighing still hadn’t let up. A flashlight beam glared over her shoulder, Casey must’ve found it in the barn. But what it illuminated made Charlie stop in her tracks and really think about what she was going to do.
Galahad was completely tense and bristled, tail lashing and head held high as he stared down a mystery horse, a gorgeous bay pony with a striking marking on his muzzle. Charlie could assume it was a stallion, Gala never acted like this around mares. She was rooted in place, uncharacteristically petrified, she may have been stubborn, but getting in the middle of two agitated stallions was idiotic. But, even in the dim light of the flashlight, Charlie could clearly see that the mystery stallion was holding one of his legs weird… Her heart dropped. Poor thing…
As she took a step forward, not entirely thinking, she felt herself get pulled back by the fabric of her shirt. She huffed and looked at Casey over her shoulder,
“Charlie you know better,” He scolded, trying to keep her from getting in between the two horses that were likely on the brink of a fight,
“He’s hurt, Casey,” She argued, writhing to get him to let go. His grip held firm, “Casey.” She grumbled at him.
“I’m not letting you get yourself killed on Valentine’s Day,” He retorted, holding his ground with this, “Just-” He sighed, “Go back to the house, I’ll get Dean and we’ll handle it.”
“Back off,” She snapped, the bite to her voice causing the two stallions to startle, and while Galahad stood rooted in place, the wild stallion wasn’t taking any chances. The bay turned tail and disappeared through the fence he had broken on his way in. He was surprisingly quick for an injured horse. Charlie glared at Casey over her shoulder before twisting out of his grip and chasing after the stallion. He let out a shout of protest yet again as she whipped out her phone and turned the flashlight on. She’d be damned if she let another horse get away without her help.
Her phone's light did little to illuminate anything in front of her, she practically ran blind in the vague direction she saw the stallion run off towards. She was nervous, of course she was, who wouldn’t be? The sun had almost completely set, she was approaching the treeline, and there was a possibly aggressive and injured stallion that she may stumble across (or that may stumble across her).
And stumble across she did! Just at the edge of the treeline, she could vaguely make out a lump laid across the beaten path. Her heart dropped. Charlie rushed over without a second thought, and, just as she assumed, it was the bay stallion. Using her phone to briefly examine him, she knelt next to the horse, who was breathing heavily as if winded from his little tumble. Was it stupid of her to trust that a horse like this wouldn’t attack her? Yes, extremely. But she couldn’t just leave him here. Her ears flattened to her head and she crooned quietly at the wild look in his pretty brown eyes,
“I’m so sorry, sweet thing…” She muttered, hesitantly reaching out to lightly stroke his cheek with her paw. He flinched just subtly under her touch, as if unsure of how to react to it, “Where are you hurting?” She said under her breath, using her light to look at his forelegs. Just between his knee and his chestnut was a nasty looking gash. Charlie sighed, whiskers flexing thoughtfully. She wasn’t sure how much this horse trusted her, but she hoped she wasn’t about to get kicked in the face for checking out this wound…
It wasn’t too long before she could see Casey’s flashlight beam pierce through the dark, landing on Charlie as she kept the stallion company,
“Charlie…” He hummed, voice tinged with relief as he saw she was unharmed. He approached the pair, looking down at the bay horse that laid there, tired and ruffled. Casey frowned, his light panning over the cut on the horse’s leg, “Did you text Fletcher?”
“Yeah… They said they’d be on their way shortly. I was just keeping an eye on this poor guy,” She muttered, glancing up at Casey after a second. When he knelt beside her, she fiddled with her sleeve. She felt something gnawing at her gut, her eyes angling downward as her ears flattened.
She wasn’t the type that liked admitting when she was wrong, but… this was different,
“I’m sorry I snapped at you. I don’t… I didn’t mean to, I was just frustrated.” She muttered, risking a glance towards Casey as her paw idly stroked the stallion’s face and played with the forelock between his rounded ears. Casey watched her pet the horse, and eventually settled down to sit cross-legged next to her, his tail draping gently over her own,
“Charlie, you don’t have to apologize for that…” He matched her volume, resting the grip of his flashlight against his shoulder, “I can handle you snapping, but I can’t handle when you always throw yourself into dangerous situations like you did tonight… You scared me, Char.”
“I know, I know…” She brought her free paw up to rub the stress from her face, “I really need to work on that.”
“Yes, you do,” Casey hummed, though he brushed his shoulder up against her own. He grinned just faintly, “Especially not on Valentine’s Day… Would hate to bury you after date-night.”
Charlie snorted, despite the guilt brewing in her chest, caught off guard by his morbid joke, “Oh, shut up, I’m not that bad.”
“You’re pretty bad.”
“Think what you wanna think.” The pair snickered at each other, leaning against the other as they sat there in the dirt with this horse. Charlie was grateful that the stallion was so docile at this moment, she assumed he had likely been out here alone for days. Or longer. Just fending for himself and running from place to place. It broke her heart seeing this beautiful creature so-
“Hey, guys,” a voice whispered behind them, causing Charlie to scream and, in turn, making Casey jolt. The stallion rolled onto his belly, attempting to stand up, only to buckle and fall back onto the dirt. Charlie whipped her head around to see Fletcher, their jackrabbit veterinarian, standing behind them. She let out a sigh of relief and exasperation,
“Fletcher… Please, a warning next time,” She groaned out, her tone lacked any actual annoyance though. Fletcher hummed, fiddling with their medical bag,
“Sorry… Didn’t wanna interrupt. You guys looked cozy,” They mumbled sheepishly, their large ears swiveling backward as their eyes focused on the horse in front of the two felines. Fletcher tilted their head and studied the animal, “You said the injury was on the leg?”
Charlie nodded, Casey opened his mouth to speak, but Fletcher was already rambling away, “It’s not in a horrible spot, he probably cut it when he crashed through the fence earlier, I saw it on the way over, pretty gnarly. Dean and Sylas may need to go fix that up soon before the other horses get out and we have even more injuries on our paws… His cut doesn’t look too deep, but it’ll definitely need to be cleaned out and given some sort of stitching. It should be a clean suture, the wound looks pretty neat despite the depth. He’ll probably need to stay at the rescue for a while while he heals up, just so I can monitor him and make sure he doesn’t get infected or anything. Infections in that area are not fun to deal with so-”
“Earth to Fletcher?” Casey waved his flashlight in their face, snapping the hare out of their ramble,
“Oh! Sorry…” They whined faintly and sat next to the stallion, getting to work dressing the wound, “I can bandage his cut temporarily until we can get him to my clinic.”
Charlie grinned, looking over at Casey smugly over Fletcher’s back, “Oooh, so? I get to keep another horse?”
“Charlie… You know what happened last time.” Casey reminded with a roll of his eyes,
“Oh, shut up! How was I supposed to know she had an owner? Not like she had a microchip or a ‘return-to-sender’ address.”
“She was perfectly groomed and liked people.”
“Oh that can mean anything.” Charlie rolled her eyes with a scoff, “Rolland looks like he just crawled out of a bog and he has an owner, you can’t just generalize horses…”
“Did you just accuse me of ‘generalizing’ horses?”
“Yes.”
“Good grief, Charlie…”
“All done,” Fletcher piped up, sitting up and looking over their shoulder at the two cats. The hare paused for a moment before their ears lowered, their voice a mumble, “Did? Anyone bring a halter?”
The three went quiet. Charlie looked at Casey. Casey looked at Charlie. Fletcher looked at both of them. The stallion let out a huff. Charlie pinched the bridge of her snout and let out a sigh,
“Shit…”
