Krafla sat up in her lumpy bed quickly, heart pounding from the scene that had played out in her minds eye. She rubbed her eyes and looked around her room.

The room itself was small with bookshelves on the north wall. A nightstand stood next to her bed. The walls were made of logs, one on top of the other. Candles and matches layedscattered on the smooth surface of the nightstand that smelt of smoke and fire. She looked down at her creamy white comforter. ‘What a strange dream,’ she thought, remembering the dead deer’s eyes.

She shook her head absently, allowing her middle back length wavy hair to fly around her shoulders. Krafla was a 16-year-old cute girl with earthy green eyes. She wasn’t pretty like most girls but she had an air about her that made her cute in her own way.

Krafla slipped out of her bed and walked quietly over to sheets of yellowing paper that were nailed to the wall by the door to her room. The sheets were a calendar of the months. She flipped through them until she found ‘May’. Krafla ran her finger through the number blocks until it stopped on the 26th. Her eyes grew big as she read the hand written words under the number.

“Hell! It’s Lori’s birthday!’ she exclaimed quietly as she rushed to put on some clean cloths. Lori was her mother and Kraflaalways got her something special for her. Once she was dressed in a green dress withblack stockings underneath for horse back riding, she grabbed her matching green cloak and slipped out the window.

Outside, the sun was just pecking over the mountains of Eclarka Valley. She walked up the short path way to the barn where they kept the horses. As she entered the barn she quickened her pace. The barn only held three horses. Lori’s horse, Brafoca, was a chestnut mare with a white cloud shapes spot on her forehead. Her sister Elena’s horse, Luceal, a palomino mare withgorgeous brown eyes. Last was her horse, Geronimo, a beautiful black stallion with oak leaf green eyes.

Geronimo nickered in greeting to her as she approaches his stall.

“Are you ready for some exercise?” she asked him as she balanced his tack on the stall door and let herself in. In answer, Geronimo whined loudly.

Quickly, Krafla grabbed his muzzle so that he couldn’t make a sound and whispered, “ Quiet! You’ll wake up Lori and Elena!” He tried to get his muzzle free from her but couldn’t get it out of her grip. As if in surrender he lowered his head. “That’s my good boy,” she murmured, patting his neck.

When he was all saddled and bridled Krafla walked over to one a panel in the wall and pulled it out easily. Behind, lay a little green purse full of coins. She had been saving the money for emergencies and to her this was one. Quietly she grabbed the purse and stuck it in one of Geronimo’s saddlebags and tucked the panel back into place. Then she opened the gate, got on Geronimo, and gallop off to the village.