treading water (Phantom)

[Phantom]

Jason continued his trek through the trampled undergrowth "His name is Cal" he smiled as he looked around for the lost mare, but of course she was no where to be found. He looked back at the brown gelding that was lumbering behind lazily, hoping that maybe his trusty steed had seen or heard something that he had not but the brown gelding's eyes were half shut, clearly the gelding wanted no part in the small quest to find the mare. Jason sighed quietly to himself Some help you are Cal thought Jason. He looked at the gnarly patch of brambles and he just avoided them, however his horse walked right on through them as though they weren't even there. Jason looked around once more "Ginger!" he shouted

The brown gelding looked at Jason and Rowan and snorted. He could scent less recent scents of the mare, perhaps she ran off deeper into the woods? He looked lazily at the two humans as he walked through the brambles to catch up to Jason.

[Forte]

Rowan half-looked back, a distracted kind of smile on her face. "Well, then, nice to meet you, Cal," she said, not unkindly, but as if her mind was on other things. Most likely the fact that her usually bomb-proof mare had just bolted through bramble and over log into the middle of nowhere. She tromped off through the undergrowth, looking cautiously about for poison ivy, which was so endemic to Georgia that it was second-nature to her to avoid it altogether. Thankfully, it seemed as if this particular path was mostly clear, and in any case it did not present severe symptoms in horses, so she was not particularly concerned for Ginger, more for herself and Jason. She smiled to herself as Jason called out for Ginger, glad that she was not alone in these close-quartered woods. She stopped of a moment, eying a patch of thistle upon which several white hairs were caught.

"She should be around here somewhere..." murmured Rowan, peering through the gloom and past the barring trees, "she won't have gone far, and if I know her she'll be standing around looking as if nothing's happened." This was more to comfort herself then anything else, but sure enough as she looked a bit of weed shifted behind a band of beech trees, and there was the faintest shimmer as a red-gold tail flashed through the air. Sure enough, Ginger was standing in a dappled bit of sunshine and with her nose down among scattered purple wildflowers, which inhabited a sort of tiny glen bordered by the beech trees. "Ginger!" called Rowan happily, but Ginger just snorted as if they ought to have known she had been here all along, typically.

[Phantom]

Jason looked around for a few more moments, almost nervously, as he he sought out the lost mare. He managed to smile back as Rowan acknowledged the brown gelding behind him, who still following along lazily. He clutched the reins tighter in his hand and he was almost pulled to an abrupt stop as the gelding behind stopped abruptly. The gelding had thrown up his head and was looking where Rowan was looking, his nostrils flared and previously half shut eyes wide opened. The gelding's loud nicker had surprised Jason a bit but he tried to not his surprise show on his face. Jason looked around and then followed Rowan's gaze "It looks like you have found her, before she got herself into trouble" he called softly, but he was excited that they had found Ginger, but it was Rowan who had really found her. He mentally shrugged, he hadn't really been a big help, but at least he had came along. What if Rowan had gotten into trouble while on her search for her runaway mare? Jason looked up to the sky, why was he thinking such strange things? Maybe he was losing it, he ran his hand through his hair as he looked back at the mare a little ways off.

[Forte]

Rowan grinned broadly back at Jason, "Yeah, looks like she managed not to get too badly torn up." From here, she could see a few burrs that had attached themselves to the mare's coat. Ginger looked up at them and nickered back to Cal good-naturedly, still looking completely innocent. "I wondered when you would get here," she said, and with that set off at a trot through a gap in the beech trees. However, suddenly her step faltered and she gave a squeal of sudden fright and pain as she was nearly brought down to the ground, jumping upwards and to the side as if fighting some invisible foe. Her back left leg twisted at an odd angle as she spooked, and as it did a sliver of sunlight glanced off of a thin, nearly invisible silver wire that was strung through the gap in the trunks, where a conspicuous rabbit path was now horribly visible. Ginger had been caught in a running snare meant to catch the necks of rabbits.

Like most animals who find some force gripping their legs, Ginger's first instinct was to fight it, and so she did, thrashing around in the leaves and squealing in panic. The trap appeared to be crudely hand-made, a little rusted over, and free-running, so that when she pulled against it it tightened further. It had hooked itself low around her fetlock, where it was now cutting into the flesh, causing small baubles of bright blood to form, sticking in the white hair just above Ginger's hoof. Rowan, who at first had stood stock-still and stunned, like a deer in headlights, now commenced to panic, hardly knowing what to do. Her first thought was just to get that wire off of her horse, but she found that she couldn't even go near, the mare was struggling and thrashing around so viciously. "Ginger! Calm down!" she said, but if anything the panic in her voice made the horse even more afraid. She looked back at Jason desperately, breathing quickly, almost hyperventilating with panic.

[Phantom]

Jason looked shocked for a few split seconds and then he snapped out of his moment of awe and assessed the situation in his mind for a few quick moments and he dropped the reins of his gelding as he ran up to stand beside Rowan. He placed his hand on her shoulder as he watched the mare thrash around with the wire snug around her leg. "First you have to calm down Rowan" he said calmly as his gray eyes gave the mare a quick once over "Your mare doesn't know me, so I am sure she will not let me get close. You have to stay calm, and she will be calm as well. We have to get that wire off her" But of course that was easier said then done. He wondered if he would have to cut the wire off of her leg, because it did look as if it had cut deep. With his free hand he reached to his back pocket, yes, he had a pocket knife back there, but hopefully he could just slip the wire off.

Cal's ears flattened as he saw the mare thrash helplessly and painfully in front of him. He nickered loudly hoping that the mare would listen to him Ginger! I know you are in pain but please calm down! It will be alright! The gelding took half a step forward and nickered again as he grew worried about the hurt mare.

[Forte]

Rowan jumped about six feet into the air when Jason put his hand on her shoulder, startled. This was mostly because she had been staring glassy-eyed at Ginger, who was still thrashing about but a little more hopelessly now, staring miserably at the wire that kept flashing in the sunlight. Great beads of blood were scattering like rubies from where the wire had tightened and cut into her skin. Having been snapped out of her gawping, Rowan had started shaking uncontrollably, seized by a sickly kind of empathy. Nonetheless, at Jason's words she rallied and made an attempt to set her jaw, swallowing as if to swallow her terror. "E-easier said than d-done," she said thorough tight lips, her voice shaking, but she appeared to be somewhat pacified, at least her exterior had become calmer. She attempted to take deep breaths, although it sounded more like she was gasping for breath.

"Easy, hun, we're going to get you out of there," she said after a moment, taking a very careful step towards the mare. This crooning, combined with Cal's whinnies, had caused Ginger to stop thrashing around so much, which caused the running knot to loosen up some. This loosening prompted her to draw her hoof up sharply in the hopes that it would come free, however, the wire snapped taut and she gave a little scream - there was no other word to describe it - of pain and surprise. Her eyes had a milky, glazed look and her ears were pinned back practically against her neck in distress. Rowan took another step forward and grabbed onto Ginger's reins, which were hanging, broken at the middle, snagged on a clump of thistle. "Easy, now... Stand still... Jason, I'm going to try and hold her... See if you can cut the wire close to where it's tied, I don't think she'll let either of us near that leg."

[Phantom]

Jason was a little taken aback by Rowan's reaction but he thought nothing else of it as he watched Rowan attempt to calm Ginger. He silently hoped that she could calm the frightened and injured horse and he was also grateful for his gelding to whinny at the mare, perhaps he was trying to help as well. He was calmed a bit as the mare stop thrashing as much as she was only moments before and Jason slowly reached into his back pocket for the pocket knife he knew was there. He moved slowly toward the young mare, hoping, praying that he would not get kicked, he hopd that luck was on his side today of all days. He held the pocket knife firmly in one hand as he he stood a little ways away from the mare's leg, once again hoping that she would find it in her heart to kick the sense out of him. He slowly reached for the wire in his free hand and started to cut through it with his knife.

Cal waited patiently away from Jason and Rowan, he nickered softly again to the mare, his own ears still flattened against his head, as he pawed the earth, watching in anticipation at Jason attempting to cut the wire.

[Forte]

Rowan kept murmuring to the mare, even though the tips of her fingers were visibly trembling now, and she was eying Jason over Ginger's withers. She was incredibly glad that he was there, now, and just the sight of him, trying to help her like that, tethered her a little bit, and she managed, not without effort, to exhale at last. "Easy, Ginger... Jason is going to cut the wire and then you'll be free," like Jason himself, she was vaguely worried that the panicked Appaloosa might lash out simply out of protective instincts, and for a moment it looked very much like she might. However, just at the right moment Cal nickered again, and Ginger froze, her lower lip trembling. "That's it, just stand still..." Rowan crooned, still looking at Jason anxiously. Wire wasn't exactly easy to cut with a pocket knife.

However, the fact that the wire was flimsy, homemade, and quite a bit rusted over at some parts meant that they were in luck. Still, the seconds seem to stretch out into ages as the wire, although it appeared to weaken, was still resistant to snapping altogether. Ginger still looked on edge, her ears pinned, hardly listening to Rowan murmuring sweet nothings in her ears.

[Phantom]

Jason's anxiety was rising as he eyed the mare for a few seconds and then went back to attempting to cut the wire. Come on...cut through the wire.. He thought to himself as he continued to run the knife through the wire and then finally, the rusted aged wire snapped, almost as if by magic. "Thank goodness" muttered Jason inaudibly underneath his breath as he got back up and backed away from the mare, his back was sore from kneeling to cut the wire but he was glad that he had finally managed to cut the darn wire. At least he had done something.

[Forte]

When the wire snapped, Ginger jumped out of her reverie and managed to smash Rowan hard on the chin with her nose, sending Rowan to the ground on her butt. The wire coiled lazily and then fell away from Ginger's fetlock, revealing a thin laceration just at the heel, medium-deep but not bleeding profusely. The white hair immediately around it had turned a sickly shade of pink. Rowan stood up, rubbing her chin disconsolately, but looking immensely relieved. She examined the surrounding earth carefully for anymore snares before leading a limping Ginger out of the beech copse. Then, hardly knowing what she was doing in a wave of triumph, she hugged Jason. "You were brilliant!" she said, grinning from ear to ear.

Then, apparently snapping into reality, she released him and turned a rather violent shade of red, coughing into her sleeve to hide her face. "Uh." She turned away rather too abruptly to go examine Ginger's back foot. Ginger was breathing quickly, but looked up at Cal gratefully. "Poor girl... What sort of person would have set something like that here?"

[Phantom]

Jason watched surprised as Rowan fell to the ground but was relieved when she stood back up. Boy am I tired he thought to himself as he watched the mare carefully, glad that she didn't try to take off again, even though her leg was injured somewhat. He sighed mentally, mostly in relief, as Rowan led the limping mare away from injury site, but he was even more surprised when Rowan hugged him. He wasn't expecting her to be that grateful of his help, he hardly did anything, he just..well he just cut a wire. His face turned a light shade of pink and he looked over at Cal, who was calm again seeing that the mare had been freed. He thought about what Rowan had just said "Probably a hunter or something of the sort" he said simply as he looked back at Rowan and Ginger.

Cal snorted, rather content after seeing that Ginger was going to be okay. The gelding snorted again as he himself, relaxed, pricking his ears foward as he listened to the strange talk of Jason and Rowan.

[Forte]

Rowan was now enraptured in looking at the laceration on Ginger's heel, not really paying attention to much out. Dragonflies danced over the shimmering surface of the lake that lay just in her peripheral vision, flitting like faeries in and out of her sight. Rowan had always had a soft spot for dragonflies, but was frowning vaguely as she stood up straighter and gave a distracted little sigh. "It's not too bad, but all the same we'd better get along..." she said, mostly to herself, before turning to Jason with a little grin, though it was tinged with vague unease, worry for Ginger, "Thanks again, I probably would've just stood there looking like an idiot if you hadn't been here."

"Come on, sweet girl," she said to Ginger, "I've got gauze in the trailer, we'll get you all fixed up to go to the vet..." The horse hobbled along behind her as Rowan walked on, pulling up beside Cal and Jason. Ginger snorted at Cal, "Thanks, Cal," she said, inclined to be friendly for once, "for not letting me kick your person over that log there. I'll see you around some time, I expect." Rowan attempted to smile again, although clearly distracted. "Well, until next time then, Jason. Not that I hope there'll be a next time for this ordeal." Nonetheless, her tone was not unkind.