So this is my story. Well I guess I could start at the beginning. The very fist thing I saw when I was born was my mother running away. I tried calling to her but had not yet found my voice or my legs. It was storming and pouring buckets of rain on me. I finally staggered to my wobbly feet and slowly made my way to a grove of trees. I had found my voice by then and was calling my mother. It was no use. I gave up trying. I didn’t want to live anymore so I lay down and slipped into darkness. In the morning when I woke I heard hoof beats all around me. I heard a female voice.

“Is she alive?”
“I don’t know.” A male voice this time.
“She’s breathing!” The female voice again.
“Momma, Momma!” A young male voice chorused with two others.
“ Hush Neeto, hush Leah, hush Ringo!” the female voice must have been their mother.
They hushed right away. I didn’t want to open my eyes yet. I heard their voices again.

“What’s that? Is that another one?” A young female spoke this time. “Storm, we must save this one just like we did Ringo and Leah!”
“We will Cleo. Settle down.” The male said.
So the adult male was Storm. I opened my eyes and let the light shine in. I blinked, once, twice, three times. I saw a small group of horses hovering around me. They were all smiling and happy. The female looked at me.
“Hello little one.” “What’s your name?” she looked at me
“ A-A-A-Awona.” I stammered.
“Nice to meet you. My name is Windy.”
“Hewow.” I needed to work on my pronunciation.
So the male was Storm, the female was Windy, but who were the others I thought to myself as I saw a smaller group of horses galloping towards us. I had thought they were part of our band. Storm noticed them first.
“Not them again.” He said, disgusted.
“Let’s go! Quickly!” Windy urged
“Allona honey can you find your feet?”
“Y-Y-Yes.” I struggled to my feet, wobbling on my long legs.
“O.k good, can you walk?” “We’ve got to hurry now.” Windy and the babies started across the hill. I scrambled after them and soon found myself galloping as fast as I could go. Windy and the others soon were right next to me with Storm urging us on from behind. I glanced back and sure enough there was a smaller band of horses chasing us. I took care to notice that they were all males but there was one colt in the middle. He was just as tough looking as the adults. I felt a small nip at my rump. Knowing it was Storm I went faster. For a while we just kept running, filling our lungs with air and pushing it back out. We as the foals were slowing. The small band that was chasing us had stopped a while back but Storm wanted to make sure, so he kept us going another ten minutes. We finally stopped to rest for the night. My new muscles were sore from running so hard but I didn’t complain. I had to meet the other foals now. Shyly I walked over to the two fillies that were playing.
“Hi, My name’s Allona. What’s yours?” I was surprised at my own voice.
“ My name is Leah.” The almost red roan filly said.
“My name is Cleo.” The paint filly greeted me.
Soon we were playing as though we’d known each other since we were born. Well I’d almost known them since I was born. Soon the boys came over.
“Hi there! I’m Neeto.” The paint colt said.
“Hi, I’m Allona” I replied.
“I’m Ringo.” The dirt colored horse said.
“Do you wanna race?” Neeto offered.
“Sure!” I said eagerly.” “You guys comin’?”
“Yep!” They said together.
And we were off. Racing around like we were at the Kentucky Derby. Even though we had no clue what that was. We galloped as fast as we could towards the edge of the field. We had no clue what could happen if we went in the woods but it felt so good to run and I was in the lead. We heard a squeal and a growl. We stopped just in time to see a cougar crouching in front of us in the trees. The squeal we heard was Storm racing across the field coming closer. We were rooted to the spot. We couldn’t see the cougar anymore but as Storm came nearer we heard it. That was our only chance to run and run we did. As soon as we turned the cougar jumped and almost caught my back leg. I glanced back and saw Storm slam his body into the cougar. It screamed with fury as it was flung aside. It struggled to get up off the ground Storms hoof met it’s shoulder. It again struggled to get up and it staggered away, Storm snorting in fury after it. By then we have safely reached the herd and were watching Storm trot back looking very, very disappointed in us. He came up to us.
“ That was very foolish of you four.” “ You must never go near the woods unless accompanied by one of us. Is that understood?” Storm looked at each and everyone of us and lingered on me and Neeto.
“Since you,” He looked at me. “ I will let this one go.” “But you, Neeto, should know better.”
“Yes father, I’m sorry.” Neeto looked sheepishly at his feet.
We had learned our first lesson of the Green Mountain Valley Herd.