Truth - 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐨

Chapter 23

Early in the morning, when everyone was still asleep, I made my way to the stable. There was Ellis and my grandfather with the foal that was born last night. "Good morning" I said and looked over the box door. "Did you bring them in last night?" my grandpa asked "yes, Chris and I found her in the meadow" I said "ahh Chris" he said and gave me that look and raised eyebrows "Hank" Ellis said admonishingly and lightly hitting him on the shoulder, I giggled. "Does she have a name yet?" Ellis asked. "We called her Corazón, but Cora for short" I said. "I like that name, I think it's beautiful" said my grandpa. "I knew you would like it" I smiled. "I'll get Twinkle ready and go to the mountains. I'll be back in a few hours." I said. I took him out of his box, brushed him off briefly, buckled his saddle and put his bridle on him. I led him out and sat up.

The mountains have always been my absolute favorite place, something like a safe place, especially with twinkle. In spring, all the mountain meadows here are always blooming with many different flowers in hundreds of colors. Now in autumn everything is orange, the meter-high fir trees up here shine in different shades of orange and the higher you went, the better you could see the big lake between the mountains. It was just beautiful and I could never get tired of it. Here I can just let my mind go and think about everything. Twinkle already knows the paths inside out, he is simply a reliable horse. He knew exactly what special place I wanted to go. It took almost 2 hours to get to the top, but we have time and we'll be back at 2 p.m. At least that's what I thought. When we reached the highest meadow on the mountain, I got off Twinkle and he was allowed to graze. I sat on the meadow and watched the area, it was simply the most beautiful view. You could hear a wide variety of animals, far away you could hear mountain lions, closer you could hear deer calling to deer, a variety of birds and, above all, you could see the wild horses in the meadows below. It was fantastic, the most beautiful place in the world. I always stayed here for hours with Twinkle. He lay down in the meadow and I lay with my head on his neck and enjoyed the air that blew through the mountains. "It's beautiful up here" I said to him. I talked to him often, especially when I had things to say that I couldn't tell anyone else, cheesy? Yes, definitely.
"What do you think of Chris? He's great, right? You know, I never thought I would fall in love with him. There is something in his eyes that always holds me in place, his voice is trapped in my head, it repeats itself constantly, he always has the right words for everything that worries me. He is special to me, more than I ever thought. And yesterday's conversation made so much clear to me" I said, looking into the distance. I sat up, crossed my legs and out of nowhere Twinkle laid his head on my lap. I stroked him, he is the best listener. "I realized that I love him. I want him to be by my side forever, I want Matthew to be my children's biological uncle, but how can I tell him that, I'm not brave enough, I'm afraid, afraid of instructions, afraid of the future. I could never lose him" I said. Twinkle looked up as if he understood everything I said, I smiled at him, I was happy in that moment "Thank you for listening to me" I said and he closed his eyes. I put my head on his and hugged him. Hours passed, up here in the mountains I just keep forgetting about time, as if everything stood still and only nature continued. I heard mountain lions, normally that doesn't bother me, but this time they were close, too close. Twinkle smelled them too. I got on him and we rode down the mountain, you could hear them roaring again and again. Until I saw one, he was standing on a rock above us. I panicked, what should I do? The danger is too great that we will fall, but the danger that the mountain lion will injure us is even greater. I poked him in the stomach with my heel, just lightly, and he galloped off. The big cat chased after us, I was really afraid that something would happen to Twinkle. I took a shortcut across one of the meadows, I knew at one point it would go steeper down, but we had to try. At this point, we had been gone far too long.

Meanwhile alahna pov:

"Hey grandpa, have you seen Megan?" I asked. "Last time in the stable this morning. Is she still not back?" he asked. "No, Twinkle's box is empty too" I said. "When did she leave?" I asked "this morning around 10 o'clock, what time is it now?" asked my grandpa "3:30 p.m." I said. "You know Megan, her second home is up in the mountains. She just lost track of time and will be there in the next half hour." my grandpa said. "Okay" I said, but my gut feeling didn't believe it. I went to see the triplets. "Grandpa says she left at 10 o'clock" I said "that was 5 hours ago" said Nick and I nodded "aren't there mountain lions in the mountains?" "She told me yesterday" said Chris "oh my god not that something bad happened" said Matt "no definitely not, Megan is always careful" said Nick and tried to calm us down "what if something terrible happened?" I panicked. "Has Megan been up there often?" Chris asked. "Almost every third day when we're here" I replied. "So she knows her way around up there. Nothing's going to happen" he said, but I could hear in his voice that he was just trying to convince himself and was nervous himself. "It's best we go out so we'll see when she comes," Matt said, so we did that. We waited and waited for what seemed like hours.