Chapter one

Eve stepped forward into the grassy meadow, obscured by trees. Her twin, Jade, followed behind her. Eve smelled the grass and the trees and the smell of horse hide that lingered from the herd that passed. Jade could hear the sounds of the faraway hoof beats as the wild horse herd thundered on. Eve and Jade, two runaway twins, had unnatural abilities. Anyone else might have called them supernatural powers. But these twins weren’t magical. Eve and Jade had ears and nose of a blood hound; their eyesight was rumored to be better than a hawks. The two girls stepped into the middle of the clearing, and stopped. Eve sniffed the air, and Jade listened, hard. Surely, two ten year old girls can’t catch two horses by themselves. Eve thought. But, they needed horses to travel with, they couldn’t carry all of their things. “They have gone to the east,” Jade told her twin. Eve nodded. They must not stray too far from camp, or they will have to walk over three miles with bucking, plunging, rearing wild horses. But luckily for them, the horses had not strayed far from the clearing. The horses had gone one fourth of a mile away, and stopped. If the girls were lucky, they could make it back to camp before dark. They followed the tracks of the horses and ended up at a little creek. Jade made a mental note that they should ride here sometime. The girls hid behind a stand of juniper trees. They had tracked the herd for over a month now, and knew which horses they needed. They would not dare take the lead stallion, dark and beautiful he was, they could not take him away. They were after a snowy white horse, and a grayish black horse. They were both yearlings. They would be easy to train. The white and the grey wandered toward the stand of junipers where the sisters were hiding. The girls quietly took off the ropes on the edges of their shoulders. They unraveled them, and when the horses were near, cast them. The two perfect loops settled themselves around the horses’ necks and tightened. The horses were so surprised that they just stood there. Only when they felt the rope tighten, around their neck, did they start to plunge and kick. All of Eve’s doubt was instantly forgotten when the grey horse started to plunge and she was jerked off her feet when the horse reared. If he could pick her up, what was the white doing to her sister? Eve looked over and saw Jade fighting to keep the horse down. Eve looked back to her own horse and planted her shoe heels into the sturdy soil. After about ten minutes, the horses settled down. The girls took this moment to rest, then they set out back to their camp. Eve quickly looked at the sun and back down. It was in the very center of the sky. They had made good time. The horses followed at a distance, but they didn’t try to run away. They were too curios. .Every time one horse stopped, the girl leading it would too. Once she felt slack in the rope, she would start off again. When they had reached the campsite, the sun was low in the sky. The girls had not said a word, for fear that talk would spook the horses. Jade gave the white to Eve, and went to get a rope out of her rucksack. She tied it between two trees, and retrieved the white from Eve. They tied their horses to the rope, then they went to their rucksacks together. The had to rummage around for a while, and the horses watched with interest. The girls found what they were looking for. Halters. They walked slowly toward the horses. Eve went to the grey and measured the halter to the side of his head. Then she went to the white and did the same thing. It would fit the grey better, she guessed, so she undid the back strap and slid the nose band around the grey’s nose. Then she quickly pulled the rest of the halter up and re-buckled the back strap. She did the same to the white, and then Jade took her. Jade clipped the lead rope to the halter and tied the end around the rope between the two trees. Eve did the same thing. They tied the ends of the lassos and loosened the circle around the horses necks. Eve started to check the grey over for injury, and Jade started to string up the two hammocks that the girls had brought. She started to tie them to the trees, when she heard an interesting sound. It was a kind of squeak, but a lot higher pitched than one that Jade had ever heard. She walked around the tree with the hammock’s rope in one hand, and found a little bird, lying on the leaf-strewn ground. She dropped the rope, and knelt down by the little bird. Its wing was bent at a funny angle, and its leg was bleeding. She gently picked up the little bird, and went to the saddle packs, and sat down with the small bird in her palm. It was a young wood pecker. Just at the same time, Eve heard a tiny woof, a pitiful noise. An average human wouldn’t be able to detect it, but Eve could. She went to investigate. She quickly looked around, made sure the horses were secure, and made her way toward the sound. Eve suddenly tripped. The source was trip wire. She could see the gleam of the wire in the golden glow from the sinking sun. A stone pressed against her chest. The green stone that she wore around her neck, held there by a gold chain, was in the shape of a half heart. Eve got up, dusted her self off, and proceeded to walk toward the sound coming from inside a huge hole in the ground. She looked down into the hole. A small gray wolf pup, lay in the bottom of the hole. Eve gasped, and ran back to the camp to get a rope. She slowed when she reached the horses, and walked up to the white. She unclipped the lead rope, and the mare tried to run away. But the rope around her neck stopped her. Eve ran back to the hole, jumping over trip wire, and lowered the rope into the hole. The pup grabbed on to the rope with his teeth, thinking it was an enemy, and Eve pulled him up. The pup reached the top of the hole, grabbed on with his front paws, and dropped the rope. Eve dropped the rope too, and grabbed the pup just behind its front legs, and hoisted him up. The wolf, unused to any human contact, fought, then yelped, as he bumped his broken leg. Eve carefully arranged the wolf pup in her arms as she walked back to the camp.