THE CHOSEN ONES ( PART TWENTY )

Daybreak came, Evelyne was the first up, she made
some herbal tea and then checked the chickens for
eggs. The chickens were still agitated, they were not happy at being cooped up and not being allowed
to roam around freely, but they had produced five
eggs that morning.

Evelyne still had some fish too, so she made a meal
and woke the others.

Fern got Jay up, as she was dressing him, Bella came over and said, "do you think your mother would
let you ride Prince with me?"
"I don't know," said Fern, "she has been very
protective of me, since we have been left on our own."
"Why don't you ask her?" said Bella.

Fern went to her mother, "mother, do you think that
I could go ride Prince with Bella today?"
"No!" said Evelyne, not even understanding why her
daughter would ask. "It's too dangerous, there are
hunters out there, we don't want to draw attention
to ourselves."

Fern knew better than to argue, at a time like this.

Meradith would not allow Bella to ride Prince either, "I cannot believe you would even ask me,"
said Meradith.

Bella was feeling closed in, the cave was dark most
of the time, claustrophobia was now making Bella
irritable, the close contact of the others, was
starting to annoy her.

She wanted to ride Prince, she thought, 'perhaps I
could sneak out, ride Prince, be back before they
had even noticed I was gone.' then she thought
again, 'no that was not a good idea.'

Bella went down to the stream to wash her face, she
saw her reflection, then looked at her hair, she
decided she would tie her hair back, then plait it.

She lay back on the grass, she watched a spider spin a web, the sun shining, made the fine strands
glisten. "Oh! Mr Spider," she said, "you are free to go wherever you want." Then she watched the insects in the grass, going about their business.

She had never really thought about her freedom before, it was always something she took for granted.

"Bella, Bella!" called her mother, Bella walked
towards the cave, almost crying, wishing her father
would return.

To be continued .........THE CHOSEN ONES ( PART TWENTY ONE ) | ABCtales