Baylee, A Novel– Part Ten: The Man With Sky Eyes

Just like the other horses said, a few mornings later the man with sky eyes took me out of the pen.

I don’t know why he chose me to be first– perhaps Pluma put it in his head– but whatever the reason, that day I’m singled out from my friends. Two foreign humanos walk toward me, pushing me toward a gap in the fence. I try to run past them, but they’re carrying whirling snakes in their hands, and finally I’m pushed into a narrow corridor.

I trotted down this path until it came out into a smaller pen. I tried to run back to my friends, but the entrance is cut off, and I’m trapped. I called out for my herdmates, but there was no answer.

Why would he separate me? What do they wish to do with me?

When I turned around, the Sky-Eyed man was there, standing in the pen with me.

I bolted, trying to stay as far away from him as possible, before I looked back, trying to think of what he would do next.

 Oddly enough, he did not chase me. He only stood there, his body relaxed, cocking one foot.

“I’m not… going to hurt you.”

He’s saying it in my language. Faint and distorted, but mine all the same

I snorted, raising my head and backing away. “Why should I trust you?” I demanded.

He didn’t respond. Only began shuffling in a slow circle, head down, checking things out in the pen.

He repeated this a few times, never looking toward me, never stepping too close. Just shuffling, shuffling, shuffling, occasionally scratching in the dirt with his boot. He checked out a pole, a feather that had floated into the pen, and some trapped horse hair on the fence.

Finally, after he’d shuffled around for a bit, he stepped out of the pen. Leaving me alone.

I wondered if he was going to take me back to the herd, but instead he put a round thing of water and tossed some dried grass into the pen.

Why was he separating me? So he could tame me? Eat me?

I looked at the scratch marks on the dirt and sniffed them. They smelled of old things, sweat, and something sweet. I licked at them but all I got was a mouthful of sand.

I snorted, shaking my head. The sweet smell was foreign– not sweet like flowers or grass, but something thicker.

What was the Sky-Eyed man trying to do? He hadn’t chased me, hadn’t tried to eat me. He only explored the pen as if he was as new to it as I was. Didn’t even look at me.

I heard shuffling and raised my head to look over the fence. There was the Sky-Eyed man, and Pluma. He was leading her by a snake thing that wrapped around her head. I was appalled. To allow yourself to be led by a humano, and with a snake no less!

But Pluma was not frightened. In fact she seemed quite relaxed, even as the Sky-Eyed man took her to another pen where several humanos stood.

I stepped closer to get a better look. There was a whole group of humanos in a line, all of them wearing the same loose things. There were several horses in there, and each humano had a horse that they were holding by the snake things.

Was this the program that Baxter was talking about? The one helping bad humanos?

I watched as each humano stepped forward with their horse and followed instructions from the Skye-Eyed man. They asked their horses to do things by way of the snake, and the horses obeyed. They spun them in circles, had them stop, and even made them back up.

Curious. What was the point of these things? Why ask them to back up? Was there some danger in front of them that they wanted to get away from?

I gave a rattling snort. Well, if that was what they were expecting me to do, I wasn’t going to have it. I would never allow myself to be disgraced in such a way as that. I would not be controlled by a humano.

I recognized one of the black horses as Baxter. He and his humano went into a different pen, a round one like mine. All the humanos tied their horses to a few posts by the snakes, then surrounded the pen to watch.

 Baxter went in a wide circle, the humano standing in the middle whirling the tail of the snake to keep him moving. The man made Baxter switch directions a few times, clicking and keeping Baxter at a steady trot.

He was herding him like a stallion did to a naughty colt! This was an outrage. The nerve of a humano to do that…

Then the humano stopped and took off the snake, walking away from Baxter to leave him at the other side of the pen. My ears pricked in surprise. Baxter was free! If the gate was open, he could run back home to the hills, escape the humanos.

But Baxter did not try to escape. Instead he followed the humano loyally, as if he were the leader of his herd. He nickered to the man and stopped a few feet behind him, head low, submissive.

And then I heard his words to the humano.

“I accept you.”

I shuffled backward, surprised. Shocked, more like it.

He accepted the humano as a leader? Why? Humanos were the enemy. They’ve hunted our kind for years. Nothing good could come out of interaction with them.

And here Baxter was, accepting this scruffy humano like he was a part of the herd. Accepting a name from them as if they had the authority to do such.

I turned tail and went to the dried grass to eat. Well, I wouldn’t be so easily fooled. I was going to find a way to get out of here.

And no amount of coaxing from the Sky-Eyed man, strange and curious as he was, would make me change my mind.