Huckleberry~
"Woah, Roscoe, " Stiles huffed, his dry lips chapped and burned from the blazing sun. There was a creek up ahead running under the path and he intended to get his fill of water before continuing on. With a soft whistle, he lead the horse off of the beaten path and down a small hill where he tied her loosely to a post and began drinking from his hands. Looking over his shoulder, he tugged her reign and moved her so that she, too, could get some water.
"Drink up, girl. We still have a few days ahead of us yet."
It was high noon and the sun was unbearable. Well, it was always unbearable, but today Stiles would bet money that it was the worst it's ever been. He only had a little bit of water left in his canteen, hardly enough for him and his horse Roscoe. The chestnut hucul pony had been a wedding gift to his mother from his father back before he was born and after her death he had inherited the beautiful mare as his own. She was getting up there in age, but he wouldn't have trusted any other horse to get him through this trip.
He, or rather, they were all moving out to Beacon, an old miner's town out west in need of a new Sheriff. His father had gone out two weeks prior to get the lay of the land and settle in while leaving Stiles behind to tie up all their affairs back home. It hurt, selling his mother's old house, but he had enough of her old trinkets to remember her by already waiting for him at the new place and they really needed the money to pay for their new house. Plus, he trusted Scott like a brother and knew that him and his new wife would take care of the place and fill it with tons screaming babies. It worked out for everyone. Right?
After taking another ten minutes to wade in the creek and clean the sweat off his body, Stiles made his way back over to Roscoe and hopped up on the saddle. He scratched a few flies away from her ears before patting the side of her head with a heavy sigh.
"Let's head out, c'mon....Why aren't you moving? C'mon girl," He whistled, pulling sharply at the reigns to get his horse to start moving forward. Instead, she cried out while buckling back and away from the path. She seemed scared of something, like a snake biting at her feet and, instead of listening to Stiles' attempts at calming her down, she took off into the desert landscape with him on top. Screeching out, he tried to take control of the reigns as she ran and buckled and it wasn't until they were miles away from the trail that he managed to settle her down.
"Well fuck."