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on. He raised his head, his liquid brown eyes, beseeching, questioning. He could not understand what was going on and I could not explain, for I did not really understand myself except that the enemy soldiers had said they might be back for him one day and now they were. The enemy had brought nothing but death and destruction; I couldn't bear for my horse to go back to that sort of life.
Behind me I could hear them coming closer and closer; I struggled on more and more desperately trying to hide the horse and traces of our passing.
Eventually we came to a small copse that I knew well from my childhood games of hide and seek with my brothers and I knew that if I was to have even the remotest chance of staying hidden it would be here.
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We crept in and wound ourselves through the trees. It would have been so much easier just to hide myself, but I knew of a drainage ditch that should have been quite dry due to the time of year. Situated in the middle of a particularly
dense thicket, it really made the perfect hiding place. Tugging harder at the halter rope, we slipped and slithered down the bank and splashed ankle deep into silt and muck.
I could hear my Grandfather and the soldiers entering the copse now, shouting in their strange voices. Closer and closer they were coming. I could hear their feet snapping and cracking over dried out twigs. I could hear their breath almost as dry and rasping in their throats as mine.
They were coming closer and closer until I could hear their every move and every word, until they were almost on top of me.
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I held my breath and threw my arms around my horse's neck, desperately praying for him not to make any noise that might give us away.
Suddenly they were there, right overhead. We both held our breath as we heard them cursing as they marched past. As the noise went into the distance all the immediate danger went with it. I spent the night there warming myself against the horse's side.
As the sun rose early the next morning, I forced my stiff legs into movement and crawled out of the ditch. The horse raised his intelligent head and heaved himself up.
Strolling back to my grandfather's farm, the halter rope held loosely in my hand, I felt absolutely exhilarated because I had won my own little battle against the enemy forces, but then I thought: What of the future?
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