Free Rain Forest Rose by Terri Farley Page A

stream of bubbles.
    Wide-eyed, Hoku launched a kick. When she turned her head to check on her pursuers, an aqua-pink bubble bumped her nose and burst.
    Halfway into lowering her head for a buck, Hoku stopped. Her tongue wagged out to lick the bubbles’ residue. She shook her forelock and shuddered.
    â€œNot too tasty?” Darby asked.
    She blew flocks of bubbles, including one as big as her head, before she dipped the wand, held her arm straight out, and spun in a circle, letting the breeze create a silvery school of bubbles, accustoming the wild filly to another strange thing.
    When Hoku finally stopped noticing them, Darbydropped the wand back in the jar and screwed the lid on.
    â€œI’ll be right back,” she said, then returned to her hut to get her diary.
    She wanted to write down what Jonah had told her about preserving Hoku’s wild instincts. She should remember, but it had sounded like one of the mana lessons and it was a little confusing. Sometimes writing helped her sort out complicated ideas.
    She had to write down the conversation between him and Tutu as well and make notes about the wild horse. In fact, she had a lot to think about, and there was no reason she couldn’t do it inside Hoku’s corral.
    Darby knelt on her sleeping bag inside her house of ferns. She found her notebook and was about to crawl back outside, when she heard the breath of a winded horse.
    Had someone ridden into her camp? Or was it the wild horse?
    Darby flattened herself against her sleeping bag, keeping out of sight. The horse was riderless. With her coat sweat-drenched and shaded by the trees, she didn’t look pink. She was the deep red of a gemstone whose name Darby couldn’t quite recall.
    From her ground-level position, she had a much closer view of the mare than she had yesterday from the steam-vent ridge. The mare was so still, she might have been carved from garnet.
    That’s it—garnet, Darby thought. The motionlessmare hardly seemed to breathe.
    But then, looking alert but not afraid, the mare raised her head and searched the clearing. Her wet neck twisted from side to side and she ignored Hoku’s nickers.
    What are you looking for, girl? Darby wondered. Somewhere in her mind, she knew what, besides water, had drawn the mare here. She just hadn’t figured it out yet, because she was fixated on the feud between Megan and Cade.
    Deep-chested and broad-hooved, the mare’s conformation was a match for the form of Black Lava, the stallion from Crimson Vale.
    Except for her scars.
    Darby winced at the slashes scoring the mare’s stomach and hind legs. They cut through the horse’s pink hair, down to her black hide.
    Wild horses ran at the first sign of danger. So why had the mare stayed still long enough to be ripped that way?
    Maybe she’d been protecting a foal. Or she might have fallen. A vine might have acted as a snare and some predator, seeing her apparently helpless, had attacked.
    Before Darby reached a conclusion, the mare picked her way to the corral. She and Hoku touched noses, squealed, and shied. Their hooves clattered and tapped, but they moved only a few feet from each other, then returned to sniff each other’s necks.
    Lifting her chin as high as she could, Hoku looked past the roan to Darby. Hoku’s look-at-me snort made the other horse turn.
    A whorl of hair on the roan’s forehead had the effect of making her look friendly. The mare spotted Darby and studied her.
    Since she’d already been noticed, Darby crawled out of her hut and straightened, inch by inch, until she stood at her full height. The mare blinked. Muscles in her shoulders tensed, but Darby stood absolutely still.
    The mare didn’t bolt until Darby spoke.
    â€œTango—”
    The first syllable of the name had barely left Darby’s mouth when the roan recoiled and collided with the fence. Then, Tango backed away, head jerking skyward, still scrutinizing