Free Puzzle: The Runaway Pony by Belinda Rapley Page A

ears pricked and his eyes bright, it seemed like a million years ago that he’d turned up looking wild and abandoned. His coat was already so much better from all the grooming and fuss that Pixie and Daisy had given him.
    They eventually turned onto the bridleway alongside the edge of the woods, which led to the field where they’d pinned the notice. The path started off with enough room to ride two abreast between the woods and the fencing, and Mia and Alice led at the front, followed by Rosie. Behind them Pixie rode along next to Charlie.Pixie glanced sideways as Charlie took her feet out of the stirrups, letting her legs hang down.
    “You’re going to need longer stirrups soon,” Pixie smiled.
    “Or a bigger horse,” Charlie replied with a huge sigh, “as everyone keeps telling me.”
    “Oh, sorry, I didn’t realise…” Pixie said, looking awkward for a second.
    “No, it’s okay, I didn’t mean you,” Charlie said quietly. “But you’re right. Everyone’s noticing how tall I’m getting, and Pirate here isn’t growing with me, are you, boy?”
    Charlie leaned down and hugged Pirate’s chunky bay neck. He flickered his ears back for a second, then pricked them forwards again.
    “So what are you going to do?” Pixie asked.
    “Well, I’ve tried not thinking about it,” Charlie smiled brightly, acting as if it was no big deal. But as she looked up at Pixie’s pale face and sympathetic eyes she realised that she wasn’t fooling anyone, least of all herself. She sighedheavily. She knew she finally had to face what was happening. “The trouble is I can’t afford to buy another horse without selling Pirate, but there’s no way I’d ever do that. I’d rather not ride at all and keep him, but I don’t know if that’s fair on him. Everything seems really muddled at the moment. I feel totally stuck, and I don’t know what to do next.”
    “I know how tha t feels,” Pixie said quietly, twisting Puzzle’s mane in her fingers as above and around them drizzle began to patter down heavily. Charlie glanced at her and was about to ask why, when Mia pulled up Wish just ahead and called out to them.
    “The notice is still here.”
    The ponies gathered round the gatepost. The notice was flapping in the breeze in its plastic covering, but looking slightly weathered.
    “And we haven’t had any calls yet,” Alice sighed. “So I guess no one’s seen it yet, either.”
    They stood and looked at the notice fora second, wondering what to do next. Then Wish suddenly raised her head and stared into the woods. She let out an ear-piercing neigh and broke into a trot, following the path as it disappeared into the trees. The mare ignored Mia as she sat into the saddle and squeezed the reins to bring her back to walk.
    “Wish!” Mia said, using the reins a bit harder until her mare begrudgingly listened to her and waited restlessly for the others.
    “Is she okay?” Pixie asked as they caught up. The rain was starting to fall more heavily while the skies darkened above, making the path even gloomier.
    “Hang on a sec!” Rosie gulped, starting to panic. “If we follow this path deeper into the woods, it’ll take us close to…”
    “The Old Forge!” Alice said, feeling the hairs stand up on her arms as Wish let out another shrill neigh.
    Mia looked at her mare – Wish’s caramel-coloured ears, darkened and dripping with rain, were pricked, her head high.
    “Maybe we should go back there,” she said, unsure, as they stood gathered in a bunch on the path inside the woods. “I mean, Wish seems to think we should. We can have a really quick look and then head back, that’s all.”
    “That’s all?!” Rosie squeaked. “That won’t be all when we’re racing away from here again and one of us gets left behind and sucked up by the ghouls! It’s all right for you – you’re on a fast horse. Think about me and Pixie – she hasn’t even got a saddle to cling onto if Puzzle gets