~ ZARA ~
"Ash, what are you doing?!"
"I'm fixing this! All of it! It's time!"
"What? What are you talking about?"
"I'm taking you home."
"But I don't want to go home—I want to go back!"
He swore again, but then both horses hit a patch of ground that was so soft they sank into it. Their heads pitched down and their bodies jerked. I was thrown onto my mare's neck, almost over her head—but then she threw her head back up and heaved herself forward, dumping me back into the saddle when she jumped in an attempt to escape the sucking bog—but only stumbled deeper into it.
There was a full minute of scrambling, jumping, almost falling, the horses pitching and diving and sinking, then finally, suddenly, they found solid ground.
I felt the moment her foot hit something that didn't move underneath her, and she did too, because she grunted and heaved herself out of the bog and up onto the firm dirt.
