Tina Chan - imperfect

She tightened the girth one last time before walking Mist outside into the snowy wonderland. The virgin snow blanketed the world with a dazzling sparkle, completely unmarked except for the footprints made by Chelsa, Jaiden and Kristi on their way to the stable.

Kristi clambered atop Mist and waited for Jaiden and Chelsa to meet her outside. They steered the droid-horses towards the unplowed road. The horses released steam into the frigid air, plunging their way through two feet of snow. Ghost opted to perch on the back of Chelsa’s horse instead of toiling his way through the snow.

Two hours later, they reached a section of Route 56 that had been cleared of snow. Nevertheless, the horses only dared to take mincing steps, for patches of ice still appeared every so often on the road. No one else but the three of them was traveling on Route 56. Kristi supposed the hazardous driving conditions turned off a lot of people.

A stillness inhabited the air, reminding her of the calm before a storm hits. She shaded her eyes, observing the tumultuous sea of clouds behind them.

“Chelsa, can you check the weather on the electro-slate?” Kristi asked.

“Crud. There’s a weather alert for this area. Another snowstorm is blowing through.”

Jaiden took a look at the storm clouds as well. “They appear to be a mile away, give or take. Do you think we should make a dash for New Amsterdam?” New Amsterdam, the closest town from them, was ten miles away.

Kristi dared another peek back to the clouds and said, “The clouds are moving pretty fast. It’ll be a close race to see who reaches New Amsterdam first.”

“Let’s race for New Amsterdam,” Chelsa said. “I don’t want to spend the night in this storm.”

She clucked to her horse and drove it into a gallop. Jaiden and Kristi spurred their horses after Chelsa. The first two miles or so flew by, but the sky grew dark and ominous with each passing minute. Then the storm hit them. Snow swirled all around Kristi, confusing her sense of direction.

Kristi rocked back and forth in the saddle, doing her best to steer Mist around the bits of black ice. The heavy, stifling silence that suppressed the atmosphere wrapped around her like a cloak. She shifted in her seat and made sure Chelsa was still within sight.

“Can you run faster?” Kristi asked Mist.

She crouched low in the saddle. Chelsa began to inch further and further ahead of Kristi. Mist huffed out a breath then extended her strides. The warning light positioned on Mist’s shoulder flashed at an allegro tempo. Kristi checked to see if the other droid-horses were overheating as well. They both were. Jaiden turned his head towards Kristi and she pointed to the red, blinking light on Mist’s shoulder.

“Chelsa, slow down! The horses are going to malfunction,” Jaiden yelled into the wind that was starting to pick up.

Chelsa eased the pace a little, but only just a little. The warning light hovered between yellow and red. If they weren’t careful, they may very well end up in the middle of a blizzard with no working droid-horses and several miles away from the nearest civilization.

“How many more miles until we reach New Amsterdam?” Jaiden shouted. The howling wind stole his words from his lips as soon as he shouted them.

“What?” Chelsa asked.

“He asked how many more miles until we reach New Amsterdam,” Kristi hollered.

“Four miles.”

The storm began in earnest, sending searing waves of wind slicing through the air. An icy, dagger-like mixture of sleet and hail pelted anyone crazy enough to be outside in this kind of weather. Within minutes, Kristi was soaked to the bones and shivering violently. She cursed herself for not wearing her thermal sweatshirt and water-wicking jacket.

“We’re not going to be able to reach the town in time,” Jaiden shouted to Chelsa. “I say we stop and wait out the storm instead of plowing onwards. If we wait much longer, we won’t be able to set up the tent in the strong wind.”

“Alright. Let’s pull off the road and head towards that clump of willow trees ahead.” Chelsa turned her droid-horse and plunged through three feet of snow and into a hidden ditch eight feet deep.

Her horse struggled to paw its way out of the ditch, but its effort was in vain.

The roiling mass of black clouds hovered directly above them, and they felt the fury of the storm; the wind picked up speed and pounded ice chunks at them without mercy.

“Chelsa, tie the rope I’m going to throw to you around your horse,” Kristi yelled.

She edged Mist to the lip of the ditch. Then she fumbled about, searching for the ropes in her backpack with numb fingers. “Jaiden, get behind me.”

Jaiden didn’t hear her though, so she repeated louder, “Jaiden, get behind me!”

This time he caught her words and guided his droid-horse a few yards behind Mist. Kristi finally got ahold of the ropes and threw one end to Chelsa and passed the other end to Jaiden. She wrapped the rope around her wrist several times then said to Chelsa, “Did you secure the rope around your horse?”

Chelsa gave her a thumbs-up.

“We’re going to try to pull Chelsa and her horse out.” Kristi yelled over her shoulder to Jaiden.

She urged Mist to back away from the ditch. Mist’s shoulder quivered from exertion and strain. Kristi tugged on the rope, easing some of the burden off Mist and Chelsa’s horse slowly started to free itself from its frosty prison.

Chelsa patted her horse, giving it encouragement. The droid lunged up in a sudden burst of power and the upper half of its body became liberated. The droid-horse’s front legs scrabbled at the rim of the trench while its hind legs scrambled on thin air, trying to find footholds.

Kristi’s wrist burned, though whether from the cold or the rope, she couldn’t tell.

“Watch out!” Chelsa screamed right before her droid-horse lost footing on solid ground and crashed back into the ditch, pulling Mist and Kristi towards the edge.

Mist sat down on her hindquarters to stop both herself and the rider from plummeting down. They skidded to a stop less than two inches away from the brim of the trench. Kristi’s heart thudded wildly in her chest.

Mist stood up and tried to back away from the snowy trap, but Chelsa’s droid-horse, panicking and wild-eyed, reared up; this caught Mist by surprise and she reared up onto her hind legs as well. Kristi was launched off Mist’s back and sailed through the air before dropping into the ditch, mere inches away from the failing hooves of Chelsa’s droid-horse.

“Are you okay?” Chelsa wrinkled her eyebrows with concern and yanked down the reins of her horse, forcing the droid to drop back to all four legs. Then she rushed besides Kristi. “Kristi, can you hear me?”

Kristi groaned. Her entire body throbbed, her nerves shrieking at her for allowing them to experience such suffering. She waited for the worst of the agony to subside before speaking. “I think I sprained my wrist.”

She tried to push herself up into a sitting position and nearly passed out from the angry waves of pain radiating from her wrist and ribs. Chelsa grasped Kristi beneath her arms and, with their combined effort, managed to stand Kristi on her feet.

Mist nickered at Kristi from above. Jaiden came over to the edge of the pit, alarm written all over his face. “I’m going to try to pull just one of you out at a time.”

“Get Kristi out first,” Chelsa said. “I think she injured herself pretty bad.”

Chelsa removed the rope around her droid and tied it around Kristi’s waist. Jaiden and his droid-horse were able to tug her out in a matter of seconds. Then he hoisted Kristi a safe distance away from the trough before re-attempting to free Chelsa’s droid-horse.