Introduction: The Nightmare
Hoof beats. Pounding, echoing loudly through rain. Texas tornadoes swung all around, but the hoof beats were louder than any windstorm, louder than her heartbeat. Darkness swirled everywhere, illuminated by the lightning in the sky every few seconds. She just had to get to the farmhouse, before something happened. She shut her eyes, clinging to the black beneath her, feeling his mane whip into her face, the powerful flanks sucking in air and expelling just as quickly through flared nostrils. She kept herself tucked low, trying to aid him in his mad, furious dash, but he could only travel so quickly. Her cabin was a mile from the main house, and on horseback, in a dead gallop, it still took too long. She saw the lightning, knew it was getting closer, and felt the hair on the back of her neck rise as one tremendous bolt found the resting place it had been seeking. She tried to squeeze her eyes shut, but could not help but stare, despite how skewed her vision was by the rain. The farmhouse was ablaze. And she could hear him screaming...
Amy shot up from a dead sleep, panting and covered in sweat. Always the same, this dream. It never went away, it never got better. She sat up in her bed for a few minutes, breathing hard and trying to get control over her wildly beating heart. Dreading going back to sleep, she padded softly over to the couch and sat down, curled up in a blanket.
"Will these dreams ever end?" she said aloud as she fought back tears. Doctors, therapists, everyone had told her they would subdue, in time, but they only seemed to become stronger. She sighed, lying her head down on the pillow, and thinking back to when it had all began.
Chapter 1: Internship
Please note that this story is meant to take a while to develop, it will not rush into anything quickly, so if you're looking for that type, it's not here. Thanks!
Amy slammed her books down on the table, hard. Maybe too hard, because they landed in a heap and spilled onto the floor. Too irritated to pick them up, she wondered over to the couch, flopping down in a huff. College may have been a blast, but her graduate program was turning out to be a night from hell. There was never time to do anything but work; she had to teach five labs every week, in addition to her research and full-time job. As if that wasn't enough, she'd just received notice of where she would be interning at. That was actually a drop of good news, it was the location she'd requested, but its announcement had been accompanied with a 65 page thesis that was due at the end of the term -- 6 months! She sighed, rolling over onto her back, and grabbing a package of Pringles. Munching away, she tried to close her eyes and forget that she had a plane to catch in the morning.
*****
If there was anything Amy hated, it was flying. Breathing a sigh of relief as they finally landed, she made her way towards the pick-up station. She'd expected it to be hot in Texas, but this was stifling. It was September, and she'd been told the heat would have subsided a little, but she'd trade anything at that exact moment to get back to her Colorado climate. Ah yes, crisp cool mornings, pleasant, breezy afternoons, and chilly, rewarding evenings. Letting a small sigh of desire escape, she looked for the man that had been sent to collect her. The ranch she would be completing her internship at was the best in the state; they had set aside a substantial amount of acreage just for the Bureau of Land Management, for use as a wild horse reserve. That was what she was here for, and that was hopefully what would land her a job working for one of the top equine associations in the country. She'd completed two internships with different equine discipline clubs during her undergrad course work, and an additional one with a equine publication agency, but they had said she needed a complete thesis to fully begin a career there. Once she had it, and it met standards, she'd be offered a full-time job immediately. Stifling a small smile, Amy thought back to all the clothes she'd gone without, all the meals she'd skipped, and all the luxuries she'd passed up to get to the place she was. She was the one who'd gotten herself to this dream, she'd earned every penny to pay for every bit of it, and no one, no one, would keep her from this goal. She'd simply worked too hard to let that happen.
*****
Levi sighed to himself; this was definitely not what he wanted to be doing right now. Cleaning up the stables was his main chore, but he most certainly had no interest in doing it so some prissy grad student could come in here and mess everything up. He'd even argued with his boss, informing him that she wouldn't be anywhere near the stables, but he'd been rebuffed and sent back to work. Huffing, he threw another bale of straw down from the loft, grateful for the manual labor to take the edge off.
The last thing he was interested in was babysitting a know-it-all for the next six months. No doubt she'd have no idea what she was doing and he'd have to walk her through everything. Although he wasn't the top ranch hand, he seemed to get stuck with all the idiots all the same. Just that dazzling personality, he thought to himself with another huff.
Since arriving at the ranch 6 years ago, Levi hadn't changed much. He'd been used to working hard before, but working off the back of a horse all day moving cattle did something to a man. His muscles were lean, and rugged, and he wasn't cut, because he didn't work out, but the hard manual labor had wiped any trace of fat from his form. He kept his hair short, shorter than the rest of the cowhands, but longer than anyone else in his family, though now he couldn't be sure, because he hadn't seen any of them since he'd come here. His hair was blonde, it'd once been brown, but hours in the sun had changed that, and his eyes were a good-natured green. He usually looked humored, except when he was angry or irritated, which was the case right now. He sighed as he heard the truck pulling up, and peered out the barn doors, preparing himself for the worst six months of his life.
