Page 156 - Mobile Magic

156
‘Farewell Ronnie - you ride now, O.K. - do not worry about Kitten Snacks, too hard for chicks.’
He flew up, straight towards the sky, did a sixty degree turn and swooped as straight as an arrow to a clump of flowering gorse near Saffron’s feet. He wheeled around and snatched at an innocent butterfly which was fluttering just above the bush. As Saffron watched him carry it off towards the tree hollow she found herself feeling sorry for the butterfly. Ah-well, she thought, as she trudged down the hill again, we all have to live and die. The important thing is not to be too greedy.
Magic and Saffron went for a good, long, trail ride over the lower slopes of Green Mountain that morning. She found more heavy-vehicle tracks right out in the middle of the scrub, and a muddy, churned-up area where it looked like some truck must have been bogged.
The ride was almost spoilt by the thought that it might be their last. Why are there so many tyre-tracks? Who has been making them? she worried. They're bound to issue eviction notices soon ... and then? She had no idea what she could or would do. Saffron desperately tried to block the thought of chain-saws, blasting, burning and bulldozers from her mind.
The weather was very still and muggy. When they reached the deepest waterhole in the creek, Saffron unsaddled and then pulled off her own jeans and boots. She vaulted on to the pony’s back.
‘Yuck! You’re all hot and slippery,’ she muttered to Magic as her bare legs contacted the bands of foamy sweat in the area