The Shining Stallion by Terri Farley Page A

thought.
    Still carrying the rope, she slipped inside Hoku’s corral before someone could caution her not to.
    Hoku kept eating until Darby moved the lead rope. Before Darby could drop her arm back to her side, Hoku doubled away, her bright sorrel body curved like a drawn bow.
    Darby had just noticed that Hoku’s neck didn’t look strained or swollen anymore, when a swing of the filly’s hindquarters almost knocked her off her feet.
    Winded by surprise, Darby gasped. “So, the rope’s okay outside the corral, but not inside?”
    She crossed the corral and dropped the rope outside, wishing she hadn’t rushed things.
    â€œWe can wait, girl,” she said. By this time next week, she and Hoku were supposed to be living in the jungle, but Darby was in no big hurry for that.
    Time was a weird thing, Darby thought as she leaned against the sun-warmed wood of the fence. She angled her face toward the sky.
    If someone had asked her on Valentine’s Day what she’d be doing in a month, she would have guessed that at this time of day, in March, she’d be in her second-period class or, on a Saturday, swimming with Heather. She couldn’t have predicted she’d be warming up in the Hawaiian sunshine while her mother was shooting a movie in Tahiti.
    Hair stuck to her sweaty neck. Darby swept her hand up from her nape and tightened her ponytail. Sighing, she closed her eyes and pushed away nagging thoughts of getting down to the lower pasture to fuss over Luna.
    The big bay could probably take care of himself, but Jonah spoiled him. Darby took a few more minutes to bask in the sun.
    She heard Hoku’s hooves, then her breathing, nearby.
    Don’t open your eyes, Darby cautioned herself, but Hoku startled a laugh from her by tapping her chin on top of Darby’s head. Next she rubbed her nose on Darby’s bare shoulder.
    The filly’s whiskers weren’t prickly like Navigator’s. Was that because they’d never beentrimmed? Or because she was only two-and-half years old?
    â€œYou’re practically a baby,” Darby whispered to the filly, and Hoku let her chin grow heavy on Darby’s shoulder, then exhaled as if she hadn’t relaxed for days.
    This is what I’ve always wanted, Darby thought. She felt suspended in a golden sphere with her golden horse.
    Hoku’s snort made Darby’s eyes open. She saw the taut line of Hoku’s neck and knew the filly saw a man.
    Darby followed Hoku’s gaze.
    Jonah rode his big gray gelding past the old fox cages. Thinking of Jonah’s pride in her last night, when he’d mentioned she was a hard worker, or something like that, Darby smiled.
    But tension charged Hoku’s flattened ears and lowered head, so Darby stepped away, opened the gate, and locked it behind her.
    Kona came toward them under perfect, collected control, but his eyes rolled and he jerked up each hoof, as if the dirt burned him. The gray gelding was nervous.
    When Darby saw the cold set of Jonah’s features, she knew why.
    â€œBad news, Granddaughter,” Jonah said, but he looked calm. In fact, he was actually carrying a cup of coffee with his right hand and his reins in his left.
    â€œWhat’s wrong?”
    â€œIt’s Luna. We need to discuss your care of him.”
    She’d looked at him yesterday when she’d ridden out on Navigator, but she hadn’t seen anything wrong. Darby’s mind raced. Luna had been loose in his huge grassy field, so he couldn’t be hungry and his pasture couldn’t need cleaning that badly.
    â€œI wonder why you didn’t tell me about the activation switch on the automatic waterer, so I could fix it?”
    â€œActivation switch?” Darby repeated.
    â€œThe part horses nudge to make the water flow. The one in Luna’s trough is broken.”
    Kit had mentioned Luna standing by his trough yesterday. Is that why Kit had looked so worried when he’d