Page 130 of Wind Rider

I cannot tell from here.

“Okay, let’s get down there and check it out.”

Anjo galloped down the side of the hillock to where the prairie flattened and then broke open. She stopped at the lip of the ravine, studying it.

There are two teams down there. They attempt the ridge.

“If they can do it I know you can,” River said.

But Anjo still didn’t attack the ravine as River would have expected. Instead her nostrils flared as she tested the breeze lifting from within the slash in the earth.

I scent yoties.

“Ugh.” River grimaced. “A whole pack?”

I scent their dens. That is not the safest way to go.

“Then we take the smart, safe way because you are fast enough to make up time. Let’s go!”

Free of the gopher holes and goathead thickets, the powerful mare ran, stretching out her long stride and eating up the distance it took to go around the dangerous ravine.

River spotted the next purple flag, waving from halfway up the side of a rise in the prairie, and guided Anjo toward it as she nudged the mare into a slower gait.

I can run more.

“Save your strength. You’re already sweating a lot. The sun is heading down, but I’m guessing we still have about ten miles left to go—and the very end is a race.”

I can beat Doe.

“Not if you use up all your strength before we get to the race, you can’t.”

Anjo snorted, but slowed to a canter. The course curved sharply to the right and down to open up to a large patch of the prairie where the grasses had been shorn close to the ground. Throughout the area were obstacles situated in a circle, and a Councilmember was seated atop a gray-muzzled mare in the center. Leaving from the far end of the circle were Skye and Scout—and beyond them River could see a flash of buckskin amidst the dust Doe kicked up as she galloped away.

They are all that are still ahead of us.

“Then let’s nail this course and catch them. You can outrun both of those mares.”

Can you outrun Alani and Skye?

“Skye for sure. And Alani is a decade older; I can outrun her, too.”

“Next team!” the Councilmember shouted.

Anjo galloped to the opening to the circular course. River looked at the old woman, waiting for her cue to begin.

“You are being judged on speed and confidence,” the judge said. “Points will be deducted if you do not successfully complete an obstacle. When you step within the circle your time begins.”

“Anjo, I see a water jump and a set of log jumps—not tall but close together. You’ll have to pace yourself through them.”

What is that wooden thing?

River followed her mare’s gaze and saw a long, wide plank. One end of it was touching the ground. The other was lifted into the air—and there was a round log resting beneath it.

“You have to walk over it. Looks like the plank will move down after you get halfway.”

I do not like it.

“It can’t hurt you. No more than those branches hanging from those poles can.”