The next day her father was up and out with the horses before Amanda had even rolled out of bed herself.

By the time she was ready and outside, Jake was eager to get going. “Come on sleepy-head, got a big day ahead of us today. We’re not coming back until we catch it.”

Amanda eyed the size of the packs he’d strapped to the horses and she realised he meant it.

They rode all the way out to the ravines in silence. Amanda was too apprehensive to want to talk much.

They spent the day looking for signs of the pegasus but no luck. Amanda was starting to think she’d imagined the day before when she caught a glimpse of something black in the sky.

“There.” She pointed.

Jake nodded and turned his horse in the direction.

The black pegasus was out above where the spaces between the flattops was as wide as the flattops themselves.

They crested the ridge where the black pegasus was circling to find another group of about five riders gathered further down the valley.

“Shit!” Jake remarked and pulled his horse around, gesturing for Amanda to do the same before the riders looked back up the valley and saw them.

They tied the horses off nearby and then snuck up to peer over.

“What do we do about them?” Amanda whispered.

“Well they haven’t caught it yet.”

They were obviously thinking about it though, and not the right way either. One of them was fingering a net.

“Pegasi always get hurt when they’re caught with nets,” Amanda lamented.

Jake nodded. “Perhaps we can scare them off.”

“Why’s the pegasus hovering over them though? They don’t usually approach large groups do they?”

“That’s a good question.” He nodded to the nearby flattop. “Let’s loop around, see if we can get a look from the top.”

They rode almost all the way around the mesa but there didn’t look to be an easy way up, at least not on horse back. Amanda spotted a route she thought would be easy scrambling. Jake shook his head indicating it was too difficult for his old body but he nodded at her to give it a go.

He handed her a pegasus halter before she left, just in case.

She scrambled up the rocky slope. It was easy going and took her only a few minutes to make it to the top.

As she crested the lip she froze. Lying on the ground ahead of her was a dark shape. At first she thought it was their pegasus but she could see him still flying in the sky. In fact it looked like he was circling the dark lump.

As she crept closer she reaslied her first thought hadn’t been far off. It was a pegasus lying there, only this one was a female and she looked dead. She lay in a large pool of blood and Amanda could see claw marks in her side. She was almost upon her when she heard a shriek from up above.

The dark stallion was objecting to her nearness to what had probably been his mate. She quickly retreated and he circled lower eventually landing next to the unmoving body.

Amanda watched with sorrow as he nudged his mate to no avail. As she watched she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stick up as if someone or something were watching her.

She turned slowly and found herself face to face with a large desert cat in stalking mode. It was almost as tall as she was and protruding from it’s mouth were fangs as long as a child’s arm. She knew immediately that this is what had killed the other pegasus.

Behind her the stallion snorted and stamped his foot. He wouldn’t leave his mate. Pegasi often mated for life and had been known to stay with dead mates even in the presence of mortal danger.

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Amanda wasn’t afraid of the cat though, not now that she’d seen it, although she was acutely aware of the danger she would have been in had she not noticed it. Perhaps the pegasus’ scream hadn’t been at her.

She raised a hand and summoned fire, first in her hands and then out in front of her. She pushed the flames out, reaching toward the large cat. She did not intend to hurt it, only to scare it away. It was only hungry after all.

The tactic worked. The cat stood it’s ground at first but when it saw the flames approaching it turned tail and ran. Amanda hoped her father was keeping an eye out and it didn’t surprise him during it’s escape. She figured it was likely to head higher into the hills though, away from where her father had gone.

She turned back toward the pegasus and was surprised to find it was only an arm’s length away. She held up a hesitant hand.

It stepped forward and she lay her hand on it’s forehead. Moving slowly she drew in closer. It showed no signs of fleeing. Indeed it seemed even more approachable than it had the day before and somehow sadder.

She blinked away tears, grieving for the loss of its partner, as she slowly slid the halter over it’s head. Something instinctively told her to leave his wings unbound. It went against logic but her father always said to trust her gut. She led him back down the way she’d come up and without resistance he followed her down the rocky slope that no horse could have managed but which was no trouble for a pegasus.

Amanda had never felt more proud of herself as when she saw the look on her fathers face when she rounded the corner with the pegasus in tow.

“Nice work,” he congratulated her with a smile.

“He lost his mate to a desert cat, that’s why he was circling,” Amanda explained. “I think it made him easier to catch too.”

Jake nodded. “It certainly made it easier for those other riders to find. Now let’s get going before they show up.”

Amanda nodded and holding on tight to the lead of the pegasus she mounted her own mare.

They’d gone as far as end of the mesa when the other group of riders rounded the corner in front of them. They spread out blocking the exit.

“I think you got something that belongs to us,” The lead horseman said. He was closer to Amanda’s age than her fathers but still a lot older. His dark sweaty hair sat under a white leather hat.

“We ain’t got nothing that’s yours,” Amanda retorted. “And if you don’t want a fireball to the face you’ll let us pass.” It was a bluff, Amanda wouldn’t have burnt them, when you burnt flesh you didn’t forget it, not ever. She would defend herself if they had to but given the pegasus was all they wanted she knew it wasn’t worth burning another person over. They didn’t know that though and to back up her point she summoned a flame in one hand and kicked her horse forward.

A few of the men’s horses startled and backed up including the main rider. Not Amanda or her father’s horses though, they were well-trained.

The main rider tried to stare Amanda down, which was difficult when your horse wouldn’t sit still. Amanda knew she could throw fire and probably make the horses all bolt but that risked a horse getting injured, not from the fire but from any potential stampede. She hoped this would be enough.

She stared back at the main rider. She wanted to laugh at the way he was trying to appear dignified while his horse bucked and shuffled but she knew that was more likely to anger him and an angry man was unpredictable. She simply stared at him, giving him a choice.

The gambit worked. The group pulled their horses back and to the side allowing Amanda and her father to ride on past. But as they were just about over the hill the main rider shouted after them, “You’ll regret this.”

The rest of the ride home was without trouble. When they got there they put the black pegasus inside one of the pair of large covered stalls.

“I’ll see you later for dinner,” Jake told Amanda as he headed off toward town for a celebratory drinking round. “You keep an eye on that pegasus.”

She knew her mother wouldn’t approve of his going off to the bar but today they had caught something really special. It was a valid exception, so she just nodded and headed inside for a quick shower.

She meant to return outside immediately after but by that time her mother had dinner ready and her father was nowhere to be found.

They ate in almost silence. Amanda was eager to tell her mother about their day but held back, giving only the essential details, knowing she hated to hear stories of danger. Instead, for most of the meal her sister chatted briefly about what they were doing in biology class.

After dinner Amanda went out to visit the black pegasus. Once again he let her touch him. It emboldened her enough to enter his stall and attempt something a little more. She knew he wouldn’t let her ride him yet. That would take weeks but she just wanted to know if he’d let her touch his back and maybe just maybe put a little weight on it. She knew she should wait but she couldn’t resist.

She stroked his neck moving her hands slowly further back towards his shoulders. He shifted uncertainly as she reached his shoulders. But he didn’t react more than that.

She moved her hand further down and onto his back. The reaction was almost instant. He pulled away, lifting his front hooves off the ground and expanding his wings out at the same time.

This stall had been designed with pegasi in mind and so there was enough room for his wings to spread but not so much of a gap that he could have flapped and taken off.

Amanda moved back in a calm and controlled fashion not wishing to spook him anymore but also very aware of the power in front of her. She didn’t leave the stall until he had calmed down. Once she thought it was safe she moved in. Not to try again but just to check she hadn’t lost his trust. She got as far as putting her hand on his nose and she was satisfied. She then turned and left.

Once outside she didn’t feel like going back in. Instead she walked over to a nearby fence. One that faced the desert. It was such a clear night. She hopped on top of it and stared out at the empty plains and faraway peaks before raising her head skyward to gaze at the twinkling lights in the night sky.