Lumps of wet dung-colored mud catapulted into the air from beneath the iron shod hooves of the exhausted mare. The ground was wet but not saturated and the mare's hooves alternately clapped and squelched on the uneven ground. Tree limbs flashed by like enormous pieces of debris in a gale force wind. Above, bird song droned on from the green canopy overhead that blanketed the forest uninterrupted by the clattering of many hooves.
"Come on, girl. Just a little farther," Callisa pleaded desperately to her mount, " We only need to make it to the town bailey. We'll be safe there." But she could feel the mare's flanks heaving beneath her bared legs. Callisa knew her fatigued mare could not make it much farther. "Please?"
The mare caught her mistress' urgency and managed to break into a half-he
