Art of War

Chapter 1

The Storm that brings the Spark

Dear Journal,

Life was normal, well more then normal. I was just your average everyday teenage girl, lots of friends, somewhat of an artist, an annoying little trans-fan dork of a brother and family issues, well, mostly daddy issues. But like every other girl i survived through it all. i guess you could say i was just about as boring as a teenager could get.

I thought i was pretty boring, but i guess with a brother who loved and craved imagination as well as a horse who represented his imagination to its fullest; i soon realized life would take me on a grand journey.

One i would never forget.

"Mom! Kari's trying to kill me!"

I slipped as I raced around the corner after my irritating little 6 year old brother, who flailed his arms dramatically as he ran down the hall to the safety of the kitchen, where my mother awaits. I growled as I nearly crashed into the wall and continued my chase.

"The little dweeb was going through my journal!"

"More like a Diary, considering what I found in it!" Carlos shouted through his half fear, half laughing state, and I growled.

I heard an exasperated sigh as I entered the kitchen, and saw my mother turn around from the stove, the scent of our soon to be dinner hung in the air. I saw the ashamed face staring at me again, not the 'Why did you do that?' but the 'Are you really going to stoop down to his level?' look. Mentally I agreed to the later.

"Kari don't threaten your brother. And Carlos," My mother snatched the journal from his hands and handed it to me before looking back at him, "Stay out of your sisters room." I looked over at Carlos and grinned in victory, as he frowned before running off to do god knows what. I walked over past my mother and set my journal on top of the hutch. "Hey Hun, don't forget to tend to the animals, your father..."

She stopped and i knew why I frowned at the thought of my father. He wasn't a terrible father, god no! He was everything a girl could want in a father. Key word 'was'. My father had passed away about two years ago in a car accident. Worst part was, i was there with him. It was my birthday and he was taking me to a cross country event. But i was distracting him with silly antics and the other driver ignored the stop sign and slammed violently into the driver side of my dads truck, he didn't stand a chance. And everyday i regret being the one to survive it, i miss him so much and i started to even hate my own birthday, because it reminded me of the day that he left me. I also haven't even gotten into another car since that day.

The pain was still so fresh, not just in my mind but my mothers as well. Shaking my head to get rid of my terrible memories, I smiled at the thought of being with my most favorite thing in the world. Ironhide a stallion I had rescued when i found him in an abandon barn. Your probably wondering why I named him Ironhide right? Well Carlos is a Transformers fan-dork, as I call him, and begged me to name the black stallion after his favorite Autobot, and being the kind sister i was, i allowed him to name the horse. I found it annoying at first but its kind've grown on me. "Alright, Mom. Hey do you need anything from the market? I'm going to head down to get cow feed."

I grabbed my sneakers and sat on the floor putting them on as my mother hummed, "We do need milk and bread." I gave a nod as i stood grabbing my fall coat, and just as I zipped it up Carlos came screaming down the hall with his transformers towel tied around his neck like a cape and a burger king crown on, he was followed by two playful chocolate labs.

At this point I wanted out of the house before I was dragged into one of his weird 'expeditions' as he calls it. So I quickly walked out of the house closing the screen door behind me and ran towards the barn. I pushed open the barn doors letting the crisp afternoon air enter the warm barn, which was still quiet except for the warm welcome of the only horse in the barn. "Hey Ironhide," I turned on the barn lights as I walked over to the stall containing my favorite horse, who had appeared as soon as the barn doors opened. He nickered in his own gruff way as I gently patted his nose, "Love you too, buddy." I smiled as I walked further into the barn, as the other animals realized I was in the barn and began making nose for their food.

So the next ten minutes were spent filling food and water buckets, and putting each in the animals' pens. Afterwords I let the cattle out to graze, to keep them satisfied until I returned with the feed.

Walking back into the barn I headed over to the tack room and grabbed my run down saddle and bridle, then set them both on Ironhide's stall. I opened the stall door and walked in as he munched happily on his oats. Patting his side to let him know I was here, I then lifted the saddle up and set it onto his back, with a huff. I reached under him to grabbed the leather straps, and nearly fell over when I got poked in the side. Laughing I looked over as I grabbed the straps hooking them together.

And there was the nose of said horse nudging my shoulder, "Hey you got to earn your stay." I joked with him as he nickered and went back to eating. I smiled as I tightened the straps before going to get the bridle. There was a thud and I turned to find Ironhide on his back, looking at me as if saying, 'Get it off!' I laughed as I walked over and smacked his belly playfully, "Get up you old mule. We have to go." I laughed as he seemed to snort indigently and got up. Shaking my head at his strange humor I pulled the bridle up over his nose and fasten the straps together, readjusting his amazingly long mane so there would be no discomfort for him. Smiling as I dragged my fingers over the name tag sewn into the bridle, it was jagged and a bit hard to read, but it's what identified him as, well...Him.

I grabbed the reins and lead him out of the stall closing it behind me, before I lead him out of the barn. I tied the reins loosely to a pole by the barn door, before I closed said door. Turning around I nearly had a heart attack, when I saw Carlos standing right in front of me, grinning from ear to ear like a Cheshire cat. "What?" I blinked as I walked around him to Ironhide, untying the reins. "Momma gave me money to give to for the groceries."

I lifted the reins over the stallions head, "Oh thanks," I turned to take the money he held out with a smile, which disappeared when he pulled his hand back, "But! I get to go with you!" He joyful said with another grin, and I groaned realizing this would either end up in me chasing him for the money or myself getting yelled at for not being nice to my 'baby brother'. So with a very irritated sigh, "Fine, hop on."

He laughed happily, handing me the money as he scrambled around me to his favorite horse, said horse turning to look at him quizzically. "Yes! Ironhide you and I are going to go Decepticon hunting!" I smiled rolling my eyes at his trans-fan attitude, "I don't think we'll be finding any dangerous decpiti-things-"

"-Decepticons."

"Right," I grinned as he cheekily corrected me, "But if we do i'll let you and 'Hide take care of them." I grinned as I helped him onto the large black stallion, which he laughed with happiness at the thought of taking down bad robots with a horse that imitated his favorite autobot. Shaking my head I stepped onto the stirrups pulling myself onto Ironhide's back, Carlos sitting comfortably in front of me, I took the reins from his hands giving him a warning look before I gave the stallion the command to trot, and lead him down the drive and onto the side of the road as we made our way to the small town.

~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~

"Hey! I think thats a 'Con! Ironhide attack!"

My brother to a stance similar to a heroic pose, as I tied a pack of feed onto Ironhide's hunches. Said horse made no move to attack whatever car Carlos had spotted claiming to be a Decepticon. I smiled as the horse turned his head towards me, "He's a little crazy." I whispered with a grin, as the horse nickered in what seemed like understanding before turning forward again. I then tied the bag of groceries to the rope tied to the bag of feed.

It had taken sometime to get into town, we did live a good few miles away and it was now dark out, the last few rays of sunlight peaking over the mountains. The air was cold, though, the scent of rain hung in the air and the sound of thunder rolling in the sky was the only thing to break the silence. I had to hurry up though, it would be bad to ride in a storm, especially with Carlos also in the saddle.

"Hey, KK." I looked over Ironhide with a 'hmm?', seeing Carlos bent over picking something up off the ground, before running back over to me. "Here!" I finished the knot on the groceries, and tuned to him, leaning down to see what he had. The six year old handed me a stone fragment of some sort, "It looks like the shard in the movies and I want you to have it!" I blinked and took it with a smile, ignoring the strange warmth it omitted. My brother may be a pain sometime but I loved him more then anything in the world, even my beloved horse came second. "Thank you Carlos, that was really sweet of you."

I ruffled his hair affectionately, and gave him a sisterly kiss on the cheek, in which he responded to with, 'Ew!'. "Ready to go?" I said ignoring his 'gross' comments, as he stopped and nodded. I grabbed a small piece of rope from the bags and tied it around the shard, until it was secured before I tied the thin rope around my neck, the shard dangling over my chest. Smiling at the simple gift i helped him onto Ironhide again before climbing up myself, and we began our trek home.

"Carlos," I spoke as I turned off the road and into the open spans of grass, as a short cut. "I want you to hang on tight, the storm may get bad and Ironhide may get spooked." I said shuffling in my seat a bit, as Carlos laughed, "Okay, but I don't see how 'Hide would get scared of a silly storm!" I frowned not really sure if he understood that his 'best friend' could seriously hurt him if he was scared enough to. I shook the thoughts away, he was too young to understand and I wasn't going to break his bubble, if you know what I mean.

His small innocent heart wouldn't understand death.

~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~

We were closer to home now, but by this time it had already begun to rain, hard. Carlos had curled up closer to me with my coat wrapped around him tightly. He was more prone to hypothermia then I was at any rate, and if we got stranded out here I wanted it to be me that were sick not him. I patter Ironhide's neck as thunder rolled in the sky, "It's alright boy, you are Ironhide after all." The stallion tossed his head as if acknowledging me, but I could feel the tenseness in his muscles and the way his ears swiveled, searching for danger.

The rain was freezing, and felt like shards of ice hitting my skin, and the wind whipped at my face, making the rain hurt all the more. No doubt it was causing both the horse and Carlos stress, after all Carlos was only six and Ironhide was pulling both their weights including his own.

"Kari," I looked down, hearing the raspy voice of Carlos. Oh no. "Yeah, buddy?" I asked tightening my grip on the reins as well as him. "I don't feel so good." I wanted to hit myself for this, I shouldn't have let him come along. Of course I didn't know it was going to storm like this, but there's always danger out here, let it be a bear attack or storms, it was dangerous.

"I know, buddy. I know." I murmured rubbing his back, pressing him closer to keep him warm. "But remember your Lil' Ironhide. You can fight anything that comes your way." He didn't say anything but curled up closer, and I rested my chin onto his head.

And without warning Ironhide came to a complete stop, his muscles tense. I lifted my head looking around, for any sign of cougars, bears or, heaven forbid, wolves. When seeing nothing I jerked the reins slightly, "Hey, big guy it's alright. We're almost home." He made no move to...move, just nickered pathetically. I frowned, he had never done this before. Leaning forward I patted his thick neck, "Come on, Ironhide. I know your scared but we have to go."

I tugged on the reins more, which only resulted in him throwing his head back and backing up, "Ironhide! Move forward-!" I was cut off when Ironhide reared up in fear from the crash of thunder as a strike of lightning lit up the sky and came crashing down so close to us that I could feel the electrical currents running through me, burning me...

I wrapped my arms around Ironhide's neck holding Carlos close as he screamed, and I soon realized I was screaming, not only from fear, but from the shocking, heart wrenching pain that coursed through my chest, then all was silent as I slipped from realities grip.

And I prayed to whatever god was watching over us, that we would be okay...

Note: This is sort've a side story i'm not quiet sure if i will continue this that is why i request some feed back ^^ If you like the first chapter let me know and i may make this story 'official' on my list X3 btw the 'Dear Journal' things will only be at the beginning of each chapter ^^ (if i do continue) lol

Oh and if you wanna see what the horse looks like go to (just remove spaces if the link doesn't show [damn FF and its nature to hate links :| )

gallery / # / d52 scye (add to shadxamy456 . deviantart . com )

R&R please!