Welcome to Gaia! ::

You would never know that my twin brother Rowan was blind if it were not for his eyes. They were a hazy gray when they should have been hazel like Mother’s and mine. We have the same auburn hair as Mother but she says we have Father’s smile. I know for a fact that Rowan has that same confident grin that Father does. We also have an older brother, Rhubyn. His hair is silvery white like Father’s and he has the same strong, muscular build as he does, but he’s not as nice.

We live on a great farm with lots of space and lots of animals. Father is a wonderful horse breeder and makes lots of money when he wins at the rodeo show, which is where Rowan showed me how much a blind person can do if they have the determination.

The day began with the smell of breakfast wafting upstairs and through our open bedroom door. As usual, Rowan noticed it first and popped his head up to the top level of our bunk bed. “Breakfast! Breakfast!” he sang loudly in my ear. He jumped down and hurried out the door. I took my time. Breakfast would still be waiting for me no matter how long I took.

After an egg, bacon and toast breakfast, we had to do the farm work. Our jobs were easy compared to Rhubyn’s. We had to feed the chickens and find their eggs, then feed the cows and talk to them. Rowan says they’re happier when we talk to them and then we get better milk. He loves milk. A lot.

I was excited, and so was Rowan. If we got all our chores done quickly, Father would take us with him to the fair! We always go anyway, but Dad always leaves early because he competes in the rodeo show. He is famous for his horses. They are the purest, healthiest, strongest and most intelligent horses known to civilization. That day though, he wanted to take us with him so we could see how to get ready for the different competitions and watch him practice so that one day we could try. Rhubyn already said he didn’t want to, so he stayed home with Mother and our cattle dog, Ruger the Third. He was to help mother groom the horses that we weren’t taking.

Before we left, Father wrapped his arms around Mother’s waist and kissed her. I saw Rowan grin and I knew he could hear them. Father pulled away and told her, “First event starts at noon.”

“I’ll be there.” She answered him. I saw Rhubyn roll his eyes and I scowled at him. I told Rowan and he made the same face. Father turned and mounted his horse, motioning for us to do the same. I elbowed Rowan and we mounted our ponies. We were on our way to the fair!
Rowan held onto his reins with one hand and mine with the other. This was not because we were afraid that he wouldn’t be able to follow us. The pony knows better. It was because Rowan has such an adventurous spirit, and we were afraid he might purposely get lost.

Father led us around to an entrance we never knew about. There were stables as far as the eye could see… well, at least as far as my eyes could see. The smells and sounds told Rowan that we had arrived. It was as if his head had been put on a swivel, turning side to side, listening to all the different noises. The roar of the crowd that seemed to grow every minute, the whinnies of the waiting horses, the sizzle and smells of all that unhealthy food being fried to perfect, unholy deliciousness; Rowan absorbed it all.

“Here we are,” announced Father once we arrived to his part of the stable. He led our horses into their own individual stalls, and then led us out to the round, fenced off area that was the arena for the rodeo show. We listened to Father’s explanation, but Rowan seemed more interested in the festivities rather than hearing about how to get the lasso around a steer's neck. Finally Father got the hint. There was no way Rowan and I could pay attention, we were too young. Father gave us some money and shooed us away. He hollered after us, “Scout! Make sure your brother doesn’t get himself into trouble!” Later Rowan told me he heard Father say to himself, “Should’ve known better than to expect two seven year olds to pay attention at the fair.” I sort of felt bad, but we’d make it up to him later, when we were older.

There was so much to do that we didn’t know where to start! But we didn’t have to wonder about that for very long anyway. In fact, we wouldn’t get to do anything that day because as soon as we rounded the corner of the large barn and out of Father’s sight, we were swept off our feet by two big, muscular men. “Hey!” I shouted before the one holding me covered my mouth. I looked over to Rowan. He had the big man’s hand in his teeth, drawing blood. I tried to do the same but the man holding me was better prepared. He held a cloth over my nose and mouth that was soaked with something that tasted bitter. I gave one last look at Rowan and saw his captor hit him upside his head to knock him out. My vision blurred and I fell into darkness.

When I woke up, my arms were bound behind my back and I was lying down in a large, dim, foul smelling room that had no flooring, just dirt and bits of straw. Looking around, I saw Rowan a few feet away from me to the left. He wasn’t moving! My heart leaped into my throat as I inched my way over to him. “Rowan?” I whispered, not daring to get any louder. I nudged him with my shoulder but he still gave no response. He was breathing though, thank goodness for that. I sat up and struggled against the thick, itchy rope tied around my wrists.

I suddenly stopped when I heard a large creaking noise somewhere off to my right. A bright light assaulted my eyes. I squinted and the silhouette of the two burly guys from before entered with a not-so-burly guy. The door closed and my eyes readjusted to the dim lighting. From what I could make out, the man with our two captors was neat and well dressed, with a dark cowboy hat. He looked down at me with cold eyes that made me shiver. I glared up at him, though I was scared beyond belief. The well-dressed man looked past me to Rowan, then up at the two men behind him. They shrugged and the well-dressed man kicked Rowan in the back. My brother let out a soft groan of protest but did not wake up. The well-dressed man nodded to the burly men and all three took their leave, assaulting my eyes once again with the light of what I guessed was the mid-afternoon sunlight.

I sat and listened as their footsteps died away. Once there was silence again, Rowan sat up quickly and told me to “Shush”. Was he pretending to be unconscious the whole time?! I felt my wrists being tugged at and realized what he was doing. I heard him spit a couple of times and knew he was chewing through my bindings. It worked. The ropes snapped after about a minute or so, and I rubbed my wrists. I turned to do the same for Rowan. I untied him and saw that his wrists were rubbed raw and in some spots were bleeding. He had been trying to escape long before I even woke up. I stood and looked around, pulling Rowan to his feet with me.

He turned to me, “Okay, they probably locked the door but I reckon there has to be a window around here somewhere.” His eyes, that seemed to have been looking straight at me, were looking just above my head. “I think we’re in one of those storage barns. You know where they are?” It took me a moment to try and understand how he knew all of this. I still have a hard time comprehending it. “Scout? You okay?” he asked when I didn’t answer him.

“Yeah, I’m okay.” I lied. I was so scared. He must have heard it in my voice because he sighed and opened his arms, inviting me in for a hug. I practically ran to him. He wrapped his arms around me and I cried. We sat down together, and for a while, I cried. I fell asleep sometime during that episode and when I had woken up, it was dark. We were still sitting and I was curled up against Rowan’s warm chest as his head rested on my shoulder. I could tell he was asleep too, because I could feel his drool dampening my shirt sleeve. I shifted and he woke up. “What time is it?” I asked, even though I knew there was no way that either of us could know.

Rowan got up and walked to the wall with his arms outstretched in front of him. When his hands met with the surface, he followed it along to the double doors. There was a crack where the two doors met, and he pressed his face to one side of it, sniffing. “I think it’s early morning,” he said in my general direction. I stood, walked to the door, and looked through the crack. It was indeed early morning. The sun was not up, but you could see its pale light making everything look misty and haunting. Rowan spoke again, “I wonder where those guys are. They wouldn’t just leave us here, would they?”

“What about Mother and Father?” I asked “You think they’re worried about us?”

“Of course.” He said, shaking the door in frustration. “I bet they’ve been lookin’ for us all night.”

“Yeah. . . You think they’ll find us soon?”

Rowan was silent for a while. He stared angrily at the door, although he couldn’t see it. Then he inhaled, putting his thumb and forefinger in his mouth and blowing as hard as he could, letting out a loud whistle. I panicked and grabbed his arm, yanking his hand away from his mouth. "What are you doing?! The bad people will come back for us!”

Rowan pulled his arm away, “I’m calling Ruger. I don’t know if he’ll be able to hear me, but I’m‘a try.” He told me with determination.

“What if the bad men hear us and take us somewhere else?”

“Then I’ll whistle there too. They can’t move us every time, they’ll get tired.” He whistled again. This time, a bad man did come and banged on the door.

“Shut up in there!” a gruff voice yelled from the other side. “Don’t make me come in there or I'll whip ya'll a new one!” I heard him walk away. I had to stop Rowan from kicking the door, in fear he might anger the man.

“So they were close by.” I heard him mumble, more to himself than to me. He turned in my direction, “Now we wait.”

We sat up against the wall beside the door. I sat with my knees pulled up to my chest and my arms wrapped around them. Rowan sat cross-legged with his arms crossed across his chest defiantly. It seemed like we sat there forever, waiting for something to happen. “You think Ruger heard you?” I asked quietly.

“I don’t know. I hope so.” Rowan sounded tired. Not physically, but emotionally, I think. His confidence and determination were fading. I could tell. That’s when I thought all hope was lost, and that we would never be found. Rowan never gave up or lost hope, but here he was, losing his hope, his valor.

There was a moment of heavy silence before Rowan lifted his head and cocked it to the side. He was listening. "What are--" he held up a finger to silence me. I closed my mouth. Then I heard it too! It sounded like soft, quick pitter-patter. "Ruger?!" I looked excitedly at Rowan and he nodded, grinning at the air in front of him. There was a sniffing noise and then a scratching noise. Ruger had found us!

"Good boy Ruger!" Rowan whispered through the crack. "Ok boy, I need you to get Papa. Can you get Papa and bring him here? Can you do that for me boy?" Ruger gave a ruff of confirmation and I heard him pad swiftly away. "Now we wait some more."

I would like to say that our wait was as uneventful as the others, but no. The sun had made it's debut, and I could see light coming through the crack in the door. There were those footsteps again. The sound of a lock being opened caused us to quickly scoot away from the door. The well-dressed man came in, holding something that looked like it would hurt quite a bit if it connected with your head. I didn't know where the two burly men were, but I wasn’t going to complain. The well-dressed man looked like he was going to tell us something, but before he could say anything, Rowan punched him in the leg. I think he was hoping to hit something more vulnerable, but that is a bit hard to do when one is blind.
The man let out a grunt of discomfort, but that was all. Rowan's brave attempt failed to harm the man, but he succeeded in angering him. Considering that the man held a large heavy object, punching him was probably not the smartest thing to do, but once again, it is difficult to judge an opponent when one is blind! The well dressed man raised the heavy object, preparing to strike Rowan with it, when all of a sudden, he was pushed aside, and went tumbling onto the dirt and straw covered ground. I looked at our attacker's assailant, and almost exploded with glee. It was Rhubyn! He was breathing heavily with a threatening glare to the not-so-well dressed man sprawled on the floor.

"Rowan. Scout." Rhubyn addressed us without taking his eyes off the man on the floor before him.

"Yes?" we answered simultaneously.

"Are you hurt?"

"I’m not, but Rowan got hit in the head yesterday." A fire flared in
Rhubyn’s eyes when I said that.

He nodded. "Go outside and get on Gizmo." He told us as he cracked his knuckles. We both ran outside and mounted the large strawberry roan. We heard Rhubyn speak, but I couldn't make out what he was saying. He reached out and closed the barn door so we wouldn't see what he was to do to the formally well-dressed man.

Behind us, the two burly men came down the empty dirt road towards us. When they saw us atop the horse, they stopped in their tracks for a moment and looked at us as if we had just spoken to them in a foreign language. When they recovered, they dropped their handful of breakfast and ran toward us. Gizmo apparently did not like the way they approached him and when they were close enough, he gave them each a strait kick in the gut. He was being nice. He usually goes for a man’s tender area. He’s never kicked a girl though. Gizmo is a gentleman.

Rhubyn finally came out of the barn wiping his hands on what looked like the formally well-dressed man’s shirt. When he was satisfied that his hands were reasonably clean, he rolled the shirt up at tossed it back in the barn and closed the door. He turned back to us and saw the two burly men on the floor holding their stomachs and patted Gizmo affectionately. “Let’s go home and ease Mother’s mind shall we?”

Back at the farm, we were greeted with hugs and kisses while Mom got tears all over our dusty shirts. Rhubyn left again to find Father and tell him we were safe. He was out in our stables with the horses. It looked like he was getting ready to sell them. I watched from the window as Rhubyn ran to him, exchanged exited expressions, and run back to the house together. The door flew open and Father swept us up into his arms and held us firmly against his chest. Rowan told me later that he heard Father’s heartbeat, and that it sounded as fast as a hummingbird.

Turns out we were kidnapped for a ransom. The well-dressed man wanted Father’s horses and he was aiming to use us to get them. It almost worked. If Rowan hadn’t whistled for Ruger, Ruger would not have been able to show Rhubyn where we were and Father would have had to give all of his horses to that bad man. I am glad to say that this unfortunate event did not stop Father from doing what he did best, winning in the rodeo show. It did mean, however, that we were to be watched by Rhubyn whenever we went to the fair, until we were old enough to defend ourselves. Now, Rowan and I also compete in the rodeo. I am a four-time champion at barrel racing and Rowan is the first ever champion at cattle roping.