Post by Evangeline on Sept 18, 2007 3:42:18 GMT -5
DEVIL (Based on Swept Away)
It was getting into the afternoon at the Dinoco Animal Park, and attendance was surging over this early summer weekend. Just beyond the foxdog enclosure and before the ironelks, a newer exhibit had been established, on twenty acres of pastureland with a reed-fringed pond in the center, all surrounded by a white board fence. There was a run-in shelter and a manger at the south end, and a few large shade trees in the west, and beneath those, Devil and his small band of mares took shelter from the rising heat as the latest batch of visitors came to view them.
Devil, about sixteen hands tall, was deep velvet black with a bald face, blue eyes and four high white ermine-spotted stockings. There was stippled roaning on his flanks and white at the base of his tail. All in all, he was a very flashy horse, standing out vividly even under the shade of the ash and willow trees as he stood with tail raised and ears pricked before his latest admirers. His harem, consisting of two Quarter Horse mares and an Apaloosa/Akhal Teke cross, grazed unconcernedly behind him.
"Just look at him!" A dark-green SUV woman exclaimed with a sharp intake of breath. "It's like he's posing for us."
Her companion, a hot-pink coupe girl, nodded her front. "You know, my mother used to tell me stories about how the creature that was on the Ferrari crest was the carrier of dreams, and I always thought they were just a myth, until a few years ago. Now I'm looking at one!"
"Hon, you ain't seen nothin' until you've seen the humans." An older truck cut in. "You think it's wierd enough how this critter goes around on four legs, wait 'till you see TWO legs." He chuckled drily. "Of course, you hafta go west on Route 66 to see them in any numbers."
"My brother did." The coupe replied. "They live mostly in the four corners area and Ornament Valley, so he tells me, and they actually ride these animals."
The SUV raised her eyeshades. "That I'd like to see."
"Well, go on to Radiator Springs or thereabouts and you might." the truck said. "Just don't gawk at them like they're zoo animals, though. They might be small and delicate, but don't ever take'em for granted. I've seen one strip an engine down like it was nothin'."
Devil's ears twitched in response to the voices. A three-month-old foal, one of his first, left the security of the group to survey the observers along with her sire. The little bay sabino filly had her father's bald face and one blue eye, and three socks. She flipped her tail at her new audience.
"Oh, isn't that cute?" the SUV cooed.
The coupe consulted the guide pamphlet. "The babies are called "foals". I can't believe such a tiny little thing grows to that size."
"When humans are born, they're just seven or eight pounds and they can't even walk for a year or so." the old truck said. "But the little baby horse gets up as soon as he pops out."
"You seem to know a fair bit." the SUV turned to the old yellow truck.
"Well, I went back to Radiator Springs to see some friends, 'cause that's where I grew up." the truck turned his eyes back to the horses. "Spent a while there getting re-acquainted."
"Really?" the coupe shifted her gaze. "You didn't happen to meet any famous racecars there, did you?"
"Heh, the fabulous Hudson Hornet and I were boys together." The truck squared himself up proudly. "We had lots of good times together before the town got bypassed and I had to leave."
"Oh look, they're coming over!" the SUV pointed with her antenna.
Devil followed the filly foal over to the fence, standing protectively over her as she poked her inquisitive nose over the inner fence. There was a three-foot gap between the inner fence and the concrete parking stops that separated the visitors from the animal enclosures, but Devil craned his neck over until his muzzle was almost a foot away from the fronts of the cars. The vehicles could feel his breath as he snorted softly.
Another voice interrupted the visitors' reverie. "Gettin' onta feeding time!" A small forklift in khaki paint came with several skips of feed stacked on his forks. He carefully opened a double gate, shutting each behind him, and came to a point about fifteen feet in front of the fence, where he set down each feed tub about twenty feet apart. The mares trotted out to receive their share as Devil put his head down to eat.
The forklift then held out a small bucket of creep feed for the foals. "Gettin'em onta solid food." he explained to the visitors. Some had cameras out and were snapping away.
"Wow, this is really something." the coupe took a few more pictures of the feeding horses. "What's it like to take care of these animals?"
"Just like the native fauna, they need care and attention." the forklift explained. "A little more so in the case of horses because of their physiology and their needs. They are tough in some ways and real delicate in others - a broken bone in the wrong place can be a death sentence. We're real careful to make sure that never happens."
"So how did they come to be here?" the SUV asked.
With a clearing of the throat, the forklift issued the following as if it were a proclamation, "This little herd was a gift to the park, from the humans at Ash Mountain. Devil himself was born two weeks after they were transported here. Don't ask me how they came, not even the scientists have figured that out yet though the shaman types say they know. They didn't plan to come HERE, but it beat hell out of dying in the wasteland of their own planet after that supervolcano blew up on them."
"I hope that never happens here." the coupe shuddered.
"Not likely." the truck harrumphed. "Geology in the corresponding area ain't quite the same, not nearly as active. I could tell that from the fossil and sediment record at the mountain compared with our own."
Devil, in the meantime, pursued the last grains of his sweet feed ration with eager lips before raising his head into the wind. At once, as if a spirit had leaped onto his back, he spun about and galloped about the perimeter of his enclosure, mane streaming and tail high, to the awe and delight of the spectators.
The SUV paused a beat as the stallion made his rounds. "You're really into this subject, aren't you?"
"Anything worth knowin' takes a bit of studyin'" the truck shrugged. "I figure, get to know the humans and their animals as well as possible, we're gonna be sharin' the planet with'em from now on."
"I suppose." The SUV paused. "How rude of me not to introduce myself. Name's Jolene."
"And I'm Sharona." the coupe chimed in. "Pleased to meet you."
"Well..." the truck smiled. "Folks call me "Big Al"..."
As the conversation continued, Devil whickered to his family and enticed them to follow him out to the green expanse of the pasture, where they lowered their heads to graze.
It was getting into the afternoon at the Dinoco Animal Park, and attendance was surging over this early summer weekend. Just beyond the foxdog enclosure and before the ironelks, a newer exhibit had been established, on twenty acres of pastureland with a reed-fringed pond in the center, all surrounded by a white board fence. There was a run-in shelter and a manger at the south end, and a few large shade trees in the west, and beneath those, Devil and his small band of mares took shelter from the rising heat as the latest batch of visitors came to view them.
Devil, about sixteen hands tall, was deep velvet black with a bald face, blue eyes and four high white ermine-spotted stockings. There was stippled roaning on his flanks and white at the base of his tail. All in all, he was a very flashy horse, standing out vividly even under the shade of the ash and willow trees as he stood with tail raised and ears pricked before his latest admirers. His harem, consisting of two Quarter Horse mares and an Apaloosa/Akhal Teke cross, grazed unconcernedly behind him.
"Just look at him!" A dark-green SUV woman exclaimed with a sharp intake of breath. "It's like he's posing for us."
Her companion, a hot-pink coupe girl, nodded her front. "You know, my mother used to tell me stories about how the creature that was on the Ferrari crest was the carrier of dreams, and I always thought they were just a myth, until a few years ago. Now I'm looking at one!"
"Hon, you ain't seen nothin' until you've seen the humans." An older truck cut in. "You think it's wierd enough how this critter goes around on four legs, wait 'till you see TWO legs." He chuckled drily. "Of course, you hafta go west on Route 66 to see them in any numbers."
"My brother did." The coupe replied. "They live mostly in the four corners area and Ornament Valley, so he tells me, and they actually ride these animals."
The SUV raised her eyeshades. "That I'd like to see."
"Well, go on to Radiator Springs or thereabouts and you might." the truck said. "Just don't gawk at them like they're zoo animals, though. They might be small and delicate, but don't ever take'em for granted. I've seen one strip an engine down like it was nothin'."
Devil's ears twitched in response to the voices. A three-month-old foal, one of his first, left the security of the group to survey the observers along with her sire. The little bay sabino filly had her father's bald face and one blue eye, and three socks. She flipped her tail at her new audience.
"Oh, isn't that cute?" the SUV cooed.
The coupe consulted the guide pamphlet. "The babies are called "foals". I can't believe such a tiny little thing grows to that size."
"When humans are born, they're just seven or eight pounds and they can't even walk for a year or so." the old truck said. "But the little baby horse gets up as soon as he pops out."
"You seem to know a fair bit." the SUV turned to the old yellow truck.
"Well, I went back to Radiator Springs to see some friends, 'cause that's where I grew up." the truck turned his eyes back to the horses. "Spent a while there getting re-acquainted."
"Really?" the coupe shifted her gaze. "You didn't happen to meet any famous racecars there, did you?"
"Heh, the fabulous Hudson Hornet and I were boys together." The truck squared himself up proudly. "We had lots of good times together before the town got bypassed and I had to leave."
"Oh look, they're coming over!" the SUV pointed with her antenna.
Devil followed the filly foal over to the fence, standing protectively over her as she poked her inquisitive nose over the inner fence. There was a three-foot gap between the inner fence and the concrete parking stops that separated the visitors from the animal enclosures, but Devil craned his neck over until his muzzle was almost a foot away from the fronts of the cars. The vehicles could feel his breath as he snorted softly.
Another voice interrupted the visitors' reverie. "Gettin' onta feeding time!" A small forklift in khaki paint came with several skips of feed stacked on his forks. He carefully opened a double gate, shutting each behind him, and came to a point about fifteen feet in front of the fence, where he set down each feed tub about twenty feet apart. The mares trotted out to receive their share as Devil put his head down to eat.
The forklift then held out a small bucket of creep feed for the foals. "Gettin'em onta solid food." he explained to the visitors. Some had cameras out and were snapping away.
"Wow, this is really something." the coupe took a few more pictures of the feeding horses. "What's it like to take care of these animals?"
"Just like the native fauna, they need care and attention." the forklift explained. "A little more so in the case of horses because of their physiology and their needs. They are tough in some ways and real delicate in others - a broken bone in the wrong place can be a death sentence. We're real careful to make sure that never happens."
"So how did they come to be here?" the SUV asked.
With a clearing of the throat, the forklift issued the following as if it were a proclamation, "This little herd was a gift to the park, from the humans at Ash Mountain. Devil himself was born two weeks after they were transported here. Don't ask me how they came, not even the scientists have figured that out yet though the shaman types say they know. They didn't plan to come HERE, but it beat hell out of dying in the wasteland of their own planet after that supervolcano blew up on them."
"I hope that never happens here." the coupe shuddered.
"Not likely." the truck harrumphed. "Geology in the corresponding area ain't quite the same, not nearly as active. I could tell that from the fossil and sediment record at the mountain compared with our own."
Devil, in the meantime, pursued the last grains of his sweet feed ration with eager lips before raising his head into the wind. At once, as if a spirit had leaped onto his back, he spun about and galloped about the perimeter of his enclosure, mane streaming and tail high, to the awe and delight of the spectators.
The SUV paused a beat as the stallion made his rounds. "You're really into this subject, aren't you?"
"Anything worth knowin' takes a bit of studyin'" the truck shrugged. "I figure, get to know the humans and their animals as well as possible, we're gonna be sharin' the planet with'em from now on."
"I suppose." The SUV paused. "How rude of me not to introduce myself. Name's Jolene."
"And I'm Sharona." the coupe chimed in. "Pleased to meet you."
"Well..." the truck smiled. "Folks call me "Big Al"..."
As the conversation continued, Devil whickered to his family and enticed them to follow him out to the green expanse of the pasture, where they lowered their heads to graze.
