Prince Ali

by Victoria Hardesty

  Every time he returned home unsuccessful, he thanked heaven. He really didn’t want to find Ali’s body up here. He hoped the horse was a smart as he looked and headed back to civilization where someone might recognize him and get him back to his owners.

  While searching the edges of the mountain lion’s territory, Carl ran into Randy of Fish and Wildlife. Randy was on horseback doing the same thing as Carl. They spoke briefly and Carl showed him the territory he’d already covered.

  “Heard the owners put up a fifty thousand dollar reward on the horse.” Randy told him. “They must want the horse back pretty bad.”

  “He’s a very nice horse. If he were mine, I’d probably do the same thing.” Carl said. “Since we’re both in the same area, why don’t we split it up a little so we don’t cover the same ground. I’ll head north along that ridge,” pointing in the direction he meant to cover, “and why don’t you try south.”

  “Sounds good to me. I’ll be in touch with the Deputies down in Little Rock if I find anything. Where’s your cabin? I can stop by and leave you a note if you’re not there.” Randy suggested.

  Carl gave him directions and they parted. Carl spotted horse dung along the rocky ridge that Ali climbed on his last day in the forest. He also found hoof prints of shod hooves. It looked like the horse was smart after all. He was heading over the ridge to the High Desert. Carl knew there were people there. He had higher hopes the horse would be found.

  Carl turned Max around and went back to his cabin. He took care of Max, fed him some of the new grain he’d bought with a heavy flake of hay, checked his water, latched the corral gate and left. He drove down the mountain to the sheriff’s office and asked for Deputy Ramirez.

  Carl told Deputy Ramirez what he’d found on the mountain and his suspicion that Ali was heading north and would be in the High Desert by now. Deputy Ramirez thanked him for the information and told him he’d get the word out to the patrols so they could be on the watch. He said he would also call LA County Animal Control in Lancaster and San Bernardino County Animal Control, just in case they got calls about a stray horse in the area.

  “Do me a favor, will you?” Carl asked the deputy. “If you find the horse, can you have someone let me know? I got pretty attached to him while he was at my place and I’d just like to know he’s okay.”

  Deputy Ramirez smiled at Carl and said, “Yes, I will handle that personally. If we hear anything about the horse being found, I’ll drive up and let you know. If you’re not at your cabin, I’ll leave you a note. Thank you for helping with the search. I’ll pass your concern on to the owners too.”

  “Thank you so much.” Carl said as he left.

  CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

  Sunday morning Ali saw the first rays of sun on the eastern horizon turning the black sky to coral, rose and pink. There were a few clouds in the sky which glowed in deeper hues. As he watched, the light of the rising sun painted the bottoms of the clouds gold. The clouds lightened with time to white as the sky changed to blue.

  He wasn’t the only creature to notice the arrival of the new day. Birds began scratching in the soil for breakfast and flying from tree to tree. He could hear small creatures scurrying through the pine needles and dead leaves beneath shrubs and trees. None of these sounds gave him reason to pause. They were the normal sounds of early morning in the mountains. Most of the predators had long since sought shelter and were sleeping away the day.

  Ali was stiff with cold. He moved forward slowly working out the kinks. He had no idea where he was or how he was going to get back to his family and Becky. He’d been gone from his family for eight days.

  He remembered the barren rocky hills to the west. He saw those through the windows of the trailer and knew he wouldn’t find much to eat there. He started walking east. He was hungry. He walked into deeper woods looking for something to eat, picking at the few blades of new grass he saw poking up at the base of rocks and trees. The sunlight dappled his silver coat through the leaves of ancient oaks and tall pines.

  He came upon a small meadow drenched in early morning sunlight. There were several white tail deer grazing there with their fawns. He hesitated before stepping into the light. The deer picked up their heads and stared at him. “Is this a good place to get something to eat?” he asked.

  The lead doe hesitated then answered, “Depends on what you eat.”

  “Fresh grass is good,” he told her.

  “You’re not a meat eater, then?” she asked.

  “Oh, no! Not at all. If you don’t mind me asking, what are you? You are small but have four legs like me and sort of look similar.” he asked the doe.

  She visibly relaxed. “We are the Inheritors of the Forest. We are called deer. We are grass eaters like yourself. We share with other grass eaters so please eat in peace. And if you don’t mind me asking, just exactly what are YOU?” she asked him.

  “Oh, you are deer. I’ve heard of deer but never saw one before. You are quite delicate and beautiful. Thanks for sharing your grass with me. I’m a horse,” he answered.

  He and the deer were hungry. Now that they understood he was harmless to them, they resumed eating. Five or six does that were hiding in the thickets around the meadow seemed to appear from nowhere and joined the herd on the far side. He watched them for a few minutes and then joined them for a little breakfast.

  Ali spent most of that day wandering, eating where he could, and drinking from small streams of snow melt water. The water was cold and clear with an earthy taste. He skirted around several areas where the fire had scorched the earth and everything on it. Dead, blackened trees and shrubs raised twisted and gnarled branches toward the sky in those areas. Roots of some were starting to send out shoots of new green proving they weren’t really dead, just burned above ground. New shoots from seeds had started growing to replace foliage. There were blades of new grass starting to poke through the black soil as well. As is always true, Life was renewing itself.

  As dusk crept up on Ali, he looked for a place to spend the night. He was out in the open for the second time in his life. There was nothing secure here. He finally found a small canyon, narrow and surrounded on three sides with granite boulders. He walked in and turned around. He thought the rocks might protect his hind quarters. He could watch the area in front of him because he saw fairly well in the dark.

  He settled in for the night. The small canyon also offered him another benefit, shelter from the cold wind. There were lots of dead pine needles and dry leaves on the ground providing a soft place to lie down. For the first time in days, he did just that. It felt wonderful getting off his feet and giving his legs a rest. He laid there for an hour, then stood and shook himself off. He dozed on and off through the night.

  About dawn, Ali woke with a start. He heard rustling in the leaves. It took him a few seconds to locate the source of the sound. He saw a strange creature slowing moving on its belly through the leaves and pine needles several feet from him. He stared at it with intense curiosity. It had no legs! Its head was shaped like a triangle and it blended perfectly into the surroundings by coloration and dark markings along its five foot length.

  Ali took one step in the creature’s direction lowering his nose to see if he could catch any scent. The creature pulled itself into a coil in an instant lifting its head and the tip of its tail. The tail began to shake making a dry rattling sound. Ali froze. Then the creature opened its mouth, showing long white fangs. Suddenly it struck, using its coiled body to propel it toward Ali.

  It was too far away and the strike missed Ali by two feet. In a flash, the creature resumed its coiled position and the tail shook again. It was hissing at him. Ali decided to take no chances. He quickly moved away from the creature and left the small canyon.

  He found a cold stream and drank his fill, then continued to wander through the woods, still in an easterly direction. What he didn’t know was that he had now wandered into the territory of the cougar. Ali looked for new blades of grass to nibble
on as he moved along. These he found most often at the base of rocks where the water from winter rains and snow melt ran down to the soil below and watered the seeds of last year’s grasses that blew in there.

  The she-lion lay at the top of a granite outcrop catching the morning sun on her tawny coat as she licked her sore paw. The outcrop was fifteen feet above the floor of the woods. She smelled and heard Ali before she saw him. She froze and watched as he came closer and closer. Ali spotted a patch of new grass at the edge of her granite post and walked toward it.

  Cougars, also known as mountain lions, are ambush hunters. They watch and wait. In this case, the she-lion watched Ali coming closer and closer to her and tensed her muscles like coiled springs.

  She noticed this creature was much larger than the white tailed deer she usually preyed upon, but she was hungry and this animal would feed her for more than a week. She decided to take a chance and try to bring it down.

  She waited patiently for him to get close enough. Finally he did. She leaped. Ali heard the scraping sounds from her paws on the top of the boulder he was standing next to and jumped forward.

  The she-lion was a whisker late again. She aimed for Ali’s neck so she could land her body on his back and grab a hold, sinking her large fangs into his neck with a strangle hold that would cut off his air supply. With her sore paw and her belly full of kittens adding weight, she missed and landed on Ali’s rear quarter, too far back to hold onto his neck.

  Her sharp claws tried to gain purchase. They slipped and tore gouges down Ali’s back and flanks. Blood streamed from the gouges making his hair and skin slippery. She kept trying to hold on. Every attempt made it worse. More bleeding. She bit Ali’s back, sinking her teeth in deep. Ali reared, screaming in panic and pain.

  The she-lion had not anticipated that. She slipped. Her hind quarters hung behind his tail. Ali felt the cougar slip. He used his shod hooves and kicked out at her. One of his rear feet connected. He kicked again. The second kick caught the she-lion in the rib cage. It knocked the air from her lungs. She tried to release her grip with fangs and claws. The next kick connected again, tossing her into the boulders. She crumpled into a pile at the base of the rocks and lay still. Ali took off like the wind, screaming in fear and pain.

  The she-lion lay at the base of the rocks for a few minutes. Then she stood and shook herself. She limped back to her place on the outcrop, lay back down and licked her sore paw. She’d try again when she had an opportunity. This time she’d misjudged the size and strength of her prey and could have been seriously injured herself. She wouldn’t make that mistake again.

  Ali ran as he’d never run before. Horses can see close to 360 degrees because of the placement of their eyes on the side of their heads. They have blind spots only directly in front of their nose and directly behind their tail. For that reason, he only saw the she-lion as she landed on his back side and saw her fangs sink into his flesh. He was bleeding from bite marks and long deep scratches from the cougar’s claws.

  Because she jumped on him from above where he didn’t expect it, he hadn’t seen the attack coming. He was lucky he heard the cat before she landed on him. He was terrified and he was feeling the pain. He ran and ran and ran until he couldn’t run any further.

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

  Ali stopped in the middle of a small meadow, dropped his head and began taking in great gulps of air. His heart was racing from the exercise and the fear. He trembled. He stood there for a while until his heart slowed down and his senses returned. The pain remained along his flanks, hips and back but no serious damage had been done. Fresh blood oozed and dripped from the deep scratches and bite marks.

  Ali heard a great splashing not far from the meadow and knew it could only be water. He had a tremendous thirst. He walked toward the sound. When he finally saw the water, it was a small waterfall tumbling over a dark rocky ridge into a shallow pool.

  He drank from the edge of the pool, and then tested the pool with one hoof. It wasn’t too deep or too slippery. He needed something to cool the burning along his back side. His feet found purchase on small stones lining the pool.

  Slowly he moved deeper into the pool and turned his back side toward the falling water. He backed up until the cold water fell across his back and cooled the burning there. He stood there until the cold began to penetrate his bones. He slowly walked out of the pool and stood with drooping head for a few minutes.

  Ali began to wonder if he’d made the right decision. “What am I doing here?” he thought. “I don’t know if I could find my way back to the old man’s place now. This wilderness stuff is crazy scary! Maybe Max was right after all.”

  He took a few steps and stretched himself. The cold water temporarily eased the pain in his back from the bites and clawing of the big cat. The ache left behind got worse by the minute. Ali closed his eyes. Suddenly he had a vision of Becky’s face. She was only eight years old and pressed her face to the back window of her parents truck as Mom and Dad drove off and left Ali at his new “school” in Colorado. Tears streaked her face. He’d never seen her look that sad before. He knew she loved him. How sad would she be if he never got back home to her? Suddenly his resolve came back to him with power and strength. He lifted his head. He shook himself. He would get home! He had to get back to Becky! He survived that horrible attack. What could be worse than that? “Becky, I’m coming! Wait for me! I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  Then he knew which way to go. He had been looking at the high desert plateau for a week. He knew there were people there. He’d seen and heard their vehicles from the corral at Carl Nixon’s place. He saw the lights. That’s where he needed to go. In his experience, where there were people, there would be food and water. He began walking north. There were too many scary creatures in the woods and he didn’t feel safe at all.

  He walked slowly and began his descent from the mountains. He had several hills to climb and valleys to get through, but he avoided rocky outcrops. He didn’t stop to eat, just continued on his way. He did take water whenever he found a running stream but only stopped for a few minutes each time.

  As dusk fell across the woods, Ali found a place in the open for the night. He no longer felt secure near rocks. He spent another cold, shivering night with no protection from the wind. He ate some of the grass in the middle of the clearing, carefully avoiding the edges and the darkness there.

  At first light, Ali turned his head north and continued his journey. If he’d had any experience, he’d have noticed the scent markings and scat marking the edges of territory claimed by the she-bear. He crossed the barrier.

  The California Black Bear’s diet is about eighty percent vegetation, however they will eat carrion when available and are just big enough and tough enough to drive other animals off their prey and take it over. They can also run very fast.

  This she-bear loved the taste of fresh kill. She was perpetually hungry from feeding her two cubs. She was out early looking for food when she smelled the blood. She sniffed the air, coughed and decided to investigate. She might get lucky and find the remains of a mountain lion kill. She ambled in Ali’s direction and spotted him slowly walking through a clearing.

  This was not a dead animal, but she could see the cuts on his flank and back and she could smell the blood. It could be crippled enough for her to finish it off.

  She attacked suddenly. She ran toward Ali with her jaws wide open snarling viciously. She moved much quicker than one would think. Ali smelled her, heard her and saw her coming. He screamed and took off running as fast as he could through trees and shrubs, around boulders, his shoes clanking on rocks. He quickly outdistanced the bear. She wasn’t going to waste a whole lot of energy on something that large that could move that fast. She stopped short and went back to digging for grubs in an old stump she came across.

  Ali ran until he could run no more. He was sick with this crazy place and couldn’t wait to get away from it. He finally stopped running and stood on shaky legs gulpi
ng in air, trying to calm himself. He was in an open area where he could see all around him and there was no other creature in sight.

  To the north was a steep, rocky hillside. He thought about trying it, but decided to move along the base and look for an area a little less steep to climb. He continued east until he found a good place; less steep, more grass and trees. He began his climb. Once he got to the top, he could see the plateau below him. This was the final hill. He began to descend.

  By this time dusk was settling over the plateau and the mountains, the setting sun painting the sky in the west with shades of coral to purple. His night vision was very good so he had no trouble picking his way. He did step into an area of loose shale and slipped a few feet but caught himself. The only damage was one of his back shoes came off. The shoes protected his hoof wall. Losing the shoe tore a small chunk from his hoof wall where the nails clinched on and held the shoe in place. It created a tender spot.

  As he came out of the trees that ringed the top of the hill the area below the crest had only low juniper trees and scrub. Little else grew there. He had reduced his elevation from over seven thousand five hundred feet above sea level to about five thousand feet. The air was a little warmer here, but not enough for him to really notice the difference.

  Ali continued his descent by dark until he was too tired to continue. He looked for a good place in the open to stop for the night. He spent another cold and miserable night without shelter from the wind and little or nothing to eat. He was also very thirsty, but there was no water on the surface here that he could find.

  As dawn broke in the eastern sky Ali began again. He began looking in earnest for water. He finally found a small stream tumbling down the mountain about two miles from where he spent the night. He drank his fill and moved on.

  Off in the distance he saw a couple of things that caught his interest. One was a large patch of deep green. The other was a small home with three horses in an area beside the house. They were both miles away and there was one large obstacle between him and them.