Below, you can read an original story I wrote.  But if you click on A Loyal Friend, you can watch my digital story on YouTube!“Come on, let’s go,” yelled Erik, as he flew down the steps of his house.

“I’m coming,” Tammy shouted as she jumped off the last step and ran to catch up with Erik.

“We have got to go get Dad at the mine before it gets too dark”, said Erik.

“I brought the flashlight just in case we get lost,” Tammy replied. “And if you will hurry up and get that saddle on Rusty, we can be off.”

“I got it. Climb on!”

“Ready?”

“Yep!”

“Alright, let’s go Rusty! Yah!”

Now something you must understand about Erik and Tammy is that they lived in the mountains of Canada where their father worked their as a miner in the Gobalt Mine. These mountains were known to be treacherous and you had to know the trails like the back of your hand. If you were not careful, you could easily fall down crevasses which were forbidding to look upon. Worst of all, these mountains were given the reputation of being mountain lion country. Nevertheless, Erik and Tammy had traveled many times before with their father and were not worried. After all, they had plenty of time to reach the mine before darkness fell, or so they thought.

Slowly the sun began to sink, and the children realized that they were going to be in the dark pretty soon and that they had better get some light.

“Erik get out your flashlight,” Tammy reminded.

“Uh….here it is but it is awfully hard to turn on. Hey, whoa!”

But it was too late. The flashlight fell from Erik’s hand and cracked on the sharp, jagged rocks alongside the path.

“Oh, great,” complained Erik, “now we have no light!”

Trying to sound more confident than she was, Tammy directed, “We just have to find some shelter to sleep under for the night. Relax. I am sure we will be able to continue in the morning.”

The children found a dark, damp, and drafty cave, which seemed to them at first like the worst place to sleep. It was their only choice however, except for sleeping out under the stars, and the children concluded that it would be better than nothing. As they were beginning to get comfortable on the hard ground of the cave floor, a noise from somewhere in the back of the cave made them sit up at once. It was not Rusty neighing, for the sound seemed to fit a much bigger animal than Rusty. The sound came again and chills went up and down the children’s spines. What was it?

As the moon became brighter the children could see more of the cave. They soon found out what was making all the noise. In the shadow of the cave was a mountain lion, and it was the hugest mountain lion either of the children had ever seen. Tammy screamed!

“Tammy, get out!” yelled Erik as he half shoved Tammy out of the cave.

Erik at once turned and began throwing all the rocks he could find at the mountain lion which was creeping closer. Suddenly the lion lunged at Erik! The lion had all his horrible claws extended and would have torn Erik to shreds if at that moment something marvelous had not happened. Before Erik knew what was going on, Rusty had thrown himself into the fray, and in a jumble of clawing, kicking, and growling, Rusty managed to win the fight. In a few minutes, the lion lay on the floor of the cave dead. Dumbfounded, Erik slowly walked up to Rusty.

“Rusty…you…..you saved our lives.”

“Erik! Erik! Are you alright?” Tammy exclaimed running in to where Erik stood. “I thought you were going to get killed, and then Rusty bolted for the cave and I couldn’t hold him back and…and what happened?”

“I say, Tammy, slow down! I am all right. But Rusty killed that mountain lion and saved both our lives! He is the best and most loyal horse ever!”

“Well, I was about to give up hope of ever getting out of here when Dad showed up with a lantern and a gun! Mom had phoned the office and told Dad that we were coming to get him and when we didn’t show up, he began searching for us!”

“Dad! You’re here!”

Erik ran and grabbed his dad so hard his dad nearly fell over.

“Wow Erik. What happened here? Are you alright?” his dad exclaimed in amazement.

“I’m fine, Dad, really. But I’ll tell you, we have got one of the bravest, most loyal horses and friends you could ever imagine!”