Before I begin, is anyone getting bored of reading this story? I'm not over writing it, I still love writing it but just don't have a lot of free time on my hands now that summer is approaching (boo and yay!).

I originally only planned for this story to be 30 chapters long, but I guess my characters had other ideas..hah!

Let me know what you think in the comments box below! Also, I am giving away dedications, so if you want one leave a message :)

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That night we made it back to the ranch just before ten, everyone was dead tired and the ranch hands that had stayed behind to tend to the animals were all in the main house lounge watching television. I offered only a tired wave and grunt as I dragged my feet up to my attic room, I could hear Val right behind me and knew she was in much the same state as me.

“Leah? Leah? Come on Leah, wake up!” The gentle shaking turned to rough shaking; if I hadn’t woken when I did I was sure Val would have dragged me out of bed happily.

“Ow, seriously Val you’re going to rip my clothes off if you keep doing that.” I muttered grumpily, opening my eyes I immediately noticed the worried and slightly frightened look on her face. After a few moments my brain registered yelling outside and the dim glow of something other than the sun rising.

Climbing out of bed quickly I was glad that I had fallen to sleep in my clothes that I’d worn down to the rodeo. Pulling on my boots I turned to see Val standing there, unsure of what to do or say. She paced the room anxiously, obviously worried about something.

“What’s going on?” I didn’t know what else to ask, perhaps I should have run down stairs as soon as I registered that there was panic in the air but I stood there waiting for Val to say something.

Eventually she stopped pacing and faced me, “someone lit a fire on the edge of the ranch, it’s gone big. Thank god it’s heading away from the house but it’s headed towards the pastures that have stock in them and we need everyone we can get to help round them up.” Swallowing nervously I nodded; I knew what Valerie was saying even though she hadn’t come out and said it. I would need to go out with the other ranch hands and round up the cattle...even if I still wasn’t competent on a horse.

Heading downstairs I took the offered snack that Trisha held out, she promised that she would be out as soon as she was done packing more snacks. Why she was packing snacks at a time like this I wasn’t sure but didn’t question her as I stuffed the breakfast bar in my mouth and chewed as Valerie and I headed out the door.

As soon as I crossed over into the outside world I felt dread in the pit of my stomach, the sun wasn’t up yet but I could smell, taste and feel the heavy smoke that hung in the air as it burned its way towards cattle in the distant fields.

“Valerie, saddle up! You’re going out with me, Leah...can you ride yet?” I watched Valerie leave as soon as Adrian gave the order; turning my attention to the man I nodded. It was a bit of a lie but I could ride enough to control a horse and make it go where I wanted it to, I didn’t want to be the useless person on the ranch that couldn’t do a hell of a lot so I lied instead.

“Okay, you’ll be going out with Nic Fin. He’ll explain where you’re going, the herd you’re getting isn’t large so the two of you should be able to push them easily down to safety and towards the main herd, make sure you don’t get any breakaways or they’ll probably get roasted.” Despite the fact that I nodded at everything Adrian said I had absolutely no idea what in the world he was talking about.

“I understand, I’ll go and find Nic-Fin now.” Adrian nodded and turned back to what he was doing, which was saddling his own horse.

Running into the nearest horse barn I saw Nic-Fin at the other end, he had my favourite horse with him as well as his own. Butter-Bean was already saddled and ready to go, he seemed a lot more skittish compared to other times I had handled him. This unsettled me a lot but I tried not to  let it show as I walked him outside and quietly mounted him.

I had experienced wild fires before, California had a few every summer. But I had never experienced a wild fire so big and in such an isolated area, it made the need to save everything ten times more urgent and my prayers more frequently chanted.

"You ready kid?" Nic-Fin yelled as he rode his horse towards where Butter-Bean and I sat waiting. Nodding in response I kicked Butter-Bean into motion and we headed off a little too quickly in the direction that the inferno was headed, it was hot in Montana during the summer but the fire made it feel like hell.

I followed dutifully behind Nic-Fin; he didn’t once look back to see if I was following so I endeavoured that little bit more to keep control of Butter-Bean.  For the most part he was okay, occasionally he would pull on the reigns and try and turn off the track. He was probably more than eager to get back to the ranch house and so was I, this fire, the thick smoke and the heat was all unbearable.

“Come on Leah! We’re almost there, pick up the pace a bit!” That was how I interpreted the muffled sounds coming from Nic-Fin; sometime during the twenty minute ride out to the fields he had put a cloth over his mouth and nose.

Again I urged Butter-Bean on, the stand of tree’s we had passed through opened out into several large fields. Thankfully the fire hadn’t come this way yet but the cattle were all mooing like mad, some even sounded like they were screaming, it wasn’t a pleasant noise to have to endure.

“Take that side Leah, we’ll start pushing them towards the main gate and down onto the dirt road.” Nodding I went the way that Nic-Fin had indicated, I think he gave me the easier side to take as I entered the field and went towards the smaller group of cattle while Nic-Fin began pushing the slightly bigger group of cattle towards the road.

There was a fence and gate between the field and road, I knew that much from the conversation Declan and I had and the tour he’d given me a few weeks back. The cattle seemed to know that we were there to help and though there were a few stubborn ones in the group most of them began moving as soon as we began pushing.

When we came down to the gate I dismounted Butter-Bean and unlatched the gate before mounting my trusty horse again and going back up and around the herd to where Nic-Fin was pushing them. “The gate is open!” Nic-Fin nodded and pushed the herd a little harder, I went back onto the other side where I had been pushing, just so the herd moved more evenly and there were no breakaways.

As the thought entered my mind I watched a young calf begin to wander off towards the scrub, at first I thought my mind was playing games with me but when I heard a loud whistle from Nic-Fin I knew that I had to go after it and push it back towards the main group.

Kicking Butter-Bean into action yet again I followed the little cow, wondering now, of all times it had decided to wander off. It was important that all the cows stay together so that we didn’t end up with roasted cow all over the ranch, but the calf seemed determined to follow the track it had started out on.

“Holy cow,” were the only two words that came out of my mouth when we came to the bottom of a shallow gully, there was a cow there stuck in some old fencing. Looking up behind her, I could see the fire coming down through a stand of trees.

“Oh god, come on Mrs. Cow...we better get your foot out and get you moving.” I tried not to sound panicked, the cow was panicky enough for the both of us. I jumped off Butter-Bean and slowly made my way towards her, noting that wire had wrapped around one of her hind legs and had cut in a little bit. The wound was bloodied but I hoped it wasn’t too bad and that she would walk out of the gully on her own and quickly.

The first time I reached to untangle her foot she kicked, and did the same thing three more times. With each kick I grew a little more frustrated and hurried in my actions but managed to get her leg untangled and stood back. The roar of the fire was a lot closer now and when I turned to look towards the stand of trees I could feel my stomach drop and a burst of butterflies flew through.

While my attention was turned towards the fire the lady cow stood, turning back I saw that she was half way back to the herd and only limping a little. When I turned back to mount Butter-Bean there was no horse there and my throat suddenly went dry, there was fire behind me and a big hike ahead of me.

Not wasting any time I began walking as quickly as I could away from the fire and back up towards the herd, the smoke was thick and the breeze began blowing in the direction I was walking.

Glancing behind me I panicked, there is something about a wildfire...I’m not sure what it was but I felt like I was being watched and chased at the same time by something that wasn’t really alive. Using my shirt sleeve to cover my nose and mouth I picked up the pace and eventually came out back where I had been with the herd. The only problem was that the herd was no longer there and neither was Butter-Bean or Nic-Fin.

 Feeling the panic rise up further I ran down towards the road, following the cow tracks, I stumbled a few times but picked myself up quickly as the wind speed increased and the smoke grew thicker. Not watching where I put my feet I stumbled, falling and crying out when I felt sharp pain shoot explode in my ankle.

This so wasn’t the time to twist an ankle and yet as luck would have it...as MY luck would have it I was sure that was exactly what had happened as I looked back towards my foot. It had caught in a deep cow print that had dried out in the summer sun; there were deep cow prints all around the gate. I hadn’t noticed them before while sitting on Butter-Bean but now they looked like massive craters in the ground.

Hearing only the fire roaring behind me I picked myself up, wincing as I put my foot tentatively down against the ground and gritted my teeth as I bore weight on it. No one was going to come and rescue me and if Butter-Bean was a smart horse he would already be back at the ranch house with the other horses.

Limping down onto the road I was glad to see that it was mostly pot-hole free and began walking in the direction that the cattle had walked. Every so often I turned to look behind me and found the fire closer, when I looked behind me for the umpteenth time the fire had engulfed the gate I had just walked out of. I knew I couldn’t outrun it so did the one thing Lane, my driver had taught me.

He had always been paranoid that I would get caught in a wildfire while out in California and had taught me to shelter in a roadside ditch if I couldn’t get out of the fires way. The roadside ditch that ran along the ranch roadside was deep enough that if I sat up in it my head would still be well below the road level.

A small culvert had been put in years ago, I offered a prayer to whoever was listening as I wedged myself inside, and making sure the tips of my toes weren’t even sticking out. It was an extremely tight squeeze and not a pleasant one either as dry muck and the smell of moss filled my nostrils, but I would rather have that then be roasted alive.

The heat inside the culvert spiked suddenly and I began to sweat, I hoped my feet were okay as I felt them heat up a bit as the fire either neared or was on top of me. The other end of the culvert was plugged up with something so I couldn’t see what was happening.

Feeling a little sleepy I closed my eyes to rest them for a few minutes, hoping that when I opened my eyes the wild fire would be just a distant dream and that my ankle wasn’t as bad as I thought.