Bright Rider Legacy (eBook)

Kristofer Zimmer (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
288 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3178-2224-8 (ISBN)

Infos

Nine-year-old Kaylee Winkles has always dreamed of having her own horse. Her parents, however, say she's just not old enough for a horse of her own. One night, a terrible storm erupts over the ranch where Kaylee lives, and in its aftermath, she finds a mysterious guest: a tiny horse. A baby unicorn, the last of her kind, and in great danger from a dark force whose only goal is to imprison the unicorn and hide her from the world. With the help of her family, Kaylee must stand up to the evil that would lock away the unicorn and defeat the darkness before it overtakes the light.

Kristofer Zimmer has had a passion for writing since childhood. He currently lives in the Midwest where he continues to write adventures for middle grade readers.

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A terrible storm, a young girl's dream, and the last hope against a dark force... Nine-year-old Kaylee Winkles has always dreamed of having her own horse. She's had her own fish, parakeets, turtles, and hamsters, so surely she's ready for a horse! Her parents, however, disagree; Kaylee is welcome to help with the animals at her parents' clinic, but she's just not old enough for a horse of her own. One night, a terrible storm full of thunder and lightning, but no rain erupts over the ranch. In its aftermath, Kaylee finds a mysterious guest on her property: a tiny horse. Kaylee quickly discovers that her new friend is no ordinary horse, but a baby unicorn! The last of her kind, in great danger from a dark force whose only goal is to imprison the unicorn and hide her from the world. With the help of her family, Kaylee must stand up to the evil that would lock away the unicorn and defeat the darkness before it overtakes the light.

Textauszug

Chapter 2

The Cheeseburger Ranch

Rather than join the other children outside for the final recess of the year, Kaylee and Ivy helped to clean up the lunchroom with the Bebbel family and the members of faculty that were assisting in the competition. The two girls helped load up all the cookout supplies and leftover food into the Bebbels’ extra large pickup truck and said their farewells to Brittney and Brinkley, who were so full of hot dogs they could barely move. After some gentle hugs and waves goodbye, the Bebbels finished loading the supplies and headed home just as the school buses were arriving to release the children into another three-month break.

The two sat together in their usual seat in the middle of the bus, which was a bit noisier today than usual, and excitedly talked about how great their summers were going to be. Ordinarily, Kaylee would love talking about their upcoming breaks, but this year was a little different. This year, Ivy was going to receive Kaylee’s greatest wish in the whole world. Ivy was going to adopt her first horse.

Ever since Kaylee could remember, she had desperately wanted a horse of her own. Her family ran a large animal veterinarian clinic out of their family ranch; and she had spent her life around cows, sheep, pigs, and, most importantly, horses. She fell in love with them at a very young age and dreamed of the day when she would have a horse of her very own to spend her days with, riding through fields and mountains and enjoying nature with her equine best friend. All of her family members had horses and shared bonds with them that she was desperate to form with a hoofed friend of her own. The horses on the ranch were practically family and treated her as such, so she was very eager to be able to add to that family with a horse that she could form her own connection with.

For years, Kaylee had begged her parents for a horse, insisting that she was old enough and mature enough to handle the responsibility. But at nine years old, she still had more time to grow and more to learn before she could become responsible for another life. Although she had had aquarium fish, parakeets, turtles, and hamsters as pets that all lived full and happy lives, a horse was a much bigger responsibility and one that she truly had to be ready for. Kaylee thought nine years was plenty old enough, but her parents didn’t agree.

Although her parents would not agree to allow her to have her own horse, they would let her help quite a bit around the clinic; and she would often act as an unofficial nurse to her parents’ patients, comforting them after medical procedures and always making sure they had plenty of food, water and warmth to help them recover. She loved to help the animals. It was all she wanted to do with her life, and being able to act as a nurse and aide in their recovery meant the world to her. It was valuable experience, and she took her responsibilities very seriously.

Ivy had always shared the same love for animals that her best friend had and would even help out in the clinic with Kaylee during weekend sleepovers. The two met in kindergarten and quickly bonded over their love for animals, becoming instant best friends.

Ivy Twobears was a member of the Shawmac Native American tribe, who had a reservation just outside the town’s limits. Although Ivy lived in town, she would often spend large chunks of her summer staying with her grandmother on the reservation, learning the ways of her people and growing closer to her cultural heritage. The Shawmac tribe had great respect for the animals of the planet, horses especially, so her love of the massive creatures made perfect sense.

“Have you seen your new horse yet?” Kaylee asked. Ivy learned that she would be adopting a horse this summer just after her ninth birthday and had excitedly looked forward to the summer ever since. Although Kaylee was happy for her friend, she couldn’t help but feel a little jealous that Ivy would find her dream coming true while she would have to wait years.

“Just pictures,” Ivy said, removing the scrunchie hair tie from her long, black hair and retying it after getting all the flyaways out of her face. “She’s three weeks old now and is really starting to move around. Look.”

Ivy pulled out her phone and showed Kaylee a video of a small baby horse walking and stumbling around on the reservation. She was a deep brown color, almost black, with an auburn mane that blew messily in the breeze as she cheerfully pranced around the field learning to move and play.

“Oh wow! She’s beautiful!” Kaylee’s jealousy had subsided a bit watching the short video of the baby frolicking around with other horses. “And she’s only three weeks old? When do you get to meet her?”

“Gram is coming tomorrow morning to pick me up. I’m so excited!” Ivy said, putting her phone back in her pocket and trying her best to tone down her enthusiasm, not wanting to rub it in. “I’ll get to stay on the reservation with her almost all summer, so everyone will be able to help me with training and care and stuff like that. They’re even gonna help me make a custom saddle and bit for her too. I wonder if I can make a pink saddle.”

“That would be so cool! A pink saddle with jewels and tassels on it,” Kaylee said with a laugh. “I’d make a pink one too or maybe a purple one. They’re both my favorite.”

The school bus had just dropped off some of the other students in town, cutting down the number of excited and rambunctious kids by half. Kaylee’s would be the next stop once they got a little farther away, so she and Ivy began preparing for her summer departure.

“Are you still going camping tonight with your uncle?” Ivy asked, securing her backpack on the seat beside her.

“I hope so. That’s the plan, but the storms we’ve been having lately might cause a problem.” Kaylee’s ranch had been bombarded by almost nightly storms for the last ten days. They seemed to pop up out of nowhere. Even the weather stations hadn’t been able to predict them, and they last for hours, bringing with them very strong winds that were wreaking havoc on the ranch’s fences and structures. “My uncle told me that one way or another, we will find a way to go camping, even if it means we have to delay it a day or two. I hope we don’t have to wait, though. I love our camping trips.”

Ivy nodded. She had gone camping with them on the last day of school last year and had a blast. They sat around a big fire, telling scary stories and local legends while cooking campfire foods and having the time of their lives at the edge of their property. Kaylee’s uncle always brought his giant horse with them, who acted more like a person than a horse. He would even act scared when they told ghost stories, trying and failing to hide behind Kaylee and Ivy as they would erupt with laughter.

The school bus came to a large blue-and-white wooden sign on the side of the road that read “Winkles Large Animal Veterinary Clinic, Next Right.” Below it was a smaller sign that read “The Cheeseburger Ranch, Next Right.” Kaylee began to get excited. She lived on the Cheeseburger Ranch with her family and was almost home to begin her summer fun.

“Why is it called the Cheeseburger Ranch again?” Ivy asked with a giggle.

“My mom said it’s what you get when you let my uncle name things,” Kaylee answered with a smile. The girls laughed at the explanation, both knowing her uncle and realizing that the name suddenly made sense.

The school bus turned onto the long dirt road that led to Kaylee’s ranch. All the other kids jumped up from their seats and crowded the right side of the bus to look out the windows. Kaylee’s stop was the favorite of the kids on the bus. Every time the bus dropped Kaylee off, one of her family members would come out to meet her, and each would come with an amazing horse to pick her up. The kids clamored at the windows to see which incredible horse would pick her up today: the superfast one, the supergiant one, or the one that could fly!

No sooner had the other children lined the right side of the bus than they got their answer. Once the bus had turned onto the final dirt road leading to Kaylee’s stop, a rider on an incredible horse rode up from behind and raced the bus to the stop.

The rider was Kaylee’s mom, Emily Winkles; and she rode confidently on her beautiful horse, Ariann, an incredible white horse with a long blonde mane and tail that flowed like silk in the wind as she ran. Emily had long blonde hair that blew behind her and had nothing but kindness in her light blue eyes as she waved to the kids on the bus. She was an incredibly capable rider, expertly handling her horse as they jumped over bushes and rocks on the way to the bus stop. Just like the other members of her family, she liked to give the kids a little show when the bus drove up and today was no exception.

Emily’s hair flowed in the wind with each jump as if she were underwater, and she smiled and waved at the kids while she raced the bus, getting excited waves and cheers from the kids in return. Almost instantly, the cheers turned to warnings and frantic pointing as the kids saw that parked right at Kaylee’s bus stop, directly in the way of her racing mother was a large horse trailer and truck that was there to pick up a recovered patient...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.12.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Kinder- / Jugendbuch
• ISBN-13: 979-8-3178-2224-8 / 9798317822248