Sassy and the Stallion (Wild Heart)

                                   

                                  

            Nostrils flared and tail arched high, hooves pounding dust down the prairie canyons, came the black stallion.  He reigned on the precipice above his valley, tossing his great dark head.

            Obsidian black with glistening coat, rich mane of midnight hue, the stallion was ruled by his wild heart, free and alone he lived.

           

            He was lean, well-muscled and seasoned.  He dared the world to take him on.  None had ever captured him and none ever would.

            Free and unfettered, he lived, unspoiled by the weight of any rider, knowing no gentle hand, his wild heart yet untamed, unyielding.

            He only knew the wind and rocks and rain, the passing seasons and endless prairie grasses.  Yet he dreamed a stallion's dream:

            His being, one with sunlight and soft touches, floating above the earth, heart freely given, mastered, yet blissful.

            A stallion's dream of being possessed by one who would love him, meld with him, yet free him for his dreams and his floating.

            One day he stood, the king, straddling rocks high above his world, the wide prairie spread below him, a carpet of swaying grasses.  

           He beheld a woman, her fingertips caressing the prairie grass as she moved slowly.  She lifted her gossamer head and saw the stallion standing there.  Their eyes locked.  Sassy!

            She was the sunlight, hair of soft sparkling gold like his swaying grasses.  Her warm eyes pierced the distance between them and claimed him.    

            He pounded down the rocks toward her, challenging, shaking his black mane.  She walked slowly forward, unafraid, commanding the earth beneath her feet with gentleness, with magic as if she knew the way to his wild heart.   Sassy!

            A shiver rocked the stallion from his bannered tail to his soft nose.   He stood transfixed, watching this apparition, approaching and beckoning to him.  He was rooted to the ground, frozen by her silken steps.  Sassy.

            His great heart melted as he beheld her face.   Fear slipping away, he arched his great dark neck and minced his way to her.  

           Tossing his head and snorting, he stood, waiting for the inevitable.  She smiled an eternal, knowing smile, reaching her white arm out to him.  Sassy!

           Her voice was whispers of breezes in his canyons on a warm day.   Sassy's fingers touched his quivering nose and she spoke in musical tones.  His wild heart skipped a beat.

            The wild heart within him almost burst as she caressed him gently with her fingertips, looking into his liquid brown eyes with her own sparkling ones.  Eyes that haltered his wild heart, eyes the color of grasses and brown earth.  Sassy!

            As if she had known all along, slowly she stepped to his side, knotted fingers in his thick mane and swung up to his broad back as if a feather.  She sat stroking his arched, muscled neck.   

                      He trembled and was lost to her.  To Sassy.

            Then, slowly at first, they began to move in unison.  The stallion mincing until his step firmed, crossed the rocky ground, upward.   The weight on his back was light, strangely familiar, welcoming.  

                            He knew this was his destiny.  Sassy!

            They moved in tandem,  the warmth of their bodies burning together.   The black stallion and Sassy with golden hair, up, up to the pinnacle where he had stood and first beheld her.

            There, looking down over their world, the hearts of both stallion and Sassy swelled with emotion as they felt their destinies merge to one.  He knew his wild heart had found its match.  Sassy.

            Her magic enveloped his being, her soft words melted into his heart, her touch, gentle as warm rain, inflamed his very essence.   He knew at last the meaning of his dream.  He yielded his everything and sighed.

            The black stallion snorted, touched his nose to her soft leg.  The heat between them was like molten steel.  He knew at last he was completely free, free from his wild heart.    

                            The wild heart belonged to Sassy.