Lost In A Winter Wonderland

• Mackenna Minstrell, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2015

Lucy gazes out her bedroom window, looking over the vast expanse of frost covered trees. Lucy ran down the stairs in a rush, through her warm coat over her shoulders and yelled, “I’m going to feed Pixie!” and sprints out in to the deep snow.
It took Lucy several minutes to wade through the thick deep snow, but eventually Lucy reached Pixie’s stable. Lucy opened the old rusty door and smiled at the familiar creaking noise. Pixie turned her graceful Arabian head to nuzzled Lucy’s cheek. Lucy glanced back outside at the frozen glacier, it would be awesome to ride among the snowflakes, falling gentle from the wide and vast sky...
Lucy wrapped a cosy blanket around Pixie to keep her warm, Lucy mounted and eased Pixie into a smooth canter as they left the comfort of the heated barn. Lucy looked up at the sky where she could see the moon glowing brightly, reflecting light of frost covered trees.
Finally, they stopped at a lake that was frozen over with ice. Lucy took a thermos of steaming, hot chocolate from her saddle bags. As she began to drink the hot chocolate from her cupped hands, a blizzard began to blow! Lucy stood up and looked Pixie in the eyes and said, “We better leave before this blizzard gets stronger!” and with that, Lucy threw her legs over Pixie’s back and kicked her into a trot.
After a few minutes, Lucy released that they were going in circles. As Lucy passed a huge snow mountain for the 5th time. Lucy lay down on Pixie’s back, wrapped her arms around Pixie’s neck and began to cry. Pixie looked around her and Lucy, Pixie looked at the frozen trees on a great expanse of snow covered ground. Pixie started to walk past some trees towards a distant light. But Lucy says in a sad shaky voice, “No Pixie, you will only get us more lost!” Despite this, Pixie kept walking towards the light.
Pixie got closer and closer to the light, as familiar land marks came into view. Finally, Pixie stopped at a small, heated barn in a paddock. Lucy opened the stable and smiled at the familiar creaking noise. Then Lucy threw her arms around Pixie in delight and whispered in her ear, “Good girl, you found your stable. I never should have doubted you. From now on, I will always remember to trust a horse’s instincts!”
Lucy gave Pixie new straw and hay and even an extra carrot! Lucy gave Pixie one last hug and turned to leave the stable. Lucy trudged back through the snow, hung her coat on the hook and sat at the table to eat her warm breakfast.
I hope that Lucy has learnt her lesson and from now on will remember, that everything is not as bad as it seems and also to trust others who mean well!