Camping With Snakes

• Isabella Muller, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2022

Lurking in the shadows, came Amy on her chestnut horse Autumn, into the barrel racing arena. She kicked Autumn hard, and off they went. Autumn took off fast, dodging the blue barrels one at a time, while Amy tried to hold on tight and steer her speedy horse. Once the two tired mammals raced out of the arena, Amy stood by her cow-liking friend, Victoria, while congratulating Autumn with apples. “Want to go camping for a night tomorrow?” asked Victoria. “I’d love to!” replied Amy.

The next beautiful day, Amy and Victoria woke up extra early to get ready, then they left. Unfortunately, there was a huge, windy thunderstorm the night before, and most of the trees had fallen down, so they had to go the long, boring way. When the friends finally reached the deserted campsite, they set up their tents, cooked some buffalo, ate it, then went to bed. But very little did Amy and Victoria know that a venomous snake roamed the grassy land of the campsite.

Whoosh! The snake slithered fast to the horses that dark night. But Autumn reared and threatened the snake, which bit her, and injected a fair bit of venom into her.

The next warm morning, when Amy found Autumn, Autumn had collapsed. Amy found the red snake bite and realised it was from a venomous snake. Then she found the tracks of the snake in dirt and woke up Victoria. She showed Victoria the tracks. “These have been here for roughly ten hours, which is plenty of time for venom to settle into a horse. In one and a half hours, Autumn could be dead” Victoria said worriedly, so the girls started packing up. “Thanks Vici” Amy replied mournfully.

Once the girls were done packing up, it had already been a bit over an hour. “If we go the long way, Autumn will be dead long before we get home, and we can’t go the short way because of the trees” Amy said. The girls spent at least a precious five minutes thinking what to do before Amy’s Dad messaged her. He told her that last night people removed the dead trees, so the girls could go the short way. Suddenly, a plan formed in Amy’s head.

Victoria saddled up her black horse, Jack, while Amy fetched two ropes. Amy tied the two ropes to Autumn’s front legs, and Victoria tied the other ends of the ropes to Jacks saddle horn. Victoria mounted, and Amy hitched a ride behind her. The girls rode back to town the short way. Autumn nearly died, but the girls reached a vet just in time, and once Autumn recovered, everyone was back to the normal lives. Amy would be in show jumping competitions, and Victoria would look after cattle with her dad.