The Hayloft Girls

Max’s stomach started to grumble. It was past 3:00PM and her feet were sore from walking all day. She knew it would be getting dark soon and had better find a place to stay for the night. She walked through the wet woods. It had started to rain a while back and the ground was soggy and mushy and her feet we getting wetter and wetter with every step. The sun hadn't set and wont for a few hours but it was still a little dark not only because of the cloud cover but also because the woods she was walking through were so thick. She was constantly tripping over vines and roots. “I thought everything was suppose to be dead and clear by now” Max thought to herself as a tree branches with a few leaves holding on for dear life, smacked her in the face.
Max was starting to get worried that she might never find a place to stay. It was getting later and later and colder and colder. “I’ll keep walking a little longer and if i don't find a road or a park, i’ll just have to set up a make shift camp and hope i don't freeze to death.” she said out loud. She knew no one was listening but being silent all day was starting to get on her nerves. Just when she was about to give up, she came through the trees and brush to an open field. Only it wasn't the kind of field that had corn or anything growing in it. It was clear with just grass and it was surrounded by brown fence boards. It looked as thought it might have just had a fresh coat of paint on it recently. Max stood there for a moment trying to find any clues to where she might be. There were a few blobs of something she couldn't make out up a head.
She ducked down and started crawling on all fours, hopping those blobs up ahead weren't people who might have seen her or even looking for her. She knew by now Mrs. Fry would notice she was gone and since she’d been struggling with getting through the woods, she had no idea what kind of distance she had put between her and the orphanage.
After awhile of crawling, Max realized those blobs weren't moving towards her so she stood up and started walking down a lane way that split two fields. As she walked, she noticed there were a lot of fields but nothing in them. Walking the lane ways were like walking through a maze. She had to keep turning right and left then left and right to get around. “There has to be a barn or something coming up soon.” she muttered to herself. She was freezing and soaking wet from crawling around on the ground. As she came over a hill, a huge barn appeared. It was giant! There were what looked like two smaller barns attached to a giant barn in the middle with steeples on top of all of them. There were swinging doors side by side on the smaller barns but they weren't like people doors, they were bigger, wider. “Its a horse farm” Max said out loud in amazement. She turned to look around her and noticed the blobs that she saw were actually horses. They were being brought in so she hadn't seen them when she started getting closer. Max ducked down and was peering up over the hill. She was close enough to see everything but far enough not to be seen unless someone was really looking for her. It was pretty busy. There were a lot of people there. All the people who were there to ride their horses must all be in the barns” Max thought to herself. She was watching the farm hands working. She noticed they were all wearing jackets that matched. They were all dark purple with silver lettering. She couldn't make out what the lettering said but she assumed it must have been the name of the farm. Their boots were up to their knees, covered in a thick layer of mud. Some even had some hay in their hair.
Max had a flash back to when her parents were still alive. She rode at a barn similar to this one. She would work off her riding lessons by working with the farm hands mucking stalls, feeding and grooming horses, bring horses in and letting horses out for turn out. She would even help out with lessons from time to time. She was only ten at the time but she knew enough to help with beginners by teaching them to brush and tack up the horses. Mounting the horse and then basic commands. It was all hard work but she loved it so much.
A horse whining near by startled her back to the present. There was a pasture near her that still had horses in it. Which meant her hiding place would soon be found by the farm hands. She quickly but quietly got up and started to move closer to the barn. Near the main barns there was a smaller utility barn where Max saw all the tractors parked in. She went in and noticed a door into another room. She went in and saw that there was a full kitchen with a fridge, stove, oven, microwave and a huge tub with a sink faucet attached to it. She saw that there were a few tack boxes in there and bridles hanging from a hook in the middle of the room. There was a big fat, fluffy cat sleeping on the heating system near the window. “This must be where they clean the tack and have their breaks.” Max said to no one. It was heated and dry and no one was around so she decided to hide out in there until everyone left for the night. Once she was sure no one was there, she would explore the barns and find a hayloft to sleep in. Little did Max know, she wasn't going to be the only one in the hayloft.