Puzzle: The Runaway Pony Read Free Page B

his huge black horse died, right here! The Forge fell into ruin and the rest of the forest closed in around it.”
    “It’s not much of a legend,” Alice said, feeling a bit disappointed in spite of being spooked at the thought of it being haunted.
    “But that’s not all,” Rosie continued in a hushed voice, looking round at the others with her pale blue eyes wide. They all leaned in a fraction closer as Rosie dropped her voice to a whisper. “I read that when the wind’s in the right direction, you can still hear the sound of metal being hammered, as the blacksmith makes ghostly horseshoes for his ghostly black horse!”
    At that moment, darkness rolled in above them. Lightning lit up the skies and a clap of thunder broke overhead. The rain hissed down even more heavily.
    Suddenly, a strange, eerie, spine-chilling neigh whispered through the air around them.
    “What was that?” Alice squealed, her heart leaping as she and Rosie looked desperately at each other, their eyes almost popping out.
    “It was just the trees creaking,” Mia said unconvincingly. “Wasn’t it?”
    The noise echoed out again and Wish, already jittery, spooked and shot forward. Her back hoofslipped on the muddy path and she almost sat down before springing awkwardly back up. Mia was taken by surprise, and before she could stop herself she tumbled off sideways into a bush. Wish shoved past Pirate, clashing stirrup irons with him and squashing Charlie’s leg. Charlie reached forward to grab Wish by the reins but just missed, and the frightened pony took off along the path ahead with a whinny, her ears pricked. Rosie stood up in her stirrups as Dancer snorted, watching the palomino mare disappear along the path ahead of them.
    “She’s heading straight for the Forge!” she cried, as Mia hauled herself out of the bush, completely covered in mud. Pirate and Scout danced on the spot.
    “Come on!” Mia urged, red-faced after glancing down at how dirty she was. “I don’t care if it’s haunted, we have to go after her!”
    The others gulped, but they knew that Mia was right. They squeezed their agitated poniesforward as Mia ran ahead, pushing back the bushes and brambles in her way, trying to keep her pony in sight.
    Suddenly, Wish and the Old Forge disappeared from view as the path dipped back down into some woodland. Mia started to panic, worried about how scared her pony would be. She sprinted faster, tripping on tree roots, her long, silky black hair plastered to her neck and shoulders.
    As Mia ran and the ponies jogged up the other side of the dip, the bushes fell away and they rushed into a clearing. The girls pulled the ponies up dead. Beneath their hooves were cobbles, slippery and almost hidden by the tall grass and mud – the only remains of the ancient road that used to run past the Forge. And just beyond the cobbles, as if in some kind of grim fairytale, out of the overgrown, wild grass rose the Old Forge itself. At the entrance nearest to them were two huge black doors. Mia felt her stomach tighten into a knot. There was no sign of Wish.
    “Wish!” she called out. Her voice echoed in the creepy, heavy silence of the clearing. “Wish!”
    “I don’t think she’d have hung about here,” Charlie said, staring towards the gloomy path which led away from the Forge on the other side of the clearing. “If she was frightened she’ll have galloped straight past. I’ll go and check.”
    Charlie jumped off Pirate and led him over to a little path that led away from the Forge. It was hard to make out any hoof prints among the tall grass near the ruin, but she definitely couldn’t see a single one on the woodland path beyond.
    “Anything?” Alice asked, swinging down from Scout.
    Charlie shook her head. “Nothing.”
    Spooked, they all looked around, then Rosie pointed from Dancer’s back.
    “Hoof prints, look, there, they lead right up to…” Rosie gulped, “the Old Forge doors.”
    They all looked nervously at the ruin