In Search of a Pony, a Devils Paw Story

Aletha © Folliwar, used with permission

Chapter One

As usual it was Ruth that interrupted Penny’s painting time. Looking up at the politely waiting Spaniel Penny wondered what great disaster had shoved its head into their world this time. Since this was the third special cruise everything was fairly well rehearsed, they had been getting rave reviews from their rich passengers and just the first two trips had brought the W&ARR well back into the black. Penny’s own finances were reaching the level she needed for a manor house in England, preferable around Alston in the northern half of Britain.

“So what is it this time” she asked softly, thinking of their last trip. “Someone is searching for Miss Carlson or Mr. Leeds?”

“No Miss.. Penny” the hound answered. On the last trip Penny had ordered that she was never to be referred to as mistress again. Either use her first name or don’t address her. So far most of the crew had managed to make that change, Ruth though preferred Mistress so it was taking her time to make the change. “Aletha is waiting on the dock to take you on that ride she promised, when you and Calico saved her and her customers from that ambush.”

“Ride..” Penny echoed. Devils Paw was currently docked at the small island of Grenada and would be for three days, by request of the majority of their passengers. Grenada had its own occasional pony hounds so Aletha had attracted no unusual attention, even while wearing her bright black and red leathers. Penny wondered if she could really ride in that modified Hanson that Aletha owned and pulled as even the idea brought dark memories to her. “Please inform her that though I appreciate the offer, I don’t think I could stand watching a woman pull a cart, even a human woman. Especially with myself in it.”

Ruth looked sad. “Mis.. Penny. Aletha told me to tell you that she will be waiting for you until the ship departs, she really wants you to experience this from her perspective.”

Sighing, having been trumped yet again by that strong willed hound Penny began putting away her painting things. “Who will follow us?” she asked softly, knowing that the suns heat might kill the hound if she stood under it all day.

“Linda Miss... Penny” Ruth replied. “On a real horse with her revolver and rifle. She is a crack shot after all.”

“Very well, please tell Aletha that I will be with her in ten minutes and please have Cerise prepare a picnic lunch for the three of us.” She brushed off her dress as she stood, “Bring my revolver in its holster if you will, should Aletha break an ankle I will have to put her out of her misery after all. A bullet is so much faster than a garotte.”

Ruth nodded yes then took off at a fast pace. There was no chance that her mouse owner would ever harm one of the ships crew, even if, like Aletha, they were only contract crew members and not family, though in Aletha’s case she was coming close to that description.

It was a touch over ten minutes later when Penny reached the black Hanson, its red detail work shining in the bright island sun. Aletha stood calmly waiting between the shafts, shafts modified by Devils Paw’s carpenters to give her the greatest comfort as well as allow her to use her full strength when pulling the cart. Walking up to the waiting hound Penny ran her right hand along the pony-hounds flank, electing a flutter of Aletha’s tail in response.

“I know, I know. You want me to experience this from the other side, you want to show me what it is like when the woman truly loves playing a pony. That doesn’t mean I like it, any more than I like my crew being slaves. I warn you though, tread carefully because if you break an ankle or leg as I will be forced to put you out of your misery.”

Was that a glimmer of humor in the bit-gagged woman’s eye the mouse asked herself. Not that the hound couldn’t make understandable sounds if she needed too but the bit, a required bit of bridle kit, made true conversation impossible. At least it wasn’t that cruel Spanish bit that Aletha had been broken in with and had left scars on her gums that would never go away. Walking back to the Hanson the mouse waited until Aletha kneeled then climbed in, noting the picnic basket waiting for her. Sitting comfortable on the well padded seat she clicked her tongue, giving Aletha the signal to stand again. Then she adjusted both her dress and tail one last time before taking up the reins. Penny glanced over to where the vixen Linda was waiting, sitting easily on a rented mare with her rifle in its saddle scabbard. Finally she made her decision, Aletha wanted her to experience this, it wasn’t her between the shafts and this wasn’t a heavy work wagon. With a snap of the reins she set the cart along.

Aletha started off slowly, judging the Hanson’s weight and the strength required to pull it with Penny aboard. Soon though she was trotting along easily, passing through the town of St Georges where very few people more than glanced her way. They would travel South to Belmont then back, less than the hounds maximum range in a day true as it was just over two miles one way, but Penny wasn’t paying a hundred American dollars for this trip so the hound had decided where they were going. It wasn’t a trip of exploration, it was a trip to ease the mouses horror of Aletha as a pony hound taking tourists off on rides at every stop.

They cleared the city after a bit of traffic trouble, hit a flat space and Aletha whinnied to warn her passenger that she was going to run, then run she did. Though Penny liked the feel of a soft wind in her face they really were only going about seven miles an hour. If Aletha could keep this up they would reach Belmont in sixteen minutes or so but not even the physically near perfect hound could do that. After about half a mile Aletha slowed, well aware that Penny had been watching her buttocks swing as she ran. All of her passengers did that, even the most straight women. Of course for her new friend Penny Navita the hound had worn her very shortest skirt, exactly for that reason.

Truth was she had never worn this skirt in public, the black and red trimmed leather barely was decent when she was walking, when she was running everything showed. Aletha was trying to seduce her mouse employer though not blatantly, the hound wasn’t in love with the mouse she simply wanted to see what Penny was like in bed so this time she had worn the underwear that came with her skirt. Leather underwear so thin she almost could have been without.

Returning to a fast walk after slowing Aletha worked to recover her energy and cool off. She was a mistress of this cart now, she had been dragging it around for over a year and a half though never had it been in as good of a condition as the Paws crew kept it. Before it had been an anchor, now the straightened frame and well oiled wheels were more like a heavy backpack when empty as the carpenters had replaced heavy structures meant for a true horse with just as strong but lighter materials to save weight. Only a fool would hitch this modified Hanson to a real horse now, it would simply tear apart within hours.

If anyone had told the ex-locomotive engineer two years ago that she would be pony playing and enjoying it she would have slapped them down. Now though there was a joy in doing so, she was completely helpless with her arms tightly bound behind her back, strapped into her harness and linked to the Hanson. So helpless that if Penny and Calico hadn’t been following when she took the Farmers for a sightseeing ride on Union Island, she would have been unable to protect herself from being raped by those three direwolfe’s that had ambushed them. Three now very dead direwolves she remembered, their bodies tossed into a ravine by the she-wolfs protectors. Yet is was something that she now loved to do so whomever she chose for a life partner, he or she was going to have to agree to harness her up at least once a week for a ride.

Meanwhile Penny was enjoying the view of Aletha’s backside as she apparently easily pulled Hanson and rider along. The artist within Penny noted how Aletha’s body moved, how her hips and legs worked to pull the Hanson up hills and then slow it going down the other side. Perhaps a painting the mouse thought, then she was broken from her thoughts as they pulled off at a wide spot. Aletha had explained to Penny that when she did this she need water, so as the Hanson came to a stop and the hound dropped smoothly to her padded knees the mouse was already stepping out of the Hanson with a canteen of cool water. Though cold water would have tasted better, when one is overheated one wants warmer water to avoid cramps. Penny well remembered dragging that filthy human for miles and feeling lucky when they came to a muddy water hole that she could take her fill of.

As she gave the hound water Penny wiped Aletha’s face with a towel that she had brought. Panting, the woman certainly need time to rest so once she had her fill of water Penny started talking to her, knowing that the hound would not answer while in this costume.

“You are correct pony” she said as she sealed the water bottle, Aletha would want more before they left. “I agree now, there is an obvious difference between being forced to drag a heavy wagon and enjoying what you are doing. I will have to adjust my feelings towards this but I will never own a pony, not even if she begged me to own her, it just isn’t something I like to see. Women should be free, not animals for the pleasure of their owners.”

Abruptly the mouse had an epiphany, “Oh dear Goddess I am a hypocrite” she gasped. “Women should be free and here I own so many women.” She said this into the dust in front of the silent, watching hound. “Dear Goddess what have I become, what am I? They must be free but the only way is if I am dead, or I send them back... there must be another way, there must be.” She shook herself, then stood to water Aletha again before walking back to the Hanson.

Aletha felt the Hanson move as Penny climbed back in, then her reins flickered telling her that it was time to continue. Penny had given her twice the time to rest that she needed, more than most of the hounds customers allowed her. Carefully the pony-hound stood, shook herself to resettle her harness and other gear which caused the attached bells to jingle merrily. Those were an added touch by Aletha herself, it improved her customers experience and warned others that she was coming. Then slowly, step by step she pulled the Hanson and passenger back onto the road. Her muscles were well used to such work, she was in the best shape that she had been in her life so as the pony-hound pulled her passenger along at a brisk but not too fast rate she thought about how she had become this way.