At the End of the Day

The very last picture for the Outlaw Trail. It was actually supposed to show Danger on the run, when she runs off after the canyon stampede, but I realised that the background is inappropriate, even for the Colorado valley with the vegetation around the stream. So this is going to be the very final picture of the trail, with Danger and Mikaela more or less happily back at home (which would have been last summer, because the trail actually was only a week or so ). The story deals with the way back and with the impact that the trail had on Dangerzone and Mikaela. I am proud of the light in this picture and the overall colors by the way. The most efficent 5 hours ever spent on GIMP XD by me

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Every person at DLS could easily notice that something had gone wrong at the Outlaw Trail. Mikaela had literally dropped Dangerzone at the airport in the US and got on a plane home to Iceland instead of being a company for the horse, which was send back to Germany in a freight-plane. Mikaela took the chance to spend some time with her children, who were with their grandmother for the summer holidays.  They did long-distance trail rides across the island and in the evenings they told each other stories about trolls and elves and proud horses. Mikaelas daughters had a good feeling for the mood of their mother, so they waited until the day before the return to Germany to ask her about the Outlaw Trail. Mikaela had stopped writing her diary after Dangerzone ran off. Mikaela told them a lot of stories about the Old West, about their leader deputy Paine and Aaron Walker. It was hard to tell them who had been the "good guys" or better, why Mikaela turned out on the bad side at the end of the trail. She talked little about Dangerzone, but the girls where holding their breaths, when Mikaela described to them the steep rocky hillside that Dangerzone went up without a moment of hesitation. "Will you get her for training now?" Asked Vibeke, but her mother did not answer. Instead she sang the praise for Vidar and Alejandro and her daughters - being great fans - joined in.

Back at DLS Mika just resumed her duties working with Arcanum and Maral mainly. The Boss left her one week until he started questioning her about the trail as well. And here she couldn't start talking about ... let's say... Lyo ... to avoid the topic.
"You have been right." she said as they walked along the fences towards one of the pastures that was close to the forest. "The horse is fierce and brave, you can say it is quite dumb."
The Boss raised an eyebrow and Mikaela continued. "I was embarrassing for the stables... The horse was misbehaving right from the start, crazy and dangerous and in the end I literally landed in sh** just because Madame here threw a fit in the very moment that was the least fitting". They were silent again. "Vidar told me that Dangerzone is one of the most typical examples of an Obertaurer character, he said we shouldn't have leased her and she shouldn't be sent away for training."
The Boss burst into laughter. Dangerzone's head  flew up into the air at the far end of the pasture and she stared fascinated at the two humans which meant everything in the world for her.
The Boss did not say anything at first, instead he looked at Dangerzone. Then he added: "It's a pity we spoiled Vala's good character traits and conformation with this Obertaurer experiment..." Then he turned around and went back to his work followed by Mikaela, who was sighing in frustration. Dangerzone kept her eyes fixed on them until they vanished from her sight between the stable buildings.