Idun let go of her to go make friends with the horse, and Lottie took the opportunity to detach the chipmunk from her skirt. She set him near a hay bale and said, “You stay here. It's safe and warm in here. Stay. Stay.”
Why she thought that would work with a chipmunk the way it would with a dog, she wasn't certain, but she moved away from the small furry creature to approach the large one. Idun was already letting the horse out of the stall, so Lottie looked for the halter to lead him, but she didn't see one. “Um... where's his halter? Idun, he doesn't have a halter on. We need to put a halter on him, even just to get him outside, don't you think? Because if we don't have one he's going to... um... do what he's doing.”
What the horse was doing was heading straight for the open door of the barn. It was a little odd that it was the middle of the night, but he knew the routine. If he was to work, things were put on him. If he got to go out to the meadow, he was left without anything on. Since he didn't have any sort of straps or ropes anywhere, and the door was open, he was going to go to the meadow. Slow and plodding as his steps were, they were nonetheless quite determined.
“Oh, shut the door!” Lottie gasped in a quietly whispered yet somehow still panicked sort of yell. “Shut the door, shut the door, shut the door...”
With that chant still spilling from her lips, Friendship tried to sidle around the large animal without spooking it so she could close the door before he got there. She'd managed that just fine, so she took a long stride forward, then lifted her leg to do another. Just as she began to set that foot down, however, something small and striped darted in front of her, and Lottie swallowed shriek as she tried to keep from stepping on the stupid chipmunk. Which, of course, led to her being too far off balance to remain upright, and she ended up toppling over onto the barn floor, not even aware of the fact that the chipmunk had burrowed back into her skirts. What she was aware of, however, was a soft wuffling breath stirring her hair.
There was a little groan as she reached up to pat the nose of the concerned equine, and she managed to whisper, “Close to door, get the halter.”