magicae-est-realis

Magicae est Realis

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Horses

Okay, so if Fablehaven has horses, why don’t they ever really ride them? This is how I imagine it would go if Warren had to teach Seth and Kendra how to ride... and of course, Bracken tagged along.

“Hey, Kens. You busy right now?” Warren poked his head around the door to the attic, where Kendra was busy reading with Bracken.

“I’m fine, as long as Bracken can come, too.”

“Great! See you downstairs in five! …Wait did you say Bracken?” Warren’s eyes widened as he finally took in the Unicorn sitting next to his cousin.

“Yes. Bracken. Why would that be a problem?” Kendra asked suspiciously. The Unicorn in question still had his head buried in his book, not noticing that people were talking about him. He had a gift of tuning everyone and everything out when he read- a skill Kendra was often jealous of, given the hectic-ness of the preserve.

“Um, no reason. Just... never mind. He can tag along if he wants.” Warren couldn’t run away fast enough.

Kendra just shook her head and nudged Bracken. When he finally noticed, he looked at Kendra is surprise, as if he’d forgotten she was there.

“Hey, Unicorn. Warren wants us for something. Want to come along?” Kendra asked.

“Sure. I was getting near the end anyway.”

Five minutes later, Kendra and Bracken were waiting in the living room with Seth and Warren, who was explaining the plan.

“Okay, so it came to our attention yesterday that we have stables and horses on the preserve, and yet neither of you knows how to ride.” Warren stated. “So, Stan asked if I could teach you!”

“Wow. Grandpa really trusted you around horses? Do you have any idea how many ways you could hurt yourself, Warr? I mean, even for a regular person there’s risk. But for you?” Seth whistled in appreciation, and Kendra giggled.

“What’s that supposed to mean, Seth?” Warren pouted.

“Only that you seem to have the most unlucky track record possible for injuring yourself.” Bracken interjected. “You managed to trip over a flower and break your toe last month. And just yesterday you cut yourself on a butter knife. And don’t even get me started on that concussion you got from a pillow fight! Face it, Warren. You could hurt yourself with air.”

Kendra’s laughter proved to be contagious, and soon everyone except Warren was doubled over with tears streaming down their faces.

“Ha, ha, ha. You’re all hilarious. We’ll see how much you’re laughing when I make you ride horses!” Warren retaliated.

“Actually, I’m glad you brought that up... What exactly do you mean by riding horses?” Bracken looked nervous at Warren’s evil grin.

“This is Tango, Admiral, Storm, and General.” Warren said, gesturing at the four horses lined up in turn. He’d spent the last hour lecturing the others the basics of riding.

Tango was a tall buckskin that was shaking his mane regally, Admiral a dark red, Storm a dark grey with small white freckles, and General was a handsome bay.

“Cool! Can I ride General?”

“No.” Warren grinned as he shot Seth down, before continuing. “Kens, you have Tango. He’s tall and a bit of a handful, but you should be able to manage well enough. Seth, you have Admiral. He’s a bit cheeky, so you’ll need to keep him in check so he doesn’t do anything. General is mine, and has been for the last ten years.”

Finally, Warren looked at Bracken with an evil smile, and gestured at the remaining horse, who was prancing around daringly and tossing her head. “This is Storm. She’s our most challenging horse- never met anyone who lasted more than ten minutes on her. Since you’re a Unicorn, great around equines, and obviously ridden before even without even counting the fact you technically ARE a horse, your job will be to ride and tame her.”

Bracken gulped, but straightened and rose to the challenge.

“Good luck. You’ll need it.” Bracken wasn’t sure who had said it, but it didn’t bode well for his afternoon.

Half an hour later, they were trotting down a path with Warren and General in the lead, followed by Kendra, Seth, and finally Bracken, who was seemingly in a constant battle of wills with Storm the entire first half of the ride.

Seth and Admiral had seemed to click almost instantly- Kendra blamed it on the troublemaker genes. The two had already proven to love rushing ahead, going fast, and generally annoying everyone else, even if Seth had been a bit scared and insecure at first.

Kendra on Tango worked, although they didn’t seem to click nearly as well as the troublemakers had. It seemed to be a purely working relationship, and everyone could tell that Kendra would do better on another horse. She seemed to handle riding really well though, and Warren had been impressed.

Thanks to being a Unicorn, Bracken was doing better than anyone had thought he would. Although Storm had run off when Bracken was trying to get on, spooking Tango in the process as Bracken ran on foot behind her. But once Bracken was on, Storm had calmed down immensely, even if every few minutes for the first while she would suddenly act up, and try to run away. Whenever she did, the Unicorn was there to correct her, concentrating hard. A good distance into the ride, Storm had calmed down completely, and she and Bracken suddenly got along perfectly, making a wonderful team.

The group stopped for lunch near Dryad’s Hollow, dismounting with winces and hobbling over to the stream where they left their horses to drink.

Warren spread out a picnic blanket he’d taken with and handed out sandwiches. A bottle of water was passed around, and the four of them talked and laughed together.

“Did you see how Storm reared up?” Seth gushed. “How did you stay on, Bracken?”

“Practise, I guess.” Bracken shrugged.

“Admiral is awesome! We get along so well!” Seth continued. “And trotting was so much fun! When do we get to gallop?”

“Probably never.” Warren grinned. “Horses really don’t gallop all that much with a rider- racehorses being the exception. And it’s really hard, too. Don’t worry- when you have a little more experience and don’t look like you’re about to fall off, I’ll teach you to canter.”

“Cool!”

It happened as they were riding home. One minute, everyone was fine, and the next, Warren didn’t see a branch and was sprawled across the path with a concussion.

Dismounting, Bracken rushed over, making sure Warren was okay. Satisfied that the man wasn’t about to die or anything, Bracken picked him up and slung him over General’s saddle, before taking the reins and mounting Storm again, now leading General from horseback.

The ride home after that was uneventful. Reaching the stables, everyone dismounted and handed the horses off to Dale, who was feeding the animals, before rushing Warren off the main house and Tanu.

The Samoan took one look at Warren, before ordering Bracken to lay him down on his bed and take care of Seth and Kendra, who had been unusually quiet ever since the accident.

Bracken nodded, curling his arm around Kendra and putting his hand on Seth’s shoulder, steering the siblings towards the kitchen. They plopped down on the seats, before Bracken suddenly jumped up again, and made three cups of hot chocolate.

“I told you- Warren was bound to hurt himself.” Seth was the first to break the silence, sipping on his drink. “The poor guy wasn’t even trying.”

Kendra laughed. “I bet he wasn’t even looking for branches!”

“Nah, he probably was, but completely missed the only dangerous one!” Seth grinned.

“True. I told you, he could hurt himself on air!” Bracken added. With that, any lingering sadness disappeared, and Seth began choking on his hot chocolate from laughing too hard.

Ever since their first ride, Kendra and Seth made a point to tease Warren about low hanging branches, and the three of them plus Bracken would more often than not ride together every weekend.

Horses

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