Kendra - Tumblr Posts
Psyched for Kendra to be on Teen Wolf this season! Maybe she can introduce the Argents to Mr. Pointy.
Didn’t Know - Captain Cold
Leonard Snart x daughter reader
Warnings: none
Word count: 1,028
Summary: “Do you guys ever wonder if your doing more damage than good?” Reader asks Leonard
Authors Note: point of view changes to 3rd
Masterlist
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Laying on my bed in my room aboard the Waverider. I haven’t been on the team for very long but Rip said I was needed, so I said ‘yes’. All of the team seems to rather enjoy having me. Sara is kinda like a big sister to me, Jax is a really great friend, Stein can be annoying, Rip is very bossy, Ray well I already knew him so we are good friends, and Kendra she’s really nice it’s been fun getting to know her.
Leonard and Mick, it’s so easy with them conversation just flows and we have things in common. But it seems that lately, they are very distant with me. It started after a mission a month ago we went on we all split up into groups of two. I don’t know what happened, no one does.
As I’m thinking about the team I wonder if they ever feel like I do right now.
I feel like I’m not really helping the team at all. Why am I even with them?
They don’t need my help. I’m barely even a help, they don’t need me. They don’t need extra weight.
“Knock, knock” I looked over at my door and saw Leonard leaning in the doorway
“Hey, Snart” I smiled a little. I don’t know why but I feel like I can tell him anything.
“What’s wrong kid?” he asked
“What do you mean, nothings-”
He titted, shaking his head side to side “don’t even try that on me kid. I know you better than that.”
“Yeah, yeah you do” I bit my lip before moving to sit up. Swinging my legs around.
He walked over and sat next to me “Tell me whats wrong”
“Do you guys ever wonder if your doing more damage than good?” I asked him looking down, knowing how he can easily readme.
Leonard gave a tight-lipped smile. He feels bad for her he knows all too well what’s going through her mind.
Leonard also couldn’t help but blame himself for how she is feeling. She feels like she’s worthless and unwanted.
“I mean I feel like everything I do somehow has a bad effect. An why am I here? You guys don’t need me, nobody's does. . .nobody ever has or ever will.” I whispered the last sentence to herself. But Leonard heard and he felt even more guilty.
A couple of missions ago the man they were after showed him and Mick that their new teammate is Snart’s daughter.
Leonard has been beating himself up since.
Even though it’s not his fault. He didn’t know about Y/n.Her mom never wanted kids so they were careful and she ended up turning him and Mick into the cops just for kicks.
He knows that’s one of the reasons she feels the way she does. Why she feels like nobody's ever gonna need or want her ever. Her mother abandoned her because she didn’t want a kid.
If he would have known about Y/n he would of done anything to find her.
“The team wants you. Me and Mick want you around. We need you. You help more than you know.” he told her but he could tell she didn’t believe him.
“You don’t have to lie to me Snart. I know where I stand.” Y/n looked down picking at her nail polish
“Obviously not” he stated turning to look at her. He tilted Y/n’s chin to make her look at him. “I know what your feeling, I’ve felt it before myself. A lot when I was your age.”
“Really?” Y/n looked at him quizzingly
“Yes, really” Leonard exasperated. “Look sweetheart there’s something I need to tell you, that I should have told you a while ago when I first found out.”
Y/n tilts her head not really understanding what he is gonna say next, but a little afraid also of what it could be.
“Does this have to do with the mission a while ago?” she asked
“Yes. As we all know he had the knowledge of all things. Your my daughter, Y/n.” Leonard spoke in a calm voice.
“W-what?!” she stuttered, confused by what was just said
“I’m your father. I didn’t know about you.If I had I would have did everything in my power to get you from your mother or found you after she abandoned you.” he explained. Grabbing ahold of her hand, moving closer to her.
“It’s ok, yo-you didn’t know” Y/n said softly, still processing
“No it’s not. That might be true but its not ok, I missed everything. Milestones, birthdays… I’m sorry.” Leonard apologized. He wishes he could have been there.
“Wellum I guess I’m gonna have to stop calling you Snart, huh” Y/n joked lightening the mood.
Y/n could tell that he took time to process this before telling her. Which was probably for the best.
“Yeah I guess so since you are one too.” he replied
“I am?” she asked with a wonder, and questioningly gaze
“Of course. By blood, DNA, looks” he nudged her shoulder “and obviously personality.” he smirked
“I’ve never had a last name before. Mom never gave me one. She said she didn’t want people to know me and her were related, and never told me who my father was. Just that no one would ever want or need me.” Y/n explained looking down as if she is ashamed of what she just said but in reality, just hurt from reliving it.
“I would have wanted you. I want you around now. I need you, Mick I bet will need you to, so does the team. If you are ok with it I would like to get to know you, as a daughter?” Leonard stated, pulling her into a hug.
“As long as your ok with it letting me get to know you as a father?” she said back at him
“I am” Leonard said confidently smiling down at her. Hoping he could make up for all he has missed, at least as much he can.Since he can’t go back and actually be there.
In general, I'm noticing a lot of Faith-in-Buffy on this rewatch that I missed on previous watches. 'Prophecy Girl' has a lot of it (after she dies, but also her smile while she's fighting vamps at the start of the episode), and obviously Buffy in 'When She Was Bad' is full of Faith.
And now, in 'What's My Line pt. 2', it's astonishing how much Buffy is Faith to Kendra. The way she provokes her, tries to bring out the passion in her - it's so Faith, so much a mirror of Buffy and Faith's relationship, with Buffy in the Faith roll. Just, you know, less homoerotic.
... I mean, it's still pretty homoerotic. Just... less so.
I'm sure the romantic music from Buffy and Angel's ice rink date playing as Buffy and Kendra say goodbye means nothing. You know, maybe the music is supposed to symbolise Buffy considering her path in life, which connects to ice skating and this last conversation. It just sounds romantic. It doesn't mean anything.
but what if they kissed, though?
In general, I'm noticing a lot of Faith-in-Buffy on this rewatch that I missed on previous watches. 'Prophecy Girl' has a lot of it (after she dies, but also her smile while she's fighting vamps at the start of the episode), and obviously Buffy in 'When She Was Bad' is full of Faith.
And now, in 'What's My Line pt. 2', it's astonishing how much Buffy is Faith to Kendra. The way she provokes her, tries to bring out the passion in her - it's so Faith, so much a mirror of Buffy and Faith's relationship, with Buffy in the Faith roll. Just, you know, less homoerotic.
... I mean, it's still pretty homoerotic. Just... less so.
my fav problematic horse girl <3333
I finally finished drawing how I see kendra…she would absolutely eat up pink glowy highlights
close ups under the cut !!
Buftea - I will be of Service
A mix of honeybush mango, pina colada, and white peony; with an accent of mango and pineapple.
Bracken and Verl Meeting
Hi everyone! Sadly, I cannot write as well as Bandon Mull, so it will be in my own writing style. If anyone has any ideas on what I should do next, please say so! I love listening to them. This one is a credit to @candlemouse!
Kendra was reading on the porch while Bracken collected sandwiches from Grandma and Vanessa, who had decided that a picnic was non-negotiable. As the tall unicorn came out, struggling to carry a basket filled with food and a stereotypical blanket, she laughed at how flustered he looked.
“I had to listen to the two of them talking about us the entire time!” he complained. “Apparently they forgot unicorns can hear better than humans.”
“But you’re in a human form. Wouldn’t you be the same as one of us?”
“No. I merely appear like a person. It doesn’t mean I am one.”
“Oh. But how does that work then?”
“Powerful magic and illusions, mostly.”
The conversation carried them all the way to outside the Naiad’s lake, and Kendra was relieved to see that Bracken seemed to have forgotten his earlier embarrassment. As the two walked through the entrance, they were greeted by Satyrs running around wildly, shouting as they played a game of tackle tag.
“Kendra!” a voice called. She groaned, frantically trying to tell Bracken to turn around and go back to the house, while he looked down at her, confused.
“But we just got here?”
“Yes, I know, but we should leave now!” she finished speaking just as Verl arrived, and, ignoring Bracken completely, he proceeded to bend down and kiss Kendra’s hand, not noticing how quickly she wiped it on her jeans, or how awkward Bracken looked.
“Ah, my beautiful fair maiden! How glorious it is to see you again! I am afraid that I did not know you were coming today, or I would have brought you another token of my love to you!” By the time the Satyr have finished speaking, Bracken was looking incredibly uncomfortable, and Kendra was trying hard not to die of embarrassment.
“Umm... yeah. Great. Nice to see you too, Verl. Er, we were just... leaving now... so, if you could please excuse us?”
“Oh, but why would you go now? You just got here! Come, I am certain that the others would allow me to leave the game to spend time with a maiden as lovely as you.” Bracken was looking more and more awkward with each word, and as he shifted slightly, Verl seemed to notice him for the first time.
“Oh. Yes. Hello. My name is Verl. Who are you?” The tone of voice dropped by about ten degrees. Bracken, face scarlet with embarrassment, looked about ready to die.
“I’m Bracken. Kendra and I were going on a picnic together.” He seemed to regret the words almost immediately.
“I see.” Another twenty degrees dropped from Verl’s tone.
“Er, yes, come on now Bracken! Um... I think Grandpa wanted us to check on Nero!” Kendra was almost as red as Bracken.
“Yes! Nero! Bye Verl. Nice seeing you?” The two of them rushed away from the pond, leaving before Verl had time to figure out what had happened.
“Sorry about that. Verl doesn’t seem to get the hint that I don’t like him back at all. He even carved me a statue!” Kendra groaned.
“Don’t worry. Before I got captured, this Hamadryad was practically handing off my arm. I was about ready to cut her tree down.” Kendra laughed, and as they walked, the embarrassment seemed to slowly fade away.
Eventually, they ate their sandwiched on top of Nero’s cliff, laughing together, Verl completely forgotten.
Kendra- “Why”
Seth- “Why not? You microwave popcorn.”
Kendra- “But French Fries aren’t popcorn!”
Seth-
Kendra-
Seth- *Sneaks a badly burned, unrecognizable lump that used to be a French Fry into his mouth and chews slowly*
YES! Although poor Kendra... she’s been through so much.
OH MYGOD THE SYMBOLISM OF KENDRA LYING ON TOP OF HER FAKE GRAVE LIKE EXHAUSTED FHFJFHDBJDKDJD IM GOIGN TO WRITE THAT MAHBE
Indisputably the best
What is my favorite scene from Chapion of the Titan Games?
This one. Definitely this one.
YES
6 Days Til Cottage Cheese
Day 10:
Theme: Unrequited Love(?)
Description: Verl. That’s All You Need To Know.
Details: Set whenever. Like, imagine that they waited for 5 more days after Christmas before leaving for Wyrmroost(In book 4) and this happened in those days. ALSO you can’t tell me that Warren didn’t grow up around Fablehaven and was like Seth and liked to explore and met and befriended the satyrs and that’s how he knows Verl.
Keep reading
Siblings
This is set after Zzyzx, but before Dragonwatch... Hope you enjoy!
“Ha! I win!” Seth’s shout was loud enough to rival the drumming rain outside.
“No way! You cheated! I saw you look at the cards when you were dealing!” Kendra retorted.
“It’s not cheating if you can’t prove it.”
“So you admit it!”
“I didn’t say that!”
Ever since they were little, Kendra and Seth had been having their infamous sibling-bonding games nights. They were infrequent, but everyone knew about them- the only requirements were that it had to be at night, and it had to be raining. Nobody else was ever allowed to join in, but the sibling rivalry meant that the entire preserve probably could have heard every word. The nights had become so well-known because the first time they’d held one at Fablehaven, they’d accidentally woken the entire household up in the middle of the night with their shouting. After everyone barged in, thinking that something was wrong, Seth and Kendra had united, driving everyone out of the attic, and set about pranking every member of the household, innocent or not. Eventually, Grandma and Grandpa made everyone swear not to interrupt the games nights after a particularly life-threatening retaliation involving a frying pan and an unhealthy amount of bubbles.
Kendra and Seth were currently sitting on the floor in the attic, surrounded by mountains of games, Uno cards scattered all over the floor after Seth had thrown them in the air as a part of his victory-dance.
“You totally cheated, Seth! You can’t look at the cards, dealing or not.”
“We never said we couldn’t.”
“AHA! So it went from flat-out denial, to ‘no evidence’ to ‘not in the rules.’ If you keep changing your defense, you won’t have one left!”
“So I do have a defense, and therefore my defenses all had merit. You’re the one digging yourself deeper, Kendra.”
“That didn’t make very much sense, Seth. Your defense’s defense has even more problems than the original defense!”
“Now I’m just confused. How about we call it a draw, because I don’t think either of us understands what the other is saying right now, and I want to play truth or dare.” Seth grinned at his sister, leaning against his bed, as they both tried to figure out what they’d both said.
“Fine,” Kendra relented. “But I get to go first- truth or dare?”
“Is that even a question? Dear sister, do you even know me at all?”
“Just answer the question, Seth!” Kendra rolled her eyes.
“Dare.” His sister’s grin turned evil.
“I dare you to sneak out to Warren’s cabin, put fluro pink dye in the showerhead, and remove every last mirror in his house.” Seth laughed.
“Where are we getting the dye from?”
“I may or may not have prepared for this earlier, and if you hadn’t for some unforeseeable reason asked to play truth or dare, I would have done it myself.” Seth’s eyes widened in understanding.
“This is payback for when he called you cute, and practically dared you to something about it last week, isn’t it?”
“I shall neither confirm nor deny, but if I were to say something, I would say that you are correct.” They both grinned at each other.
“You’re on!” Seth suddenly shouted, and raced over to to Kendra’s bedside table, pulling out boxes of glitter and pink dye. “Do we have a large enough bag to carry all Warren’s mirrors? He has A LOT.” Kendra nodded. “That brings me to my next question. Won’t he see the pink when he takes a shower?”
Kendra thought for a second. “You know how he has that shampoo he uses every day? I checked, and it’s pink, too. Hopefully he won’t notice until Dale kills him. Although we should probably put the dye in his shampoo bottle instead of the shower head.”
“Sound’s foolproof- let’s go!” Seth raced over to the door, still shoving everything in his emergency kit as he ran. Kendra followed just as eagerly. Ever since Zzyzx, Kendra and Seth had felt a lot safer going out at night, and hardly ever even asked for permission to go into the preserve after Grandpa Sorenson had finally caved and shown them both a map of boundaries, where was safe and where wasn’t, and told them to be careful. The path to the cabin was always kept in good repair by Hugo.
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“You ready?” Kendra whispered to Seth, sneaking to the cabin’s front door, drenched due to the rain. After learning that it would be a games night, Vanessa, Dale, and Tanu had all made some form of excuse, and fled the main house to bunk with Warren for the night. While Vanessa and Tanu could sleep through anything, Warren and Dale were notoriously light sleepers.
Seth fished the spare key to the cabin out from under the dead and currently drowning pot plant Warren had insisted on keeping, unlocked the door, and replaced the key. He was inside before Kendra could blink. After several tense minutes, Seth crept out out of the cabin, dragging a heavy sack behind him that must have been filled with Warren’s mirrors, and spread his hands to show that he wasn’t holding the dye any more. For someone who lived in a cabin in the woods, Warren seemed to care an awful lot about his reflection.
“How’d it go?” Kendra whisper-shouted to Seth.
“Fine. They were still holding their phones and pizza, out like Olloch.” Continuing to drag the mirrors off the front porch, the wet sack fell off the last step, making a tinkling, breaking-glass sound as it hit the ground. “Oops.” Seth winced, before freezing as the unmistakable sound of someone waking up followed. Warren’s voice could be heard waking the others up, and cursing as he apparently got whacked with one of Vanessa’s shoes.
“RUN!” Kendra screeched, grabbing Seth’s hand, ditching the broken mirrors, as the people inside the cabin seemed to be running towards the door. Just as they were reaching the edge of the edge of the clearing near the path, Seth looked back, and saw a half-asleep Vanessa opening the door, missing a shoe, and waking up immediately as she saw the siblings escaping.
“QUICK! TANU! WHERE ARE MY DARTS!? THEY’RE GETTING AWAY!” The sound of something heavy falling came from inside the cabin, and Kendra could hear Dale cursing and shouting something about ‘looking where you’re going, and not falling on top of people.’
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They were nearly back at the house when Kendra heard Warren following them, shouting encouragement to the others behind him- “Come on! Let’s get them! Hurry up! They broke my mirrors!”- and other similar phrases. Kendra tackled Seth into a nearby dripping bush, breaking off his complaints with a hand over his mouth as Warren barreled past their hiding place.
Kendra and Seth let out twin sighs of relief.
“I can’t wait to see his face when he finds out about the dye. It’s permanent, too.” Kendra giggled.
“Thanks, sis.” Seth grinned at Kendra, thanking her for saving him from being steam-rolled by his distant cousin, and she returned the smile, water running down their faces.
“No problem. What are siblings for?”
They might not always get along, and might fight a lot, but they both knew the other would always have their back.
Cabinet
Hello! I’m going to try to start writing short Fablehaven stories, using a single word as my prompt from a random word generator- this one’s word was ‘cabinet.’ Hope you like it! (If anyone has any prompts or ideas, I’d be more than happy to write them!)
It was too tall.
She didn’t have a step.
And everyone else was sleeping.
Kendra didn’t quite understand why the brownies had installed a ‘secret’ cabinet sticking out halfway up the wall in the middle of the hallway, but Grandma Sorenson had quickly taken advantage and hidden cookies in it.
The cabinet was one of those heavy, old-fashioned wooden ones, with legs so tiny, they look like they shouldn’t be able to hold that much weight. How the brownies had managed to suspend it so high up without the wall or cabinet falling down was the biggest mystery on the preserve.
And Kendra was too short to reach it.
When she had woken up in the middle of the night after a nightmare craving chocolate chip cookies, the natural answer was to come to the cabinet. The cabinet she couldn’t reach. The cabinet that was too isolated to drag a chair over to. The cabinet that would probably feature in every other dream Kendra would have for the next million years while she tried to open it.
Looking at the stupid thing again, Kendra tipped her head to the side to think, before trying to jump up to open the door. She missed by a good few inches, and landed loudly. She winced, hoping she didn’t wake anyone up. Vanessa’s room was right next to it.
After deciding that everyone was still asleep, Kendra tried again, thumping down slightly quieter this time, although not by much. Abandoning the jumping effort, she tried to go on her tiptoes again, bouncing slightly with each failed attempt to even touch the cabinet.
It took everything Kendra had not to scream at the annoying thing, and the cookies just out of reach- by a long way. Whenever she was tired, Kendra had always acted slightly more childlike, as if her brain just couldn’t handle being mature when she was so tired, so it just shut down.
A pair of arms wrapped around the bouncing girl, and Kendra nearly screamed, cutting it off as she recognized Bracken behind her. He held her close for a few more seconds, before letting go with one arm and effortlessly taking the cookies out of the cabinet, understanding what she wanted without having to talk.
~
When Vanessa got up the next morning for breakfast duty, she couldn’t help but smile at Kendra and Bracken sitting on the floor underneath the open cabinet, cookie jar next to them, curled up fast asleep. Kendra had a peaceful smile of her face, and was resting her head on Bracken’s shoulder, snoring quietly.
Maybe the Unicorn wasn’t so bad after all.
Dash
Part 2 of creating a short Fablehaven story using a single word prompt from a random word generator... I got ‘dash,’ hope you like it!
“’Thank you’ does not have a dash in it, Seth!” Kendra glared at her younger brother. She didn’t have to wait long for Seth to respond.
“Yes it does!”
“No, it doesn’t! And even if it did, blank tiles aren’t used for punctuation!” The small-but-fierce scrabble game in front of them only had a few words on it, and Seth had added a blank tile and the word ‘you’ onto ‘thank’ which Kendra had placed earlier.
“Fine, I’ll make the blank tile a space mark!” Seth snapped. “But either way I’m getting my triple word!”
“A space would be considered punctuation, too!” Kendra threw her hands into the air in annoyance. “Do you not understand how to play this game!?”
“I do, actually.”
“Prove it!” Kendra jabbed her finger at him, as Seth cleared his throat.
“Scrabble is a board game, where the aim is to create words using tiles, and getting points by placing certain tiles or getting certain bonuses. A player is only allowed to have seven tiles at a time, and must replace any tiles that they place. You can only build off an already existing word, and wherever the tiles are touching, a legitimate word must exist.” Seth bowed.
“That is an explanation of how to play, Seth! Not proving anything except that you know the basic rules! Everyone knows those rules, and its the ones you didn’t cover that you need to understand!” Kendra reached over to the couch behind her, grabbed a pillow, and screamed into it.
“You asked me if I knew how to play. I demonstrated that I know the rules. Therefore, I have proven myself!”
“Did you swallow a dictionary? Ugh, I hate lawyer Seth mode.”
“Don’t we all?” Kendra jumped in surprise, turning around to look the the doorway where Bracken was leaning, grinning.
“Bracken! Can you please help to settle this?” Kendra went and explained what was happening to the Unicorn, who came over and sat next to Kendra with his arm around her.
“Sorry, Kens, but I think that Seth wins the do-you-know-how-to-play argument here. But Seth, your sister is correct about the blank tile. It can’t be used as punctuation.” Bracken thought for a moment. “Do you have the letters ‘I’ ‘N’ ‘G’ instead? Put them at the end, and you can still get your bonus.”
“Yes! Thanks horse-man!” Seth shouted, pumping his fists into the air.
“Horse-man?” Poor Bracken looked so confused, Kendra couldn’t help but laugh. Soon, Seth joined in, and even Bracken managed a slightly confused smile.
“I think it’s Seth’s new nickname for you.” Kendra explained. Bracken nodded in understanding.
“I got that much, I just don’t understand where it come from. Seth, you deeply confuse me sometimes.”
“Hey!” Seth grinned and picked up the pillow he was sitting on, flinging it at Bracken.
“This means war!” Kendra jumped to her boyfriend’s defense. Half an hour later, the biggest pillow fight in Sorenson living room history was still going strong, and the scrabble game lay forgotten on the floor.
Raxtus- I try to be a peaceful being
Kendra- Hey, Raxtus, Navarog is back
Raxtus- WHERE IS HE!? LET ME KILL HIM AGAIN!!!
Kendra-
Raxtus-
Kendra-
Raxtus- Of course, there’s an exception to every rule
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.
Just saying, after The Barbie Movie came out, Seth got Kendra an 'I am Kenough' shirt.
This is fact.
AHHHHHHH
The song on repeat.
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