The Stables, Thursday Morning (10/04)

[comelyhonour.livejournal.com]

Beauty was almost to the stables when she felt the strangest sensation wash over her. And the world skewed in a frightening way, and she found herself stumbling over spindly legs that were certainly not her usual ones. She bolted the rest of the way to the building, leaving her books lying on the ground, and just as she reached Greatheart's stall, she was back to normal.

In a panic, she threw open the stall door and rushed inside, leaning against the bulk of the rather startled gray as she caught her breath.

"Oh God. What was that?"


[ooc: OPEN!]

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[comelyhonour.livejournal.com]

"No you won't," Beauty said softly. "I trust you, A.J. You won't lose it."

Her hand felt strange and naked now, and she stuck it in her pocket. "Let's get that apple and introduce you to the sweetest horse you're ever going to meet," she suggested, with a smile that she hoped was convincingly light-hearted.

[by137.livejournal.com]

It wasn't, but A.J. wasn't going to say anything as his own hand slipped into his pocket to set the ring safely in their depth and he smiled back. "Let's."

[comelyhonour.livejournal.com]

Nodding, and pleased that A.J. still wanted to go through with this, Beauty decided it probably would do nicely to distract them both from her worries over that animal-enchantment thing. She felt bad that A.J. had been so excited and happy as a puppy, and now seemed solemn and concerned. Leaning him into the barn, she grabbed two apples and handed one to A.J., then took him out to the paddock fence.

Immediately Greatheart ambled over, eager for his treat. " All right, you want to just hold the apple out lightly in your hand, and open your fingers when he goes for it so it's just resting in your palm. He doesn't want your fingers, but he can't help it if they're in the way." Beauty demonstrated, giving the big gray the apple she held and then reaching up to ruffle her fingers through his forelock while he crunched on it.

[by137.livejournal.com]

"I don't want him to have my fingers, either," A.J. commented with a wry grin, but he was paying very careful attention to Beauty's demonstration so that he might be able to imitated it flawlessly. Flawlessly, but with a lot more intimidation. He wasn't a little puppy anymore, sure, but Greatheart still seemed really big, and he'd drawn horses before, understood the sort of musculature they had, and knew that it was no small thing. His lips remained pressed together nervously as he held the apple out, paid close attention to his fingers. It wasn't just that he wasn't familiar with animals very much, either. There was still a good chance that, due to some unforeseen reason, Greatheart might not like him, and it was very important that he did...

[comelyhonour.livejournal.com]

Beauty kept a soothing hand on Greatheart's neck as he swung his head over to accept the apple from A.J. She needn't have bothered, though, because he really was a calm-tempered animal, and he gently plucked the apple from A.J.'s hand with little more than a whiskery touch of his lips.

Once he'd greedily finished with the second apple, the big gray stretched his head over the fence and bumped lightly against A.J.'s chest. Beauty grinned. "He's trying to see if you're hiding any more in your pockets," she explained.

[by137.livejournal.com]

A.J. was grateful for the information. "Oof," he said, a little belatedly and, nervously, not knowing if it was the right thing to do, reached over to rub his hand against Greatheart's muzzle a little. "Hey, man," he told him. "Not going to find anything in there but maybe paintbrushes and pocket lint. Definitely not as good as apples."

[comelyhonour.livejournal.com]

Apparently Greatheart wasn't interested by the smell of paintbrushes, because he let A.J. rub his muzzle and then turned his head back to wuffle into Beauty's hair.

"Oh, stop that, I don't have any more either," she laughed, pushing the horse away. "See, I told you he'd like you. What do you think about a ride around the paddock?"

[ooc: Wuffle is so totally a word, btw.]

[by137.livejournal.com]

"He doesn't like me," A.J. argued with a grin. "He just likes my apples....I, uh...not sure about a ride quite yet, I don't think. I'm okay with the just getting to know him bit first. Don't want to take things too fast, you know. Gotta ease into a relationship like this."

[comelyhonour.livejournal.com]

"With horses, apples sort of means friends," Beauty laughed, as the horse attempted to investigate A.J.'s shirt. "We could walk with him a little. On the ground, I mean, so that you can get used to him."

It was hard for her to remember that people who didn't grow up around horses wouldn't be ready to just jump right up on one.