You Lose It You Find It (Flashback Xalet)

[Val'pold Aurelius]

10 day of Spring 505 AV

Spring had come to Syliras and the lands adjacent to it. The rains had come and it was now time for the planting season to start. Val’pold had joined the other pages and squires as they had been brought out of the gates. The population of the city had begun the long process of hauling seed to the outpost by the fields. It was probable the safest time to travel the southern road, and a chance for the pages who were just learning how to ride a horse a chance for riding over a distances.

Val’pold had been dragged out of bed by his mother and sent down to the stables were he was to prepare a horse for the days events. Val'pold rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he walked the corridors of the stables were there would be horse for him to learn on.

The blue eyed boy stood with the other pages as he was assigned a horse to saddle and then practice riding. The plan for the day was simple they would ride with the wagons carring seed and other supplies to the outpost so that onces the water had receded.

The young body walked over to the horse he had been assigned to. He looked up at the creature as it looked down and regarded him. He blinked at the creature before walking over to were the saddle was waiting. He picked it up with a grunt, his body about the same size as the saddle and he carried it over to the horse were he threw the saddle over the back. He remembered his earlier lectures and began to straighten the saddle before focusing on tightening the straps.

[Xalet]

The idea itself was simple. They weren't going far, and they certainly weren't going to be alone. Several other individuals possessing a wide variety of skills would be with them. It was just a time to get some experience riding a horse in an area not within the walls of Syliras. All this as it was, Xalet was still nervous. The twinge in his muscles was not from any worry about his task on that day, but due to his distrust of equines. He didn't like horses, and horses didn't like him.

Maybe it was his size or weight? If there were three backpacks filled with nothing but stone on the ground and the order was to carry one on a journey, wouldn't it make sense to pick the lightest one? As an akalak often surrounded by a many young humans, Xalet was clearly not the lightest of such proverbial backpacks. Though not yet fully grown, at over six and a half feet tall and nearing two hundred and thirty pounds he and his armor made for a difficult burden upon any animal.

His mount was big, it had to be. Xalet stared at it, and it stared back at Xalet. Though he had some training on how to ride, that feeling of uncertainty kept him tense at all times. Even as he worked to get his tack secured upon the beast, it almost seemed to pull or twist away, if nothing else than to make his chore more difficult. This caused Xalet to grumble now and again, trying not to let the horse embarrass him in front of the other paiges.

From the outside Xalet could hear a male voice calling, "Lets move out." to which many of the other paiges readied their mounts and began trotting outside the main stable. Being one of the last ones behind due to the uncooperative mount he was to ride, Xalet finally managed to secure the bridle just so and climbed atop, issuing a disgruntled snort from his horse.

[Val'pold Aurelius]

Val'pold even in his partially sleepy modd couldn't help put notice the massive page, saddling a equally massice horse next to him. The blue eyed young boy looked over at the man only sitting upon his horse able to look the Akalak in the face. He heard the call for them to depart.

He looked over at the struggle, sympathetic, since had also had cranky horses before. He waited a moment and then nodded his head in satisfaction that he fellow page didn't need any help. His already callused hands took the reigns of his horse and he shook them motioning for his horse to move forward.

His horse moved slowlly forward first because of the other crowd of horses in front of him, and to make sure that the Akalak wasn't left all to himself. As their horses began to move out the page with his bowl cute hair style. He didn't like the hairstyle at all, but it was what his mother wanted him to have. It was apparently easy to maintain with a pages duties.

He sawed gentle with the horse movements steering the horse as they moved out of the stables, and feel in besides Xalet as the two tailed along at the end of the group. His innocent face with his blue eyes looked over at the blue skinned page. "Morning, I don't think we have had the chance to really speak to each other. I am Val'pold." He said in the voice of a twelve year old. High and squeaky.

[Xalet]

Unlike most Akalak's, Xalet's hair was cut extremely short to the point where it spiked of it's own accord from it's own coarseness. Beyond this he was a boy in what was essentially a man's body. Though tall and broad shouldered he had the same inhibitions of most children and so he kept quiet most of the time.

Keeping his heels down as he had been taught he directed the horse toward the caravan preparing to travel south to the Syliran fields. Most of his attention was focused on his horse as well as the ground beneath him. Not that he imagined the ground was all that interesting, but several times in the past his mount had bucked him off and he had become very familiar with that hard surface below. His Patron always told him not to hold too tightly upon the reigns, or to grip too tightly with his thighs. Easier said than done when you were nervous of being tossed off every few moments.

Suddenly his attention was divided, he turned to look at the human boy speaking to him. At first it appeared that Xalet was at a lack for words, finally he cleared his throat and responded, "I'm Xalet..." his voice was more mature than an adolescent human, but not where near the deep stoic voice a fully grown akalak possessed. "...Paige to Irine Braklin. Horses do not seem to like me. I don't know if this is normal for my people." he admitted. The dark skinned humanoid seemed to be almost nervous talking to another human, mostly due to the scrutiny he received from those who knew of the dual natures of the akalak race, "It is...good to meet you. This will be my first time to the southern fields."

[Val'pold Aurelius]

The young giant didn't need to worry about his compaions knowledge. He was young and not particularlly interested in acadamia at this age. All he really knew was that Xalat was bigger then him, and that he was blue. In the end he didn't really care much about that. He was here as an squire, he was in many ways a brother.

"I have been in years past when my mother would take me out with her sometimes when she would help with the harvest." He said in his youthful voice. "I personally think horse just don't like people in general." He said nuging the horse forward and to the right as he had been taught. He personally thought he was really good at steering and while he wasn't bad, he wasn't any better then the other boys, the horse were mostly the tame kind who were good at following other horses.

"I think you are doing fine, it might just be that horse. There aren't many your size. Have you always been large?"

[Xalet]

Things seemed to be going much better now. Xalet's horse seemed to be following well enough, trained upon those ahead of it. In that way the Paige needed to give very little direction, which in turn appeared to ease the beasts mind a bit. The akalak still felt a sense of unease as he repositioned himself atop the saddle, the thing a bit uncomfortable for someone of his height. "Large? Well...larger than a human I guess. My mother said I am an appropriate height for my age. Akalak's are usually two hands or so above a human."

For a moment Xalet's horse seemed to pause, raising the purple being's suspicious. Giving a slight nudge with his heels the horse grunted and continued forward, but not before jerking Xalet in his seat. Moving and replacing the reigns a bit in his hands he couldn't help but feel maybe it was the horse. A few others saw the difficulty Xalet was having and chuckled lightly to themselves continuing on.

After a dozen steps in the right direction the horse's head whipped around and the creature almost appeared to attempt to take a bite of Xalet's leg. "Hey!" he growled at the equine in response. A horse was supposed to understand who was in control, and that person was the rider. As such Xalet attempted to make a showing of dominance by lashing the reigns backwards, yanking on the horses head as it went for the Paige. The creature responded quite irately by bucking and lifting it's forelegs up. Not prepared for such a thing, Xalet went tumbling off, landing upon the pathway with a heavy thud. "Ugh..." he grumbled, slowly making his way to his knees. Eying the horse with contempt Xalet stood and reached out to re-apply his grip to the reigns, causing the horse to trot out of range. "Hey...hey get back here!"

[Val'pold Aurelius]

The young boy thought for a moment that it made sence that he had always been taller. The young human had always been average in height, never standing out among his pears. That was his way in many ways. He worked hard but didn't really stand out.

He looked over at his companion as the horse paused. He watched for a moment the struggle but didn't crack a smile. It wasn't particularlly funny he thought. Horse were dangerous and could cause damage to a rider.

Val'pold winced as he watched the large Akalak fall from the horse. It didn't look pleasent, he suspected that if any of his other squires fell they wouldn't have been so little ingured. He saw the horse shy away from its rider. Val'pold definetly thought that it was the horse. He moved his own horse forward trying to block the other horse from moving farther from his rider.

[Xalet]

What type of ridiculousness was this? Xalet couldn't help but think to himself about all of the possible embarassing events that could happen while doing something so seemingly simple as riding, this had to be one of them. At this time, Xalet did not possess the discipline that would be aquired in the years to come. That as it was, once he managed to climb to his feet more fully he slowly started to walk toward the horse, which in response backed up slightly.

Moving in a bit of an arc, Xalet did his best in an attempt to get the horse stuck between himself and Val'pold. "Right there...right there...good..." he said, slowly closing in the distance. Then, when the time was right, he lunged. "Huuuaaaah!" he grunted, the tall akalak reaching his hands outward as if he wanted to wrestle the horse to the ground. Gripping the horn of his saddle as well as the reigns the horse took off, dragging Xalet with it.

"Val'pold!" he yelled out, although he wasn't exactly sure what he could have the Paige do to assist him. Like some sort of stunt rider, Xalet was hanging on the side of his saddle, his feet trying to raise up to get into the stirrups, only to be knocked back down to the dirt from the strong gait of the creature. A large plume of dirt from the road rose up behind Xalet as his boots sought purchase upon the ground or his horse. Could things get any worse?

[Val'pold Aurelius]

Needless to say the series of events that unfolded before his blue eyes and youthful gaze. That horse was determined not to coperate. His eyes grew sympathetic at the struggle. Normally not a very kind boy, he was practical enought to realizes that this wasn't funny. Also he wanted to be friends with someone that size. It was a course of prudances.

His horse grew skitish as the horse bolted with the akalak hanging on its side. Leaning forward Val'pold held on with out hurting the horse. He patted the horses main briefly with soothing words and then turned to follow after the struggling youth.

He had no clue how to help, so instead motioned for his horse to ride in front of the circus act to try and slow the horse. He wasn't the only one to respond as he moved to cut off the horse one of the young knights assigned to help the students also moved up along side the horse. He grabbed the reigns as Val'polds horse pull in front of the slowing horse. Most do to the efforts of the knight the stubborn mount slowed down to a stop. Val'pold slipped off of his horse and still holding the reign he walked over to see if he could help the akalak out of his mess.

All the while the knight was looking at the two. "This isn't a game young men."

[Xalet]

The world shuffled this way and that as Xalet tried to right himself. There were enough environmental obstacles working against him to keep him right where he was, which was nearly appearing like he was trying to wrestle the horse to the ground. The akalak wasn't exactly sure of good ways to communicate with a horse, but sometime in the future he would be getting it across to this create never to try something like this again. Danger aside it was plain old embarrassing.

It seemed with the efforts of Val'pold as well as one of the Knights assigned to the squires, things were starting to get under control. Xalet could feel the rhythmic chaos slowing more and more, until finally it seemed to stop. With his foot now able to be planted firmly upon solid, unmoving ground, Xalet was quick to pull his ankle from the stirrup and stumble back a few steps, brushing some of the dust kicked up from all the commotion off of his surcoat.

"Yes ser. Things are under control now." Xalet responded to the Knight. All of the riding lessons in the world felt like they wouldn't have helped in that situation, but the truth was Xalet still had a great much to learn about horseback riding. Horses were animals but still subject to a great many instincts that such creatures possessed, while a normal man did not. "Thank you, Val'pold. I will try to keep a firm control this time."