[The Fringe Forests] A Big Misunderstanding [Sama'el]

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

Dohaina ran and ran, and gradually wheeled around behind Gianne and her doughty mount. She slowed to match Gill as she caught up, and then they were riding side by side again, though Sama'el's windburned cheeks were flushed. He laughed, though it was muted by the sound of pounding hooves and the wind in their ears. He hadn't let her out of his sight, really. They were close to the Sanctuary, but they were still in the Sea of Grass and he didn't want Kavala's worker getting mauled by glassbeaks or any other of the attendant dangers of the world they lived in when outside city walls. When she brought Gill down to a walk, he smiled over at her. "So that's about how fast a Strider can run," he assured her.

[Gianne Basete]

Her mind was lost in the a vivid daydream of clutching a stider's mane and galloping across rolling hills of sighing grass. She could almost feel the wind tear at her face and whipping her hair wildly behind her like a cape. Gianne's imagination was vivid enough that for a moment, she could envision Gill as said strider, and fool herself into thinking that they were moving much faster than they were. But only for a moment. Sama'el was circling back around and once he drew up beside her, the fantasy melted away. She sighed, a little dismayed, and reigned Gill down to a walk, to which he was obviously grateful. His smile was returned with her own, though. "About? I can't imagine going any faster than that." The awe and envy in her voice was obvious. "How do you manage to hang on?" She scanned his tack, which she was familiar with from working at the Sanctuary. Yvas were what the Drykas used for riding, and there were a few pairs where she worked. She'd never gotten around to trying them yet. "That doesn't look like very much to keep you on Dohaina's back." The awe had turned to hesitant skepticism. Gianne loved her saddle. It was comfortable and strong, well made and just the right size. Riding bareback with just a pad and some handles didn't seem safe at all. Let alone going at such high speeds.

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

"We are bonded," he said, as if that answered everything. It did to a Drykas. There was a soul-bond between them, and they had spent so much time with him on her back, that he was more comfortable there than he was on his own two feet sometimes. But he knew she might not quite understand, so he thought for a moment. "When you get to know a horse well enough, you learn to move with them. I could ride her bareback at speed, but eventually it might grow uncomfortable for both of us. Your body learns the horse's body, and the other way around. You work in tandem, like one creature."

[Gianne Basete]

It did make sense, in a way. Gianne understood how a rider learned a horse's movement, but it still seemed almost crazy to go so fast with nary a thing to hold on to. Maybe day she would find out. Her heart beat faster just thinking about it. "I should probably practice a little more before I try and ride like a Drykas," she said meekly, a smile in her voice. She was good, but not that good. "I'll just satisfy myself with watching you all ride for now." She grinned crookedly at him. She lapsed back into a comfortable silence. Gill sighed and swatted at some pestering insect that landed on his rump. After so long, they ended up back on the road that led to the Sanctuary, if it could be called a road. The grass in the sea grew so fast that it took a lot of travel back and forth to keep it beaten down. "It's only a few miles from this point." She pointed at a bulbous rock that jutted out of the ground close to the road ahead. "But you probably already knew that." She blushed a little at the obvious. He likely knew every inch for miles. Gianne tapped Gill's flanks and sent him trotting toward the marker and home, feeling giddy now that she knew a warm meal and friends were close by. "It'll be my luck if a lion or glassbeak came running up right now and ate me, being as close as we are. It's usually about this time that some calamity strikes," she joked, smiling to herself. "Hope you have good luck that'll counter my bad. I seem to attract it like flies to rot." Not the most flattering words, comparing herself to rot. Her grin stretched wider. Oh well.