PM to join Riding Fancy (Archailist)

[Irathia]

23rd of Spring, 516 AV Irathia was walking with Sera Ravonai, they were heading towards the Windmount stables so Irathia may ride more. She watched Sera Ravonai ride before, though she never really understood what to do fully. The most she has ever done was sit on top of the horse as Sera Ravonai lead the two beasts around as they talked about Irathia's... Issue. Even then she barely did anything right with the horse. "So we are going to teach you how to truly ride a horse today." Sera Ravonai said to Irathia, giving her a slight glance as she did so, giving Sera Ravonai a smile as a response. "It wont be that hard, would it?" Irathia asked Sera Ravonai. "Nope, just relax and try not to correct yourself to much, that is pretty much all I can say until we borrow you a horse." Sera Ravonai smiled as they turned into the stables. Irathia wrinkled her nose in disgust. The area smelled of manure, hay, and dirt... She whipped her nose quickly as she attempted to get her nose used to the sent of the stables. She shook her head quickly and looked around and watched as Sera Ravonai walked towards the horses, smiling as she looked at Irathia's struggle with the smell. "So what do you think Irathia?" Sera Ravonai said, smiling as she patted a horse neck. "What about this one?" The horse was a smaller one, it was brown with some white dots on it's face that spilled into it's mane, making a brown-white pattern. Irathia raised an eyebrow at the horse and studied it a bit...

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

Coming back to the stables always refreshed Arch's resolve to become a knight. Although well-kept by the many stablehands, along with the occasional squire bent over scrubbing the floors as whatever punishment for some misdeed, the place had always seemed so large, busy and crowded - not to mention the constant rank smell of animal that somehow managed to top the smoke and sweat found throughout the rest of the city with a good margin. The only reason that Arch had to keep his mount inside this place, was because the Squire Dormitories would not allow 'pets'. Once again he'd have to put forth an argument at some point and assure them that his mount and faithful canine companion was anything but a pet, although he could already guess that they'd once again deny him. As soon as he got out of those crowded, rowdy dorm and into a proper house, the first thing he'd do is buy a proper bed for Xarex.. so that he wouldn't have to stay in a hastily-reconfigured horse's stall with thin sheets of wood boarded over most of the gaps.

When he stepped through one of the smaller holes, Xarex was waiting, sat on his little bed of straw with a tail wagging hard enough to knock a full-grown Akalak off his feet. "C'mere!" With his arms outstretched he ran for the dog, who bounced into the air and crushed the Pycon against the ground, smothering his face with doggy-kisses. "Alright alright, that's enough!" It took a lot more shoving to get the dog to stop, and even more to be able to clear enough space to get back up onto his feet, with the overexcited puppy pushing at him every second, bouncing into the air and yapping loudly.

"Yes yes, I know you're excited. C'mon, time for walkies." He climbed up to the first ledge on the back of the wooden gate and swung around to the corner, unlatching the metal bar holding the door, before giving the frame a solid shove and opening the gate. Xarex bolted out at the first opportunity, nearly knocking over a stablehand as he spun around in circles, claws clacking agains the stone paths. "Calm down!" The hardest part of any day was fitting the saddle on Xarex, at least so that he could guide the dog back out of the city, since a normal collar and leash didn't work if you weren't any bigger than the animal you were trying to control. The bit and reigns, surprisingly easier - all he had to do was wave them around in front of the dog's face and he immediately started biting at it like it was a toy.

After mounting the dog with considerable ease and riding him back through most of the stables, he spotted something eerily familiar. Huh. No way. It was her, he thought with mixed surprise and amusement. There was no way in Hai he'd forget the girl that'd thrown that stupid hammer while he wasn't looking. For a moment he stopped in place, reeling Xarex in and just listening quietly to their conversation. Borrow a horse, huh? he thought with a ridge of clay forming above his left eye, then raising. "No, if you ask me, I wouldn't pick that one." He trotted quietly out into a space behind Irathia, grinning in a friendly manner. "The larger the horse, the more room there is to maneuver, so she won't fall off as much. Too small, that one." Utter nonsense, of course.

[Irathia]

Irathia looked down at the small pycon... She grabbed her arm, nervous that he might still be mad at the hammer incident that happened on that one session of sparring. He was riding a big, overly happy dog, which amused her immensely; just the sight of a small squire on a dog was something that she will remember always. At least the sight of Archailist smiling brought lightened her nerves of the pycon being angry. "Hm... You maybe right, though you also are riding on a dog." Sera Ravonai said, putting a hand on her chin. "You must be one of the Pycon Squires I heard about." She said, smiling back. "I am Sera Ravonai." She said before looking at the horses again. Sera Ravonai walked down to a different, much bigger horse. This one was all black but the snout, which was a milky white. This one was only slightly bigger than the last horse, but it had more muscle to it. Irathia walked next to the horse and looked at it... The horse flared it's nostrils as it glanced at Irathia, and went back to staring at Ophelia, which was patting it's neck at this point. She walked up to it as well, and did what Ophelia was doing, which was letting the horse sniff her hand, and then patted it's neck. It scared her slightly when the horse shook it's neck and sneezed slightly... Then went back to not caring of the two people in front of it. Irathia looked back at Archailist... "Sorry... By the way..." She said quietly, she felt terrible for almost killing the Pycon.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

The Pycon met Ira's patron with a flat stare. "Just because I ride a dog doesn't mean I know nothing about riding, period," he retorted with no wit to his words. "The bigger the animal and the smaller the rider, the more room and the easier it will be to control the animal. Dog, horse, it's really quite irrelevant. The only reason I don't ride a horse is because the knighthood wouldn't allow me to, otherwise I'd do it all the time." More utter nonsense; he'd never be able to control a horse if his life depended on it, and wouldn't be seen on the back of one dead and stone. If she actually believed it though, oh, he'd find some way to discretely thank her at some point or another.

Admittedly, he felt very shocked and almost a little sad when she unexpectedly managed to correctly guess what species he was. Sounded strange, even to the Pycon, but he really couldn't remember the last time someone hadn't had to ask what he was. For all the Pycons that existed in the world, they all seemed to go unnoticed or uncared for unless they had something worth another person's time and even then he knew that a good portion weren't being given the respect they deserved for doing it. Now the one person who changed all that was the one person he was about to feed false advice to, just to spite her squire for something she'd done on accident.

Man, he probably felt even shykier than Irathia did at that moment. "Don't worry about it." He dismissed her with a few rapid waves of a paw and flicked at Xarex's reigns, pushing the dog onwards and away from the bulkier horse.. towards one that didn't seem much smaller but one of the stablehands had no problem getting affectionate little rubs from the docile animal. "Hey!" he called back to Sera Ravonai, "when I said bigger, I didn't mean muscle diameter.. I've seen knights who could earn a few gym pointers off that one." He opened one paw and lifted it to the new horse, suggesting it with a smile. "Maybe.. start her on something like this and then work her up step-by-step? Might not be the fastest way.. but it'll be the best for everyone involved." Irathia owed him now.

"Oh, by the way, squire Archailist to Ser Iros. Just on my way out, fancy a ride with me?"

[Irathia]

Irathia stared at the horse and nodded at what Archailist said about the muscle increase, and she gave a slight sigh of relief when the small squire waved to a different horse. She glanced at Sera Ravonai and she nodded, realizing her mistake. "My mistake, Irathia, are you comfortable with this one?" Sera Ravonai asked. Irathia nodded and smiled as she walked up and emulated the movements she has done with the other horses. The horse huffed it's nostrils and went back to doing horse things. She smiled as Sera Ravonai walked over and began to help put on a saddle and generally set up the horse for Irathia's attempt at riding. Irathia smiled back and repeated his Patron, Ser Iros, over and over in her head so she may remember it later on. Just in case she needed to remember that later on... Suddenly she heard the small squire asking if one of them would like to ride... Was she talking to Sera Ravonai or Irathia... She couldn't really tell. "Excuse me, Archailist, but who were you talking to when you asked?" Irathia poked her head around the horse as she tried to help Sera Ravonai with the preparation of the horse. They quickly finished and Irathia jumped up on to the horse using the two, presumably foot holes for the rides shoes, and a large shove from Sera Ravonai. Sera Ravonai began to place and push Irathia's hands into the proper places of the horse, explaining why they go there and all. Irathia nodded slightly and looked back at Archailist. "I assume you are talking to me though... Sense I am on the horse." She said.

[Archailist]

It was rather amusing, pulling Irathia's patron like a toy on a string. They'd barely known each-other for a few chimes and he was literally dictating which horse she should be training with. It might not have sounded like much but the fact that he had any sway at all over a knights decisions was something that the tiny Pycon relished. If anything else, it made him feel like despite the utter lack of rank he held, people still actually agreed with his opinions. Sometimes it felt like a lot of people didn't understand this simple fact, but just because someone was lower in the hierarchy didn't mean that they never had any good ideas.

The new horse looked much more suitable for Irathia and apparently everyone agreed.. including the horse. Something much slower, a bit more calm and most importantly a good deal smaller and less muscular would probably work best for a new person.. if it was the same for a dog then who's to say it would ever change when it came to horses?

"Well, actually, I was asking both of you. I mean you don't have to come if you don't want to, Sera Ravonai. I wouldn't mind it though." The squire gave an indifferent shrug of his shoulders and tugged gently on one half of Xarex's reigns, wheeling the dog around in a half-circle so that he wasn't constantly looking backwards with his tail. "To be honest," he added in as an afterthought, "I expected Sera Ravonai to attend anyway.. I mean, if you are going out riding and neither of you can seem to even decide definitively on which horse you're going to be on the back of.. there's going to be a steep learning curve no matter how you turn this."

Not that he really wanted to outright insult a knight, as he knew from experience just how much shyke that could land a person in.. but it was an odd thing to notice regardless. "If Sera Ravonai picks out a horse for herself, I think I know a quiet little detour that runs around the west of the castle. Could take us away from the crowded road and give a little more space without jumping straight into the middle of crowded woodlands with plenty of trees to smack into," he offered afterwards.

[Irathia]

Sera Ravonai smiled and nodded to the horse. "Sounds like a plan, Squire Archailst." Sera Ravonai looked at Irathia. "Now to make the horse move, bring out your legs and kick it's sides, then to turn you pull on the reins in the direction you want the horse to move, and to make it stop pull back on the reins." Sera Ravonai said to Irathia. Irathia quickly ran through the instruction in her mind and nodded, flashing a smile at Sera Ravonai, letting her know she understood. Sera Ravonai patted Irathia's arm. "Remember, if you panic or try to correct your self to much, you will make the horse panic. Which is never a good thing." Sera Ravonai said to Irathia as she started to walk to other horses. She prepared the first horse she selected for Irathia and climbed on to the horse. She grabbed the reins. "Now, Archailist, if you wouldn't mind I will be behind you and Irathia, to make sure Irathia doesn't fall off or get trampled by me if she falls off." She said, joking a tiny bit as she patted her horses neck. She waved her hand to the small looking squirrel squire. "If you wouldn't mind, lead the way."