Chapter Two: Friendly Faces

Looking over at their alien guest as she headed downstairs for breakfast, Taylor was surprised to see that he had actually kicked the blanket off of himself and onto the floor. She walked over and put it back over him, only for it to promptly be kicked right back off. Sighing, she shook her head with a grin and, giving up, folded up the blanket and put it aside. If the alien felt too warm, then he felt too warm. No reason to force him to keep using the blanket.

She began making herself some oatmeal, then let it cool enough to eat as she checked the day's schedule. First, the daily mucking-out, then weighing Sandy's new foal and giving it a full checkup… then checking the fences, the barns, and the sheds for any need of repair. Then would come the most difficult part… Snowplow needed a full grooming, as well as new horseshoes, and then… then they would do their best to bridle-train him, then groom him again once they'd spent enough time with the training.

Her dad chose that moment to wake up and walk downstairs. "Think you're ready for today, with Snowplow's training and grooming?"

"As ready as I'll ever be…"

At that moment, their guest decided to wake.

••••••••

Matoro looked around, confused. Where was he? Last he remembered, he had been at a party in Le-Metru, and a Ko-Matoran had delivered him the painkilling draught he'd asked for, to ease his pain after long nights of working in the drifts. He'd taken some that night after getting home, since Ehrye had tripped him and made him hit his head… and now he woke up and found himself here. He was in a multicolored, well-furnished dwelling, with no clue why or where. At last, his internal locator started up, and, according to it, he was… on planet Earth? But how could that be? How had he wound up on a planet on the complete opposite side of the galaxy from Spherus Magna?

A pair of humans entered his line of sight. "You alright? You sure were out for a while," the older male said to him, looking a bit wary. His accent indicated he was most likely in the south-western part of the continent of North America.

"I think so… where am I?"

"Thornbranch, Nevada, on the Thistle Horse Ranch. I'm Austin Thistle, and this is my daughter, Taylor. We found you on a neighbor's ranch and brought you here. You hungry?"

"A little… I don't want to be of any inconvenience, though."

"Don't worry about it! It's the least we can do to help ya. Go ahead and raid the pantry and fridge, there's plenty to eat. If you need us, we'll be outside, gathering what we need to start the day's work."

Carefully, he got up, amazed at how welcoming these humans were to a stranger - and an alien stranger, at that! He saw, in their "fridge", that they had plenty of fruit, so he chose a bright red one with bits of yellow and headed over to watch from the doorway as he ate.

Leaning on the doorframe, he noticed that, whatever their work entailed, it must be heavy-duty. They were putting on thick leather gloves and gathering a variety of large tools, such as rakes and shovels and pitchforks. Having finished the rather tasty fruit, he tossed the core into the trashcan in their kitchen and asked, "Anything I can do to help?"

"You don't need to help us - I thought you were going to try and find out how to get home."

"Well, I know for a fact that my planet's on the opposite side of the galaxy, and right now, I'm drawing nothing but blanks on how to get back. If I'm going to be here a while, I might as well do what I can to help!" he insisted.

"Well, if you say so!" Austin relented. "Right now we're going to just do some basic checks on what might need repairing on the ranch, then we're going to work on mucking out the stables and a few more… difficult things."

"Count me in, then."

••••••••

"Looks like Whitney and Ross have given everything the a-ok." Taylor announced, checking two sheets of paper attached to the bulletin board by the entrance to their ranch.

"Who are Whitney and Ross?"

"They're a couple of teens we hired who come up here early every day and check to see if any structures need repairing. If there are, they let us know and mark them on a copy of the map." Austin explained.

"You mentioned 'mucking out' stables. What does that mean?"

"When you 'muck out' a stable, you clean it, get rid of old straw, put in new, put in clean water and fresh feed, and give the horse a treat or two."

"Sounds pretty simple." Matoro commented.

"For most, it is, but we'll go into detail later. Right now, we're going to start with barn one. I'll let you try mucking out old Ironsides' stall, and then Maple's. They're gentle, and difficult to spook or scare."

As the wooden door to Ironsides' stall slid open before him, Matoro got his first good look at the creatures he'd be working with for some time to come. Ironsides was a lanky yet well-muscled stallion, and his coat was a rusty red. His mane and tail were black with streaks of white, and he seemed quite elderly and wise. Curiously, the horse leaned towards the stranger before him, sniffing at Matoro's face and chest - for which, a few chuckles were earned - then snorted, as if saying he found no reason to be afraid. He seemed to notice the tools waiting to be used, and stood aside, letting Matoro start to muck out the stall.

For an alien from another planet, Matoro did quite well at mucking out the stall. And when he continued with the stall next door, the one belonging to Maple, he did just as well as before, finding himself having to stifle his laughter as the Appaloosa mare started sniffing the back of his neck. It tickled quite a bit! Before long, Taylor and Austin had also finished the rest of the stalls in the first barn, and they began heading for the second.

"Now, I want you to be careful going into this barn. There's a newborn foal in here, and I don't want you to spook it or its mother." Austin warned.

Matoro nodded. Quietly, they headed inside.

As Matoro stood in the center aisle, waiting as each stall was mucked out, velvety muzzles and curious eyes peered out of stall gates, the horses eyeing the newcomer to their home. However, towards the end of the mucking-out, there was one particular muzzle poking through its gate that caught his eye… a muzzle smaller than the rest.

Carefully, he walked to the corner stall, peering in at the tiny soul that showed so much curiosity. The tiny, dun-colored, black-specked foal offered up a quiet whinny as he gazed down at it, its mother coming over for a look and sniff as well. Cautiously, he reached out a finger and held it within sniffing distance of both. Tiny puffs of air tickled his hand as he held it there, and it finally seemed that the mother deemed him trustworthy. A soft nicker escaped her, and she nuzzled his hand.

"Wow… looks like you really have a way with them." Taylor noted from behind him.

"At one point, I ran a pet shop of sorts back home…" he admitted. "On the side, I would rescue any critters in need, be they lost calves from a Kane-Ra Bull herd, or a fully grown Muaka tiger with a broken leg… I never found the ability to turn away a creature in need…"

"In that case, would you mind helping us give these two a check-up?" Austin enquired. "Lil' Speck here is pretty hard to keep still."

He nodded as they walked into the larger-than-normal stall, watching as the days-old filly cantered wobbly circles around their legs. The tiny creature was even so brave as to walk up to Matoro and gum a few of his fingers, earning a chuckle from the alien warrior. Seeing that the two humans with him had finished changing out the straw, food, and water in the stall, he stepped backwards towards the scale that they were setting up, guiding the filly to it. With just the slightest bit more coaxing, she was on it, her focus on sniffing her new friend's head being enough to keep her standing still. By the time she grew bored and looked for more mischief, her checkup was already done!

"I daresay that that was the easiest time we've had of keeping her still!" Austin exclaimed, amazed.

"And now comes the 'fun' part… working with Snowplow…"

"Snowplow?" Matoro asked. "Who's Snowplow?"

Before either human could reply, a loud, deep neigh was heard, followed by a wham. Both Sandy and Speck turned their heads and pricked their ears forward at the sound, and personally, Matoro couldn't blame them. It had been loud indeed.

"That would be Snowplow." Taylor chuckled.