Author's Note:
Sorry for the wait.
Chapter 9: The Stables
"Woah there Shimmer, settle down." Ellie pulled the reins of her horse as she did her final lap around the makeshift obstacle course they made.
"36 seconds, just shy of your last time." Cleetus the old stablemaster said as he hopped over the fence and into the field.
"That's good though isn't it? I mean at least compared to my time." Dina joined in, following right behind Cleetus.
"Well she ain't no spring chicken, but Shimmer's still got a lot of years left in her. Helps the fact that I think the two of you really work well together Ellie." he approached the girl who was busy dismounting from the horse and took over the reins.
"Thanks Cleetus." she said in a soft-spoken voice. It was so unlike what he was used to hearing from the girl that John couldn't help but wince every time she spoke. "Are we done here? I don't wanna seem like I'm in a hurry but… actually no yeah I kind of am."
'There it is. And here I thought she left her sass at home.'
"You're leaving already?" Dina already looked defeated, not even trying to convince her to stay.
"I mean you and Cleetus can take care of the rest of the horses, it's not like you really needed me for Shimmer either." the horse neighed at Ellie's words. "Ah come on girl, I didn't mean it." she patted the horse on the nose a few times. "Besides, Joel and Esther probably need my help for… things… back home."
For now he had mainly kept himself to the sidelines, the majority of his reasoning for that being the horses, but also the fact that he wanted to see Dina's attempts at entertaining this little playdate. At this point, it just became sad, so it looked as it was time for him to step in.
"Hey Cleetus, why don't you give me a horse to try this out?" all three of the experienced riders turned to him as if he just grew a pair of horns.
"You sure about that son? I mean I can give you one of 'em, but they don't take too kindly to people they've never met before." Cleetus argued. He was a nice man from what John could gather, the two did not speak at all save for their small encounter when he had just arrived at Jackson. Like everyone else, he was suspicious of John and kept his distance, but it seems now around Dina and Ellie that ice has melted a bit, at least enough for them to start exchanging words.
"How about you give me one without a rider then. That's what you do with beginners, right?"
"Well, we do have one horse here I couldn't find for anyone yet. Though…" the old man stopped himself and put a hand on his chin. "I don't rightly know how smart that would be."
"Ah come on. What's the worst that could happen?"
"You sure you want that?" Ellie but in, finally seeming to take interest in what was happening, and that was exactly what he was planning. "He's a tough nut to crack. I saw Jack and Liam try and take a crack at him."
"Yeah well I don't think Jack and Liam have the right connaissance that I do. Come on Cleetus, it's better than me just sitting on my ass over there." Shimmer neighed seemingly in agreement as Ellie seemed to huff in a rather entertained manner, she wasn't quite there yet, but he's already made up his mind on what has to be done.
"Oh this'll be good." Ellie gave a snide remark before leading Shimmer back to the stables. "Come on Dina, let's bring him out. See how much Johnie boys reconaisance will do him good."
"I thought you had things to do, you change your mind?" Dina, finally understanding John's strategy, followed Ellie back to the stables.
"No, but I'm not missing this."
The two girls left with Shimmer as neighing could be heard from the other horses from inside. The more time passed, the more nervous John started to become. All the while Cleetus was looking at him with unimpressed eyes. "What?" he broke the silence between them.
"Connaissance? You rip that from the dictionary?"
"They're useful for more than just burning, sometimes."
"Right well, if this is what you want I won't stop you, but its my head on the chopping block if Maria hears you broke your neck whilst trying to impress the girls."
"Trust me old man, I wish that was what I was trying to do."
After a few more minutes the girls finally came out with John's fated end. It was a massive horse, almost twice as tall as Shimmer and with muscles that he was not sure horses could have. This was obviously a different breed from all the other horses, though to John it made no difference, as that thing looked more hellspawn that animal.
"Is that a fucking horse or a pitbull?" he could barely contain his disbelief.
"This... " Dina said as she and Ellie barely held on to the reins of the struggling horse, it was not violent or unruly, but it was clearly struggling against the pull of the two. "John, let me introduce you to Mads."
"Mads?"
"Yeah, like the actor." Cleetus jumped in to help the two girls, soothing the protesting horse with small scratches on its neck, it seemed that he had a way to calm the thing down, so that was good to know at least.
"Actor?"
"You know, well actually you probably don't, kids these days don't know spit about the good actors."
"Just because you keep using that word old man doesn't mean I'm suddenly going to know the meaning of it."
"You don't know what actors are?" Dina looked at him with genuine surprise. The three of them, four if you include Jesse, were all around the same age, and yet it was Ellie and Dina who seemed to know the most about the old world.
"No, is that like a soldier or something?"
"Yeah sure, let's go with that." Ellie said as she passed the reins down to Cleetus who was still busy trying to calm the beast down. "Anyways, you wanted a test drive, here you go cowboy, knock 'em dead. Come on Dina, I wanna get out of the splash zone."
They quickly hurried over to the other side of the fence leaving only Cleetus and John alone again, this time with a black-haired demon of an animal staring the both of them down.
"You havin' second thoughts now boy?" Cleetus said almost as a pity question to try and convince John away from it.
"Well to be honest with you Cleetus, I was pretty confident in my abilities to overcome my phobia about ten seconds ago. Now not so much."
"HAH! So you admit it!" Ellie was heard shouting from the distance.
"But the little gremlin girl's ramblings aside, please tell me my chances of surviving past today."
"Well Johnathan I will be honest with you. You always have a choice in life, that's what my Daddy would always tell me. And in this very moment, you have a choice between taming old Mads here or living to see another day, either way I do have to inform you that there is no hospital left in America as far as I know so we won't be able to give you any medical attention, nor a casket."
"Well then, let Jackson remember me as the Daredevil who rode to his death with a smile." John faked what little confidence he could still muster, and hid his shaking palms in his pockets.
"It's your funeral boy." Cleetus slowly passed over the reins to John and moved away as fast as he could.
He gave a slight nod to Cleetus. Now presented with the issue of getting on the damn thing. It towered above him, and there was no way in hell that he could ever muster a big enough jump to get his leg on the other side. Before he could tackle the problem, he would have to address one thing first.
"Hello there Mads." he spoke as softly to the horse as possible, making no sudden jerking motions or doing anything that might agitate it in the least. It seemed that now that it was finally stationary, the horse ended its endeavor of struggling against its reins.
"Keep track of it's ears. If they go backwards, that means he's getting angry." Cleetus advised before he jumped over the fence to join up with the girls. John took it to heart.
"Now you see, I am in quite the predicament. The girl over there needs a bit of a laugh, and I think I can provide that to her. So all I'm asking is that you don't kill me, and I'll put an extra carrot in your hay bale tonight. Deal?" He knew that the horse couldn't hear or understand him, but it felt nice to make this sort of one sided agreement. At least he couldn't place the blame on himself if he ended up crippled. "And if you break my legs my ghost is gonna put needles in your fucking hay bale, got that?" the horse neighed aggressively, causing John to take a step back. 'Right, tough guy attitude doesn't work, remember that.'
"Come on, we haven't got all day!" Ellie yelled from what seemed like a canyon away. John would have shouted back to her to hold her horses, but that was beneath him at this point, mainly because he didn't want Mads to be offended.
"Come on boy. I'm not asking much, just that you cooperate a bit here. Now… I will attempt the mounting. So please… Behave, okay? Please."
Once the tension in the air reached boiling point, John thought not to delay the inevitable any further. He managed to get his left foot in the first strap and pull himself up on the saddle. Before he could even get the other foot in place, he could feel Mads starting to get agitated. 'Come on you sonuvabitch, we had a deal. Don't bail out on me now!' he mentally cursed himself and wished that horses were telepathic, yet reality soon came hurdling back in the form of Mads violently beginning to jump around and gallop about the obstacle course.
All in all it took them about an hour to set everything up, the planks, the hay bales, the little obstacles that the horses would have to jump over. All the efforts was soon dashed away like tears in the rain when faced with Mads' violent charged. With unrelenting speed and fury, the horse charged through everywhere and nowhere at the same time. For a few seconds, it would be galloping around, never truly gaining enough speed to be able to jump the fence of the course, and then in the next few seconds, it would violently jump in place, trying to kick off John.
"Iron grip don't fail me now!" he desperately held on to the horn of the saddle as the reins had long since slipped his grasp and were currently being flipped around more than Mads' maine in the wind.
Whilst he was quite literally clinging on to dear life with his unwelcoming and double-crossing steed, the spectators were apparently having the time of their lives watching the little show they were putting on. Once in a blue moon when Mads decided to slow down, he could hear Ellie and Dina cheering the whole thing on, his only wish was that they were cheering for him, but life is a cruel mistress, often quick to disappoint her children.
"Kick his ass, Mads!" Ellie shouted.
"Don't hold on too hard boy, the saddle might start hurting Mads' neck!" Cleetus yelled out with genuine worry, but not for him it would seem.
His only light at the end of the tunnel right now was Dina, who didn't seem to join in on the two's mocking, but that may have been because she was too busy laughing her ass off at the whole thing.
'The things we do for friendship eh pops?'
If ever it was possible to experience turbulence on a horse, then now might be the time. But thankfully, the show seemed to be dying down, as he noticed that Mads' movements started being slower and slower, his actions less erratic.
"That's it, come on! Either you settle down or I break my neck, it's one or the other you damn traitor!"
Whilst John may have been determined to come out as the victor in this battle, life proved to be a cruel mistress once more. In a sudden turn, his right foot slipped off of the strap just in time for Mads to make one last attempt at freedom.
The horse neighed and fought with all it had, and eventually, John had to submit. With one last kick and jump, he was sent flying off the horse, thankfully with all his limbs still not broken and into a nice soft pile of mud to break his fall.
The oncoming applause seemed more intended to cheer on Mads than it did help heal John's wounded pride, not only from his cathartic defeat, but from the betrayal of a blossoming business relationship.
Cleetus was quick to jump the fence whilst the girls were too busy wiping the tears from their eyes, no doubt from laughing at the greek tragedy happening before them, or was it more a comedy in their eyes?
"You alright there son? Anything broken."
"Just my pride." he said stoically as he lay there in the mud.
"Well count yourself lucky, our boy Mads here is known for breaking a lot more than that."
"I can imagine." John struggled to get himself back on his feet so for now he made due with just sitting down in the mud until he had enough blood pumping through his system again. "Where did you fucking get this thing?"
"Had some traders come in a year ago willing to pawn him off. He was actually a caravan horse."
"Explains the muscles I suppose."
"Oh no, he was just a little baby when I first took him in, he's only about three or four years old if I'm remembering' right."
"Well... I'm glad I got to experience his personal growth first hand."
"I'll give you credit though, you lasted longer than Jack did." once he was actually off the damn thing, Mads seemed to have the audacity to try and come closer to him.
"Really, how long did he last?"
"Bout five seconds." Mads neighed to Cleetus words.
"Damn, you really are a monster huh?" John spoke directly to the horse again, to which Mads neighed again. "You know for a dumb animal he sure does like responding to us a lot."
"Horses are smarter than we give 'em credit for. More loyal than dogs I find, and definitely more loyal than other people."
"Cheers to that I suppose." Now that the pain in his back had finally resided and he had finally gotten feeling back to his legs, John managed to pull himself up from the mud.
John and the horse locked eyes together one more time, and while it seemed to still be somewhat agitated that he had attempted such a thing in the first place, there seemed to be a lot less animosity between the two. It was only after a few moments though that he had noticed the big grin Cleetus was giving him.
"What's so funny?" he asked in genuine confusion, he wasn't used to people looking at him with a happy expression, not lately anyway.
"Nothing. I think you may have won him over a bit though, just a little bit. Just remember, no horse bonds after a single ride together. It took Ellie a few months before she and Shimmer got used to each other."
"I'll take that as a compliment then."
"You should." Dina and Ellie appeared behind the two. "Like Cleetus said, Jack barely managed to get on the damn thing, and you were riding it for a full-… Well, a really long time."
"Is that what you call it nowadays? Riding? Back in Boston we called it a grand slam to the dunk offs."
"What?" somehow his Boston roots always seemed to confuse those around him, even others from Boston, but he never seemed to pay much mind to it.
"Never mind. Anyways can one of you help me with Mads here and getting him back to the stables."
"You wanna rein him in even after that whole stunt?" Cleetus raised his brow in genuine surprise, it shows that he was not used to people trying further than initial attempts.
"Why not? You said it yourself, no horse bonds after a single ride. If I'm gonna start riding that little shit, might as well have it get used to me." John explained.
Cleetus put his off hand to his chin and began to contemplate. "I suppose you have a point. Sure, tell you what, come in here when you got spare time and I'll have the two of you spend some quality time with each other."
"Sounds like a plan. Now hand over those ropes old man." carefully, Cleetus passed the reins over to John again and the two slowly started to make their way back to the stables. Before he crossed the field however he turned to the girls and gave them a smile. "I'll see you two later."
"Right, don't lose your head. Mads loves kicking." Ellie said as the two turned around away from the stables, however just before they were out of sight, John saw Dina turn her head around and give him a wink and a thumbs up.
'Glad I could be of help.' he gave a nod to the girl and ventured off into the stables.
"We did some good today Mads. Hope you know that."
Mads only neighed in response.
"Yeah fuck you too buddy."