Chosen Moments Stable
Session 1 : Ouch! Harsh!
The sunlight beamed down on the countryside with rage, making it an awfully bright day. Clouds had been ruling over the skies for the past few days, and the sun had not been happy with that element, and with the help of wind, defeated the clouds in the morning. The air was warm, and a soft breeze glided through the open windows of the young woman's old rusted tan land cruiser. The AC was broken in her car, but she liked having the wind swim through her midnight locks. It was midday, and the roads were clear from all traffic on all sides. Which she was thankful for, as she was driving slower then the speed limit, her eyes darting to the road and the yellow memo paper in her hand.
On it was the directions written to the stables that she had called earlier that week. She finally had the time for horseback lessons, and was interested in this stable because some of her friends had told her about how good and fair the prices were. That and it was exceptional close to her. Now, out of all that smooth sailing comes the giant tsunami: She forgot to ask the owner's name!
'Surely priceless,' Kagome reminisced to herself as Semi-Charmed Life by Third Eye Blind came playing from the radio. She was playing it soft enough that she could hear the life around her clearly still. Suddenly she heard something pounding the ground, and looking out her co-pilot's window, there she saw the band of moving horses.
They were moving quiet a ways from the fence, but they were close enough for Kagome to pick out the slightest detail in each. The horses were clearly wild ones, their manes and tails were abnormally long and matted, and their sleek summer coats were caked in mud and dirt from rolling. They were being chased by a person with long silver locks, and from the distance she was at she couldn't tell if it was a guy or girl. The horse he rode was dark in color, and larger then the wild horses. Although she was no expert, she assumed that the blue roan horse that was keeping the man from his herd was the stallion. The person had thrown a lasso out, intent on capturing the stallion, but the agile horse dodged it. So engrossed with this sight she hadn't noticed that her car was coming to rolling stop, and nor that it was about to go into the deep ditch.
"Kyaa!" She shouted and jerked the wheel, making the old land cruiser slam on to the other lane of the road. Then she jerked it back into the correct lane and slammed the truck brakes on. The adrenaline in her system subsided and she leaned back in her seat and slide down, breathing hard as she ran her right hand through her soft bangs.
"Ugh," Kagome moaned in frustration, then looked back out the window. The herd had disappeared from view, and she lost her interest rather quickly after that. Recollecting her bearings, she set the truck back in gear and headed on down the road towards the Chosen Moments Stable humming, The First Cut is the Deepest by Sheryl Crow.
[« = = = = ------ = = = = »] [« = = = = ------ = = = = »]
The stable was fairly decent, not the kind you see in Kentucky (AKA. I wish I was a horse), or the kind you see in the valleys of Arkansas (AKA. Rebuild it or I ain't going back in!). The foundation of the stables of course was cement, and the stable themselves had a white boarding on it. The stable was built in a 3/4 square style, with a fence going from the third corner of the stalls and back to the first. The ground was mostly dirt and gravely, and wooden fence ran across from one stable to the other to prevent horses from escaping just incase one got loose from the handler or there box. The tack and feed room was located in the back middle row of horse stables, the only place where the box stalls were back to back.
Two rectangular corrals where outside the stable yard, while one rectangular corral, and a circle one was outside of the stable yard too. The owners house was located about a drive ways length from the stable area. A gravel parking lot was to the side of it, along with a cement area for the many different styles of horse trailers they owned, stored, and rented out.
Kagome pulled into the parking lot with caution. The sign that normally hung outside the stables had been knocked over from a storm, and looked like it probably would not been seen up on its feet for a while to come. She wasn't even sure if this was a stable, for the entire stable grounds was hidden by the small hill, making it impossible for Kagome to see anything. Parking the car and turning it off, she made herself up to the stable grounds, thinking nobody would be in the house.
Her slate blue eyes caught the movements of Rukane galloping past her. She tensed up, frozen in fear by the dog's elegant but quickly and deadly movements. The Doberman was sleek and dark has midnight with chocolate brown markings. Slender and powerful it's frame screamed at her. It was carrying a bone in her powerful jaw, and Kagome dared not to stick around anymore and hurried on her way. Once the dog was out of site, she only heard the snarling of Etsuri, the other Doberman and the original owner of the meatless steak bone.
A young man, Miroku, with short black hair wearing the classic jeans and a white tee was in one of the rectangular corrals, working with a small class of young kids. It seemed the class was getting ready to end, but Kagome wasn't going to disturb them either way. Out of habit she was chewing on her nails, nervous, although unlike most, it wouldn't damage her nails at all.
"Hey!?"
Kagome turned her attention to the shouting. A woman, around her age, was leading a rather small brown horse behind her. Kagome double blinked, and pointed to herself, asking if she meant her.
Sango nodded her head as she tied up Jintsuri to the post, getting ready to bath him and then soak him down in bug repellant.
"You're new here?"
"Um.. Yeah. My name's Kagome."
"I'm Sango, and this Jintsuri." She patted the equine on the shoulder to indicate whom she was talking about. Dust and dirt flew up from his dull hide from the pat, making Sango get a sour look on her face.
Kagome chuckled at her expression.
"Umm? Do you know the owner of this stable? I called sometime ago this week asking about lessons, and I forgot to ask for the owner's name."
"Well the owner, Kikyou, is out of town at an event, but her younger sister, Kaede, is somewhere around here," Sango answered as she kneeled down, grasping hold of Jintsuri's fetlock and pastern. The reaction from that is he lifted up his hoof for Sango to pick all the mud clean out.
"Kaede is probably back at the house or somewhere around here..."
Kagome nodded and was quiet interested in the horse the girl was grooming, as he kept trying to turn his head and look to see what his owner was up to. She smiled in amusement as Sango, who didn't realize she was still there, whacked Jintsuri on the nose for getting a hold of her hair and chewing on it. Leaving them, Kagome took off in search of this... Kaede person...
[« = = = = ------ = = = = »] [« = = = = ------ = = = = »]
InuYasha, grumpy and not pleased, attempted to tie Tessai up on the door on his stall. Once again he had failed to capture Kamikaze, and miss the class he was supposed to give the lessons too. Kaede would have his head mounted on the wall for sure now. Hopefully Miroku or Sango covered for him, and that Kaede didn't notice. Last thing he needed was the old bag to bite his head off.
Of course, here comes little Yume with Hige trailing behind her. Hige was the planned distraction, as he sat down on the other side of Tessai as InuYasha began to take the saddle off of Tessai. His blue eyes stared up at InuYasha, his instinct to stare down was pouring out into InuYasha as he purposely kept clashing his blue with his owner's golden. This clearly began to agitate the inuhanyou, and once Yume stole the wallet out of his pocket, a battle took place again.
As Yume darted away in all her glory on her short stubby legs, InuYasha turned too quickly to catch her, and it spooked Tessai enough to release himself from being tied to the door. He had reared up and the poorly done knot came undone. At this, Hige backed away quickly, with a major look of amusement. Tessai had broken out into a trot around the stable yard, rousing the other horses whom where still within their stalls. Yume was short enough to give the slip under the fence Which InuYasha was chasing and had actually dove for in order to capture the Falabella filly.
Only to bash his head into the wooden fence and not even get close to capturing the fiend of the stable. Snarling, InuYasha sat up and rubbed his forehead in obvious pain. He was now colored in a lovely shade of dirt yelling:
"You god dammed stupid horse! Your next in line for the name of -Alpo-!"
InuYasha snarled out in anger for his lost wallet. Tessai had returned to his side, and had fondly begun to chew on his black leather cowboy hat. InuYasha eyes slant in sudden dislike for his stallion, and he sits there, not moving in silence. Than, he yells again with a very unpleased look.
"Dammit Tessai!"
That makes his horse stop and dash off again in a small prance of victory dance from avoiding the hanyou's whack of frustration. Hige was sitting over by the water troughs wagging his tail innocently. It was him who had set this whole thing up. Normally Hige accompanies InuYasha in the chase down of Kamikaze, but this time InuYasha had forced him to stay behind and he was not happy with that. InuYasha glares at his mutt, before going to pick up the loose saddle that had fallen off of Tessai. Brushing the leather off, he leaves Tessai bridled and quickly places the saddle that would need cleaning later on so he can place Tessai on the walker to cool him off properly.
InuYasha's ears perked up, hearing the sound of muffled laughing. A vein popped. Kagome had seen the whole gang up on InuYasha act. The girl was still laughing at him as she turned to pet Tama, who from all the noise, had woken from her doze to see what was happening. A black eyebrow twitched as he harshly grabbed Tessai by the reins and dragged his ass over to the hot walker. With a slap on the rump, Tessai began to walk. InuYasha gave a snort of satisfaction, and seemed to stomp his way over to Kagome and his Arab mare.
"What are you laughing at!?"
InuYasha growled towards her, anger in his voice.
Kagome seemed unfazed by him as she smiled up at him, "You and your misfortune with animals," she joked back, and stopped petting Tama.
"Keh. Bitch," he snorted back smugly with a hot attitude.
Kagome glared as the man walked away to clean his saddle, but her thoughts of dislike of the young man, who she recognized from the field earlier, where pulled away by the late teenager, Kaede coming into the stable yard. Followed by the young man she had seen earlier giving out a lesson. The younger woman did not seem to pleased, and Miroku was rubbing the back of his neck, as if trying to cover up something he did wrong. Curious, Kagome followed, but kept her distance, listening.
"InuYasha!"
"WHATT!?" snapped a voice from the tack room.
"Miroku said he had to teach YOUR CLASS again!"
A pause from InuYasha, followed by a loud, "Feh!" and, "Miroku, you rat, I'm going to kill you!"
Miroku blinked innocently and stared up to the sky, ignoring his troubled friend as he turned his back the other way and spotted Kagome.
Kaede was not happy with that, "Darnit InuYasha! Your hired to teach classes, not chase some feral horse-!"
Yume had shown up with InuYasha's wallet in her tiny mouth, and had dropped it at Kagome's feet playfully. And with a small kick, the miniature horse took off and over to Hige, taking a drink from the trough that was almost too big for her to reach over. Kagome picked up the wallet, and by then the steamed Kaede and the curious Miroku had noticed her. She got a nervous look on her face and raised her hand for pathetic wave of hello. Then she took the time to explain herself.
"Uh. I called here earlier in the week about lessons. Are you Kaede?"
Kaede couldn't seem to recall talking on the phone with somebody, and blinked stupidly at Kagome.
"I'm Kagome Higurashi..."
That jogged Kaede's memory."Oh! Gomen! I'm so busy with paper work, other phone calls, certain foolish employees-"
A loud "Feh!" came from InuYasha in the tack room, again.
"-that I sometimes forget stuff like that."
Kagome nodded her head, a forgiving smile, and happy that Kaede remembered her.
[« = = = = ------ = = = = »] [« = = = = ------ = = = = »]
Kagome, Kaede, and Miroku had relocated to the tack room to further discuss lesson plans. Kagome wanted private lessons, which would cost her a extra 20 in cash with the all ready $20 fee, but Kagome only had till the end of summer before she had to go back to college and wanted to learn as much as she could about horses and riding them. Of course, these lessons would be a daily event. Already they had become good friends, and while Kaede thought to herself on what times Kagome could come for her lessons, Miroku was giving the 411 about the stable to Kagome.
"So? InuYasha gives children- their lessons?" Kagome asked, astonished.
Miroku nodded, "Yeah. He seems pretty rude and mean, but children seem to like him. He's excellent at encouraging them, but recently he's been slacking because he almost caught Kamikaze a week back."
"Kamikaze?" Kagome asked, curious, remembering the band of horses she saw earlier, sitting on the small bale of hay next to Miroku.
"He's a mustang that rumored to be the fastest, and most feral horse around. He has a small band of mares that roam this land, and they are part of the reason this place still runs. We're put in charge of their care by the government, but we don't do anything but freeze-brand them. InuYasha wants him more then anything."
"But he already has a horse, doesn't he?" Kagome blinked.
"Correct. But Tessai is pretty much mastered, despite his older brother's disagreements. The only thing InuYasha has yet to do with Tessai is dressage, and they've started training for that. He lives for the challenge, as does Sesshoumaru, another fool after Kamikaze, although not as much desire. He had his hands full with Kijin as it seems-"
"That's it!"
Kaede had cut Miroku and Kagome from their interesting conversation, her young face glowing with an idea.
"What?" Both Miroku and Kagome ask at the same time.
Kaede ignored them, "InuYasha!"
The silver hair boy was so engrossed with cleaning his saddle, and his MP3 Player/CD was blocking out all their voices also that he hadn't heard Kagome and Miroku chatting about him. However, when his employer shouted out his name, he looked up and turned off the music player, double blinking.
"InuYasha, you will be assigned to giving Kagome's daily morning and evening private lessons starting tomorrow. If you miss even one class, you will be fired."
Miroku was shocked with Kaede's statement. He was positive that he would be teaching Kagome, seeing as he taught classes with her age group. Well, he had to admit it was quiet fun talking to Kagome, and had taken a liking to her. But! He already was crushing over Sango, so, she would remain somewhere ELSE- on his buddy list.
Kagome was dumbfounded, speechless as she stared at her new teacher.
InuYasha was dumbfounded, speechless as he stared at his new student.
Miroku and Kaede stared at the two, then at each other.
"Kyaa!"
-SLAP!!-
"Miroku!" This time it was Kaede and Kagome yelling for finally lechering Kagome while she was fair game.
The houshi nursed his injured flaming red cheek, grinning sheepishly.
"Miroku, Sango -should- cut off your hand." InuYasha, although not happy with his job to give Kagome her lessons, had a disheveled look on with a hopeless expression for the cursed friend of his.
"I know! I know! But I couldn't resist.! She was just sitting there, zoned out, and her butt-!"
"Enough!" They all yelled at the Houshi at the same time, shaking their heads, "To much information!"
HEHE! Fun! Kaede tilts head- seemed major OOC, but I don't mind. She young and doesn't talk funny, but I tried Anywho! I WANT reviews, and I need reviews or I might not post the next chapter xD!