A/N: I know, I know, I haven't updated and ya'll probably wanna kill me, huh:::gets evil glares: Um, well, would it help to say that I've been extremely busy practicing for my drivers test::more glares: No, guess not. Before you kill me, read this chapter and see if it makes up for the long absence, mmk?
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-Chapter Six: InuYasha-
Sango sighed and shook her head, tossing her braided chocolate colored hair over her shoulder. It had been a solid week since Kagome had fallen off of Jewel and she hadn't been the same since that day. She hadn't gone to visit the white Thoroughbred fully at all, and she hadn't even set foot in the barn area at all, either. In fact, about the only thing she did do was stay in the small cottage behind Miroku's larger brick one.
"Okay, Jewel, let's try to be friends here," She said to the large white filly as she led her out of the coolness of the barn and out into the early sunlight.
Jewel was a very well mannered Thoroughbred, but it seemed that she wouldn't let a single exercise rider, jockey or anyone else one her back. She had thrown all of Miroku's other exercise riders and even Miroku himself, Sango was the only one left that had yet tried to ride her.
"You need to let someone ride you, you need the exercise to be ready for your next race," She continued, speaking to the she finished as she bent over to make sure the saddle girth wasn't loose.
Jewel leaned her head over and rubbed it on Sango's shoulder, a sign that she trusted the young woman and Sango smiled. Maybe this'll work out after all. She thought hopefully.
Miroku was waiting for her at the training oval with a stop watch dangling around his neck. "She hasn't had a real work on the oval since Kagome got hurt. If she'll let you ride her, take her around the track a couple of times at a canter and then gallop her," he instructed the young jockey.
Sango nodded her head in understanding and she reached up to snap her helmet in place and then took the leg up that Miroku offered, watching him closely to make sure that he didn't try anything lecherous. But she could see that the Thoroughbred trainer/owner was completely focused on the task at hand: getting Jewel prepared to race again.
So far, so good, Sango thought as she sprang into the small saddle and Jewel didn't even flinch to indicate that she knew that there was a rider on her back. She gently nudged the white Thoroughbred with her heels and Jewel broke into a smooth walk. "I think this might actually work," she called over to Miroku, grinning as Jewel walked onto the training oval with out so much as a flick of her silken white tail.
Sango gently nudged Jewel's side again, asking for the large Thoroughbred filly to move it up into a canter. The next thing Sango knew she was lying on her back in the dirt of the turf and she saw Jewel galloping down the training oval, kicking her heels up in the air as she went.
Miroku quickly ran onto the track, kneeling by Sango once he had reached her. "Are you alright?" He asked the young jockey, concerned.
Sango nodded her head slightly. "She just winded me, a little," she replied, letting Miroku help her to her feet. "What happened?" She asked as she dusted the dirt off of her pants and testing her limbs, making sure there were no other injuries that she didn't know about.
The young train shook his head and ran a hand through his dark hair. "She was going fine and I was beginning to think that she might actually get a decent work out in today and the next thing I know she bucks and you go and do a somersault through the air and then your lying on your back in the dirt." He told her, shaking her head at the Thoroughbred as she pranced over to the pair, lifting her legs high and nudging Sango in the backas if nothing had happened at all.
The young jockey also shook her head and grabbed Jewel's dangling reins. "I give up, the horse will only let Kagome ride her," she stated gloomily.
The trainer nodded his head in agreement. "Jewel is just a one person horse. And the one person she will let ride her won't even come out to the barn, anymore."
"I don't see how your gonna get her ready her race next week if she won't let anyone ride her. You might just have to scratch her from it," Sango commented, leading the filly off of the training oval.
Miroku had a thoughtful look on his face. "Maybe there is one person," he replied vaguely, and walked past Sango and towards the barn office, intent on using the phone that was sitting on the desk.
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InuYasha was out on the track, exercising a black Thoroughbred by the name of Shooting For Trouble.
The colt was poorly trained and kept trying to unseat his rider by crow hopping and bucking all across the track, doing everything in his power to unseat the rider that was all but glued to his saddle.
"You might as well give up, Trouble," InuYasha muttered as the enraged Thoroughbred reared into the air, striking at the air with flailing forelegs. "I ain't never fell off a horse before. You're fighting a losing battle," He smirked when the colt came out of his rear, shaking his head with an annoyed snort, finally settling down enough to finish the work out.
"Feh, told ya," InuYasha spoke in the Thoroughbreds ear as he worked the colt at a gallop around the track.
Once InuYasha was done riding the high strung horse, he rode Shooting For Trouble off of the track, handing the energetic colt over to his amazed trainer. "I don't believe it," the trainer spoke, mouth slightly agape in shock. "Trouble has thrown every rider that's ever sat in his saddle," he couldn't believe his eyes! Maybe Trouble wasn't a lost cause, after all like his owner thought. He just needed the right rider.
InuYasha just 'feh'd' and turned his back, walking towards the grand stands to wait for his next mount he was supposed to exercise ride that morning.
Being a jockey was an uncertain job. The only way you got paid was if you got a good racing Thoroughbred and it won, only then did you get part of the winnings purse. InuYasha loved the excitement, the dangers of being a jockey to a high strung Thoroughbred.
While he was waiting for his next mount, he went to the nearby concession stand, buying a cup of black coffee. "Keep the change," he said off handedly as he paid for the coffee and headed back towards the track.
He lifted the steaming Styrofoam towards his face, the aroma of the black brew drifting up to his nose. But before he could even taste the strong brew, even before he could get it to his lips, he felt his cell phone in his back pocket begin vibrating.
InuYasha always kept his cell phone on vibrate when ever he was around the expensive Thoroughbreds that he rode. After all, he didn't want to be responsible for one of the very excitable creatures spooking at the ringing of his cell phone and injuring itself, and then having its owner holding him responsible for the veterinary care it would need, and possible even cost him his job.
The silver haired jockey was tempted to just ignore the vibrating cell phone and finish drinking his coffee, but after his cell phone continued to vibrate, he swore under his breath and whipped it out of his back pocket, flipping it open and answering it with a growl of, "This'd better be good," he snarled out.
There was a chuckle on the other line before a familiar voice answered. "Still not a morning person before you've had your first cup of coffee, eh, InuYasha? Do you still drink it black?" A certain hentai horse trainer asked with another chuckle.
InuYasha raised a silver eyebrow. "Miroku?" He questioned the man. The dark haired horse trainer was the last person InuYasha would have expected to be hearing from. What with him 'being responsible for making it so that Kagome would never be able to ride again' thing, as Sango so plainly put it every time she saw the jockey.
"What do you want, Miroku?" InuYasha asked, quickly recovering from his shockas he waited to hear what the trainer wanted to say to him.
All traces of humor left trainers voice as he explained what he had called the jockey for. "I need your help getting a Thoroughbred ready for a race," he stated simply, getting straight to the point.
InuYasha raised his eyebrow yet again. "Why not have Sango ride it? She's a jockey, ain't she?" why would Miroku want me to ride for him? He's got enough jockey's at his stables as it is.
"The Thoroughbred won't let anyone ride her, and seeing as how you've never found a horse you couldn't ride I was hoping-" InuYasha cut him off with a smirk.
"You figured you'd ask me to save your sorry ass and get the horse in condition," he more than stated than asked the trainer.
"Well, I wouldn't say sorry as-" InuYasha cut him off once again.
"Yea, whatever," he said and added his trademark 'feh' for good measure.
"So, will you ride the horse for me, then?" Miroku asked the jockey once again.
InuYasha spotted the next Thoroughbred he was scheduled to exercise that morning, so he had to end the conversation quickly. "Feh, I'll stop by your stables around two o' clock," he said and turned his phone off by flipping it closed and returning it to his back pocket of his jeans.
He brought his coffee up to his lips and took a quick swig of the brew before he had to ride the other Thoroughbred. He made a face , spit out the coffee and scowled. "Baka Miroku, he just had to call and make my coffee cold," he growled again, throwing his now cold coffee into a near by trash can.
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Little to Miroku's and Sango's knowledge, Kagome had a perfect view of the training oval and all that was going on from her bedroom window. She saw everything. The ten riders that Jewel had refused to let on her back, how she let Sango on her back and then let the young jockey flying through the air and how the two had talked, though she couldn't hear what was being said, she had a feeling that it was about the white Thoroughbred filly's next race.
If only I could ride again, She thought sadly as tears filled her eyes once again, but she wouldn't let them fall from her eyes, she refused to let them fall. She hated crying. To her, crying was a form of weakness, and she felt weak enough as it was and she didn't need to show it by letting the tears fall.
She let the curtain fall back to its place on her window, turning away from said windowand walking over to her bed and sitting down on the soft mattress.
She picked up a picture that was on her night stand and felt a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. It was a picture of her and Sango.
Kagome was sitting on a large chestnut Thoroughbred gelding and Sango was on a small Appaloosa mare. The picture had been taken right before Kagome had gotten her jockey's licenses, right before she had lost her bug.
She and Sango were winking at the camera and giving the V sign for victory.
That was a long time ago, Kagome thought sadly and reached over to her night stand once again, this time opening the drawer. She placed the picture into the open drawer, face down. "Never again," she whispered, allowing one solitary tear to trail down her pail cheek.
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Miroku walked out of the broodmare barn when he heard the crunch of car tires on the gravel lane.
He saw InuYasha Takahashi getting out of a dark green pick-up truck.
Miroku walked up to greet the visiting jockey. But, as was InuYasha' style, he didn't give the trainer a chance to talk, let alone greet him. "Where's your 'hard to ride' Thoroughbred?" He asked shortly.
Miroku shook his head, an amused smile on his face. "Right this way," he said, motioning for InuYasha to follow him.
InuYasha crossed his arms and followed the dark haired trainer. The two walked to the very end of the training barn and stopped in front of the last stall on the right side of the wide barn aisle.
A large, finely shaped head thrust her head over the stall door, greeting the visitors with a friendly whicker.
InuYasha raised an eyebrow, "You mean your prized two year old is the one that no one can ride?" He asked skeptically.
Miroku nodded his head. "Yes, she's thrown every one of me riders at least twice, including Sango and myself. And Sango's the best rider I have since Kagome won't ride anymore."
InuYasha hid the flinch at the mention of the womans name. So, she can't ride anymore, he thought guiltily and then pushed the thought quickly aside. After all, it wasn't his fault that the baka female couldn't push her anger aside and concentrate on the race that she had been in the day of her accident.
Jewel leaned over the stall, nudging InuYasha and then sniffing at the pockets of his jeans, looking for hidden carrots that might be there. She shook her head and gave a disappointed snort when she didn't find any.
InuYasha turned slightly and looked at Miroku. "This ain't no Thoroughbred, this is more of a per riding pony!" He declared.
The trainer unlatched the stall door. "Saddle her up and you'll see what I mean," he said, motioning for InuYasha to lead the two year old Thoroughbred filly out of the stall.
InuYasha 'feh'd' and grabbed a lead shank that was hanging by the stall onto the filly's halter. He quickly saddled and bridled the filly and walked her out of the training barn and into the late afternoon sunshine.
Jewel tossed her head and pranced excitedly. It wasn't often that she was ridden this late in the day, she was used to being worked early in the mornings, when the sun wasn't so high in the sky or as hot. She swung her head to the left and then to the right, looking for something, or someone, and when she didn't see who she was looking for, she stopped prancing and her head drooped slightly.
InuYasha paid no heed to this as he swung himself into the saddle, quickly gathering the reins into his hands and nudging the filly with his heels.
Jewel swung her head around to look at the stranger that was sitting on her back. The rider nudged her again and Jewel snorted. She'd show him.
The large white Thoroughbred filly leaped into the air, bucking as hard as she could and almost, but not nearly, unseating the strange male rider on her back.
The jockey hadn't been expecting the sudden leap the filly had made when he had tried to nudge her into a walk and was caught off guard when she had leapt into the air, making him lose his right stirrup. "Oh, no you don't," he muttered, leaning forward when the Thoroughbred reared onto her rear legs, forcing her to go back onto the ground.
Jewel snorted, then turned into a sharp circle to her right, but the silver haired jockey stuck with her the whole way.
She continued bucking, rearing, and doing every kind of stunt that she could think of to get the man off of her back and onto the ground. But everything she attempted failed.
The filly suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, her feet wide apart and her head held high, eyeing the fence that was about twenty feet away. "Don't even try it, horse," InuYasha panted out, pulling on the reins, trying to get the Thoroughbreds attention.
But Jewel ignored him and broke from a standing point into a full fledged gallop, running straight for the fence.
The distance between the horse and the fence quickly diminished as she rushed towards the white fence, everything else around her going by in a blur. Right before they would have crashed into the white fence, the Thoroughbred rose into the air, jumping clear over the fence and landing squarely on the other side.
And InuYasha stuck with her the whole way. Mentally cursing when the Thoroughbred decided to jump the fence, he rose with the jump, hoping that the Thoroughbred wouldn't injur her legs when she landed.
After the jump, Jewel seemed to realize that she wouldn't be losing this rider, but it was still an effort, for the both horse and rider.
Both rider and horse were drenched in sweat and panting heavily after the whole episode.
InuYasha straightened in the saddle and nudged the Thoroughbred with his heels, asking for a slow, and easy walk.
This time, Jewel stepped off into a walk, this time, without trying to lose the rider on her back. Jewel didn't know what it was, but something about this new rider reminded her about Kagome.
After riding the Thoroughbred for a few moments, InuYasha stopped her and jumped off her back, waiting for Miroku, who was running after them after their wild jump, to catch up.
Miroku didn't say anything at first, just dropped to his knees by the filly's front legs, running his hands up and down them, checking for injury.
The trainer sighed with relief, standing from the ground and patting Jewel's white sweaty neck. "Her legs seem to be alright." He then turned to InuYasha and held out his hand.
InuYasha took Miroku's outstretched hand, silently agreeing to ride the white filly. It had been quite a while since he had found a horse that had almost, almost, unseated him.
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Well? Did that make up for the wait? If not, you now have my permission to kill me with your weapon of choice. Just please be kind enough to review and tell me how you did it, lol. Ja ne, mina-san, Rogue Hanyou.