Chapter 8
It was around 7:00 in the evening when Ken woke up from his little nap that started around 2:00. He looked around and for the first time looked out into the yard. There was the pool, a little past that was a stable, and past that was a field that was fenced in around the house. Ken saw seven horses either grazing or running around. There were three white, two red, and two palominos's standing there. Ken thought about how powerful they looked for they were only a size down from the draft horses he saw in a fair. Then he realized that Kay said she owned eight horses, not seven and he started to wonder where the missing horse was when he saw it being led out of the stable by Kay. Yohji and Omi were out there with her and he noticed Aya sitting on the fence. 'Figures they left me behind. I'll just give them a piece of my mind.' He thought angrily and threw on some fresh clothes from his bag and walked to the back.
"Hey Aya, you gonna join the fun? Yer gonna have ta learn to ride sooner or later. I told you that to get to some of the mission sites require us to reach it on horseback." Kay said, almost getting a headache because of the strong willed man. The horse she was leading by a halter rein nudged her hand. She looked back at it and walked to the fence where she tied it next to Aya. "Keep an eye on him while I get Yohji and Omi a horse. I'm gonna get you on a horse today even if it kills me," she said and opened the gate to let the other two boys in before her. "Here" she said handing them lead ropes. "Omi, I want you to go and get the palomino over there, she's really easy to ride and will go with you well I think." She said and watched as Omi walked over to the horse that easily cleared his head. "Her name is starbuckle, hold out your hand and let her come to you." She called to Omi. She watched him and the horse carefully until they got close then Starbuckle started to walk in circles around Omi. He followed her movements by walking in circles with her. Buckle then ran right into Omi knocking him right onto a pile of horse poo poo. Omi felt and smelled more than saw what he landed on and with a war cry went after the horse. The two of them chased each other for a few minutes then Buckle decided that Omi may just be worth her time. She calmly walked over and nipped him on the butt. With his squeak of pain and surprise he turned around and snapped the lead reign onto her halter.
Confident that the horse wasn't going to hurt Omi, she turned to Yohji. "Now, I want you to take that white one right there, her name is Riptide. I'm not sure how you're going to get along with her but I think that a little bit of time and you'll be handling her easily enough." She watched as Yohji approached the white mare. Omi walked slowly up to Kay, he was walking at an odd angle as to not get his feet too close to the horse's hooves. "Bring her into the stable and there will be a ring next to the stall with her name, just tie her there and I'll be right there." She said and looked to the house just in time to see Ken come across the yard. "The Siberian awakes, it's good to see you sunshine," Kay said smiling at him. 'Sunshine, what the hell?' Ken just said, "You do realize that it is seven in the afternoon." Kay smiled and looked at him "The sun doesn't set until about eight thirty around this time; it's enough to teach you four to saddle horses." She then looked back at Yohji who was walking back having a better time of it than Omi however, it wasn't much better. The horse seemed to enjoy head butting Yohji in the gut. At least it didn't go for the head like she was prone to do with other horses. 'That's a sight I never really expected to see, Yohji leading a horse.' Ken thought as Kay pushed a lead rope into his hands, "I want you to go out there and get the one that you think would fit you best," Ken looked shocked and confused somewhat. "Kenken, you just go up to them and put the rope on their halter, it's easy," Yohji said, petting his charge on the shoulder, they seemed to come to an agreement or Yohji just finally grabbed her head and held on. "Go on into the stable and you'll find her stall, do the same as I told Omi, just tie her up to the ring and I'll teach you to saddle her." Yohji nodded and jogged over to the stable with the horse trotting beside him. "Ken, don't go near the black ones, they have a temper."
"How do you know which horse will fit us whenever you only knew us since this morning. Doesn't it usually take a couple of days for anyone to know something like that?" Aya asked and Kay replied, "The horses know who they will tolerate. I asked them before any of you even came here." Aya looked at her questiongly and slightly afraid that Kritiker had sent them to an insane woman's home. "Don't worry; I'll explain it all at dinner. I promise." Kay walked over to the horse that she tied to the fencepost and saw Ken walking back with one of the red's in tow. "Can I keep him, please," Ken almost begged. Kay laughed, "It's not up to you if you get to keep her. Only she can decide if she wants to stay with you. Oh, and her name is Rosefire," Ken looked slightly worried and took the horse's head in his hands and looked her straight in the eye. "I want to stay with you, Rosefire." What surprised the hell out of Aya is that the horse continued to stare right back at Ken as if judging him and then nodded. 'What the fk was that,' was Aya's thoughts as he watched the whole process. "Come with me Aya, I want you to ride him," Kay said and led him to the only other of the two males, the red that she owned. "I want you to ride Stampede. He's hard to handle but, like I said to Yohji, after a while the two of you will get along just fine." She handed him a guide rope and watched as he hooked it to the stallion's halter. She smiled and whistled, all of the remaining horses followed her and Aya out of the gate and into the stable. She saw Omi, Yohji, and Ken standing there petting their charges. She pointed Aya to his horse's stable and led the others to their own stalls. After tying her own steed to his ring she faced the boys, "You'll find the tack on the inside of the stalls on the shelf, grab the saddles and come back out." She went into her own horse's stall and the other boys did the same. They all came out holding the saddles that were basically designed after rancher's saddles. "Set the saddle onto the horse's back with the horn at its neck." Omi had to grab a nearby bucket to stand on to reach his horse's back. Kay showed them how to buckle the straps and then the bridle. After forty-five minutes of practicing, the boys could saddle, unsaddle, mount, and groom their horses pretty well.
"We're done here for the night boys, help me feed them and then I'll cook up something to feed ourselves." The boys, excited by the prospect of food, got the horses fed and went up to the house. Kay cooked up some hot dogs for the boys, explaining that she didn't feel like cooking anything real fancy. They all sat down at the table and ate their meal of hot dogs, beer, and potato chips. "You said you'd explain how the horses knew who they would be paired with before they even met us." Aya said after trying to decide weather or not to eat the processed meat sitting in front of him. "Oh, that's simple. I'm an animal mindspeaker. I discovered that I had it in the middle of breeding season. That was an interesting experience getting the thoughts of a stallion while it's in heat. It's really the only reason that Kritiker hired me on just so their enemies don't get their hands on me. And besides, I had my reasons for really trying to join." Aya nodded, Omi and Ken and Yohji chocked into their bottles. "Isn't Omi too young to be drinking," Aya asked looking at Omi disapprovingly. Kay just said, "I was drinkin even younger than him, lay off. You only live once and with people like us, once may not be too long so enjoy life while you can."
Yay end of chapter eight. Please review, whadda ya think. Oh, and an interesting character will be introduced next chapter and just to keep you reading, is Omi better at playing quads or snare. To find out you're gonna have to read the next chapter. Oh, and it might be a while before I get to update later. I'm sure you all have heard of Hurricane Katrina, you do the math. So next time i'm able to get my hands on a computer for a long time (and that might be a while) i'll start updating again.