Disclaimer: I beg you not to sue me because, because, because, because, BECAAAAUSE…because-I-don't-own-any-thing.
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AUTHOR'S NOTES: I was going to do SHOUT OUTS like usual, but I'm neck deep in getting ready to move to NYC and haven't got the time right at the moment, but I know y'all want the next chapter so I thought I'd forego them for now, but they'll definitely be in chapter six…for both chapters! THANKS SO MUCH EVERYONE!!!
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CHAPTER 5
DG didn't regain consciousness until the next morning. The darkness had been calm, blissful, but it was becoming very apparent that someone or something didn't want her to stay there in her quiet, pain-free place. Something was pulled her towards the surface. She tried to fight it, but it was to no avail.
She groaned softly as consciousness brought everything back in rolling waves of agonizing pain. "God," she croaked, not daring to open her eyes. She just wanted to go back to that state of oblivion she had been so rudely pulled out of.
And then she paused. Pulled out of? What had pulled her out of it?
Something nudged her thigh and then there was a brief moment of nothing before a loud snort right above her face startled her into opening her eyes. Hovering over her was a white blob. She blinked rapidly until her vision cleared.
It was Cain's horse.
DG narrowed an eye. "Go away," she groused, but was too weak to reach up and push the horse's head away.
Instead of listening to her, the horse did the exact opposite. He took a careful step forward and nuzzled the side of her faced. She frowned. "I said, hoof it, Gigantor." He really did look huge from her current point of view.
"Actually, his name is Flower," Cain stated as he stepped inside the hideout.
DG's expression went from startled, caused by Cain's suddenly entrance, to aghast as her brain processed what he had just said. "Who the hell would call this thing Flower?"
Cain smirked ever so slightly. "Well, actually his full name is Dauntless' Envy of Little Princess' Flower."
"You can't be serious."
"Dead serious. The sire is named Dauntless and the dam is Envy."
DG raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I figured it was something like that. I know how horses are named."
"And yet you didn't know how to ride…"
"Shut it, Tin Man."
Cain crouched next to DG to check and change the bandages he had covered her wounds with after she had passed out. "You want to know the story of how Flower got his name?" he asked and after a moment, got a slow, slightly dubious nod of affirmation. He was glad. This way he would be able to somewhat keep her mind off of the pain he was sure to inflict on as he changed the bandages.
"Well, I was actually there the day he was named," he began as he carefully got to work. "I was on special assignment to deliver an urgent message from one of the Southern Guilds to the Queen. I was leading my horse into the stables to get him some water and feed when I came across a small girl."
DG winced as he pulled away the bandage from the wound on the front of her shoulder, but kept her eyes on him, listening intently to the story.
He glanced up from his work, his ice-blue eyes sparkling as he continued his tale. "She was standing on a bucket overlooking the door to one of the foaling stalls where inside stood the most beautiful dapple gray mare I had ever seen, and lying in the hay beside her was the tiniest white foal with the brightest eyes." He gently coaxed her up into a sitting so that he could remove the bandaging from the back.
"Now this little girl, who couldn't have been more than four or five annuals old, with her dark hair and sparkling blue eyes, was quite adamant that the new foal was hers and that she was going to name it, but as it was of the Royal horse line, the breeder and the stablehands were less than thrilled about the prospect of letting this wisp of a kid do such a thing."
DG was smiling softly. She could practically hear an almost adoration in Cain's tone as he spoke of the girl. It was a tone she rarely heard him use.
"I thought for sure that at any moment this girl was going to be shooed away and her dreams of naming the white foal would be crushed, but even when her nursemaid tried to coax her away, she refused to leave." There was a twinge of laughter in his voice as he continued, "She held onto the stall door for dear life and demanded that someone get her mother, utterly refusing to budge until the woman arrived."
"Weren't you supposed to be delivering an urgent message?" DG questioned, raising an eyebrow at him as she wondered why something like a child wanting to name a horse would keep him from his duty.
"Supposed to be, yes, but there was something about this little girl that had me so transfixed that I just stood there and watched," he admitted, gently cleaning her wounds before he began to wrap fresh bandages around them. "A few minutes passed as the girl stood there on her bucket, hands on her hips in the most stubborn stance I'd ever seen, when finally several royal guards entered the stable followed by none other than the Queen." He glanced up at her again to see if she was catching on, but her eyes were still wide with curiosity.
"I thought surely this kid was doomed if the Queen herself had come down to see her," his voice dropped into an almost conspiratorial whisper, "but that's when I realized that this girl was none other than little Princess DG of the House of Gale."
DG's eyes grew huge at the revelation. "You're lying!"
Cain met her eyes, his expression nothing short of absolute seriousness. He placed his hand over his heart. "Gods strike me dead if I am."
"I did not name that horse Flower!"
"Yes, you did," he stated matter-of-factly. "You told your mother that you wouldn't eat or go to bed ever again if she didn't let you have the horse. Naturally, as it was only a horse and she adored you so much, she simply smiled and let you have him. And that's how he got the name Dauntless' Envy of Little Princess' Flower, you being the 'Little Princess' and him being Flower for short."
DG, blushing from where her shoulders met her neck to the tip of her ears, covered her eyes and shook her head. "Oh my God," she muttered, "That has got to be the most embarrassing story ever. It's even worse than the time I jumped off the roof of the farmhouse with a cape on trying to fly and ended up breaking my arm."
Cain gave her a strange look. "You jumped off a roof?"
"I was ten."
"Still," he said, amusement in his tone, "That sounds pretty embarrassing to me."
DG's eyes lifted and she narrowed them at him. "Watch it, Mister, or I'll force Jeb to tell me embarrassing things about you. And you don't think I won't do it."
Cain held up his hands in mock surrender and then smiled a bit before deciding to change the subject. "Are you hungry?" he questioned as he finished off the last tie to her bandages and absentmindedly buttoned up the long sleeve shirt he had found in the stockpile of clothes that had been with the rest of the supplies.
DG blushed a little more as she suddenly realized that he had cut her out of her own shirt while she had been unconscious and put on the one she was now wearing. Cain didn't seem to notice the added color to her cheeks, or if he did, he wasn't saying anything. He had just been doing what was best for her and it was nothing more than that. She understood that; although, she did secretly wish she could have been awake for it just to watch Cain. She had a feeling he might have had a bit of a red-tinged face himself if she had been awake and lucid enough to slip in a few amusing innuendos.
"Starving," she replied. She hadn't eaten anything since breakfast the day before and that had only been a couple bites of an apple. She had been too excited about going riding and escaping the palace to sit down and have a proper meal.
Nodding, Cain helped her into a more comfortable sitting position and then slipped off his duster, rolling it up and tucking it behind her back so she could lean against it instead of the hard cave wall. He rose to his feet and moved over to the small stove. It seemed that he already had something cooking. He opened the pot, glancing inside before he carefully lifted it and poured some of its contents into a tin bowl. He grabbed a spoon, wiping it off on his vest, and then finally returned to DG. "It's not particularly appetizing, but it'll hold you over until we get you back to the palace."
There was a bit of an awkward moment where DG tried to take both bowl and spoon, but soon found it impossible as any movement with her right arm sent near-excruciating pain flaring through her shoulder. She frowned deeply and then looked up at Cain, her expression utterly pitiful.
The man looked almost as if he wanted to smirk, but maintained his composure and instead said, "Here, let me help you." He scooped up a little of the watery stew he had made with the spoon and lifted it to her lips. She hesitated a moment before opening her mouth and allowing him to feed her.
"It's not exactly fine royal cuisine, but–"
"It's fine, Cain," DG interrupted with a small smile. His stew wasn't actually that bad at all. "Thank you for making it."
He nodded and then offered her another spoonful. It wasn't long before she finally shook her head, indicating that she had had enough. Cain stood and walked back over to the stove where he placed the bowl down and picked up a canteen. He unscrewed the cap and offered it to her, helping her swallow a few sips before returning the cap.
"So, what were you doing outside?" DG asked after a moment.
"Checking for any signs of our friends."
"And?"
"Nothing." He moved once again over to the supplies and began packing some things into a saddle bag. "No indications at all that they made it this way."
DG pursed her lips for a moment. "So what's the plan then?"
"Well," he started as he glanced over at her, "as much as I'd prefer to travel when it's dark, there's a chance they could be following Flower's tracks right to here now that they can been seen in the light. So, we're gonna have to leave as soon as you're ready."
She cringed. "Can we please call the poor horse something else?"
Cain raised an eyebrow at her. "He's your horse, Little Princess," he replied teasingly.
Her right eye narrowed at him and then she glanced over at the horse. "Well, do you know what he was supposed to be named?" she asked.
"Not a clue."
She pursed her lips and studied the stallion. "Beast? Killer? Constantine? Flash? Diesel?" She paused a beat. "Wait, I got it. …Chuck."
"Chuck?" Cain gave her a strange look.
"Yup, Chuck."
The man blinked, paused, glanced at the horse who was seemingly giving him an almost pleading look for help, and then turned back to what he was doing.
"What do you think about the new name, Chuck?" she asked the horse. All she got in reply was a snort. Her eye narrowed again, but didn't say anything.
Cain stood and walked over to "Chuck", slinging the saddlebags over the horse's back, slipping the middle part under the back of the saddle and securing it into place. He tightened the horse's girth and then finally turned back to DG. "We need to go. Do you think you're ready?"
"Do I have a choice?"
He frowned. He didn't want to move her, not with her injured, but they really did need to get out of there and back to the safety of the palace. It was only a matter of time before the Longcoats picked up their trail and found them.
Walking over to her, he pulled out some extra bandages and used them to make a sling for her arm before he gently pulled her forward and slipped his duster out from behind her. He unrolled it and then in a very unexpected move, or at least unexpected for DG, he slipped her good arm through the one sleeve and then wrapped the other side of the coat around her, buttoning it up. When he caught her mouth-slightly-open look of bewilderment, he shrugged slightly, saying, "It's chilly outside and the last thing I want to do is get you home to your parents with a bullet hole through your shoulderand a cold. I'd be locked up for sure."
DG couldn't quite tell if he was teasing or not because his expression was so serious. "You were hardly the one who pulled the trigger," she pointed out slowly.
"No," he agreed, "But I'd certainly be responsible for the cold if you were to catch one." And in his mind, it might as well have been him who put the bullet through her. He was meant to protect her and he had failed at that. If he had just insisted that she do her lessons, or at least made her return with him to the palace after their own little riding lesson, she wouldn't have been hurt. "Now, come on."
He carefully helped her to her feet, holding her close to his side as she swayed from a wave of dizziness caused by both standing up and the blood loss she had endured. When she had stilled enough, he asked if she could walk. A slow nod of affirmation was all he needed to guide the unsteady princess over to the horse.
"You'll be sitting up front this time," he told her, "just in case you decide to pass out on me again." She didn't protest and for that he was glad. He had stacked up a few crates to step up on so that it would be easier to get on the horse. He guided her towards the first one, but upon realizing how completely woozy just walking was making her, he decided to change tact.
Without warning, he gingerly hefted her up into his arms, receiving a half squeal, half hiss and a smack in the chest from DG in return. He gave her a look and she immediately stilled. "Thank you," he replied before he stepped up onto the crates and gently settled her in the saddle.
He held onto her with one hand to make sure she didn't slide off and then gathered the reins in the other before climbing on behind her. Normally he rode like any good cowboy, with only one hand holding the reins, but not this time. No, this time he wrapped both of his arms around the smaller form in front of him and held on with two. There was no way DG was going to fall off now, not if he had anything to do with it.
DG took a moment to revel in both the warmth of Cain's body up against hers and the feel of his arms wrapped around her. She closed her eyes and let out a soft, content sigh. She would gladly get shot again just for a chance at another moment like this. If Cain only knew how she felt…and even more so, if only Cain felt the same…
TO BE CONTINUED…
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(A/N: HAPPY NEW YEAR, MY PEEPS! –huggles– I'll try to get chapter six up as soon as I get to New York. I'm moving on the 3rd so things are so crazy right now, I'm sure you all understand. Thank you all for your concern for my poor sore derriere, LOL! It's still pretty much the same at the moment and Mr. Boppy Pillow rarely leaves my side. I'll be stealing it from my sister and it will be coming to NY with me. But enough about my ass.
Oh, I did want to randomly clarify something about the color of Flower/Chuck. The horses I'm basing him off of, Andalusians, come in a couple of colors, but white isn't one of them. However, they do appear white, but it's legally referred to as gray. And that is why I go back and forth between calling Flower/Chuck white and gray.
Anyway, continue to stick with me, my darlings, for this isn't it! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!! –rubs hands together wickedly– Do what you do the best ever, my favorite people! Feed the Muse! CLICKY CLICKY!!)