Author's note: In honor of reaching the milestone, I give you two chapters this week!
PryingLittlePandora: You should make an account so we can chat properly. Anyway, your reviews are always amazing and never fail to make me smile. I can never thank you enough! :)
Disclaimer: Still don't own Infernal Devices. If I did I could take an axe to Pandora's little piece of ship-blocking furniture and end her pain ;)
Xanthos
Thomas hummed under his breath as he rubbed Xanthos down with a clean cloth. The motions were repetitive and did not require much thought, freeing his mind to pursue other, more interesting topics.
Topics such as Miss Sophie Collins.
He couldn't help smiling as he continued polishing the horse's coat. His muscles kept moving of their own accord, carrying his rag over Xanthos's back toward the powerful hindquarters.
Sophie had admiration for Mr. Carstairs, Thomas knew, but Mr. Carstairs did not seem to return the feeling.
Perhaps someday…
Xanthos snorted.
That was all the warning Thomas got before the big black let fly with a hoof. He ducked away toward the stall door, narrowly avoiding the missile.
Horse and man eyed each other.
Thomas swore, then stepped back to Xanthos's side to continue rubbing him down. "That girl is going to be the death of me," he mumbled.
Xanthos snorted again and bobbed his head.
Xenophobe
Jem walked down the busy street as fast as his fourteen-year-old legs would carry him. He was traveling without glamour for the first time since arriving in London. Most people did not openly spare him a glance, but he could still feel the stares rake up his back.
What was their problem? James could never figure out why mundanes put so much worth in appearance.
He shrugged the thoughts out of his head and hurried along—
Wham!
Next thing he knew, he was sitting in a puddle. There was another boy in front of him, an English boy, also sitting in a puddle.
"I'm terribly sorry," Jem said as he stood. "I must not have been paying enough attention to where I was going."
As James extended a helping hand, the other boy's eyes grew very wide; he then scrambled to his feet and proceeded to run away from Jem as fast as he possibly could.
A voice swore quite colorfully from behind Jem. He turned to see Will standing there, arms crossed, shaking his head. "What a—"
"William!" Jem cut him off with a reproving tone, and received a glare for his efforts.
Only a moment later those blue eyes turned thoughtful. "I wonder if mundanes have a word for a person such as that," Will mused.
Jem was almost afraid to ask. "What kind of a person?"
"One with an idiotic fear of foreigners."
According to Merriam-Webster online, a xenophobe is "one unduly fearful of what is foreign and especially people of foreign origin." The word was coined in 1903. Now that the vocabulary lesson is done, I will tell you this little tidbit: X is the second hardest letter to find words for. Z is the only one that's worse.
Does anyone know if Xanthos really is black? I know Balios is because Will rode him in CA but I can't find anything about what color Xanthos is. Anyway, now that I am almost done talking, I thank you for reading and beg of you to review!