Rider in the Sky

It was just another day at the King's stables. The sun had risen, although you could barely tell, what with the dense fog that enveloped everything in a dismal, gray mist. Kya hefted a bag of oats over her shoulder and headed over to the corral where she had let the stallions out for their morning exercise.

As her boots squelched in the damp soil, she thought about the heated conversation she had had with her father earlier that morning. It had started out with tense, passive aggressive formalities.

"Going out to the stables again?" her father had asked as she pulled on her worn leather boots.

"You know I always do," she had replied without looking at him.

"Can't leave that to the hired hands?" her father said, his gruff tone tinged with accusation.

"Of course not," was her terse reply. "Griffin and Strider are only well-behaved for me. They'll get anxious if anyone else tends to them."

Her father tore a chunk of bread from the fresh-baked loaf and dunked it into his steaming ham and bean soup. "You'd be much more desirable if you weren't covered with dirt and horse dung all the time."

There it was. The main argument that it always came back to. Kya stood up abruptly, yanking the leather cords that tied her hair back and pulling them tight. "If this is about the marriage interview I've already said--"

"And I've already said that you need to start thinking about your future instead of traipsing around with the King's horses all day long," her father interrupted.

"The King himself appreciates my work in the stables," Kya said, grabbing her work gloves and tugging them on.

"The King, long may he reign," her Father said with a scowl, "is not concerned for your future the way I am."

"Are you?" Kya had shot back as she opened the back door so hard it nearly slammed into the wall. "Or are you concerned that your only daughter will tarnish your reputation by dying an old maid?" And without waiting for a response she had left, slamming the wooden door shut behind her.

Kya sighed as she trudged over to the corral, where five of the finest purebred stallions would be waiting for her. She loved her father, and she knew he only meant to give her the best, but she wasn't sure she agreed with his ideas on what the best actually was. She shifted the bag of oats into a more comfortable position and pushed her worries to the back of her mind. The stallions--especially Griffin and Strider--were extra sensitive to her emotional state. If she let herself stay in a foul mood while tending to them it would cause them extra stress.

The corral gate jumped out of the fog into her path, startling her. She hadn't realized just how thick the fog was, what with her mind on other things. On the other side of the gate, out of sight in the thick fog, she could hear the stallions blowing and nickering to each other. With her one free hand, she unlatched the gate and stepped inside the corral.

From the various noises she could hear, she determined that the stallions were gathered around the trough. She trod carefully in order to not startle any of the horses by coming up on them too fast.

The first one she found in the fog was Thunderbolt, a chestnut stallion with a white patch. Kya came up on his near side, patting his flank to let him know she was there. He nudged her face with his muzzle in greeting.

The next one was Strider, a dapple gray stallion with a fiery temperament. He and Griffin, a beautiful palomino, were both spirited horses that could be difficult for some handlers to deal with. They liked to keep each other company, and as Kya reached up to rub Strider's muzzle Griffin came up and nudged her from behind, making her stumble forward.