Greek Tragedy | Daryl Dixon

Chapter 3 | They're Suspicious

To Cassandra's chagrin, Rick and Shane refused to return any of her weapons save for the hunting knife and even that was a struggle to persuade, needing coaxing from Hershel and his family to override the sheriff and his deputy. She had been introduced to Patricia, Jimmy, Maggie, and Beth when they retrieved her backpack, which, she noticed, had had all her food stores removed.

The family had said the room she would be taking was currently occupied by Daryl so she could sleep in the hayloft until Daryl was better. She didn't complain; it was better than she'd had in weeks anyway. In the meantime, Maggie was showing Cassandra the ropes in the stables, the horses along with their names and temperaments. It was going to be part of her job to keep the lot of them exercised and probably go find that Nervous Nelly that threw Daryl if she didn't return in the next few days.

Maggie was just showing her the mucking out tools when something caught the younger girl's eye. Next to the tractor, there was a blue Yamaha dirt bike with burnished bronze-plated accents instead of the usual stainless steel. It was beautiful but pretty grimy and the back wheel sat up against the stable wall next to it.

"...muck heap over by the barn an-" Maggie stopped explaining when she noticed the new girl starring in the other direction. "You like the bike huh?"

Cassandra whirled, caught. She smiled sheepishly and nodded.

"You know about bikes then?"

"A bit," she replied quietly. "We used to use them to round up the horses further out in the paddock, my brothers and I."

"Yeah, Shawn, my half-brother did the same." Maggie looked down with a grimace that Cassandra noticed.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean t-"

"Oh no, don't worry about it, Cassandra, it's not your fault. You didn't know."

They moved over to the bike in silence for the younger to examine it more thoroughly until she suddenly said something.

"Cass."

"What?"

"My friends called me Cass. Have you got a toolkit?"

Slightly stunned by the former statement yet warmed by Cassandra's latter statement, Maggie replied. "Sure, it's in the tack room. D'you want me to go get it?"

"Nah, that's alright. I'd better learn where everything is for myself anyway if I'm gonna be working here."

Maggie smiled and put her hand on her new friend's shoulder. She removed it when she felt the girl tense suddenly. Smiling again, a little less heartily, the farmer's daughter told her where there was a sink for her to get water if she was thirsty in the night without trekking all the way to the house in the dark. She told her dinner would be at seven thirty and everyone would be there so she could meet Rick's group then and left to go help prepare the meal.

*****

"Stop yer fussin'!" Cass scolded the naughty gelding she groomed. He was a handsome boy despite his antics, with a rich mahogany coat and a white face that gave him eyes as blue as her own. "Anyone'd think you'd never seen curry comb in yer life, good lord!"

Most of the horses in the stable (all mares and geldings, no stallions, of course) were paint, pinto or quarter horses, all good-natured with a sprinkling of personality throughout. This boy, however... Well, it seemed he didn't realise he had lost his parts because he certainly saw himself as the boss of her. Unlike the others, this one, Nereus–after the Ancient Greek old man of the sea for his watery eyes and stubbornness of a grumpy old man–was taller, leaner in his face and musculature and with an arching neck. He must be the most attractive of the lot but probably less valuable since Cassandra could see a hybrid mixture of mustang and paint horse in him. Regardless of his lack of pedigree, Nereus seemed determined to Lord over Cassandra at any opportunity: he bared his teeth in an amusing attempt at a threatening whinny whenever she approached his stall; he pulled his ears flat whenever she entered and he even had the cheek to nibble on the back of her legs while she brushed the dust from his white legs.