Wearing the tack I previously had for a horse that I only ever rode on occasion, the animal looks gorgeous. He’s skinny and his coat isn’t as shiny as when I’d first seen him, but that’ll be fixed before long. I feel like just being in Riley’s presence has already given him some strength.
“I like just patting him,” Riley says while looking alarmed at the very thought. “Or maybe even air pats.”
“We’ll start off with you getting on from a higher surface, but you’ll need to learn to get on from the ground in case of emergency. I love getting to teach you things for once. Do you notice how different it is? You teach me the ways of your world with tales of magic and testicles, and I teach you how to ride earnestly with love in my heart.”
Riley shrugs. “I see no difference.”
“Of course you don’t. Now let’s begin by leading him outside. Stand on his left side and grab the reins.”
“Stand near his huge hooves and grab the reins next to his equally huge mouth. Got it,” Riley says with a heavy dose of sarcasm.
Sigma is an angel with him. I can see absolutely no reason for Riley to be so anxious about him, but there he is, leading the horse like he’s dragging a crocodile after him. When he finally gets the horse outside, he takes a deep breath.
“Let’s get this over with.”
“Here, you can step on this so it’ll be easier to get on,” I say as I guide him up onto a bench the horse patiently waits next to. At least he’s learning to ride on the back of a well-behaved creature. I learned how to ride on a wild mount that threw me off at least fifteen times. I was possibly a foolish youth who thought I could tame the untamable, but still. “Put your left foot in the stirrup then swing your leg over. You’ve done it on Quill.”
“You’ve mostly just like… tossed me on Quill. Do you think you could ride with me?”
Sigma immediately pins his ears, disgusted by the very question.
“I think that means yes,” Riley says.
“If you think it means yes, Kit really does need glasses,” I joke, showing him where to hold on to the horse’s mane and reins before putting his foot in the stirrup. Riley looks less than thrilled when I hoist him onto the horse.
“Look at my sexy horseman being all badass on his horse,” I say while I back up a bit.
“Ha! You think that’s sexy?” Vero asks as he eyes Riley who is clinging on for dear life. The grin on Vero’s face is not the most encouraging.
“He’s trying his best,” I say, ready to brawl the man for daring to look at Riley in such a way.
“I can hear you two,” Riley grumbles. “What do I do now?”
“Ask him to walk. Have him walk a circle around us.”
“Do not murder me, horse,” Riley says, which doesn’t sound like him asking Sigma to walk at all.
Vero laughs. “It was definitely the right choice to come here and watch this.”
Riley glares at him, but the horse starts walking, which means that he can no longer expend any energy on anything other than hanging on.
“Look at his face! I can’t even tell if the horse is moving, it’s going so slow! Imagine being a badass horse of the apocalypse and having to tote that man around!”
“Vero, I’m going to kick your ass with my new horse,” Riley growls, but it does seem to distract him from his fear, so I leave Vero to it.
“You might be able to communicate through words only. Or do you feel a mental connection with him like you have with Kit?” I ask.
“Not at all,” Riley says.
That’s rather concerning, but I try not to get hung up on it while I watch the horse walk as slowly as he possibly can in a circle around us. He knows Riley is terrified of him and is doing his best not to do anything that might startle the man on his back. Although I do notice that Sigma looks nice and relaxed when he rounds Vero but every time he gets close to me, his ears lay flat against his neck, justaskingfor me to come over so he can bite me.
“Are you sure he’s the horseman? I think we both fucked up. Actually, all three of us. The horse is wrong too,” Vero says as Riley sits hunched over, clinging to the saddle and just letting the horse do his thing. He hasn’t picked up the reins once—he seems to have forgotten they’re even there—and is squeezing the horse’s sides like he thinks suctioning onto the horse will fix everything. If this were a regular horse, it probably would have run off, confused by the mixed signals.
“Looking good, babe.”
“You’re really not,” Vero says.
“Alright, now that you’re feeling a bit more confident, sit up straight. It’ll give you a better seat. And let’s get those heels down. You trying to be a ballerina?”
