Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ For Want of a Nail ❯ Chapter 3 ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter 3

Sarah was walking to her room nervous and dazed. She didn't know how to respond to John's behavior. She entered her room and closed the door. She then walked to her bed and sat on it cross-legged. She was wringing her hands and biting her lip. She felt a little lightheaded and seemed to be lacking for air and found herself breathing almost rapidly.

`Okay, slow down. He was just expressing his gratitude. Nothing more. Then why am I so panicky?'

Sarah tried to calm herself down, but every time she thought of what had happened the short period of calm was forgotten.

`You are not some teenager! You're a young woman now!' she scolded herself.

After about half an hour of the cycle of being calm and then panicky, she finally calmed down to a semblance of her usual self, albeit still a little nervous. She finally decided she needed to see her friend Kancia.

Kancia was a plump red headed girl whom was also twenty-four. Sarah had known her since elementary school. She has had at least three boyfriends and now was with her fourth.

Sarah would rather talk with her mother, but she didn't want to disrupt her mother's work. So that left Kancia. She had another friend, Nanaii, whom she felt a little bit closer to since they were more alike. Nanaii was twenty-five, quiet but had a sense of humor. She was very petite, thin, and had light brown hair. However, she was visiting family in a distant city at the edge of farmland of a different farming community.

Sarah brought out faded blue pants and took off her white apron and sky blue skirt. She tugged on her pants and looked under her bed for her leather boots that went past her ankle. She spotted them and snatched them from under her bed. She kicked off her black soft-soled slip-ons and then remembered she needed her socks. She rummaged through her drawers and found a matching pair and slipped those on. She then tugged on the dark brown leather boots and laced them up.

With a final tug at the tied laces she tucked her white short sleeved shirt into her pants and left her room. With trinkets, books, and clothing scattered throughout her room, one would think she wouldn't be amazed at the clutter on her mother's office desk.

She walked to her mother's front office and knocked on the door.

"Mother? I'm going over to Kancia's."

"Okay, but be back around five."

"Okay. Bye."

That gave Sarah three hours to be back. She went out through the back door rather than go out the front door and around to the back where the stables were. They owned four horses. One for each of the family and the fourth just in case. They had fourteen stalls. The other ten were for patients' horses. Inside the building there were two aisles. In between the two aisles were storage rooms for tack and things of that sort. There were seven stalls against the opposite walls. She went down the right aisle to the first stall where her horse was kept. He was a big blue-black gelding with golden-brown eyes. He was fifteen years old.

Unlike most horses, his tail had not been broken at the base to stand up, as was the style. She had thought it cruel when she found out as a young child that these horses tails didn't come naturally up.

When she walked through the door he lifted his head from his feed and came to the stall door, looking expectantly through the bars with his ears perked up.

"You look so cute when you do that, Hessen," she spoke softly, reaching through the bars to scratch his neck, near the ears. "I'll be right back."

He followed her with his eyes as she stepped back and greeted the other horses on her way down to the tack room. A couple minutes later she came back with a saddle, girth, bridle, and some brushes.

She set these things down outside his stall and took the halter off his stall door and opened the door. He was a fairly large horse. She could barely look over his back. She put the halter on his head and clipped on the crossties in his stall. She quickly went over his pretty shiny body with the currycomb and brushes, then picked out packed dirt and manure from his three-toed hooves with a hoof pick.

With all that done, she saddled him and then put on the bridle after she removed the halter. She picked up her riding stick from beside the stall door then led Hessen out of his stall by the reins. She pulled the stirrups down then walked him over beside the bench that was placed against the storage rooms between the aisles and climbed onto Hessen's back after she checked the girth one last time. She checked her stirrup lengths and found them satisfactory. She squeezed Hessen with her legs and they walked out of the building.

Another unusual feature of her horse was the fact that you mounted him from the left side instead of the right.

After they were away from the buildings, she got Hessen to pick up the trot. Instead of going down the driveway to the paved road and hard packed dirt, she turned to the flat fields on the right to her friend's house. She didn't want to worry about Hessen's legs getting injured on the hard road. At the edge of her lawn she asked Hessen to canter and he complied. She loved to canter on him and seeing trees rush by. The air on her face and through her hair made it seem as if they were flying.

Ten minutes later found them slowing down to a walk and coming to the front of Kancia's house. It was a large two-story house. Not as large as Sarah's, but then again it wasn't being used as a hospital either.

She patted Hessen's neck and slid off. She put up the stirrups and loosened the girth, then brought the reigns over his head and dropped them to ground-tie him. She scratched his neck then left him to graze as she walked up to the front door.

She knocked and the door immediately opened. Apparently someone spotted her through the window as she rode up to the house.

"Sarah! I haven't seen you in a week! I was going to come over tomorrow to see if you felt like going out to town," gushed the petite and plump Kancia.

It was true that Sarah didn't see her friends much since school ended because of her chores at home and taking care of patients. Usually in her spare time she felt like sitting around and reading in her father's study, curled up in a large armchair with her favorite books. If it weren't for her interacting with the patients, she would seem solitary.

Kancia was normally the one to drag her out of the house to talk or go shopping. Sarah didn't care for shopping for clothing, but the bookstore and library got her attention and the occasional bazaar.

Kancia led Sarah to the living room where the took a seat on the couch. A pudgy dog soon made an appearance and came up to Sarah to be scratched and petted.

The first thing that flew out of Kancia's mouth was, "So, how's the albino?"

Sarah looked at her while scratching the dog behind the ears and felt a surge of exasperation and annoyance touch her. She held in a sigh. Kancia may be friendly and kind, but she wasn't very tactful at times.

"He's a person, Kancia."

"Yeah, but just thinking of red eyes is scary," Kancia said with a shudder.

At the moment, Sarah didn't want to spend the energy to dissuade Kancia of her prejudices, so she bit back any words that might come out to argue with her.

"Well, anyways. There's this patient named John that I've been taking care of…" started Sarah before she was cut off by Kancia.

"You mean that albino?"

"Yes, `that albino'! Will you let me finish? Maybe I shouldn't tell you…"

"No. I'm sorry. Go on."

Kancia can be rather annoying at times, but she loved to gossip. Sarah wondered, in the back of her mind, what Kancia told her other friends about her. She hears a lot about Kancia's boyfriends and references to her other friends she doesn't know personally.

"Anyways. As you know, John has been in a coma or something for the past month. Well, he woke up today when I came to check on him around noon. He didn't remember a thing, John isn't even his real name. I just chose it for him since I didn't know what else to call him. He's a bit weak right now since he hasn't been up and about `til today, so I need to help him walk around and everything. But that should soon pass. Maybe in two days, maybe even tomorrow. All this close contact sorta, I don't know… it's uncomfortable at times…"

"Do you like him?" A mischievous grin had made its way on Kancia's face.

"Not like that!"

"You like HIM!"

"Oh, grow up!"

"I can tell? You're blushing!"

"Shut up!" exclaimed Sarah, her blush deepening as her friend teased her. She needed her to be serious.

"What happened between you two? Did you guys kiss?"

"KANCIA?!"

"Come on! Tell me!" she insisted.

"He kissed my hand…" Sarah mumbled.

"Oh Gods!"

Kancia looked foolish with a silly, mirthful grin plastered to her face.

Sarah looked at Kancia, quite irritated by now and wishing she never told her anything, but she didn't have much of a choice. She also felt that since Kancia has had experience with men, it might be easier. Obviously, she was mistaken.

Sarah crossed her arms over her chest, feeling vulnerable with embarrassment and shame. She wasn't sure why shame. Maybe because she felt herself like a tomboy and getting "girly" like girl-talk was very uncomfortable. Especially with Kancia.

"He kissed your hand? You never hear anyone doing that in Zaibach. Only in books and other countries like Asturia!"

They managed to talk for two hours. It was always like this, other than the fact about Sarah talking about a man. Even if they didn't have much to say, they somehow at least end up with an hour-long conversation. Ever since Kancia has been courting, some of the conversation would be about the gentleman caller.

"Come again soon! And if you don't, I'll come over. Okay?" Kancia asked as she and Sarah reach the front door.

"Okay. Well, see you later."

She smiled at Kancia, relieved it was over and walked out the door to Hessen, who watched her attentively in the same spot she had left him.

"Good boy, Hessey!" Sarah praised.

Hessen reached his nose forward and Sarah brought her hand up to his nose. He snuffed at it then brought his big nose back. She stroked his face a little then went to tighten the girth and threw the reins over his head. She pulled the stirrups down then mounted his back from the ground. She preferred to mount him via mounting block, but had to live with it.

They went home and she gave Hessen treats while she took off his tack and brushed him. He was nice and shiny again and she threw on a thin blanket over him so he won't ruin his clean coat. She left the stables after checking all the horses' water.

It was a little after five, but that didn't matter. When riding a horse, being a few minutes late was acceptable.

Author's Notes: I LOVE horses! So if you think I focused too much of my time writing details on Hessen or getting him tacked up, TOUGH LUCK! LOL! I noted that when everyone first meets Princess Millerna in the show that Allen mounted the "horse" (I don't know what else to call the animal) he got on from the horse's right side. In the real world where we live, most of the horses I know of are trained so that you get on from the horse's left side. The broken tail thing came from what I heard of Saddlebreds. I'm not sure if it's true for all, but it's a practice to break the foal's tail at the base to make it heal so the tail stands up. Similar to how some breeds of dogs are born with floppy ears so they crop them and bandage them to point up.

I have a friend just like Kancia, I base some of my characters on people I know.