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 Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2017 10:02 am
"Exactly! Unfortunately, our power got spent up powering the place and only lasted a few moments. I need to find out where the actual power source was that kept the city going so I can bring it online. If I can see it too, maybe it will allow us to make a device better than the one powering Deus. Not to mention the golden golems can melt right back into surfaces as a pattern. They are durable and last clearly if they have been there since Atlantis went offline ages ago. There is also a library and garden and possibly so much more. We could make leaps and bounds in the war just by what we find and have access to other places that could offer even more. If we can claim these areas, we would have a network of key points in our arsenal."
He moved into the stable, looking about as the smell of hay swept through and the commotion of horses neighing and moving about. While Lawr spoke easily about what he was looking for, Melvin was at a loss. Lawr took care of explaining he had no experience, and while Lawr left, Melvin awkwardly waited for a horse. They asked if he would be doing anything extremely strenuous and he explained he wouldn't be rushing up any hills as he was inexperienced and was relying on his partner to help him.
They selected a quiet, good-natured mare named Honey with at a sunny tan with white spots. Taking her, he slowly moved and tried to give her space so she wouldn't accidentally step on him. "Uh....hey girl. Good horse." He spoke softly to it before meeting Lawr.
"They are a lot bigger up close, huh?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2017 10:21 am
"They are, yes." he said. "Quite a bit." He wasn't exactly the tallest man in the world himself, and horses more often than not presented a bit of a hassle when it came to height. He temporarily tied his horse up to attend to Melvin.
"Right, you'll find that mounting a horse is a lot like mounting a very tall, very wide bike. You'll need to get momentum to get up and over but don't fall completely over. It's a western saddle, so it will be a little less precarious than if we were riding English." He didn't bother mentioning the option of a mounting block, wanting Melvin to learn the correct way.
He checked the girth on the saddle and a few other minor things before handing him the reins. "Get your foot in the stirrup and pull yourself up using your knee, throw your other leg over. You should be able to do it easily, we aren't exactly weak any longer. Maybe before the island you might have run into a little trouble. Don't worry about spooking her, she's used to this. When you are up, keep your reins loose, don't yank her mouth, they are a guide, you'll be telling her where to go with your legs and the reins on her neck. You have the pommel there between your legs, you can hold onto it. Western you keep the reins in one hand, I learned with two, but well. You'll be fine, Western saddles and riding are the automatic to the stick-shift of the horse riding world."
"Now go on up, get yourself comfortable, sit up straight, don't lean back, don't touch her hind end and give her a gentle squeeze between your legs to get her moving."
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Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2017 10:49 am
Melvin stared back at Lawr as he explained some kind of differences about European and Western saddles, and as he stared at the ropes in his hands, he wasn't sure which one was a reign, which one was a lead, and he was guessing the weird bump in the saddle was the pommel? And he had to stand straight and not move?
His eyes kept turning back to the horse and back to Lawr as he went down a long list of information. After Lawr stopped, Melvin stared back at him and then looked at the horse. Where did he even grab onto? Looking at the saddle, he touched it and then noticed there weren't really any grips, and the reign was still in his hand. He set that down on top of the horse.
Then he grabbed the saddle again, put his foot in the stirrup, and lunged and fell back to his feet. This wasn't a matter of strength. This was a matter of knowing where the hell he put his body. "Where do I even grab at this?" He couldn't touch the back and couldn't pull on the reigns.
He looked back at Lawr. "Is there a grip I can hold onto?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2017 11:03 am
Lawrence wasn't a good teacher. The lack of empathy thing made it very difficult for him to put himself in someone else's shoes, so when Melvin asked if there was a grip he could hold onto all Lawrence could do for a little bit was give him a blank non-committal look as he tried to figure out what he meant.
He gestured at the saddle. "You use the strength in your leg to put your weight into the stirrup, you can hold onto the pommel but you shouldn't put your weight on the saddle too much that way or it might slide off center. You just sort of.. spring up. Look I'll show you, I'm even smaller than you are, and my horse is quite a bit taller even than yours."
He fetched his horse and brought him around, lengthening one stirrup slightly, putting his foot in and then nimbly climbing up and onto the horse's back. Once up he adjusted his stirrups while seated, a feat which took a bit of feline twisting to get at his bad side.
"You shouldn't need to adjust your stirrup to get on." he said. "You should be able to do it as is."
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Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2017 11:52 am
Where was he supposed to put his weight?
Why did he think that being helped onto a horse would have been more romantic? Instead, Lawr looked bothered and he breathed out, reaching up and jumping to then pressing his weight into the stirrup and pull up. He wasn't sure how he wasn't supposed to put his weight on the horse, and Honey's ears went back as she stepped forward then back, causing him to grip onto the horse as he slid into the saddle, arched forward and touching her neck before touching the saddle.
"Shhhh. Shhh. Don't move." He called to her as she stepped forward again and stopped. Not only was he high up, but now his mobility and life was in the hands of a horse who probably hated him right now.
Rigid, he stood as straight as a plank and didn't touch anything.
The ground looked much further away than he thought.
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Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2017 12:24 pm
When Melvin managed to get on the horse without too much more trouble, Lawrence exhaled a sigh of relief, spurring Max over to stand alongside Honey. "Well done." he said, with a genuine smile. "Be confident with her, she's relying on you, you understand the world, she doesn't understand it the way we do, she needs to know she can trust what you are asking her to do and if you hesitate she won't feel safe. You know you want to walk forward so indicate it." His own horse fidgeted a little but was drawn in firmly. Somewhere along the way he'd picked up a riding crop which he held in the same hand as the reins.
"Trust and confidence go hand in hand."
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Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2017 1:35 pm
When did he start getting tested on trust when he thought this trip would just be a lot of frisky cowboy puns?
Not to be detoured easily, he nodded. "Got it."
"Just....one thing."
He looked at the reigns in his hands and back to Lawr. "How do I make her move again?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2017 3:31 pm
"You squeeze her in between your thighs." he said, giving Melvin a wolfish grin. "And I KNOW you can do that."
He spurred his own horse on in a walk, leading the way ahead. "You can do it, I believe in you."
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Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2017 4:04 pm
He stared down at the horse and then squeezed lightly. The horse did not move, and so he decided to squeeze a bit more, to which Honey started to slowly walk forward.
"If I want to stop her, how do I do that? I mean....in case she goes too fast." Even her moving was enough to make him looked worried at the horse.
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Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2017 4:16 pm
"You sit heavier in your saddle like you were digging in your heels and then you gently tighten the reins." he shrugged. "Horses are easier than people, they are flighty scared creatures but they understand body language, they listen with touch. Don't worry though you'd need to work hard to get a schoolhorse to go fast, you'd probably need to give her a good near-kicking for her to even want to canter."
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Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2017 4:23 pm
"Canter is....running? That's good to know." He said, and watched the horse move before he looked ahead and then at Lawr.
"Is it okay to pat her neck?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2017 4:27 pm
"Absolutely, she'll probably appreciate it. It's good not to forget that you're always dealing with a living animal." Because for Lawrence it was very easy to forget in general.
He led the way along the trail. "Just walk her up next to mine. I want to talk more about your findings and what you intend to do with them."
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Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2017 4:37 pm
Glad that touching her wouldn't set the horse off, he reached over and rubbed her neck. It was nice to be around living animals, and while being on the horse still rattled him a bit, it was still a horse.
"That's a good Honey. Don't murder me and I'll try to not run you into a bush. Deal?" He spoke softy to the horse and patted it's neck before taking the reigns and very slowly, moved the horse up to Max. Honey knew better than to get too close and moved beside Lawr as she trotted along.
Melvin's own heartbeat, which had been racing the moment he had gotten into the saddle, was finally starting to slow down.
"Okay....I think I can do this." He said to both Lawr and himself.
"Oh, speaking of animals. Is Rodney taking your owl?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2017 4:46 pm
"You can do it." Lawrence said in a way that implied this was not an optional encouragement but simple fact.
At the mention of the owl he glanced down at the strange ring still on his index finger. "Well." he said. "About that."
"Technically you were the one taking the owl. About ..oh I don't know, fifteen minutes ago?" he smirked cheekily. "It's me. I'm the owl, it's an artifact. But please don't spread that fact around, Mikael doesn't know, and he's rather fond of it."
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Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2017 5:27 pm
Melvin stared back at Lawr.
"You're.....Tweetheart?"
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