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 Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 8:59 am
A....drive?
The fear on Owle's face was both comical and fleeting.
Oh gods, please don't offer me a ride, please don't offer me a ride...
As someone who had lived, for the most part, on the side of Gaia that was stuck with medieval technology, Owle was more familiar with her own two feet than the hulking metal behemoths it seemed most normal people got around in. She didn't trust the machines, looking at them as death traps. If the driver was incompetent, you couldn't get out, and you were dead. If the driver was competent, but the machine screwed up as machines sometimes did, you were dead. No, Owle would take her own two feet or wings. She trusted those...
But it would be rude to refuse a ride once it was offered, and Rand would probably love it.
"Ah, well, I'm used to long walks..." Owle commented, hoping against hope Jade didn't own a car.
"Bye, Miyon!" Rand called, waving enthusiastically. He had caught from Lenne's words that they were going home, and it looked like Mom was taking him somewhere, too.
So he scurried up to the counter, where he gave Jade a wolfish grin. "Rand!" he answered her. "Nice to meet you!"
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Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 1:24 pm
"It's supposed to snow sometime later on this evening, and I'm afraid I couldn't leave Nikolai waiting at home longer than need be." Jade murmured, offering a smile. "I would be happy to give you a ride, it won't take long." After she'd made sure the book Miyon wanted was paid for, Jade locked up the register and stepped away from the counter to lift a section for Owle and Rand to come through the back. "It's just in back, there's blankets to keep you warm as well. There's no heating I'm afraid." She kept it as a joke to herself, though it wasn't a car that waited out back. Instead, it was a bluey gray appaloosa stabled near a cart. It wasn't as if Jade were poor, goodness no, but she couldn't part with the things that had been in her family for so long. The house she lived in belonged to her great grandmother, the cart her grandfather, and most of her clothing were hand-me-downs from her mother. Conservative? Absolutely.
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Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 2:22 pm
"Well...alright..." Owle looked reluctant, but she followed Jade behind the counter, Rand trailing quickly behind her.
When she saw the cart, a smile sprung back on Owle's face, relief evident on her features. Horses! She could trust a horse, the way you couldn't trust a machine...if a horse knew you and liked you, it wasn't likely to suddenly go haywire, and if it did you would generally have a good chance at calming it down before anything serious happened.
"A hay ride!" Rand exclaimed, dashing ahead of Owle and clambering into the cart as fast as his limbs would take him. Whether or not there was any hay to sit on, he was content to grab a blanket and settle down.
Owle chuckled at her son. "Thank you..." she said to Ran as she slowly climbed in herself. "It's beautiful." Referring, obviously, to the horse.
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Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 2:23 pm
"Well...alright..." Owle looked reluctant, but she followed Jade behind the counter, Rand trailing quickly behind her.
When she saw the cart, a smile sprung back on Owle's face, relief evident on her features. Horses! She could trust a horse, the way you couldn't trust a machine...if a horse knew you and liked you, it wasn't likely to suddenly go haywire, and if it did you would generally have a good chance at calming it down before anything serious happened.
"A hay ride!" Rand exclaimed, dashing ahead of Owle and clambering into the cart as fast as his limbs would take him. Whether or not there was any hay to sit on, he was content to grab a blanket and settle down.
Owle chuckled at her son. "Thank you..." she said to Jade as she slowly climbed in herself. "It's beautiful." Referring, obviously, to the horse.
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Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 6:32 am
(( ninja j00 called my character Ran *pokes*))
Laughing softly at the boy's reaction, Jade locked up the book store when they left and headed over to hook her horse up to it. Clicking her tongue to show the horse she was there and to keep moving, Jade left his blanket and leg warmers on as she fixed his harness. "You like Charlie?" She asked with a chuckle. Charlie Horse. Yeah, the kid probably wouldn't get it.
"Maybe I'll let you help me drive?" Climbing into the driver's seat, Jade smiled back at them. "It'll be a little bumpy, so hang on."
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Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 5:28 pm
"He's neat!" Rand replied. "Can he run really fast?"
He took the most direct route to the driver's seat from where he was, hopping over the front of the cart to land next to Jade.
"Can I help drive? Can I really?"
Owle just chuckled, shaking her head. She hoped Jade had better sense than to give the boy the reins.
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Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 7:51 pm
"Let's go home Charlie." Clicking her tongue, the horse started off without any motion from the reins. He wasn't very old, but when all he really knew was the little town and back and forth between the house and the book shop he didn't need anyone to tell him where to go when Jade said 'home'. Looking to Rand, Jade gave a smile and offered him the reins. "Just don't pull on them, ok? You might confuse him."
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Posted: Thu Nov 23, 2006 7:47 am
"Okay!" Rand replied eagerly, a huge grin on his little face. He grasped the reins firmly, imagining himself as some pioneering cowboy out in the old West, escorting a couple of ladies home. "Giddyup!" he shouted, in true cowboy fashion, and did the only thing he knew you were supposed to do with reins: loosely shook them up and down.
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Posted: Thu Nov 23, 2006 11:32 am
Snorting, Charlie looked back at Rand who was shaking the reins.
Grasping Rand's hands, Jade shook her head. "I told you not to do that. See? Even he doesn't like it." The horse snorted again, coninuing on with a greater dislike of small, rambunctious children.
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Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 5:58 am
"I wasn't pulling them, just shaking..." Rand pouted, but stilled his hands. She hadn't told him not to flick the reins, just not to pull back on them. "So what am I supposed to do?"
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Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 8:12 am
Chuckling softly, Jade shook her head. He'd lose all his enthusiasm if she told him just to sit there. "If something tries to run in front of Charlie, you have to tell him to stop."
((would you mind if we skipped time to when they get to the house?))
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Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 3:48 pm
((Not at all, go right ahead.))
Rand put on his most determined face. This sounded like an important job! "Okay," he said solemnly.
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Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 8:42 pm
Fifteen or twenty minutes later the little house on the hill changed from a large spot on a picturesque landscape to a true domicile as Charlie pulled the cart into the front yard. Jade slipped out from the driver's seat and reached up to Rand to help him down before going to unbuckle the harness and reins from Charlie. "Please go ahead inside." She reached into her pocket to hand Rand the keys. "There should be some tea with Nikolai, cups are in the kitchen. I need to make sure Charlie's comfortable before I join you. I hope you don't mind?"
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Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 9:04 pm
Before Jade could help him down, Rand had leapt off the driver's seat, landing somehow on all fours. He got up, grinning at her, accepted the keys and ran to the door. "Okay!"
He didn't really know what to do with the keys; he figured they were probably for the kitchen cabinet or something. Why would anyone lock their front door? The Firebrand's door was open all the time, no matter how late it was.
Owle, to whom it has never occurred that its a bad idea to raise a child in a tavern, got down from the back more carefully. "I don't mind at all," she said softly. "I'll make sure Rand doesn't break anything."
And she walked after the boy, who was trying the door handle over and over. She took the keys from him, and, after a few tries, opened the door to let him inside.
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Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2006 7:29 am
With the rattling of the door knob, Nikolai started to get worried- Jade didn't shake the door like that. When it finally did open and the little Herald boy heard the footsteps of more people he started to shrink down in the blankets until the hem of the quilt covered him entirely. What on earth was going on?!
Charlie was taken care of calmly, Jade thinking it would do Nikolai some good to interact with people other than her. Especially when one of them was the same as him. The cart was pulled rickshaw style around to the side of the barn when the horse was tended to and put back in his stable with warm hay to eat and a thicker blanket for him to wear. After that was seen to, she could finally return to see Nikolai.
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