Grooming (open)

[Misty Octgon]

Misty walked up to Fireballs stall. She whinnied in greeting, and Fireball whinnied back. She stood on top of her stool and put Horsie, her stuffed horse, threw the bars of the stall. She used to put Horsie on the floor of the stall, but her aunt had taught her to put him in between the bars instead, claiming that he wouldn't get as dirty there and wouldn't need washed as often.

She reached up and opened the door, picked up her step stool and grooming kit and walked in. Fireball reached down and nuzzled her. Misty hugged her and kissed the side of her face. Misty got her brush out of the grooming kit, positioned the stool by Fireball’s side, climbed up and started brushing her. She started with Fireball’s back, as she was taught. As she brushed, she listened to the sounds around the stable.

[Lord Tyler James Landry]

Ty was leaned back on a bail of hay, a book propped open on his knees. He was jolted from his nap by the sounds of movements in other parts of the stables. He shook his head, running his fingers through his curly hair. He noticed that his book had flipped to a page he didn't remember reading. Letting out a heavy sigh, he snapped the book shut and pushed himself up into a sitting position. Bowen was sleeping by the gate to the stall.

Ty took a moment to allow himself to wake up before pushing out of the stall. Bowen whinnied behind him as he left and Ty turned to pet his nose. Ty then ventured down the corridor passed several other stalls, most of which remained empty. Close to the end, he found a pretty horse being brushed by one of the younger students at Brightvale, "Hello There." He leaned against the gate of the stall and watched the little girl.

[Misty Octgon]

Misty cringed when she heard a voice. She turned, hesitantly, and saw a man standing there. She stared at him for a couple of seconds, then she remembered what she was supposed to do when someone says hello. She lifted one hand up and waved, slightly. She wished it hadn't taken her so long to remember, but she had trouble with things like that.


She started to go back to brushing, and then she turned and looked at the man again, wondering if he wanted anything. She was nervous. She didn't like meeting new people. This place was full of strangers. She wished that she could have stayed at her aunt and uncles ranch. She didn't understand why she had to go here, and she couldn't ask.  Sometimes she wished she could speak.

[Lord Tyler James Landry]

It wasn't difficult to see that the girl was shy. He put on his best smile and watched her for a few silent minutes, not sure how exactly how to make her comfortable, "You have a beautiful horse." He pointed out, "Obviously well taken care of. You must love her a lot."

He motioned his head down the hallway a little bit, "I have my own down the way. I spend a lot of time in there. If you want, you're welcome to visit him anytime." He almost didn't respect a response from the girl. She looked almost like she was uncomfortable with humans in general. He didn't know if he was reading her properly, though.

[Misty Octgon]

Misty went back to grooming Fireball, weary of the man watching her. Fireball was clean and didn't really need brushed right now. Misty had been brushing her mainly because brushing horses was calming to her, but not so much when a stranger was watching her. When he called Fireball beautiful and said she must love her, Misty did calm down a little. She smiled and turned to him and nodded. She did love Fireball.

When he invited her to go see his horse, she nodded to accept the invitation and climbed down. She moved her stool out of the way and set the brush down. She walked back to Fireball, and stroked her, to say goodbye. She’d be back soon. Fireball snorted and Misty snorted back.

Misty left the stall, carefully closing the gate behind her. She looked at him, nervously. She was excited about meeting a new horse but she was a little nervous about going with a stranger. She glanced at Horsie and wondered if she should take him with her, but she decided not to since they weren't going to leave the stable.

[Lord Tyler James Landry]

What happened next really shocked Ty. He watched as she nodded, acknowledging his offer more than he thought she would. She then climbed down and began to pet her horse. But that wasn't what got him. It was the snort. The snort. He couldn't keep the smile off of his face. But he wasn't laughing at the little girl, more than realizing how cute she was.

It made him wonder what it must be like to have a little sister. Someone he could take care of. He quickly shook the thought away when he noticed she was waiting on him to lead the way, "Follow me."

It wasn't long before he was standing back at his horse's stall, "His name is Bowen." Ty pushed the gate to the stall open and motioned the girl forward, allowing her to enter the stall first.

[Misty Octgon]

Misty followed him to his horse, who he introduced as Bowen. She looked up at Bowen and smiled. She liked him already, of course she did like all horses.


He opened the stall door and she walked at. She looked up at Bowen and whinnied at him in greeting, but she didn't try to pet him until she could see his reaction. Most horses were ok with her petting them, but she always wanted to make sure. Occasionally a horse would be in a bad mood and wouldn't want to be pet, but would start to calm down if she got near them, which she couldn't understand.

[Lord Tyler James Landry]

"He likes you." Ty said, grinning. It was amazing really, because Bowen was generally so skittish around strangers. But he assumed that the girl spent a lot of time around horses and Bowen must be able to tell, "Be nice to him." Ty said with a teasing grin, "He's my best friend after all."

After a moment, Tyler followed her into the stall ad closed the gate carefully behind him. It was hard to imagine a girl that didn't talk to people at all. It was definitely the vibe that the child was putting off though, "My name is Ty." He held out his hand for her to shake out of old habits forced on to him growing up a Lord.

[Misty Octgon]

Bowen allowed Misty to pet him, so she did. She continued to pet him as she listened to the man. He told her to be nice to Bowen, and she had no problem with that because she was always nice to horses and had never been mean to a horse. She smiled when he said that Bowen was his best friend. She could understand that because Fireball was her best friend.

He told her that his name was Ty. She wished she could tell him her name, but she didn't know how. She looked at him and saw that he was holding out his hand. It took a few second for Misty to realize that he wanted a hand shake. She turned to him, took his hand and gently shook it. She was glad that her aunt and uncle had taught her how to do that before she came here.

[Lord Tyler James Landry]

A rippled of shock coursed through him when she returned the gesture of shaking his hand. Her hand was so much smaller than his, it was almost awkward shaking her hand at all, but it was warm an made him flash a handsome smile, "You're quite the interesting person, you know?" He leaned against his hay bail again, watching her pet Bowen.

He reached down and picked up the book he had tossed on the ground earlier. The cover was so worn he couldn't tell what the book was called. Ty tucked it carefully under his arm so he wouldn't forget to take it back to his dorm later, "I think we should be friends." He thought aloud, unaware of what he meant by it.

[Misty Octgon]

Misty wasn't sure what he meant when he called her interesting. Some grown-ups had called her that before and Misty was never sure what it meant or if it was a good or bad thing. The way Ty said it, it sounded like he meant it as a good thing.

Misty was surprised when Ty asked her to be friends. She had some horse friends, but she had never had a human friend before. At her old school, all of the other kids had friends, but none of them were friends with her. Most of the other kids there ignored her, but some of them would tease her because she never talked, liked to pretend to be a horse, carried a stuffed horse around with her and was easily frightened. Misty looked at Ty, smiled and nodded her head, eagerly. She liked Ty and thought was nice. She wanted to be friends with him.

[Lord Tyler James Landry]

Ty grinned broadly. She accepted his offer. Wow.

He yawned and looked up at the sky. The sun was hovering over a line of trees in the distance and threatening to fall behind the horizon. He knew they needed to get back to the main building before it got too dark, but he also wasn't as concerned as he probably should have been. The lights that hung over each stall flickered on, reacting to their timer. They cast a dim, strange light over the top of the hay that made everything look yellow-orange. His watch beeped, telling him it was six-o-clock.

"Are you hungry?" He asked carefully, standing up and rubbing his hands over his jeans to wipe off the strands of loose hay that had gathered there, "We could go grab something to eat up at the school."

[Misty Octgon]

Misty had no idea what time it was, but she actually was kind of hungry. She looked at Ty and nodded an ok. Then she turned back to Bowen, gave him a goodbye pet and left the stall. Now it was time to check on her horse.

Misty went back to Fireball’s stall. She went in and checked to make sure that Fireball had enough, hay grain and water. Then she stroked Fireball and few times, as she mentally told her that she would be back tomorrow. Last, she took her step stool and grooming kit and moved them outside the stall, to give Fireball more room, and climbed up and got Horsie. She thought she was ready, but then she saw the stall door and remembered that she had forgotten to close the door so she quickly closed it. She trusted Fireball not to run away, but she knew that she was supposed to close it anyway.

She was ready now. She walked back to Ty. She hoped he hadn't minded waiting for her.

[Lord Tyler James Landry]

It was getting pretty dark now. It always surprised Ty how quickly the sun disappeared behind the horizon at night, like it was in a hurry to get away from something. He wondered why he'd thought something like that and as his new friend got ready to go, he thought about the possibility that he was trying to run away from something, too. He leaned against the wall in the hallway outside of the little girl's stall. His finger picked at the name plate that had been screwed into the wall near the entrance to the stall. It was exactly identical to the one down the corridor labeled "TYLER LANDRY" The only difference between the two was the name that was etched into the metal. Every student had a stall, even if they didn't have a horse. It was one of the many perks to attending school at such a prestigious institution.

"Misty Octgon, huh?" He grinned, glancing over his shoulder as the little girl carefully closed the gate to the stall, "So your name is Misty?"

[Misty Octgon]

Misty nodded, wondering how he knew that. Then she remembered that her name was the on the stall. Her aunt and uncle had pointed that out to her when they dropped her off here, but she hadn't really cared at the time. She realized now that it might come in handy, since she couldn't say her name.


Misty glanced outside and saw that it was getting dark out. It had been perfectly light when she came into the stable earlier. How did it get dark so soon? She didn't want to walk back to school in the dark. She didn't like the dark. It was scary. At least she wasn't alone.