The group kept moving for some time. The path they’d been following hit its predictable end, and they were forced to improvise by cutting through some more country. The ravines slacked into a plateau, and the group found themselves in an open field with only a small lake in sight.
“Damn it!” Kurt shouted behind as a crash roared. The cart had tumbled again, spilling all their gear out. “The wheel’s snapped.”
Leah marched over, examined the damage, and tossed a chunk of rusted metal aside. “We’ll have to fix it.”
He grunted. “That’ll take hours. We should just leave it. We’re losing enough time as is.”
“No. We can’t afford to take anymore nights off.”
“I can leg it if need be,” Liam said. “I’m sure we’ll find another if we dipped into town.”
“No,” she said with a tone that wouldn’t be questioned. “Mastermind will fix the cart, and Buttercup can get us something to eat.” Her eyes narrowed on him. “I’d suggest you take a nap while we wait, Liam Fenix.”
He shivered. Leah’s mood had soured since they’d left Ponderosa. Every moment that Liam had spent sitting and relaxing, every second where he would massage a leg or take a drink, and her thinly veiled distaste worsened. It was as if he were at fault for all her woes, and not the other way around. What had he done to deserve such antipathy?
At least the view wasn’t all bad. Pines like emerald spears thrust into the mountains behind, rising up to stone peaks where the boundaries of Sequoia adhered to the Sierra range. The lake reflected the mountains above in a shade of navy blue, and Liam would have killed to jump into this lake and embrace its refreshing comfort, if only so he could prove that there were no hollows directly below its waves.
He held a hand against the morning sun. Off in the distance, a herd of wild horses was grazing by the water.
Maybe there’s a better way forward, after all. Liam lumbered to his feet and walked over, slowly and carefully as not to raise alarm.
Leah followed. “Leave the Hunt to Buttercup. He’s already on it.”
“These ones aren’t for killing,” Liam said.
“Then what the hell are you doing?”
“Do you know what those are?”
She stared blankly. “Horses.”
Liam bent low. “What we’re looking at here are Spanish mustangs. You can tell because of the bushier tail and way that the manes fall over their coats.” He nodded. “I’d say this lot is prime stock, by the looks of them.”
“So?” Leah asked.
He gleamed. It had been a long time since he’d had a sentient audience. “They say that Columbus first brought horses to America on his second voyage to help control the new world, and it shouldn’t surprise us to know why. Andalusian mares were prized possessions of the throne, and were known across Europe for their speed and stamina. But Columbus couldn’t contain this breed for long. Between the Apaches and the Maya, raiding parties set hundreds of them free. These days, there are thousands of wild mustangs in California alone. I’d reckon more, given everything else that’s happened.”
She squinted suspiciously at him. “Why are you talking like that? It’s weird, like you’re about to announce a prize.”
He ignored her and maintained his charm. “Husbandry is a technique that predates the dawn of civilization, with some of the earliest wranglers as no more than nomads on the slopes of Kazakhstan. Though time has evolved and the process has grown more controlled, there’s nothing to stop us from once again forging a bond between man and his original best friend. In a crisis as bleak as our own, it might just be our only hope.”
“You want to ride those things? Are you insane?”
“I need you to hang back, Leah. This is a craft that is slow and delicate. I wouldn’t want you to get hurt.”
She snorted. “Please. Like I’d let some horse knock me over.”
“Then do it for me. We might not get another opportunity like this one.”
“You’re wasting your time, but fine, do whatever you want.” She furrowed her brow. “But when they run off after five minutes, you’re back over here and sleeping. I won’t burn another morning because you tired yourself out doing something stupid.”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“And when I come back riding on top of one of these beauties, you’ll owe me a shower. I don’t care how you arrange it or how long it takes. I want to feel fresh water flowing over my skin again, and I don’t want to hear any bullshit about hollows in the river.” He held out his hand to shake. “Does that sound like a fair trade?”
Her gloved hand embraced his own. “Deal.”
With the stakes raised a tinge, Liam made his way forth. He narrowed his focus on the strongest of the bunch, a jet-black male built like a bronco, with spots of white running down his snout. If Liam was to have any hope of capturing this ride before Leah lost her patience, it would be through going straight for the one with the least to fear.
Liam closed the distance between him and his target, gently shooing the other mustangs out of the way, never enough to force the herd to sprint off, but enough so that they would not interfere. The black mustang kept his eyes fixed, scanning for threats. It was just the two of them for a time. The mustang assumed a defensive pose as it waited for something new to happen, but Liam did nothing but stand and stare, studying every nuance of the creature’s body language. Time pressed on as each remained locked, first one minute of silence, and then another. Liam became a rock, but the mustang did not drop its guard.
Finally, the mustang turned away for a beat. Liam jumped forth half a foot and tsked. In a flash, the black mustang reared its head and trotted to safety, well over fifty meters away.
Leah stood back with the others, arms folded. Even from the distance, Liam could sense the premature victory she felt. But little did she know that this was part of the dance, and Liam and his mustang had a long date ahead of them. He raised his finger to silence any objections Leah might make.
Liam followed the black mustang to the new patch of greenery it had claimed and repeated the technique, this time advancing one pace closer before stopping. The mustang again examined him, scanning for more threats. His eyes remained fixed, and his posture stayed defensive, until such a time that he grew exhausted by the exercise. Only when the mustang dropped his guard did Liam jerk forward and tsk again, forcing the mustang into another retreat.
This was a special technique employed by the gauchos of Patagonia. The goal was to tire their mustangs out while also training them to accept humans as safe company. By only scaring them when they stopped paying attention, the mustangs would learn that staring equated to safety, and aversion led to danger.
Little by little, step by step, the samba continued. Liam would force the black mustang to acknowledge him, and slowly condition the bastard into accepting his presence. The mustang would rear his head and make a retreat, but never far enough away to surrender his territory, lest his pride be damaged. The other horses soon parted way for the two to enjoy their dance uncontested, with Liam getting closer by the minute.
The day dragged on, and hours began to stack, but still Liam did not relent. Somewhere along the way, the work on the cart was completed, though the rezzers no longer seemed to care. They had abandoned their own goal of an early escape in favor of watching Liam work. This was a game of chess after all, and one they had never seen before.
After enough time and enough patience, the black mustang finally bowed his head in surrender. Liam had gotten himself into arm’s reach by then, and no longer needed to scare his new acquaintance to keep his attention. The two exchanged each other’s scents, and the mustang no longer felt threatened.
And now for your reward. Liam reached into his satchel and pulled out some wild carrots he’d taken from a derelict farm one day back. It would hurt to not enjoy them himself, but the black mustang had earned a prize for his patience. He was a worthwhile partner.
“There, there,” Liam whispered, giving the mustang a stroke on the mane. “See? There’s nothing to be afraid of. You’ve just been used to taking care of yourself and forgotten what it’s like to have a friend. We’ll change that, you and I, yeah?”
Minutes came and went as Liam coaxed the black mustang further. His work was not yet done, and the most dangerous step was still to come. Without a harness and saddle, getting atop the mustang’s back would be nigh impossible for the uninitiated, but luckily for Liam, he had been trained to do just that for the show. Season Three: Episode Seven, to be precise.
The trick was to ease into it like an old man into a bath. Slowly but deliberately, Liam wrapped his arms around the mustang, never applying more pressure than he had before, and always massaging the pain out of its tendons. When the water was warm and the moment just right, Liam hopped off his ground and onto the back. The black mustang lurched into a trot again, but did not try to kick him off just yet. That gave Liam the leniency to scramble further and wrap his arms around the head, where he could redistribute his weight and once again nullify any discomfort he had inflicted. The mustang’s trot slackened back into a walk.
And just like that, the two had become one, and the dance was complete.
Leah stared wide-eyed as the incomprehensible marched toward her. “How the hell did you do that?”
Liam grinned. “Give me more time, love, and I’ll have one for each of you.”
By mid-morning of the next day, Liam had fulfilled his promise. It had been slow to start, with the mustangs not giving his rezzer companions the time of day when they drew near. Liam surmised that hollows were the natural predator to horses these days, and rezzers would be indistinguishable. But once they had applied dung to mask their scents, the sailing became far smoother. His undead companions were more clever than they looked, and picked up on Liam’s guidance faster than he would have suspected. When combined with the herd being more submissive in the presence of their restrained alpha, getting them on horseback became elementary.
Leah claimed a milky-white female for herself, with Mastermind sitting on her lap. Buttercup chose a pale babe as well, and the two fell instantly in love. Only Kurt remained on foot, but that was his choice. “Don’t trust anything bigger than me,” he’d said before thrusting the extra baggage over his shoulder and marching away.
As the group began to ascend the slopes again, Liam caught Leah peering his way. Deciphering the thoughts of his mustang was trivial compared to reading Leah’s mind from behind the opaque wall of her burgundy scarf, but there was a virtue in her eyes that he’d never seen before, and one that filled his heart with glee.
It was respect.