---Ride---

---Viig’s perspective---

A long, rounded snout appears from behind the wooden wall.

A weird, toeless leg comes out and meets the ground with a heavy *clop* that lets me know the animal it’s attached to is large!

The bizarre looking creature shows itself.

It has orangey-brown eyes on the side of the head, the pupils wide and square for scanning the horizon.

It’s fully covered in a coat of very short, very dark hair… except along the back of the neck and above the arse, where the dark hair is long, and above the shoe armour, where the hair is white.

It has a strong smell that’s not like anything I’ve ever smelled before but sort of reminds me of [grasshopper deer] and animals like it.

It’s solid and muscly and looks like it might weigh more than a Mons… a Vrakhand!

It’s kind of frightening to be so close to an animal so big… even seeing it’s a plant eater and even with the pretty, one eyed Terran with me!

“That’s… not a person… Right?” I ask.

The big woman laughs and says “Legally? Nah… He ain’t… Valiente’s a criollo breed equine, all the way from Te.rra Firma!… He’s classified as a ‘deathworld beast o’ burden’… Like to think he got more brains in that head than a couple o’ people I’ve met in my life but he ain’t legally sapient… Did try him on a translator, little while ago, but he didn’t like it, so we stopped.”

“And he told you he was called ‘Val Yen Tey’ then, did he?”

She laughs in a way that tells me that was a stupid question before she even answers it.

“No, darlin’…” she explains with a kind smile “…his owner told me his name… looooong, long time ago!”

“You aren’t the one who [own] him?” I ask, using the Terran word to shortcut the strange concept.

“Well… again… the answer’s ‘legally, yes’. Far’s the law’s concerned, Val here’s my property… but that ain’t how I like thinkin’ ’bout it… Y’see, me and Val both lost his rider the same day I lost Ranger, my mustang… After the War, it was just us two left!… Val’s more ’an just a horse I own… I reckon he’s just ’bout my best friend in the whole wide galaxy!… Ain’tchu Val!” she says, grasping the snout to put many kisses on top.

I kind of wish she’d kiss me like that but, for some reason, I feel like now wouldn’t be a good time to ask for it… not sure why, though?

“And… you ride him?”

“Sure do, darlin’!” she smiles, showing me a fangless mouthful of teeth.

“And… he… doesn’t mind you riding him?” I ask, sceptically.

“He sure don’t!” she chuckles, picking up a weird, stiff, padded seat and reaching up to throw it over the massive back of the creature “Bein’ ridden’s the highlight o’ Val’s day(!)”

She bends and begins fastening the straps under the belly.

“I see…” I say, not really able to figure out what’s in it for him.

[Stallionhounds] let Folk ride them because they’re better runners and we’re better hunters… both of us get more food than we would without the other…

What does a prey animal have to gain from letting itself be ridden?

He’s so massive and strong looking that, if he didn’t want to let her ride him, there really wouldn’t be anything that she could do to make him… So… I guess it’s fine?

She comes back to the snout and pushes more straps over it before fastening them up.

The large woman takes a dangling loop, hanging off the straps, in the hand and starts leading the mount behind her.

The weird, toeless animal (got to be close to ten times her size!) follows her calmly.

She spares a glance back to me.

“Word o’ warnin’… don’t get right behind him, sweetheart… Horses kick when they’re scared… Val’s a good boy but I don’t want ya takin’ a horseshoe to the face ’cause ya spooked him!” she smiles.

I had already guessed to stay away from the legs but I move myself even further.

She grins and leads on.

At the far side of the large underground room full of the smell of animals, wood and dry grasses I see something quite confusing.

We’re a long way underground here and, yet…

“Is that the sky?!” I ask, incredulously.

“Nah, it ain’t… sky on this planet’s pink… Blue skies in the Paddock are meant ta simulate outdoors on Earth… We’re still underground but they simulate outdoors just so these guys don’t get stressed from feelin’ like they’re shut up in boxes the whole time… Has a mighty similar effect on me, if I’m honest(!)” she chuckles.

We pass through the [barn] door to the ‘outside’.

As soon as I’m across the threshold and look out over the wide field of short, bright green grass, the inside smells vanish, replaced by the strange ones of a world I’ve never been to, carried on a warm indoor breeze they’ve made, just to keep their animals happy, if I’m understanding her right.

It’s…

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I mean, I can see what she means!

It’s quite soothing here in a way I haven’t really felt since I left Graom!

I close my eyes and take a deep breath through my nose, enjoying the fake sun and the fake wind under the fake sky that’s just slightly the wrong shade of blue.

“You wanna ride?” asks the pretty one eyed woman.

I turn to look at her and see her gesturing to the front of the seat she’s put on Val.

“He’s… really big!” I frown, hesitating.

“*hahahahahaha*… You think Val’s big? Remind me ta show ya a picture o’ Duke at some point!” she laughs.

“Duke?”

“Duke was my pappy’s ride… Certified, resurrected ‘Bi.son. latifrons’… A longhorn buffalo. Weighed more ’an 2 tons!… Near on four o’ Val!”

I shake the head in a Terran ‘no’ and say “That’s too big!”

She laughs “‘Hyperrealism’ pappy said! Folks who came from them cities ta get a taste of old times didn’t really care that tweren’t till Buffalo Bill, when the Old West were almost over, that anyone tried saddlin’ a buffalo fer the first time! Didn’t care that those were Bison bison, not latifrons. The fact that my pappy rode a giant Ice Age buffalo made it feel more real fer ’em when we were takin’ the tourists out fer cattle drives!… Course, anyone ever asked, he’d tell ’em Duke weren’t exactly ‘historic’ly accurate’ but you’d be surprised by just how few folks ever did!”

“I… see…” I lie.

She smiles and points up at the backseat “So… how ’bout it, little lady? Wanna take a ride with me?”

Two parts of me are biting and scratching eachother as I look up at the seat.

One part does not want to get anywhere near that giant, weird animal… way too big for something with bones on the inside!

The other is thinking about just how little space there is on the backseat… definitely going to need quite close contact…

The horny side wins out as I answer “Sure… should I just jump up there or…?”

“No.” she corrects, immediately “Like I said, Val’s well trained but, if ya jump on him, that’ll definitely spook him. Let him get a smell o’ ya and then I’ll lift ya up there.”

“OK…?” I say, lifting the left hand over the head and towards the snout.

Jaylah gently directs the head to me.

A pair of nostrils so large I could fit a whole fist inside is brought to a fingerbreadth from the palm.

Enormous amounts of air are sucked into and blown out of that nose while he gets the scent of me and considers…

It occurs to me now that maybe I should’ve chosen the nondominant hand to present, just in case he decides he doesn’t like me and is going to bite the hand off about it, when he pulls away.

“There now, darlin’! Val’s got yer scent and he’s happy ta let ya ride! Alright if I pick ya up?”

“*huff*…No problem.” I answer, breathing a sigh of relief that I still have the hand attached(!)

She bends and wraps both of the giant, light brown hands around the waist, lifting me up with ease!

It feels very… nice… to be held like this.

I curl the legs as she lifts me over her and puts me down on the seatback.

I have to spread the legs uncomfortably far to get them over the wide back.

It’s also a bit scary to be this high off the ground on an unfamiliar mount.

The end of my tail wraps around the ridge at the back of the seat to anchor me a little.

“Sorry, little lady… Gonna need yer tail off the cantle! I gotta sit there(!)” she smirks, grabbing the tail and lifting it up to my back.

I feel the warmth of the hand on the skin.

She steps into the flat bottomed ring of metal that dangles off one of the straps on the left side of the seat and climbs up, plopping herself into the space at the back.

I feel the contact of her behind me.

I wrap my tail around the side of the thick midsection and sit up to bring the back of the head to squash into the chest.

I turn up to look into the face that’s wearing an amused smirk, looking down.

“Comfy(?)” she asks with a cock of an eyebrow and a twist of the lips.

“Yes thanks.” I smile in answer.

She chuckles and says “Alright then, darlin’… Grip the pommel fer me… I ain’t gonna get Val ta gallop but still don’t want ya fallin’ off… Ain’t sure havin’ yer tail wrapped halfway ’round my waist’ll quite cut the mustard(!)” bringing a hand in front of me to tap a finger against the upwards spur at the front of the seat.

I grasp it.

She picks up the straps, giving them a little flick, and squeezes her legs against the sides.

He begins moving across the field… quite fast.

This is definitely not as fast as I can run but it still feels frightening to be moving this speed with so much weight beneath and behind me!

I tighten the tail for a moment but immediately realise that, because it doesn’t go all the way around her, that’s actually just going to push me off the side of the mount if I keep doing it!

I settle for gripping the spur and nestling the back against the tall, wide stomach behind me.

The elbows of the arms holding the straps are at least guarding either side but I’d like it if they were a bit lower!

Riding a [horse] isn’t like riding a [stallionhound] at all!

You’d think that sitting on the back of any animal would be sort of similar but it’s just not!

I can’t really explain how… but everything feels different!

The heart pounds in the chest and the blood prickles flowing through the veins as we cover the underground field.

We crest a hill and see what I assume we’re heading for… a grassless area with what look like [horse] obstacles in it and surrounded by barriers.

“I’d like to get down now…” I say, trying not to sound scared and failing as we pull up to the side of the barriers.

“Aww!… Ya done usin’ my gals as pillows, darlin’…(?)” she chuckles.

I frown and pull the head away from the chest, turning in the seat to look up at her.

“Sorry… Was I being rude?” I ask, worried that not understanding Terran ways might have made her dislike me.

She smirks and wags the head “Yer fine, sugar… Little bit funny ferra Terran was all!”

I give a relieved chuckle.

I feel a large hand between the shoulderblades as the fingers gather up the fabric on me.

She lifts me off the [horse] seat, onehanded, and lowers me down to the ground.

“OK if I drop ya?” she asks me, the feet half my height up.

“Sure.” I shrug the shoulders.

The hand lets go and I spend a brief moment falling before landing with no issue.

“Alright, sweetheart… Imma spend ’bout half an hour here practicin’ with my whip and my lasso… Ya just let me know if you get bored and I’ll be happy ta take ya back! Kay?” says the one eyed woman sitting on top of the gigantic animal.

“Sure…” I answer without any intention of spending a single moment that I could be spending with her not with her “…but what’s a [whip]? And a [lasso]?”

She gestures to one of the coils of rope on the hips “This’s a whip… a long, flexible bitta rope that cracks loud when ya flick it through the air… A lasso’s a rope with a loop at the end that ya throw to catch cattle or horses. Skill with rope’s how I ended up as Hoss’s bodyguard… Citadel don’t let ya carry weapons so every bodyguard in the ODR’s gotta have some kinda ‘unarmed’ gimmick… martial arts… super strength… my gimmick’s ropes, since they’re not technically a ‘weapon’… My predecessor was a Gorilla sapiens!… Ya ever see a Gorilla, darlin’?”

I waggle the head “I don’t think so?”

“Alright, imagine a Human… give ’em shorter, thicker legs, longer, thicker arms, short, round snout with giant canine teeth. Give ’em hands where their feet should be and more muscles ’an a seafood cookoff(!) Now cover ’em in black fur, head ta toe, an’ you’ve basic’ly got a Gorilla… Gamba ‘Winston’ Zvaitika was also an absolute beast, even ferra Gorilla!… If he hadn’ta been up ’gainst a cyborg killer, nothin’ in the galaxy’d’ve been enough ta take that guy down!” she says with clear admiration for the dead man.

“He… sounds strong!… You’ve got to be very good with ropes if you can match that kind of strength?” I frown, curiously.

She returns the eyes to me and the smirk to the face as she answers “I’m ‘very good’ with my 12 shooters, darlin’… When it comes ta whips and lassos… I’m the best there is(!)… A woman o’ many talents, I also play a mean bass guitar(!)”

I grin back “Why don’t you show me the whips for now?”

“Happy ta oblige ya!” she smirks as she rides forward into the enclosure.

I hop up onto the fence to look at the back of her as she rides away from me.

She takes the coil of rope from the hip and holds it in the left hand.

At a signal from her, the [horse] speeds up to much faster than he was going when I was on him!

The [whip] unspools as she swings it behind her.

Then, she launches the arm forward!

*CRACK*