Nadine

58. Horse Shooting

I wake up the next morning and stare at the ceiling. I want to go to see Dipak but I can't think of a reason to. He might get mad if I show up unannounced. I can't think of a reason to go see any of them. I don't want to go work. I'll ride Butter for a bit.

"Good morning Hypatia."

"Good morning Zacier. How are you feeling and what happened anyway? They wouldn't let me in."

"I got pinned down. Had a cart in the basement break free and it pinned me. It was rather nasty. Thank you for calling for help." He gets Butter ready for me.

"I knew something was wrong. I didn't know what it was. I'm glad you're better now."

"Have a good ride Hypatia."

"Thank you Zacier."

Me and Butter take off. I don't know where I'm going. I just want to go fast. I ride all over going as fast as Butter will take me. This is so freeing. We start coming back through the fields and I start pushing Butter even harder. I have never ridden this fast before. I feel like I'm flying. I see a really tall fence ahead of us and run for it.

I push him harder and harder. I got a death grip on the reins. The fence is getting closer and closer. I hear someone yell at me but I don't care.

I dig in and jump him. We really are flying for a few seconds. We clear the fence and land on the other side. Butter stops and does a little happy dance.

"Good job Butter you are so jumpy." I give him a hug and a few pets.

All the advisors and daddy are watching me with their mouths open.

After a second of none of them moving I ride Butter to them. "Hello daddy, advisors. I love to ride and Butter is so jumpy today. He's a good horse." He neighs at me. "Ok Butter. You are the best horse ever." I give him another hug.

Frode finally speaks. "Princess where did you learn to ride like that?"

"I had a trainer when I was younger. After that Tre would always take me out and ride with me."

"I never taught you how to jump like that princess."

"Oh. I guess that's Butter. He loves to jump." I shrug my shoulders.

He gives me a funny look. "Yea, we are going to combine bows and horses princess. Someone go get me a bow and some arrows. Princess stay here. Gunner can you go get me another horse."

"Ok." I shrug my shoulders again. "This should be interesting."

Dipak is back in about a minute. "Is this bow good? Is it to tight for you?" He puts the arrows in the horses pocket.

I pull on it a bit. "It's perfect thank you sir."

His eyes go dark for a second. Then shakes his head and rubs them. "I'm going to watch you for a bit princess."

"Ok but I've never done this before. Don't expect to much."

He chuckles as he walks away.

Tre sets up some targets throughout the field and then gets on a horse. "Alright follow me. Try to make it through the field at a slow pace. Don't use your hands to steer Butter though. Use your legs." He takes the bow from me.

"What?"

"Drop the reins."

He drops his so I drop mine.

"Good. Don't pick them up. Use your legs to walk forward."

I have no idea what he's saying.

"Come here." He holds out his arms. "I'll show you what I mean."

He pulls me over so I'm sitting in front of him with his arms around me. It's sure been awhile since we've done this. "You're warm."

He laughs a little bit. "Concentrate on my legs." He moves the horse around. "Can you tell how I'm moving the horse without using the reins? I'm only using my body."

"I think so." Oh yes sir. I can feel your body moving all around me. "You have a lot of muscles." I hear him chuckle again.

"Now you try." He puts me back on Butter and watches me with a smirk on his face. Damn my eyes must have went dark. Oh well at least we're way far away from everyone.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it. Try the horse."

I start moving Butter and he tells me left or right every now and then. I figure it out fairly quickly.

"You still need some work with it. Lots of practice. But really good for a first time doing it." He smiles at me. I miss that smile. He starts laughing again.

"Dang it."

He laughs harder. "Walk through the center of the field. Using only your legs. At the same time try using your arms to shoot the bow and hit the targets. I'll come with you but I'll be behind you a bit. I don't want to get hit with an arrow."

"Ok." I get about half way through the field. I hit all the targets but one so far.

"Speed up the horse a bit." After a few more targets. "Gallop."

I make it all the way to the end. "I did it Tre." I am smiling and so happy.

"Yea, now we're going to do it again faster." He runs over to the guys. They come speeding onto the field and reset all the targets around. Some are even hanging from trees now.

I sit there on Butter.

Dipak gives me all the arrows back and some water. "You look good out here princess."

"Thank you sir. You look good without a shirt on."

He busts out laughing. "I'll give you a replay of it later."

My eyes must go really dark for a second. He watches me and laughs. I love that laugh.

"There's no windows to jump threw out here princess. You better fix that before anyone comes over."

"Stop teasing me about a show then sir."

He goes to say something to me but looks down and shakes his head instead. "You're doing good princess."

"Thank you."

Tre comes back. "This time run the course. Hit as many targets as you can. Gunner is not a target. GUNNER MOVE! I'll be behind you."

"Yes sir." As soon as Gunner is clear I take off. I run the course and get off as many arrows as I can.

"Good job. You really did well princess. You hit most of the targets at a full run. I'll be setting up more courses for you to run. Make sure you are practicing riding as much as you can with no hands please."

"That sounds good. I will do that. But I'm not looking at you again sir."

He busts out laughing. "Fair enough princess. You can go back over to them."

Daddy smiles. "What are you doing for the rest of the day princess?"

"I don't know. I think I'm avoiding work."

They all start laughing and nodding.

"Been there princess." Frode walks away laughing.

"Well, I guess I'll go to work now."

I go up to my office and sit there for a bit. I finish getting it all cleaned up. It's really never been this clean before. I can't think of any other reason why I can't see patients yet.