When I was little we did some riding
Who: Asami and Kitiara and Kit's dream horse, Cinnamon What: Suddenly, Horse When: recently where: Casa de Sato status: complete Rating: PG-13
Kitiara's dreams weren't terribly adventuresome that evening. She'd made it home to Solace and to her brothers after some years away, working as a mercenary in the north, two days before her mother's funeral. Not being too fond of the woman in general - she had left Kit to raise her brothers nearly as soon as they were born, being too lost in her own mind to be very concerned of the real world - she wasn't too concerned, though she did attend the funeral so as to see her brothers and let them know she was back home, albeit only for a few days.
She could have slept longer, though she awoken by a soft nuzzling of her hair and hot breath on her ear. Smiling softly to herself, she raised her hand to cup Asami’s face, only to realize that Asami’s face was a good deal hairier than when Kitiara had gone to sleep that night.
She was up in an instance, reaching for a knife that was not at her side as she was lying quite naked beneath the sheets. Her shock, however, quickly gave way to confusion as she looked into the gentle brown eyes of the horse that was, rather ridiculously, standing in the middle of Asami’s bedroom.
Kit’s movement startled Asami out of her own slumber. She sat up, half ready to punch someone’s face in, then realized that there was no punching required, and that there was a horse in her bedroom. Ridiculously, she covered herself with a sheet, before laughing at herself and letting it drop. “Since that looks like a normal horse, I’m going to assume it’s yours?”
Animals from her world tended to be amalgamations of other animals, like a Platypus-Bear.
It took a moment for Kit to make sense of what Asami was saying. She didn’t have a horse, let alone one that would just invite itself into Asami’s bedroom. It wasn’t the first gift from the dreams Kitiara had acquired - she’d received a sword, some jewelry, and some useless sentimental items before - but she hadn’t quite realized that something living could come through. Especially not such a large creature.
But with Asami’s comment, Kit was able to recognize the gentle creature with her with a shock. “Cinnamon?” she exclaimed, getting up from the bed. She circled the creature, keeping a hand on Cinnamon’s soft brown hair as she did so. It hardly seemed possible. Cinnamon had been slaughtered, rather brutally, but a couple of mages who had meant to take Kitiara prisoner. To see her whole, in this world… well. It was a little shocking. “Yeah, she’s mine,” Kitiara added belatedly, though it was likely Asami had already figured that out.
“Cinnamon?” Asami asked, surprise in her voice. She never expected a name like that from Kit. Killer maybe. She couldn’t help but smile. “She’s beautiful.” Asami hadn’t ridden a horse since she was a kid, but they were beautiful animals. She slid out of bed, watching Kit and Cinnamon. It was interesting, seeing a softer side of Kit.
Kit flushed, scowling with embarrassment. Cinnamon was certainly not her first choice in names. At least, not now it wasn’t. “I got her when I was seven,” Kit said. “And she was my father’s before then.” Her dreams had never told her if she had had a hand in naming the gentle mare, but she suspected that she had. After all, Cinnamon wasn’t really a Gregor Uth Matar kind of name either. Though it had most likely come from the red-brown colour of the horse’s hair, almost the exact shade of brown as cinnamon itself.
“Beautiful she might be, but we should probably get her outside before she decides to shit on your floor,” Kit said, turning her attention from the horse to Asami. She didn’t fully comprehend how even Asami’s bed head could fall so perfectly.
It was adorable, Asami thought. Especially Kit’s flush. “That’s probably a good idea.” She pushed her hair over her shoulder, and bent down to retrieve her underwear. Even her comfortable wear was a little fancy. Asami liked dressing up even just for herself, but Kit was certainly benefiting.
“There’s room for her on the property for now, until we can figure out where you can keep her.” Keeping a horse wasn’t exactly cheap.
Kitiara pulled on her shirt and her pants, ignoring her underwear in favour of haste, scarcely taking her eyes from the horse while she did so. Cinnamon herself was standing complacently in the middle of the room, her tail swishing from side to side lazily, and curiously nosing Asami’s crumpled bedsheets.
She was a little dismayed, though she tried not to let it show on her face. While she was happy to see Cinnamon, whole, unharmed, and apparently happy, she’d never ridden a horse before, let alone owned one. Kit in her dreams was very familiar with horses, being in her early 20s now and with a thirst for adventure. In a world without vehicles, horses were the best way to get around by land, the only other option being by foot, or by carriage if you were wealthy enough. But despite that, her dreams really hadn’t spent much time with the actual care of the horses.
Once she was dressed, she stepped closer to the horse and stroked her forelock, and the mare butted her hand gently. “That sounds like it would be for the best. Lord knows I can’t house a horse in my yard. I’ll try to find a place to keep her quickly though. Have you ridden much?”
“When I was little we did some riding. I was always interested in cars and motorcycles more.” Asami didn’t doubt her dad would have gotten her a pony if she’d actually wanted one. But she wouldn’t have been able to give it the attention it actually needed. “So it’s been a long time. Maybe a few years after my mom died, I’d guess.”
“Well then, this will be a learning experience for us both,” she said. Not having a lead or anything like that, Kit wasn’t entirely certain how she was supposed to get the horse out of the bedroom. She supposed if it was needed, she could always rig something up.
“Well, come on now, Cinnamon,” Kit said, her voice full of authority. Cinnamon’s ears swivled to Kit’s voice at her name, but didn’t move until Kitiara herself started toward the door. Then Cinnamon plodded along behind her. “Once I get a saddle, you and I can go for a ride,” she said to Asami.
“I think I’d like that, it might be fun. Besides I don’t mind spending time with you.” She squeezed past Kit. She knew the house well. “I think if we can get her through the garage that will be easier.” A couple of her neighbors had horses. She could ask them for advice. They’d probably be relieved that she’d be doing a something ‘normal.’
“You know, I think I like Cinnamon better than Chestnut.”
Well, if that wasn’t pure sentimental garbage, thought Kitiara couldn’t really protest. She couldn’t deny that she, too, enjoyed spending time with Asami, as much as she was cursing herself over it now. She was glad when Asami took the lead though. She couldn’t imagine trying to coax her horse through a regular door, especially without the use of a lead.
“The name? Well, clearly it’s the superior name,” Kitiara said, smirking a little. “Even at seven I wasn’t so unimaginative to name my father’s horse Chestnut of all things.”
Asami really liked Kit. That was probably going to get her hurt, with her track record, but she was trying very hard to keep her feelings platonic. It was easier said than done when Kit was able to make her forget her own name and be unable to walk at times.
“We don’t even have chestnuts in my dreams,” Asami laughed, letting Kit coax Cinnamon through the garage. She opened the door. “We can bring her around the back. With all the hedges she should be safe back there.”
Fishing her phone out, she started to google where to buy horse feed and if they could deliver. “I wonder if there’s a dream pet support group.” Right now, she was glad she’d never had any of her own. Some people liked to keep really strange animals and she had no idea if they could even be fed here. Though Pabu would be nice, but the fire ferret was Bolin’s, not hers.
“Not at all?” Kit asked, raising an eyebrow. She was pretty sure that they still existed on Krynn, which was a world about as different from Earth as she could imagine. Though, for all the bugbears and griffons, they also had sparrows and horses, so maybe things could be a little different.
Cinnamon didn’t exit the garage with any real haste, but did keep plodding past Kit once she’d shown her the door so that she could rip up a bit of the nice, green grass and start eating. She let out contented snort. “I don’t do support groups,” Kitiara snorted, and glanced at Asami. “Besides, why would I need to talk about my new horse to a bunch of strangers when you’re here?”
“No chestnuts. My friend had a fire ferret. Which is like a regular ferret I guess, except red. Nothing that exotic. And my...the Avatar had a polar-bear dog named Naga. Which is about what you’d expect from the sound of it.” Asami watched the horse munch on her grass and hoped it wouldn’t be bad for her. “I mean there might be places where you can keep her without paying a lot of money for it. If not, I’ll help.”
Kitiara watched Cinnamon while she half-listened to Asami, wondering if the horse wasn’t about to destroy Asami’s yard. She would have to find a place to stable the big placid beast soon enough. Though something drew her attention to what Asami was saying, and she had to quickly run over the conversation again in her mind to figure out what it was.
“A polar-bear dog?” Kit asked, eyebrows raised. Given some of the creatures in Krynn, she probably shouldn’t have been surprised, but she wasn’t entirely sure what to picture. A white dog with the head of a bear? A bear with the head of a dog? “I’m sure I can handle her expenses on my own,” Kitiara said after a moment.
Asami nodded, accepting that. She only offered because it was the right thing to do. She had money, and liked to spend it helping people when she could. As for Naga… “I’ll sketch her for you sometime. About as big as a polar bear. Four of us could ride on her in a pinch. With a head that’s kind of a cross between a dog and a polar bear’s. I think she’s a bit leaner than a polar bear, too. Korra was apparently the first person to ever tame one.”
She reached up to pet Cinnamon’s snout.
“A polar-bear dog seems like a handier steed in battle than a horse,” Kitiara said. Cinnamon snorted, almost as though she were offended, and Kitiara couldn’t help the laugh that escaped. “No offense, Cinnamon,” she conceded, and the horse nosed Asami’s hand, grateful for the affection.