Hunting By Day [pt. 1/2] Joella had hardly neglected her beloved winged horse over the summer holidays but it had to be said that having a boyfriend had divided her attentions somewhat. Over the midterm break, however, her good friend Audrey Montague had arranged that Joella accompany her to a number of events led by what seemed to be an exclusive winged horse community. Eager at the opportunity to race and hunt, the fourteen year old accepted that her time with Ali would have to be limited. She excused herself from feeling guilty about this with the knowledge there would be plenty of formal occasions at which they could easily meet up and she did see him at school everyday anyway.
It was in fact Philip and Connor Johnson who organised many of the winged horse hunt meetings that Joella and Snorri attended over the break. Philip and Connor were cousins of Alistair’s father but Joella knew them for their well reputed horse and hound breeding partnership and much talked about hunt meetings. They were elderly brothers and their English mother had been a key figure in making a range of winged horse sports, that had originated in Britain, more popular in Northern America.
“Joella!” Elle Tavana looked stunning as ever as she strode out in her traditional red coat, her beautiful dark features breaking into a wide smile when she spotted her goddaughter. Joella thought she must have reached at least her mid-thirties by now but she remained as fresh faced and youthful as ever. Elle was Philip’s daughter and shared his love for horses, often taking the role of whipper-in on hunts. She drew Joella into a warm embrace then stepped back from the young girl to look at her in full view. “Ah, look at you! How grown up you are now!” she commented in the way all family friends and relatives did when they hadn’t seen you in a while. She straightened Joella’s ratcatcher jacket fondly. “We’re so glad to have you with us. This is your first hunt, isn’t it dear?”
“Yes,” Joella nodded. She knew that Franki had been to numerous hunts when she was younger but even then she had probably been older than fourteen. Now she came to think of it Joella was beginning to feel oddly nervous. It wasn’t as though she should be feeling such away but seeing all the smartly dressed, important figures milling about with their fancy horses and all knowing exactly what was going on was quite overwhelming.
“Well I hope it shall be the first of many,” Elle smiled. “I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. Now if you excuse me, we should probably start mounting up. I’ll send Darius your way to keep an eye on you.”
Audrey reappeared on her Athoneon horse, Arkadios, just before the hunt set out and Joella was glad to have her more experienced friend by her side, despite Elle’s offering of her son Darius. She missed her best friend a lot when she was at Sonora but she felt as though she’d seen very little of her over the summer just gone so getting the opportunity to spend so much of the shorter midterm break in Audrey’s company was great. Audrey knew a lot of people in the horse world, largely due to the fact that her parents were well reputed Abraxan breeders but also because she went to so many races, shows and other equestrian competitions throughout the year. She seemed to have other friends of her own to catch up with at the hunt, including Darius by the sounds of things, so Joella was sure to encourage her that she didn’t need Audrey by her side the entire time. There was also a particular young gentlemen on a fancy horse that Joella was certain her close friend was in denial about being interested in and she didn’t want to get in the way, largely so she could gloat about being suspicious if something did come of the currently non-existent but nonetheless flirtatious relationship.
“You OK?” Audrey asked with a grin after the hunting horn had sounded and they were setting out with the rest of the large group.
“Yes,” Joella matched her smile.
“You can relax, you know?” teased Audrey. “It’s a hunt, not a show. No one’s judging you so you shouldn’t be so tense.”
“I’m not tense,” protested Joella but she allowed herself to relax all the same. She was a little unsure about how excited her Granian horse would be and didn’t want to do something stupid and embarrass herself in front of the large crowd of stuffy horse experts.
“He’s been on a hunt before,” Audrey said reassuringly, as though she could read her mind. “You don’t need to worry about him.”
It was Audrey’s parents who Snorri had come from in the first place so Audrey was easily the best person to give Joella advice on her horse. She nodded and gave Snorri a little more rein. He was naturally an eager, speedy thing and she liked that but only now that she was slightly out of her comfort zone did this occur to her this as a potential problem. He responded well to her though and she knew she should have more faith in her own abilities. If Joella didn’t want to go whizzing ahead to the front of the hunt then Snorri would do no more than attempt to but then quickly returned to his instructed pace.
“I’ll be fine here if you want to catch up to the front,” Joella said to Audrey who was loyally flying alongside her. She made sure to suggest catching up to the front rather than the handsome guy on the handsome horse that Audrey seemed so keen on. It was one of the biggest winged horse hunts of the year and Joella knew Audrey was here to enjoy it so holding back to babysit her when she didn’t really need it was not a fair thing to ask.
“Are you sure?” Audrey double-checked, clearly enticed by the offer.
“Of course,” laughed Joella. “Go!”
Audrey flashed her a grateful smile before pushing Arkadios forward and moving back up the ranks.
“Long time no see, hey?” Darius Tavana appeared beside her after a moment on a pretty chestnut Athoneon that was no doubt one of his grandfather’s breeding stock.
Joella wasn’t quite sure how to respond. Maybe it was his confident, smooth riding style or his smart hunting attire or just… him… but Darius Tavana was certainly looking very dapper. It was hardly surprising considering the good looks of his parents but as a child he had been quite scrawny and in Joella’s memory he had worn a permanent sulky expression. Now at the age of fifteen he was still very slim but had filled out enough that he had lost that unfortunate lankiness accompanying his tall stature. From what she could tell from the bits of brown hair visible under his hunting cap, Darius had gotten rid of the long sweeping fringe so his handsome face no longer had anything to hide behind in the moody way when Joella last recalled seeing him. “Yes, it’s been a while,” was all Joella could come up with in reply.
“I see you’re quite the Granian fanatic these days,” Darius commented, his dark eyes flicking over Snorri judgementally.
“You got that right,” Joella liked all winged horse breeds considerably but it couldn’t been denied that Granians were the ones that caught her eye, not that she was bias or anything. She knew Darius was probably making some pointed reference to the fact that his family bred Athoneons. If Joella had set out with the intention of getting herself a winged horse rather than meeting and then being given Snorri last summer, she would probably have turned to her godmother for assistance simply because she knew the Montagues bred Abraxans which Joella did not think were something she could handle at this point in time. All the same, she hardly cared what Darius thought about it so long as Elle didn’t feel snubbed in anyway, which was quite unlikely.
“You got him from the Montagues?” Darius appeared to have done his homework.
“Yes,” said Joella. “I met him last summer and then my parents bought him for my birthday.”
“I see,” Darius nodded. “So you’ve had him a year already. How’re you getting on?”
“Fairly well,” Joella replied, although in all honestly it wasn’t as though she were doing anything serious with him yet. “Being at school for so long doesn’t really allow me to do a lot though.”
“Exactly why I’m homeschooled,” said Darius simply. “You get a fairly long summer break though, don’t you?”
“Yes, I suppose so,” agreed Joella, not wishing to mention that having a boyfriend, serious Quidditch ambitions and a racing horse were all rather difficult to juggle no matter how long a holiday one was given.
“He’s a good looker,” Darius offered nonchalantly. “I wouldn’t claim to know a great deal about racing but he looks as though he could be good.”
“He’s very forward-going as you can see,” Joella told her companion. “I’m planning to take him to Audrey’s in the summer and get him racing.”
“It will be good to get him doing some proper work,” Darius said with a nod.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Joella, not in a rude manner by any means but simply requested further explanation of Darius’s comment because she was certain there had been an underlying critical edge to it.
“That your pony is looking marginally overweight,” Darius was blunt in his reply but his mischievous smile revealed that it wasn’t meant nastily.
“Hey!” Joella protested. The way Darius used the word ‘pony’ to her winged horse was very telling of the way he viewed Granians as opposed to his precious Aethoneons but Joella wasn’t irritated by it and took the tease lightheartedly. “Cover your ears, Snorri, you don’t want to hear this.” It was quite true that Snorri wasn’t in ideal shape but considering Joella hadn’t had the chance to ride him since the summer, he wasn’t doing too badly. It was for this reason she’d been rather generous about allowing others to ride him whilst she was at school. Franki had exercised him a little during a brief stay on the farm but most of the time everyone was just too busy to bother a great deal with Joella’s horse. Snorri clearly didn’t mind though; he was mostly content spending his days eating and charging about at his own free will.
By the time they returned back after the hunt, Joella was looking a bit worse for wear but she had a wide happy grin upon her face. She felt elated and already keen to join many more hunts in the near future. Darius Tavana had actually stuck by her side for a fair amount of time along the way, so much so that Joella thought she had a new friend.