The Start of Friendship? (Myssi!)

[sepia]

Something that his family had never quite understood, however supportive they were of his sudden desire to go off and learn to ride, had been the insistent need to go and seek out the nearest horses whenever he was in some place new. Blue Ridge was no exception, but at least here, he didn't have to try very hard to find some horses. Indeed, all he'd had to do was walk out of his dorm and strike off in a random direction, and it hadn't been long before he'd found himself in amongst pastures, pastures with horses.

And, oh, what horses. The concept of going to a riding academy hadn't quite sunk in until a few minutes ago, as Julian drank in the sight of so many different horses, of so many different types - and he hadn't even gotten to the barns, yet.

He struck out along the line of a fence, choosing his course entirely at random, happily greeting any horses who saw this human moving along the edge of their domain and decided to make friends. Having no bribes of food with him, though, he was usually greeted and then soon ignores, the various horses deciding that their relative freedom in their paddock was worth more than a brief scratch from an unknown person. Not all of the horses were interested by him, of course, some of them merely peering at him vaguely from where they stood, while others - usually those turned out in groups - ignored him entirely. Not that he minded that, as it gave him a chance to watch them just being horses, as naturally as could be.

One particular horse, though, in one particular paddock, drew his attention for quite a different reason. A tall, leggy bay, the first thing that struck his attention about the animal was that she - as a quick glance downwards confirmed - was skinny. And not skinny in a good, natural way, either, but skinny in a I-have-been-starved-at-some-point way.

Julian frowned, leaning against the fence to peer more closely at the mare. He'd heard that some people here took on rescued horses, which was presumably what this elegant specimen was, as he was sure that no-one here would be allowed to do that to a horse - and if they were, then he was out of here.

"Hello, girl," he called out, softly, across the paddock, to where the mare was standing, seemingly as far from any other horse as she could get. "You look like you've had a tough time of it..." He clucked his tongue, gently, wondering if he could convince the horse to come over and make friends with him - which would be easier if he went into the paddock, but he'd always been told not to do with with a horse he didn't know, so he stayed on the sidelines, instead, though he did lean forwards, placing the upper half of his body across the fence. Hmm... now would be a good time to have a carrot or two...

[lorilie]

Alyss sat comfortabely in a tall oak tree, her sweet face shaded and veiled by both the tree's shadows and her own brown locks. The afternoon sun was warm and comfortable, allowing her to doze off pleasently in the tree, which resided in Alina's pasture. The Thoroughbred was, at the moment, and to Alyss' knowledge, grazing peacefully.

The lean mare was, in fact, eating. She tore at the grass with purpose. After all, for years she'd been locked in a tiny pen with little water, and no grass or shade to support her. The pen had also been far to small for her large, gangly frame. So this freedom was precious to the female horse, and, as a bonus, her human was asleep safely in the tree.

Alina knew that somehow the girl had been handed a cruel card of Fate as well, perhaps something even worse than he rown Past. But she couldn't inquire, and her deep mothering instincts wouldn't allow such a tragedy to befall the human again. She was certain of that.

But at the moment, her most engaging interest was piqued by the rich grass on which she grazed, and since no further problems befuddled her, she prefered to focus on the delicacy instead.

Until she heard footsteps. The mare flicked her ears, but didn't raise her head. Humans were as frequent as flies here. She couldn't attack every single one.

The steps paused, and then a voice called out to her. She pinned her ears and snorted, then raised her head and issued a cold, cruel glare. Her chocolate gaze was met by a small child, a boy. She flicked her tail and pawed the ground in warning. She wouldn't hesitate to charge, and she made sure to underline this fact by pulling up the stalks on which she'd been eating a minute before with a tough, deadly hoof, engineered into a delicate, but powerful foreleg.

[sepia]

Julian blinked as the mare raised her head, fixing her gaze on him with a distinctly unfriendly air. Ears laid back, tail flicking, hoof pawing the ground... okay, this didn't look good, and the prospects of making fast friends with this particular horse were diminishing. Maybe he should be heading off to a different paddock, with a slightly friendlier animal in it? That would be the sensible thing to do, after all...

No-one could ever say that Julian wasn't persistent, though (in fact, he was frequently termed naively stubborn'), so he didn't take the hint and back off. Well, he did, partially, retreating somewhat over the fence so he wasn't quite so exposed, but he didn't move away, and remained hanging over the fence, instead choosing to speak again, portraying his usual personality trait of jumping into things without thinking them through entirely.

"Hey, I'm not going to hurt you," he said, realising even as he said it that it was a foolish hope to expect the bay mare to understand him... but tone of voice was very important with horses, wasn't it? With that in mind, he kept his tone gentle and soft, doing his best to restrain his usual natural exuberance. "I just want to make friends... and you look like you need some friends, too."

He fruitlessly patted the pockets of his trousers in the hope that some morsel of horse-treat might have found its way there. "And this would probably be going a whole lot better if I actually had something to offer you, but there's really no need to be so aggressive." He was so focused on the mare that he failed to notice - and in fact didn't even think to look for - the girl in the tree, for if he had, it's likely that he would have changed his focus from trying to make friends with the horse, to trying to make friends with the girl (and going back to the horse later).

[lorilie]

The horse pinned her ears back farther, her head lifting higher and higher as she stopped pawing and started to allow her eyes to roll and her her breath to hitch up.

Then he stepped back, and Alina relaxed a little. She calmed slightly, and went to lower her head to graze more, thinking her warning had been sufficent.

Until the boy began to dig into his pockets.

Alina snapped. She hated it when humans reached for anything, and she brought her head up, ears back once more, and screamed her rage at the boy. She pawed again and reared straight up, then charged the fence, her breath coming in hard snorts. Alina seemed set to kill this intruder.

Alyss awoke in a flash, and was straightened in the tree and taking in the scene quickly. The thirteen year old slipped down and ran across the field, waving her arms. Her brown hair was not caught in it's usual ponytail, and it could almost be like there were two horses in the pasture.

Alina noticed her mistress and changed course quickly, dropping her gait to a smooth, lengthy trot to go toward the small girl. Where Alina was tall, Alyss was short. Where Alina was gaunt, Alyss was downright starved. Where Alina was bold, Alyss was terrified.

A differant pair of chocolate brown eyes found Julian, these soft, and not angry, but mild and scared. Alyss' face was pale and almost weathered, as though she'd seen things no child should see.

The girl touched Alina's cheek and together they turned toward the back of the pasture, as though to leave the boy in silence.

[sepia]

And then things suddenly got very confusing.

In an instinctive reaction to an enraged horse charging towards him, Julian bolted back from the fence-line, successfully managing to not stumble over his feet and fall flat as he jumped backwards (his thoughts, as he hastily retreated, running something along the lines of oh, flip, really didn't mean to do that, I'm really sorry horse, I guess I should just have left, huh?). He probably could have handled that - it wasn't the first time a horse had seemingly tried to kill him - but then a girl suddenly appeared out of nowhere and he began to lose the plot a little because, seriously, where had she come from?

And how was she managing to, essentially, call the mare off without actually saying anything. Now a good metre or so back from the fence, Julian's face was a study in confusion as he examined the girl, taking in everything from her loose, long brown hair to her distressingly small, starved-looking figure. Meeting her eyes, he was shocked at the amount of fear in them, and then immediately struck with guilt that he had managed to scare her horse and, seemingly, by proxy scare her as well.

It took him a moment or two to recover from his confusion, with his brain still going This is really weird and why does she look so scared? That's not right at all! but when both horse and girl began to walk away from him, he hurriedly kicked himself back into action - though this time, at least, he partially considered what he was doing.

"Oh, hey, don't go," Well... considered it a bit, anyway, "I'm really sorry - I didn't mean to scare your mare," the unspoken 'or you' hung on the air, "I was just... trying to make friends. Which was a bit silly of me, I guess, but - she's really beautiful... So leggy and elegant, and I'm sorry." He trailed off, the gabble of word having spilled out of his mouth in an attempt to not let the girl leave, because her sudden appearance had fascinated Julian, and the bond she obviously had with her horse did, too, and he found himself wanting to know more about her.

"I'm Julian, if you wanted to know," he continued after taking a breath, "And, uh, don't leave?"

[lorilie]

Alyss paused at his last words.

Don't leave.

No one, in her entire life, had ever said something to her like that.She had no father to speak of, and her mother had beat her for as long as Alyss could remember. She'd never been told not to leave someone. This was quite the new experiance.

The girl turned to him curiously. The mare turned her head, and noticed that Alyss was just looking at the boy again. Her ears went back by instinct, and her tail flicked in dismissal of him.

Alyss, though, simply patted her mare's neck and cautiously moved toward the boy, wary like an untamed creature of the wild. She approached him, and in a few minutes was at the fence, her movements carrying her smoothly over the ground in a ground-covering stride. She studied him from behind the wood for a moment, then slipped through the slats and was at his side.

Alyss reached over, and took Julian's hand. She removed a pen from her jean pocket, and quickly scrawled small, neat print onto the boy's hand.

Thank you for your compliments of Alina. She's had a hard past, as have I. I being Alyss. Pleasure to meet you, Julian. And before you ask, no, I don't talk. So, this is how I communicate.

[sepia]

He'd admit it, to himself if no-one else, that he was rather surprised when she did turn around and start coming towards him again: the set of her shoulders as she'd walked off had seemed so very final. Wow. Apparently babbling away frantically did work, sometimes.

Not daring to move as she approached - something in the way she moved reminded him of a wild animal, like the deer he'd spent hours watching when his family had visited Yellowstone the previous summer, or like the small birds that came and ate from the bird-table he'd set up on his balcony, wary and cautious, yet still curious - he didn't say anything further as she observed him for a moment then slipped through the fence (Julian unable to get rid of the mental comparison of some wild animal daring to approach a human).

She'd grabbed his hand before he'd quite realised what was happening, but the writing soon put down onto the back of his hand soon cleared that mystery up. When she was done, he retrieved his hand from her grasp, reading the words scrawled there with a curious tilt of his head. Ah - so that... didn't explain very much, actually, but at least he knew their names, now. Alyss and Alina... They went together so well.

"It's a pleasure to meet you too," he said, words formal but tone not, tone instead both curious and very friendly, his usual warmth shining through with every syllable. He'd noticed, of course, the scars on her arms when she'd grabbed his hand, but had figured that now really wasn't the best time to ask... and, really, never might be the best time to ask.

"Alyss is a really pretty name," he added after a moment, feeling the need to keep talking so as to keep Alyss around - he half had the idea that as soon as he didn't focus on her any more, she'd be off, gone with the wind like she'd never been here at all. It was a good thing, then, that he could talk away for hours about everything, and nothing. "And Alina, actually - they sound good together." And, apparently, went together well, too, bound by a 'hard past', which Julian thought he'd probably be happier not guessing at.

"I've just arrived here, so I was taking a look around... Couldn't stay away from the horses any longer than I had to, so I wandered out here. There are some absolutely lovely horses here, aren't there? I can't wait to see some of them in action... Is Alina yours? I don't own a horse myself, though I'm on the look-out for one, so I'll admit to being totally overwhelmed by all this." His monologue bounced from topic to topic, his usual habit of just speaking whatever he was thinking tripping him along neatly from word to word.

He paused to smile at her, taking a break from the voicing of his trains of thought, slightly ruefully, "And I guess I should have brought some paper out here, as I'm going to run out hands to write on soon. Though I do have arms and legs we can use once my hands are written on."

[lorilie]

Alyss blinked a little, surprised by the onslaught of sudden words. She'd never met anyone who talked so much in so little time. In fact, she'd thought it wa sinhumanly possible to relate words at such a blinding rate. Did his vocal cords ache after such talk?

But, nevertheless, she paid close attention to Julian's words. She could "carry" a converstation, after all, and would still be expected to "say" something back to him... But golly, she wondered how in the the world he managed such a speaking feat.

The brown maned child held a hand over her mouth to hide a grin of amusement at his thought of her writing on his legs and feet. She held no such wish as to marr his entire body with ink. She would most likely walk away if she did manage to hold a long enough converstation where they would need use of his further limbs to continue it.

Then it was her turn to "speak" again. Alyss reached over and gently took his hand once more, her pen at the ready. Words filled the skin quickly, as though she could write as fast as he could talk.

The horses here are amazing creatures, I'll agree. Do you have one? And yes, Alina is mine, since no one besides me could manage to tame her, and because she's the only thing that has manage to get a response from me in three years. Since you seem like a good kid, and because I can tell you're curious, I'll tell you what happened to me to make me this way.

At this point, Julian's beginning hand, the right, was filled with her script, so Alyss was forced to move to the right.

My mother was abusive toward me for ten years of my life. I was beaten with everything from a chunk of wood to a coat hanger. I was starved for weeks. Rarely was I given a kind word. I became more and more scared at school and at home. When the good people took me away, I was taken to my mother's hearing to testify. I was shot there. It was the last time I ever spoke. Alina has suffered too. She was forced into a tiny pen and starved and parched as well, without shelter. Fate brought us together.

[sepia]

Craning his head, Julian managed to find a position where he could read what Alyss was writing almost as soon as she'd finished writing it, taking in her words with a thoughtful expression. One good thing about communicating this way - holding half a conversation verbally, and half of it unspoken - was that it did, actually, mean that he had to slow down and stop speaking. Frequently he managed to dominate conversation, not through any desire to drown people out, because he actually found listening to other people incredibly fascinating, but just through sheer enthusiasm, and not realising that rambling on at top speed was not the best way to conduct a conversation.

About to object to being called a 'kid' because, surely, he couldn't be that much younger than her, he closed his mouth as he began to read what she'd written on his other hand (and this was going to be a little awkward to explain to his dorm-mate, given that he was fairly sure it wasn't that usual to come back from a visit to the pastures with essays scrawled on your hands - but it was a good thing Alyss had small handwriting). And he'd been right, too - he probably would have been happier not knowing... but it explained a great deal about both Alyss and Alina. And it also, he felt, gave her the excuse to call him a 'good kid', because in terms of experience, he was in relation to her, no matter if they were almost the same age.

He swallowed, hard, when it appeared she'd stopped writing, for once in his life unsure of what to say. "My god, that's... awful. More than awful." He paused to eye Alyss with both amazement and respect, personally bowled over by the fact that she was still a functioning person after all that. Okay, so she didn't speak, but that was pretty minor given what she'd been through. She was still walking around, and approaching people, and riding, which was more than Julian suspected a lot of people would be. Not that he really knew anything about abuse.

"You're so strong," he said, eventually, going back to his usual recourse of saying what was running through his brain at that particular moment in time. "I mean, you're here, and not curled up into a ball under a bed," no-one had ever said that tact was Julian's strong point, "And.. wow." He shrugged, looking at her delicately boned face with something akin to awe in his look. "You're pretty awesome, you know that, right? And Alina, too. I see why she's so aggressive, now." And why you're so nervous, went unspoken.

One advantage to knowing Julian was that he would almost never lie, not having the guile to be capable of it, really, so you could be almost certain that whatever he was saying was heartfelt, and entirely honest (which could lead to him not being the most subtle of people, given that he usually said whatever was flowing through his head without censoring it at all).

[lorilie]

Alyss gave a bit of a half-shrug, lifting one shoulder in a helpless gesture at his words of her terrible fate. It wasn't like she'd known it was terrible; she just wondered what she'd done wrong all those years ago to deserve it. She desperately wished for redemption for the unspeakable crime. But what she didn't know was that her crime was simply being born.

Suddenly she blushed at his commments of her 'bravery', the pink flush delicately coloring her cheeks. She wasn't brave - her mother had been sure to let Alyss know that she was far from brave. In fact the young girl thought of herself as a coward. Maybe that's why she'd suffered, because she was a coward. A brave person would have spoken after being shot, with the blows aimed to kill. A coward would never speak again.

Alina was the brave one in her eyes. The mare was her role model, the mother she could never have. She was aggressive, bold, powerful, and rebellious, something Alyss wished for in herself, something she wouldn't ever have. The girl turned to look at the horse and her gaze softened with love.

Then Julian rambled on some more about her no being afraid, and how she wasn't hiding under a bed, and her gaze dropped from her horse. Teeth found her lower lip. She had hid like that... For three years. She was still afraid. Afraid that a wrongly interpreted body signal would bring a fist down on her head, or that anger would be taken out on her torso with a stick. Alyss was a still very afraid.

She refused to look at the boy now, ashamed that she'd mislead his thoughts of her. He shouldn't see her as some kind of hero, that wasn't what she wanted him to see her as. She wanted him to see the truth, to see the small thirteen year old worthy of the blows brought onto her starved body for so many years. Why couldn't he see that she was an ugly beast!

She braced herself unknowingly for a blow as the words and thoughts flooded her mind. Surely someone would see how she'd falsely lead him, and would deliver her a slap. Surely, anytime now, a palm would connect with her face, and hit her so hard it would drive her backwards. Soon, that had to happen. It may have been three years ago since her last strain of abuse, but, compared to ten years, it wasn't that long of a time.

[sepia]

Though he hadn't, of course, been expecting a verbal reply, he was a little surprised to not have his hand grabbed for and scribbled on again, and a little discomforted by the complete silence (conversational silence, he mentally labeled it) that now descended, especially as Alyss now seemed to be refusing to look at him. Had he said something?

He quickly ran over what he'd just said, but he really had no idea what he'd said to cause such an awkward lull to develop. Clearly his speak-his-mind tactic hadn't been a particularly good idea... Noting with some worry how Alyss had suddenly seemed to brace herself, body stiffening and tension flooding through her - as though, he suddenly realised, she expected someone (him?) to suddenly let loose with a fist.

Oh. That was, uh, understandable, though he still wasn't quite sure what had caused that reaction - she'd been alright before, but he guessed he must just have said something. He made a mental note to do some research on abuse victims, so he'd know what to avoid, next time. He vaguely recalled hearing somewhere that victims of abuse blamed themselves for what had happened to them, because their abuser had really gotten inside their heads, so he guessed that maybe he'd put his foot in it that way.

"Can you ride Alina?" Julian said, a little abruptly. He wasn't sure how to convince Alyss that he wasn't suddenly going to leap on her and try to kill her, as he suspected that saying that he wouldn't might just make everything worse (after all, did Alyss have any expectations that people would tell her the truth?) so he'd decided just to move on in conversation, and hopefully ease Alyss out of whatever mental place she'd gone to. He hoped, really hoped, that that would be - if not the best idea - at least not detrimental to her.

"She looks like she'd be really lovely to ride, with those free, floaty paces she has." Complimenting Alyss' horse had seemed to work last time, so he went for that option again, though his words were entirely sincere. Alina was an impressive animal, even skinny and with little muscle as she was.

Glancing down at his hands again, he realised he'd been asked a question that he hadn't yet answered. "Oh, and no, I don't have a horse of my own. I'm planning on speaking to Miss Carr about riding the school horses, but I'm definitely on the lookout for one of my own." He shrugged. "We never really had the money to own a horse before now, what with my five older siblings." He paused, suddenly thinking that perhaps mentioning family wasn't the best thing to do, given that it had been Alyss' own mother who'd been such an evil monster - something Julian didn't understand at all. How on earth could a mother do that to their daughter, especially someone as nice as Alyss?

[lorilie]

She waited patiently for Julian to finish rambling, then took his hand for a final time.

I can ride her, yes. And how would you like to see how smooth she is for yourself? Don't worry, you'll be safe with me. And I'll help you find a horse, if you'd like. Just talk while I warm her up for you.

With that, Alyss was gone, grateful to move on from the topic of family and such. She slid through the fence once more, and into the sercurity of the pen. Alina saw the girl headed toward her, and the tall bay move toward her owner at a quick trot to close the gap for the small girl.

Alyss moved her slim hand over the thin neck in massaging circles, soothing the beast, and moved down Alina's neck as she approached the mare's back. She then removed her hand from the mare and patted her shoulder twice. Alina flicked her ears back, and stood steady and still. Alina took a small handful of black mane, put her other hand on the bony withers, and pulled her light frame onto the long, narrow back. Ribs sighed against her calves, and a strong heartbeat echoed withen her body. Power coursed through her being.

Alyss was undenialably more confident on the big bay Thoroughbred. Who wouldn't be? Alina was such a fiery soul, that her spirit seemed to pass to her rider with every breath she inhaled. She was intoxicating, a whirlwind of power.

Alyss touched her heels to the mare's sides, and the mare went into a long paced walk, her ears pricked and relaxed. Her gaze was even relaxed, and she was the picture perfection of a hunter under saddle horse; big, calm, and confident.

The trot was hardly any differant. The mare moved steadily and collected herself naturally, even if there weren't any reins to help her do so. She snorted as she lifted her delicate legs like a graceful ballerina.

Alyss moved with the mare, posting to her big stride. Without the aid of a saddle, she was a little sloppy and rusty, but it was decent enough. She moved with the horse as water moves with a river; flowing and smooth.

But the canter was what she anticipated. When it was cued, it was like horse and rider were normal, as though Alyss hadn't suffered. Alina ate up the ground, not really trying to go fast, just naturally devouring the distance. They were free at last when they were together.

But it couldn't last forever.

Alina slowed her horse and dismounted as easily as she had mounted, and touched the mare's cheek to lead her to the fence. The bay followed willingly, and stood next to the wood as Alyss held her hand out to Julian. She had words withen her gaze; You can trust me. I won't let anything happen to you.

[sepia]

"Just talk?" Julian repeated, "No-one's ever said that to me before... People say I never stop talking, even without encouragement. I'd appreciate the help finding a horse, though. You're probably far more experienced in that field than I am. I just rode whatever horses were available at the riding school I went to." And they'd been an eclectic bunch, everything from reliable cobs to flighty Arabians, and Julian had ridden most of them at some point, especially when he'd begun to get reasonably good, and people had started asking him to ride their horses when they couldn't.

Falling silent for a moment or two as Alyss mounted Alina, taking the opportunity to admire both of them for somehow Alyss seemed to change as she sat upon the large mare. The pair of them seemed to almost breath in unison, the fiery spirit that ran through the thoroughbred entering Alyss and empowering the slight girl. Julian was impressed, highly so. He'd heard about people having such bonds with horses, and he guessed it made sense that these two, with their similar pasts, would be the type to have a close relationship like that. He rather suspected that Alyss was only truly comfortable when with Alina - and vice-versa.

"She does move beautifully," he said, as Alyss asked Alina to move forwards. "But with a figure like that, it makes sense. And without any tack, too!" That's some relationship, he thought. Wow. Would he ever have something like that with a horse? Probably not, given what it had taken to get Alyss and Alina to this stage, but it was still an inspiring thing to watch.

"Thoroughbreds are such elegant horses," Julian rambled on, taking Alyss' instructions quite literally, and filling the air with words. "Long-legged and long-bodied... Not that I think stockier horses are ugly, of course. There's something to love about every horse." He huffed a slight laugh. "Back at my old stables, there was this horse who had to be about the ugliest horse ever - he was totally out of proportion with himself, but he was so willing, and so eager to please. He was a great jumper, too, mainly because he was so honest and would do whatever you asked him to."

As they slipped forwards into a canter, Julian rested his arms against the fence, and watched with delight. "You two do go well together," he said, "I think you must be communicating telepathically. Clearly the only explanation. Either that, or you're a centaur... just one that can separate its human and horse bits," His tone was light as he spoke, clearly joking, but with a rather whimsical sincerity there, too, that said that he could almost believe in what he was saying.

His instructions to keep talking had carried them through Alyss warming up Alina, and as the combination advanced back towards him, Julian fell silent, feeling incredibly honoured to be involved in this. Alyss clearly wasn't someone who took things lightly, and Julian wasn't quite sure what he'd done to deserve this, but he'd do the best he could to be worthy of it.

"Of course I trust you," he said in answer to her unspoken message in her very meaningful look, as he took her hand and slipped through the slats of the fence himself, ending up close the the mare that had - not long previously - been looking at him with murder in her eyes. He felt perfectly safe, though, with Alyss there, and so smiled at the pair of them, gently, before saying - equally softly - "She's even more impressive from this close." He restrained himself from reaching out to stroke her, not wanting to push the abused horse past her boundaries - nor, for that matter, wanting to push Alyss past hers.

[lorilie]

Alyss took Julian's hand and guided it under Alin's nostrils. The mare sniffed the joined pair with disinterest, then flicked her tail and looked at Alyss in boredom. The girl gaze her a level stare, then placed Julian's hand on the bay neck.

As he got to know the mare better, ALyss contemplated him. He was small, but not as small as she. He was muscular and strong and even a little cute. She blushed a little and busied herself with Alyss' forelock.

She hoped that he didn't show love the same way her mother had... Through hits and yells. But she doubted so. He said he wouldn't hurt her. But what if he lied? Her mother had lied.

But, he talked so dang fast, she didn't think it was possible for him to lie. And, not many who knew her past had the power withen them to lie to her...

[sepia]

Gently running his hand down Alina's neck, feeling the flex of muscles beneath the soft side, Julian retained his smile, barely daring to breath in case he shattered this moment, which felt incredibly, incredibly fragile. Slowly bringing his other hand up from his side - so very slowly, so that both horse and rider could see that it wasn't a threat - he

"Wow," he breathed, though quite what he was wowing about he wasn't sure himself. It just seemed the appropriate sort of response, and he'd been silent for almost a minute, which was beginning to push it for him. He drew his eyes away from Alina to Alyss, finding the girl playing with the mare's forelock. This gave him the opportunity to observe her, again, without having to worry that she'd see his look as a threat. Small, delicate, seemingly fragile, and yet Julian was utterly convinced that underneath that was a core of shining steel - or obsidian, maybe, dark yet still beautiful.

It occurred to Julian that he might be somewhat infatuated. Which didn't make much sense, but then Alyss was so unlike everything he'd known that perhaps it wasn't that surprising that he was suddenly feeling drawn to her like iron-filings towards a magnet. Something about her, the strength she had to keep going despite her past, the mystery of her - and he was enough of a teenage boy to be attracted to the unknown - and the way she seemed to be accepting him, even if it was just a little: could Julian really be blamed for having something of a hero-worshiping crush on her, even if he had only just met the girl?

Unaware of the thoughts flowing through Alyss' head, he turned his gently awed smile upon her. "She's so different when you're around. It's amazing how much she trusts you." The change from irate, vicious mare when he'd (foolishly) tried to approach her himself, and the almost docile animal she was now was quite astounding.