An escape (Sepia)

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

Cara drew in a sharp breath as her stomach tied itself in knots as she pulled the girth tight on Titania's saddle. She was pleased with the mare she had been assigned, as the Gypsy Vanner was a pleasure to work with even if she could be a little stroppy at times - but what mare wasn't? She placed a hand over her stomach and she let the breath out. She had already thrown up since arriving in the barn and really didn't have the energy to so again.

Once the mare was ready and Cara had fastened the helmet beneath her chin, she led the pretty skewbald mare outside and swung easily into the saddle on the mare's back. She allowed her right foot to find the stirrup without her having to look down as she swung her left leg forward and tightened the girth another couple of holes before she asked the mare to walk forward. "Sorry girl." She whispered as Titania threw her head into the air in pretest to her rider's tenseness. Cara breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth, trying to get the knot in her stomach to loosen and to remove the tension she felt in her shoulders and back.

As they arrived at the entrance to the trails, Cara turned the mare onto the mare advanced trail and allowed herself to sink into the Vanner's stride as they followed the path they were currently on.

The path widened out after a while, and the small rider applied more leg and the mare willing bounced forward into a trot and then a canter. Cara sat deep, letting her lower body move along with the mare's rocking-horse canter, only pulling her up when the trail began to narrow again as it wound it's way into the trees once more.

She quickly pulled the mare up when she felt her heart speed up and swinging a leg over the mare's back, her feet were barely on the ground before she dry retched. She remained in a folded over position, one hand holding the mare's reins as she tried to regain her breath.

[sepia]

Fastening on his hat, Lee gently whopped Mountain Viewing - or Bear as he was usually called - on the nose as the gelding's sarcastic personality asserted himself and he yanked on Lee's shirt. The horse snorted at the disciplinary contact, but released the item of clothing, and Lee shook his head at the gelding. "Such a tough life, isn't it?" he commiserated, tone sarcastic, as he tightened the gelding's girth and then led him out of the stable, raising a hand as he passed one of his fellow barnhands, mucking out a stall. He'd discovered, much to his surprise, that some of his colleagues preferred to work on the ground rather than actually ride horses - especially some of the more challenging ones - so he'd leapt at the chance to ride some extra animals. He enjoyed it, and if he could keep them on form while he rode them, perhaps even training them a bit further, then that was only for the better.

Swinging lightly onto Bear's back from the mounting block, he checked the horse's forward momentum as he let the stirrups down a hole, then sat upright again and loosened his contact a little. Bear needed no further encouragement, and walked on, stride slightly stiff to begin with, but lengthening and becoming less tense as he loosened up. A brief glance at the Roscoe Arena as they walked passed decided their course for Lee - there were already five horses in the outdoor arena, and he didn't fancy having to work around them, especially given that several looked rather manic.

Guiding Bear towards the Rocky Ridge Trail - they could have a trot and a canter up there, as well as a jump where the trail intersected the cross country course, and were likely to be undisturbed by many others - he kept the buckskin in a forward walk until the trail widened out, and he asked for a trot. The faster pace came easily, Bear responsive as ever, and it wasn't long before Lee urged him up another notch, the pair of them sliding into a smooth, eager canter, Bear unperturbed by a bird that came flashing up out of a bush at the side of the path.

Bringing Bear back to a trot as the trail began to swing through the trees again, the duo agilely weaving their way through, the last thing Lee expected to find greeting them was the distinct skewbald form of Titania, accompanied by a very familiar, small figure who looked to be throwing up. Finely tuned reactions cutting in, Lee was pulling up and on his feet in an instant, leading Bear and reaching over to grab Titania so that Cara didn't have to worry about hanging on to her as well as feeling awful.

"Looks like you're having a fairly miserable day," he said, as he did so, gently tugging Bear to a halt so that the gelding didn't irritate the normally sweet-natured mare. He wondered, as he took in the tenseness present across all of Cara's body, and the rather drawn aspect of her face, what had brought this on. Illness, or losing her horses? Not that the latter couldn't cause the former, of course. He also wondered, each hand occupied with a horse as he was, whether his intrusion was actually at all welcome - Cara, he suspected, might well have preferred to deal with this entirely on her own, hiding everything away as was her usual modus-operandi... but fate, apparently, wanted things to go differently.

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

Cara groaned as she heard another horse and rider approaching, but knew that straightening up right then wasn't an option, nor was trying to pretend that she was a-okay. Her eyes closed as she heard Lee's voice, but she willingly released the reins as she felt then tighten as his hand closed around them. "I've been better." She replied as she sat down and placed her head between her knees.

after counting to ten, she lifted her head and regarded Lee. "Do you have a radar that goes off every time I allow my emotions to get the better of me?" The question was asked in a dead-pan tone, without the hint of sarcasm. After all, it seemed that every time she was hurting, Lee seemed to appear out of nowhere. She couldn't even lie to herself and say that he wasn't a welcome sight, it was just that she wasn't used to someone being there when she needed them.

She finally rose to her feet and walked forward to take her mare's reins from Lee while she gave Bear a rub on his forehead. "I see Bear felt he didn't have enough breakfast." There was the smallest hint of humour in her voice as she noticed the mark on Lee's shirt from where it had been in the gelding's mouth. She stripped off the jacket she was wearing and tied it around her tiny waist, revealing the black and white polo she wore under it. She placed her left foot in the stirrup, drawing in a sharp breath as her stomach tightened again, before bouncing off the toe of her right foot and swinging her leg over the saddle and sitting down. "Do Bear and yourself have anything planned?" She asked this as though he hadn't just come upon her doubled over.

[sepia]

Glad to see Cara sitting herself down - shoving herself along as a gymnast had probably given her a very good respect for just how far she could push her body, and what to do when she extended those limits, he reflected - he replied to her query in an equally dead-pan tone. "But of course I do. I slipped into your room and put tracking devices on all your clothing. They go off with a persistent pinging at times like this."

Running an assessing eye over Cara before he relinquished the reins to her, Lee was glad to see that she was looking slightly less wan. Even that brief break of a sit-down had revitalised her somewhat. She was still - to his mind - distressingly pale and distinctly off looking, but at least she didn't look like she was about to keel over instantly. Releasing the reins as she took them, he allowed himself to be distracted by Cara's tangential statement.

"Yes," he agreed, even as he wondered what was the best approach to take with the girl. "Apparently he thinks he's being starved, and that the world is being most unjust towards him." Bear was unperturbed by his words and, with a world-weary sort of sigh, shifted his weight on his hind legs, nudging Cara as she gave him a rub. Just about restraining his little forward lunge of 'Are you sure you should be getting back on already?', Lee managed to remain stock still except for his head, which he raised to look up at Cara, raising an eyebrow still further as she asked her question.

Now, his dilemma was whether to allow Cara to continue to bowl on as though everything was entirely fine and that he hadn't just come upon her dry-heaving into a bush, ignoring the fact that she still looked like a slightly hard shove would shatter her - an entirely false impression, of course, but one that her drawn, tense body gave off very well - or whether he should press her to share her emotions, or something, and have a deep, heartfelt, mushy conversation. Yeah. He suspected that neither of them would be particularly good at, or particularly welcoming to, the second option.

"Other than coming to the aid of pretty mares and riders?" Lee asked, gathering his reins and mounting up himself, lightly settling himself into Bear's saddle. "I don't think we did. Do you feel like some company?" He looked at Cara directly, concern flickering in his eyes beneath his usual calm reserve, level gaze accompanied by warm friendship and loyalty. Whatever else happened, Cara would at least have Lee to fight her side, now.

He was - for now, anyway - going for his first option. Given that he knew full well that Cara wasn't doing particularly well right now, and he knew why, too, there seemed little point in belaboring the issue... and quite possibly Cara would prefer to be treated utterly normally, rather than eyed worriedly as if she might shatter. It was what he'd want, certainly, and though he hadn't suffered half as much as Cara, they were rather similar in some aspects.

Too, he rather felt that the best medicine might simply be to let her ride - Titania might not be her beloved Phoenix, but she was a horse, and, really, he didn't think Cara was quite complete without horses. And if he was riding alongside Cara, at least he could grab her horse again if she felt the need to throw-up, as well as allowing him to indulge his desire to keep an eye on the younger girl.

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

Cara rolled her eyes at his first statement. "And there I was, under the impression that knights rode white horses." She commented dryly. She rubbed her mount's neck as she thought over his offer for company. "I'm sure Titania here would love the company." She said. "And with how my stomach is, I think I could do with the company too." The last she added somewhat reluctantly as she turned away from his concerned look.

Sitting up straight in the saddle, the girl breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth. She repeated this three times, a trick taught to her many years ago when gymnastic meets used to do the same thing to her - bring her to the point of throwing up because she was nervous. She just couldn't work out why the thought of riding brought her to this point now. Maybe it was the fact that she knew Mr Andrews had removed her mares for a reason and he wasn't going to be happy about the fact that she still rode? Or was it that she felt she was betraying Phoenix? How dare she have fun when she had no idea what was happening to the mare.

She whimpered as her stomach tightened up again, but she refused to allow it to get the better of her and she used all of her internal will-power to push the feeling to the back of her mind. "Sorry girl." She whispered as the mare stamped her foot and tossed her head. She let go of the reins, she hadn't realized that she had clenched her fists and felt horrible for doing so. Circling her shoulders, she picked the reins up again and squeezed the mare forward, noting that the normally responsive mare hesitated, moved an ear toward the gelding, before she finally moved forward and heading back down the path again.

The young teen drew in a deep breath. "I've worked Bear a couple of times, but never out on the trail. He's a really responsive horse, when he feels like it. I am guessing you are going to take him over some of the cross country jumps?" She wasn't one to try and start a conversation, and this was easy to pick up.

She rubbed Titania's neck. She loved the mare's names; her registered name was Faerie Realm and Titania, the name she was known by around the barn, was the fairy Queen from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, so although the names were completely different, they managed to fit together perfectly and complemented each other well. Making sure that she kept breathing even, she managed to loosen the fist that seemed to be closing around her stomach. However, she didn't know how long this feeling of ease would last - she hoped for the remainder of the ride as she wasn't sure her body would handle any more, even just dry-retching took a lot (of energy) out of her.

[sepia]

"Buckskins are better when you actually have to clean your own heroic steed," Lee responded, tone deliberately light and slightly teasing. "White horses get muddy too easily." Feeling it would be more politic not to respond to what was almost an admission of need from Cara, Lee just nodded, and nudged Bear forward into a walk, drawing level with Cara as the path - despite still winding through the edge of the wood - widened enough to comfortably let two horses pass side by side.

Trying to restrain his concerned look as Cara clenched up again - from two metres away, the tension levels suddenly ratcheting up in her body were quite obvious - he was happily distracted by Bear attempting to scrape him against a tree, an action that Lee the perfect excuse to not eye Cara in worry. He rather thought that she wouldn't appreciate that in the slightest, and so was doing his best to avoid it. Standing on her own two feet was clearly a point of pride with the girl, and he didn't want to trash whatever self-possession she'd forcibly held on to by impinging upon her right to stand on her own.

"Yeah." Lee nodded, rather glad himself with Cara's choice of topic. There was enough of an emotional minefield laid around the girl - and him too, even if getting him to admit that would be like pulling teeth - that moving on to a nice, safe topic that they could both talk about avidly struck him as a very good idea. And horses, for the both of them, he thought, were a safety net and a comfort, even if riding was apparently currently perturbing Cara. Wondering if doing a psychology course at school would have helped him right now, he wondered what the reason behind that was - worry about the unknown fate of Phoenix, perhaps?

"I was planning on taking him over some of the jumps further up the trail... Thought the trail ride to begin with might put him in a more amenable mood." That was Bear's problem, really - he could do it, it was just whether he wanted to that was the deciding factor. "I think he needs a bit more of a challenge, actually. He doesn't have a regular student rider at the moment, so his talent's being rather wasted." A definite shame, and Lee felt the same way about several of the Academy horses... great animals, not being used to their full potential.

"How's Titania coming along?" he asked, returning the favour of keeping the conversation going, and hoping that Cara would be alright with being asked to consider the development of a horse that wasn't her own. A small thing, perhaps, but in his experience it was sometimes the smallest things that set people off, though Cara had enough presence of mind, he thought, to probably be able to prevent that from happening. "I confess I've never ridden her."

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

Cara nodded when Lee said that he was planning on going over the jumps farther along the trail. "Titania here would love to tackle some cross country jumps." She offered. "Other than the odd log that I can see over, I don't do the whole cross country thing." She gave pulled a face. "My riding lessons have always been about timing and feel. However, those were never the words from my over ambitious instructors. And galloping my way over grass and allowing my mount to throw themselves over courses has never really been a part of that training." She shrugged. "I ride for a girl in a one-day-event once, she had a fall in the warm-up ring and the medic said she was unfit to ride. Our trainer wasn't too impressed and once I'd done my magic in the dressage and showjumping arenas, my pony at the time didn't do cross country, I was told to ride Shamrock. The pony was a devil. If you even let up a little bit on the reins before or after a water jump, he was in the water and rolling." She pressed her lips together and blushed. "Sorry, you don't need to hear about that, nor do you need to care."

She fell silent as they rode along the path, part of her was lost in her memories, the other part of her concentrating on the path ahead of them. she shook her head so that her complete attention was on the path ahead of them and their conversation. "Titania responds well. She was trained well. Her only problem is that she's a little too well behaved, like she doesn't know how to have fun." She gave Lee a sideways glance. "And yes, before you say anything, I guess she's a lot like me." She drummed her fingers on the pommel of her saddle. "Just unlike me, Highness here has no problem with speaking her mind should she not be in the mood to work." She pressed her lips together and shrugged. "Lee, what if Mr Andrews makes me change schools?" Her voice was barely more than a whisper and trembled. A mixture of terror and pain shot across her face as she closed her eyes as the fist seemed to close around her stomach again. Ah, so is that what had been eating away at her?

[sepia]

Lee find himself rather overwhelmed in the rush of words that Cara suddenly managed to summon up from somewhere, their passing leaving him rather bemused. He hadn't realised that talking about horses opened the floodgates on Cara's inner talkative self quite so much. That had to be the most words he'd heard from her, ever, even when they'd been lurking in a barn at midnight and he'd been trying to get her to say why she was looking quite so pained. He clearly hadn't been pushing the right buttons... Or perhaps recent events had unnerved Cara more than she - or he - had thought, and she was responding in an oddly teenage way - by babbling away. This almost amused me - and would have done had he not known what those recent events where.

"I don't need to care," he agreed, "But it's interesting. I wondered why I never see you out on the cross country courses." Guiding Bear around a tree-branch sticking out viciously over the path, he wondered whether to go the anecdotal route or not. "It's a shame it hasn't been a part of your training. There's something about galloping across grass on a horse you trust and flinging yourself over hedges that is an incredibly... freeing experience. I'd urge you to give it a go, definitely. You might find it relaxing." Something so unstructured, and occasionally somewhat wild, would do Cara could, he couldn't help but think. Jar her out of the self-disciplined rut she kept herself in... make her let her hair down, figuratively speaking.

"I remember riding this absolute terror of a pony when I was about ten - he sounds similar to your Shamrock, though his problem wasn't with water-jumps, but sunken roads. As soon as you'd taken that first jump in, he'd be down and rolling on you. He went through about three different owners due to that bad habit before we ended up with him." He grinned. "Couldn't break the habit, by that point, but he turned out to be a cracking little dressage pony. Last I heard he was doing well up in New Hampshire."

And then, suddenly, the conversation came back down to a very serious earth with an abrupt jerk, and Lee began to wonder if he was going to suffer from a form of emotional whiplash. "How much jurisdiction does he actually have over you?" he asked, somewhat avoiding the question as he didn't want to make any promises or claims based on insufficient data. "I can't think that Mr. Rees, now he's gotten involved, will let you go easily." He frowned, thinking that he really should know more about the legal issues associated with orphans who were being abused by their social workers. "And I have to hope that now someone with a certain degree of power - both legal and otherwise - is involved, that Mr. Andrews might soon be taken off your case entirely."

He paused, wondering whether he should go on, then took the plunge. She had asked, after all, so what could he do but answer? "Even if he is your legal guardian, once he's accused of child abuse he won't be allowed to continue to be so. The only problem is how long this could, potentially, get caught up in legal shenanigans - which I suspect Mr. Andrews is probably a master at." He sighed, feeling compelled to add, "And the world is a decidedly unjust place, sometimes. Still," he continued, turning to look at her, "I think it's unlikely that he's going to be able to make you change schools."

Not actually at all sure how reassuring that had been, he fixed Cara with a half-smile, one equally cynical and protective. "And worst comes to worst, we cut Mr. Andrews' brake lines and hope he ends up in a coma for a good, long time." Or dead, which Lee felt he could live with perfectly fine. Cara, though might adopt even more guilt if that happened, and it wouldn't be particularly good for anyone to get sent to prison for murder. So tempting as the idea was, it probably had to be abandoned, not that he'd been entirely serious, anyway. His words had more been to let Cara know that he was quite prepared to go to some extreme lengths on her behalf - though he'd prefer it if they were mostly legal lengths.

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

Cara pulled a face and gave an undignified snort at the mention of people with law on their side now having a hold of the situation. "The only problem with that is that Mr Andrews has this oozing charm that the law seems to believe. I can't count on one hand how many people I tried to talk to when I was younger. Rather than talking to the people that mattered about it, they spoke to him!" She swallowed hard and flinched at the memories of what repercussions accompanied her trying to speak out. "I have a lawyer, and Mr Andrews still thought it good to beat me."

She dropped the reins and ducked under a low hanging branch before she got removed from the saddle. "As my social worker, he pretty much has full control over my life. Father's will was precise about the fact that I was to attend the best of the best schools, but he hadn't named schools so as long as the schools I attend are the best of the best, there is nothing that can stop him from transferring my papers." She sat up straight again and picked the reins up in one hand, the fingers of the other were drumming against her thigh. "Schools are normally open during the holidays. However, most close for the Christmas break, as that is when everyone joins their families. I can remain on campus during the holidays other than the winter break. I think Mr Andrews spends the entire year finding me the most perfect foster homes to spend Christmas with." She pressed her lips together again, not sure whether to carry on or if she did what to say. "Even if Mr Andrews isn't my social worker, there are many others like him gagging to take his place." She shot him a pained look. "I'm a performing seal, Mr Anwell. I do as I am told without question. No matter what, they command and I obey."

She drew in a shaky breath and shook her head. "Sorry." She closed her legs around her mount's sides, leaned forward slightly and gave the mare a tap with her heels. Not needing to be asked twice, Titania leaped forward into a canter. The girl wasn't running away, she was just stopping her tongue from running away with her. And she knew that the buckskin gelding would have no problem catching up with them.

[sepia]

It was more than unfortunate, really, how certain people would be able to get away with murder simply because they had a silvered tongue. It was equally unfortunate that one of these people was in charge of Cara's welfare - and with regards to Mr. Andrews, that last word was used in its very loosest sense, given that his idea of welfare appeared in involve physical and mental abuse, and Lee was privately of the opinion that he shouldn't have charge of a woodlouse, let alone a fifteen year-old. It was perhaps also unfortunate that Cara knew the ills of the world far too well, and could therefore recite - as she was currently proving - all the possible ways that things could go badly for her.

And, given what she was telling him about Mr. Andrews, there were about a million and one ways that he could twist things to his advantage. He made a mental note that if he ever did have a child, he was going to word his will incredibly carefully to prevent said child from being boxed into the same circumstances as Cara was currently. Perhaps her emigrating to the Congo might be the easiest option, given that legally trying to out-maneuver Mr. Andres looked like it was going to be tricky... at best. He really needed to talk to Mr. Rees - and sometime soon, too.

As Titania sprang away from him and Bear, Cara clearly feeling that she'd said too much and needed to stop before she revealed anything else, Lee waited only a moment before urging his gelding on after her. The buckskin contemplated the request for a moment, and Lee strengthened the command. Bear, after a flick of his ears to inform Lee that he was only doing this because he wanted to, and for no other reason, went easily from walk into canter, Lee asking him almost instantly for a longer stride so that they could catch up to Titania.

Luckily the trail was still quite wide, here, though he knew that soon it would narrow down to single file only and become far rockier before it intersected with the cross country course, so cantering up beside Titania and Cara wasn't a problem. Talking across to her might be, though not from any reluctance to talk while moving at any pace faster than a walk, but from lack of knowledge of what, precisely, to say.

"If you need a place to stay over Christmas," he said, mouth moving before his brain had censored it, "You could always visit my family. My brother would appreciate the chance to talk gymnastics at someone who actually understood it." Lee blinked, surprised at himself. Given that his current relationships with his mother, at least, were frosty at best, he hadn't been planning to make that offer when he'd opened his mouth to talk. Not that he precisely thought it was a bad idea - anything to get Cara away from Mr. Andrews - but it was unexpected on his part. It was nice to know that he could still surprise himself.

"And, forgive me if I sound naively optimistic, but I like to think that this will work itself out in your favour. People are actually talking to you, rather than Mr. Andrews, and I think there'll be more than a few people willing to stand up in court and testify against him. Even the most silvery-tongued can be defeated, after all." Lee decided that he was being oddly encouraging about all this, especially given the fact that Cara knew quite well the harsh realities of the situation... apparently he couldn't turn off his protective instincts that wanted nothing more than to defend her from the trials of life.

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

Cara collected the mare a little as she heard Bear closing the distance between them. She shot Lee a startled look at his offer for a place to stay at Christmas and shook her head. "It would never happen." She returned as she finally asked her mount to slow down as the trail began to change and she asked the mare to drop in behind the larger gelding. "As I said, Mr Andrews picks my families out for me. And a solo mother wouldn't be a house he would approve on. and only because of the gender of the parent. He rathers that I..." She let the words die off, not wanting to finish the sentence.

She dropped the reins so that the end of them sat on the mare's neck as they followed Bear and Lee down the trail, her hands patting a beat out on her thighs. "Um, I have been asked to help in a gymnastics demonstration, which means extra training on my part beforehand." She chewed on her lower lip before she finished what she wanted to say. "Would you come and spot for me while I train?" he last came out rushed, the words almost blending together if it weren't for her precise way of speaking. She normally wouldn't ask for a spotter, but she didn't want to chance someone seeing her in the studio doing moves that needed the extra eyes. And she wanted to ask this of him before she went to see Mr Rees about her actually going.

[sepia]

Reining Bear back down into a walk as Cara dropped in behind him and followed suit, Lee half-looked over his shoulder as he replied. "It was worth a thought," he said, an apology subtly threaded through his tone, as he picked up on what Cara didn't want to say as much as what she was saying. "Convincing the world that my mother is, in fact, a man would probably be rather difficult, though." And, as such, another potential life-line went down the drain.

It was sensible, Lee supposed, from Mr Andrew's perspective, that he had worked his 'magicm far more in regards to men, rather than women. Self-defence mechanism; if you instilled in your charge such an explicit fear of men that they had no other choice but to obey... well, you could do anything. He now understood why Cara was so much more relaxed around, say, Miss Carr than Mr. Rees, and why Lee himself had managed to terrify her so utterly their very first meeting, as well as her occasional lapses back into calling him 'sir', when her training was brought to the fore - usually by extreme emotion. Yet another thing to be chalked up into Mr. Andrews' very long list of sins, which by now would have needed several large volumes to document properly, and Lee was certain he didn't know the half of it.

Cara's next words made Lee quite glad that he was facing forwards, again, back of his head towards Cara as both he and Bear looked for the best way down the increasingly rocky trail, as they precipitated a facial expression somewhere between surprise, pleasure, and pride. Surprise that Cara would think to ask him, pleasure that she actually trusted him enough to do so, and pride - oddly enough, given his lack of involvement in this aspect of her life - that someone was recognising Cara's accomplishments. Yep. He really had fallen hard into the role of older brother. No turning back now: Cara was going to be stuck with him for life.

"Of course," he said, when he'd sorted through that rush of positive emotion, speaking only a few moments after Cara had finished speaking, though to him it felt longer. "I'd be delighted to. When is this demonstration? And, for that matter, where?" He knew little enough about gymnastics for its own sake, and had never had the desire to try the sport out for himself, but his brother's enthusiasm for it - only grown stronger after their father's death - had dragged him partially into the field, where he'd picked up a reasonable amount. Enough to know that Cara was good - even from his brief stint of watching her in the gym - and that this demonstration was almost certainly fairly high profile. Though the latter perhaps came from the fact that he doubted Cara would have mentioned it, otherwise.

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

Cara gave a small laugh at the comment of not being able to pass his mother off as a man. "Thank you for the offer though."

She watched the back of Lee's head, her face falling as the silence stretched between them. She sat back in the saddle as Titania's foot slipped as the stones moved from beneath her feet. "Easy." She soothed slowly as she gave the mare her head so that the skewbald could pick her own path.

Her face light up when Lee finally replied with the affirmative. "You will? Thank you! Thank you so much!" Now, at least, when she went and asked if she could have the time off school. "The USGF are holding a demonstration next month at Madison Square Garden. I don't know who else they asked, and even though it's not a real competition I still want to go there fully prepared." She didn't mention the fact that she was more than a little nervous. Sure it wasn't s real competition, but the people who were in charge were the people who controlled the big meets. The ones that made the papers. "I just hope I can be the gymnast they think they saw."

[sepia]

Smiling slightly at hearing Cara so enthusiastic about something - so she really could sound like an actual teenager, he was glad to see - Lee wondered if it was slightly sad that she was so very happy about such a simple thing, then decided to stop over-analysing and just be glad that at least something seemed to be going well in Cara's life at the moment. At least she was enough of a polymath that Mr. Andrews' attempt to cripple one of her hobbies - and one of her passions, perhaps, though she wasn't sure how much of her talent at gymnastics was more from rigorous training rather than an actual love of the discipline - didn't meant that she was left totally without anything but schoolwork. And, as she was proving by boldly riding down this slope atop Titania, she wasn't going to let a thing like her horses being taken away from her stop her.

"Sounds high profile," he agreed, suitably impressed, a touch of that slipping through into his words. "I can see why you want to get practiced. Have they given you any idea what sort of moves they're going to want, or are they leaving you to figure out all that on your own?" Or it could be a more free-form sort of demonstration, like freestyle dressage, but Lee thought that the organisers of the event would probably want some sort of base-line of maneuvers that they were going to ask their performers to show off.

Hearing the tinge of nerves that coated her last words, Lee half-turned in the saddle again - they were at a relatively simple bit of the trail to negotiate, so he was certain Bear could handle it - wanting to look Cara in the eye as he spoke. "I'm sure you will - they wouldn't have asked you if they didn't have what it took. And you have a month to polish up your routines... with your level of dedication, you'll probably out-preform more than half the people there." Lee wasn't speaking false encouragement; that wasn't his style at all, he preferred to be honest when it came to life, and though he didn't always tell the entire truth, he tried to not lead people astray - and giving people false hope was one of his pet peeves, and something he didn't indulge in. Perhaps not the most comforting of styles, but at least it meant that what he was saying was meant utterly sincerely.

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

When questioned about what would be expected of her, the knot tightened in her stomach again as nerves rattled through her. "I'm not sure." She replied honestly. "I'm guessing they will let me know if I'm allowed to go." She shrugged. "I don't know who else will be there, other than it being open to the public to come and watch us preform." That part worried her the least. she had spent most of her life on one stage or another, performing her heart out for a crowd of strangers, people she didn't know from bar of soap, while the rest of her team-mates, class of dancers or competitors had their friends and family in the audience cheering them on. She had never had that privilege, and never would. The only family that had ever cared about her were dead, and there was no changing that.

She shook herself out of her morbid thoughts as Lee turned to face her and spoke again. She shrugged off his praise and words of encouragement. "They liked what they remembered seeing. People remember things in different ways, and the fact that my name probably brings up images of a tiny child flipping over the place, possibly doesn't help me." She screwed her face up as she pinched at the skin around her waist. "I'm hardly that tiny child anymore. I'm more of a washed-up has-been who is lucky enough to get a chance like this." The negative comments toward herself were Mr Andrews' favourite words to describe her. She didn't compete professionally in anything anymore so she obviously hadn't been that good in the first place.

She played with Titania's two-toned mane as they continued down the trail. "What apparatus does your brother favour?" She personally loved the uneven bars even though she was an all-arounder, and was keen to know what Lee's brother did in gymnastics.