:.Get over it. one step at a time.:

[dani]

The sun hung low in the sky fading towards the horizon with effort to vanish. The warm wind was cooling with the decent of the sun signaling the coming night. The tall pasture grasses danced, in places they weren’t cropped short by a hungry horse that was. It was another day drawing to a close allowing the night to creep ever closer. However it wasn’t really a sad thought, there was always another day after all.

Danielle lay in the cool grass her eyes closed as she had finally lapsed out of the spasms that had controlled her body for a good while. She had veguly noted that The Incredible Houdini, her aunts horse given to her as a form of rehab, stood close by the entire time. He was her silent guardian any more. He just let her be while it happened and now it was over the roan gelding turned and slowly wandered over to her splayed form. He nosed her sweat dampened hair and she sighed.

“I am fine Houdini.” She whispered out hoarsely, no pun intended. She slowly pushed herself up and whipped the sweat from her dace. “I am much better now.” She hated the shaking fits she was subject to now that her poison was gone. Dani knew all too well what it did to her, who it destroyed her body. She knew that it was the fault of all her slew of toxin intake she could not watch too much tv or handle insects any more. It was the drugs fault for most of the bad in her life but she couldn’t help the need she had grown. The rest of her consumption she had given up but Heroin was her drug of choice and the need was too great.

Slowly she took a rattling breath and calmed. As long as she was here Houdini was not sliding from the pasture with all the ease of the gate not being there. He was too good at what he did, even with that padlock on the door she doubted it would hold him long, he would find him outside one of these days. She glanced to the speckled red coat of her boy, her horse. The words were foreign for a girl who thought horses one of the most frightening things humans had bothered to tame. They were huge and there were those rodeos, the thought of which sent a shiver down her spine.

She slowly rose up looking over the direction of the gate glad she was far enough back she had escaped attention. Her slight hand grasped the hair tie about her wrist and she drew it off and pulled back her unruly hair into the best bun she could manage without a mirror and three hours to somehow control the chaos. She forced herself onto shaky feet and fell against Houdini’s chest. That wasn’t the best idea she decided and looked towards the gate, she really did need to get back to the barn. Glancing nervously to Houdini she decided trying bareback today was not on her list and simply pushed off and slumped back to the ground. She whipped the sweat from her face and sighed. “Just gotta collect myself.” She muttered and closed her eyes. She had a soft New York accent but nothing much of anything to be considered an actual accent. She managed to stay sitting and glanced up to Houdini. She noticed the Gelding was looking towards the gate and she glanced that way too. “What you hear hum? Anything interesting?” She had become accustomed to the horse’s presence more than anyone in this town. Her aunt and uncle made it clear she was there only because no one else wanted her and she had to wear long sleeves to make other people think she was worth the time. She glanced to her sleeves and saw they had ridden up in her fit and she stared, for a moment, at the many tiny scars that made her arm look like a mine field. Flushing with anger and embarrassment, as if the horse actually cared, she dragged the sleeves down to cover the marks. There was no need for anyone to see that.

[Tyler Haze]

Afternoons and evenings were the best time of day for Austin and his charismatic thoroughbred gelding, Vodka On the Rocks, for one reason, and one reason alone. Neither one of them had ever been to West Virgina before now, and the time change was brutal. It was more than jet lag...it was like the whole world had leapt four hours ahead of you, and left you to struggle to keep up. Because of that, mornings were murder for the dynamic duo. If they got up at eight, it felt like four, if they got up at noon, it felt like eight. If they went to bed at eight, it felt like four in the afternoon, if they went to bed at midnight, it felt like eight in the evening. Both of them were totally screwed up.

But by the time that Evening rolled around, he had been up long enough that he no longer felt like he'd only gotten two hours of sleep the night before. He'd decided to give up on working Vodka in the morning, at least for now until they adjusted, so evenings it was. The pair had been here for a week now, and were a bit better, but still struggling. At the rate they were going, it would be a good months before either one of them was on the right schedule, and the horse would probably get there sooner than the man...so they would still not be quite right with their functioning.

But right now, they were both wide awake, and determined to enjoy what was left of the daylight. Austin was never one to break any rules...but he didn't really follow them either. Somehow though, he managed to never get in trouble. How? Well I'll tell you. His life philosophy, which he was determined to live by, was "If you never find out what the rules are, you can't be accused of breaking them...live a little already!" No, that wasn't something he came up with...it was actually something his older brother...adopted older brother...had told him once many many years ago when he was something like eight years old, and his brother was ten.

So Austin decided to wing it today. No arenas, no fancy rail jumps, no specific pattern to follow...nope, they were flying solo, off the map, sailing over uncharted seas, whatever you feel like calling it, they were doing it. He'd scouted out a few fences earlier that he figured he could get Vodka to clear. It was incredible, the animal he had under him. This horse was an Olympic level jumper that would never make it to the Olympics. Vodka could jump the moon if he put his mind to it, but he absolutely hated crowds, and pressure, so he always did terribly in competitions. Austin was okay with that, because in order to compete, he'd have to wear thos nasty English breeches...uh, not his style...at all.

He'd had Vodka out on the trails for a good hour now, just easy walking, and a bit of trotting and cantering, and now they were on their way home. When he came back in view of those fences he'd looked at earlier, he smiled, almost devilishly, and pointed the equine towards the fence. Vodka accepted the challenge, and picked up his pace, collecting himself smoothly, and launching into the air, he cleared the fence. It was barely four feet where they'd gone over because of a broken rail, but still a decent jump for a horse four hours behind the rest of the world and coming back from a trail ride.

Austin was about to circle Vodka and send him back over so they could be on their way back to the stable, but he saw another horse and human. Oops...he hadn't noticed them before. Oh well, no point in worrying right? Besides, he needed to meet a few more people around here, considering he knew no one. He turned his mount towards the girl and her horse, and set him forwards at a walk. It didn't take long to reach them, although Austin kept Vodka at a respectful distance from the other horse. Evenin' He said brightly as he stopped Vodka by way of greeting, fine day don't ya think?

Austin was probably about as charismatic as his horse, and had no problems at all with conversing with strangers. He could make friends where there were none, and he could turn an enemy into a friend faster than you could think of the tune to the Andy Griffith Show. It was just how he was wired, and in a house full of boys like the one he'd grown up in...being outgoing was sort of an essential requirement to your survival. It'd stuck with him, all the way to pinewood...the word shy wasn't even in his vocabulary.

[dani]

Dani heard the hoof beats before she saw the horse, sitting so close to the ground as she was it was hard to see but she heard them coming all the same. She winced and cringed lower to the ground as if to disappear. She whipped her face, making sure she had no residue from her recent episode. She wasn’t going to share her personal hell with the world, there was no point. She shied as she saw the pair, between the rails. At first it was only a fleeting glimpse of a leg or a nose. Before she could steel herself to the fear she saw first a head, then legs, followed by a whole horse soar over the fence. She grabbed her heart, or where it was.

She felt the poor thing beating like it was trying to escape her chest and flee. The pair was graceful and wonderful but something about horses moving faster than a slow trot was enough to make her want to flee in terror. Still she sat still petrified into a frozen stare. Her face looked almost pained but at the same time nervous. She quickly calmed it and was glad too as he noticed her. Dani’s attempts at disappearing were apparently not as good as Houdini. She was glad when she noticed the gelding still stood beside her. She had her support system for now. Her irrational fear grew as they headed in her direction. She forced herself to calm as they slowed, her breathing rather quick as she couldn’t stop that right away.

She needed to let go of her shirt, she realized, and forced her hand over her heart to relinquish its grasp. Wincing at how pathetic she must look, utterly pale sitting in a pasture as if she had passed out or fallen off. Falling off was preposterous mainly because she refused to get on a horse without a saddle the idea terrified her more than the animal charging her. For all she cared you could throw her under a stampede of crazy horses before you could put her on a horse with no saddle. Her head turned momentarily to Houdini to see what he thought of the whole mess, the roan simply had his ears perked with interest towards the pair and his dark eyes seemed thoughtful to her. It was funny about two days ago she would have told you they were monsters incapable of thought now she noticed it in the animals, as much as most of them made her cringe.

Dani turned her head back to him at his words her large brown eyes disappearing for a moment as she closed them. His words were distant still and hard to process but as soon as the little click happened from word to meaning she nodded quickly. She opened her mouth to respond but found no words and quickly snapped it shut again. How did one respond to such a common place question? She knew she should know the answer to this and she also realized she probably looked slow with how she now stared at him. So finally she forced the words carefully past her lips, ”It is a nice evening… It was too hot today for my liking.” She lied having spent most of her day sitting in Houdini’s stall to avoid people, mainly her Aunt. She was on the farm and that was her requirement, even if they expected her to ride. This meant she was perfectly cool through the hottest parts of the day, and the most active for many people. From behind the stall door she could hear people come and go, and talk. Her name had been brought up once or twice in rumors, some true others ridiculous. Either way it was difficult for her to ignore the pain it caused in her chest.

”That was a nice jump.” She said meekly trying not to seem rude. The boy was cute and polite which was more then she could say for herself. Her eyes traced over him and she winced and dropped her gaze, he was built like Tom and it made her uneasy. She just kind of shut down a bit but she was trying desperately not to be rude. How did one handle this sort of situation if they were normal? He was nice? Right? Perhaps she was supposed to flirt? She couldn’t bring herself too; she wanted nothing to do with men any time soon. Why subject herself to any idealist view when it meant suffering.

Shaking her head to ward off her own thought she forced her gaze up to meet his face and forced her numbing lips to move, to speak. ”I am Dani. Who are you?” It was pleasant in tonality but clearly strained as if someone were running her foot through a cheese grater and she was supposed to continue conversation as usual until it passed. The idea was ridiculous as anything but it fit the way she was reacting to him. At once she was acutely aware of her piercings and she sat utterly still, as if not to disturb them, as she waited for him to speak again.

[austin]

Austin took careful note of the fact that the girl looked a bit...less than pleased with his presence. She didn't look like she was having the best day of her life. He wasn't exactly sure what it was about her that made him think that, but whatever it was...he just got that feeling. Nevertheless, Austin was not deterred in the least. The only way he would ever have second thoughts about something like this was if the person wither one, burst into a fit of complete rage and pulled a gun on him or something along those lines, or two, got completely terrified, picked up and took off running in an attempt to get as far as possible away from him. This girl had done neither of those things.

The smile never left his face, it was like it was stuck there...and it wasn't a bad thing. It was a rare occasion when you could find Austin without a smile when he was fully awake. Until about non, since he was so far behind times, he just looked completely worn out, though if he was having a conversation he would be smiling, a tired smile, but a smile all the same. he had a lot in life to smile about. I suppose you could call him a privileged child, in the sense that he never struggled, he never had to go without something he needed, he never lived on the streets. In fact, the only thing that didn't really seem perfect about his life was the fact that he was adopted...meaning his real parents hadn't wanted him. But the family that adopted him when he was a baby loved him like one of their own, and he'd never had any problems with that.

He had decided a long time ago that he was going to put his life on cruise control and auto pilot towards certain goals, and not bother to stray from them. So far it had worked without flaw. He had an awesome job (in his opinion at least) hacking into security systems, and occasionally just screwing with microchips and stuff like that to make certain changes to them...not to mention the incredible pay rate, he had a great horse who shared his opinion of competitions, he had a nice house out here in the small town of Pinewood. He really didn't have much of a worry in the whole world. For now, he was set for life.

Was it really? He asked, referring to the heat of the day, I didn't think it was that bad...then again hot in California was 100 and up, so I guess I'm still stuck in that climate. That was another big change. It was so incredibly hot in California that what everyone here called hot was actually perfect for him. He supposed he would adjust to that with time too though, just like he would adjust to the time changed. Vodka didn't seem to mind the change in temperature at all, he didn't seem quite as crabby at the peak heat of the day, which was a good thing, because when he got hot, he got really grouchy like an old man.

Vodka shifted slightly under him, clinking the bit against his teeth, and tossing his head a little. He was wondering why in the world Austin had him standing here when they'd been in the middle of jumping. He wasn't going to throw any temper tantrums or anything like that, it just seemed...not quite right that they would stop after only one jump. He was too used to the whole arena setting where there were something like 10-15 jumps to clear before they stopped. Austin got bored with the same ol same ol thing all the time though, and so he was changing things up a bit. Thanks. He added when she complimented the jump. He'd been riding since seventh grade, and knew what he was doing...even though he'd never taken lessons, again because of the outfit he would've had to wear. He wasn't about to submit himself to that.

He didn't let on to the fact that he noticed that she was sort of looking him over, and seemed to convey a few different opinions. Call it strange, but she didn't seem to dislike what she saw...but it seemed to almost scare her a bit. Like maybe she was afraid of guys with nicely built bodies. Well, he'd just have to go and change that. He wasn't going to let anyone stay afraid of him for long. Austin wasn't capable of hurting people...okay, so he'd punched the high school quarterback once when he was making fun of some freshman girl and made her cry...but he wouldn't hurt someone unless he had a really good reason.

Austin swung down off of Vodka's back as she introduced herself, pulling the reins over the horse's head to keep him from going anywhere, and extended his free hand towards her, Nice to meet you Dani, He said, still just as brightly as his greeting had been, Austin Gaines...and Vodka. He added the horse's stable name after his own, just like he always did with everyone when he first met them. Vodka was his almost constant companion, so it was only proper that he introduce him to everyone he met.

[dani]

Danielle watched his every action like a cornered mouse watches a cat. She tried desperately to hide her fear but she had a horrid poker face. Anyone who looked at her, even if they were bad at knowing what people were thinking, could almost see her every thought. She rubbed her right arm reflexively feeling the needy twitch in her veins but she was with someone right now, which could be dealt with alone later. She was being overcome with the force of her shaking fits any more as she spent more and more time away from the craving. It was like she had a glass of water before her but she couldn’t drink to satisfy her quenched throat.

She scratched the itch knowing it wasn’t what she needed but it was something to keep it from her mind as she stared up at the man. He was something to be weary of, a potential threat. She glanced to Houdini, who seemingly reading her moods, drew slightly closer. Dani hardly knew the horse and yet he was willing to protect her, it was kind of touching. They shared something she really couldn’t with people. He understood her problem and didn’t care. He never frowned or shied away from it he just accepted her. She smiled, it was small and just a tug at one side of her face giving her a cute lopsided look but it was not more than just a cuteness. The girl was normally attractive, well groomed and what not but with the fit her hair was frizzed out more than normal and her eyes were a bit glossy from all the expended energy. She looked tired and it was truthful that this was not her best day ever. She winced at the thought.

When he dismounted she wanted to stand but she doubted she could keep her balance well enough yet so she kept still on the ground. The rabbit theory seemed like a good one, hold still and he won’t see you. Still he came up and extended his hand. She eyed it a moment, as if thinking it venomous then reached out with a tenitive grasp and he would probably notice the small shake that lingered in her hands. She didn’t notice that any more so she didn’t think about how he might take it. When he introduced his horse she glanced at the animal with more fear of it then of him. “Pleasure to meet you both. This is Houdini.” She nodded to the roan who stood not inches from her, a protective guardian clearly sensing her inner turmoil.

She looked up at them in thought. “um I am new in town…” She said softly trying to keep conversation but it was hard for her. She finally leaned over and pressed her hand on Houdini as she forced herself to her feet and just lean on the equine. She needed him to keep upright at this point.