--[OPEN]-- Time is Running Out

[pride]

Christina

Gravel crunched underneath the tires of her Red Ford F450 as Christina turned into the driveway, carefully maneuvering so that the large truck and even larger six-horse trailer made it in without damaging anything. Her foot pressed lightly on the gas pedal as she cruised up the drive, which widened into a large parking lot. It wasn’t terribly early in the morning, but still early enough so that not many cars were there – eight o’clock wasn’t necessarily everybody’s favorite time to wake up.

Chris parked carefully and turned her truck off, pocketing the keys and opening the door, locking it before hopping out and shutting it. She moved past the bed of the truck, opening the door to the tack room which was built into the trailer, grabbing out four lead ropes. As she moved into sight of her horses there were immediately loud, ear-piercing neighs and whinnies, which eventually quieted down. She attached four lead ropes to four halters that were four different colors, unclipping the last horse in line, Pete, before moving behind the trailer and opening the door. There were two spaces empty, and she unlatched and opened those panels before getting to Pete’s. She murmured to the young horse as she slowly unlatched his panel, but he was too excited – he nearly ran her over as he hastily backed out of the trailer, Chris just barely grabbing the lead rope.

She didn’t try to slow him down, afraid the pressure of the halter would freak him out in such a small space, but instead went with him as he backed out and stepped down from the trailer. It was then that she gathered the lead rope and began to walk him around, trying to calm him – he was snorting and breathing heavily, eyes rolling in his head as he looked around at the strange place, head swinging from side to side and the occasional frantic whinny erupting from him in a burst of sound. He stepped high, occasionally prancing, but Chris would worry about the shipping boots later – for now she needed to get him settled so she could get the rest of her horses out.

Eventually Pete stopped snorting and heaving, so Chris clipped him to the outside of the trailer and removed his shipping boots, tossing them into the tack room. She moved back to the young stallion and unclipped him, walking him inside the hallway where all the stalls were. She eventually found his show name – Country Gentleman – next to Dolly’s stall and in a corner stall, like she’d requested. She led him into the stall and un-haltered him, stepping out and closing the stall door. She leaned against it and watched him first snuffle the ground, then get a drink. When he began to munch on hay she left him there, satisfied that he was settling in, and walked to the tack room, finding an empty cubby and storing his purple halter and lead rope in it.

Chris walked back down the hallway and emerged again in the sunlight, heading back toward her trailer where she would repeat the process three more times.

[Meredith Fƒaorde]

MEREDITHGEORGIANAFfAORDE
I look to the sea
Reflections in the waves spike my memory

[/font][/center]

Early mornings had never phased Meredith. They were usually the only times she had been able to get away from Tony. For those who didn't know, and that was most of the population of Virginia, Tony had been Meredith's husband. He had been a rich Welsh land owner, but he'd also been a complete git. So, Meredith had spent as much time as she could away from him, either with the horses or out with her dogs. She'd become quite the country lass with all the dogs and the small herd of horses in the stables. Except, here, she'd only brought in two. Well, one. Her second was in quarentene at the moment. But, she did have her handsome prize-winning Paso Fino. He was a handsome chestnut stallion, but quite well behaved as stallions go. She'd wanted to bring all the horses over, all fifteen of them, but she wouldn't have the time looking after and excersising them all without the grooms.

Yes, it sounded very poncy, but when you were married to a Welsh lord you had house staff. She'd enjoyed the company of a few, mostly the stable staff who she'd converse with early in the morning whilst Tony was still in bed. Another reason why being up early didn't particually phase her was the fact she was, for a short time, living with her brother. Robbie was a mounted cop and usually had the morning or night shifts with his partner so getting up early or returning early was something of a trade for him. And Meredith was a light sleeper. It all added up. That morning Robbie had left early and she'd taken her time, getting up, having a shower, getting breakfast, the usual morning routine.

The kitchen, as usual, was filled with dog. Well, there were only two of them but they tended to follow you around just in case. One was her brothers and one was hers. Hers was rather younger and much more active than Robbie's. He was a bright, cheerful, although pretty well trained, border collie named Syackin who followed Robbie's elderly dog, Kimmic, around religiously. Towling her long hair, Meri, rifled through a drawer on the old table in the study. Robbie and Meredith hadn't been living in Pinewood for very long. Two weeks at most and not everything was unpacked, but Meri was sure Robbie had used the car keys sometime in the past two weeks, she just didn't know where he kept them. Which was why she was rifling.

It took her a good twenty minutes to locate the keys. But, it wasn't like she was in any hurry. Her stallion would still be out in the field eating grass and there was no-one waiting for her. The car was parked outside in the large driveway to the shared house. Robbie had inheritted a lot of money and Meredith's allamony didn't exactly leave either of them coming up short. And that could really be seen with the house and the cars. Robbie was a bit of a petrol head, which was odd considering he was a mounted policeman rather than a squad car copper. She started up the engine of the car and backed out. Neither were very careful drivers and the Audi convertable Meri was driving at the moment was probably made for them. They tended to push the cars a little too hard and break something.

The stables was quiet as she brought Caro in front the field. The handsome stallion walked calmly by her side. For once. Caro, being a gaited breed, tended to show off a lot. Which was fine when she was just riding out, but otherwise he was a nuisence. But, today he was behaving pretty well. Syackin padded behind them, about twenty feet behind, snuffling into bushes and anything the collie could find. Caro pricked his ears, raising his elegant head towards the trailer. Caro was pretty good with trailers and just needed to take a good look at them before anything else. Meredith lead the handsome stallion around the trailer just as someone hurried out of the stable block. "Excuse me." Meri called, her light Irish accent clear. "Do you want a hand with anything?" She asked politely, bringing Caro to a stop with a swish of his long tail.

[pride]

Christina

Long legs ate up ground like it was a delicious meal, and it seemed if you were the person with the long legs you didn’t notice – but everyone else did. Ask any of her “friends” from her home town, when Chris walked there was sure to be complaints from her companions, whoever might be with her begging her to “holy shit slow DOWN”. Chris didn’t notice she walked fast – she just did, and she was hard pressed to make herself uncomfortable by adjusting her stride just so everyone else’s lazy asses could keep up. And that was her view on the whole matter.

Of course, there were a select few things that could make Christina slow down of her own accord. One was pretty cars. Get her a sporty Porsche, or a sleek BMW, and she’d pause and salivate over it like it was the first and only of its class. Another was a fine looking horse – a sleek Arabian, or a muscular Quarter Horse could sure make her slow down and take a look, because horses were fine creatures and Chris enjoyed studying them. But if there was any one thing that could actually make her stop dead in her tracks, it was a pretty girl. And since two out three of her above list were currently coming from behind her trailer, it was only fit that Chris simply stopped, and looked.

And who could blame her? The horse was a fine specimen of his breed, a rich chocolate colored coat - he had to be a Liver Chestnut, the deep color was unmistakable – and he had to have been a Peruvian, with such a finely sculpted neck, held so high and proud… And okay, we all know Chris could have cared less about the stallion compared to the woman next to him. Though she wasn’t obvious, her eyes preformed that classic up-and-down look, taking in the girl’s build, height, and overall look. Stunning was a choice word to describe her, and her hair! Chris’s hair would have taken hours to curl that beautifully.

Fortunately, Chris was making these observations even as she spoke – so it wasn’t too obvious that she was, to use the phrase, “checking her out.” “Only if you’d like. My biggest hassle was the stallion that I unloaded, the rest should be pretty easy for me.” Well, King could be a bit stubborn, but she was so used to it now that she often forgot to warn others if they were thinking of handling him. “My name’s Christina, by the way.” She shot the other girl a winning smile as she walked closer. “That’s a beautiful horse-” she bent down unashamedly, then straightened up – “- stallion you’ve got there. ”

She slowed down her walk purposefully as she neared – her horses were used to her quick pace, but her snappish steps could possibly startle another horse. “Will he be okay if I pass by? Gotta unclip Dolly – the Paint mare that’s next in line to get out of there.”

Word Count: 504
Comments: Woot, thanks for replying!

[Meredith Fƒaorde]

MEREDITHGEORGIANAFfAORDE
I look to the sea
Reflections in the waves spike my memory

[/font][/center]

“Only if you’d like. My biggest hassle was the stallion that I unloaded, the rest should be pretty easy for me.”

Meri smiled with a nod. Caro was slightly less hospitable with his ears flicking back at the sight of the other horses. He wasn't unsociable as horses go...No, he was socially retarded really. He either ignored other horses or he tried to bite them. Still, he was a good horse to ride, even if he was a show off to the greater public. He knew he had a nice gait, so he showed everyone and everything just how special he thought he was. If he was a human he would've been considered full of himself. But, Meredith liked him that way. He'd be dull without that spark of personality. She'd ridden so many horses that were safe and boring and dull. There was nothing really wrong with them, and they were usually school horses that were ridden three or four times a day. Caro was just much more energetic.

"I'll just put Caro back otherwise he'll throw a fit." Meri rolled her eyes. He might be a good horse to ride but standing still was not his forte. After a couple of seconds he'd start to shift and flick his long tail. It was past the time in which Meredith should have trimmed his tail, or his mane for that matter, but it had to be said that the stallion looked pretty good with a lengthy mane and tail. Robbie, her brother, always told her to clip her horses' manes and tails, but as normal sisters she ignored him. Just because he kept his horse's clipped and neat didn't mean she had to. Her horses were clean, manes brushed, it just took her slightly longer. And anyway, Robbie had to keep his horses presentable by regulation. She had no regulations to follow.

“My name’s Christina, by the way. That’s a beautiful horse- stallion you’ve got there.”

"Thanks." She replied as Caro eyed the newcomer approching his terratory. "He definately thinks so." As had been mentioned before, full of himself. Meredith adjusted her grip on the rope attatched to Caro's headcollar, giving the stallion enough length to give his head a bit of a shake and turn it away as he always did when anyone approched. It was just a habit of his. "I'm Meredith, but Meri's what most people remember." There was something about saying Meredith in an Irish accent that made people automatically think to shorten it to Meri. She didn't particually mind, she wasn't as strong with the accent as Robbie was. Although it did get incredibly annoying when people mistook her accent for English or Scottish.

“Will he be okay if I pass by? Gotta unclip Dolly – the Paint mare that’s next in line to get out of there.”

Meri nodded. "He'll be fine, I'm taking him back anyway." She gave a slight wave of her hand as she turned, leading the stallion away. Albeit lazily. Caro decided to have a stretch first, leaving Meri to wait until the stubborn stallion had finished and started to follow her from the gravel of the parking lot onto the concrete of the stable block. Caro's stable was next to two empty ones on one side and next to her brothers large cross bred police horse. Although, as usual when she arrived, Ash's stable was empty with Robbie's grooming box propping the door open. Caro moved straight to the back of his stall, Meri closed the door, hanging up his headcollar on the hook outside the stall.

Meri made her way out into the light once more. "Tell me if there's anything you want done." She gave Christina a smile, glancing around the trailer at the blue Audi. Damn, she still had the top down. She didn't particually think getting one of Robbie's cars nicked would go down too well. "Just one second." She called, taking the keys out of her pocket, starting up the car and pressing the automatic roof. It clicked softly into place before she killed the engine locking the car and stowing the keys away. "Sorry about that, my brother might kill me if anything happened to one of his many cars."

[pride]

Christina

Christina nodded as Meredith let her know she was moving the stallion, starting to come closer as the other girl thanked her for the compliment and gave Chris her name. Now that she was listening more attentively, she noticed the accent – in all its beautiful lilts and flowing tones. She smiled softly to herself – an Irish accent was something she’d envy the girl for, because it was so beautiful, before laughing at the comment on the stallion’s egotistic nature. “Hey, horses are beautiful creatures – they should be proud of it, right?” Grinning easily, she paused as the other woman turned her horse around, her eyes automatically sliding to the girl’s butt before she shook her head at her own antics and preoccupied herself with unclipping Dolly. No matter how good-looking Meri was, she ought not to let herself get so carried away. It was… rude.

She walked back around and walked into the trailer, where Dolly waited patiently. All Chris had to do was take the lead rope lightly in her hand and cluck softly to her, and the mare began to slowly and precisely back out of the trailer. When she came to the gap between the trailer and the ground she paused, but only long enough to steady herself before stepping down without a fuss. Chris patted the mare’s neck as she hopped down beside her, immediately clipping her to the outside of the trailer and removing her hot pink shipping boots, throwing them into the tack room along with Pete’s purple ones. She tended to color-coordinate her horses – you’d notice this if you paid attention, and it was quite humorous, really.

Walking back to Dolly, she unclipped her and walked her from behind the trailer to see Meredith emerge from the stable hall, smiling at her as she offered help once more, opening her mouth in time to hear Just one second and close it again, waiting for Meri to return before speaking. “It’s cool. Knight’s the black horse that’s next in line – he won’t give you any trouble unloading or anything, he’s a good guy. Just throw his shipping boots in the tack room with the rest of them, if you don’t mind, and thank you so much for helping.” Truly, Chris was grateful – four horses was a good amount to be taking care of all at once, and on your own – even one person assisting her was a great help. She walked Dolly down the hall and led her into the stall next to Pete, who nickered at her. Fortunately he wasn’t overly chatty with the mare – he’d become accustomed to her presence over time and wouldn’t, if past times together said anything, try anything stupid.

Christina un-haltered Dolly and closed her stall door – the mare had settled pretty much immediately. She found the tack room again and put Dolly’s hot pink halter and lead rope – I told you it would match – in with Pete’s, walking back down the aisle and out into the morning sun again. She smiled at Meri when she came into sight. “He’s not giving you any trouble, is he?” If Knight picked today of all days to do something stupid, Chris would be supremely pissed. “If you want to put him up, I saw his stall about halfway down. Just look for Daring Knight.” She smiled and paused to make sure the girl didn’t have any questions.

Word Count: 567
Comments: --

[pride]

(( [OOC] Just bumping this. :3 [/OOC] ))