This is It

[stephanie]

A mare stood uneasily in the pasture... Her ears were folded back, her stomach wide.. Lately weird things had been happening. She had been moved to a different barn.. When not in the barn she was in the front paddocks, the ones closest to the house. She used to always make her home in the back paddocks and pastures... She stood in the mud and stomped her hoof. Where was Mistress with her meal?

Stephanie Grewell sat in her tree house typing on a lap top. The time had barely occurred to her. Glory was pregnant and halfway through it.. In a few weeks she'd be having a foal. Sighing, she put her laptop away and looked at the time on her watch. Gasping, she cursed and set her laptop in a drawer, going to the barn. She grabbed a bucket and filed it with fresh hay, another smaller bucket and filled it with vitamins and oats, all in one hand, one bucket stacked on the other, and a bucket filled with fresh water in her other hand.

Whinnying loudly, Glory was getting irritated. She paced back and forth before her ears perked forward. Footsteps? Was that what she heard? Yes! It was! She breathed a snort of relief and walked towards the fence. Something inside her gave her a belly ache and seemed to move. Move?! How was that possible?! She whinnied again, this time in pain. This illness was getting to her. It had been going on for some time. And all Mistress could do was smile and praise her about it!

Coming to the gate, she sat down the bale of hay and oats and opened the gate, walking inside to find Glory right at her back, following her everywhere. "Yeah, yeah.. I know you're hungry..." She murmered. "Its only five minutes later then usual you know..." She said with a slight grimace. "Picky, picky girl." She said as Glory sniffed the food and went to the water. Pulling out a carrot, she dropped it into the food bucket. Sunset Glory had been drinking water, but hastened to the sight of a carrot and dug in hungrily to her food.

[ayla]

The barn owner was late. Again. By only five minutes, granted, but late. Would she really put... whatever she was doing before the health of her horses? It took a low person to relax before taking care of what could not take care of itself. Jacqui had just finished mucking out stalls (again, dammit, she had been told there would be stablehands) and was about to feed the pregnant mare herself.

Jacqui was actually headed toward the feed room when she noticed that somehow, Stephanie had gotten down to the barn and remembered that she actually had animals depending on her! Jacqui grabbed a small bucket for her mare anyways, combining grain with flax seed with expert hands. Her mare and Stephanie's mare were in adjoining pastures, much to Jacqui's distress. The barn owner was just... annoying sometimes.

Nellie raced up to the fence and hung her head over the side. The bay muzzle plunged into the bucket, unwilling to wait. As usual. Jacqui opened the gate and slipped inside, pushing aside the mare with her hip. Nellie grunted and pushed back a little, but finally gave to Jacqui's insistent hand. The mare waited semi-patiently as Jacqui hooked up the bucket to the fence. As Nellie plunged her head into the bucket again, Jacqui turned to Stephanie.

"Might want to get her a vet check before she delivers. While you're at it, most of the boarders are due for spring vaccines," Jacqui said. Not that you'd know. I'm going to be the one delivering the foal... you're going to be late, as usual, she added mentally. This woman was just too young to be managing a barn of this size. Jacqui, at least, had experience; from what she knew, Stephanie had never even helped work a barn before she inherited the facility.

[Nevvy]

ETHAN BREWER

A sleek new F-150 slithered up the driveway as he looked around. This was the place he was told to come. It had horses, it had freedom. And he was told the owner was pretty cute too. He stuck his head out the window quickly, feeling the evening rays warm up his face a little bit, black hair moving in the small breeze that was worked up by the moving truck. He held nothing in the back and all he really had was his bag that held his stuff. Moving onto a new city, to some new ladies, giving them the best days of their lives before leaving them to remember fondly the memories they had made together. Pretty much for him, each one blended in with the next. It was the chase that was enticing. Once he had them he stayed with them for a little while before moving on to the next woman who presented the chase.

But here, he was looking for something in the form of a temporary job. Okay so he would say it was a permanent job, just a little white lie. But they were all temporary. Every place became boring after a while. He would only work in a place that had animals though, because those were his main source of love. He never planned on getting really involved with a woman because then it came to “I love you’s” and “This is our song” and wedding vows and anniversaries and dates he could never remember. These were all the things that they were looking for, and these were all that he could not stand. Every woman had different opportunities, different traits, different hobbies, different reasons to be loved. He wanted to give every woman the chance to be loved by him because he would truly appreciate what each woman had. Now not every man could say that, could he? Not only that but they would immensely enjoy being with him, no doubt about that.

He finally pulled up his truck to a place that he could hear voices and let the remnants of a song end. Pulling out his cowboy hat, he sat it atop his head, looking down. His jeans were navy, his hat was black, and his tight shirt was black also. All the clothes he needed for working. Jumping out of the truck, he closed the door lightly, not even bothering to lock it, because even in this small town there could not be someone who would be able to jump in the truck as quickly as he would be able to make it to it. Walking lightly, he hooked his thumbs inside his pockets, following the curt voices. Now he was told only one pretty woman worked here, was this her other half? Well wouldn’t that be a coincidence. He smiled a little, his white teeth showing. Finally he found two women, and he smiled sincerely, a very welcoming smile. Well good evening ladies. He stated, his voice charming, going up to the fence post, far enough away. Putting on a confused look, he looked at them. Hope you don’t mind if I join you. I am Ethan Brewer and I’m completely alone in this town and I seem to have lost my way. Do either of you know where Faithful Hope Stables is? I heard it was a wonderful place to work with horses and the owner is supposed to be quite charming too, a Stephanie Grewell. He asked, looking hopelessly lost and confused as he looked at them, turning around to lean against the fence post, his arms cross against his chest as he let out a sigh.

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[stephanie]

The mare behind the fence tossed her head. Her owner dropped something in her food dish and she hurried over to see what it was. To her delight it was a carrot. Suddenly she didn't feel so unhappy that her owner was five minutes late. A woman approached, a strange woman that the mare got the feeling didn't like Mistress. This made Glory mad.. raging mad...

Stephanie looked over as her worker came into the paddock and pastures, not noticing that Glory had tensed up. She looked at her. "You really despise me that much? Not even a morning hello. You know you don't have to..." She stopped mid sentence, a gasp caught in her throat as she froze for just a moment before taking action..

Sunset Glory saw the enemy... The older woman who was feeding the other horse Nellie, as she called her. Glory's ears laid flat, and she charged forward, but an arm stopped her, a face in front of her. It was...

Stephanie gasped and ran between the two, blocking the mares path. "Hey, whoa.. easy..." She said. She looked to the mare patted her neck as she settled down. Before she knew it a strange boy was at the fence calling her place wonderful and her charming.

"Mistress!" The mare snorted, surprised. "I nearly hit her.." Feeling bad, she backed off. Her tail held high. She knew that mistress could not understand her.. But maybe she understood why she was defending her. This... woman.. seemed hostile enough to her.

Stephanie looked back to the boy and walked over to the gate. "Careful sir, its electric. I'm Stephanie, owner of these stables. This is my worker..." She sighed. "It's always kind of crazy around here.. you ready to handle this big of an animal? Do you want to come with me?" She said and winked, "I'll show you around. Ayla, back to work. Don't let a big horse scare you that bad."

She led Ethan to the hideout, where she kissed him passionatly. "I'd like you to be mine... You think I'm beautiful? Prove it... Show me what you can do!" she said and then added, "Lets do it.. go all the way.. right here, right now... You want to, hun?"

[ayla]

Jacqui scoffed at Stephanie's attitude. She didn't hate the barn owner - her demeanor was just annoying and sometimes Jacqui just wanted to quit. She could get a job somewhere else easy enough - who wouldn't want a top-class jumping trainer? "I don't hate you," she muttered quickly.

The change in Glory was apparent as soon as the mare pinned her ears back. Jacqui was surprised that Stephanie wasn't paying more attention; everyone at the barn knew how hot-headed Glory could be. At times, she was even worse than Nellie. Which was saying something. Jacqui was about ready to deliver a strong smack to the mare's chest when Stephanie managed to endanger her life in the worst way: by stepping in between the raging mare and the experienced trainer who knew exactly what she was doing.

At the worst of times, there was a man at the rail, launching straight from 'hi my name is' to full-on flirt. This kind of man, Jacqui knew, was basically the worst kind; she'd had enough to know that. Cheating bastards, they all were. "Yeah. Worker. I'm Jacqui, and if you ever want to learn to ride, I suggest you come to me," she said, totally unaware of the double entendre. "Nellie has a good two inches on Glory. Plus attitude, plus skill that's not just going fast and turning, plus a shitload of training." Stephanie thought her "race-bred super awesome dynamomare" was great, wait until a show came up and Nellie got a chance to show what she could really do.

"Clearly I'm unwanted here. As long as you guys don't... I don't know, have sex in the tack room, I'll probably see you tomorrow. Steven's due for a long gallop in the pasture," Jacqui said. Her goal here was to make things as awkward as possible, but as the two were already headed towards the hide-out, the comment fell flat. She was hoping for at least a disgusted look.