If Wishes were horses

[beforetights]

Who: Cu Chulainn and everyone else
Where: The pond and the chocobo barn
When: September 21
Summary: Cu Chulainn misses his horse
Warnings: None for now

1. Chocobo Barn (Closed to Diarmuid)

[It's been a long time since Cu Chulainn has last seen Blackie, so he's decided to get over to the chocobo ranch to pay her a visit. And since he's promised to introduce his brother to his pet, he's brought Diarmuid along.]

[In the barn, Cu Chulainn heads straight for the one stall that looks a little different from all the others. The head poking out over the fence isn't that of a bird, but of a black Irish draft horse colt.]

Look, Brother, there's Blackie. She's grown a bit!

[He waves at his horse, but pouts when he sees her recoiling from him.]

I think she's scared.

2. The Pond (Open to everyone.)

[Now that autumn has come again, the weather has gotten chillier. Around the pond, birds fly to and fro, darting through the falling leaves. Cu Chulainn has been gathering the leaves to make a huge leaf pile.]

Hm...still small.

[Not satisfied with the size of his leaf pile, he starts clambering up a tree so he can tear down the leaves that haven't even dropped yet. However, in the process, he ends up stuck sitting on a branch, not sure how to get back down.]

Help!

[He starts calling for help

Comments

[beforetights]

Okay...

[He whimpers as he catches another look at the ground.]

But I don't want you to get hurt either! Is there some way you can fall without hurting anyone?

[shadowsgambit]

Don't worry. Trolls are made of pretty tough stuff.

[Not to mention, she knows how to properly fall, at least. It's a thing you learn when you have to make split second decisions in battle sometimes.

She holds Cu Chulainn tight and lets herself drop, hitting the ground with bent knees - actually on bent knees as the force of the landing brings her down, a hand bracing her against the ground. It might have injured human legs, but hers will probably just be sore. Troll bones are dense and hard to break.]

[beforetights]

[He squeals as Fortuna jumps down. He would close his eyes, but he didn't have the time. When they land, he has to shake his head to stop feeling dizzy.]

Th-thank you, Lady Fortuna. You really do know how to land.

[shadowsgambit]

Yeah. [She doesn't think an explanation is in order, really. She carefully sets him down.] You okay?

[beforetights]

Yes, I'm okay.

[He looks over at her face.]

Are you okay?

[shadowsgambit]

[She seems fine, getting up and dusting her pants off.] Just fine, little guy. What were you doing up in that tree, anyway?

[beforetights]

[He laughs.]

I was getting leaves! I wanna make a big pile to jump in! It's really fun.

[shadowsgambit]

[All that for leaves?]

...You know you're supposed to wait until they fall to make a pile, right?

[beforetights]

I did wait! And a lot of leaves fell. But they didn't make a big enough pile!

[So that's a perfectly good reason to climb a tree and get more leaves.]

[shadowsgambit]

You know there'll be more soon. There's still a couple months left in fall.

[She pauses and shrugs.]

Living leaves aren't as fun anyway, right? They don't crunch.

[...She isn't sure how she feels about how well she's getting along with this kid. She never saw herself as someone who was good with kids.]

[beforetights]

[He crosses his arms and pouts.]

But I don't wanna wait!

[shadowsgambit]

Sorry, kid. You've gotta. Nature runs on its own schedule and doesn't listen to anyone.

[beforetights]

[He pouts for a few more minutes. Then, he starts gathering up the leaves on the ground again.]

Okay, I guess I'll have to use a smaller pile this time. Do you wanna play with me? We can take turns jumping.

[shadowsgambit]

Pretty sure I'm too big to jump in little leaf piles...

[Or at all. She's got to preserve some of her dignity in this place...]

[beforetights]

Oh come on. Pleeeeeease?

[He tries to give her puppy eyes.]

[shadowsgambit]

Cute, kid. But c'mon, look at me here.

[She sighs, wondering what to do, as Violet trots up to her with a little wark?

As she glances over at the chocobo, she gets an idea.]

I'll let you ride on Violet here to make up for it, though.

[beforetights]

Really?

[His expression brightens.]

I wanna ride!

[He stands on his tiptoes.]

Can you give me a lift?

[shadowsgambit]

Heh. Sure. [She picks him up and sets him on Violet's back, the chocobo squirming a little at having a rider - but since he's small, she doesn't complain. She figures, though, he'd rather not fly after that.]

Make a lap around the pond, Violet.

[She takes a second to plug into the control deck and rig into her Steel Lynx, giving the chocobo a simple command of "Follow" while she wheels off to lead Violet around the pond. Chocobos are smart enough to understand certain complex commands, but this lets her keep an eye on things.]

[beforetights]

[Cu Chulainn laughs and kicks his legs as he rides on the running chocobo. The ground around the pond is smooth, so there's no danger of tripping, but the chocobo does get too close to the water at one point, causing Cu Chulainn to get splashed by a startled duck. Though the pond isn't small, he still feels like the lap is over too fast when it ends.]

Yay! That was fun!

[He reaches to squeeze the water out of his ponytail.]

[shadowsgambit]

Glad you liked it. [She sets the drone to follow her again and heads over to help Cu Chulainn off the chocobo.] Sorry about getting too close to the water there.

[beforetights]

[He giggles.]

It's okay! I didn't get too wet! And the duck was funny.

[With her help, he hops off the chocobo safely.]