Chapter 8 ~ Strange Creatures
Iris is awoken early the next day by someone's alarm clock. She groans and rolls over, landing with a thud on the floor. A male chuckles near her head and she looks up to identify the culprit.
"Good morning, sunshine," Noah grins from the other couch. Iris sends him a menacing glare to which he responds with a laugh.
"I can't take you seriously when you look like something is nesting in your hair," he says. Iris reaches up to touch her brown curls and pulls a face in disgust when she realises what a mess it must be, sending Noah into another fit of laughter.
"It's not funny," she says grumpily, rising to her feet. She stomps off in the direction of the on-board tack room, which she and Hannah converted into a closet as soon as everyone moved their tack to the barn.
Inside, she finds Hannah, indecisively staring at her side of the makeshift closet. By the looks of things, both girls are in desperate need of a shower. They exchange knowing looks before Iris turns to stare at her own closet.
"Mr Kingsley said you headed home early last night because you weren't feeling well. Are you okay?" Hannah asks absent-mindedly. Iris is slightly taken aback and wonders why Mr Kingsley would lie like that, but decides to go along with it, not wanting to discuss last night's events.
"Yeah, I think it must have been the nerves," she says.
"Oh. What are you wearing?" Hannah asks her friend, changing the subject as she pulls a pair of white breeches off a saddle stand.
"The only show clothes I own," is Iris' reply. She removes her own pair of white breeches from a rack. The pair is old and slightly too small for her, with a small tear on the shin area. Luckily, Iris knows her tall boots will cover the mark.
Hannah eyes the piece of clothing sceptically. She watches Iris take an equally worn down white riding shirt.
"We seriously need to take you shopping next week. The first trip's on me," Hannah says as she looks away to focus on finding her show jacket and boots.
"Now that," Iris smiles, "sounds promising."
When the girls have gathered all their necessities, they set off to the communal showers, chatting about nonsense all the way.
***
Nerves finally begin to resurface as Iris steps into the large show jumping arena to walk her course with the rest of her team. A tinge of irritation aslo comes into the mix as she watches Kayla approach. Kanan and Noah are by Iris' side and they pause to wait for the redhead, who is texting on her cellphone.
She puts the device away when she comes to stand next to them. Her expression is one of sheer boredom as she looks around the arena at the tall, daunting fences set up inside.
Not saying a word in fear of what might come out, Iris turns swiftly and starts making her way to their first fence, a tall but straightforward upright, decorated Brazilian themed. It's clear that their theme today is around the world by the variety of places represented by each jump.
"Remember to come in straight. Don't rush them if it's not necessarily. The time is very lenient for this round," Iris says. She's still a little uncomfortable with taking the role of an instructor, but she's getting used to it. She remembers how her trainer used to explain the course and tries her best to copy her.
The second and third fences are slightly more complex than the first, one being a wide oxer, the American flag themed poles set only a little lower than the first fence, and the other being a fake red bricked wall. The one leads up to the other so they count the strides it will take each of their horses to travel betwewn them.
A sharp turn to a triple combination is next. The jumps are Egyptian themed, which Iris finds very interesting. She makes a mental note to let Theo check out the odd obstacles as soon as they enter the arena.
Upright, two strides, another upright, one stride to an oxer with pyramids placed beneath it.
A stretch to gallop before they have to jump a water tray. There are fake crocodiles in the tray and two lions next to the jump. Iris groans at the sight. She hopes Theo is in a cooperative mood this morning.
A stretch of six strides before the next jump, which is London themed. After that is a quick bend to a French themed tripple bar. The last jump is set up at a trickey angle, a very sharp turn from the tripple to a Chinese dragon upright.
Everyone heads off in seperate directions to find their horses. King is first up for Iris, much to her relief, giving her time to get a feel for the course before taking it on with a much less trusty Theo.
"Hey there, your highness," Iris kids out of nerves as she opens King's stall door. The pretty palomino stallion moves to greet her, a mouth full of hay coming with him.
She quickly sets to work. Swiftly, but with shaking hands, Iris saddles her horse and finally leads him out of his stall.
"Good morning, Iris," Mr Kingsley is suddenly next to her. In a startled panic, she nearly trips over her own feet, making King stop and give her a curious look. Her already racing heart goes into overdrive as nerves mix with fear of the man next to her.
"M-morning," Iris curses herself for stuttering. This is very unlike her. She's never been so unsure of herself or what to say or do around anyone. Well, no one has ever treated her so unreasonably rough like Mr Kingsley last night. She still had no idea what his problem is.
"I hope you and Emperor are ready for today," he says as if he didn't notice her stutter, reffering to King's full name, Emperor's Golden Touch.
"Yes, sir," Iris replies, trying to sound a little more sure of herself this time. Mr Kingsley nods slowly as they exit the barn together. He suddenly stops, making Iris do the same.
"Would you like me to give you a hand at getting on?" He asks, taking a step closer. For the first time this morning, Iris realises that Mr Kingsley doesn't look like himself at all.
His hair isn't gelled, for starters, and she notices involuntarily that his hair looks much lighter, and honestly better this way. He's dressed down quite a bit, now wearing a pair of jeans and a silky black button up shirt.
"Uh, sure," her tone is hesitant again as Mr Kingsley steps even closer. She turns around and lets herself be helped into the saddle.
"Good luck, then," is the last thing Mr Kingsley says before turning around and disappearing back into the barn.
As she walks her horse down towards the warmup arena, she realises that Mr Kingsley was oddly nice to her just now. Well, nicer than last night, anyway, and she suspects the nicest it will get.
He really is a strange man. She expected him to still be furious with her like he was last night. Instead, he's back to completely unreadable and cold, but not mean or scary like he was last night.
Men are strange creatures, she thinks as she reaches the arena. She wonders why Mr Kingsley didn't mention last night, but excuses it as another one of his odd mood swings. The man puzzles her.
*ð¦*
"The flames in your heart burns so bright that I found you in the dark."
I got no comment right now. Vote because men are the strangest creatures!