Thursday morning, my back was still a little sore, but Merida and I went out anyway. We headed out as soon as everyone else was up.
"So..what'cha wanna do first? The only thing I really planned on was shootin'. If ye wanted to do that, a'course."
"Sounds like fun," I agreed with a grin.
We did that first - I don't know how long we swapped the bow and arrow back and forth, shooting and giggling. We mostly giggled at my failure to aim the arrow. :D
Merida was laughing so hard at the fact that I stank at shooting...
Um, yeah.
She about died laughing when I accidentally shot that one off.
After that, we had a good, long chat about the girls and just stuff in general, too; after we were done shooting.
"Y'wanna find that horse Maximus for me? I'll get his buckin' issue fixed." Merida asked randomly.
Okay...
"N-no...I don't think we should," I shook my head.
"Angus used to have the same problem. He just needs a rider to hang on and show 'im he ain't gonna get a break from ridin' just cause he bucked ya off."
"I just don't want you to get hurt." I shrugged my shoulders up to my ears. She couldn't get hurt, especially since her legs were bad enough as it is.
"Oh, phooey. It'll be nothin'!" Merida grabbed my arm and started to walk.
"Fine," I grumbled. "But I'm not happy about it!" I pulled away from her and led her to Maximus.
He was where we'd left him yesterday.
Merida strode over to him boldly, letting him sniff her hand.
"Yer a nice lookin' horse, but I hear ye've got some buckin' issues," Merida told him, and he looked away.
I giggled, staying somewhat away, and Merida hopped aboard.
She rode him around and around, at all paces. Finally, he did throw a super-hard buck, and I gasped. Merida fell forwards, but stayed in the saddle.
"Don't ye be doin' that now.... I'm tellin' ye, ye won't get the better of me!" I heard her yell at him as he went into another buck.
Oh boy. A willful horse and a willful, stubborn rider? Who would win first - the million dollar question, if you ask me.
"Be -ooh! Be careful!" I called as he bucked some more.
"He ain't gettin' away with it!" Merida yelled back to me, and then she reached her hand down and pulled one of his reins to her hip joint, holding it there until he stopped moving.
"Good boy. Now, git goin'," she told him with a nudge.
He moved off, and as soon as he began bucking, she'd stop him. He had to turn in small circles until he stopped, though, so he hated that. Within about a half an hour, he was behaving perfectly.
Merida hopped off of him, giving him a pat.
"Well, ye got yerself a willful horse, there,"
"I..see that," I laughed. "And a willful friend."
"Got that right. Ye can't let anyone - including horses - take advantage of ye."
"You've got a point there," I told her.
"Well, ye gonna ride?" Merida asked. "I wanna see if my handiwork worked."
My heart started to pound. What if I fell again?
"W-well..."
"Get on 'im, lass!" Merida exclaimed. "If ye fall, Flynn can chew me out."
She gave me a shove towards him, and I climbed aboard.
He was a perfect angel for me. We walked, trotted, cantered...everything, and he was just perfect. I felt like I was flying! It was pretty fun to ride, when you weren't getting bucked off at every turn!
"You're awesome!" I exclaimed, patting him vigorously. "Wait'll Flynn hears how good you were! Oh, and Merida - you're awesome, too! I can't believe that that's all it took!"
"Lil' bit of work never hurt anybody...Mister Max here probably had someone timid that rode 'im, so when he'd buck, they'd get scared, get off, and he'd be done working. Bad habits get started that way."
"Ahhh," I nodded in agreement. I guess that did make sense.
As we continued in our day, a weird feeling kept growing inside my stomach. Maybe it was because I'd been gone away from Flynn AND the kids for all day? I'd never been away from my entire family for the whole day - usually it was Flynn and I.
"Ye feelin' alright?" Merida finally asked me after awhile.
"Yeah...It just feels so weird being away from Flynn and the girls," I confessed.
"Same here - it feels really, really weird to be away from Allie. But let's enjoy our free time while we can!"
"For sure," I agreed, laughing.
Sometime around nine, Merida piped up about the fact that Tangled Fan had been on her laptop a LOT lately.
"Well, yeah...since her guinea pigs got sick, she's been trying to find reasons why and vets that take guinea pigs in the area. I've looked on her history page," I admitted. "That, Blogger, some social media thing, and something called Pinterest? Oh, and eBay."
"eBay, y'say? Great." Merida grumbled.
"What?"
"If she's on there a lot, she's usually plannin' on sellin' somethin', usually us."
I gasped. "But...who?"
"Could be anyone. I just hope she remembers that our kids aren't up for grabs on that website."
I was horrified. What if she forgot that we'd adopted the girls? What if she even sold Flynn or me on there?
"Don't worry, she'll not sell any of the kids without answerin' to me!" Merida said.
"And me," I said, my heartbeat quickening as I worried. But my place was NOT threatening a full-size human - human vs a little, foot-tall plastic doll? Hah. "We better head back..it's going to be too dark to even see."
"Yup," Merida said, and we hurried back to the dresser.
It was quarter-till-ten when we got to the dresser. Everyone else was asleep, and I felt a twinge of sadness - I had hardly gotten to see the girls today, and the same with my hubby.
I crept under the bench, trying not to wake him, curled up on my side, and went to sleep despite my worries.
For a little bit, anyway.
I ended up having an awful nightmare that Flynn and all of the girls had been sold on eBay, and shipped out before anything had sunken in with Tangled Fan; and I'd just woken up to find them all gone.
I sat up abruptly, clammy-skinned and breathing heavily, my heart pounding.
"What's the matter?" I whirled to look, and Flynn was awake, staring at me.
"N-nothing," I managed, drawing my knees to my chest and wrapping my arms around them tightly.
"Must be something, since you started gasping out 'no, can't be! no, no no!' in your sleep."
"Sorry," I said.
"No worries. But tell me, please?"
I sighed, and he sat up. "Fine." I spilled the whole thing out to him. I figured I'd probably had a nightmare like that because of what Merida and I had discussed earlier, so I threw that in as well.
"Oh, honey, don't worry about stuff like that." His face held an expression of concern, and then he drew me up onto his lap.
My heart still thundered, and I buried my face in his shirt, hugging him as tightly as I possibly could. He did just about the same to me, resting his chin on top of my head and rocking from side to side.
"We're not going anywhere, baby. Don't worry yourself so much that you end up with nightmares about it, okay? There's no use worrying over the uncontrollable, anyway. Here, look at me," he took my chin and drew my face up to look at him.
"What?" I asked, still trying to keep the scared tears from coming, after the nightmare.
"Nothing's gonna happen, okay? So don't get upset and don't cry," he told me, brushing the hair away from my face.
I nodded, swallowing and trying to stop being so upset.
He reached down to give me the world's most tender kiss, and I leaned into him, returning it when he started to pull away. When our lips finally parted, he stared down at me, blinking sleepily.
"You need to get to sleep, and I'm just being silly," I told him, starting to get off of his lap.
"No, you're not being silly. And I'm staying up with you as long as you need me to." he told me, touching my cheek with his hand and dabbing my lips with a quick little kiss. Amazing how just that made a tingle zing up my spine, despite myself.
I pulled his hand off of my cheek and held it, and he gave it a reassuring squeeze.
I got off of his lap, and he flopped down on his back. I took in a deep breath, trying to calm myself, but then he gave my hand a gentle tug, pulling me down beside him. He wrapped me up really tightly in his arms and I allowed him to draw me close to his side, which he did, adding a kiss in the hair before I rested my head on his chest, letting his heartbeat and the sweet nothings he was whispering soothe my nerves until I was able to go back to sleep.
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