The capital was torn but healing. Routines hadn’t found quite the same normalcy as once before but wounds didn’t heal overnight. Each hour passing in the same fashion a spoke a tired wheel in motion turned. The passing weeks had been like having your hair braided tightly; pulling and stretching your scalp creating an itch that needed scratching only to be replaced by a dull, throbbing pain. The letters to her brother brought her temporary relief. There was only one cure for what ailed her.

Some time outside of the city.

Clearing her schedule for the day wasn’t that difficult. Her father was preoccupied, and the rest of the family had their own plots and courtly intrigues to be up to. So the pint-sized Leventi slipped away with Byrony to the stables. The horses were prepared in advance, a trusted older gelding for Byrony and Altair… Altair had been her trusted riding companion for the last six years.

He’d once been a stunning example of a Leventi stallion and had brought a great price to a charioteer. Unfortunately, he’d not taken well to the circus and was returned in a shape that had left him almost unrecognizable. It wasn’t so much the sport that she wasn’t fond of but the glory that it brought the people in it. Some horses were meant for that sort of life and some weren’t sadly glory could make people do horrendous things. Altair had become her personal project. For almost two years after he’d arrived back home, she’d doctored first his physical ailments and then the emotional ones. He wasn’t ever going to be that carefree, stunning example of horseflesh he once was. The missing pieces of hair on the now small scars insured that along with his emotional scars. Sudden movements from strangers or the feel of a chariot behind him still sent him into a state of panic but he tried and that was what mattered to her.

Evie swung up on him with general ease and they were off, hopefully, to put as much space between her and this city as possible. Altair lurched forward as if he was as anxious to leave this city behind as well. They made their way through the city streets as quietly as they could taking a few of the lesser known streets to avoid some of the heavier foot traffic.

Once outside of the city though she didn’t bother holding him together anymore and he lurched forward coming upwards into the softness of her hands and being guided not by the reins but rather the subtle shifts of weight in her saddle. Byrony was probably going to smother her in her sleep for this but there were days when a girl simply had to let her hair down.

The world flew by in a blur of bright green, and she nudged Altair off the main road to be able to enjoy the small hills and green pasture land. The stallion’s coat was starting to darken from sweat and her bones had melted into putty. Easing to a stop, she glanced behind her and saw Byrony bouncing like a sack of potatoes and winced. You’d think for a girl born into the Leventi household slaves she’d have developed a bit more riding skills with as often as they rode together.

Letting Altair drop his head to snatch at some of the grass, Evie let her body sink into the saddle a little deeper. She’d needed this. Needed to clear her head and find a place where she was in her own element.

After a moment, she picked the reins up once more and kicked her feet free of the stirrups and let her legs dangle in full relaxation. Shifting her weight, she bent him to the right and then the left in easy stretches. Then to walk forward, raising and elegantly extending each front leg above and beyond what his usual step was. Slipping her feet back into her stirrups she’d played around enough with the simple little things and it was time to play with some more advanced work. Asking him to collect his large frame and trot with elevation without moving forward. Altair wasn’t exactly in perfect rhythm but this wasn’t an easy maneuver, especially with his size.

Swinging easily down from him she found her a long narrow stick from the nearby shrub trees to use and carefully, standing near his head she asked him again to try the high school movement. It was easier for him with the narrow stick there to touch him rhythmically on the leg. After a few almost exact steps, she stopped him and wrapped her arms around his neck, whispering sweet nothings into his mane.

Byrony who’d joined her shook her head, “That horse would jump the moon if you asked him too.”

Evie laughed, “The moon isn’t necessary but I definitely wouldn’t mind a decent dancing partner.” Softly turning his head to face her with her hands on each side of his face she pressed her head against his. “You’d dance with me, wouldn’t you…I promise not to step on your toes.”