New Beginnings [Andre]

[kiramorgan]

Bringing her car to a halt in the parking lot of the barn, Kira slumped in her the leather seat of the black Camaro. It’d been a long drive, from Ocala FL to Addison TX. She was glad it was finally over, though she knew it would still be a few long hours before she would relax. Behind her a truck and trailer pulled in and stopped carefully, the driver rolling his eyes at the familiar squeal of his precious cargo. Kira heard the sound of hooves meeting trailer and scrambled out of the car. The last thing she needed after a two day drive was her horse to tear himself or the trailer up. Alex and Gavin, the two grooms she’d borrowed from her trainer’s farm in Ocala to bring Armani west with her, already had the ramp down and were wisely standing back to let her unload her own horse. She hopped up into the trailer, whistling softly to the big rose grey stallion inside and carefully backed him out.

Armani’s first reaction to finally being off the god awful trailer was to go straight up into the air. Kira yanked down on the lead once, muttering to the stallion about manners. His front feet met the earth again and he snorted, tossing his head and bumping her arm with his muzzle. Kira took off in the direction of the barn, the stallion jogging beside her, muscles coiled like springs under a coat that seeped good care and grooming. He was gorgeous and he knew it, and frequently used that fact to his advantage. Kira waved a hand at the guys, a wordless signal that she had it under control. Not that either one of them were going to go near her horse, Armani was..testy..about people; even worse when Kira was around. He was a bit like a jealous lover, daring anyone to come near his Kira. She knew that this attitude wasn’t really a good thing, but she let him get away with it because he’d been that way for seven years, had a heart of gold and could jump the freaking moon.

She found his stall and spun him around in the aisle, clipping cross ties to him so she could work. Running her hands down each shoulder, hip and leg she checked for bumps, scrapes, bruises – anything that wasn’t there when they left; carefully unwrapping the black polos around his lower legs and tossing them to the side. The horse stood patiently, watching the guys as they unloaded his stuff. Grain, tack trunks, saddles. All of the fun stuff that went with owning a horse. She dug her brushes out of a trunk and set to work on him. He really need a bath, but Kira was far too tired for that so a good grooming would have to do. She finished quickly, she hadn’t spent ten years grooming her trainer’s horses for the show ring to have learned nothing about efficiency. She re-wrapped his legs when she was done; he had a bad habit of stocking up when he was stalled after being in a trailer for extended periods of time.

She stepped back and surveyed her work and then unclipped him, letting him dive into his new stall, where he instantly came nose to nose with another stallion. She grinned; while the stupid horse had an issue with human boys, he didn’t mind equine boys. Probably because they understood his body language better. He let out a content sigh, telling her he was happy with his new neighbor and then dug into his hay. Kira slid down onto his tack box, one leg hanging over the side, the other propped up so she could rest her arm on it. She leaned against the stall and watched Armani eat, running a hand through her auburn hair. She was exhausted yes, but she wasn’t going to leave until she was sure he was settled into his new home.

[notre]

This was it! He was finally a legal American citizen. He got his card and grinned proudly. He did it! After a few months of preparation for himself and his horses, he stood in New York's Central park that early morning and looked around. Things looked so different. People of all colours and races walked freely around the park. People walked dogs, rode horses or bicycles. He sat on a park bench eating a chocolate ice cream cone. His eyes moving from one thing to the next. So much activity. He licked his ice cream and smiled at a kid riding a pony close by. His friends running around after the tiny white horse. Salvador, his own horse, was already on his way to his new home. Andre's plane left in about three hours. Although he was getting impatient!

Would he like America? Would America like him? He wasn't a very good English speaker. He knew the basics, but all the slang and big and most other words confused him. Like thirty different words meant one thing. It was too much! He finished up his wonderful chocolate ice cream and jumped to his feet. Watching a squirrel dart past, its mouth filled with nuts. Andre giggled and jogged after it, wanting to get a better look. The rodent scampered up the nearest tree and had already vanished among the maze of thick branches when Andre caught up.

Two hours later he was on a plane looking at his Spanish to English dictionary and guide. He stared hard at one of the words on the page. "todo el mundo." he said to himself in Spanish, looking at the familiar word on the page. It could mean a lot. He recognized the letter 'e' and remembered that it was an English vowel, but it had two sounds. He focused on the English word and tried to pronounce it. "Eh-ver." he began, narrowing his eyes. Ever! He knew that! Ever ever ever! Andre felt a wave of pride wash over him. This was easy. "Ever-why?" he asked seeing the 'y' on the page. The word notes said that the sometimes vowel made a lot of sounds. "Ever-yeh." he muttered then shook his head. That wasn't right either.

He closed his book and looked to the window. The pilot's voice came on. Speaking English. Andre only got a few bits of what it meant "Hello every eye you to put you r see t b ts on," he frowned but ignored it. Suddenly he flipped open his book back to what he was looking at. Every! It was every! A tap came to his shoulder. He looked up. A flight attendant told him what the pilot said in English. Andre frowned then said " Yo no hablo Inglés" the young woman smiled then motioned to his seat belt. [/b]"OH!"[/b] Andre grinned. Seat belt. "Gracias" he said but she was already walking away.

The plane landed in Dallas. Andre caught a cab. The bilingual taxi driver took him just where he needed to go. Andre was basically bouncing in his seat as the trees shot past. He found himself counting cars. Uno dos tres cuatro.... He counted cheerfully. then the cab stopped at the barn. Andre payed his kind driver and darted inside. Looking for his horse. He saw a bunch of other horses and a young woman. Then he saw his big bay stallion in a stall. "Salvador!" Andre went to his mount and went to stroke his nose. Sal, instead, threw his entire head out the the stall and lipped at Andre's fingers, making him laugh quietly. He then turned to the young woman by the other stall.

Might as well say hi! He gave her a smile and a quick wave. "Hola señora."

[kiramorgan]

She’d been sitting there for a little while, absentmindedly texting friends in Miami in between watching Armani make goofy faces at the stallion in the next stall over. She grinned at her own horse ”You’re a dork when you’re not trying to eat people.” The stallion snorted at her and went back to his face making. She heard tires crunch on the gravel outside and turned her head to one side so she could see the door out of the corner of her eye. One of Armani’s ears swiveled toward the sound and he let out a breath.

He stepped to the front of the stall and shoved his head out, watching a strange guy dart past Kira, to the bay stallion. His nostrils quivered as he reached out toward him, ears pricked, stretching his head and neck as far as they could go. He wanted the new human to pay attention to him. Kira blinked, Armani was acting very…not normal. For any other horse that probably wasn’t all that strange, but for Armani? His usual mode of greeting someone that close to his stall was to come out ears pinned and teeth bared at whoever it was. He shook his head up and down a few times, nearly begging to have his nose patted, or something.

Kira grinned back at him, this could be very interesting. ”Hi.”