Maglins and the Infinite Quest

18

Pipher Green

After the encounter we had previously, she left me to put away the few things that were still left in my bag as well as the smut book. I was still brutally embarrassed that she had seen it, and not just that, but she had examined it. She was probably going to tease me about it until the day I died.

As I was laying on the bed in my room, Anna walked in and startled me.

"Don't you knock?" I said, throwing my head back and rolling my eyes.

"Come with me," She said, to which I got up and followed her. She took me down the stairs and the outside steps, leading me behind the house, and finally to the barn.

"This is my horse," She said, pointing to a horse, "And this is yours," She said, pointing to the one next to hers.

She got both horses out and ready to leave.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Stop asking so many questions," Anna spoke sarcastically. She was right, I did ask too many questions.

She put a foot in a stirrup and flung herself on her horse, looking over at me to do the same. I put my foot up, nearly falling backwards, and when I tried to pull myself up, I couldn't. I knew she was gonna tease me for this so I gave it another try, this time making it.

"Never ridden a horse before?" She asked before letting out a small laugh.

"Let me guess, you think you're better at riding?" I joked.

"I do," She responded, with a serious look on her face.

"We'll see about that," I said.

We rode the horses into the town as she gave me a tour, showing me each building and giving a quick discussion about it.

"This used to be my childhood friend's house," She pointed to a run down house. "Her and I would walk to the ice cream shop and then to the park," She pointed at a small shop and a playground.

"That's where I broke my leg when I was seven," She said, pointing yet again at the playground and then to her lower leg showing where the injury had been. The tour was long, lasting from the middle to the afternoon until sundown.

"That's the hospital where my younger sister died,"

I pulled my horse to a stop and looked into her eyes. "You never told me you had a sister," I said softly.

Once she had realized what she had said, a look of panic swept over her face.

"I never told you because I don't like talking about it. It hurts me more and more every time," She said.

I wanted to change the conversation but I didn't want to seem rude so we sat in silence for a few moments.

"She would've been twelve," Anna said, breaking the silence for a brief moment.

Unknowing how to comfort her I let her change the conversation.

"We should get back to the house, it's getting dark," Anna said, nudging her horse's side to start moving again, I did the same.

Once we were back at the house, we put the horses in the barn for the night and from the backyard we could smell dinner. As we walked into the front door the scent grew stronger, it wasn't a bad smell, just very strong.

"Come sit down dear," Mrs. Benett said, pulling out a chair for me to sit in.

"Thank you," I spoke. "This smells wonderful,"

We all began to dig into the food, I was unsure what it was but didn't bother asking.

"If you don't like it I could make you something else dear," Mrs. Benett said, looking at me.

"It's really good," I said, "Better than what my mom cooks at home,"

She gave me a grin before picking up her utensils to continue eating. Mr. Bennett was at the end of the table, eating quickly so he could return to the sofa to read the newspaper. He shoved mouthful after mouthful into his mouth and within ten or so minutes he was done.

"Your moms really nice," I said to Anna after dinner was concluded.

"She needs to make sure everybody is happy, that's how she's happy," Anna said.