Setting Sun

Horse Crash

It was cheesy, but Bernardo seemed to be just about born in the saddle. He didn't take long to pick up on the sensitivity level of his new mare and soon the horse was working under him like they had been partnered up for years instead of less than a day.

Leslie briefly wondered if they had the same touch, and that was why Luxury was so close to her. Maybe it was a mix of that and they were the sole familiar thing in this crapsack world.

Neither rider spoke for several minutes as they made their way over the terrain, the horses carefully picking their way down rocky caverns or over railroad tracks. When night fell, Bernardo pulled his horse to a stop near a thick cluster of trees and helped Leslie down.

"I hope you don't mind not sleepin' in a tent," he said as he started undoing his horse's girth. "I couldn't find one that wasn't already set up."

Leslie shrugged. "Might as well start getting used to it, now that I'm here."

"Why do you wear that thing on your head?"

"What thing?"

Bernardo paused in his task to walk over and knock on Leslie's helmet. They flinched away at the sound. "Oh, this. It's my helmet."

"Your what?"

Were they not invented by this time? "Helmet. It keeps my brain safe in case Luxury throws me off and I land wrong."

Bernardo shook his head slowly. "You have such a weird way of talkin'."

"It's true!"

"So you could throw yourself off a cliff and it'll keep you safe."

"Well, no," Leslie scoffed. "They aren't designed for people to be idiots with. They're designed for horseback riders."

"I don't get it."

"Well you know how fast horses can go, right?" Leslie walked after him as he pulled the bulky-looking saddle off his horse's back and carried it away. "Do you wanna imagine being sent flying off at that speed?"

"Why ride horses at all if you're worried about your head?" Bernardo put the saddle down and turned to her. "The point of riding is trust between you and your horse. A helmet ain't gonna stop a horse if it really wants to kill you."

"No--I know that, it's not the lack of trust that's an issue--"

"Where do you come from where your trust is so bad that you need to wear body armour just to ride a horse?"

Leslie ground their teeth. "Never mind."

"No, seriously. Where are you from?" Bernardo crossed his arms. "Because I ain't never seen anyone dressed the way you were before, let alone a girl."

"You'll laugh."

"No more than I did after I first saw you."

"I'm from the future."

Bernardo stared blankly at them. Leslie took a deep breath and continued. There was no going back now.

"Luxury and I, we aren't from here in every sense of the word. I'm supposed to be in 2016, not...What year is it, 1870? I'm way away from home, and so is Luxury. She's not even my horse, I stole her by accident because her rider said I couldn't ride her and I decided to do it anyway out of spite. I don't know what happened, I just know that one moment we're riding across a farmer's field free as birds and the next we're about 200 years back in the past."

"I'm not pulling your leg," she insisted when Bernardo stifled a laugh. "You saw how I was dressed. Look at Luxury, you remember how sleek she was before she rolled? Look at her tack, doesn't it look weird to you? If I had my phone on me I'd show it to you."