Skyborn

Skyline - Chapter Five

I was sent to work on the farm; I would help Tyrell and Maia feed and clean out their chickens and pigs, they also had horses on their farm. Maia got a woolly jumper and the knee high shoes out of the closet back in my room. She told me to wear them because farming is dirty work, she had laughed at herself. We walked outside.

I was set to feed the chickens, by throwing corn onto the ground for them to peck at. They were lovely birds, all plump and noisy. They clucked and squawked, flapping their helpless wings. It was actually quite funny, and I laughed at them.

"They are silly animals, aren't they?" Maia said, wiping her hands on her apron. I nodded. She looked over at Tyrell, who was cleaning out the pigs' pen. She sighed and thanked me for helping.

"It's only fair," I said, "As thanks for letting me stay here, and giving me clothes." She smiled in agreement. Maia was a very smiley person, I had noticed. Even though she seemed upset about Cynthia and Tyrell. She took the bag of grain from me and told me to help Tyrell.

"Hi" I tried to communicate. He said nothing; he didn't even look up at me.

"Maia said I should help you." I added, hoping for some kind of response. He handed me a broom. I swept the floor of the pen like he did. Brushing all the straw and food, and the pigs' excrement to one side, he then picked up a spade and shoveled it into a bucket, on wheels, it was square in shape and had only one wheel, he picked the back of it up and rolled it away. I propped the brush up on the wall, next to his.

"Kaliska!" Maia called over to me from behind the house, she gestured for me to come over.

Behind the house was a courtyard, surrounded by a building, with doors, split in half, horizontally. The doors had name tags above them; General, Aero, Nessus, Cranberry, and Vermeer.

"What is this?" I asked, confused.

"It's our stable" Maia said, awed that I knew so little, "Where we keep or horses." I knew what horses were; they looked like the creatures on Theseus. I had been there once with Aris, it's a very peaceful place. From what I'd seen the creatures on Theseus were quite beautiful; tall, long legged, sleek, fast, strong. I loved what I saw, and what Aris told me. They were timid though, afraid of us, we never got close enough to capture one.

Maia led me to one of the stalls, with Cranberry painted on the sign above. She opened the top half of the door carefully and revealed a pretty, light grey horse, almost white, laying in the straw. Cranberry was stroking the head of the smallest horse I'd ever seen, with her nose. The little horse was so very sweet, it was grey too, but darker, and it had little blotches of white on its side.

"It's beautiful." I said to Maia.

"It is." She replied, "We don't know what to call the foal, Cranberry was Cynthia's horse, and I just can't think of any good names for him."

"Him?" I asked.

"The foal, Cranberry's baby. It's a boy." She said, leaning on the wall.

"Oh." I said,

"You choose a name for him, if you'd like?" she . I leaned on the door, looking into the stall further. I thought of Aris, and what she'd call the Foal. She loved the sky; she'd probably name it Aura or something romantic like that. I looked at the foal. It was resting it's head on the straw as Cranberry nibbled at his hair. Sky, I thought, the dots on his side reminded me of the stars. Sky.

"Sky." I said, not looking away from the foal.

"Sky?" Maia asked. I tried to think of names.

"Skylar" I said, looking at her.

"That's sweet, I like it" Maia said, looking at the foal, "It suits him" She smiled at me. I smiled back.

"He's beautiful, isn't he?" Tyrell said behind us. We both turned around. I nodded.

"Indeed." I answered.

Skylar grew faster than I thought he would, I cared for him and helped train him. He was strong and beautiful. I used to watch Skylar and Cranberry in the paddock, eating side by side. They galloped together, and stood by each other always. As Skylar got older he got more independent and he had his own stall and name tag above it, painted by me in sky blue and stars dotted around the swirly letters. By then I'd read every book on the bookshelf in my room.

"He's yours now," Tyrell smiled, his arms crossed over his chest. I didn't know how to reply so we just continued brushing him.

"He's lighter now, than when he was younger, I mean" I contributed, trying to make conversation.

"Yes, I thought he was going to be black, like his father, Vermeer" Tyrell added.

"Like black beauty" I smiled at him from the other side of Skylar.

"Exactly like that, except Vermeer doesn't have the white diamond," Tyrell patted Skylar's side, and he replied with a whinnie of gratitude. It was obvious Tyrell loved books as much as horses.

"I've run out of books, I finished wuthering heights last night," I sighed.

"You can look at the ones in my bookshelf, I've got some more modern novels than Bronte," Tyrell kept on about his favourite novels in his bookshelf for the rest of the day. Until we finished on the farm and headed home to look through his bookshelf, but he still wouldn't stop talking, with "You have to read this" and "You'll love that", I chose the first Harry Potter book eventually, he applauded my choice.

"Cynthia loved these-" He stopped, and sighed, "You really do look like her," he'd said, not meeting my eyes.

He didn't speak to me again after dinner.

Me and Tyrell started talking more after that; most of our conversations were about the horses. I fell in love with them, all of them. I learnt all of their names and personality within a month. Tyrell taught me how to ride, I learnt on Aero, a lively piebald horse. A piebald is white with brown splodges, Tyrell taught me. He taught me how to tack up the horse and how to clean the tack, how to muck out the stall, how to walk the horse, how to trot, how to jump, gallop, canter; everything.

 He even once called me a natural.

"Okay, now line Aero up with the jump," Tyrell said, coolly, he was in his element with the horses. We were in the field with the tallest jump I'd ever seen. I had to be one with Aero, he'd gotten to know me and I him, this was the final test. I could sense Maia watching us from the fence.

"Trust Aero and you'll be fine" He said. I closed my eyes and remembered all that he taught me; the first day that we tried jumping, everything.

I opened them again, and pushed Aero forward into a gallop. Faster and faster we went. The jump got closer, and closer. Then I urged him up and over the jump, it was instinct for him to jump. He did so. Tyrell started clapping before we hit the ground.