Eight in the morning felt very early for Willow, who had been sleeping in quite late since college finished. She had woken up at seven to make sure that she was at the stables for the time that the girls had agreed on, she was the only one of her siblings awake and Willow wasn't even sure if her mum was awake – their dad had already headed out to work.
For breakfast she just had some cereal as she always felt a little nauseous during the early morning, so she had to keep breakfast light. Once she finished, she washed her bowl and left it to dry and ran back upstairs, with just enough time left before she had to leave, she slipped on her clothes for that day. The weather was quite warm, so Willow had gone with a pair of pretty thin, red leggings and a white crop top for that day. Willow collected her long hair into a tight bun at the base of her head, pulled a few strands out in the front and headed back downstairs.
With a few blocks of ice inside of her water bottle, she filled it up and got ready to leave. Willow slipped her boots on and grabbed her hat, her phone in her back pocket was already going off like mad from the girls, who were almost at the stables themselves. Willow's walk down the lane was as pleasant as it always was, especially at that time in the morning, which she had discovered over the last few days of walking down to the stables to meet the girls.
"Morning guys." Willow smiled at them when she arrived, the girls were congregated underneath one of the shadier trees.
"Hey Willow." Zoe smiled as the group pushed away from the tree and walked into the yard. Zoe was pretty cool, for an American – Americans tended to be a little lost on British humour, but the girl did pretty well to keep up with their banter.
They chattered happily as they headed toward the chore board for that day, as usual Willow had been assigned all of Bumble's chores along with sweeping near some of the back stables, which were used a little less than all of the others. Each of them launched into their chores quickly, eager to get them over with while the heat wasn't too bad.
Willow lost herself in the chores, she mucked out Bumble's stable, the mare was out in the field at the moment and Willow was going to get her later, filled her water and hay net, and cleaned her tack swiftly.
As Willow was heading out to get Bee from the field, swinging the lead rope in her hand happily as she went, Sam called out to her, "Willow, you've got a lesson with me on Major at quarter past, will you tack him up and meet me in the arena?"
There was twenty minutes until quarter to, plenty of time to finish Bumble's chores and get Major ready, "sure!"
Sam smiled at her and let the girl continue towards the field, Willow walked into the field with all the mares and looked around. Of course, Bumble was in one of the further corners of the field, damn her. Willow half-jogged over to the horse just to save time and slipped the headcollar over her head when she wasn't paying full attention. The mare's ears flattened back for a moment before she realised it was Willow, her mood changed, and she started nudging the girl in search of treats.
The two of them walked back to the yard quickly, Willow made sure to lead her a fair distance away from the other horses – Bee was a little bit of a kicker when she didn't like a horse. Eventually, after Willow had groaned at Bee around only a hundred times, the mare was in her stall safe and sound. Willow tied her lead rope up to one of the hooks in her stable so that she could give her a quick groom.
After the quickest groom that Willow had ever given to a grumpy mare, she slipped the headcollar off of Bumble and walked out of the stable. With a check to the latch, Willow gave Bumble a kiss on the nose and left her.
She had ten minutes to get Major ready and meet Sam in the outdoor arena. The tack room was like a death pit of head when Willow walked in and rushed around grabbing the tack and her hat. Major was a very sweet boy who was a pleasure to tack up, as she was used to more fiery horses who would kick up a fuss at every opportunity.
When she was ready, she led Major towards the arena and put her hat on her head along with her gloves on her hands, and on her way there she grabbed a long whip. Normally, she wouldn't use it but if she didn't have one in her hand, the horse would become a little lazy and back off of her leg – especially school horses.
Sam was already waiting for her in the arena, "if you're all set just hop on and start warming up. Major won't be any trouble for you."
Willow made sure that her stirrups were the right length and that her girth was tight enough for now and hopped onto Major's back using the mounting block. She did the girth up one more hole before she set off in a walk to let Major stretch himself out before the real work began.
"Have you ever competed before?" Sam asked as Willow changed the rein with Major as you needed to work evenly on both reins.
"Not yet, but I've trained horses to a competitive level and done a lot of typical competition heights and dressage tests."
Sam continued to assess the way that Willow warmed Major up, she noted that it was a perfectly neutral warmup to a horse that she didn't know, and when the girl came across a problem, like stiffness, she would put an exercise in to counter that, "that's good, you could do the County Show with us, try-outs are in a week and a bit."
The next question that Willow practically burst out of her chest, "would I be able to compete Bumble?" She was even more eager to get onto the mare.
Sam laughed, "let's not jump the gun here, I want to get a really good scope of you with her before I let you on her."
Rather begrudgingly, Willow dropped the subject and continued her warmup of major. She pushed him into a canter and did a few circles on each rein, and once while she was going past the gate, she saw Pin stood there. When the boy looked up, Willow gave him a quick wink with a teasing smile on her face.
His laughter followed her ears a little as she cantered away from him. Willow did a few trot and canter transitions so that Major was responsive to her commands and leg. Sam asked her to do a few lateral exercises, like leg yield and shoulder-in – Major tried his best, but he wasn't made for dressage.
It was easy to forget that Pin was there watching Willow work Major, as Willow was so determined to show Sam that she could handle her own enough for the woman to let her on Bumble soon. It wasn't as if Bumble wasn't trained, she just didn't really let anyone on her back anymore, or anywhere near her for that matter. But Willow was set to bring around change in the mare, no matter how many times the horse would chuck her off.
Later into the lesson, Sam was satisfied with what she had seen of Willow in the flat, so she set up a small course of jumps – just to make sure that all of Willow's claims were true about her jumping too. Major was excited to jump after the hard work of a flat session; he went over each jump with a flick of his tail which made Willow giggle lightly each time. Sam upped the height a few times and played around with the order of the jumps until she was satisfied with Willow's ability.
While Willow cooled Major down, long reins and her feet out of the stirrups as the girl was quite tired herself, Sam spoke to her again, "I don't want you hopping on her straight away, if you've broken in horses you should be able to handle anything she throws at you in the school."
"So?" Willow beamed at the instructor, "when can I ride her?"
Sam sighed in bemusement and amusement, "I want to work on a few hours lunging for her with you, then you can take her out on a hack to get started as she truly acts up in the school."
Willow hopped off of Major's back as she considered the words, it wasn't an unfair deal and she was going to hack the mare to start with anyways. Sam continued speaking as Willow rolled up her stirrups and loosened Major's girth, "once I am happy with the way you two work together, you can ride her. It likely won't take more than a week."
The woman smiled at Willow's excitement and opened the arena door for her to lead Major back to his stable, she walked the gelding back slowly and when they reached his stable, he went straight for his hay net. Typical horse. Major was swiftly untacked and washed down, he was quite sweaty after the long ride, once he was all set, Willow took his tack back to his stable and put it back onto the correct pegs.
As Willow was putting her hat and into her locker which she shared with Zoe, she saw that her phone was going off quite a lot. With a small frown on her face, Willow took a long drink from her water bottle and looked down at her phone. Willow saw that she had a plethora of messages and missed phone calls from Luis.
Normally, this wouldn't be worrying, but as it was just from Luis, she was already worried quite a lot, Luis couldn't handle getting lost and if he was lost, it wouldn't be good. Luis had gotten lost when he was very little, and it left him very traumatised and deathly afraid of ever getting lost again. Her family had taught him to call some of them if he ever got lost and to try not to get caught up in his panic, they said that it was likely that someone would pick up and come to his rescue.
Willow pushed her bottle back into her locker and called Luis back, she brought the phone to her ear and jogged over to the haystack, the best signal was there. By the time that she reached the top of the haybale, the ringing had stopped and given way to the sound of shaky breathing.
"Luis! You okay?" Willow asked as quickly as she could get the words out of her mouth, the younger boy didn't answer and she heard muffled sobs coming through the speaker, "talk to me hermano"
A few chocked sobs came through, "Willow, estoy perdido" (I am lost)
Fear went enveloped Willow's stomach and sunk her heart, she had to keep calm or else she could end up working Luis into more of a panic. "Bueno, respira por me." (Okay, breathe for me) "you need to breathe for me, pequeño." (little one)
As Willow managed to calm down Luis a little more, they started to speak more in English again, Spanish was mainly kept for comfort so that it had more impact and tended to slip through when they got more emotional, "deep breaths for me."
Ragged breathing carried on through the phone and it was all she could hear for a moment, Willow's leg started to bounce up and down faster and faster with her nerves, "okay, okay."
From below the haybales, Pin had walked by and stopped when he saw a very anxious Willow on the phone. When they made eye-contact, Willow gestured for Pin to come up and sit beside her. She would need his help as she still didn't know this side of the island as well as Pin would, who had been living on this side of the island for his whole life.
While Pin made his way up to Willow, the girl continued to soothe her very worried little brother, "pequeño, you need to stand up, okay? I know that you're probably curled up."
Rustled sounds were on the other side of the phone, "okay, I'm up."
"Okay, you need to look around for me." Willow glanced towards a Pin who was growing ever so more confused, "I've got someone who should be able to find you quite quickly."
The pieces were coming together in Pin's head, "someone's gotten lost?" He mouthed to her and Willow nodded in the affirmative and returned her focus to Luis.
She changed the phone onto speaker so that Pin could hear directly from Luis where about he was, and he would be able to ask him for more detail with slight thoughts on where he could be. Willow's heart broke slightly when Luis's voice came through again, "Willow-Tree, I'm scared."
"Lo sé, lo sé, breathe for me, it's alright." (I know, I know) Willow soothed him gently, it felt a little like she was going in circles slightly, but it was worth it if it kept Luis calm, "describe where you are for me, if you're along a lane, find a gate and go up to it, alright?"
"It's a lane, there's these really tall hedges and I can't see anything else and it seems to go on forever." Luis's breathing started to pick back up again in speed, he was working himself back up again.
Willow rubbed palm against her eyes in frustration, not at her brother in anyway but at the situation, it was always hard when Luis got lost as he was so deathly afraid of it ever happening and when it happened, it was really hard for him, "pequeño, walk along for a little bit and look for a gate okay? Most of the places have signs on the fences or around there."
The gravel that crunched under his feet was hearable through the speaker, Pin looked at Willow with sympathy as her leg bounced up and down faster and faster, if that was even possible.
After what was around a minute, but felt like an eternity of worry and concern, Luis spoke up again, "found one, it says Darleen Lane."
Willow looked quickly over to Pin with a hopeful look, then he spoke, "I know where he is, come on, we can take my horse as it's a little too far to walk."
The two of them got off of the haybales and ran over to where Pin had tied up his already tacked up horse. Willow went and grabbed both of their helmets, and Pin's gloves, from the tack room and ran back over to Pin and the chestnut horse. They slipped their hats on, Pin got onto the horse first and Willow got on behind him. She had one arm wrapped tightly around his waist and kept the phone up to her other ear, it was always best to keep on the phone with him as Luis might be able to work himself back into a panic.
Pin worked his horse into a trot quickly and headed towards where Luis was, Elvis the horse was called, and he worked him into a canter as they went down the lanes. Willow carried on talking to Luis down the phone and reassured him that they were coming, they were almost there, and he would be okay. It felt like hours to Willow before they reached where Luis was.
She shoved her phone into her pocket and dismounted quickly and ran the rest of the way over to where Luis was slightly swaying due to emotional exhaustion. He was so physically weak from it all that he fell into Willow's arms when he got close enough, she crouched down onto the ground with him.
"te tengo; se puede ir, esta bien, esta bien" (I've got you; you can let go, it's okay, it's okay.) Willow whispered into his hair as she rocked him gently, soothing out all the tremors that stayed in his body from his panic. It only took around a minute before Luis slipped completely into unconsciousness, this happened often whenever he got lost.
"Is he alright?" Pin asked as soon as he saw Luis go slack in Willow's arms, "did he pass out."
Willow slipped her hat off and placed it on the ground for a moment, she hooked her arms underneath Luis's legs and wrapped her other arm around his shoulders. Using her hand that was under his legs, she grabbed the strap of her helmet and got to her feet, "it always happens when he gets lost, he panics so much that he passes out."
"Do you not want to put him on Elvis's back? It might be a bit hard to carry him." Pin suggested kindly, unsure if Willow's arms would be able to support Luis for that long.
She pondered the suggestions for a moment, "no, I'll just carry him. I am stronger than I look."
"Alright, let's get him home." Pin said, there was still a bit of worry etched over his face and it was clear that he was a very empathetic person.
Willow agreed and let Pin lead them on the shortest way back to their house, she made sure to memorise the way home and all of the streets that they passed. She would have to make sure to start to get to know her way around the island better, for risk of Luis getting lost again and so she could teach him his way around too.
They walked quietly until they reached the front part of the house, her family had clearly figured out that Luis had gotten lost and that someone had gone to get him. Willow's mum and dad rushed over to Willow and scooped Luis out of her arms, Thomas checked him over and checked with Willow that he had in fact passed out from exhaustion.
"Is he okay?" Mama asked frantically, "he got lost, right?"
Willow nodded and stroked Luis's forehead gently from where he was resting in their father's arms.
Thomas took Luis inside and Allison turned toward Pin, "did you help to find him?"
Pin looked slightly taken aback from the sudden question, "yes, I took Willow to him as I know my way around."
"Thank you very much." Allison said and followed her husband into the house, she was very visibly worried about Luis.
As Willow wasn't holding Luis anymore, her body started to cool very quickly, which was very welcome as the heat was reaching its peak of the day. Elvis was slowly moving towards any kind of shade that he could find.
Pin turned to her and spoke, "are you coming back to the stables, or staying here?"
"I'm not done with my chores for the day and it's a little too early to leave." Willow said as she walked towards the direction of the stable with Pin leading Elvis behind her.
What had happened had left Willow a little emotionally drained, it was always a lot of pressure to keep a panicking Luis calm and the aftermath was quite straining. Pin noticed her distress and silently placed his hand against the small of Willow's back for some silent encouragement, "you tired, Petal?"
Willow laughed slightly and leant into Pin's touch a little more, "a tiny bit, and what about it?"
"Nothing, just a little worried about you." Pin smiled kindly to her.
"Oh, well I'm flattered." Willow smiled back at him and pinched his side slightly; she didn't want the topic to get too heavy too suddenly.
In retaliation to this, Pin moved his hand from her back over to her side, where he dug his fingers in just enough to force a bout of laughter out of the girl. Willow was a fairly ticklish person, and sadly, Pin had figured that little bit of information out. With Pin's satisfaction of this new discovery, he moved both of his hands to her sides and tickled her, one of his arms was weaved through Elvis's reins so the horse couldn't run off.
Between gasps of breath, Willow pushed him away jokingly and tried to push down her laughs. It was clear then that Pin had done all of that to take her mind slightly off what had been happening.
Even after the 'Tickle Attack', Willow still let Pin wrap his arm around her and let his hand rest on her waist. They fell back into their rhythm of bickering almost constantly, if they both walked a little slower than usual so they could pro-long their conversation, neither was going to admit it.
When they got back to the yard, Willow could practically feel the anger radiating off of the other girls – it was really rare to see Pin interacting with anyone and the fact that he was so close to a new girl that only arrived a few days ago made them angry. Again, boys are very rare around yards and most girls wanted a horsey boyfriend too.
"You're going to Pony Camp, right?" Pin asked as he led Elvis into a spare stall that Sam left free for him to use any time that he wanted while he was working.
"Yep." Willow smiled and popped the 'p', "you want me to come?"
Pin rolled his eyes with no malice behind it, "you make a habit out of flattering yourself, huh."
"Only around you." Willow winked as she slipped Elvis's bridle over his head and gave the horse a gentle stroke on the nose.
"Consider me flattered." Pin took the bridle out of Willow's hands, when he took it, his fingers brushed against hers and stayed there for a moment before he spoke again, "will I get a reward for giving you a lift?"
Willow scoffed in amusement, "here I was thinking that you did it out of the good of your heart, Peter."
"Well, I did, because I'm good like that, but I'd still like something." Pin replied as he put Elvis's saddle over the stable door with the bridle, both of their hats were by the door. He walked back over to Willow, who had raised one eyebrow at him.
Given how they had been acting around each other in the last few days, aka a lot of flirting, it put what Pin wanted in context. Willow was not completely against the idea of moving a bit further with it, as even in college they had thrown glances at one another without the other noticing.
"Yeah, like what?" Willow asked as she let Pin walk her into one of the corners of the stable, which was conveniently out of the sight of the rest of the stable.
Pin tapped under her chin with two fingers, "shouldn't all good knights get a kiss from the princess?"
"Oh? Do we live in the medieval ages now?" Willow questioned with amusement in her voice, she let her arms rest on top of Pin's shoulders, it wouldn't hurt to at least play along a little bit.
Pin rolled his eyes and stepped a little bit closer to Willow, "no, but I am pretty valiant."
Willow thought about it for another long moment, what would be the harm to have a little bit of fun? Pin was undoubtedly pretty gorgeous, and it wouldn't be the end of the world. Neither of them were in a relationship and there was nobody to cheat on or really hurt, well unless somebody liked them but hey-ho.
So, the girl threw caution to the wind, "well, I suppose that I should reward you. If I must."
Pin smirked down at her and captured Willow's lips with his own and his hands fell to her waist. As Willow is a little shorter than Pin, she had to go up on her tiptoes slightly, which made Pin exhale in amusement slightly. Willow pulled back from the kiss to smack him on the arm gently before she pulled him back down for another kiss.
Warmth spread through Willow's body from where Pin was holding her waist, Willow threaded her fingers through Pin's hair to try and ground herself. Willow arched into Pin so that the kiss could deepen a little further, their lips moved together more firmly, as opposed to the light kisses that they started with.
The kiss was escalating more but they jumped apart slightly when they heard a clatter from outside of the stable. It reminded them that they could get caught at any time – which would be humiliating. Their foreheads stayed pressed together as they shared their breaths, Willow laughed lightly and let her head fall onto Pin's shoulder.
"I didn't know you knew how to kiss." Willow mumbled into Pin's shoulder as the boy stroked up and down her back soothingly.
Pin laughed, "I am kind of hurt by that, Petal."
Willow giggled and kissed Pin again, they were pressed together for a few moments before the girl pushed him away playfully. As their bodies weren't pressed together anymore, their temperatures cooled quickly. Pin's hair was sticking up at some interesting angles, so Willow carded her hands through it gently, just so that it looked a little less incriminating and obvious to what they had been doing.
"See you later, pretty boy." Willow smirked as she slipped out of the stable and back into the yard, "try not to think too hard about me."
"That'll be a little hard, Petal."
She was aware that her lips were more red than usual and likely a little swollen, and she pulled down at her top which was a little creased from where Pin had pushed it up to grasp at the bare skin of her waist. Luckily, the heat of the day could excuse her flushed cheeks, neck and elbows.
After she checked around the yard and wasn't able to find any of the girls, she furrowed her eyebrows and headed towards the back arena – she thought that they may be training or watching someone else train. She found them watching Marcus train his horse for Pony Camp in two days. Jade and Becky were practically drooling over Marcus, which wasn't a lot of a surprise as everybody did at college, while Zoe was just watching with admiration.
Marcus was a seriously good rider, better than a lot of people at the yard and Willow hoped that she could at least give him a run for his money. When the girls noticed her appearance, they giggled and asked her about it, clearly, they had some kind of idea of what had happened and had figured that she had snogged Pin. Willow just ignored them vehemently.
They watched Marcus for around ten minutes before Sam walked over to the girls and started talking to them a little about Pony Camp for a little bit before Sam turned to Willow, "would you mind turning out Bumble? She's being an absolute Missy." And Sam handed her the headcollar that had Bumble's nametag on it.
Willow agreed happily and walked over to Bumble's stable, Bee poked her head over the door when she heard Willow walking towards her. When Willow walked into the stable, Bee started searching her for treats, when she definitely didn't have any on her, but the mare was ever hopeful. Once she figured out that the girl didn't have any treats, the mare sunk back into her stable and started avoiding Willow's headcollar.
The girl groaned and caught Bumble and slipped the headcollar over her head and stroked her neck gently. The mare complained a little as Willow led her out of the stable but got excited when she realised that they were heading out to the field, she started tugging against Willow's hold. The other girls were waiting on the fence to the field and watched as the two of them walked into the field. As soon as Willow slipped the headcollar off of Bumble, the mare bolted forwards and started bucking in excitement.
Hopefully, she would be able to ride the mare soon.
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[UNEDITED]
Oooh sPicY.
This is where the plot majorly changes from Ethereal, I cannot wait to take this different approach.
Added at least 1000 words in this edit oops, I honestly do not know where it comes from as I keep feeling like I am removing words not adding them. I enjoyed seeing your comments in the last chapter and I hope to see you all again. Seems like I am on a little bit of a writing spree recently, but it's not a bad thing.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Loads of love,
Angelica