All the better; all the worse . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

Indeed, Akizetsumei was known to Eld, though he couldn't recall talking to her much. Em was a bit unusual in that she was very bright and mature for her age, so despite being three years younger than the people she spent time with she fit right in.

"Don't mention it," Eld replied lightly. While he was not exactly knowledgeable about farms and handling animals, as he glanced her over he recognized that she was wearing riding equipment.

She beat Sarah? He hadn't attended the race (a footrace wasn't nearly as big of a spectacle as a horse race--he figured it must have been pretty impromptu) and the way Sarah got when someone brought it up kept him from asking who'd actually beat her.

"Ummm...you're Kyo's little sister, right?" he asked for lack of anything better say. Of course she was--he wasn't quite that oblivious--but he was just trying to make conversation.

[Nayt]

Toushikyo . . . he was kind of a jerk. This belief was practically unanimous amongst Sarah, Eld, Emily, and Maya. Toushikyo completely acknowledged it, too. He was blunt and overly honest, rarely intentionally mean, but he had either no knowledge of social boundaries and facts best left secret or he simply didn't care. Either way, he was practically a member of their "group," a collection of five kids: Sarah, Eld, Maya, Emily, and Toushikyo. He was with them often enough that it was a bit odd to have an important social gathering without him, even if he was a jerk.

Akizets being related to Toushikyo was cause for concern. Maya, for one, was a bit afraid that Akizetsumei was going to be as much of a bastard as her older brother. Dealing with Toushikyo alone was just fine, but if there were two people around that were at equal level of jerkdom, Maya didn't know if she'd be able to take that . . .

"Mhmm!" Akizets chimed.

She put out her hand with every intention of shaking Eld's. It was weird in an almost overly grown up sort of way, as if she was trying too hard to seem older than she really was. Truth be told, she didn't look older than thirteen, let alone act the part (unlike Em, who--at twelve--could look and act the part of a fifteen year old).

"I'm Akizetsumei," she said to initiate introductions.

[Zach Kaiser]

The way she stuck her hand out was sort of an odd thing, like a child imitating something she saw an adult do. Which caused him to glance at Emma for a moment before he took her hand. "Eldridge...but I go by Eld."

She's a lot nicer than her brother, at least. He knew Toushikyo didn't mean any harm by his attitude, but it wouldn't kill him to develop some social graces either.

"Do you ride much?" he asked. It was one thing to beat Sarah in a footrace, but racing on horses was an entirely different thing. The fact that Akizetsumei clearly didn't have her own riding clothes suggested the answer was no; he hoped Sarah wasn't forcing her to do this out of pride. If she was an amateur, she might get hurt.

[Nayt]

"Eld . . ." she whispered to herself whilst setting her index finger to her chin and cocking her head side-ways, as if she were trying to come up with some sort of memory system on the spot to help her remember his name better. She relaxed her body and smiled up to him when he asked his question, right before shaking her head in an almost enthusiastic way. "Nope! Ummm Sarah told me I should, so--well, you know! It sounded like a lot of fun and I've never ridden a horse before and I'd really love to learn, so here I am."

In a direct show of her attention span, Akizetsumei looked behind her curiosity.

"I think my brothers are coming, too. I wonder if they're here."

Back behind Eld and Akizets, Em watched with scientific--psychological, in fact--curiosity. She already decided that this girl, Akizetsumei, was overly energetic and optimistic, probably enough to become annoying. At least to Em. Then again, any great degree of optimism put her off to begin with; she claimed regularly to be a "realist," which was in itself a mask for outright pessimism. She'd no hope for human beings and she definitely got irate when others preached it. Like Maya. It was off-putting whenever she talked about her hopes for human future, and if only vaguely preached her religious beliefs and pacifism. That sort of thing always had Em annoyed.

More importantly, though, Em was concerned about Akizetsumei's willingness to just go along with this whole thing without even knowing what it entailed. Sarah was adamant about racing her and Akizets had never even ridden a horse before--and on top of it, Akizets seemed to interpret Sarah's intentions as purely friendly.

This was worrisome.

[Zach Kaiser]

"You've...never ridden before...huh?" As he lost the struggle to keep the surprise out of his voice, his eyebrow twitched ever so slightly. A person probably wouldn't even notice it unless they were looking for it. Given what Akizetsumei had just said, Maya and Em were possibly looking for it.

A small chuckle that didn't sound like it had much humor in it escaped him. "A-Akizetsumei? Why don't you stay here for a moment and keep an eye out for your brothers..."

He left for the stables at a rapid walk. "...I need to chat with Sarah real quick." At no point did Eld sound obviously unfriendly...well, unless the person listening happened to be at all familiar with the habits of Rebbecca Tsukimono, in which case, even though Eld was quite a passive person, one would probably decide not to argue with him just in case certain genes were inherited.

[Nayt]

"Hm? Oh, sure," Akizets chimed contently.

When Eld left, he left Akizets alone with Em and Maya. Maya awkwardly shuffled; she hadn't the slightest clue was to say around her friends sometimes, let alone people she barely even knew. Em, on the other hand, had a million and one things to say, but didn't know which would be best and most adequately politically correct. She kind of wanted to chastise Akizets for being so trusting, and explain a bit that Sarah was extremely competitive and probably planned on embarrassing the girl as much as humanly possible. But Em gave no such warning. The way she figured it, everyone needed to learn to stop being so damn naive eventually--and it was best to learn from experience.

Em had a different question to ask. "So . . . Akizetsumei, is it?"

"Mhmm," Akizets nodded cheerily.

Though she hadn't even introduced herself yet, Em began: "May I ask you a personal question?"

Akizets turned her head to the side. It was clear that she didn't know what to think of that. Whatever the case, she apparently didn't think too much of it, as she responded almost exactly how Em wanted her to. Without straightening her next posture, she replied quizzically, "Ummmm . . . sure?"

"Is your brother a dick to you, too?"

Sarah was at the stables still, preparing two horses--one for herself and the other for Akizetsumei. She, unlike Akizets, was not in any sort of riding gear; she was much more comfortable with riding a horse and knew these particular horses just as well as she knew her own friends and family. She knew how to keep them calm and collected, and especially knew how to keep herself on a horse even when it was bucking and upset. Akizets, on the other hand, didn't come equipped with that sort of information. She needed equipment just as bad as she needed a docile horse.

By the time Eld arrived at the stables, Sarah was leading two horses out by the reigns. One seemed to be in decent shape--a bit of an elder, but not so much that he was going to break stride all that much. The other was lower to the ground and older than that, one of the oldest horses on the property. He was a tried-and-true work-horse, though, and even if he probably had only a few years life in him, he could still carry himself some weight. He just didn't have it in him to carry weight with all the speed that he could in youth. He was stable, but slowed with age. Stubborn as all hell, though--and known for it, too. Older stallions had a habit of that.

[Zach Kaiser]

The stable was a fairly familiar place to Eld, simply by virtue of it being where Sarah spent most of her time. He could actually ride himself, though he was nowhere near his friend's level. Few were, truth be told, which made this entire thing more ridiculous.

"Sarah, what in the world do you think you're doing?" He didn't bother attempting to hide his incredulity. He knew she was prideful, but she had common sense. She couldn't seriously think this was a good idea, could she?

[Nayt]

Sarah nearly jumped out of her skin when Eld called to her. She almost stumbled, but restrained herself so not to startle the two stallions. She looked back to Eld, indignant that he'd intentionally startle her, before focusing on the two stallions again. She was coaxing them out of the stables by the reigns, and the two elder stallions were about as disappointed with the sun in their eyes as Eld was after a nice sleep.

"Gettin' the horses out, what do you think I'm doin'?" Sarah replied with a shrug of her shoulders.

She was actually concentrating a bit, paying much more attention to the horses than she was Eld. She wanted to make sure, first and foremost, that the two stallions were actually ready and wiling to go out for a run with someone on their backs. If they were showing signs of ill feelings and the like, Sarah would've found it a good time to call the race off here and now, as proceeding would endanger the horses involved.

The oldest of the stallions gave Sarah a look she seemed to recognize, and she grinned a bit before patting him on the snout, before saying to him softly, "Oh, don't gimme that look, you know you wanna stretch your legs out."

[Zach Kaiser]

"I can see that," Eld replied dryly; he'd have said more on it, but he wasn't entirely sure whether or not Sarah actually realized that wasn't what he was talking about. Seeing as she was hardly paying attention to him, he raised his voice--if nothing else, the idea that he was actually upset with her might get her attention.

"I mean, why are you challenging a thirteen year old girl whose never ridden a horse before to a race?" He could see, at least, that she wasn't intending to give Akizetsumei a horse that would be terribly dangerous to ride--just one she wasn't likely to get moving much. But it was still an incredibly immature thing to do, even for Sarah.

He hoped she'd listen to reason, but if she didn't he tried to think of a way to convince her in a way she'd relate to.

[Nayt]

"Whaaaaat?" Sarah replied as she looked behind her to Eld again.

She seemed a bit offended that time. Why wouldn't she challenge a thirteen year old girl to a horse race? They were only separated by three years, and Sarah had been riding horses since she was five, anyways. There was no big deal in riding at thirteen.

"Loooooook, I'm givin' myself a handicap," Sarah said to quell Eld's upcoming moral rage, as she patted the older one on the snout again. He rebelled against her with a subtle shake of his skull, almost as if he knew she was talking down about him. Sarah seemed to give the horse a vaguely apologetic look in response. When she looked back to Eld again, though, she continued: "I told 'er she'd never beat me in a real race. She asked what I meant, I explained--she said it'd be fun or something. Girl was totally reveling about the footrace."

"And I'm gonna make it fair, okay? Give her Stewart here," Sarah patted the other elder--the youngest of the two elders--on the snout, "And take old Fesci, myself."

Stewart the horse was actually one of the more known horses in Sarah's possession. He was the horse most people close to Sarah learned on. It didn't matter how old the person was. Stewart never bucked them off. Hell, even Eld got started on horse riding with Stewart.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld's burning indignation faded to mere embers. Apparently he didn't give Sarah enough credit; she'd thought ahead a little. Had it been Akizetsumei who'd suggested a horse race? Sarah wasn't acting like someone with wounded pride and something to prove--unless she'd been that way at the time and simply cooled down since. That was probably the most likely scenario.

"It's still not going to be much of a race," he pointed out. Stewart was docile, but unless Akizetsumei had some prior instruction it was unlikely she'd even get the old horse to move, let alone compete anywhere near Sarah even if she was using an ornery and somewhat unreliable horse.

"Well, if it's all in fun, fine...but if that's the case..." A little bit of the indignation came back. "Why did you feel the need to wake me up?" he complained.

[Nayt]

"Not gonna be much of a race--" Sarah started, somewhat indignant, but quickly little more than annoyed, "'cause I could give 'er or anyone else the best horse here, an' I'd still beat 'em with old Fesci."

She turned to Eld again with her hands on her hips. Though it wasn't as much of a competition as Eld originally thought, this was still a competition. Sarah was convinced that Akizetsumei thought she could just get on a horse and go. Maybe even beat Sarah in an all-out race. Sarah was remarkably offended by that sort of belief, and wholeheartedly wished to prove to the girl that she couldn't be great at everything fast--like she kind of was. Sarah was all for discouraging her juniors, if only just a little bit. Gotta make 'em see reality, she had long since concluded to herself.

"What, I can't wanna, y'know, hang out later or whatever?" Sarah remarked--the actual reason for her ill feelings with Eld just now. "An' besides, what if someone actually gets hurt? Not sayin' it'll happen. No way it's gonna happen with a pair of stallions like these, but what if, man?"

The latter was just an excuse, and it was pretty obvious of that much.

[Zach Kaiser]

"There's no way she's going to get hurt on Stewart unless she does something stupid, and I doubt I'll live to see the day you come crying to me when you get hurt," Eld replied dryly. He wasn't really annoyed anymore; now he was arguing just because it was Sarah, and he didn't want to let her off easy.

"And you could have just woken me up after you know." He certainly wasn't objecting to hanging out with her, but he didn't need to see the race. It was one thing if she wanted him there for moral support or to witness her moment of glory, but watching her beat the pants of a girl three years younger than her with no riding experience wasn't exactly going to be thrilling one way or another.

Who was he kidding? She just wanted to an excuse to kick him out of bed in the morning, and if she'd waited any longer there was a good chance he'd already be up.

[Nayt]

Sarah regarded Eld with a vaguely disapproving stare, almost as if he'd made a good point and she wasn't too keen on admitting it right now. What was done was done, anyways, and he was here, so he might as well hang out with Maya and Em while she crushed the hopes and dreams of Akizetsumei of Terra. Sarah didn't expect this to take too long, but the longer Eld stood around and made his displeasure known to her, the longer it was going to take for her to get ready to beat Akizets down in a mock horse race.

Without further hesitation, Sarah shooed Eld away. "I gotta get ready, y'know."

If he insisted further to to complain or hang around, Sarah would send Eld away a bit more harshly--likely with a shout or a light punch, depending on what he said . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

"Fine, fine...good luck," he replied with a roll of his eyes. What he wouldn't give to understand Sarah's thought process sometimes; it must have been the most convoluted system in existence.

With a small sigh he left the stable. Akizetsumei seemed pretty cheerful, and he hoped she'd stay that way after she lost. It didn't seem like she was taking this too seriously--she'd seemed to think it would be fun more than she was worried about winning--but not all girls wore their feelings on their sleeve like Sarah did.

He looked around for Maya and Em, wondering if they were where he left them or if they'd taken a seat somewhere by now.