Cara smiled, Darren never stopped amusing her. Cara's eyes were glimmering when she said, "you know you shouldn't brush him so hard. You're irritating the poor thing. Perhaps bracing the horse's body with one of your hands and not pressing so darn hard would help." With that, Cara was silent for a long time. The horse's ears were twitching, and from time to time it would shake its head, and stomp its hooves on the ground impatiently. Cara clicked her tongue. "Shhhh love," Cara cooed as patted the horse's side with her right hand. "We're not going to hurt you. All we want to do is make sure your coat is nice and clean." For the first time in a long time, Cara flashed a wide smile. She hoped it would help calm the horse down, after all, animals could sense one's emotions; or at least, so she had been told. Even so, as soon as the horse had looked away from her, lowered its neck, and buried its mouth in its feeding bin, Cara's facial expression changed. Her smile vanished, as she looked up at Darren. Her eyes were blazing. It was as though she were sending him the message, get it together or you're going to be one very dead man. But her expression was gone as quickly as it had come. The horse had lifted its lips out of its food, and began chewing noisily on a mixture of hay and something else. Cara couldn't tell what it was.
Cara remained silent for quite some time. She was thinking about what Darren had said to her. Whatever could he have meant? Why he was even asking? It wasn't as though she was ever nice to him. It wasn't as though she so much as liked him. Cara couldn't help but wonder why he wanted to spend any time with her, especially after the other day and the whole incident with the elk. After all, what the two of them should really be doing, was spending all of their day indoors, working their arses off when it came to finishing their chores and doing a halfway decent job. Without even realizing what she was doing, Cara began to brush the horse a little more forcefully, her fingers tightened around the frame of the brush, and she began to bite her bottom lip. Cara was biting her lip so angrily that her teeth left an imprint, and would have drawn blood if the horse hadn't snorted and pulled her out of her angry sort of trance. Cara pulled the brush away, closed her eyes, and shook her head to clear everything away. Her hair flew around her face, right up until she brought her head to a halt, and opened her eyes.
"Sorry love," Cara muttered, as she put the brush down by the side of the food trowel. When she turned back to the horse, she began to absently run her fingers through the horse's mane, pulling the knots apart from time to time. "Didn't mean to hurt you," she added. Taking care of the horses was getting to be tiring work, and although Darren seemed to be helping... somewhat, she couldn't help but feel as though he made the process all the more painful. After all, he couldn't even brush the horse properly, and the silence that stretched between them was growing more and more awkward. Finally, Cara managed to muster, "why do you ask?" Her tone was rather neutral; and sounded almost bored. It was as though she simply couldn't be bothered by the man who stood on the other side of the horse. Almost as though she thought herself far too good for his presence; and was merely tolerating him.
Cara looked up from the knot she was ripping apart between her fingertips, and simply stared at Darren. Why had he asked? Did he want something from her? Was she forgetting something? Did he actually want to spend time with her? A bead of sweat appeared on Cara's brow as her heart began to pound in her tiny rib cage. Ohhh in the Ice Queen's name, was Darren hitting on her? Was he asking her on some sort of date? Just the two of them? Cara's cheeks began to turn a light shade of pink. Embarrassed, she simply stood, staring at her hands.
But, what if Darren really did want to go on a date with Cara? What would she do then? Cara didn't like him. She didn't find him even remotely attractive, or intelligent. She was more often then not frustrated by the man, and yet, here he was, serving his term now that he had lost the bet. Or perhaps he had lost it purposely so that he could get closer to her? Perhaps Darren could actually ride an elk, but had lost so she could ridicule him? And... he could... serve her? Cara shook her head as her face grew a brighter shade of pink. That just didn't make since. Surely men only liked pretty girls who were not only younger than them, but were actually nice as well. Oh... and who didn't use magic to help win a bit. He couldn't possibly like me? Could he?
Cara didn't have anything going for her- she was young, but not as young as he, and she definitely wasn't nice, or very pretty. Cara dropped her hands and backed away from the horse. Now she was just psyching herself out. But even so, she couldn't risk it. She didn't want anyone getting close, especially not someone like Darren. Cara ran her right hand through her hair, starting at the top of her head, and pushing her hand downwards towards the tips. "Well, um, you seem to be doing an ok job... um... I have to go now. My sister needs me to help her tune her lyre. So, see you around," Cara lied. It was a sad excuse for a lie, and anyone who knew her would know that her sister had died years ago now. With that, she turned abruptly on her heels, and strode out of the horse's stall. You hate him anyway, and he owes you, her brain whispered. |