Under the first few strokes of daylight, before the sun had even woken up enough to rise above the horizon, Wavu and I rode up the small hill that led us straight to the stables. As I tied a sack containing my mother's poem, Pause, around my waist, Carmen had met me there with a huge smile on her face. While a worker took Wavu and prepped a stall for her, Carmen explained a normal volunteer's day at the stables and that to spend time with Blaze I'd be helping Yara out with the show horses and minis. At the border between the miniatures and show, another volunteer, Acacia Lee, took me from Carmen and went over my responsibilities one more time.
After ensuring I understood every job I was taking on, I jumped right into it. The next few hours were an honest blur, a faded memory. It felt as though I were a regular paid worker, though Yara claimed they refused to let volunteers do certain tasks, and, of course, I could back out whenever I pleased. But I didn't, I held it all the way out. Along the way, I made sure I at least waved at Blaze every hour.
Two hours before noon, Yara came up to me and asked if I could take Blaze and a couple other horses out to stretch their legs. Excitedly, I agreed and took maybe four miniatures plus one stallion out to the fields. We weren't anywhere near alone as other horses were diligently preparing for the show on Friday and the whole thing felt so chaotic. I wondered how anyone could possibly care for all these horses under these conditions. And as if to prove my point, Blaze kept looking at me. By the time I took the horses back in, I was convinced and a fire burning inside my begged to manifest and jump out.
"North, take him straight to his stall, please?" Acacia smiled at me through a curtain of voluminous lavender hair and passed Blaze's reigns to me. She was a tall, heavy-set woman, one who would be intimidating if it weren't for her cowardly mannerisms and poor posture. I took Blaze's reigns from her and nodded. Before turning away, Acacia gleamed at me and packed her overflowing waves behind her head, preparing it to be secured with a tie.
Watching her restrict her hair's movement made me inexplicably upset. I'll admit, it was a somewhat minor trigger, but in my mind, it symbolized the caged lives these poor horses lived. The same kind my parents risked their lives to avoid and taught me to despise. The same one my mother went mad fighting. The very lifestyle a dozens of Lenties are forced into in District 31 every passing month.
Lucky for me, no one else happened to be walking down that particular hall, because I was sure my eyes were glowing, bright and silver. I could close my eyes and, underneath my eyelids, feel the faint warmth their glow gave off. Soon, my whole body felt noticeably warmer and my hands felt as though they were about to burst into flames.
Before we could reach Blaze's stall, Everly rounded the corner, giving us an ever so cheerful wave. I grunted, in that moment, I couldn't think of anything more insulting than having the enemy wave at you. Everly paused for second, probably noticing my scowl. An idea rose in my head and I forcibly brightened up, enough to fool the man before me. I picked up my feet and appeared beside him, "Would you like to hear a poem?" Pulling the tiny scroll from the sack under my shirt, I insisted, "My mother wrote it."
Sympathy flashed across Everly's face and he leaned his rake against the wall and stopped, "Alright, North. Lemme at it." Though slightly irritated at his unnecessary pity party, and still ignoring the intensifying heat in my hand, I straightened the scroll and read it.
Pause, please stop
I've fallen the fall
I see the drop
Only after I went over
And as of now, for me, it's over
So as punishment, you fall now
You pause
Looking up from the scroll, I nearly smirked at the shell of a man before me. Completely out of touch, Everly's jaw dangled to the floor as his body struggled to stay upright. Swiftly, I went up to him and wrapped my arms around him. The man was surprisingly light, so I swung him over my shoulders and Blaze and I finished the journey to his stall. When I attempted to open the stall door, my hand burst into flames. Just for a moment, it then doused itself. But the door couldn't do the same and its faith was sealed.
The fire spread to the nearby walls as most of the stables were built up with wooden material. With Everly and Blaze, I ran out the hall, turned, and hurried down the next. As the disaster grew and swallowed up its first hall and trailed my tail, I noticed my lack of speed. I decided it was due to my load and made a quick stop to stuff Everly's unconscious body into an empty stall, hoisted Blaze on the free space on my shoulders, and ran out.
Along the way, we received several dirty looks from visitors, other volunteers, and riders. For good reason too, I wouldn't imagine that the townspeople saw someone sprinting with a miniature on their shoulders very often. Still, I ignored them and hurried to where a worker had kept Wavu for the day. By the time we got to her, chaos had erupted in the stables as word quickly spread of the raging fire tearing down the building. Most of the horses had already been let out and I ended up spotting Wavu outside on the side of the hill.
Acacia was holding on to the reigns of a few horses, including Wavu. Hastily, I ran up to her and grabbed Wavu's reigns. Startled, Acacia jolted and looked at me. Her face went through a million emotions before settling on a tense expression. The woman looked at me as if I'd grown a third head. Not like it slowed me down in any way, just slightly irritating.
She coughed, "North, she--" Disregarding her, I mounted Wavu and placed Blaze snuggly in front of me. Acacia blinked, silencing before walking off. I took Wavu's reigns and the three of us rode off away from the enraged hell pit behind us.
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