gentle is thy touch (july questing)

[theladyofwinterfell]

Who: Sansa Stark, any other questers
When: July
Where: Thorne stables
What: taming horses, talking with those who have rounded them up
Warnings: n/a



In the upheaval of Thorne, a great many things had happened and there are few of them that Sansa can affect on her own. What she can do, however, is help the people of Thorne and Nott and when there is need of people to tame horses in the stables, she decides that she will do so. She knows very little of the taming and gentling of horses. She had always been a highborn girl and the only thing she'd done with horses was ride them (ill at ease, to speak of that) but she doesn't think she can do much harm if she helps someone who does have the experience.

She dresses in simple clothes of her own making - sturdy but unadorned - and goes to the stables to meet with the stableboys in charge of receiving the horses that have been brought in from the wilds. The stableboy she meets with is called Eric and it feels like such a Northern name that it brings pangs of homesickness that hit her in waves.

She focuses herself, steadies, and busies herself with speaking sweet words to the horses as they come in while letting the saddles sit upon their backs and then, after a time, strapping them.

Comments

[stations]

Jack breathes, in. Breathes out. Steels himself, and then walks into the stables. This is... kind of a therapeutic exercise for him, in a way — the last time he was up close and personal with a horse, things got... bad. Like, super bad. Like, mind-meld drowning in a river bad.

He's not, like, super familiar with horses. He didn't seek them out recreationally, the number of times he's ridden them can probably be counted on two hands, but he is from the rural south. It's part of the culture. He's grown up near people who have horses, he's been plopped onto them from time to time as a youth for the novelty at fairs and stuff. They're fine.

And this is fine.

This time, when he reaches out and places his hand on the thick neck of the horse next to Sansa — his face screwed up into something braced for misery and his muscles tense — his hand definitely isn't going to be permanently melded to the hide of the creature. It definitely isn't going to start dragging him away to the closest body of water to drown him, probably.

It's only after he quickly rips his hand away and realizes that it came off with not even a hint of resistance that he exhales a long, loud sigh of relief and allows himself to actually pet the wild creature.

He probably looks absolutely fucking insane this entire time.