Olya's Outing: Whiskers pt2

It was a lovely carriage ride through the countryside and Phoenix enjoyed the leisurely pace of Whiskers plodding along down the road. It was a nice break from her busy chores back at the stable. Sometimes she just needed to get away. It helped that she felt safe out there in the backroads, not enough to let her guard down, but to relax and just enjoy the hills rolling by.

As they got closer to the first stop, the carriage hit a pothole, making a horrible screeching noise as the wheel scraped the side of the hole. Whiskers snorted, tossing his head, but otherwise stayed calm.

Phoenix clucked her tongue and urged him onward, so he put his strength into getting out of the pothole, the wheel coming free without too much trouble. She pulled him to a halt and quickly got out to check the damage. Crouching by the wheel, she ran her hand over it. “Sorry about that, Olya. Fortunately, it’s just a scratch. I can come by and repair it another day.”

“That’s alright, dear. No real harm done. I’m just glad Whiskers is such a good boy. As much as I love carriage rides, I don’t enjoy high speed chases,” the older woman chuckled.

Standing, Phoenix grinned and gave him a pat on the rump. “Solid as a rock this one.”

The plum stallion whinnied his agreement.

She climbed back into the driver’s seat and they kept going, turning into the driveway to make the first of their deliveries. Stopping by the house, they heard cursing coming from around the back.

Phoenix turned to share a glance with Olya. That didn’t sound good. She guided Dragon’s whiskers around to the back, where they saw a teenager going after a loose horse.

“Yo!” Phoenix yelled to get his attention.

He turned and with a sigh, jogged over. A smile lit up his face as he saw who it was. “Granny!” he greeted. “I didn’t expect to see you getting around just yet.”

“I also did not expect to hear such language from a grandson of mine,” she scolded.

His ears turned red. “Sorry, Gran.”

“What’s going on?” Phoenix gestured towards the loose horse running around the paddock with ties still attached to his halter.

“Ah, well,” the teen rubbed the back of his neck, “I was grooming Mushroom and he got spooked by some screeching noise. He snapped his tie and ran off. Now he won’t let me catch him.”

Phoenix grimaced, “Sorry about that, kid. That was my fault. We hit a pothole near your house.”

“Oh, that one,” he snorted and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, Dad’s been trying to get the council to fix it for ages.”

“How about this, you help take the gifts inside for your grandmother, and I’ll round up your horse? Mushroom, was it?”

The teen glanced back at the classic champagne stallion in the field. “Yeah, okay.” He turned back to them. “That’s a lot of parcel’s, Granny, are they all for me?”

“Of course not, you greedy youngen,” she scolded playfully. “I separated out the ones for your household over here.”

With a pat to Whiskers’ nose, Phoenix left them to sort out the packages. She didn’t walk directly for the spooked horse, but rather aimed as if she were going to walk past him. Mushroom was a gorgeous boy, he had a large white marking across his face and a thick corset around his belly. Mostly lovely though was his long rapunzel tail. She almost wished Whiskers had one like it, but rapunzels didn’t make for good carriage horses, their tails were simply too long for them to be comfortable in front of a carriage, though that never stopped some people.

“Hey, Mushroom,” Phoenix spoke softly to the spooked horse. His ears briefly flicked towards her.

“You’re a good boy.” She didn’t look directly at him, making sure to still be aimed past him. “I’m not here to hurt you.”

He snorted, nostrils flared. He wasn’t about to go easily. But that was okay. She’d dealt with many difficult horses over the years.

Without any treats, she tried the next best thing, which almost had as much success as food. She sat down on the grass, not facing Mushroom, but sitting so he wasn’t directly to her right.

Whiskers whinnied, as if he was saying to hurry up already.

Phoenix rolled her eyes. “I'm getting there.”

So with that, she began to sing. Softly, so the others wouldn’t hear, but loud enough to pique Mushroom’s curiosity and hopefully also calm him down. The song she sang was an old hymn her mother taught her when she was a little girl. But it wasn’t so much the words that would do the trick, but the melody. Sweet and soft that it was, it was doing its job. Mushroom’s ears turned in her direction, as he watched her closely. She posed no threat on the ground as she was, only singing her soft song.

Slowly, the stallion stepped forward. Step by hesitating step, he moved towards her. She was careful to only watch him out of the corner of her eye, keeping up her singing, starting up again as she reached the end of the song. Until Mushroom sniffed at her shoulder and let her reach up a hand to grab his halter.

“That’s a good boy,” she murmured, softly scratching his chin. “How about we get you back to your boy.”

Slowly she stood so as not to startle him, collecting the broken ties still attached to his halter so he didn’t trip. With him safe and sound, Phoenix led him back to Olya’s grandson.

“Here you go. Be careful, he might still be a bit skittish and likely to spook again for a while. And get those ties fixed.”

“Thanks.” The teen sheepishly took Mushroom off her hands.

The stallion snorted.

“Bye, Mushroom.” Phoenix gave him a final pat before returning to Whiskers.

He gave a short whinny.

She smirked and gave his neck a pat. “Olya, are you ready to go now?”

“The parcels have been delivered. On we go!”