I'm On A Horse

Another late night escapade turned into an early morning wander, where the rays shone blue. Chilling out in the forest was a nice way to prepare for the busyness of the village. This particular night there had been hardly any activity. No chirps from any crickets, not a hoot from an owl. The noisiest it got was perhaps a slight breeze, or the snap of a twig Suzume stepped on by accident from not paying attention to where the quietest areas to place her foot next. But then, as she stumbled into a thicket after being startled by the unsuspected noise among the silence, a creature flung its head up. With an alarming huff, it got into an alerted stance, pushing the water it stood in into ripples. There wasn't enough light yet for Suzume to see what it was, but it was huge. Possibly three times her size. She would have moved away, had she known the exact location of it, but could only rely on the general direction of the sound. The only hint she got after the thing's heavy breath was the sound of the water sloshing about. Suzume kept as still as possible, hoping the beast would turn away. However, she never had the opportunity. Despite a branch of thorns jabbing at her sides, she remained in the same position, as the beast kept where it was. It sniffed at the air, before lowering its head back down to consume some patches of grass around it. 

Suzume risked moving ever so slightly, having no idea if the thing was ready to attack or if it dissuaded her presence at this point. It gave no visible response. She continued to unravel her way from the thick bramble, turning away from the beast to pick out each thorn that stuck to her tunic, causing her to struggle to break free. Only for the creature to creep up behind her, and it snorted beside her ear. Suzume jerked the other way, now facing the creature. By now, the sun had risen some more and being that the beast was right in front of her, she could see it was a horse. A huge black horse with a rather tangled mane and roughed up fur. It towered so far above her, Suzume had to tilt her head up quite a bit just to see its face. Immediately, she cowered back, having no idea what an animal like that would be doing roaming around here. Ever so slowly, she inched her way away from it. However, the horse remained docile. No signs of aggression or intent of harm that she could tell, so Suzume decided it wouldn't be necessary to run. 

The horse seemed curious. In Suzume's mind, she thought the beast thought the same thing as herself, "What the hell is that thing doing out here at this moment?" Now, this animal didn't seem as scary. As it calmly walked towards her, Suzume stood there wondering what it was up to. Once it reached a few feet away from her, the horse turned, its side facing Suzume, and it circled around her as if it was trying to figure out what she was up to. Suzume put her arm out, her hand formed in a loose fist. The horse stretched its neck over towards her, whiffing at her scent. It approached even closer, though this time Suzume didn't back away. At this rate, it seemed as though as the animal wasn't wild. But she didn't want to assume it was tame, either. It could just be feral... but it was odd for a feral creature to be so easy with humans. 

Out of nowhere, the beast shook its mane out and gave a whinny, and started walking away. Suzume decided to follow it, only to come across an open area of hills and grass. It stood there, overlooking the lands. At her height, she would not have been able to get the sight that the horse would, so she finally got the idea to climb up on the horse's back. What's the worse that could happen? She could fall off, or be bucked off at that, and crack her skull open. There are worse ways to be killed in this world, she figured, and so gave it the risk. Suzume patted the horse at its shoulder, and the creature turned its head to watch what she was doing so close. Though earlier the horse did get to such a near proximity to her, so surely it was fine with her getting that close, right?

Suzume gave a hop and gently grabbed at the beast's pelt. However, there wasn't enough friction with her hands to get up any further and ended up sliding back down. The horse lifted its hoof closest to her and patted it down. Being clueless to what that meant, she dismissed it and leapt onto the creature. Now she was able to climb onto a spot that she could sit up. Somehow the horse was alright with her. She patted its head, saying "You're a friendly horsey!" enthusiastically. The horse let out a blow of air through its lips. 

The horse's mane was very tangled, so Suzume decided she would brush it once she got a brush of some sort. At that moment, the horse started walking more into the open land. She had to quickly snatch onto its mane to stay balanced. Every now and then it stopped to graze, but then would continue walking. Suzume enjoyed sitting there, with the horse. She concluded that the horse had to be a trained domesticated ranch animal to be this cooperational. Yet, no where in Konoha did she know of any ranches...or if shinobi there even used horses. But being out here, away from what she knew as society, was a relaxing break. Wherever the horse came from, anyways. On another note, it might have been a good question to ask where it was going. Suzume knew the general direction to take to go back home, yet the horse kept going further and further. This was perhaps the furthest Suzume had been from all she knew, ever. Not having a clue as to what was out there, Suzume allowed for the horse to continue roaming. Eventually, they would reach the other side of the open land to another area of dense forestry. This side looked more dead. Hardly any trees had green leaves. Most were fallen over. The horse continued, despite the eeriness of the location. A bad stench drenched the aroma there, to what Suzume imagined a corpse would smell like....though she had been graced to make it this far in the shinobi life to not have such an unpleasant experience. Being only a genin, that was all subject to change. Once again, she pondered in how she would make it past genin into chunin without getting killed, but soon decided that making a big deal about it wouldn't do any good and the worst that could happen is that she would be cared for at the hospital...or end up like Avalon. 

Out of nowhere, the horse reared onto its hind legs. It took a sharp turn around and took off sprinting back to the open land. The shocking turn of events chased out Suzume's uncertainty of becoming chunin, though it gave a new anxiety. Now falling off the horse was much more scary than when she originally considered whether or not to risk it. She clung her fingers into the clumps of mass that made up for the horse's tangled hairs, hoping that she would be able to stay on. Taking a quick look behind them, she spotted a snake than slithered from underneath a rock. That must have been what spooked the horse just now. Regaining better balance as the horse ran, she had no idea how to calm it. She tried to simply talk, saying "Woah, slow" but that had no effect. The horse seemed to have picked up speed, if anything. 

At that, Suzume held on tighter to its mane, to the point that she was pulling it. The horse took it as instructions to slow down. Although, Suzume didn't quite catch on. She only read about horses in books at the library, and never really had any experience with them. The horse then came to a trot, and now they were back in the original patch of woods they had been in before entering the open grasslands. Still uncomfortable with the speed, Suzume was yet still tugging on the beast's mane. So, the horse slowed down even more, until it finally came to a stop. They were then at the place they had originally met. Suzume got off the horse, and took it easy after the whole thing. 

The horse took a rest by the pond it was in when it greeted Suzume. Lowering its head to the water, the horse took a drink. Suzume went towards the water too, though her movement caused for the horse to flinch as it couldn't see behind him. He kicked out one of his hind legs, barely missing Suzume. Understandably startled, Suzume sprung away, then learning that it probably wasn't a good idea to go behind the creature, as it was looking around itself to see what the movement was. Upon seeing it was just her, the horse went back to replenishing its thirst after running amok in the fields. 

At this point, morning had come and the earliest of risers came out to perform their tasks for the village to get the day started. Suzume didn't want to be caught so far away on her own a be lectured about the dangers of doing what she did (after all she had dealt with a close call once before, but was saved by two random genin). She made her way back to the village, only for the horse to for some reason follow her. Suzume wasn't sure how she would casually have a horse just go into the village, but she continued to head towards it thinking she'd come up with something once she got there. Already there were some shinobi out, but they didn't pay much mind to her. So far, at least. 

Once having arrived at the village gates, she saw that the horse had still been following her. She remember how she was going to brush out the horse's mane, but getting it through the village wouldn't be such a good idea. The horse was used to wide open plains or plentiful trees...not cloosed in alleyways crowded by buildings or houses and litters of people. Even though Suzume continued forth past the gates, the horse stayed put. It wasn't willing to deal with the environment that was unusual to itself. It stared at her as she went through the crowds of the morning rush. She wouldn't be long though, as she was simply going to the edge of the residency area to a cave that she called home and obtained a hairbrush. She wasn't sure if it was suitable for a horse's mane, but figured it could be good enough. Ripping out her own tangled mass of hair off of the hairbrush to prepare to use it for the horse, she wondered how long the horse had been out on its own. From the look of its mane, it had to have been pretty long because hopefully someone would have taken care of that if someone were to have previously been responsible for caring of it. 

Getting back to the horse, Suzume once again jumped onto its back. She took the brush and began to work at making it less messy. It would probably take her all day, but the horse seemed nice. It even appeared to enjoy being brushed. Some parts of its mane was tougher than others, but Suzume kept at it to make the horse's mane smooth. Certain clumps required rather intensive brushing. Eventaully, the mane was as well groomed as a princess's hair, and the horse tossed its mane around freely. 

[WC: 2,013 - Claiming Familiar and 10 Stat Points]

Approved.

Same advice as the last time~