Welcome to Hickstead, home to both Seven Oak Stables, and Blue Acre - two rival stables. Both offer opportunities for their clients to reach the highest level of excellence. Each stable differs from the other, so choose wisely and never forget, loyalty is everything... Meanwhile as the stables battle it out, there's trouble brewing at the university. Be careful, if you don't pick a side you may get caught in the cross-fire...
This is an chilled out rpg with a super friendly and relaxed atmosphere! Remember to sign up with your characters full name in all caps and don't forget to do your claims! Thank you and Welcome, we've been established since 10th March 2009 but unfortunately have had to close guest view of our boards due to multiple sites ripping off our hard work, such a shame! Come chat to us in Discord before joining if you like!.
“We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.” – Tom Stoppard.
Cara rolled up the fourth garlic bread in aluminum foil and placed it into the fridge with the others. She stepped back and looked in the large refrigerator, taking in the containers of things she had prepared for them to make pizzas that night; a large box of grated cheese, the thick pizza bases, and paninis for the children to make their own, other containers with sliced capsicum, tomato, ham, pepperoni, and other cold cuts and things that could go onto pizza. Happy she had everything ready, she closed the door and tidied up the counter, putting the dishes into the washer and wiping the marble counter of any crumbs.
With the kitchen tidy, she headed out to collect the mail, knowing that she had a bit of time on her hands with the afternoon off, as Naomi had taken the children to the playground when they awoke from their naps. Taking the envelopes from the box, she closed and locked it before heading back to the house, leafing through the envelopes as she walked; moving them between her fingers, sorting them into piles of who they were addressed to. She frowned when she saw that one was addressed to her, she didn’t recognise the handwriting and wasn’t expecting anything, though she guessed that from the style of writing, it was written by a male. With a shake of her head, she tucked the other mail under her arm and used her thumb to open the envelope. She started up the steps as she took the paper from the envelope and opened it. She came to a stop as her eyes looked at the first two words, and she grabbed the stair rail to keep herself upright as she swallowed hard and forced the hand holding the paper to loosen so she didn’t tear it and she continued into the house.
Walking into the kitchen, she placed the mail into the holder on the counter and grabbed a notepad where she wrote a quick note to say that she was going for a run. Her hands were shaking so badly that it took her three tries until the note was legible enough, though still not her normal precise script, and she stuffed the letter back into the envelope as she raced up to her room to collect her running shoes.
She ran around the perimeter of the property and then through the back fields. She had been this way before and knew that it eventually led to the trails that connected to Seven Oaks. As her feet pounded against the ground, her head was buzzing, and the more her brain worked, the faster she ran, as though she could run away from them - not exactly the best mentality for someone who had recently gained her PHD. She knew at some point she would need to read the entirety of the letter that had been addressed to her. It was funny how the simple words; Hello Pet could send her into such a spin.
With her thoughts everywhere, she wasn’t watching where she was running, and when the toe of her shoe caught a raised root, she pitched forward and put her hands out to stop her fall, a cry of pain escaping her at the impact. Pushing herself up, she gasped as white hot pain shot through her left shoulder blade, she remained on her knees as she got her breath back and then rocked back and bounced to her feet again, closing her eyes momentarily as the area around her floated in and out of focus before coming back into focus.
blair nudged cal on just that little bit faster as she felt the wind brush past her face, the cool chill of the air biting just that little bit as only the mountain air could do. she'd taken the day off work, she'd been scheduled to work a double but she'd taken the time she'd felt she'd needed. this last few weeks had been rough. with what her and ben had lost, she was still trying to work through it. it wasn't like it had been planned, nor had either of them been thinking about children but they'd lost it before they'd had the chance to accept it and sometimes she thought that's what hurt the most. she pulled cal up slowly as she took a steadying breath and she rubbed her hand down his neck gently. "good lad." she said softly as she loosened the rains so he could have his head and he could walk down the trail at his own pace.
it was then she heard someone yell from somewhere close by and while it spooked cal enough for him to pull up a little, the steady horse he was, he didn't spook which she was certain would have unseated her at that very moment. she gathered her reins up quickly and spurred him forward towards the sound, just in case someone was seriously hurt. anything could have happened and she found herself getting into work mode as she kept an eye out for any dangers that could hurt her and cal as she rounded the bend. it was then she spotted a lone woman on the trail and while she was on her feet, blair could tell from a distance that she didn't look good. she pulled cal up a little ways from her and she hopped off him quickly. "are you alright?" she asked as she tied cal's reins to a tree before she rushed over to the woman. "i'm blair."
Cara closed her eyes as she heard the approach of a horse, of course she would be on a used trail, and she forced her normal mask of apathy back in place. "are you alright? i'm blair." "I'm fine." The words left her automatically and she pressed her lips together as her stomach instantly knotted at the obvious lie. "Sorry." She managed as she turned away and began to retch.
She shook her head as she straightened up, coughing. Lips pressed together as she gave the woman a ghost of a smile. "Sorry" She said again. "I am called Cara." Her shoulder still felt like it was on fire, and while she wanted to give it an experimental lift, she also didn't want to give away the fact that she was in pain. She glanced at the woman's horse and though about the fact she didn't have one. "I was out for a run and tripped." It was the truth too, and she didn't want Blair to be concerned about a horse running loose off the trail, since, other than the running shoes, Cara was wearing navy jodhpurs and cornflower blue shirt, both of which were probably ruined from her fall.
that was a stretch if she'd ever seen one. being a paramedic she was used to seeing people in pain. everyone's face showed it a little different and sometimes it was hard to work out just how much pain someone was in but it was made all the more obvious to blair when the girl turned and showed her pain to the side of the trail. "hey, don't say sorry to me." she said with a smile as she stood by the girl, her hands hovering almost uselessly as she didn't know what to do with them. had she known the girl she'd have tried to support her, rub her back and make sure she didn't fall over. when she was on the job she'd have done the same thing but she'd come across this stranger and she knew some people didn't like to be touched so she would air onto the side of caution until she could ask or be told.
"i'd say it's nice to meet you cara but i'll wait till we're somewhere different." she said as she took a step towards her, her trained eyes examining her from head to toe, going through the mental checklist she usually did. she was breathing okay, she was conscious, her eyes didn't look like her pupils were different sizes, there were no signs of cuts on her head and other than the vomiting she wasn't worried about a head injury. "that's why i always tell people working out is dangerous." she said, another small smile on her face. "now how about you tell me what's sore?" she asked as she pulled out a phone so she could take notes in case she needed to. "just so you know i'm not just a weirdo or anything, i'm a paramedic with the fire department." just in case cara wanted to check or was scared of her for some reason.
Cara took a step backwards, keeping the space between them as she did her best to hide any weakness and appear as emotionless as possible, though the fact that the unwanted memories the letter she had received had stirred wouldn't quieten down. She arched her brow, but guessed from the woman's smile that her words about working out were a joke.
She lifted her right hand to massage her temple, trying to relieve the tension she could feel building there. "I w-wasn't expecting to fall, which is w-why I cried out. T-the fall didn't cause any injuries." The pain in her shoulder was from a very old injury, so her words weren't a lie. She knew that her answer had danced around the question of what was sore, but she knew there was nothing that could be done with her shoulder right now, and a hot shower when she got back would sort it out, along with her other natural treatments. She clenched her right fist and stilled any movement before she could lift her hand to massage the opposite shoulder. "That must be a very rewarding job, though testing for your mental character at the same time."
blair held her hands up lightly as cara took a step back from her. she was starting to get a little concerned that not all was what it seemed to be. had someone attacked the girl? that might make her afraid of someone and afraid to talk to her. she felt herself tense a little and she glanced around, making sure that she could see no one else around them. pol was resting further down the trail and she was relaxed so blair made herself take a breath before she looked back at cara. "no one expects to fall." she said, softening her tone just a little, wondering if there was really a reason the woman was afraid. "people don't generally vomit because they're fine." she said as she kept a careful watch on the girl who seemed determined to pass herself off as fine.
"it has it's perks." she said with a smile as she lowered her hands and decided on another approach. she knew that she wasn't the best paramedic in the world but she did have a real desire to help people and help them she was going to try to do, she just wasn't going to force her help on someone who didn't want it. but she did want to make sure that cara was okay. she took a quick look around and she took a few steps backward to sit on a long that ran along the edge of the trail and she patted the log gently, motioning for cara to come sit down on it too. "how about you humor me by just sitting for a minute?"
Cara nodded as she worried the bottom corner of her lip with her teeth, she had seen the woman glance around, and it wasn't hard to come up with what she was thinking. She pressed her lips together before she ruined her lip. "I vomit when I'm stressed." She supplied with a shrug, and lying had just added to the stress that was already weighing on her. "As illogical as it sounds, I was running from my thoughts, not a physical assailant."
She had been hoping that her comment about the woman's job would get her talking about it, and then distract her, but that didn't seem to be the case. Cara's brows lifted as she watched the woman's retreat, and nodded as she could hear an order, no matter how nicely it was worded, and she stepped forward to sit on the log, being careful with how she sat down with the grace of a dancer, so not to jar her shoulder or hips that hurt from her fall and then standing around. She worried her lower lip with her teeth again as she looked into the trees, as she thought about the envelope that must be on her bed. "I really will be fine." And she would be, eventually.
well that was a reason, and a decent one at that. people could vomit from stress and while it wasn't ideal, it did make blair worry just that little less about the fact that cara might have smacked her head on the way down and not known about it. but the thought that someone might be chasing cara was the next one that blair wanted to be able to settle down and thankfully it was the next thing out of her mouth. so it was something personal she was running from. blair could understand that, she'd spent most of her spare time riding through the woods since she'd found out she'd never been pregnant, even though everything, even a test, had pointed towards it. it was funny to miss something she'd never had but she was grieving all the same and she felt silly for feeling it but she couldn't help it.
she settled onto the log and was glad when cara decided to sit down on the log next to her. even if all she did was take ten minutes to really recover from the fall so she could let the adrenaline settle and she could feel if anything was actually hurt. sometimes people could run on broken ankles if they were determined enough and the last thing blair wanted to do was find out that cara was actually hurt and she just let her go. "thank you for humoring me though." she said with a small smile as she looked back down the trail to where cal was standing happily. "do you like horses?" she knew that most of the people in this town were horsey and it was a way to start conversation.
Cara's brow dipped as she tried to work out the woman's comment, but no matter how she worked it in her head, she couldn't think of what she had done that the other would find humorous. She mentally shrugged it off as another of those things she's never understand.
She frowned at the question as she looked through the trees again. "I think the correct answer for that would be yes?" She said with a shrug as she pulled a blade of grass, used her nail to slice it into three and braided it. "They are something I am good at." She shrugged as she often wondered if she would ever have ridden if her parents were still with her, and that led to questions of what her parents had been like. What were their interests? From what she'd found on the internet her father had been an auto mechanic, and owned and ran a very profitable vehicle business, and her mother, until Cara's birth, had been a catering chef. Other than that, she knew nothing, had no memories of them. Nothing before she was introduced to hell. I'm sorry to have interrupted your ride. He's a nice looking horse."
she smiled a little as it seemed that the question had worked. even if she'd had said no, blair could have used it to talk about some other animal or used it to venture off onto some other topic. so she did like horses. blair didn't remember her from the stables but sos wasn't the only one in town, it was just where her horses were boarded. they were happy and settled there and the staff did so well taking care of them when she couldn't. her jump swung in shifts so some weeks she was there all the time and other weeks she couldn't be there. but they helped her make it work.
"it's good to have something we're talented at." she thought that for everyone. of course it mattered if what they were good at was a danger to other people, then that was a different story but if no one was hurting anyone, it was fine. she'd learned at a young age she was good with horses, it had run in her family but she'd been no where dedicated enough to make a living from it. she loved her horses but she rode for fun, sometimes in competition and she let others use her horses if they wanted to compete.
"that's alright, i think cal's pretty glad for the break." she said with a smile as she watched him nip at leaves from the tree he was tied to. "he's a little too good looking for his own good, i swear i saw him checking himself out in the creek earlier." she joked a little as she rested her elbows on her knees. cal wasn't one of her horses, she was just riding him for a friend while she was out of town but that wasn't something she needed to say. "do you ride at blue acres?"
Cara's shoulders made their way up to her ears, and she regretted the movement as they dropped again. She didn't know if talented would be a word she would use, as she was sure she could be better, but wasn't sure how to put that in words without sounding like she was whining, but the athlete in her wouldn't allow her to settle for anything less than perfect, and she had a long way to go to get to that point. She was good at what she did, but not talented.
Her brows rose, and she opened her mouth to mention that horses didn't recognise their own reflections, they thought it was another horse, but pressed her lips together again, thinking it was another of those things that just went over her head. She stretched her legs out and pointed her toes, feeling the stretch up her legs, doing her best to remain sitting, when she wanted to stand up again. She was still full of nervous energy, and her body wanted to be moving. "I live, work and ride there." She replied. "I'm the nanny for the Clarke-Thorne family." Technically she was also a part of that family, but she still struggled with letting people in.
that explained why she hadn't seen her while she'd been at the barn. she hadn't spent much time at seven oaks while the horses from blue acres had been there, she'd been working double shifts and some overtime so her horses had been worked and looked after by the staff and some friends of hers. "so it's the trifecta." she said with a smile as she took in the girls stretched legs and was glad to see that they really did look okay, there were no bones sticking out, no odd lumps and bumps that could have indicated that a bone was broken, she knew a lot of people thought pain was always a good indicator but everyone felt pain differently. "that must be fun." she loved kids but she wasn't quite sure how she felt about them at the moment. she was almost an aunty to her boyfriends brothers horde of children but she'd pulled away from them the last few weeks, not knowing how to act around them after being so sure she was going to be giving them a cousin and then finding out she might never have that chance to again.
she could tell that the girl was restless and at least she'd had something of a rest now, blair knew the chances of her keeping her sitting here any longer were probably slim to none so she threw a bone and she stood up from the log they were sitting on. "how about i walk you back?" she offered. she wouldn't push if the offer was declined but someone to talk to on the way back might be nice for the girl, if she wanted to at least.
Cara's brow rose in question, though she quickly nodded in understanding, lived, worked, rode. "It keeps me busy." She replied with a hint of a smile, and in her world, busy was good. "It's very rewarding." She pointed her toes toward her, before pointing them away again, reminding her of the exercise she had the children do to warm up their ankles for ballet.
She rose to her feet, holding her breath as her hips protested the movement a little, but did her best not to react. She was already shaking her head before the offer was finished. "I thank you, but I don't want to take up any more of your time." She said. "Thank you for stopping to see if I was alright, that was very nice of you." She needed to sort out her thoughts before getting back to the property, and that would be better done when she was by herself, and she wasn't exactly the best for making small talk.
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