please don't return [sym]

[flatcreek]

Sarah Mutain

Sarah yawned as she walked into the barn, flipping the light on with one hand and holding her too-hot coffee in the other. The race horses that were kept in the main barn nickered, looking for their feed. Normally, Sarah arrived in time to help finish feeding, but John was out of town at an auction, looking to see if there were any good horses for sale. It had a little bit of everything, broodmares, stallions, racing age horses, everything. Chances were he would come back with a new horse or two. Lynn was offically in charge, and would be showing up before long.

She started to feed the horses in the main barn, moving through them quickly, then moving to the broodmare, stallion, and weanling barns. The last stop was the yearling barn, the youngsters nickering and pawing, eager to eat their breakfast. She walked into the barn to a surprise - Al, the blue roan son of Rocket and Devil's Food, was loose. Sarah grabbed a lead rope and managed to grab the halter and clip the lead rope to it. As she did so, she noticed the lip marking. That sure wasn't Al, it was his twin Oscar. "What are you doing here, Osacr the Grouch?" she asked the colt, using the nickname she had given him when he had been her mount. The colt pinned his ears, not wanting to behave when Sarah led him down to the empty stall. At least, she thought it was empty until another blue roan colt walked out, ears pinned.

"Al," Sarah sighed, backing Oscar up to the cross ties and unclipping the lead rope. Since Al had stayed in the stall, he was fairly easy to catch, only pinning his ears and biting at her when she grabbed his leather halter. "Back to your stall, mister Al." She led the unruly colt down to the stall he was supposed to be in. She saw right away what had happened. Al's groom, or somebody else, had forgotten to attach the clip to Al's stall latch. Oscar had escaped over at King's Park and come down the road to Flat Creek, that evening, most likely, and had gotten trapped in the yearling barn when John closed the big door. He'd gone and let Al out of his stall sometime that night and the two had gotten to rule the barn until Sarah had come to feed.

Sarah led Oscar over to the empty stall, once again and put the extra snap onto the stall, then fed the Flat Creek horses. She didn't give Oscar anything, since she didn't know what Kings Park was feeding him. The other stable had gotten their hands onto the big blue roan during a foal swap the two stables had done. Kings Park had taken Oscar, Gem, Nattie, and Zen, while Flat Creek had gotten four very nice prospects from them. Dontyouthink, a daughter of Thatswhatyouthink and Windsong, Break The East, a son of Spellbreaker and Eastern Essence, Rogue Wind, a daughter of Daemon and Windsong, and Gladly Abroad, a son of Looking Glass and Sails Abroad. The swap would bring fresh blood into both stables and, hopefully, some champions.

[symphony]

Darren Montejano

With coffee in hand, Darren and Tally stood in front of the empty stall, looking more than a little confused. Forceful, the unruly colt Tally had somewhat unwittingly picked from Flat Creek's crop of youngsters (God knows why) had most definitely been there before and for a while after her final check of the stables, his feed bin completely empty and tossed into a corner as usual. And yet, no annoying blue roan colt stood in the stall flicking his head at them menacingly as they puzzled over the problem.

"Perhaps someone forgot to flip the bottom latch?" Tally suggested finally, sipping at her almost-forgotten coffee. It was a common problem with some of the younger workers - each stall had a sliding latch at the top and then a second latch that could be flipped into place with your foot easily enough, though many people forgot it even existed. For most horses it wasn't a problem - even now, Eidolon stood in the stall next to them with hers unlatched, and she hadn't budged all night. Oscar, however, was another case entirely from the sweet (and talented) filly.

A few more minutes of silent confusion reigned over the stable, before Tally finally managed to gather herself, sighing heavily and moving to pat Echo. "Go for a quick walk down to Flat Creek and see if they've got any idea where he's gone," Tally instructed. "That's the only other place he really knows. I can finish up here."

"Yes ma'am," Darren joked, mock saluting before heading for the stable entrance, depositing his cup on the small table Tally covered in schedules every morning on his way out. It was only a short walk to most stables in the area, as they all used the track on a daily basis for training, and Flat Creek was not exempt from that. It took Darren only ten minutes or so to reach the property, where he turned towards the biggest barn of the lot; lights were on in there and the door open, giving away the presence of at least one person who knew what they were doing.

[flatcreek]

Sarah Mutain

Sarah finished up and hurried back to the main barn to help get the horses ready for their morning works. As she entered through the back, she heard Andy nickering, which was unusual, and usually a sign of a non-Flat Creek person in the barn. The sabino stallion was a good as any watch dog, as far as letting them know when somebody was there. Sarah finished grabbing tack for her first horse of the morning - Apollo - then headed towards the big door, the way Andy was looking, ears pricked and eyes bright.

She gave the stallion a pat as she walked by, then glanced out the door to see the shadow of a man moving towards the stable. As he came closer, she reconized Darren from Kings Park. For a moment, she wondered what he was doing at Flat Creek so early in the morning, then she realized that he was probably looking for Oscar. "Hello, Darren." she called as she stepped out of the shadows into the rising sun's light. "What are you doing here so early? Come on in." Sarah led the way into the barn, stopping near the office.

[symphony]

Darren Montejano

Before Darren had even set foot in the barn, Sarah spotted him and invited him in. As he walked into the barn, he couldn't help but look around at the many horse heads poking out from stalls curiously. Many of them were horses he recognised; Flat Creek was a very successful stable, with many good horses that gave King's Park a run for their money. Out of curiosity, he was looking for one horse in particular, a grey colt named Mindset who had been giving Vanquished trouble at every turn. The colt would be bigger and stronger than ever this year, no doubt, while Netta was forever small and slippery. So far, the filly had the upper hand in that relationship, but that could all change with another year on both of them.

"Morning Sarah," he said with a grin. "I just thought I'd drop by quickly to ask if you know anything about Oscar's mysterious disappearance this morning - someone forgot to latch his stall door properly last night and he's taken the opportunity to leave us." Darren thought the whole situation quite funny, despite the multitude of disasters that could occur if the colt had wandered into the woods; though they tried to get along with him, Oscar had decided he wanted nothing to do with King's Park, and was out of there at first opportunity. Darren had no idea what they had done to offend the colt, but Oscar obviously didn't hold any of their workers in high opinion and had made it no secret.

[flatcreek]

Sarah Mutain

Sarah couldn't help but smile when she noticed Darren looking at all of the Flat Creek horses. The two stables had become good friends, but that didn't stop them from fighting for each win. As she listened to Darren, she gave Seth, whose stall was near the office, a peppermint. The gray colt had grown and filled out over the winter and would be a force to be reckoned with as he continued to mature. In the next stall, Wild was nickering and, like always, moving. She was hyper as usual.

Sarah couldn't help but grin at what her former mount had done. "Yeah, he's in our yearling barn, or at least he was when I left him. I went in to feed and there he was. He'd let his twin, Al, out too." She shook her head. "I feel sorry for whoever you have ride that colt. I was going to be his jockey, and let me tell you, it wasn't any fun at all. I'll take Apollo any day."