HeArt Of A Stallion

[Cyril Kingsley]

Like any other day, Cyril was down at the stables and working hard. Most of the day’s work had been done and already the sun was starting set. Even with it still being not that late in the day, the winter weather always caused the days to be shorter. Still, there was enough daylight out to see everything in a nice orange and red color. In fact, it was a beautiful site to see in the sky and reflecting on the snow covered ground. The horses all had their thick winter coats and a few had special jackets on them to keep them cold as they were out in the pastures.

It was important that a horse still got outside time, even in the winter, but he made sure that all of them had fresh; not frozen, water and were nice and warm. There was no point in really getting rid of the snow since there would be no grass to graze on, plus it was a good workout for the horses to go trotting through the snow. He did make sure to get rid of any ice and personally would go out to break up some of the snow in a path to the food troughs and under the open shelter out in the pastures for the horses that wanted to take cover from any falling snow.

There was one thing that should have been known about Cyril, that many did not know. When it came to the cold, he was not actually very welcoming to it. Cold that came with rain her was fine with, but cold from just the cold weather and the snow had him shivering like a new born fawn. "Just have to wait a little longer before I can bring them all in." Cyril said out loud to himself, his teeth already chattering. He was talking to his cat but she had long since run off to the nice and warm barn. While Cyril remained outside, shivering, and then going to move to head into the bar to warm up a little bit. Yet, when he turned, he had hit a patch of black ice and down her went. Not fun.

((*should be locked away for the awful pun title*))

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Sitting leaned against a tree, Jamie had her sketchbook leaned up against her thighs, and her eyes practically glued on the running horses. She barely looked at the sketch as her wrist made the movements, holding tightly onto the pencil. Her movements were quick, perfected and showed that she clearly knew what she was doing. Her hand moved slowly, precise and confident. She knew what she was doing, and she loved it. She radiated focus and concentration, making her almost completely unaware of what happened around her.

Well, at least until she heard the sound of something heavy fall against the ice. Leaning over, she peeked her head towards the sound, feeling the emotions radiate from near the barn. Pushing herself up, she put the sketchbook back into her satchel and started moving towards where the emotion was coming from. As she drew closer, she noticed the heap of blonde hair, muscles and clothes lie planted on the ice and an amused smile formed on the brunette's lips.

"My, you got yourself into a mess there, didn't you?" she mused, still stepping closer. She didn't stop until she reached the man. As she did, she knelt down before him and brushed a few strands of hair away from his forehead. "You alright there?" she asked. She wasn't really that concerned about his safety. After all, he seemed like a big boy, capable of taking care of himself, and Jamie would in no way belittle and coddle him into seeming otherwise, unless of course asked to.

[Cyril Kingsley]

“Winter is not my weather.” Cyril groaned as he lay where he had fallen for a moment. He was checking to see if anything was broken, but he knew that he probably was just going to have a burse on his bum and a little on his back. He let out a deep sigh as he remained laying there in defeat, worried about standing up, and slipping again. He didn’t know anyone was approaching so jumped a little when he heard a female voice. He already felt his face growing slightly red, half worried that she saw him slip.

While he was fine being a goofball and making people laugh, that had not been his intention when falling. “I did. Ice is not mot friend. It’s not nIce.” Cyril said, unable to help himself letting out a pun as he pun emphasis on the ‘ice’ part of the word nice. He chuckled a little at the, smiling slightly until the woman’s voice he heard not came into view. His smile went away; he stopped chuckling, and just stared up at her. This woman was beautiful, like drop dead gorgeous. Oh bullocks, I have died. Cyril thought to himself, unable to say anything.

The angle even reached down to touch him, moving a few stands away from his forehead and asking if he was alright. Well…he was not feeling cold anymore. He felt more than alright. It took a moment for such words to even reach his lips as he started a little bit longer. Now he had lucked out into meeting yet another babe. “Me? Oh, I’m fine. No need to worry about me, love.” Cyril said as he rolled over a little, and worked on getting to his feet. He managed to stand up, but slipped a little, but managed to catch himself, half thanks to placing a hand on the woman’s shoulder.

“Apologies, love. That could have ended badly.” Cyril said as he started to smile a little and removed his hand from her shoulder. Her careful moved away from the patch of ice so he would not keep slipping everything time he moved. While he said it would have ended badly if he fell, part of him already pictured what it would have been like to slip and fall onto the woman. Minus the fact that he was not light and didn't want to hurt her. “What brings you all the way down to the stables?” Cyril then asked once his brain got out of not gentlemen side.

[Deleted]

A sheepish smiled formed on her lips at the horribly lame pun, but she couldn't help but finding it somewhat charming. Chuckling softly, Jamie nodded. "Well, sounds like you still manage to keep your head cool," she said, dishing out a pun for herself. She had never been good at them, but she figured if there was a good time for them, this was it. However, she found herself stopping short at the way the guy looked at her. What a peculiar expression he carried. It caused Jamie to frown. "Uhm," she began, hesitating. "Are you...okay?"

As he rose, Jamie rose with him, stepping forward as he almost slipped, but relaxed when he managed to catch himself. Smiling then, Jamie had to keep herself from laughing. He was adorable, in a dorky kind of way. Kind of awkward too, and clearly wasn't the most balanced guy out there. "Alright then," she replied with a shrug. She wasn't going to fuzz about it if he didn't want her to. She knew all too well how degrading it could be to have someone smother you when you really didn't want to.

"Well, you seem to be in good shape," she winked. "Nothing a little more falling would hurt anyways." He was... She wasn't sure. The way he kept calling her love was odd, but she wasn't going to say anything about it. It didn't really matter in the end, honestly. As for his question, Jamie shrugged. She lifted her satchel and pointed at the sketchbook that stuck out from the top. "Drawing," she explained and turned her head to nod towards the horses. "They're perfect for this art project I was thinking about starting for class," she added.

Pointing to herself then, she continued, "I'm one of the art teachers," she explained.

[Cyril Kingsley]

She smiled at his pun, that was always points won in Cyril's book. He honestly didn't care if she was chuckling at the pun or him, because he got a chuckle. Plus he found the joke good himself and in the end that was what mattered the most. She even made a pun back which had Cyril chuckling and grinning like a goon. He loved it when a person did a pun with him, it was just puntastic. The bad thing about it for them however was that it sometimes encouraged him to do more and that could drive them up a wall. "That was a good one." Cyril said, tempted to say it along with another pun but he decided to save it.

The woman was then frowning, which Cyril had worried a little but it seemed she was worried about him do to her question. "Me? I'm fine. Just slipped is all and then you appeared out of now and it just caught me by surprise is all." Cyril explained. He had didn't want her to be worried about him, he was a tough guy and while slipping on the ice hurt, he was not worried about it in the slightest. His only concern was not slipping again and well not giving this woman any bad first impression of him. It was not like he got too many visitors when he was not busy, most of them were students, and a few adults here and there. He smiled at her when she said alright and even pointed out that he was in good shape, with a wink.

Cyril did in fact think that he was in pretty good shape. He worked out, had a nice body; if he said so himself, and she was right that that fall was not going to do any real damage to him. he didn't really mean anything by calling her love, it was just a term of endearment. Normally he didn't say it to someone until he knew them a little bit better, but he had his school boy nerves there for a moment when he first started talking to her. Now he was calm and back to his usual self so he was going to be a little more careful about his word choice. She then revealed what she was doing here and Cyril was eager to hear more, even more so because she said horses.

"Oh, I know a few people who come down here to draw horses. You are one of the braver ones to come down here in this cold." Cyril pointed out as he chuckled slightly. He already took another step away from where he had slipped, just to be super safe. "Oh, so you are the new one. My name is Cyril Elias Kingsley. Who might you be Miss New Art Teacher?" Cyril asked as he extended his hand out to her.

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Nodding, Jamie decided to let it rest there. She wasn't going to mother the poor guy, and if he claimed to be fine, then he probably was. "Alright," she replied, smiling and added a quick nod to her words. He looked fine too. She couldn't see any open wounds or blood, so she was probably worried without reason. She figured that it came with the whole 'being a teacher', seeing as how she spent most of her days worrying about her students. It was hard not to bring that out of the classroom. But what she could sense from his emotions, he was telling the truth.

"I don't really mind the cold." There was no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes. After all, even the cold could be fought off with the right outfit. Besides, the school was right there in case she did grow cold. It wasn't like it was that huge of a deal. "That I am," she laughed. "Only been around for a few weeks now," she smiled. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Kingsley. My name is Jamie Foster." She had the whole politeness thing down and rarely called someone by their first name unless it was asked of her, or she knew them personally.

The guy was charming, in his own dorky kind of way. He was silly, but not in the annoying kind of way. At least, not right now. He did however remind her of someone who looked older than their mentality, but again, nothing that came across as annoying. "You're the caretaker then?" she asked, pursing her lips. Why else would he be here, anyways?

[Cyril Kingsley]

"Not at all? It's so cold." Cyril said as he looked at her a little surprised. She looked to be pretty small, not as in height but she didn't look like she was a big girl or anything. She didn't look like a twig either but he still wondered if she really was warm out in this weather. He was nice and bundled up and he still felt cold. Even back home he would likely be spending most of him time inside since he just never really did well with winter cold. Rain cold was fine, but there was something about the snow cold that just didn't agree with his body and made him shiver.

He was shivering a little now as he looked at the woman as he talked to her. She confirmed his words about her being braver and then the two exchanged introductions. He had a habit of giving his full name but was completely fine with receiving a first and last name. He would have been fine just receiving one part of their name in all honestly. As long as he got the name they wished to be called by, then he was able to be polite and call them by that name. "The pleasure is all mine, Miss Foster. Feel free to call me Cyril." Cyril said with a smile. Jamie seemed like a nice lady, she had manners, and she didn't look like she was displeased by being in his company, so those were all wins.

"One of them, yes. I help look after, take care of, and I'm even the vet for all the horses up here. I also run a club for people to come down to work with and get to ride the horses. So if you ever want to take a moment from drawing them to ridding one, just let me know." Cyril said, happy to offer out his services. He moved closer to the fence, whistling to call one of the horses over and as expected Artemis came over. Cyril and the large horse were the closest to one another, next to Ivy. Ivy was just more stubborn when it came to the being in the presence of other people but she was lingering close by.

"This here is Artemis and the one brooding over there is Ivy. Two of the horse here that I look after." Cyril said as he reached out to stroke Artemis's nose. Her nodded with his head at Jamie for her to feel free to pet the horse as well if she liked. "If it's not too much trouble, would you share with me what you have drawn so far?" Cyril asked after a moment. He also wanted to suggest going inside the stables where it was warm for some tea, but he recalled that she was not bothered by the cold.

[Deleted]

The idea of being able to draw the horses with someone riding them was tempting. She watched the guy as he moved towards the fence. "That would be pretty grand," she grinned, making motion to follow him. "I need some new material to draw anyways, so I don't see why not." She looked upwards towards the sky then, sighing slightly. "Should probably wait for spring time though. As much as I don't mind the cold, freezing your fingers stiff isn't exactly the best way to draw," she added with a chuckle. Really, working with stiff hands was one of the worst things to do while drawing.

"Hey there, Artemis. And Ivy," she greeted the horses, feeling a little silly for actually talking to them, but hey. She did however move closer and reached her own hand out to pet the horse. She wasn't accustomed to horses, but she wasn't afraid of them either. Nor did she feel awkward around them, as many people seemed to do. She didn't blame them, as horses were pretty big, and it wasn't a surprise that some people would be afraid of them.

At the guy's question, Jamie reached for her satchel and pulled out her sketch book. Handing it over, she waited for him to take it and offered him a smile. Once he did, Jamie continued petting the horse. Stroking it's long face and scratching the top of it, where its mange began. "It's nothing special. Just a few simple sketches really."

[Cyril Kingsley]

"Well you are free to come here and draw away. You could even go ridding if you like when you want a break from drawing." Cyril offered up the idea to her after her words. He always wanted people to fully enjoy everything a horse had to offer. From the petting of them, to even taking the chance to ride them. If they needed help he was there for them and was happy to give any lessons if they were needed. He nodded in agreement when she pointed out that she would probably wait until spring time before she would do any of her drawing out here.

"I can't argue with that logic. If the hoses didn't need their time out in the pastures, I would not be out here." Cyril pointed out, shivering a little again. Nope, he was not good with this kind of cold at all but for the horses he put up with it as best as he could. He was pleased to see that she was fine around the horses; there were some that had a lot of fear for them. He never understood it, but perhaps that was because he had such a great love for the creatures. That and he were pretty tall and while horses were still pretty tall as well, not all the breeds out their towered over him by too much.

Artemis was the biggest horse out of all of them here, but he was such a kind giant. While Ivy was pretty tall too but all muscles and attitude. He eagerly took the sketch book that she handed over to him, open it up and starting to look through it. He was not the kind of person that knew about the fine arts and what not, but he knew when he thought something was pretty or not. She did seem to have a talent for this kind of thing, and while he was no artist, he found it interesting. "It's better then what I can do. You sketch all kinds of things." Cyril pointed out as he looked through the various works, quick scanning.

"Anything that you like to draw the most?" Cyril asked, figuring he would get his answer if he kept looking, but he was trying to make conversation and distract himself from the cold.