"I hope you've been practicing."
Juliette snapped her attention from it's daze towards her patriarch as they approached their destination. The Ithanian furrowed her brows at the statement, her eyes rolling upwards as one would do towards a nagging parent before she responded.
"You already asked."
Leonzio sent a glance over his shoulder at her, before shaking his head, "I meant riding." By then though, the young woman had already spotted the stamping and snorted beasts. Her arms folded in annoyance, her steps slowing as she tried to lengthen the amount of time she had before she had to ride one of those creatures. The older Wodenstaff smirked briefly as he opened the gate of the first horse they came across- your average chestnut colored horse- taking up it's leads as the animal had already been dressed in tack before they'd arrived. He lead it forward and held out the ropes to Juliette. She drew back a step, glaring at the innocent animal for a length of time before she finally shuffled forward and took the lead in her hands.
"Run with or without me if things go wrong, Julie," he said as he drew another horse from it's stall and swiftly climbed atop it, taking up it's reins.
"Without you? This thing will kill me if you're not watching it." The short woman glanced up towards the Dressolini who simply smirked again at his kin's whining. Juliette gave a brief sigh of annoyance before pulling herself atop the horse, her hand briefly shaking from nerves as her distrust for the animal skyrocketed.
It was a rare occurrence for her to ever willingly climb onto a horse, not after the previous two attempts when she'd tried alone, only to fall off and onto her back- the laughter of her sister, Darcie, still rung clear in her head. Juliette's mouth formed a grimace before she slowly slid her left hand to grab the rein, wrapping it around her right wrist in place of actually using her paralyzed hand- her free and useable hand properly held the rope.
Leonzio only gave her another glance before pressing his heels back and his horse took over, picking into a gallop quickly. Julie shook her head before sending her feet back to press into the horse's side, her skill for horseback riding still less than eligible, but soon enough the beast that she sat upon took off after the Dress'.
The two horses galloped across the dirt path, a cloud of dust appearing behind them as they went and Regalia slowly vanished into a distant fog. Into the forest, they went and Juliette lifted her gaze from Leonzio's horse to stare upwards into the trees- disregarding the occasionally odd raven that fluttered through the leaves above them.
Her sword beat against her leg as the horse continued forward, reminding her of the task at hand- the place she were headed with Leon. The Ithanian's pale eyes turned back forward and for a second she found the courage to glance down at the horse that she guided. Thus far it had loyally kept her up and for a moment she relaxed her hand, letting it brush against the mane of the beast.
And as the treeline broke, revealing the estate she had bore through the woods to find, a small smirk crept onto her features. Their pace slowed to a steady trot, allowing Juliette to stroke the fur of her horse with ease, taking a deep breath. She could do this.
No horse would best her in this world of greater beasts.
@Timisc
