Servants Valley

They walked past the pond and through a brief stretch of trees, then the barn came into view. Syonia could see three horses in a nearby field, which Triana headed for. She stopped at the fence, whistling and calling the horses.
“Pull up some grass,” she told Syonia as she did likewise. “They love the grass from beyond the fence, even though it’s technically the same grass.”
Syonia reluctantly pulled up some stalks of long grass. She tossed them over the fence, but Triana said, “No, no. You hold them in your hand.”
“Why?”
“So the horses can eat them, of course.”
“I’m sure the horse can eat them off the ground,” Syonia replied, taking a step backward as two of the horses approached the fence. Her stomach heaved and her ears began ringing. And all she could think of was the possibility of Triana being crushed by the huge animals.
“Lay your hand flat, like this,” Triana said, her voice sounding strange to Syonia.
“I…I can’t do this,” she said, turning away.
Triana, who had climbed onto the bottom rung of the fence, jumped back down.
“Syonia?” she said, walking over to her. “What’s wrong?”
“I…I just can’t do this,” she repeated. “I’m not interested in the horses. I have enough to do over at the retreat center. And they’re so big.”
The ringing in her ears lessened, but her stomach was still churning. She felt sweat pouring down her back, despite the coolness of the day.
“You’re scared of them?” Triana said, her eyes wide.
“No, I…yes, I am. I’ve never been near them before.”
It wasn’t really the horses she was afraid of, and she felt a bit stupid confessing fear to a fourteen-year-old who was obviously very unafraid of the beasts standing just beyond the fence.
Triana stared at her for another moment, then she pulled up some more stalks of grass.
“Okay,” she said, turning toward the horses again. “You just stand here while I feed them. You can watch me. They’re really quite gentle. They have to be. All sorts of people ride them. Dad would never have a dangerous horse on the property.”
That made sense to Syonia, but it didn’t remove her anxiety over Triana’s safety. She wanted to call Triana back to her as the girl walked right up to the fence and held her hand out toward one of the horses.
“If you keep your hand flat,” the girl called to her, “the horse will eat right from it without biting you too, by accident. It feels sort of funny. Their mouth is soft.”
Syonia reached out her hand involuntarily as the horse accepted Triana’s offering, but the horse simply took the grass and stepped away, munching contentedly.
“This is Spider,” Triana told her as she climbed onto the bottom rung of the split rail fence again. “The brown one is Cursor. Flag is the third one, the one with the black mane and tail. Jaz called him that. He’s a gelding. No stallions here. Just mares and geldings. They’re the gentle ones.”
The brown horse received Triana’s next handful of grass, and Flag pushed in for the third. Syonia shuddered as the three crowded together along the fence for more. She wanted to tell Triana to get off the fence, but it sounded stupid, considering how long the horses had been around. Then she realized that her anxiety symptoms had lessened as Triana kept up a steady stream of conversation with both her and the horses. Her stomach was no longer rolling and the ringing in her ears had stopped.