Aleeza-the Star Summoner

Horseback Riding

When Aleeza woke up, she found herself on the back of a horse riding with The Darkling. It seemed their group had ditched the carriages opting for horseback riding instead. "What happened to the carriage?" Aleeza complained.

"What, you hate horses?" The Darkling asked.

"No, I love them, as long as I'm not on top of them." She replied sarcastically. She already felt sore from being on the horse. She had no idea how long she was up there. She didn't want to embarrass herself by admitting she'd never rode a horse-she had always been more of a carriage person.

She shifted, trying to get into a more comfortable position with no success.

"What's the matter, never ridden on a horse before?" The Darkling asked amused.

"What makes you say that?" Aleeza said, smirking.

She quickly found she wasn't as bored on the horse as inside the carriage. Besides the soreness and uncomfortableness, there was much more scenery to look at. They seemed to ditch the main road and instead were on small hunting trails and other side roads.

Aleeza always wanted to learn how to ride a horse. However, with all the other stuff struggled with, horseback riding always seemed to fall at the bottom of her list. Now she really wished it hadn't. It didn't matter though, she wasn't required to do anything. The Darkling was handling the actual riding part all himself.

She was both slightly comforted and agitated to realize she couldn't even fall off if she tried with the Darkling caging her between his arms. She wasn't sure if it was normal for her to lean against him as if he were the back of a seat cushion, but she had been doing so already up until this point, so she might as well.

His horse was all black, very fitting for his continued black aesthetic. She noticed the horse's hair was braided elaborately. "Did you braid your horse's hair yourself?" she asked, needing to know the answer.

"Yes." The Darkling replied, his voice sounding cold like it always did.

Aleeza started to laugh at the thought of him taking the time to carefully braid his horse's hair. It was sweet. Didn't fit his image of being the big bad scary emotionless shadow summoner. He was definitely a horse girl at heart, the fact made her laugh uncontrollably.

"What's so funny?" The Darkling asked.

"Oh, nothing," Aleeza said, stopping herself from laughing.

It was pretty hot. As the sun started to set, it was hitting Aleeza from one side continuously getting very annoying, especially since it was summer. Aleeza fidgeted with her hands until she was unintentionally making a sort of shade umbrella around her.

It was unnoticeable to mostly everyone who saw Aleeza do it. She'd always done it whenever she felt the sun was too hot, which explained her continuous lack of a tan.

The Darkling always liked to keep tabs on the shadows that surrounded him. It made it nearly impossible for anyone to sneak up on him. So he noticed when Aleeza turned on her power, he was intrigued. He thought about saying something but decided to wait, wanting to know how long she could keep it up.

He didn't expect her to get past 15 minutes, The Darkling thought while Aleeza continued to shade herself. She was probably going to continue until the sun fully set, he realized.

Aleeza was worried the Darkling would make them ride the whole night, and she dreaded the thought of being stuck in the saddle any longer. Thankfully he announced to start looking for a place to make camp. Aleeza was beyond relieved.

The Darkling wanted to confront her before she took her sun shield off, so he asked, "Are you aware you're using your power?"

"What?" Aleeza said, turning her head to look for stars, but there weren't any. She then turned around to him and gave him a confused look.