Trustfall || Sanders Sides Equestrian AU

Chapter 4 - Old and Grey

Mischievous rays of sunlight tickled the back of Patton's neck as he rode through the grove. He closed his eyes and drowned himself in the rhythm of Puzzle's hooves below him. The familiar scent of moss touched his nose, and he drew it in and sank into sweet childhood memories of riding through the forest on the back of the very same horse. How young and naive they were.

The playful trickling of a stream giggled in his ears, and Patton opened his eyes and brought Puzzle to a halt. The shallow stream before them giggled a hello as it bubbled past them. Patton watched the water flow before him, splashing into the small rocks that scattered through the stream and purifying the pebbles that glinted at them from the bottom.

Patton let his feet fall out of the stirrups and dismounted Puzzle with a swift motion. The horse glanced at him with clever brown eyes, following him with his gaze as he sat down before the stream and leaned his arms on his knees. Gentle breeze played with his hair and lifted leaves only to land them in the water. Patton watched a small, green leaf race past. Oh, how fast things come and go. One moment the leaf had only landed and began its journey across the surface of the water, and the next it was long gone from sight.

Puzzle lowered down his head and sniffed Patton's foot. Patton managed a smile. He lifted a hand, and his fingers trailed down the horse's face, taking note of the greying hairs. He could swear that the last time he'd given them a closer look, there weren't as many of them. Patton tried to hold back a sigh, but it struggled its way out of his lips.

"You're changing so fast, Puzzle," he murmured into the breeze. The horse blinked at him slowly. "Please don't leave me behind... We said we'd grow old together."

Puzzle sniffed the ground in preparation before bending his front legs and laying down beside his rider. They were now at perfect eye-level. Patton leaned back and laid his head on the horse's belly, and the warm fur tickled his ears.

"Just... hold up a little, alright? Give me some time to catch up. Remember years ago, when we could still say we were both babies? But then all of a sudden you were a kid and a teenager and by the time I caught up you were suddenly a grown up."

Patton's shoulders shuddered, and he shrunk into the horse and stared at the stream.

"I'm just scared you're going to become grey and old without me."

The old friends watched the stream flow endlessly in its eternal race against itself. A lump settled in Patton's throat. He sneaked a glance at his trusty horse, and his gaze trailed across the sockets that sank above his eyes and the white hairs that slowly invaded his brown markings. He turned his face back to the stream and closed his eyes, focusing on the warmth of his horse against him and the rhythm of his slow breathing as his lungs swelled up and shrunk back below him. The realisation that he'd never taken a moment to appreciate his horse's presence hit him in the chest and sucked the air out of him. He never stopped to think of how one day he wouldn't be able to feel that warmth and listen to the sound of his breath.

So Patton kept his eyes closed.

As long as his eyes are closed, and his head rests against his friend, and the ground is steady below them, and the breeze ruffles their hair, Puzzle was still here.

And Patton kept his eyes closed.

- - - - - - - - 

The tension between the two pairs of eyes across the stall screamed its silence. Roman hated it.

"Come on, buddy... it's me, you know me. Won't you come over?"

Trigger didn't blink. He stood on the other side of the stall and regarded his rider with an unreadable expression. Roman's shoulders tensed.