Striding Out [Open]

[Piper Wilson]

Piper was out on the trails, which was what she'd been looking forward to for ages. There was only one slight flaw in the image, and that was that she would really have preferred to have been on horseback. On recalling how difficult it had been to get her mare to settle into the barns, however- although at least that was going quite well now; Sixty was starting to look quite comfortable- she'd decided that it might be a good idea if she went on foot, at least just this time. Of course, Paige would have offered her the use of Sweetie if she'd known where Piper was going, which was why the more outgoing twin had deliberately avoided telling her, because she would have felt guilty. As stupid as it sounded, she would have felt as if she was betraying her own horse by exploring these trails for the first time on someone else's.

[Maeve McKenna]

Maeve shouldered her small Hello Kitty duffel bag and made her way out toward the trails. While she loved everything about the campus, especially the horses, though she missed home more than anything else and her way to try and lessen that feeling was to walk in the wilderness. It wasn't the wilderness from home, but trees were trees... kinda.

Winding her way through the trees, the dry ground making stealth hard as every footstep seemed to make a noise, it wasn't long before she saw another person on foot. "Glad to see I'm not the only one who likes walking." She said as she got close enough to be heard without having to shout.

[Piper Wilson]

It was quiet and peaceful out amongst the trees. Many who knew Piper might have been astonished at her viewing this as a good thing, but the fact was that while the younger twin was typically bright, vivacious and very very loud, that didn't mean that she couldn't appreciate a little peace and quiet when it happened to come her way. And, of course, there was no one for her to talk to, which was also an important consideration to be taken into account.

Although she might not have been entirely correct with that... The brunette turned at the sound of a voice, grinning as she spotted another person approaching her. "Nope," she confirmed.

[Maeve McKenna]

She returned the other girl's grin with a slightly uncertain one as she picked up her pace to catch up. "Hi, I'm Maeve." Her smile became a little more confident, at least the other brunette had grinned at her approach rather than scowl. "I could walk in that direction, if you don't want company." She offered as she gestured in the opposite direction.

To be completely honest, she didn't care where she was walking, or with whom, but she already felt better for just being out here, and away from the buzzing campus. A pang of homesickness hit her again, wishing that she had Enid here to help guide her, she'd need to ask her mom to check in on the woman.

[Piper Wilson]

Piper shook her head, grin still very much a presence on her face. "No, it's ok," she assured the other girl, running a hand through her hair and slowing her pace to make it easier for her to catch up. "I love having company." Plus, she wasn't about to give up an opportunity to get to know one of the people who she was going to be sharing a school with now, was she?

[Maeve McKenna]

Maeve smiled, pleased that her presence wasn't going to be a problem. She nodded, a laugh escaping before she pressed her lips together in embarrassment. "Me too!" She said with a smile. "Though there always those times when space is better for everyone else."

She reached out and ran her fingers over the leaves of a bush as she walked passed, taking care not to break any of the fragile foliage. "Back home, I could tell you every single plant and tree that was around me. Here? I recognise a few, but not everything." She also took note of everything that seemed out of the norm, as that was the best way of finding your way back, if you got lost.

[Piper Wilson]

Piper nodded with a grin. "Yep. I definitely couldn't live in a small room with someone for weeks at a time." The important thing for human beings was to strike a balance between overcrowding and loneliness, and the brunette didn't think that she'd quite managed that yet.

She raised an eyebrow. "Well, you're doing better than me then," she assured the younger girl honestly. In truth, Piper wasn't especially good at nature. Yes, there were trees and things around, and Piper supposed that they were perfectly nice things, in themselves, but she simply couldn't work up the enthusiasm to learn the difference between the leaves of an oak tree and an elm, or whatever the things were.

[Maeve McKenna]

Maeve shuddered at the mere thought, though she knew that that was the case for some forest rangers, or even some hikers if they got caught out on the mountains in the winter months, though in that case small rooms were easier to heat.

She shrugged self-consciously. "My parents are forest rangers, so home and work were kind of the same thing, and learning about the flora and fauna surrounding us was kind of part of our school lessons, the whole eat or be eaten thing." She shrugged again, it really had just been a way of life where she lived, and she was now seeing that it wasn't the norm for everyone. "Do you have your own horse?" She might be prying a little, but it seemed better than 'do you ride?'

[Piper Wilson]

Piper grinned at the girl's melodramatic reaction, taking it as confirmation that no, she was not just weird and antisocial for not liking that idea. Although she'd pretty much known that anyway- if one was seeking for a word with which to describe the brunette, then 'antisocial' would very definitely not be it. The opposite.

"Oh, that's cool!" she exclaimed, glancing around her at the atmosphere. "So, if you were lost in the woods then you could look after yourself for ages? Not these woods, obviously- woods that you knew." That was definitely a skill which Piper did not possess- in fact, come to think of it, Piper wasn't entirely sure what skills she did possess, so that was depressing. "Well... Some people would call her a horse. Personally, I call her a collection of bad habits wrapped up in an old rug." She grinned at her companion. "How about you?"

[Maeve McKenna]

Maeve pressed her lips together and shrugged. "Unless I had the right gear, maybe not ages, but yeah, I'd know what to do if I got lost, like how to leave a trail people, without dogs, could follow easily." That same trails would also leave markers for herself. "There again though, if you're lost, you're not really supposed to move. Unless you're out in the open and you need to find shelter. I wouldn't have starved to death, anyway."

She couldn't help but laugh at the older girl's description of her horse, and then shook her head. "I'm hoping that after a year here, I can convince my parents to buy me one." She didn't quite feel like telling Piper her complete inexperience with horses.

[Piper Wilson]

The brunette nodded decisively. "Cool," she repeated firmly, with a sparkle in her eyes as she grinned at the other girl. Personally, Piper didn't doubt that she would have starved to death within twenty four hours. What could she say? She loved her food.

"Sounds like a plan," she agreed brightly, eyeing the younger brunette appraisingly. She looked like a Western rider to Piper, but then maybe that was just wishful thinking because there were so few of them around. English riding was cool and all, but it seemed to have taken over the world. "So, what kind of horse would you like to get?" Maybe that would give her a clue, and if not... Well, she'd just have to ask.

[Maeve McKenna]

Maeve looked around their surroundings as they walked, and wondered if her parents knew any rangers from around the area; someone who could teach her about the trees and plants here. "I don't think we'd have to be too worried about getting lost on the trails here." She said with a bright smile. "I'm sure they'd send out a search party... I don't think they'd want to lose the school fees." She laughed at her own joke.

She pressed her lips together as she looked into the canopy above them, thinking about the question. "Either one who could do everything, or one trained in English and another Western." A certain discipline? She had no idea, not yet anyway, but she was sure that by the time she got around to the asking point, she was sure that she would have some idea. "What is your horse trained for?" She knew that sooner or later, she'd have to mention the never having ridden before part, but for now she was happy to let Piper believe as she would.

[Piper Wilson]

Piper laughed. "Very true," she agreed, considering the fact that, for what she paid for a year's tuition here, they could probably afford to mount fifteen search parties if they needed to- hell, they'd be able to call in a helicopter with an infrared camera if they really needed to. Not that she had any intention of getting lost anyway; her sense of direction wasn't infallible, but she wasn't stupid.

She nodded thoughtfully. "Sounds good." An all-rounder was something of a Holy Grail in riding, but then for quantity, one almost invariably had to sacrifice quality. Swings and roundabouts... "The circus," the brunette answered drily to Maeve's next question, giving a sudden grin. "Or at least, it sometimes feels that way. She's Western, technically."

[Maeve McKenna]

Maeve was secretly pleased that Piper found her witty comment amusing. At least, from the hushed conversations her parents had been having, she assumed that the school fees were rather large.

She also nodded. "I'm not interested in the whole showing thing. From what I've seen online and read in books, the whole thing seems rather cliquey." And she tended to move away from large groups of people, rather than gravitating towards them.

She couldn't help but giggle at Piper's reply, and pressed her lips together to quickly stop it, until the other girl grinned. "She's a bit of a character then?" She wanted to get to know every nuance of all the horses on campus, but she also knew that she couldn't just go up and pet every single one either.

[Piper Wilson]

Piper shrugged. "Wouldn't know; never done any," she replied briefly, giving the girl a broad smile to make up for her lack of words. She could hardly claim to be an authority on something she'd never done, after all, and though she wouldn't mind trying it once or twice just to see what it was like, she didn't particularly want to show either. For her, riding was about what she could achieve for herself and her horse, not some panel of judges who she'd never met, or to prove herself as better than everyone else, when that wasn't what riding was all about.

"Just a bit," she confirmed with a grin. "Too stubborn by half." Conveniently, she overlooked the fact that this description could quite easily have been applied to her too.