A Fresh Start

[Sina Aleardi]

As she'd promised, Sina was going to spend the day playing tour guide for Cass. She'd handed a note to Seth to pass along to the other boy, since they hadn't exchanged phone numbers, and now they had managed to schedule this walk. Der sat easily at her side at the start of the Waterfall trail, tongue lolling easily, and Sina was bundled up against the winter's chill. At least the ground wasn't muddy, she supposed. It would be again soon, with rain in the forecast. But not today. Hopefully today would go a lot better than the last time!

[Caspian Collins]

Cass looked down at his outfit before he left Red House, and wondered if he had the word loser stamped on his forehead. He was wearing waterproof clothing, even his pants were waterproof, and was bundled up for the warmth, his extra grip shoes on and his ice-pick cane in hand. He might look like a normal kid, ready to go out walking in the cold, but he felt like a fool. The only thing that made him feel somewhat normal was the camera in the bag on his back.

It didn't take him long to get to the place where Sina had said they would meet, and he had felt like an idiot when Seth had brought him the message, as he could have at least remembered to give the girl is contact details before they parted ways last time. "Hey." He greeted when he got close enough. "You must be Sina, I'm Cass." He grinned as he held out his hand.

[Sina Aleardi]

Sina grinned as Cass walked up, taking his hand and shaking it, "Nice to meet you, Cass. I am indeed Sina." She nodded at the trail, "Shall we?"

After they'd set out along the trail, Sina decided to get the elephant out of the room at least, "Thank you for your help the last time we didn't meet. I don't know if I said it then, but it did mean a lot and I appreciated it." Yes, they were pretending not to have met, but she had to thank him somehow! As much as she hated doing just that.

[Caspian Collins]

Cass nodded as he swung the bag around and took the camera out, to hang that around his neck, and returned the bag to where it had been sitting before. "We shall." He replied with a cheeky grin.

"You did." He told her with a smile. "And I hope that someone else would have done the same thing, or would have helped me out had it been me in trouble." He looked as the path they were following, slightly pining the loss of his leg, as this would be a whole lot easier with two legs. "The trails must be wonderful in the spring." He commented as he paused to zoom the camera in on a leaf that had a waterfall-effect from the water falling from it and took a photo.

[Sina Aleardi]

Sina grinned, "Well, if I find you on the side of a trail, I'll do my best to help." She decided that was all to be said on that subject, and nodded at his comment about the springtime, "It is great. The meadows are especially beautiful in the late spring, because they start blooming and there's a bunch of different flowers. And the weather can be perfect for long walks then." She couldn't name them, but they were pretty! "And you get a lot of nice color changes in the fall, so that's a nice time to come out too."

[Caspian Collins]

He smiled and nodded as they walked along, watching where he was stepping, while also trying not to miss anything that would make a great photo. "I could imagine that it would look spectacular in the fall." He agreed with a grin, and as long as the ground was dry, he'd have a little more freedom in movement during that month.

"I guess this is when Der gets the chance to be a dog, rather than an extra limb?" At least that's how he understood a service dog to be: an extra part of the human they worked with.

[Sina Aleardi]

Sina nodded, grinning as Cass seemed to look around for things to photograph, "If you want to stop anywhere, just say so." She would just keep slowly walking otherwise, trusting him to catch back up after he'd gotten a shot or two.

She nodded, then shrugged at his question, "Kinda, yes. Although he usually comes back and alerts even when he's technically off-duty." She grinned, "He knows he gets a party when he alerts properly, so it has a history of being very rewarding for him." She glanced around, "So if you want to pet him, and manage to pull him out of the undergrowth for that, you're welcome to. Good luck, though." The dog was off somewhere, as he usually did when they were on the trails.

[Caspian Collins]

He nodded absentmindedly, his eyes never staying in one place for any length of time. "I'll let you know if I have to do more than pause." He assured her with a smile. He was used to being the straggler of the group.

He nodded to Sina's reply, not surprised that the dog was never really off duty. "I'm happy to leave him exploring." He said with a grin. "This way he's more likely to come across monsters before we do, and by the time we get to them, they would have had a Der snack and work out we're not worth their time." And also, the dog would flush out wildlife, and would make for some good photos too... depending on how close Der was to where they were.

[Sina Aleardi]

Sina laughed, "Have no doubt about it, I'd feed you to the monsters to save him." She grinned at the boy, "Although he can pretend to be scary and protect you if he has to." The dog wouldn't do much - He could bark on cue, and there was always the chance for his shepherd distrust to come through, although Sina and her mom had worked hard to reassure him that it wasn't necessary.

She continued walking slowly, in no rush, and knowing Cass would want to take photos of whatever caught his eye, "So, do you have a horse?"

[Caspian Collins]

He laughed as he gestured to himself. "I'm more metal and plastic than flesh..." His eyebrows rose as his lips pressed together and nodded. "Ah, because if the monster ate me, he'd then need a toothpick and while looking for one of them, you'd have a chance to escape. I got your line of thought now."

As they walked, Cass continued napping photos, zooming the camera in on the strangest places to get pictures of water drops and other crazy things. He glanced over at the question and nodded. "A therapy trained Mustang." He replied. "I get the feeling that there are times that mom wishes I hadn't found that I could still ride, but she also sees how it keeps me out of trouble. I used to do a bit of everything, now Slick and I just focus on Dressage." He shrugged. "How about you? And what does Der think of horses?"

[Sina Aleardi]

Sina laughed, "Don't sell yourself short, robot-boy. I count one limb of four. Enough for a decent snack." She grinned, "Although that would also work as a strategy. Thanks for making my plans for me."

She listened as he talked about his horse, grinning, "Lots of mustangs around here, that's cool." She thought of her own horse, "I have a quarter horse named Vaxi, and I also take care of an academy paint named Rolo. He was assigned to me before I got Vaxi, and I offered to help with him until he gets reassigned." She liked the gelding, after all! "Der doesn't mind them, although he's not a fan of riding. He's pretty horse-savvy."

[Caspian Collins]

Cass laughed, and wondered how long her nickname for him was going to stick around, especially now that she was going to remember most of this outing. "Man, I really need to go over what I'm going to say before I speak." He said with a shake of his head. "Next thing we know, I'll be giving you the winning lottery numbers." Not that he was a gambling man.

He nodded as she spoke. "So, a horse to ride and a pet pony?" He asked with a grin, knowing that Rolo would be a lot more than a pet pony. There was one question about Der that he wanted to know. "Does he ride?" Ok, it now seemed stupid out loud, but it had been there and he could now get an answer for it. He knew that cattle dogs were trained to lie in front of the rider behind the horn when they were tired, but he'd never looked into service dogs.

[Sina Aleardi]

Sina laughed, "Yes, if you have those, please share."

She chuckled at his question, "Pretty much. Vaxi is a lazy bum." Not true, but she could guess whom he'd meant with the 'pet' designation, but flipped it around on him. She followed Cass' logic to figure out his next question, "Not usually. He is trained to lay across the front of my saddle, though, just in case anything ever happened while we were out." Not that it ever had, and hopefully it never would. "Did that back when I harbored hopes of going packing over the summer. It hasn't worked out for me yet, though." She grinned, "Overprotective parents and all that."

[Caspian Collins]

Cass laughed too and shook his head; having the winning lottery numbers was one thing that he was never going to be able to pull out of the air.

He raised his eyebrows sympathetically, as he knew exactly what it was like to have overprotective parents. "Hey, we're here at least." He offered as he snapped a photo of Sina. "Which means that they must trust us a little." Or, well, they had changed over who was keeping a close on on his comings and goings. He wondered how often the poor barn manager had to harbour calls from his parents. "You might be able to go this summer?" Always hopeful.