Chapter 441. A Father and Some Stupid Horses: Horses are Jerks.

After that Rosa dragged me over to the horse stable. She was definitely mad at me. The dark red color of her soul combined with her grip on my hand made that pretty obvious.

It was pretty rare to see her mad at me.

While Dawn took the horses out from the stable Rosa whispered furiously, “Why’d you go and tell Dawn’s father about that?”

“Haaaah. He saw the sweater his daughter came home wearing and thought I’d done something with her despite already having a girlfriend. If I didn’t explain what really happened-”

“You could have just said a squirrel peed on her like she thought. You didn’t have to say it was me.”

“What if he doubted it, thought I was making up something random, and got more suspicious instead?”

“That’s your problem.”

Despite still being mad, the dark red color her soul gave off became a lighter shade. It seemed she at least understood a bit, but despite understanding, she still wasn’t willing to completely forgive me for it.

“I’ll buy you some good ice cream later when we get to the city.”

“Hmph! As if I’ll forgive you with just ice cream.”

Her soul initially lightened a bit in color before turning deeper red again, albeit less than before.

“But it’s really good, you know. Have you ever tried dippin’ dots before?”

“Dippin’ dots? What’s that?”

“Oh, you don’t know? It’s a kind of ice cream that’s actually pretty hard to come by where we live. You can only get them at the annual summer carnival toward the end of July in our city, but it shouldn’t be too hard to find in the big city nearby.”

Her soul flashed back and forth between dark red and yellow. She was wavering.

“Imagine small tiny little balls of chocolate individually melting like butter on your tongue.”

Her soul remained yellow as she closed her eyes and imagined it.

“Well… if you treat me to that… I might… just maybe forgive you if it’s as good as you say it is.”

Truly, ice cream is the secret of life. Any problem you have can be washed away with ice cream. What a miraculous revolutionary invention. Little did the creator of ice cream know how powerful a product they created.

Dawn suddenly exited the barn riding atop a dark brown horse leading two of the white horses I’d seen earlier.

“Here, both of you should put these on.” When she stopped in front of us, she dismounted the horse she was on and held out two helmets to us.

“Better to be safe than sorry if yuh don't have much experience with horses. If yuh fall off your horse and hit your head it wouldn’t be funny.”

“Thanks,” I graciously accepted and strapped on the helmet. I’d never been good with animals. They always disliked me. Dogs in the neighborhood always barked at me and chased me down as a kid. I’d been bitten by my fair share growing up.

“I’ll be fine without one. I’ve ridden my fair share of horses.” Unlike me, Rosa politely declined the helmet.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

Rosa calmly approached one of the white horses behind Dawn. She stroked its neck to soothe it.  The horse let out an audible nicker as it nuzzled its head up against Rosa affectionately. 

“She seems to like you a lot,” Dawn complimented.

With the horse calm, standing at the horse’s side, Rosa held onto the reins firmly, put her foot in the stirrup, and climbed up onto it in one smooth motion. She made it look so easy and natural. So much so that I felt nervous.

Dawn turned her attention to me and confirmed, “It’s your first time getting on a horse, right?”

“Yeah.”

“You pretty much just need to do what she did. I’ll help you though.”

“Uh, sure, thanks.”

Dawn approached the second white horse and soothed it.

“You can slowly approach now.”

I took a step forward. I looked the horse straight in the eyes. I felt anxious and uneasy. Somehow the horse seemed wary of me but it still allowed me to get closer to it.

“Don’t pet her on the head. Try stroking or rubbing along her neck. You want her to feel comfortable around you.”

“R-Right.”

I raised my hand up and placed it on the horse’s long neck, but as soon as I made contact the horse bent its head away and tried to start walking away.

“Woah there, Betsy, stay. Be a good girl.”

The horse snorted, she seemed disinterested in getting along with me.

“Haha… she doesn’t seem to like me very much.”

“That shouldn’t be the case. Betsy here gets along with everyone.”

“Mmm… It wouldn’t be good to try getting on her if she’s uncomfortable with you though. Rosa, can you try mounting Betsy and let Ran try mounting Shirley.”

“Huh? Sure.”

Rosa dismounted Shirley and mounted Betsy just as easily.

“Hmm… Betsy seems to be just fine with Rosa too.”

I approached Shirley, she didn’t seem as unfriendly toward me as Betsy had.

“Ran, take hold of the reins.”

“Sure.” When I grabbed the rein I suddenly felt a strong force bash into my chest. I fell backward flat on my ass onto the ground. Shirley had swung her head my way and pushed me away.

“Shirley! Behave!”

Shirley squealed back.

“What the hell’s with this? Am I being bullied by horses?”

Dawn apologized, “Uh… sorry… I really don’t know what’s gotten into them. They never behave like this around others. They’re usually so well behaved and I don’t know why they’re reacting so negatively to you.” 

Is it because I’m a devil? Can animals differentiate between a devil and a normal human?

“It’s fine, it’s not a big deal.”

“Haha, it’s probably because he’s just not popular with the ladies,” Rosa joked.

“You think?”

“It’s definitely that.”

“Uh… why don’t we give Shirley another shot?”

“Sure.”

I stood back up. Dawn held Shirley in place and coaxed her while gently brushing her hand through her mane, “Shirley, be a good girl, okay? Ran isn’t going to hurt yuh or do anything weird. He’s really nice and sweet. He’s the boyfriend of the girl yuh were getting along with so well just now.”

When she handed me the rein, this time, Shirley didn’t bash me as Dawn was in the way.

I put my foot in the stirrup and steadied myself on one leg. I took a deep breath in and pulled myself up but the second my foot left the ground Shirley’s front legs raised up high in the air. She stood on her hind legs and neighed loudly. I was thrown back and took a much harder fall compared to the first time around.

“Shirley! What’s gotten into you today!” Dawn wrestled with Shirley to calm her down.

I was immensely thankful I hadn’t tried to play the tough guy by refusing the helmet Dawn offered me at the start. If I wasn’t wearing it, I’d have definitely taken a hard hit to the head just now.

I laid flat on the ground and blankly stared up at the clouds as my back ached in pain. Maybe I was just fated to never ride a horse.

“Hehe, these horses sure are giving you a tough time.”

I turned my head to the side and saw Rosa seated on Betsy looking at me with a satisfied grin.

“It’s not funny, don’t laugh.”

“Hahaha, they must be handing down divine retribution for you blabbing earlier.”

“Haaaaah. You think?”

“It must be that. They must have noticed when I was mad at you earlier so they’re shunning you since they seem to like me.”

“Horses are terrible. Absolutely horrible.”

“Ran, are you okay?” Dawn immediately came over once she’d calmed Shirley down and asked worriedly.

“Well, nothing seems to be broken at least.”

“I’m sorry… for your experience trying to ride a horse to end up like this…”

“It’s not a big deal. I’m used to setbacks and failing miserably.”

“But at this rate, you’re probably going to hate horses if this is how your first experience turns out.”

“I won’t deny that and act like I won’t dislike horses because of this. Horses definitely suck so far.”

“Uh, how about trying to get on Bella?” Dawn anxiously pointed to the horse she’d arrived on.

“Haaaaah. Sure I guess.”

I rose to my feet and dusted off my back. Dawn went over to Bella’s side first and had a little chat with her, likely begging her to behave. She probably threw in a few under-the-counter bribes while she was at it, promising her some of her favorite food if she didn’t act up.

“Ran, it should be... good now… probably…”

“That didn’t sound very confident.”

“Third time’s the charm.” Dawn gave me a thumbs up.

“I’d rather think of it as three strikes and you’re out…”

“It’ll go well this time for sure, trust me.”

“Whatever you say.”