~Skyrunner~
Who:Arthas, Riddick, Sarah, Tirion, Hannibal, _______
Where: Skyrunner Ranch
When: All through Breach; new threads are new circumstances, all will be game canon, timelines are for wusses. :p
Warnings: (if necessary) Connor mouth, fighting, being dumb, and other stuff.
Six months ago...
"Yeah, well, Sarah. You tell yourself that when you look into the mirror you're not a murderer," Mike Connor scowled down at her outside the earshot of his wife and kids. Sarah scowled right back, her hands on her hips as she refused to back down. "See how that goes for awhile. Will was a good man. And you fucking loved that ranch more than him. Don't even deny it. And he was still sending you shit for it every month! He died because of all your stress."
"Look, asshole," she snapped, "I didn't ask for a penny of it. So you can jam that murderer shit straight up whatever asshole you pulled it from. I loved that man and he left because I didn't have what he needed, pure and simple. You want to be bitter about that? Fine. Go ahead, but get off my ass. The ranch is in deep enough shit without you getting up in arms about things that are done."
"He left you horses. Expensive ones," Mike said, snapping the words out like he wanted to take them back. "You missed the will. So. Take them and go back to your damned ranch. Bernard will have them ready by the time you get back to the house. And don't bother asking for money, because we're through."
She opened her mouth to say more and glanced toward the grave that was being filled in, at her two nieces, at Mike's wife, and just let out a breath. Fucker wasn't worth another breath. Sarah had hated the cross country drive to Will's place, hated the spectacle of sitting in that goddamn church staring at a box that held nothing in anymore but a man she'd loved. With Mike's dismissal, she hadn't stayed long. Will death---well, it meant shit was headed her way, again. Jacked up shit was, she'd lost her first husband eleven years ago in a fire. Will had left two years ago in an amicable divorce, but still. She had shit luck with men. The ranch had stumbled into financial and legal fuckery ever since Mike had shown his face, not that it was his fault the government kept finding excuses not to approve her paperwork.
The last rejection letter she'd got in the mail had sent her on the road trying to drum up some funding to pay the exorbitant fees the government demanded for brand new paperwork (for the seventh time in as many years). So, there she was with two horses, one who seemed intent upon being a bastard--that was the bigass shire stallion Will had just dumped on her, assuming she had room for him (she did, but fuck him...he could have asked when he was putting the will together, she probably would have said yes since she had another horse just as big at the ranch). The other was an incredibly mellow Akhal-Teke mare who seemed to calm the shire down at least.
She'd hit all the other ranches she knew across country, working the people, talking as much as she could about Skyrunner Ranch, about the sheep and the horses and the little farmland she'd dug into the mountain. But it was all fucked. By the time she had to head home winter had come. Seventy miles away from home, Sarah took the horses for their pre-drive walk. The massive shire had gotten used to her, but refused to let her near his back for a ride and she didn't push him. He tolerated her walking him out, though, so she did, and once he was settled, she loaded the both of them into the trailer. Hitting the road, Sarah sang along with dumbass Christmas songs as the sky darkened. In two hours the snow fell in a thick curtain. She kept driving until the Jeep shuddered and just quit on her.
"Son of a bitch," she snarled as she threw open the door and got out to look at the engine. Too hot to handle and there was smoke pouring from it. "Take it easy back there," she called to the horses, already walking around to get them out.
Fuck.
She wasn't dressed for this shit. The best she could do was grab her long duster, which she did as she tacked up the mare. The winter weight pads would help with the cold, but the shire was another matter entirely. He was not having any of this and only followed because of the other horse. Hitching him to a lead had been difficult enough.
"Oh come on, Grumpy," she hissed between frozen lips, "it's not that much further." That might have been a lie, but it wasn't like she could leave the damned horses to freeze. This way at least they were moving, even if she was freezing. The way she'd been traveling, she'd hit the back road to the damned ranch if she just kept moving. So fuck everything, she was still moving, if clinging to the promise of hot coffee and a bath when she had the horses settled even mattered at this point. It was a warmer thought than the weather.
She just had to keep moving.
Where: Skyrunner Ranch
When: All through Breach; new threads are new circumstances, all will be game canon, timelines are for wusses. :p
Warnings: (if necessary) Connor mouth, fighting, being dumb, and other stuff.
Six months ago...
"Yeah, well, Sarah. You tell yourself that when you look into the mirror you're not a murderer," Mike Connor scowled down at her outside the earshot of his wife and kids. Sarah scowled right back, her hands on her hips as she refused to back down. "See how that goes for awhile. Will was a good man. And you fucking loved that ranch more than him. Don't even deny it. And he was still sending you shit for it every month! He died because of all your stress."
"Look, asshole," she snapped, "I didn't ask for a penny of it. So you can jam that murderer shit straight up whatever asshole you pulled it from. I loved that man and he left because I didn't have what he needed, pure and simple. You want to be bitter about that? Fine. Go ahead, but get off my ass. The ranch is in deep enough shit without you getting up in arms about things that are done."
"He left you horses. Expensive ones," Mike said, snapping the words out like he wanted to take them back. "You missed the will. So. Take them and go back to your damned ranch. Bernard will have them ready by the time you get back to the house. And don't bother asking for money, because we're through."
She opened her mouth to say more and glanced toward the grave that was being filled in, at her two nieces, at Mike's wife, and just let out a breath. Fucker wasn't worth another breath. Sarah had hated the cross country drive to Will's place, hated the spectacle of sitting in that goddamn church staring at a box that held nothing in anymore but a man she'd loved. With Mike's dismissal, she hadn't stayed long. Will death---well, it meant shit was headed her way, again. Jacked up shit was, she'd lost her first husband eleven years ago in a fire. Will had left two years ago in an amicable divorce, but still. She had shit luck with men. The ranch had stumbled into financial and legal fuckery ever since Mike had shown his face, not that it was his fault the government kept finding excuses not to approve her paperwork.
The last rejection letter she'd got in the mail had sent her on the road trying to drum up some funding to pay the exorbitant fees the government demanded for brand new paperwork (for the seventh time in as many years). So, there she was with two horses, one who seemed intent upon being a bastard--that was the bigass shire stallion Will had just dumped on her, assuming she had room for him (she did, but fuck him...he could have asked when he was putting the will together, she probably would have said yes since she had another horse just as big at the ranch). The other was an incredibly mellow Akhal-Teke mare who seemed to calm the shire down at least.
She'd hit all the other ranches she knew across country, working the people, talking as much as she could about Skyrunner Ranch, about the sheep and the horses and the little farmland she'd dug into the mountain. But it was all fucked. By the time she had to head home winter had come. Seventy miles away from home, Sarah took the horses for their pre-drive walk. The massive shire had gotten used to her, but refused to let her near his back for a ride and she didn't push him. He tolerated her walking him out, though, so she did, and once he was settled, she loaded the both of them into the trailer. Hitting the road, Sarah sang along with dumbass Christmas songs as the sky darkened. In two hours the snow fell in a thick curtain. She kept driving until the Jeep shuddered and just quit on her.
"Son of a bitch," she snarled as she threw open the door and got out to look at the engine. Too hot to handle and there was smoke pouring from it. "Take it easy back there," she called to the horses, already walking around to get them out.
Fuck.
She wasn't dressed for this shit. The best she could do was grab her long duster, which she did as she tacked up the mare. The winter weight pads would help with the cold, but the shire was another matter entirely. He was not having any of this and only followed because of the other horse. Hitching him to a lead had been difficult enough.
"Oh come on, Grumpy," she hissed between frozen lips, "it's not that much further." That might have been a lie, but it wasn't like she could leave the damned horses to freeze. This way at least they were moving, even if she was freezing. The way she'd been traveling, she'd hit the back road to the damned ranch if she just kept moving. So fuck everything, she was still moving, if clinging to the promise of hot coffee and a bath when she had the horses settled even mattered at this point. It was a warmer thought than the weather.
She just had to keep moving.