EPILOGUE
Two Years Later
Miach, my father, only stayed three days.
Do you have any idea how weird it is to know I have a father? I mean, of course I have a father, but knowing that and actually meeting him are two different things. It's hard to wrap my mind around a concept I hadn't had to think about for my entire life thus far.
He was nice, which I hadn't expected. Dian Cecht was so damned scary and I half-thought Miach would be the same. Apparently, he's been traveling the human world for longer than Mama's Mama has been alive--although I'm the only kid he's had during that time--so he's figured out how to tone down the scary.
Miach took some time to sit down with Mama to apologize for leaving her alone when she got pregnant, but since he hadn't actually known I existed until the anti-Nuada faction had let slip that they were planning to kidnap me, Mama completely understood.
He also sat down with me. Miach wanted to spend some time with me to get to know me, and to teach me more magic.
You're starting the story wrong!
Sorry, Blue. You're right. Let me try again.
Good.
My daddy really was a cowboy, just as Mama always said. He likes to travel and he doesn't have a home or a car or anything. Instead he travels across the country with the cows being shipped from place to place for whatever reason. A lot of the time that means he's on a train or in the cab of an eighteen-wheeler, but every once in a while, someone wants to drive their cows somewhere the old-fashioned way. His favorite time is on a horse with a pair of dogs, circling a herd to keep it moving.
Since he started his work as a cowboy back in the days when horses and dogs were the only means of moving cattle until the trains slowly began to come to the rural cities in the Midwest, my dad knows what he's doing. He could definitely teach me a few tricks in the saddle if I were ever interested in riding any horse aside from Blue ever again. Which I'm not.
Glad to hear that. Now I don't have to go eating any horses that don't stay away from what's mine.
You eat any of Mama's horses and she'll skin you alive, Blue.
She'll understand when I explain why.
Can I get back to my story now? Thanks, Blue. Anyway, Miach only stayed for three days. Late summer is prime work time for him, so he left for a job down in Texas. I know he'll be back, probably in the winter when there is little need for a wrangler. There's still so much about magic and about Underhill that he needs to teach me. My heritage and the magic that comes easiest to me is the healing, but apparently there's so much more. I'm excited to learn it, although I don't really want to go back into Underhill. Blue says he doesn't want to go back either, that he's so much happier now, here, than he ever was anywhere else.
Trust me, I'm definitely blushing after writing that, Blue. You being happy with me is something I will always cherish, but it feels so weird to write it down, like putting it in the open like this will expose some inner secret part of me. I don't have any secrets from you, Blue, so I know I'm just being silly.
I love you too, my pretty, pretty snack.
The mare yanked her head up, pulling on the reins in Rin's hands. Rin knew better than to let go, especially while he was holding a yearling, but he couldn't help scanning the crowd again quickly instead of focusing his attention on Cobalt Queen.
There! Miach was standing on the patron side of the fence in the shade cast by a family's overhead tent, a pleased grin on his face as he watched Rin and Blue walk down the horse path together at Cobalt Queen's side. That must be why Rin's mind had wandered back to his first journal entry about his father from two years ago, but it was time to stay focused now.
Rin could hear the murmurs around him as the patrons checked their racing books and saw Cobalt Queen's lineage. Her sire was Swearing a Blue Streak, aka Demon Blue, and her dam was Queen of Sheeba. Cobalt Queen had Triple Crown-level breeding. Now they just needed to see if she could run, although Rin didn't have any doubts of that. Queen was going to go far, and at a pace other horses were going to struggle to keep up with.
Once she broke her maiden, which was today's race, Mama would be sure to enter Queen in the races that would get her ready for the Triple Crown and whatever other stakes races Queen could safely fit in her schedule. Since she was the first yearling to come out of Mama's renewed breeding program, Mama wanted to be careful, yet aggressive at the same time. It was going to be amazing to be a part of.
Queen can do this. If I can do this, Queen can do this. Right? Blue asked apprehensively.
Queen's head was high and her eyes were bright with intelligence as she looked at the patrons as she walked past them. Nothing spooked her. Rin stood proudly at her side, wearing the pink jersey that denoted he was her hot walker. Blue walked with them, but Mama had chosen to wait for them in the paddock with Jim, whose glamor had been altered slightly so he wouldn't be recognized. Jim O'Malley and Overhill Stables were officially shut down until Mama was ready to finish training and racing horses and give them over to Jim.
They reached the paddock quickly, and Rin brought Queen over to where Mama and Jim were waiting underneath the correct tree. The saddle came a few minutes later, quickly followed by the jockey.
"Rider's up!"
Rin circled Queen one last time to check her stride before lining her up along the outer path of the paddock with the other yearlings in the race. Mama boosted the jockey into place on Queen's back and then they walked on the path, out of the paddock and to the track where the jockey and an outrider took over from there.
"Let's go watch from next to the winner's circle," Rin called to his family. Blue slid his hand into Rin's and led the way with a happy whinny.
They managed to find a place along the fence and watched as Queen was loaded into the starting gate. Rin's back was pressed against Blue's chest, and Blue's warmth helped stifle the butterflies trying to flutter through Rin's stomach.
Queen's strong. Besides, you trained her, Rin. She'll be great. Blue nuzzled Rin's hair in comfort, and Rin let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding.
The bell rang, the gates popped open, and the announcer came over the speakers.
"And they're off!"
FIN