fraser stone | district ten | fin [cb]

”You are not getting on that mare, not with your head!” Fraser’s dad Palmer bonks his son on the top of his skull with a broom handle as he walks through the barn carrying a saddle. ”You are not helping my head by hitting me!” Fraser ducks again, trying to dodge the next blow that knocks the saddle out of his hands this time. ”Okay okay, I’ll take her to the round pen.”

Much to his dad’s dismay, Fraser has a habit of picking up the broken and unwanted from auctions. The ranch’s purpose is to allow Capitol citizens with their travel passes to live out their cowboy fantasies, taking horses on trail rides and learning how to use a rope. But ever since Fraser’s first accident, he has been left out of the saddle and in the stalls with a fork full of straw and shit. He has started filling the empty stalls with discarded horses from the District One racing scene.

Like the grey mare he is trying to persuade to canter around the loose round pen right now. ”Oh, you are cow!” Whenever he tries to get the mare to pick up the pace, she flings her hind quarters towards him but with some persevering she finally listens.

It is a success for Fraser, the mare is cantering round and round the pen as he stands in the middle. The world is spinning with her. All he sees is a grey flash in his vision. Then darkness.

It has happened again.

The world switches back on for Fraser, whose hair and back are not covered in dirt from hitting the surface of the pen. There is a grey muzzle in his lap, the concerned cow bag mare has been standing over him the entire time. ”Dad can’t know I have had another, this a secret between you and me girl.”