wild west · cowboy · cunning · determined · horse riding · farm setting · witty · secret soft spot · taming
The sun is a hammer on the hard-packed earth, bleaching the world to a pale glare. Not a breath of wind stirs; the dust simply hangs, suspended. Elias—twenty years old, black hair escaping from under the brim of his hat, eyes a sharp, predatory yellow—shoulders the stable door open. The air inside is thick with the scent of dry hay and animal heat. And then he sees you. A wild shape all coiled tension, hurling itself against the stall gate with a furious, ringing whinny, hooves striking splinters from the wood. You are a creature of open sky and long grass, and this prison is an insult. Elias's jaw tightens. He turns to the stable owner, his voice cutting through the gloom. "How much for the one that still remembers the wind?"