Page 10 of A King's Oath

“He has an attention problem,” he strode down the stalls and reached out to pat him behind his ear. Three taps. “You got your treat before them all, now be quiet,” Samarth whispered in his ear. Cherry moved his head from side to side.

He stepped back to Ava — “Come.”

She gave his horses one last look, then turned along with him, walking by his side as he entered the tack room to grab his helmet. This room was darker than the rest and he had to squint to find the chair where he had left the helmet this morning. The windows were now shut.

“What are you doing?”

“My helmet is here somewhere…” he groped on all flat surfaces.

“This?” Her dark figure held it up.

“Yes!” He strode to her and she took quick steps back until they were back in the stables, under the bright shafts of light piercing through the many tiny windows and cracks of the roof. Samarth began to reach for his helmet when she unbuckled the strap and held it up to his head. As if on its own accord, his head duckedto let her set it. Samarth remained bent as she pushed it snugly atop his head, then he straightened to let her clip the buckle under his chin.

“It smells here,” she wrinkled her nose. Adorably. Like some Disney princess. Samarth laughed, checking the buckle under his chin — “Horses live here, what did you expect, Ava?”

“No, it smells more now…”

Samarth eyed Bodhi’s head moving up and down, his signal for a dump. He curbed his smirk.

“What…” she sniffed again.

“Bodhi is taking a dump.”

Her face screwed — “Yuck!”

“Not done, Ava. How will you become friends with them if you don’t muck out their stalls?”

“What outtheir stalls?”

“Muck out,” he pursed his lips. “Take a pitchfork, that one,” he pointed at the long instrument stowed in a corner. “Take it, get inside a stall and pitch all the bedding, hay, manure out. Air the stall for them to come back to after practise.”

“Haveyouever done it?”

“Every time since I was seven.”

She leaned forward and sniffed at his neck.

“I don’t believe you. You don’t smell like this,” she accused. “You’ve never smelled like this.”

He nudged her shoulder with his. “I shower first thing after practise.”

She nudged back, hard enough to dent the spot on his sternum.

“Let’s muck out,” he teased.

She rammed harder into him, making him stray to the side. He bounced back and rammed back into her shoulder as she began striding towards the door. They went back and forth, pushing each other off trajectory as they stumbled out of the stables and into the brightly lit fields. All three of his teammates were in different stages of packing up.

“What’s going on?” He hollered.

“Coach postponed practise until 4!” Kush hollered back. Samarth let out an exhale. He was looking forward to riding Cherry all afternoon. Hecouldride him even now. Being on the Saraswati Crest Polo Team gave him the privilege of taking his horse out for practise rides in the day time. But then his eyes fell on Ava by his side. And he wanted to do something else all afternoon. He wouldn’t be able to convince her to ride with him, so he did the next best thing.

“Come on, let me walk you to your dorm.”

“I know the way,” she snorted, but fell in step beside him.

He smiled, reaching for the helmet buckle she had clipped and pressing it open. “So what did you do this summer? Were you in Gwalior all April and May?”

“No!” She jumped in front of him, walking backwards. “That’s what I was telling you… I was there all April, then we went for a week to my Naniji’s house in Khargone, but Mummy wanted to extend the trip and who am I to say no to another week swinging on the hammock, watering the garden and doing nothing but eating gola for breakfast, lunch and dinner? I shut off my iPad, left my phone and just vegged out…”

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