Something Fishy This Way Comes

My entry for *Dark1lady's Icogan Festival.

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Horse: LFS Cinaed
Breed: Icogan Warmblood - Picogan (Andalusian x Warmblood)
Gender: Stallion
Age: 5 years

Event: Icogan Festival
Rider: Anaïs Chambelle
Discipline: Endurance Post
Starting Number: 303

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Done! Finally...
I've decided to show both in front of the sea, on the beach.

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English:

“Wait a minute.”

Anaïs had just walked out of the stable. She was early for the endurance post race, because she wanted to relax a bit before starting. Now Rebecca was calling her. She turned around and looked at the brown-haired woman.

“You cannot start dressed like this.”
“...What? Why?” She looked at her clothes – a tight jeans, a t-shirt and a sweater hoodie above it. Everything warm and cosy, and she could remove the hoodie if she was getting too hot. What was the problem?
“Have you forgotten? You have to pick up that fish at the King’s court. You’ll need to be dressed appropriately.”
“Do you expect me to ride in an evening dress or what?”
“No, we’ve brought some extra clothes along, didn’t Floréan tell you?”

Anaïs rolled her eyes. So that was the important thing he had wanted to tell her...she had send him away earlier, as he had been getting on her nerves. She liked him very much, but she could be rather bitchy when she was nervous. She went back into her room, already frustrated, and discovered white trousers, a white jumper, a navy blue vest with golden borders and the stable initials “LFS” embroided on it.
‘Wonderful, wearing white for an endurance race...’ She shook her head, but changed into the new set of clothes. It was about time to leave when she was finished. So much for having time to relax...

‘The King seems to be a nice man with a strange kind of humour’, she thought as she rode on. She had been told about those funny kind of fish, and that they could be dangerous.
‘Why should anyone with a sane mind send such a creature to a friend?’ Cinaed, at least, behaved well. It seemed to her that he was pleased to be back ar Mudigero, though he had missed Iggy when they arrived. It was always fun to observe the Picogan and how he played with the huge Hototo foal.

When they reached the beach, Anaïs decided to take a short break to check the map. She looked at the sea; the tropical waters looked slightly green, and some clouds were appearing. She wondered if it was going to rain later on. She took the map out and saw that she was still on the right way. After checking her watch she saw that she was in time as well; they could even rest for five minutes.

Anaïs decided to take a closer look at that funky fish. She knew that she had to avoid eye contact, or the risk of getting hypnotized was too high. She had also been told that those creatures were able to breathe outside of the water. She opened her bag and looked at the hypnofish, who was swimming in his water-filled bag. She took the fish into her hand and observed how the scales glittered in the sun. It was a rather pretty fish.

Just when she decided to put it back into it’s plastic bag, a seagull screamed over their heads. Cinaed began to rear, and the hypnofish jumped out of Anaïs hand.
“No no no no no NO!”, she yelled, trying to get hold of the fish without falling from the horse. Everytime she tried to grasp it, the fish glided out of her hand like a piece of wet soap. Finally she somehow managed – thanks to some awkward and probably hilarious movements – to catch the fish with both hands.

She sighed, put the fish back into her bag and looked at the stallion. Cinaed looked slightly confused because she had been moving so much.
“Come, let’s move on”, she said.

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© *Dark1lady