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Word Count: 1,373
Theme: Not Sure
Title: Summer Time Beat Down
Status: Complete[/b]┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
The air was heavy in the air with heat smothering Paradise Pines and all that resided in the land of the ranch. With such force, the sun beat down onto the backs of horses, cats, dogs, humans, and everything else there. Shade was the only relief with the air conditioning systems down. In the pastures, under the scattered trees if there were some, sweat drenched horses stood. The heat was getting to everyone so something had to be done.
Two buckskins wandered along the dusty, hot pathway. They had a plan to make the heat not so much of a parade crasher. “Come on Chrissie,” Sebastien huffed head-butting the blind buckskin’s flank to get him moving faster.
“I’m moving as fast as I can Mr. Antsy Pants! If you can’t tell I’m kind of already beat up still,” he nickered kicking a hind hoof back to land on the other’s body softly. He was a violent Tolter at all, which is why he had gotten to his poor health state as it was, but that was to be a different story for another day, maybe not such a hot one.
With an over dramatic and playful whine he pushed his blind companion onwards. Their destination, the west side barn, farthest barn from the farm house. It was really just a storage barn at the moment until more horses came to live. They were meeting Batman and Cadbury over there as well. Though having to force his beat-up friend over, Sebastien was sure they would be last.
Both their manes stuck to their sweat drenched necks and flies swarmed around them without refusing to quit. With such a large fly problem horses out in the pastures had been equipped with fly protection head gear, making them look ridiculous. Especially big ‘ol Crowley that had to be forced to wear a rosy pink head cover since they didn’t have any others that properly fit over his big empty head.
A chuckle to himself he continued on, never letting Chrissie stop until the barn had been reached. And like predicted Cadbury and Batman stood, playing a game of Long Hay. Batman’s made up game of going to a stack of hay and taking one piece. Whoever had the shortest won and the longest piece lost. He taught it to horses with an injury keeping them inside and foals for when it was too bad outside to go play in the field. “Sorry we took so long. Old Sore Butt right here,” tugging on Chrissie’s mane, “was slower than a tortoise going forward on a track that brought him backwards.” He cracked a loud laugh dodging another soft kick he was given.
“We figured, I mean we all know you two are the slowest ones around here,” Batman snorted tossing his head up before groaning, even in the shelter of a roofed barn, the heat was unbearable.
“Enough with the joking guys we need to do something about the heat here, it’s horrible,” Cadbury whinnied shaking dust from her coat.
They were all exhausted; Batman leaned against a post, Cadbury sat down, Sebastien stood with his head hung low, and finally Chrissie just laid on the floor with his sides heaving. “But what should be do Cadbury? It has to be a few different things or one huge thing that’ll work for everyone, the humans, the dogs, cranky old Donatello, everyone,” Chrissie huffed, lifting his head with ears swiveled in the mare’s direction.
“A beach party at the lake? I mean it’s a private lake and only our Ranch and a few beach front homes known about it?” Batman suggested. He always did have a love of beaches on hot days.
He shook his head and nuzzled Chrissie gently. “With the amount of animals we have here? No way we could do that. Sorry Battie Man,” he sighed.
More ideas were listed out, but none could really work for everyone or the horses couldn’t exactly do it themselves. Cadbury had suggested fresh lemonade for everyone, ice cream, and movies. While now Batman had suggested his beach party idea and a pizza part [he couldn’t get his mind off parties]. Chrissie had tried to be a bit unique with his own ideas yet again they didn’t really work, only one really had good potential. He’d suggested story time out in the fields under a huge tent [there wasn’t enough room], fruit salad for everyone, and his one good idea they’d probably use would be bobbing for apples. Birdwatching and a hose fight is what Sebastien had suggested.
“That’s it! I’ve got it!” Cadbury neighed out, getting to her feet. “A water fight! I mean with sprinklers, water guns, bobbing for apples and finally a water balloon fight! I know Junior’s African Grey parrot, Kiki, could find some laying around. Junior normally has two large bins filled with them.”
“But how can we fill them?! We’d end up popping them,” Chrissie argued, Sebastien nudging him to his feet.
The mare shook her head. “Someone will work the spigot and one of the birds like Kiki can help get the balloon on to fill it. Plus we just need a bin or something to put them in until everything’s all set.”
Hesitant Sebastien voiced his own opinion. “I think it would work we just need to spread the news and get some more help with the other stuff. I’ll talk to Mickey about helping gather apples as she knows the best place for them.”
“I can get Kiki to help me with the water balloons,” Cadbury piped in. “I’ll also get Mitch to get the keys to the office barn that has a computer and printer. Kiki can type what I tell her and then we’ll have posters to put places.”
Chrissie nickered softly to grab the group’s attention. “I’ll gather bins and that stuff for the apple game and for holding the balloons.”
“And I’ll…Uh I’ll get some snacks for everyone.”
With that the group split up, Cadbury headed for the ranch home, Batman went off to find Mickey, Chrissie went to search the barns for bins and buckets, and lastly Sebastien went off to find the snacks.
It had only taken a little over an hour for everything to be set up and the group had met up again, standing near the house. Batman had gathered multiple types of snacks. Something for everyone whether they be a dog, a cat, human, horse, or other creature. Standing behind a large bin, Chrissie leaned against Sebastien, the blue bin wide enough for several horses to stick their faces in and try to grab an apple. Along with the big bin a few others were scattered around, so other animals could find a size they liked.
“We’re all set!” Cawed Kiki, her talons letting go of a water balloon right above Cadbury, the mare’s back becoming wet with water now.
“You evil little parrot!” She whinnied, stomping her front hooves down and tossing her head up.
Now silence fell over them. It was time to wait for curious creatures to come and join the fun. Soon a few other horses had come to check what was going on. The buckskin laced mare, Honeybee, and her mate, Desmond’s first daughter and foal, Mickey followed behind Denali. The three had ears pricked up and excited faces. Below them, weaving through their legs was Tank and his pal, Jasper, that first of many Mudis to join Paradise Pines.
“Guys what’s going on here?” Honeybee asked, peering at all the seeming randomly placed items.
“It’s so hot outside today and inside that we’ve decided to throw a water party with some games and snacks!” Batman chuckled picking up a balloon and tossing it at Mickey.
The blue, over stretched latex skin, shattered with the contact upon the mare’s nose. Water splashing over her face. And instead of anger at being pelted with the object she laughed and moved away to grab on herself, tossing it at Batman.
Within a span of a few minutes most of the creatures had ventured out and joined the fun with bobbing for apples, playing in the water, pigging out, and throwing water balloons all about.
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