Intruder
She was pouring feed bags into the large bins when she heard the hoof beats, felt them in the ground. A prickle of anxiety crawled up her spine, but she brushed it away, rushing outside to the fence where the horses were now huddling. She was up and over the fence in a flash, murmuring soft words and gently touching to calm the nervous animals. “What’s wrong?” she asked, brushing along sweaty hair, taking in the flick of an eye and the lay of an ear.
Ione pushed past the group to find a tall, dappled horse waiting at the next fence, pawing at the ground. A small smirk crossed her face and she mounted him quickly from the fence. “Let’s go find out what it is, then,” she said to him, leading him out of the fence.
The pair cantered to where the pasture fences ended, the beach beginning a couple hundred paces past them. It could just be trash washed up on shore that frightened the beasts with its novelty. She sort of hoped so, since that would be the easiest to fix. There was always new trash finding its way into her land. It was unlikely, but she also worried it might be people. Usually they didn’t stop here, due to the roughness of the water and the hardness of the ground, and also because she ran most of them off, but sometimes they persisted.
And today was one of those times, apparently. A single person that she could see, sitting on a large rock and staring out at the waves. Frowning, Ione slid to the ground, leaving the horse to graze, trusting that he wouldn’t wander off. Cutting across from grass to rocks to the beginnings of sand, she kept an eye out for anyone else that might be there too, but aimed her steps for the woman. “Are you lost?” she called, still some ways away.
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