Pondering

By JudyL

 

June 7, 2010

 

Summary -   FTSC – Vin finds himself in a confusing situation

Length: 1166 words

 

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Vin Tanner lay quietly in the tall, lush grass as a soft breeze blew a strand of hair across his face.  An insect buzzed annoyingly at his ear and somewhere in the distance he heard a name being called, his name.  He knew he should reply, yet something held him back.

 

He tried to figure out exactly why it was that he was lying in the grass, but several things kept his mind from focusing clearly on the problem. First, he seemed to be having a bit of trouble catching his breath. Second, his head pounded, his back ached and there seemed to be something poking him in the back.

 

Okay, that was three things. Still, he thought there should be a reason for the frantic way his name was being called. It just wouldn’t come to him. Just as he couldn’t recall why he was flat on his back in the grass.

 

Whoever was calling his name seemed to be getting closer and Vin vaguely considered that he should answer. He just had to catch his breath first.

 

A face came into view above him. It was a long, brown and slightly out of focus face. Vin blinked to clear his vision, but the big brown blur didn’t seem to make any sense. Warm breath on his face was followed by whiskery, sort of rubbery lips and a huge tongue.

 

Vin rolled quickly onto his side to escape this attack and then moaned as his body protested the motion. The sound of hoof beats moving skittishly away from him echoed loudly in his ears.

 

After a moment, the pain subsided to a dull throb and he thought again about his current predicament. Predicament… seemed like an Ezra word… he must be spending too much time around the gambler if he was using Ezra words. What was he thinking about?

 

Oh yeah! Why was he laying in the grass? Vin took a slow deep breath and decided he hadn’t busted any ribs. Why is it so dark? Oh, eyes are closed. He was happy to see that the grass he was now laying sideways on came into focus after just a few blinks. It was pretty tall grass. And smelled good.

 

Who is that calling my name? Chris? Ezra? At least two different voices he decided. Why don’t they just come over here and pick me up off the ground? Don’t think I could get up on my own just yet. Why am I on the ground? Hmm, maybe they can’t see me. The grass is kinda tall.

 

Vin opened his mouth to say something, but even thinking about it made his head hurt. No noise. Maybe I can just raise my hand and they can see it over the top of the grass. But what if it’s too tall still? I’ll raise my foot. Then they’ll see me and get me off the ground.

 

Vin tried to raise his leg, but after a few attempts realized that he was facing the wrong way. He rolled onto his back and lifted his leg up into the air. Funny, he’d never really thought about how heavy his foot was.

 

He admired a passing cloud and startled when another face popped into view. This one wasn’t brown or fuzzy, in fact it looked like Chris. Vin smiled and pointed at his foot.

 

“What’s wrong, Vin?” Chris asked, a worried frown creasing his forehead.

 

Vin tried to sit up, but as soon as he lifted his head a bit, the world blacked out.

 

“Damn,” Chris said as Vin passed out. “Help me get him up, we need to get him to Nathan.”

 

Ezra nodded and grabbed one of Vin’s arms. “Why on earth did he have his foot in the air?” he wondered as they carried the tracker toward their waiting horses.

 

“Dunno, but we found him, didn’t we?”

 

“True,” Ezra had to admit.

 

~~~~~

 

Several hours later, Nathan’s clinic

 

Vin groaned as consciousness forced it’s way back into his brain. He tried to fight it, but a familiar and insistent voice kept calling his name. He kept his eyes closed, but raised one hand to wave and try to get the person to shut up.

 

“Are you back with us?”

 

“Shhh!” Vin said, wincing at the sound of his own voice. “Not so loud.”

 

A soft chuckle was followed by a quiet “Sorry, Cowboy,” and a pat on the shoulder.

 

Vin sighed and barely opened one eye. He sighed again when it appeared that the windows were covered and the only lamp was turned down low. He opened both of his eyes and waited for the world to come into focus.

 

“What happened?” he asked as he confirmed his suspicion of being at Nathan’s clinic.

 

“You got dumped off that new filly and landed on your head,” Chris said.

 

Vin groaned and rested his forearm across his face.

 

Chris chuckled lightly. “I warned you she wasn’t ready yet, but you had to try her out. Don’t know what spooked her. You held on for a while, but eventually you zigged when she zagged.”

 

“She okay?” Vin asked softly.

 

“Yeah, JD and Ezra went back out and rounded her up after we brought you here. Any idea what happened?”

 

“Naw. I don’t remember the fall or the landing, just being very confused,” Vin admitted.

 

Chris chuckled again.

 

“You seem to be getting a lot of amusement from my injury, Cowboy,” Vin grumbled.

 

“Well, you were pretty amusing, Vin,” Chris said with a smile.

 

“Ah hell,” Vin said after taking a quick peek at Chris. “Do I want to know?”

 

“Well, at one point you, I think you were talking to the horse, you said you didn’t want her to kiss you anymore,” Chris said, laughter clear in his voice. “Then you started talking about the trouble with tall grass versus short grass. And you kept telling every one to stop putting peas in your bed.”

 

“Huh?” Vin asked, sending an incredulous look at Chris. “I sorta understand the first two, I think, but peas?”

 

Chris grinned and shrugged. “When I asked you, you said something was poking you when you lay down, and you figured it must be the peas we were putting in your bed. Ezra figures you were probably remembering that story he was telling the Potter kids the other day about the princess and the pea?” he finished questioningly.

 

Vin frowned and then nodded slowly. “Oh yeah, I ‘member. They were testing to see if the girl was really a princess ‘cause supposedly if she was she would be more sensitive to stuff. They put a pea under her mattresses and she could feel it even through a whole bunch of them,” Vin briefly explained the story.

 

Chris nodded, his grin still in place. “Well, your highness, we removed all the peas, so now you can get some rest. The others will be by to pay their respects to Prince Vin later.”

 

“Ah, Chris,” Vin whined.

 

 

The end

 

I’d love feedback. Let me know what you think. JudyL

 

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