Chapitre 90: The Ride - Part 1
"It's not so bad. You get used to it very quick -woah."
The sound of a half-orc half-goblin hitting the ground was all that could be heard in the forest as the group of girls were heading in the direction of the village Teagan spoke of. Changing their mode of transport from walking to horseback was a massive upgrade. With the Umbrea they should make it to the village in no time at all. Well, that would be the case if they didn't have to stop every few minutes due to one of them falling off one of them.
"Oww, I really don't think it likes me." Olivia said with a grimace as she looked up at the Umbrea that had thrown her. As she watched its face, she was sure she could see it smirk for a moment.
"That's not true… I don't think." Ameril responded, trying to provide some comfort. "You are not the only one that has fallen."
And it was true. As she looked at the rest of the group, she could clearly see Lyrika looking down in embarrassment having fallen off the Umbrea when she tried to pull her waterskin out from her pack.
Even Philly looked away, which was followed by a quick rub of her rump as she recalled her mishap. Let's just say you shouldn't try to write while riding an Umbrea.
"Yes, but I'm certain this one has it out for me."
She had fallen three times since they started their journey. After leaving the village, all went smoothly. As Milly had said before seeing them off, they were like pack animals when around the alpha. They followed its directions. Directions that Ameril, having ridden Umbrea before, helped to provide and show the alpha she rode, which in turn kept the others calm.
But, now that they entered the forest, they couldn't stay as bunched together as they did when leaving. The pack mentality was still there, but it was like the other members of the family were acting out when the parent wasn't looking.
While Lyrika may have fallen due to her own failing, it would seem that the Umbrea did not like a rider who paid no attention to them. And that was how Philly had ended up hitting the ground, butt first.
The acting out had also led Olivia to really get a good understanding of how dirt tasted, which was something she would have preferred not to know.
"It would help if you stopped saying she is an 'it'. Umbrea are very smart, and don't take kindly to riders who do not respect them."
At that, Olivia's Umbrea did an overdramatic mane flip as it looked away from her.
"They need love, attention and they need to know that their rider is there for them, just as much as they are there for their rider."
They were lovely words that Ameril said. It was just putting them into action that was a problem. They had to make sure they were a good distance from the village, to be sure that if their plan does go awry, the mercenaries wouldn't be able to easily catch them. Focusing on that was much more important that focusing on the Umbrea they were using to flee.
Also, being knocked to the ground a few times made it hard for a person to want to be kind to the one that knocked them down.
But they couldn't go on like this. By the time their reached the village, one of them was sure to break something by the time they reached the village. That or their mounts would bolt if they decided they didn't fancy taking their group any further.
"Okay. So how do we do that?" Lyrika said wanting to make sure her Umbrea didn't decide to throw her to the ground as well.
"For one thing, you need to know how to properly ride them. If you are doing it improperly, then you are likely causing yourself and your Umbrea pain."
As soon as she said that, Olivia felt some pain in her lower back. It seems that all the pains from her falling had overshadowed this new pain. That, or it was actually new and only just started. Either way, it was more than likely it came from her riding the Umbrea badly.
"You need to relax. It will not help if you are stressed and rigid. The Umbrea and feel that, and that too will cause them stress."
'Okay, relax. That sounds simple.'
All three of the trainee Umbrea riders tried it out, loosening themselves in order to feel more relaxed. No longer were they rigid and fearful of falling off. Saying that, they were still fearful, but they needed to get over that. It only hurt slightly when they fell, so worrying about it so much just made it more likely to happen.
As they relaxed themselves, they all started to get into the rhythm of the Umbrea's movement. Lyrika and Olivia were the first to really feel it, getting in the grove and shifting about with the Umbrea. Philly on the other hand was not used to this sort of thing. She was an academic. The outside world was not her preferred place to be. Riding on an Umbrea even more so.
But eventually, she got the hang of it…partially. She still looked a little wooden, but more like a marionette, rather than a plank.
"Good, good. Now that you are more calm and relaxed, the Umbrea should feel it too. Next is to make sure you have the right posture. It's all well and good to move with the Umbrea, but you still need to be sitting right so that it doesn't hurt over time."
Ameril them took them through the right posture for riding. It included keeping you head held straight so that you looked just over the Umbrea's horn. You also needed to sit up tall, not just wobble all over the place as the Umbrea moved. There was also the need to just sink into the saddle, which Olivia was sure they were all doing given how they were trying to remain relaxed. Then last but not least was that they shouldn't squeeze their legs against the Umbrea's sides.
All of this were some of the key ways in order to make riding an Umbrea more pleasurable, and less dangerous and harmful. That's not to say these were the only things that you needed to do. Olivia was sure that there was more that could be done, but Ameril was not a master, so she could only give them so much information.
But, as it turned out, it was more than enough.
Before long, no more of them ended up falling to the ground. The pain that she had felt before had dissipated, and so far, none of them had felt anything since they corrected their ways.
…
As they continued on their journey, they started to look for a place to stop.
Being on the run and all, they decided to veer off to the left considerably, ensuring they had a landmark of some sort to come back to when they continue their trip.
Through this Ameril continued to teach them how to ride. She went over how to stop and start, along with speeding up and slowing down. Before long though, they found a clearing that would be perfect to set up camp, and so when they came to a stop, at which point Ameril told them how to dismount.
Being the large being that she was, this was a little trickier to do compared to the rest of the girls. The mounting at the start had been as well, but she decided to gloss over that.
As she leaned forward on the Umbrea like Ameril told her, her Umbrea moved forward and shifted a little. This startled her a bit and sent her forward even more. If anything, she was sure that it was responding to her adjusting her weight. She felt like she should be insulted, but being an animal that did the insulting and had to deal with her size, she let if off the hook.
After that she managed to swing her leg over just fine and then slide down and touch the ground. Her Umbrea then got herself to her full height after she had dismounted. She was sure it was being cheeky as it had been standing tall and proud throughout the hole trip, but right at the end it had to get all dramatic about her weight. What a cheeky Umbrea.
The rest of the girls didn't quite agree with what she was saying. It was just the general absurdity of it really. So, she decided to put that aside and not look like a nutcase, then got to work setting up camp.
…
The Umbrea were tied to a tree, the three tents were up, and all four of the girls were sitting around the campfire, enjoying their meal, which was then followed by feeding a playing with Felixia.
Once digested and the resident Zentora was tuckered out, Ameril took them through care of their Umbrea. It wasn't like they had rented these majestic animals, they would hopefully, stick with them for all their coming days. Because of that, they needed to care for them and deepen their bond.
Most of it was simple, keeping them fed and providing them water when necessary was the basics and obviously necessary. Then came grooming.
They didn't have themselves a kit to groom them, so they had to make do with what was around them, namely figuring out what could be used as a brush.
It took a while and some good searching to find items that could be used. Then through trial and error, which was the Umbrea backing off once they started to brush them, they found a substitute.
It was basically part of a bush, which had somewhat blunted pine needles as the leaves. Thankfully it was not poisonous, Lyrika having seen the plant before, but it didn't really have a name. It was so common in the world and did nothing that no one had cared to give it one.
But, it seemed it did have a use, as the Umbrea loved being brushed with it.
Even Olivia's Umbrea, who was still a little finicky around her, really moved into the brush in order to feel it brushing through its coat, removing dirt and other matter.
The substitute brush's bristles were rather soft, so it could thankfully be used on the Umbrea's face and each of its six legs, which by the end of it, really tired out each of the girls. Ameril was however used to it, still having a load of energy at the end.
There were other parts of grooming that could be done, but none were really feasible right now. Brushes of different hardness in terms of bristles were used on different sections of the Umbrea in order to better remove dirt and the like, but they didn't have access to that. Given them a nice bath was also something that should be done, but alas, with waterskins as the only source of water, it again could not be done. They would have to wait to reach a river to do that.
Olivia had thought something needed to be done in terms of their hoofs. She had initially thought they would have horseshoes, but it seemed like this hadn't been invented yet.
As she spoke to Ameril about it, it seemed that with all the trotting and galloping they do, issues with their hoofs were nonexistent as all of it helped to strengthen their hoofs. Which incidentally was why they didn't need anything like a horse shoe. With villages being built on top of dirt rather than stone, or concrete like on Earth, there were hardly any hard surfaces to damage the hoofs. They would probably get some damage here and there, but it would be nothing like galloping on stone.
Before long there was nothing more they could do. The Umbrea were happy, standing around and likely talking to each other, which mean the riders were free to get some sleep.
The only problem with this was dealing with sleeping arrangements, as only having three tents, made things a little awkward.
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
Braderzsz
Braderzsz Hi All, I hope you like the next chapter.
Having headed off, they experianced some difficulty at the start, but with Ameril's training, things are looking up. Now we just have to see how they get a good nights sleep.
Please let me know your thoughts on the chapter.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone