It was a stare down, and a very intimidating one at that.
Koyi’s pale red eyes were narrow, focused, determined. A warrior’s eyes.
It was all down to this; every second, every minute, every hour, day, week, month, year, decade… okay, Koyi had only lived two decades plus two more years. But that wasn’t the point!
The point, the main goal, everything she had lived for…
Was to feed this damn horse.
Koyi looked at it. It looked at her. Not a thought behind those animalistic, arrogant eyes that showed no mercy when the monstrous teeth below it smashed the bone of her fingers. How she despised those eyes.
Alright alright now, she took a deep breath in and tossed the apple into the air, letting it thump in her gloved fingers when it came back down. There was a teeeeny tiny part of her that wanted to feed it nothing at all, but she really didn’t want to be fired. This was the only job she'd had and the only thing keeping her stable. It was that or go back to Kakariko Village and being stuck with the same people she'd grown up with. Now of course, she didn't really hate Kakariko. There was just nothing that awaited her in the village besides pumpkins and carrots. She was beyond ready to get out of that life, move on, be someone who felt like someone. Which, unfortunately didn't seem to be working as of lately. Ponder your life choices outside of work, Koyi, she berated herself.
Okay okay okay, let’s start this over. You have to be nice to the horse, Koyi knew that. She also knew she wanted to throw a rock at its stupid smug snout but whatever. “Alright, look. I'm gonna feed you this-“ she pointed and wished lightning zapped out of her fingers so she could vaporize the animal, “-this apple right here, okay? This apple is going to go in your mouth, you are going to chew, and you are going to swallow. Okay?” she negotiated, giving a wary and somewhat passive aggressive thumbs up.
The horse, on the other hand (or hoof, heh), only snorted in a manner that, quite frankly, offended Koyi. Instead of taking the apple out of her hand, it simply turned around and focused it's teeth of terror on some nearby hay. Great.
Koyi's nose crinkled upwards in frustration. Why was this creature being so difficult?!?! "C'mon, you jerk! Ugh," she whined, wanting to kick her feet like a small child. "I literally have so many apples for you! See all of these? There are like - onetwothreefourfive - SEVEN APPLES in here! Don't you want this? Where is your greed?" She ended her lecture with a sigh before sitting down on a bale of hay and twirling the apple stem in her fingertips. What was she even doing with her life anymore? Maybe she should just go home and be a farmer or something. That sounded awfully boring, but her grandma did ask her to do something meaningful to the village before she-
CHOMP!
"GAH-!!!" Koyi nearly pissed herself as her fingers missed amputation by horse by a smidge. She turned her head slowly and dangerously towards the horse, her eyes widening and asking where the hell this creature got its audacity from, and managed to witness its teeth grinding the apple into shreds, its own eyes gleaming with a giddy amusement that made Koyi's blood boil. Oh, so this horse knew what it was doing.
Koyi's nose scrunched up, and she threw the other apple in her hand to the floor as she stomped her foot down. "You know what? I quit. That's right, you heard me! I quit! I dislike you and you and you and-" she started to point at each and every one of those judging horses, unaware of the footsteps approaching behind her. "Oooooh, no, I think I dislike you the most! Yeah yeah, you can go to-"
But Koyi didn't get to continue her mad cursing at the bloody beast before her boots, the banging of the bells outside the stable jolting her spine upright. Bells, which means noon, which means lunch. Finally. Koyi sent one final glare and a muttering along the lines of "This isn't over yet" before turning on her heel out the stable doors. That damn horse could wait for all she cared. Well, she cared about her job and trying to stay afloat, obviously, but she- oh, she could think about this after lunch.
She shoved her silly stable hat on its hook and kicked off her feces ridden boots to swap out for a comfier pair. Sure, she had to put both of them back on later, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that she ate well.
Now the small town surrounding Riverside Stable did not seem very small. Wagons and vendors roamed the cobblestone streets with a grace so natural Koyi feared she would never be able to imitate it.