Hunter woke up and immediately thought about what had happened the previous night. He had been humiliated in front of the entire camp and he knew that he was never going to live it down. He was angry at Caleb and he was angry at the Aphrodite cabin and he was mad at himself. Not only that, but if winning a contest in this place was going to have some douche Ares kid after him, then that doesn't really lend itself to wanting to exert any effort. Jake told Hunter that morning that if he acted embarrassed then that's letting Caleb win. Hunter told him to go away and then rolled onto his side and went back to sleep.
He slept through the majority of the morning. When he finally did wake up and get dressed, it was about 11 o clock which meant pegasus riding. Not his favorite thing. He headed over to the stables and saw the lesson already in motion. He poked his head into the stable and found a very young pegasus sitting in a stall labeled Ulysses. Hunter sighed and walked inside, opening the door for Ulysses who stood up and stumbled out of the stall. Hunter took a deep breath and swung himself onto the back of the winged horse. It stood fine, probably because the stick person that was Hunter, didn't really add much weight onto the horse's back. It trotted out of the stable and with a small whinny it took off into the sky. It wasn't a very good flyer, but it would get better with time. It was still young. Hunter steered some, but it seemed that Ulysses had an agenda of his own.
He whipped around the other pegasi way too fast and zoomed into the sky. "Go down, now! Get in line!" Hunter shouted, trying to steer Ulysses in with the other pegasi. Hunter closed his eyes and Ulysses whinnied and just zoomed higher and higher and then suddenly Hunter felt like he was floating. Hunter opened his eyes and thought that he had fallen off or something. When he finally looked up, he realized that Ulysses was just floating in the sky. "Wow..." Hunter breathed as he looked on across the ocean. The view was beautiful. Hunter played with Ulysses' mane and thought for a second. "You like it up here, don't you, buddy?" He said absently, looking out at the view. Just then Hunter heard a scream and looked down to see a pegasus zoom across the sky, turning and twisting crazily.
"HEEEEEEEEEELP!!!" Ulysses looked back at Hunter like he was asking permission. Hunter froze for a second.
"Go!" Hunter said urgently, pointing to the out of control Pegasus. Ulysses neighed and then zoomed down. Hunter kept a firm grip on the horse's mane as the wind whipped his hair around. He caught up and managed to pull next to the horse to see a shortish girl with black hair and light brown skin. She looked over at Hunter and pushed her hair back behind her ear, revealing a pair of chocolate brown eyes. "You need to jump!" He said, pulling a little bit closer. Her eyes bugged out.
"Are you joking?!" She said, looking at the distance. She looked back at the other pegasi hurrying to catch up to her.
"Unless you can calm your horse down, you don't really have a choice." Hunter said with a sigh. "Come on!" He reached out an arm and the girl bit her lip before taking a deep breath and leaping onto Ulysses' back. She didn't land perfectly, but with Ulysses' help and Hunter grabbing her, she managed to wrap her arms around Hunter's waist to keep her on the pegasus' back. He felt her whimper a little and pull herself tighter to him and Ulysses slowed down, letting the other pegasus zoom past.
"Is she okay?" Hunter looked over and saw a tall guy with blue-green eyes and black hair pull next to him. Hunter nodded at Will, the only son of Poseidon in camp, and glanced back at the girl who had her eyes closed tightly. "Okay. I'll go after the Pegasus. You bring her down to the ground. Good work." He said with a quick nod and then took off after the pegasus. Hunter patted Ulysses' neck then steered a little back to the ground. It was a gentle descent to the ground and when they landed, Hunter was immediately surrounded by the girl's friends.
"Marina, you're on the ground now. Come on. You're okay." Hunter looked back at the girl as a child of Apollo pulled her off of the back of Ulysses. Hunter watched her a little cautiously and after a second, after the crowd had died down, he slid off of Ulysses' back and lead him back into the stable. It was odd. He wasn't sure why he felt such a connection to this pegasus, but they seemed to be able to understand each other. Hunter closed the door to his stall and patted his nose.
"That's a good horse." He said quietly, feeding Ulysses some hay. He patted his nose again and finally backed away. "I'll see you tomorrow." Hunter said, turning to leave, but coming face to face with A pair of sparkling green eyes.
"That was really brave." Brooke said with a smile. Hunter paused for a long moment and moved backward.
"I can't really take much credit." He finally said, clearing his throat. "Ulysses here did all the work. And Will rode his to get the pegasus. I was just along for the ride." Hunter said, blushing at the way that Brooke was looking at him. She took a breath and then put a hand on his arm.
"Well, either way. Not many guys would have done that." She said with a nod. "I always wanted to apologize on behalf of Caleb and my siblings. They can be really immature sometimes." Hunter nodded softly and then swallowed a little.
"Well, it's nothing really. Didn't really bother me all that much." Hunter lied, trying to play it off. Brooke raised an eyebrow at him.
"The strong, silent type I see." She said with a small scoff. "Well, I'll see you around uh...I don't think I ever learned your name."
"Hunbler." Hunter mumbled quietly. Brooke cocked her head a little. Hunter cleared his throat and spoke up. "Hunter. Hunter Reed."
"I'm Brooke. Brooke Stephens."
"I know."
"What?"
"I said, it's nice to meet you." Hunter shook her hand and gave her a small smile. She gave a small smile in return and then walked out of the stable. She was at the door when she turned around to look at him.
"I'll tell them to take it easy on you." She said, smiling at him. Hunter blushed a little and nodded.
"Thanks." She bit her lip a second then left. Hunter stood there a second and then ran a hand through his hair. He took a deep breath and leaned up against the stable wall. "Well, that's different." He said quietly.