Crossbar Ranch

Dusty:

Dusty chewed her lip and smiled. "Now why would I get jealous." He faked a hurt look. "A little, but she's a city girl, why be jealous."


*tears, um, when did they hook up?*

Caleb:

**A while ago. he told her how he felt...I can shift back through the pages and find it.**

I chuckled. "So..your not jealous of city girls?"

She grinned. "Nope."

"What about another cowgirl?" I smirked and kissed her lightly. "How about we go camping? Just the two of us?" I said ethusiastically.

I heard giggles and laughs and groaned. I looked over and saw some stupid guys trying to impress the girls by driving the horses wild, like at a rodeo. I growled. "Stupid boys!" I raced to my horse, and fury took over. They were poking him and making him rear in the air. "They're dead! They are so dead!"

Dusty:

Dusty stormed over to where the guys were. "Why are you harrasing the horses?"

"W-w-we...." One of the boys stuttered.

"Weren't htinking which means your walking tomorrow. I said respect the animals and you can ride them. So, now you will learn to respect them. You don't harrass the horses." She took a deep breath and looked around. "Everyone bed down."

Caleb:

I looked at my horse. He was so spooked. Bruises were on his gorgeous coat. I was so mad! How dare they touch someone else's horse?! I mean, yes, harassing any one of the horses is bad. But harassing a worker's horse is...unthinkable.

I spoke gently to him. "It's okay boy. Your alright." I gently petted him until he finally became calm. I walked over to my saddle bag and took out the sore medicine. I put it gently on the bruises. "I'm sorry boy."

I glared at the boys as I walked into camp. They smirked and chuckled. I elt myself getting even madder. My temper was rising. I was normally really even tempered, hardly ever getting mad. But, if someone messed with my sword, that was a no no.

One of them got up and bumped into me. "Shouldn't be flirting with our girls."

I looked at him with shock. "What the hell are you talking about?!"

"You know exactly what I mean. And you got what you deserved."

It took all my energy to let him walk away. I went to my camp which was a ways away from everyone else, and took deep breaths trying to calm myself. I heard footsteps and looked up to see Dusty.

Jude

He pulled his hand from Alicia's as he came up to Tux. Standing beside him he glanced over in Dusty's direction.

"I don't think we should, it looks like we're about to get going here."

Alicia rolled her eyes and glanced to Dusty then back to Jude. She walked his direction and came incredibly close to his face and placed her hands on her hips, leaning in just enough to let him feel her presence. But, her eyes were on Dusty as she spoke soft, almost in a whisper as if she could here them, "Oh come on, you aren't afraid of little-miss-thing over there, are you?"

Jude shot Alicia a look that let her know she was close to crossing a line, but he couldn't quite hide the fact that she had struct a cord. He glanced back up to Dusty as she moved around the equiptment.

Alicia backed up just a bit, but didn't drop her attitude one bit, "I mean, come on, she can't be much older and you--if at all--and you have to have more experience."

Jude just stared at Dusty. He really didn't know that much about her, and he didn't really want to be incharge of a whole bunch of city kids all summer either so he definitely wasn't jealous of her position--but, truth be told he really did dislike being bossed around by such a 'confident' woman.

Alicia would not give up. She grabbed Jude's hand again, "Come on, please? I promise we'll be back before they leave. You know how long they've been taking to get ready so far, I'm sure it will be just as long today." She flashed him an innocent smile.

He turned back to her and smiled a bit, ignoring his feelings towards Dusty, "Alright. One ride. But you have to listen to me, you don't know this place like I do and one wrong turn..." he poked a thumb behind his shoulder to the cliff he had just been sitting on, "...and someone could die. Deal?"

Dusty:

Dusty looked at Caleb, "Ignore them. They'll be regretting it after they've walked a few miles." She started to tack up her horse and then ground hitched him. "Stay here boy." She whispered kissing the star on his forehead. She looked at Caleb.

"How do you do it?"

"I've always had to deal with them. I just hope no one takes off. It looks like it might rain soon and it gets horrible out here. I hate to say it, but even most of our help doesn't know this place well enough to get to stafety. There are a lot of places that seem safe, but when it rains they are anything but."



*mwahahaha, see if that helps y'all any Via. *

Caleb:

I looked up at her lovingly. I loved hr so much! I didn't want to see her leave. I wanted to spend as much time as I could with her. I growled as I remember the stupid guys comment. "They got mad because they thought I was flirting with their girlfriends." I said bitterly.

"What?"

"You heard me. They tormented my horse because they thought I was interested in those stupid little city girls!" I felt my temperature rising again.

Dusty:

"Their going to be walking. Take a deep breath." She smiled. "You'll get used to their banter and learn to ignore it."


*cry*

Caleb:

I sighed. Kids were so stupid sometimes. I looked up at Dusty. It was still night. About time for bed. I got up and stood beside Dusty. "Stay with me tonight?" I asked, my voice husky. "Please. I can't stand to be away from you for a second. We'll all be ready in the morning. It's supposed to rain anyways. Please stay with me." I asked, my eyes begging her to do what my voice asked. "For me?"

Dusty:

"No, I need to go scout around, you can come if you want. But I'm sorry." She smiled softly. "Your a big boy." She grinned teasingly and jumped on her horse.

*CRY* *so I thought it was day. Oi vay*

Caleb:

I growled and jumped on the back of her horse, teasingly kissing her neck. "You evil little minx!" I nibbled on the back of her as I held onto her tightly, my arms surrounding her. "Your such a little tease." I continued, hoping to affect her as much as she did me. It just wasn't fair for her to have all that power over me. She taunted me with every move she made. It drove me insane to think that I didn't even affect her at all, but she knew exactly how to drive me crazy. I continued teasing her neck and ears, hoping somehow that it would affect her.

**I thought she was skinning the deer at night...was I wrong?**

Dusty:

Dusty tapped her heels to her horse and he tore off knocking Kaleb off. She pulled him to a stop spinning him around quickly.

"I'm not going ot be that easy to catch." She smiled.

*teaRS*

*She was*

>>I thought it was morning and we were all getting ready to leave...?

**nope. Dusty was cleaning the deer at night. They were bunking down. Lol.**

Caleb:

I growled. I rushed over to my horse jumped on, and raced over to her horse. I grabbed her reins, pulling the horse to a halt. I grinned. "You do realize that you are a huge tease, right?" I growled.

she glared. I dismounted and grabbed both of our horses and led them to a small cave near the campsite. she glared at me and I chuckled. I tied them up inside. "I don't give up easily." I said as I dragged her down and kissed her passionately, pinning her against the rock wall.

**Via, do you want me to create a gir for your character?**

Alicia

Alicia mounted Megan and trotted her to the edge of the disorganised camp where Jude was waiting upon Tux, looking a little wary but also slightly excited. Megan smiled coyly and drew alongside him, brushing against him.

"Shall we?" she asked. Jude nodded and began to lead the way at a slow trot which Alicia mirrored.

"My rules, remember," Jude warned and Alicia nodded happily.

"I wouldn't dream of disobeying someone who's scared of Dusty," she promised with a brief laugh. They journeyed in silence for a while and then Jude began to point out landmarks and trails, explaining that some were dangerous and had fallen into disuse.

"The trick for telling which haven't been used recently is to check the surrounding plants. Even the most careful of riders will occasionally break the branch off of a shrub and it's only natural to allow your horse time to graze every now and then."

"So what about this trail?" Alicia asked, pointing to where the dusty track veered to the right. "And where is it safe to go off track? I mean surely we won't just be following old ranch trails the whole journey."

"That depends on our riders," Jude replied. "Sometimes we get onto harder, rockier tracks but with this lot..." he shrugged and Alicia pursed her lips thoughtfully, a little scowl playing across her features. But then she brightened up.

"Ah but you'll show me some of the harder tracks, naturally," she decided. "Now how about picking up the pace? I doubt that Megan's had a good run in a long time!"