A New Place, Some New People

Quell hadn't been to the stables since the death of his beloved horse, Violet. She was there one moment and gone the next, so it seemed. It saddened Quell - he had been particularly close to his horse, but with everything that happened over the summer Violet's death seemed of little importance to the son of Athena. And yet he found himself here,  standing underneath the stall of a bay pegasus pony. Absentmindedly he fed her the carrots he had found in the tack room and as soon as they were gone she nuzzled his hand, asking for more.

Despite the equine company, the seeming silence was eery and Quell couldn't wait to leave. One problem; he had nowhere better to go. It was extremely cold outside and Quell was too ill-equipped to leave. He had come several hours ago, occupying the time with cleaning tack and reading his book among the hay (unfortunately hay was one of the worst places to read and Quell could feel the scratches all up and down his back and legs).

As the pony gulped down the last of Quell's carrots, there was a shriek from the other side of the barn. It seemed that a girl had fallen down in the hay. He rushed over, but someone else had beat him to it. "Are you okay?" he asked. The girl looked to be fine, so he wasn't worried. But she did engage in an odd conversation with the other boy.