"Where are you looking at?" Matheus asked his daughter, who turned to him briefly. She looked back at the hill, but Bastian was gone.
His face, however, was burnt into her retina and would probably remain so for a while. She had expected anything, but seeing curiosity in his eyes had thrown her completely off balance for a moment. Of course, there was the familiar look of disgust that she was all too used to seeing in people, but curiosity? What had he expected from her life after seeing her as a horse in the school lesson? And why was he interested at all? What had he been doing on this hill when no human ever came here - except as an animal. If he wanted to see her humiliation, why this reaction?
Izzy blinked and remembered that her father had asked her something. She tilted her head and mumbled something until her father finally got the idea to take the horse bit out of her mouth. "It's... I've seen Bastian."
Her father scratched his chin thoughtfully. "It's not like no one amongst the humans knows what happened to you. But I understand why it makes you uncomfortable. Do you want to talk about it?"
"Not today," Izzy replied, but before she could say more, Kreks had woken up and was obviously in a fighting mood.
"This isn't over yet! I'm going to get Buttercup, you'll see!" But to Izzy's astonishment, it wasn't Grall who knocked some sense into him, but his father. He slapped him hard on the back of the head and hissed: "Haven't you brought enough shame on you and me yet? Forget this horse already, it will only bring you bad luck. No horse is worth that." He dragged his shrieking son behind him by the ear, and Izzy could only hope that was the end of the matter.
"What are you looking at me so strangely for?" asked Matheus as Izzy focussed on him again.
"Did you leave the horse bit in with my mother if you didn't want to listen to her, too?
Matheus suddenly blushed. "Well... maybe sometimes. She must have felt the need in her later years to make up for everything she couldn't say before. She was an angel, but the horse bit was occasionally a blessing." He looked at her guiltily, but Izzy just grinned. Her father was a good-natured man, and she could well imagine her mother accepting it just for his sake, to keep him happy. "Anyway, I'll go congratulate your rider."
"You really are the fastest horse in the whole neighbourhood," Grall slurred. It must have been his third beer, and the spontaneous celebration was only just beginning. Word of the victory had spread quickly among the goblins - even among those who weren't interested in horse racing. The celebration was spontaneous; everyone brought something, a small group played music and the rest danced, celebrated and laughed. Izzy and Lisande were extremely popular, they were always being given treats and stroked, but they were still not guests: they stood - together with Albaea and Sunshine - tied to a post at the edge of the square and could only watch the hustle and bustle. Izzy hadn't expected anything else by now, but at least they had been treated by a vet beforehand and given a few medicinal herbs so that they were no longer in pain.
Lisande had become visibly more relaxed since the race, now that she had realised that her life was back on a better course - even if she would remain an animal for all time.
"You deserve a reward, my sweet. What do you want?' said Grall, taking the horse bit from Izzy's mouth, which had been reinserted in the meantime.
She stretched her jaw and relished the freedom. "You promised me that I could be human again. You owe me something for this trouble here. I want to be human among humans again. But not here, too many people know by now that I'm..."
"That you're a horse? Fine, fine, if that's what you want, we'll do it together. I promise! We'll travel a bit further away, where people don't know you."
"Can't I go alone?" Izzy asked sharply.
Grall raised his hands in defence. "Yes, but I also have to take a few things to the bank, and I thought you'd like to do something with me again. As friends, of course."
"Friends don't bet each other," Izzy reminded him, grumbling slightly.
"Won't happen again." He turned to Lisande, swaying. "Welcome back. You did well at the race, congratulations. Nice of you to lose, though." He hiccupped. "After the party, you'll be in a nice, clean stable. Strange, last week I didn't have a ponygirl, now I'll soon have two." Lisande neighed uncertainly.
"Do you look after your horses?" asked Oozol in a warm voice. He obviously liked his son in this role; not unusual for a man who wanted to inherit his farm at some point. "It's good if you practise."
Grall crossed his arms in front of his chest and Izzy guessed what would follow. "While we're on the subject of experience with ponygirls, you could use a little practice too," he said in a voice loosened by alcohol. "Your training methods are bad. Bad, bad, bad!" Mexi listened in the background and nodded.
"What?" asked Oozol surprised. "You want to teach me a lesson about ponygirls?" The old goblin puffed himself up, but Grall stabbed him in the chest with his finger so hard that his father literally ran out of breath.
"Exactly like that! Admit it, you're afraid you'd like a ponygirl as much as Buttercup's mother again. That's why you haven't had a steady horse for all these years." Grall waited for his father to say something, but he just looked at him with wide eyes. "Gotcha! You need your own ponygirl again so you don't forget what it's all about. And as luck would have it, I've got one here! You need to change a few things about yourself, and that's a good start." He attached a lead to Lisande's horse bit and handed it to his father, who continued to look at his son speechlessly. "Have fun. And no excuses. Lisande is your permanent ponygirl now. Be good to her - she's mine and I'll be really angry if you're not nice to her!"
