[i] - Mercy - [/i]

Mercy caught the brief lopsided smile if she hadn’t already had color to her face she was sure she would have after that, at least her embarrassment had caused amusement and not scorn. She caught the slight sleepy rasp to the other woman’s voice; it caused her to wonder just how hard the last few weeks must have been on her. “That’s good to hear” Mercy commented with a warm smile to accompany it, though her expression shifted to embarrassment upon Chris’s next comment. “No, no its OK, you didn’t scare me. I was just surprised and to be honest with you it’ll take a lot more than sneaking up on me to freak me out” She assured Chris with a broad smile. Although she’d probably need CPR if that dark man from the attic snuck up on her, her heart would probably just stop beating.

As soon as Chris shifted her attention to fidgeting Pinto, Mercy lifted a hand to her cheeks as subtly as she could in an attempt to cool it down beneath her cool fingertips, the smile fading from her face as she dropped her gaze momentarily to her other hand which was still tucked inside the strap of the body brush before lifting it again to watch the gelding’s antics.She nodded her head in agreement with the murmured comment, glancing at the other woman as she took a step towards the curious Pinto; she felt her mouth twitch up into another small smile as Bandit retracted his head curving his muscular neck so he could push his face against Chris's hand. She continued to run the brush over his withers and shoulder flicking the dust from his colored coat as she watched the exchange. Bandit focused one of his slender ears on Chris as she spoke, audibly inhaling before blowing the air back out of his nose softly. 

Luckily Mercy had just shifted her gaze from Chris to Bandit as the dark haired woman chanced a glance at her, her eyebrow lifted ever so slightly at the Pinto who was trying desperately to get Chris to scratch his forehead now. “Hmm?” The blonde hummed in response to Chris's questions. “Oh! He’s called Bandit I believe” She answered smiling apologetically. “Yup, he’s a boy...the other ones a girl, Comet. She’s just over there” She continued lifting herself up onto her tiptoes so she could point over Bandit’s withers to the buckskin colored horse stood in the stall behind him, who was visible for Chris to see under the curve of the Pinto’s neck. "They're both in pretty good condition considering, well you know" Mercy commented as she ran her fingers through the small tail of mane resting across the gelding's withers.

Bandit had positioned himself across the front of Comet's stall during his attempt to reach Chris not that the other horse seemed overly bothered, in fact Comet seemed completely disinterested in everything happening outside of her stall, she was far too busy stuffing as much hay into her mouth as she could manage. “Have you been around horses much before?” Mercy asked in a light tone as if she were attempting to spark up conversation, it had been such a long time since she’d had the chance to just talk to anyone other than Tamashii. “You seem really comfortable around them” Mercy observed looking from Chris to the Pinto before taking a step towards his flank to run the brush across his coat there, in fairness he looked as if he just needed a good bath. Whilst awaiting Chris’s response a thought flickered across Mercy’s mind. “I’m Mercy by the way...sorry I completely forgot to introduce myself the other day after you...” She trailed off having decided that bringing up the store probably wasn’t a great way to promote conversation.