Horse, Sheep, Chicken and Cow p.2

Over the next month, Horse grows impatient waiting for his lesson date to come around. April showers brought May flowers and Horse didn't want any of it. Watching MTV day in and day out had only increased how much he wanted to learn to play the guitar as well as Hendrix, Knopfler and Eddie Van Halen.

Eventually the date rolls around, and Horse gets off work early so that he can make his way down to Wentworth Music more than an hour early.

As he walks in through the door, the man at the desk looks up. He's a fairly nondescript man with nothing notable about his appearance, aside from his messy haircut.

The man frowns at Horse as he approaches the desk, but his face clears up after a few seconds.

"Ah, you're the horse from last month, right?"

"Yeah, that's me. Good to meet you, Mr...?"

"David. David Wentworth, Bruce's brother. It's good to meet you as well. Bruce told me we'd be getting some use out of Nakamara's equipment sooner than we expected, so I did get curious."

"I don't blame you. I think I'm the only talking horse in a 200-mile radius, and one of only a half dozen or so talking animals in the same range. I'd think some guy just dropped us into the world for a joke setup if I didn't know that we're as real as the guys walking down the street outside."

David chuckles idly. "Well, I'm happy to say that because of that, we've got plenty of time to instruct you. I've got a bit of work to finish up, but Bruce is available to get you set up on the machine and all that. Can I take your payment for this first lesson right now? I can schedule more for you when you get done if you're interested."

"Sounds good, David. Where's Bruce right now?"

"Oh, he's in his office right now. I'll buzz him and have him come out." David typed a few words on his keyboard, then sat back and smiled at Horse.

A door down a hallway that Horse hadn't noticed opened up, and a man stepped through it. Horse assumed him to be Bruce, as he looked very similar to David - average height and weight, with no immediately noteworthy features... The one thing that seemed designed to stand out was his tee shirt, which had a picture of the cover of the Beatles' Abbey Road on the front. But the most identifiable difference between him and David was that David's hair was messy, whereas Bruce's was cleanly cut and somewhat wavy.

The man looked down the hall and grinned at Horse, striding quickly down the hall. "Good to finally meet you face to face, Mr. Horse."
"Good to see you too, Bruce. Hopefully it's the first time of many to come. And please, just call me Charlie."

"Alright, Mr- er, Charlie. Let me show you to our animal training room for your lesson."

He pulled a set of keys out of his pocket and turned around to begin walking down the hall. Horse set off after him, whistling an old tune by Bob Seger as Bruce twirled his keys around his finger.

The pair eventually came to a door marked ENTE. Bruce looked through the key ring for the right key as Horse looked at the letters.

"Uh... Was there supposed to be an R on this door, or am I missing something?"

Bruce looked up at the letters and chuckled. "Oh, no - that's actually an acronym. Stands for 'Eiko Nakamura Training Equipment.'" He finally found the key he was looking for and fitted it into the door. "The man was an absolute genius in engineering. Honestly, it's a shame that he put his skills into something so narrow and... I suppose 'fringe,' but I guess for you it's a miracle that he did, eh?"

He turned the lock and opened the door to the most brilliantly designed set of equipment that Horse had ever seen.