A haze had fallen over her on the long trip to the ranch, her mind wandering to the days past.  Etania  (http://th01.deviantart.net/fs50/300W/f/2009/294/7/b/Cowgirl_II_by_crouching_tiger.png) had bargained and pleaded with her mother for years to let her come to the ranch, she'd heard so many things about it, and yet had never been allowed so much as a visit. Finally, faced with her daughter running away to the ranch or being taken there.. she finally succumbed. The ride was mind numbing though, and she looked over the huge expanses of land, speckled with horses and the occasional wild deer or feral dog. There was little of interest really as the roads meandered and tumbled through the countryside.<br/><br/>Her life was more closely related to a car crash than it seemed. She grew up a single child, though she clearly wasn't. Her father was two years deceased, and since he passed, all her mother talked of was how it was Etania's fault he died. If not for a simple request made by Etania, indeed her father may very well be alive.. Begging her father for yet another book on horses, her father simply couldn't refuse his daughter and within five minutes of leaving the house, he was pronounced dead. Since that horrific accident, she blamed herself for so many things, and yet, knew that it couldn't have been prevented, not really. It was tragic, but it wasn't her fault. Now seventeen and clinging on to the thought of her father, she sought a new sense of family, a desperately needed father figure back in her life, and a confidant. Gavin and Darius, both men she had never known, were the family she fought to be with. Though not directly related to the elder, she knew he was a strong man that was the sharp contrast to her own father.. and she needed him. Gavin, her half brother, she'd only met once, when they both were barely out of diapers.<br/><br/>She nearly skidded off the road, lost in her reminiscing. The shock of it brought her back to now.. and she could see the ranch on the rise. She was nearly done. Every part of her seemed to ache for motion and movement, and though she had never so much as touched a horse, she knew everything there was to know about them. Years of intense focus on horses as she pined away to visit her brother, to ride and tend the mares and stallions, would prove handy in the months to come. She was ready to work, to prove herself a valuable asset to what she hoped would become her new family. She was so tired of her mother, of the accusations and the pain she caused. In a way she was running away, but running at least to something better than the street.<br/><br/>As she closed in on the ranch, she heard the faint sound of barking and saw just how massive the main ranch house seemed to be. It was a far cry from the cramped apartment her and her mother now shared. She eased up on the clutch and put the truck into neutral as it rolled the last hundred feet or so to a stop in the driveway. Parking had always been her worst ability when it came to driving in general, and indeed today was no exception, the truck skewed awkwardly across most of the gravel drive. She flashed an impish smile toward the house as she pulled the parking brake and finally put the truck into park. She hopped out, only to hop back in to get the keys from the ignition. At five foot nothing, Etania did a lot of hopping. Her hair naturally blonde, though helped along with regular visits to the salon to keep the shine, lay just past her shoulders when it was down. Today though, it was done up in loose braids on either side and sitting neatly on her shoulders. She gathered the loose tee she was wearing and tied it just above her navel, and her short shorts simply left very little to the imagination. Etania had perhaps watched one too many movies.. and assumed the farmhand girls all looked this way, she simply wanted to fit in.<br/><br/>She grabbed her single suitcase from the back, pulling it by the rollers till it thudded off the bed of the truck onto the ground. It wasn't exactly light, but it had enough clothes to last her weeks without washing them. She dragged the heavy thing to the front door of the ranch. She looked for a doorbell, but couldn't find one, so she simply knocked loudly. "Hello?" She called out cheerfully, hoping to find someone here, though it seemed they were both busy off doing other things. Instead, she sat her luggage down, and found a nice shady spot to snuggle herself into while she waited.