Chapter 34: Roping and Wrangling

Ellie

It seemed like everyone wanted to ride by Ellie and chat. She was perfectly content to spend the entire ride with River, but that would be rude. So when Strand rode up on her other side and started talking to her, Ellie was inclined to at least pretend to listen. He mostly talked about himself, which wasn't surprising to her having spent a little bit of time with the man now. Really, the only difference between Strand and Blade was that Blade was sneaky, underhanded, and a cheater whereas Strand was just full of himself.

She had a conversation with Clark, which was at least a little more of a give and take, as opposed to just him talking and Ellie saying, "Uh huh," like she had with Strand.

The conversation with Lance was even better than Clark, though he didn't have much to say at all. Ellie preferred the quiet, stoic type to the rambler. She glanced behind her to see her dad riding next to River, and the two of them seemed to be having a nice conversation, which brought a smi