The Hunted and the Hind by A.L. Lester

Author:A.L. Lester [Lester, A.L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: JMS Books LLC
Published: 2020-12-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Horses

Fenn

Horses were excellent creatures, Fenn decided, as they made their way around the stables. They had soft noses and intelligent ears and a small amount of kias that meant that it was possible to communicate basic emotion to them without speech. He’d seen them in London, pulling carriages and cabs, but they hadn’t been this close to them before.

Keren sidled up beside him and put his face close to the creature’s head where it was peering with interest over the stable door. They huffed up its nose in the approved fashion Will Grant had demonstrated and grinned over at Fenn when it huffed back.

“What’s this one’s name?” they asked Fenn. They had been working their way along the row of enquiring noses poking out to look at the visitors.

Fenn leaned back to look at the sign above the stable door. “This is Olive,” they read.

“Do you think Will Grant would let me ride one?” Keren asked.

“I think that’s their intention,” Fenn replied, gesturing across the yard to where Will Grant was in conversation with the head caretaker of the horses, who was nodding in agreement with them and gesturing to some of the animals.

Keren gave a whoop and then cut it off when the horse they were conversing with jumped.

“Sorry,” they apologised to it. “Sorry, sorry.” They did the huffing manoeuvre again and the horse sneezed, making Keren giggle.

“Can I ride the one over there, please, Will Grant?” they called across the yard, pointing at creature with a white stripe down its face that they’d become enamoured of earlier.

Will Grant nodded and came across the courtyard toward them. “You may. That was my intention, anyway.” They looked at Fenn. “Do you have animals you ride in the Outlands?” they asked.

Fenn stroked Olive’s nose. “Not like these,” they said. “These are beautiful creatures. We sometimes ride the antacas we use for pack animals. They have horns and a very sharp spine. And are extremely bad tempered. They’re smaller than these, though. Bumpy.”

Will Grant leaned against the stable door next to Fenn, as Keren took themselves across the yard to quiz the horse-keeper. They rubbed at Olive’s ears absently. “You’re not bumpy, are you girl? No-one would dream of accusing you of such a dreadful thing!”

The horse shook its head and buffeted Will Grant’s stomach. They staggered a little against Fenn’s side and blew out a laugh. It was very strange to see them like this, out of their city clothes, in what Fenn assumed were special clothes for riding. The humans seemed to have a variety of different clothes for each task, rather than sensible clothing that would serve for most things. Here in private, both Fenn and Keren had donned the extra clothes made for them in Port Said, patterned more or less on their usual loose trousers and robes.

It was even stranger to see Will laugh like this. After the conversation with their parent this morning, Will had seemed to let go of a little of the tension that had gathered round them since this trip had been mooted.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.