[Firefoot]

As the other two lads, mostly Wultheof, talked, Léof had slowly begun to let down his guards. It seemed to him that perhaps these two were simply trying to find a place in an unfamiliar city, and this Léof could certainly sympathize with. And their enthusiasm over the horse fair was certainly catchy.

“As for your first question,” he nodded towards Wultheof, “the horse fair isn’t going on right this second. It’s scheduled to start soon – tomorrow, or the day after? I’ll admit, I haven’t been here long myself, and I don’t hear a lot of news. But from what I have heard, there will certainly be contests of all sorts: the horse events being most prominent, of course – races and others – and, yes, wrestling. I hadn’t heard anything about archery, but they probably have that, too.” He hoped Leocsley would not be disappointed; it was the first sign of friendliness Léof had seen from him yet, and he didn't want to send that trait burrowing back into its hole.

Wultheof nodded. “What about you, Léofric? Entering any events?”

Léof realized rather unhappily now that even if his duties did permit it, his foot almost certainly would not. What would you do, anyway? And he realized he did not have an answer to that. He had little skill in any kind of weaponry, and his slight frame hindered him in athletics. Not in riding, though – in fact, there it was quite beneficial. He and Æthel would have figured something out. Instead, he simply answered, “I haven’t decided yet.” He doubted that he would be able to hide his injury forever – Eodwine had certainly noticed quickly enough, and Léof had the uncomfortable feeling he had seen through a lot more as well – but he sure wasn’t going to tell the whole world in the mean time.

By now, all the horses had been put in stalls, and Léof showed the other two lads where the hay and water were. With three of them working it did not take long, but Léof still had plenty of time to notice just how few stalls were left empty. The number of horses in the stable had doubled or more with these new additions – good thing that they would be traded away in the next couple of days, and hopefully the Mead Hall would not gain more than a couple more visitors with horses in that time, or else Léof would not know where to keep them.

“Well, I guess that about settles it,” he said. “Thanks for your help. You can stick around here if you like, but you'll probably want to head out to join your... father? A piece of advice, if you decide to head out to where everyone else has gathered: you arrived at a rather chaotic time, and it might be best to stay out of people’s ways. I’m not exactly sure what happened, and they still may be trying to figure it out, too, though it may have calmed down some. Other than that, feel free to come and go.”