[Firefoot]

Bebother that horse! Why did it have to be Eodwine himself who noticed? Oh, no, oh, no. In the space of a few seconds a million responses flitted through Léof’s mind. Limping? No, not at all – my foot is fine. Except Léof was a horrible liar, and he faltered under Eodwine’s steady gaze.

“Well, yes, maybe a little,” Léof admitted. “The horses spooked in the stable when the wall fell in, and my foot got stepped on. But I’m sure it will be fine,” he hastily added. “It doesn’t hurt that much, and I’ve had worse before.” This very last part, at least, was true. On the other hand, he had no idea how fine it would really be. He wished that he had had a chance to look at it himself before someone else had noticed. And the very last thing he needed was a doctor coming in and telling him it had to be rested for some indefinite length of time. He did not think it would come to that, but he preferred to play it safe – and that meant no doctor.

Eodwine frowned as if trying to discern how much truth was in Léof’s words, but thankfully he had no time to call for a healer or anything of the sort because three men rode up at that point with several horses. “I had best go help,” Léof excused himself and made his escape, taking care to walk as normally as possible, although the pain of doing this was dizzying. If nothing else, Gárwine would cover for him. As Léof passed him, he cast him a glance that Léof could only hope Gárwine would correctly interpret. Gárwine nodded slightly, and Léof could only trust that it was so.

As he approached the newcomers, he realized that two of them could not be older than himself, although both were taller. By the time he caught up with them, the third man had already walked off, presumably to find Eodwine.

“Good morning to you,” he offered. “My name is Léofric, and I am the ostler here.” He had no idea what it was that led him to use his full name and not the shortened form. Perhaps it was an aura of being completely unimpressed, but Léof for some reason felt an inexplicable need to assert himself as belonging here. Maybe some of it even came from his injured foot. “I can take some of those horses,” he said. “There are several open stalls about midway down the aisle…”