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Old 06-06-2006, 12:33 PM   #345
Firefoot
Illusionary Holbytla
 
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Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 7,646
Firefoot has been trapped in the Barrow!
Léof’s expression had darkened slightly as Eodwine and Thornden began to talk of there being a third person in the position of steward. Now, Léof liked Marenil, but it would be still yet another person Léof might be expected to take orders from. Surely it would have very little effect on his life, but… Someday I’ll be my own man, in the service of no one, and it will just be me and the horses… But he supposed that day would be long in coming.

Léof wondered if he was expected to stay here to watch the whole of the court. Already he was wearying of the lengthy proceedings, and his own part in it was complete, he supposed. He would not be far off, at any rate; just inside the stables, which did, after all, adjoin to the main hall. With this in mind, he quietly excused himself from the hall and made his way to the stables, where he found Æthel’s stall and slipped into it, murmuring softly to her all the while. He leaned his head against her warm shoulder and breathed in her comforting horsy scent as he idly twined his fingers in her mane.

“Life must be awfully easy as a horse,” he told her. “You don’t have to worry about anything at all, not family or secrets or oaths or taking orders… well, maybe you do have to take orders, but that’s what you do, you’re a horse… and you don’t mind, anyway. You trust me, so you do what I ask… simple as that. You don’t have to think about it… I trust Eodwine, I think, anyway… so why’s this so hard? You never had to worry about being independent… you had me, and I had you… Remember the days when we could just ride? When I didn’t have to worry about anything? That was nice, huh, girl?” He lifted himself up onto her bare back. She pawed the ground. “Sorry, girl, can’t go anywhere today… court and all…

“And then, of course,” he continued his monologue, “there’s Cerwyn… I didn’t tell Eodwine about her, you know… not her or father. Maybe it doesn’t matter… maybe it does… and she hasn’t written back, either… I’ve sent two letters, now; surely she would have gotten at least one of those…

“And there’s Æðel, of course… there’s a whole other mess. See how lucky you are? No worries at all. Maybe I worry too much. What do you think, hm? Of course, you really can’t talk back… that’s the real problem, is that no one really understands, not as can help, anyway. What do you reckon? That I ought to be something useful, probably… not sit here bemoaning my struggles to you…”
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