Enar's Vacation - Open Beta

Chapter 41

3095 Words

This is a beta version of Enar's Vacation. Changes can - and probably will - be made as a result of reader feedback. I hope you'll enjoy it and I hope you'll take the time to give me some feedback. It will help me make this story the best it can be.

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When they reached the top of the hill, at the spot with the bench, where Enar had sat that very morning, Amanda pulled on the reins and brought them to a stop. Sofie hung her head, chest heaving.

"Why are we stopping? Shouldn't we be trying to get as far as possible before the rain comes?"

Amanda turned her face to the north and the approaching clouds. "I think it's too late for that now." She sighed. "And I think I ran Sofie a bit too hard up here. She's already been on the road a fair while today and should be taking it easy."

The horse did look tired.

"Will she be okay?" Enar squirmed where he sat. "I don't want her to come to harm just for my sake. I can walk back if you want to turn around and put her in the stables instead." The afternoon sun still shone bright and warm ahead of them and it would be a while yet before the rains hit. He could make it far before getting wet, maybe all the way if he walked fast.

"That's enough of that Enar!" Amanda slapped her hand onto his knee and gave it a firm squeeze. "I've said I'd get you to Hyardum, and I'll get you to Hyardum, and that's that." She smiled and winked at him. "Sofie will be fine, and so will we. Okay?"

"I'm sor..." Loosen up. Stop worrying about what people think. Don't apologize all the time. "Okay, fair enough. I'd probably have done the same thing." He grinned at her, and she smiled back, and his heart beat a little faster.

Amanda stood up. "Also, I really want to look at this, just for a little bit," she said and turned to the north, facing the storm.

From up here, where the trees didn't block the view the same way they had down on the hillside, they could clearly see the approaching clouds.

Enar got to his feet as well, standing close behind her, looking over her shoulder. Raspberries. Her hair smelled of raspberries. Why hadn't he noticed that before?

"It's so majestic isn't it?" She crossed her arms over her chest and shot a glance back at him. "That's the power of nature - right there, coming right for us. It's so... unrelenting - so inevitable. It doesn't care that we're here and it doesn't give a damn that we don't want to get wet."

Enormous mountains in the sky, painted a blinding white where the afternoon sun hit them, rolled in from beyond the horizon, their undersides hung with dark sheets of rain already falling on the lands beneath.

"I don't think I've ever seen it like this - the clouds coming in I mean," he said.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Amanda shivered. "It makes me feel... not small, but... you know, it puts things into perspective a little. It gives me a sense of scale, you know." She looked at him over her shoulder again. "Do you know what I mean?"

Enar nodded and the smell of her hair filled his nose. "Yes, I think so." He stared at the clouds. "Do you think there will be lightning?"

"Lightning!" She clapped her hands and made a little jump, rocking the cart. "That would be amazing - but I don't think so. I love a good thunderstorm, but they don't really happen here this time of year."

"Perhaps that's just as well. It might scare Sofie." Thunder back home hadn't scared him since he was little, but he also know you weren't supposed to be standing under a tree when the sky ran with lightning. That probably ruled out being in the forest too.