Lies Dressed In Lace

Untitled Part 20

    "Fine." He pulls off the main road onto a little path to another clearing with a fire pit surprisingly and foot prints all over the packed dirt with few patches of grass. I guess this is where people stop like us. Valtok starts the fire, I pull out some jerky, bread, and one of the rabbits Wolfie brought us. Valtok cleans and cooks it while I chew on some jerky watering the horses and letting them graze on the few patching of grass. In total silence.

    "Alright get over yourself and stop pouting like a child." I snap sitting down next to him.

    "I'm not pouting!" He snaps.

    "Yes you are! You're not talking to me at least yesterday you told me some tips on stealth now its nothing because, what? I protected my wolf from getting stabbed by you?" I snap almost yelling now.

    "It's a wild animal! I thought you were smart enough not to cuddle up to one!" He throws his arms out angrily sounding jealous, like he's talking about another man.

    "So what I'm stupid now for trusting my own instincts before yours?" He opens and closes his mouth trying to stutter out a response that wont upset me further.

    "No! Of course you're not stupid! He's just dangerous!" Valtok yells standing up and starts pacing around.

    "I'm not yours to boos around, so why don't you come up with a better line and then maybe we'll talk like adults." I stand up interrupting his pacing and go to check on the horses just to get away from him. My body throbs just looking at the horses but I walk up to mine as she's grazing slowly on a little patch of green and pet her neck. She huffs and nudges my foot off her grass patch. "I'm sorry, Marrin." I say moving out of her way then grab her brush off her saddle I laid closed to her when I took it off and start brushing her. She gets closer to her saddle bags sniffing out her pouch of oats I pulled out with the brush. "My, my you are hungry today." I laugh giving her a handful of oats letting her snack on them. Valtok's horse wanders over and I give him some oats as well from his own pouch in Valtok's saddle. Accidentally kicking over his bag I hear what sounds like metal and clay clanking together and a fe things tumble out of along with a little book that looks like it came from the temples library. I quickly grab it and stash it into my cloak then start picking everything else up and putting them back in the bag. dive to catch the little cloth wrapped things incase something was breakable, nothing sounded like it broke but I scoop them up anyway and put them back into his bag till one of them gets hot in my hands and begins to glow through the thick cloth around it. I unwrap it carefully keeping it close to me so I don't drop it. I hear Valtok calling me so I quickly close the bag and put it back. I notice another little thing I missed on the ground, cursing I scoop it up just as Valtok grabs my arm.

    "What are you doing going through my bag?" He snaps grabbing the saddle bag and the thing from my hands that I realize is a horse statue.

    "I'm sorry I was just getting some oats for Teslir and it fell out." He glares at me stuffing the sculpture back into his bag.

    "Just ask me next time!"

    "Fine, what is that horse anyway?"

    "A gift and none of you're business." He growls stomping back to the little fire. I shrug giving the horses a few more oats then going back myself sitting across from him with the fire between us.

    "Why a horse?" I ask wanting to talk about something instead of this thick silence.

    "Because I'm good with horses." He snaps.

    "Really? Then why am I the one feeding them every night?" I joke poking the fire with a little stick feeling the heat of it on my hand.

    "Because you're horrible with them and you need to learn how to be better."

    "Sorry I'm not a horse whisperer." Sarcasm drips from my words.

    "See you're too defensive and when you can't let someone in or even feel something other than sarcasm your horse wont trust you and you wont trust it making the ride more tense and painful for you both, thats why you're so saddle sore and why she's stressed out." I roll my eyes.

    "No, she's stressed and I'm saddle sore because of the speed you have us on, I get we have to get there fast but we don't have to kill ourselves and the horses to do it." He sighs.

    "All we've done is fight on this trip can you just listen to something other than your own voice for one-second?" I close my eyes for a moment trying to squish my anger down and nod letting him speak. "Thank you. Now that I have you listening I want you to keep your damn mouth shut." I breath sharply though my nose but clinching my teeth to keep said damn mouth shut. "Good, Horses can sense your emotions, like most animals, so when you tense up so do they, when you're angry they become afraid of your anger, even sadness causes them to be sad with you. So to make Marrin more comfortable and yourself focus on relaxing and she will too, the ride will be smoother and your muscles will start to feel better after rides." He tosses another stick into the fire as the rabbit finishes cooking. "Now you can talk." He says but I stand up instead walking over to him and standing beside him, he stands up with me confused until I draw back my arm and letting it fly into his face punching him solidly in the mouth. He falls with a satisfying thump and stares up at me holding his jaw.

    "Ever tell me to keep my mouth shut again I'm going to pull your vocal cords out through your nose then shove them up your ass." With that lovely image burned into his mind I grab the cooked rabbit and leave him to mop up his bloody mouth alone