She blushed, “I am already betrothed, to Nimen, one of the stable lads.”
“What is a stable lad?”
Again she looked at him quizzically, “Where did you used to live, on top of a mountain?”
“Sort of,” he blurted as a pig pushed itself against his lets.
“A stable lad is someone who looks after the King’s horses. Do you know what a horse is?” She cocked her head slightly and looked at him as if he were dumb in some way.
“No!”
Once she had got over the shock she led him out of the pen, “Then we shall visit my betrothed, and you can make the acquaintance of a horse.”
The smell changed as they neared the stables, no longer of swine dung but now of horse manure. Piles of manure steamed in the sun. After walking past three stalls she stopped at the fourth. There was a lad, brushing a horse with hay, bending over near its back legs.
“Nimen,” she called.
Looking up the lad looked confused, “Neeka?” then, after seeing Chelnuk asked, “Who is this then?”
“This is Chelnuk, Kendra the mighty man’s son.”
“How do you fair Chelnuk?” Nimen asked.
“Well thank you,” Chelnuk replied.
“So you’ve come to see my horse? Her name is Lady and she is a pretty thing.”
“She looks magnificent,” marvelled Chelnuk as he walked around her.
“He has never seen a horse before,” said Neeka.
“What, never seen a horse, Next you’ll be telling me he lives in a mountain!”
“Well, sort of,” she replied.