25 Spring, 513
It was just passing into late afternoon when it happened. Maybe it was the peaceful warmth of the arriving spring. Maybe Alea was just distracted. Whatever the reason, when she came back from fetching some water for them, she noticed something deeply disturbing. A couple horses were milling around outside the yard, exploring vegetation that they were not normally allowed to consume. Before she could wonder how they'd gotten out, she saw her terrible mistake. The gate was wide open.
She tried not to let the sick feeling of failure completely cripple her. She could feel guilty later, but right now she had to make sure the horses were all right. She walked briskly into the yard, setting the buckets of water down just inside the gate. She walked to each of the horses, gently coaxing them back inside one-by-one, trying to hide her impending panic, because she knew by now that horses could somehow sense people-feelings. She made absolutely sure to close the gate behind her this time.
She breathed a sigh of relief that she'd gotten the horses back in the Yard without mishap. She did NOT want to be the one to tell Jakobi she'd let some of the horses get lost. He would pretty much kill her; he loved the horses more than she thought was quite healthy, to be honest. She picked her buckets back up, and had dumped them back in the trough before another thought began to bug her.
What if she hadn't found all the horses? She'd only seen the ones that were still fairly close to the yard, but what if some of them were more adventurous? She tried counting the horses. She knew roughly how many there were, so she should be able to tell if a lot of them were missing. Though sometimes travelers came and went (though not often) so the number changed occasionally. Of course, the horses were almost impossible to count, because they kept moving, and there were too many for her to figure out whether she'd counted one already.
She decided that the horse population did not look any smaller than usual, and anyway, she had only left the gate open for as long as it took to fetch water. Surely not many more horses than she'd seen could have gotten very far in such a short amount of time. She continued working, trying not to worry about it, but she couldn't help worrying a little.
Twilight began to fall, and with it came possibly her favorite sight: the glow of Gilding coats coming out like stars as the light faded. There were a few Gildings in the Yard, but they were few enough to count, and since her own horse was a Gilding, she tended to notice them the most easily. She watched each of the glows dotting the yard, trying to pick out her horse from among them. Beast was on the opposite side of the Yard, ignoring her again it seemed. She still wasn't sure what his problem was.
As she picked out each of the Gildings, she finally realized what had been bothering her. One of them was missing. There was a foal, almost a yearling, who had escaped the Yard before. That foal was missing now.
All at once, Alea was panicked into action. It was almost nightfall, when the worst of the predators roamed. If she did not find that stupid horse before some lion or wolf or bear ate it... Well, suffice to say she did not want to find out what Jakobi would do to her. She gathered up her Gidling's tack, and raced across the Yard toward him. She ran all out, faster than she would dare send him, because he had a tendency to throw her off at high speeds. Unfortunately, he seemed to take this approach as a game of chase, so he pranced merrily away. She tried running after him, but she was winded after only a few chimes, he was more than capable of outrunning her, and she did not have time to pin him down.
She stopped running, standing in the middle of the field, trying to assess her options but too worried to think straight. She felt a fine mist start to form in her eyes, thinking about the fate of that Gilding foal and how it was her fault. Just as she was about to burst into tears, Beast came trotting up nonchalantly, as if he had only just noticed her (a trick he'd learned from the cat, no doubt). He butted his head against hers by way of greeting, and she instinctively pulled back, grabbing her hair in case he was planning to eat it.
Miraculously, the Gilding did not seem inclined to go anywhere for the moment, and she managed to saddle him without much trouble. She led him outside the Yard, remembering this time to close the blasted gate. She looked around for something she could stand on to mount the horse, but there was nothing nearby, and she was anxious to begin searching for the foal.
She had very rarely been successful at mounting Beast from the ground, but it looked like this was going to have to be one of those times. She rested her hands on either side of the saddle, psyching herself up for the jump. She tried to remember his various tricks, taking a step one way or the other when she was trying to mount. She knew better than to assume he would be nice and stand still in this critical situation. He might be able to sense her distress, but for all she knew that would only make him MORE inclined to mess with her.
Finally, she put a foot in the stirrup, and lunged up and over as of she were intending to vault over the horse entirely. Luck was with her tonight, since Beast had opted to take a step away from her this time, and as a result, she landed actually rather squarely on his back. Still, she had no time to celebrate this good fortune, as it has turned fully dark, and predators were potentially around every gargantuan bush. Her way lit by Beast's Gilding glow, she worked him up into a brisk trot, peering into the darkness for a similar glow.