Feathers of the Hawk Chapter 4

Chapter 4


"I'm not going to ride a saddleless horse!"
Kahu sighed. "Eyolf, we've been through this. We agreed to go on horseback. And riding without a saddle is the fastest."
"I am not going to ride without a saddle."
"Fine," Kahu finally gave in. "You can get a saddle. But first I'm going to put my stuff in a saddlebag."
"Why your stuff and not mine?"
"I'm not using a saddle."
"So?"
"It's harder for me to keep my balance. And if you're not carrying a bag, it's easier."
"Maybe you're right. So, I go get a saddle, while you get and stuff saddlebags?"
"Yes." Kahu got herself some saddlebags. "But you'll have to find a saddle at some other place; I don't have my own saddle."
"What do you mean?"
"I don't usually carry others. So I don't own a saddle." It was the first time that something Kahu had said made Eyolf's wolfish grin disappear.
"Hey wolf boy, don't worry! I'll adapt to it, if I get to practice for a little while. I promise."
"Hmmm." Eyolf didn't trust it.
"Or you could ride saddleless," Kahu suggested.
"I believe you," Eyolf said quickly, making Kahu smile.
"If you say so. I will shift, you get a saddle that fits." As she said it, she was already shifting in a beautiful chestnut mare. Eyolf quickly went to get a saddle that would be a perfect fit. The third try was right.
"Now I am going to adapt to a saddle, when I call you, you can join me. Then you climb on my back, and I'm going to work on carrying a human."
"Okay." Eyolf thought it was a strange thing, a mare speaking with a human voice, but he said nothing. Kahu walked to one of the training areas for horses, and eventually found her balance in walking with a saddle.
"Eyolf! Come here!" And with those words, they started working on it. When Kahu felt that she would be able to walk with a saddle, she said so.
"Let's go!"
==============================================================Tama had been walking for a long time. He'd have to stop for the night soon, but he knew that once he did that, he'd be homesick. He had never been away from the mountains, or his mom. And yet he was thankful. Thankful for a chance to escape the mountains. A chance to leave everyone behind, and to start a new life, even though it also meant leaving his mother behind. But she would move on. She would find a new life, someone to make her happy. He had been the oddity in her life, the reason she had never been able to find love. That 'strange, short, light-skinned and green-eyed boy of hers', was him. He knew what they said about him, and his father, but he had always ignored it. And now he was gone. The odd boy, the one who obviously was only half mountain-born, was gone. The village would be normal once more…