Flame nibbled at the short grasses at the base of a large maple. Her reins hung loosely to the ground. The mare kept an ear up for sounds of trouble as she grazed. She vaguely wondered why her Killian would just pick those plants and not eat them. She just wrapped them in bundles and placed them in a basket… strange human.

The Friesian had long since given up on figuring the ways of the little mistress. She knew her love and she knew her mind. She felt the bond between them from the beginning. In fact, Flame could tell when Killian was upset or in trouble. Wasn’t it her very actions that brought the big mistress of Tuttle to her side to read the panic and find the young Killian?

They often came out to the forest together. Sometimes her mistress would sit by a stream or under a tree and just stare at the sky or sing or cry. Sometimes they would be on a mission like today. A mission to find strange plants and take them back to the Lodge… uneaten. Yes… strange.

Killian found the juniper berries and comfrey in abundance here, but she would have to go deeper into the forest for the senna she needed to complete the recipe for a tea to stimulate the bladder. It would be a great addition to her growing storehouse of medicinal herbs.

The young herbalist searched as she walked. There! Senna cascaded down over a set of boulders just off the trail. Killian was so elated to have found the purgative, she didn’t notice how soft the ground was that surrounded the boulders.

Suddenly the girl was ankle deep in a blackish mud. “Ares’ balls!” she yelled. She would have been no more than irritated if she hadn’t become frightened at the realization that she could not pull a foot up and out of the slimy stuff to move away. She was struck by the reality that she was very rapidly being sucked down into the mire. Already she was nearly knee deep.

Further and further she sank. She didn’t know whether to scream or save her energy. Then she thought, ‘save my energy for what… holding my breath?’ But by the time she sank down to her mid-section, her terror at the thought of dying in such a horrible way… drowning in black mud, kept her voice frozen in her throat.

Pictures of her beloved Caitlin danced before her minds eye as she sank. Memories of how it felt to kiss the beautiful warrior flooded on her. How it made her feel to be snuggling next to her in the one bedroll they shared. How her chest swelled with pride when Caitlin approved of her fighting skills. Laughing together, talking about feelings or just being quiet together… all these thoughts rushed up in Killian.

The mud was almost up to her neck now. Killian felt a kind of calm settle over her. In her heart, she fought to live and yet felt a rather odd sensation of acceptance for this fate. Her friends at the Lodge came to her inner sight. Gaia, how she loved them! She knew they would grieve deeply. She knew Nessa would search night and day for her until all hope was gone. She felt sad for the Celt.

Killian looked up at the sky. It was beautiful. She thought it would not be bad that the sky would be her last sight to see while she lived. Her face was sinking under now. She pulled in one last lungful of precious air and lost sight of all light as the mud covered her face.

Killian could feel how her arms were sticking up out of the mud. She thought it must look comical somehow. Suddenly she felt something thick and hairy thrust in between her arms. She felt velvet ears. Flame! The girl grabbed and held with all her might. She was near to passing out when her head emerged from the muck. Then she was lifted completely out of the sucking stuff by the powerful neck that she held so tightly.

Killian felt her mud-slackened body swinging about and landing awkwardly but standing on solid ground. She dropped to her knees laughing and crying at once. She wiped thick gobs of black muck from her face and eyes and looked up at her beloved mare. “Flame, you are a sight for sore, muddy eyes!”

The black Friesian just stamped at the ground as if acknowledging the gratitude that came from her filthy little mistress. Good thing she was around to take care of the strange human.

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The End - 'Horse Sense' - by Lord Nessa

Nessa's Index

Main Library Stories

Lodge Entrance