The Count of Castle Rock

Chapter XIII- Grazing

"Just stay still," Hans encourages.

His mind races. The warmer seasons are plagued with wasp attacks. The creatures swarm into Grazing looking for victims, feeding off the bloody discharge caused by their sting. They don't discriminate between livestock and men. Imagining what is left behind after a wasp attack fills Hans with dread. He doesn't want anything like that to happen to Leesa.

Refusing to take his eyes off of her and the wasp, Hans fumbles around in the underbrush. His hands brush a fist-sized stone and he is hit with a spark of inspiration.

"I have an idea!" he calls across the water.

"Hurry up," Leesa says through clenched teeth. "I'm freaking out."

"Okay. Okay. Be ready to run."

Hans steadies himself, remembering playing stones as a kid with the other Grazing boys. He takes aim and throws, sending the rock speeding past Leesa's head. With a thunderous rumble, the wasp gives chase. Leesa is moving before he can say anything. She hops from stone to stone with giant leaps, gracefully covering the distance in moments. Hans moves to catch her and she lands awkwardly, sending them both stumbling up the bank and into a tree. The pair collide with jarring force. Hans absorbs most of the impact with his shoulders.

Looking down into her beautiful green eyes, forgetting the pain. His hands rest on her waist, her right hand on his chest. Their hearts beat together, and Hans can't tell his from hers. Staring into him, her pupils dilate. A jumble of emotions play across her face in an instant.

"Hans, you can let me go," Leesa whispers.

"Oh, sorry." He slides from against the tree and backs away.

She massages her knee, bracing herself against the cedar trunk.

"You missed," she says, slightly out of breath.

Byrghir comes out of hiding and gently rubs his head against her.

"No I didn't. They're drawn to movement. I was trying to draw its attention away from you."

She kneels down and scratches under the lamb's chin. "Well you nearly hit me!"

"Yeah, sorry about that."

"I'm just kidding, Hans," she chuckles. "I think you've saved my life again."

Hans's cheeks darken. "Come on, I still need to show you the rest of the route."

On the other side of the stream, a half dozen wasps watch and wait, buzzing back and forth. He points and Leesa swears under her breath.

"What are they waiting for?"

"They don't cross running water." Hans gestures away from the dangerous insects and the trio move on.

The cedar trees of Wasp Wood thin and eventually give way to an open plain of grass cut down the middle by The King's Highway. To follow it right would take them on a roundabout trip back to Solomon. To go left would lead to the lower slope of Castle Rock and the Western Badlands. On the opposite side of the cobbled road sits the community of Grazing, Hans's home.

The elders spun tales of magic cast at great expense to transform the barren terrain north of The Rock into farmable land. They whispered of a desperate king long dead who needed the land to produce for his people. There are stories of catkin, tusker orcs, and monsters pressing in on the kingdom from all sides. There are songs of hardy settlers risking everything to tame a land cursed by the Lia'chem who came before them. The farms of Grazing and the other five farming communities of Nevergreen fed all of the north.