12

2

They decided to stop and rest at the comfy base of a large hill on a remote side of a enormous fortress. While Barley grazed, Francis gazed up at its turrets wondering why he couldn't find it on his map. Danny meanwhile took off the boot of his injured foot to inspect the healing process. Sort of.

"Francis, I can't look. Tell me is it festering? Has gangrene set in?"

"Look for yourself," he said distractedly. Some might say selfishly.

"Come on. Be a pal. I can't stand the sight of bandages, never mind what's underneath them."

"Give me strength," he muttered. He kicked the boot out of his way while drawing his sword, then used the pointy end to undo the knot of torn material wrapped around Danny's toe.

"Careful with that thing!" Danny shouted, but was quickly put at ease by the sight of his wound healing over.

"Guess why they call this a scab-bard," Francis joked putting his weapon away.

"Oh now he's funny."

"You big baby. With all the bloodshed we've seen?"

"I mostly stay in the tent."

"On the battlefield?"

"Anything's a tent if you can throw it over your head and cover your eyes."

Francis grunted as he took a seat. "Sometimes I wonder how it is you joined the army in the first place."

"Well, if you must know, technically, being the king's messenger is kind of a cushy gig. My big mouth's always been my best feature."

"Except when you use it call out 'Yoo-hoo!' before a midnight raid."

"One time!"

"Seriously, why the army?"

"I guess it shouldn't surprise you that I'll do anything for a beautiful girl, and this one was a pretty farmer's daughter. One night we went for a stroll, holding hands in the moonlight, a little serenading action - my best stuff. Then we sat under a tree and gazed at the stars. She told me about her farm and how she loved to cook and how she got kicked in the head by a horse once."

Barley continued to munch innocently, but more quietly.

"Anyway," Danny said, "It wasn't until she took off her bonnet that I believed her. She had a dent in the side of her head you could keep your change in! I guess it didn't bother me too much at first while she was sighing big sighs, and batting her lashes, but my leg fell asleep so I couldn't move, and when she put her head on my shoulder, it fit. Well, I tried to skip town the next day, but her father said we missed curfew so we had to get married. I'll do anything for a beautiful girl but that. So I joined the army."

"Yours is a vanishing breed," Francis said.

Danny nodded in agreement and wiggled his toes. "Hey maybe when I'm fully healed I'll be able to tell when it's going to rain."

Suddenly, as if on cue, Danny was knocked on the head by an object falling from the sky.

"Ow!" he yelped, recovering more from the shock than the pain of the thing. He patted the ground around him and brought his hand up with a yellow ladies shoe dangling from his finger. Then Francis felt his sleeve scraped by the heel of another plummeting to earth. A blue one, with a pink silk flower. "What gives?"

"Quiet," Francis hushed him, jumping to his feet again. He cocked his ear as a faint noise in the distance grew louder. Dull at first, it began to sound like voices garbled by water. It grew higher in pitch, almost like squealing. "Do you hear that?" he asked.