Visha a witch trained by Gerald of Rivia stumbles in on middle earth. She falls for the stoic elf Haldir. But soon her happy marriage gets challenged by something nobody would have ever deemed possible. Will they be able to figure out a solution or...
I stopped in front of a tall black horse. Its shoulder height overtaking me by several inches. When I stopped in front of the horse, instead of jumping back like the others, this one stood its ground, going so far as to bump my chest with his head. "His name is Gwedal. It means Wind Foot." Legolas said behind me and I tilted my head to slightly take a look. "That big horse is called Wind Foot?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. As if to prove Legolas point, the hors shoved me with his head to his side, crouching a little.
Giving in to his demand, I climbed on Gwedals back, taking a hold of the reigns. I wasn't really used to riding a horse without a saddle, but Gwedal didn't seem to care one bit. Without thinking twice, he bolted across the paddock. Just a slight thunder of his feet was all the noise he made.
Remembering Geralts training on how to ride an unsaddled horse, I tried my best to give in to Gwedals movements, and soon we were in unison. Speeding across the pasture, Gwedal ran for the fence. A short sting of concern raced through my mind, but Gwedal didn't seem to care one bit. Taking the fence with ease, he sped towards the woods. Far behind me, I could hear several voices calling out my name, but I didn't care. Leaning forward, I let Gwedal take me wherever he pleased.
A short time later, I found myself on a small clearing, a clear river running softly beneath Gwedals feet. He trampled with his front feet, shaking his head. "You want me to get down?" I asked and he threw his head up and down as if to nod. Carefully, I slid from his back, stepping next to him. "What?" I asked, stroking his neck. Gwedal walked several steps and looked at me, as if to follow him. Letting him guide me towards an old tall tree, he stopped in front of it. Hoof scratching on the ground.
He made several sounds, trampling and scratching on the ground. Tilting my head, I looked at him. "You want me to dig there?" I asked and he rose to his back feet. Not entirely sure what the horse wanted from me, I started to dig with my hands. Immediately his behavior changed. He calmed and stood behind me, watching my hands dig aside the dirt. "You are a weird horse, you know?" I asked, with a slight scoff in my voice. Gwedal just neighed nipping at my shoulder. "Ow you menace! I am already digging. What else do you want?"
That's when my fingers grasped something. It felt like a stone, so I pulled it out. It was indeed a big stone, a leathery band hanging from it. I showed Gwedal what I found and he sniffed the dirty thing in my hand. Then he carefully took the leather band between his teeth, taking the thing towards the water and dropping it inside. Looking at me with demanding eyes, he trampled on the ground again.
Sighting I got up and followed his wish to clean the thing I just dug out. It turned out to be a opal blue round stone with a whole in the middle. A brown leather band attached to it.
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After I had cleaned it off, I held it back to Gwedal, who just ducked his head and trotted passed me back to where I had been digging. Looking between me and the hole in the ground, he let out several scoffs. I shook my head, walking back to him and resuming to dig again. After a while I found another similar piece. This time I didn't waste time and cleaned it as well. It was the same piece of jewelry; this time the leather band was longer than the other.
I held the two wet pieces out for Gwedal to see his reaction. He completely ignored the one in my left, drawn in by the stone in my right hand. He bowed his hand, bumping his nose against my fist. "What do you want?" I asked and he nibbled at the leather band. That's when I realized. He wanted to wear it. "This was yours, wasn't it?" Setting aside the second necklace, I tried to reach out to hand the first one around Gwedals neck. He crouched down a bit, allowing me to hang the piece of jewelry around his neck. I securely knotted it, making sure to not strangle him, but also not leave too much room for the stone to hit his chest to hard while riding.
Then he stomped with his foot next to the other necklace and I couldn't help myself but laugh. Shaking my head, I made a know into the leather band and pulled it over my head. "You are such a weird fella..." I mumbled, stroking Gwedals neck. He just leaned into my touch, scoffing at my words.
Suddenly I was very aware of the darkness creeping in and climbed on his back. "Its time to get back to the pasture, don't you think?" I asked, taking the reins in my hand. Waiting for me to settle on his back, Gwedal started trotting back home, this time no pressure in his steps. He seemed to be fully relaxed now and I couldn't help but wonder who this necklace belonged to and what it meant for Gwedal...
