The House of Oldenrock

Yindün

Chapter Two: Yindün

            Hal was exhausted.  His mouth was dry, he was hungry, and it seemed that every single part of his body, even the hairs on the top of his head ached.  He had known that many of the visitors would be picky.  Their horses had to be in a stall with this amount of light, this much hay, this much space, and so on, but what he had not expected was the amount of abuse and extra work that had been allotted to him.  Foreigners had walked in, taken one look at him, spat in his face, slapped him, kicked him, insulted him, punched him, and forced his superiors to have him do the disgusting and difficult work of mucking the stables even though it was not his turn, and it would not be for another ten days.

            He knew exactly why he had been abused, Lord Mark.  The people could not harass an Oldenrock Lord for behaving inappropriately with a woman, but they could harass his bastard as much as they wanted, even though the incident had happened fourteen years ago.  Lord Mark had not even claimed him, yet everyone had unanimously decided that Lord Mark was his father.  Hal sighed.  He was innocent, yet he was the one who was punished.  Why did the people feel the need to punish him for something that was not his fault? Conception was not something that anyone could change, but he could at least be treated with the dignity that all people deserved.

            At least he had now finished the dirty work of mucking the stables.  He now had to prepare the stalls for the horses that had not been given stalls yet, but luckily, there was only one left.  He dug his pitchfork into a pile of hay and lifted it into the empty stall. He straightened the hay out, and satisfied that that was enough for the horse and his picky owner, he led the horse into the stable murmuring to it softly.  He gave the horse the apple that its owner requested it have, the apple that Hal would rather be eating.  He then thoroughly brushed the horse’s coat, for its owner had clearly said multiple times that its coat must gleam, and if it did not, then he would blame and punish the bastard.

            When the horse’s coat gleamed, he stepped away, leaned back against the stable wall, and shut his eyes.  He was the only remaining stable hand in the stables. All the rest had gone off on a short meal break that had not been allowed to Hal, for his work was not finished.  He also had the most work to do.  He did not have time to run to the kitchens for dinner.  The other stable hands would be coming back soon, and Hal would just go hungry.

            Suddenly, Hal heard someone enter the stable.  It could not have been one of the other stable hands, for they would have all entered together talking and laughing.  He stepped away from the wall and saw a young woman looking around.  She was clearly one of the Léthanan with her black wavy hair and dark skin, despite her blue Olgen dress.  Hal wondered what she was doing in the stables, for the Léthanan did not have horses in the mountain terrain that they lived in, and he also wondered why she would be outside of the Hall with the Clanmeet ceremonies going on.

            “Can I help you?” he asked revealing himself to her.

            She turned to face him, and Hal saw that she was beautiful.  She had a lovely heart shaped face and deep brown eyes. Her long wavy black hair only added to her beauty.  They both stared at each other, and she gracefully took a few steps toward him.  Her dress seemed to flutter around her slender body like water.  “I am just exploring for my people do not keep horses,” she said with her beautiful melodious voice that her accent only made more attractive.

            She stepped so close to him that they were barely a body’s width apart.  Under normal circumstances, a woman this close to him would have made Hal feel very uncomfortable, but for some reason, she was the opposite.  She continued to stare at him with her unblinking eyes.  The silence between them was not a barrier, but a blanket of an emotion that neither of them had ever felt before, and emotion that Hal could not name and did not feel ready to feel.  The lanterns in the stable seemed to grow brighter, and he broke the silence and said, “Are you sure that horses were the only things that you were looking for?”