Squire Hayseed

Gravy

Welcome to your new supposed life, squire Hayley. Up at dawn for a meager breakfast of whatever didn't get eaten the night before, followed by a hearty wash-up. Sometimes she'd be sent to fill the basin with cool well water, other times she'd stumble from bed, her jaw distended in a yawn, to have her Knight thrust it at her.

Her first, actually second day, at this squiring business, Gavin introduced her to her other duties. On top of the fighting stuff, which she had yet to return to — her shoulders breaking out in bruises like mushrooms after the rain — Hayley was put in charge of keeping something alive. A whole flock of somethings. She dashed away from her duty the second a small herd of hissing geese ran for her shins.

Hayley managed to nearly leap perfectly vertical onto the well's wall, but no one was going to applaud the move. Her knight was too busy tossing a bunch of ground up millet towards the evil creatures. They turned from pecking and nibbling at her flesh to doing it to the ground instead.

"You will feed them, every day lest we are away. If we are called, it is your duty to inform Ania."

Hayley nodded before whipping her eyes down at the snarling burst of feathers, "What if they eat me instead?"

Cold as the winds of the mountains, Gavin's eyes darted down to the creatures pecking away the last of the grain until nothing remained on the ground. "Try to not let that happen," was his only advice. So he left Hayley armed with nothing save sack of food and a small shovel to handle the geese.

Oh, there was one other little surprise for her. The barn for the geese wasn't anything special, some wood nailed up to an a-frame, a small patchwork of planks forming a loft above that looked full of itchy straw. But the main beam itself extended beyond the door and off of it dangled a rope all the way to the ground.

It was as thick around as her wrist, Hayley tugging on it a bit when she first spotted it out of boredom. Which was when her knight stepped up beside her and said, "Climb it."

All she could do was laugh at him, but when the man didn't join in, her hackles poked out of the back of her tunic. "What do you mean, climb it?"

Gavin slotted his hands behind his back, "I assumed you knew what the word climb meant. It is to —"

"I know what climb..." Hayley threw her hand up, her face pinched in exhaustion. Dread flooded her gut as she stared up the rope. What'd seemed a minor jaunt was now an unscalable peak. Squaring her shoulders, she wrapped the rope tightly around her hand and spat out, "Fine."

Hayley bent her knees deep, her palm yet sore from the sword's grip throbbing against the bristly rope. Taking a deep breath, Hayley leapt upward and grabbed with her free hand. She clung tight, her body swaying with the swing. Just do another. Higher. She moved to let go but her body pitched downward, her hand lashing right back to where it belonged.

That sent her body spiraling, the rope curling and twisting at the top. Maybe she could climb it by tying the whole thing into a knot? The idea was moot as the second it reached some pinnacle, the damn rope began to twirl the other way. Hayley dug her forehead into it, trying to will herself to reach higher, to give it another go.

Hands gripped onto her shoulders, tugging back on her tunic so her body stopped its twirling. Sheepishly, she eased one foot to the ground — that wasn't even a few feet away. "That..." she stuttered, staggering back and staring at her cramped up hands, "that's impossible."

Hayley curled up her nose and jabbed a finger first at the rope, then Gavin, "No one can do that?"

He didn't say a word. Didn't tell her to get back in line, to do as commanded. Hooking one of his wide hands around the rope, Gavin launched into the air. Dear lord, he worked like a snake devouring its prey.