Finishing up Chapter 3

I understand that this part is a bit shorter than normal, but I just wanted to make sure I put something up rather quickly. I do notice that I have the tendancy to type late at night. That is alright though. Blogs should be created at the end of the day correct? Something I noticed about this story though is that I have no idea why I included the black staff. I am thinking of taking it out, but I have no feedback to work back upon. I am not sure if I should leave it as is, or perhaps, make it an integral part. I seemed to have typed in what looks to be a McGuffin, but I have to figure out how it works. I think I might have made a mistake then. Well, all good writer's figure things out. I can figure this one oue.

Ildis’ Stable was actually rather large, and on top of that, was only a little down the ways from the guard station. Was everything going to turn out bad tonight? He hoped to the Gods that it wouldn’t. As he turned the corner, he saw that there was not a single guard at the post. ‘Maybe I am going to be lucky tonight,’ he thought. As he moved into the stable, he heard the familiar nickering and whuffing of the horses.

He walked down one of the ways inside when he encountered a youth. He had to be no more than six. He had a mop of brown unkempt hair, which had straw all over it. He looked up into the cowl as if to see a face and then quickly moved back to what it was that he had been doing. Luc smiled at the boy, who couldn’t see it and then said, “Do you know where I can find Mistress Ildis?”

The boy looked up at him from cleaning the stall and looked at him long and hard. Another boy suddenly came from the other side. “Hevral, have you finished cleaning…” He stopped short, brown eyes narrowing. “Who are you?” His voice was that of trying to be gruff, but he was only a few years older than the other boy. The only thing that gave it away was that his voice still had yet to crack.

“My name is Lukkis…” The boy’s features softened almost instantly. “Oh, you must be the man that was to visit Uncle Landris and Aunt Helen’s shop. Don’t worry; mother will be around in a while. Tym and Rych both went out to get your stuff. We just got the message.” The boy talked nonchalantly about it as if nothing was really going on. Then again, if your stable was outside the guard station, then you had most likely seen it all. Again, Luc smiled at the helpfulness of Anyankis and her relatives.

“That’s nice. Could you help find some horses then while we wait for your mother?” The boy nodded and they both set off down the stalls. As they reached one with a gray mare in it he pointed to her. “This is Poppy. She’s one of our best. She don’t mind too much, you just gotta make sure that you don’t feed her too much, she’ll they to gorge herself. The poor little thing, one would think that we don’t feed her enough, yet she gets more than all the other horses in the stables here!”

The boy shook his head. “She’s a good mount though, she won’t bolt or nothin’. Either she’s too dumb to, or she’s too stubborn to. I dunno which. Personally I think she’s too stubborn to. She’s just that kind a horse. She usually isn’t though.”

The boy then moved on to another horse named Lochten. He was a gray as well, but he came from stock that was bread by Illen’faie. He was a good mountain horse if nothing else. He would listen so long as the rider didn’t try to use reins on him. He also followed if told to. Luc thought that he would make a good packhorse.

They went through several more horses, some without names, others named because of what they did, like Patch, whose coat and mane were so patch worked, they had no clue what kind of horse he was. The boy however, loved him dearly and was in the process of feeding him a lump of sugar when a woman walked into the stables.

She was tall and had dark hair herself, although what color it was, brown or black, one could not tell because of the darkness. The lamps that were hung inside did not do much to illuminate the color so much as it did the shine. She had dark eyes, which looked him over rather fast just to sum him up. Her skin was actually darker than he had expected; a light earth brown. She wore a loose-fitted blouse and a pair of pants that were obviously belonging to a man.

She stepped right up to Luc and said, “I won’t do business with someone whose face I can’t see…” Luc shook his head. “Well then, I’m sure that I can go and find business somewhere else.” The woman shook her head and looked at Luc with a hard gaze.

“You didn’t let me finish.”

Luc shrugged.

“However, because I have received word from my cousin Anyankis; and the horses seem to take more than a liking to you; I will do business for you.” She was crisp, if not concise and that amused Luc. “I understand that you need four horses?” She asked him the question expecting a straightforward answer Luc sensed so he spoke a simple yes and she nodded. “So then, I’ll pack up a horse with your gear… Tym! Rych!” Her voice rang out and Luc looked out the door, afraid that the city guard would descend upon him in a moment. What descended however was much different than what they expected.

Two boys with dark reddish-brown hair stumbled into the barn. As son as they did, Luc knew that the two boys were twins. They were about seventeen years, but Luc was sure that they could have been older, for what they looked about twenty. He nodded to them from underneath his cowl, which made them nervous, but after a minute they seemed to relax.

“Thank you for your help. I will be sure to tell others…” he was cut off when she pointed to the black staff in his hand. “They gave it to you? That’s good; we couldn’t get rid of the cursed thing fast enough.” Luc turned to the staff, which simply glimmered in the light. “What do you mean?” She shrugged. “It gives me bad vibes.”

Luc shrugged. It didn’t seem to leave him with any bad impressions. Ildis began to give orders to the boys. She turned back to Luc when everything was done. “Now about the price of the horses Master Lukkis…” Luc smiled under his hood. A woman who knew what it was she was after; he chuckled to himself.