I Followed Fires

VI. Bash

The heavy miasma of the royal stables was something that Bash would always be familiar with.

He had spent all morning in there, preventing all possible encounters with his father or even worse, the young Adèle, her bride-to-be if he obeyed his father’s orders.

He tended his horse in silence and kept his thoughts to himself. Servants came and went, irritating him with prying questions as to why he sulked all morning, and avoided French court. Bash smelt of horses and dung, and did not care whether his clothing was stained with dirt marks and his hair was slowly becoming disheveled. He intended not to present himself in court, just for today, and planned to spend the whole morning hunting or obtaining more information of the Darkness in the woods.

But there was an unexpected visitor that stopped him from doing so. It was, of course, Mary, Queen of Scots.

“Your majesty,” Bash greeted, as Mary entered the stables in her riding clothes, which came as a surprise to him. Apparently someone else planned to spend their day outdoors, he thought.

“Bash,” Mary smiled. “I did not expect to see you here,”

Bash smiled as well, but the smile on his lips soon disappeared as Francis came following behind. He wore his riding clothes as well, and his sulking dropped into its lowest and worst state when Bash realized the soon to be king and queen of France were to have a couple’s horse-riding trip. Francis greeted him with politely, to ensure Mary that their brotherly relationship has not yet been damaged by Francis’s marriage to Mary, and Bash’s evident jealousy.

Bash proceeded to help Mary prepare her favourite horse for her morning ride. A mare with gray and white furs, yet it possessed a mane with a colour like the black of night. It was a sensitive horse that was prone to temperamental moods and despised being near the woods; therefore it needed to be interacted with very carefully. It was a horse that was made to breed foals for the stables, but oddly Mary took a liking to this horse. Whatever reason she had for liking this horse, Bash was unaware of. Francis, on the other hand, chose a brown-coloured mount, one of the strongest of all the horses in the stables. Incidentally, it was Bash’s favourite, but he said nothing for that was what he was supposed to do: to accept whatever choice her brother made and whatever action he took.

“Don’t sulk too much, Bash,” said Francis. “You’ll grow old too soon,”

Bash wanted to respond with a sarcastic remark as they once did when they were younger, but Mary’s presence stopped him from doing so. He simply nodded and smiled, and acted as well behaved as he could in front of his half-brother. Francis and Mary soon left the stables with the horses and exited stable grounds. Bash had glanced at Mary for too long, that he seemed to grow deaf and did not perceive the sound of a woman’s cough that stood near him.

His thoughts of Mary ceased when Adèle stood before him, waiting for Bash to reply to her question, for which he did not hear.

“Forgive me,” Bash apologized. Adèle, too, donned regular riding clothes, similar to those of Mary’s. Apparently he had been standing in her way, and the exasperated expression exhibited on her face indicated that the king’s other son did not impress her. Bash came to regret not creating a good impression to the daughter of one of the richest families in all of France. Today, evidently, had not been Bash’s day.  

Adèle chose a large steed, much too large for her, with a very dark colour. It was a sturdy one, fit to be a warhorse. Bash questioned himself as to why she chose it for her, but evidently he had irritated her enough for if he asked her, she would think that Bash’s question would have a derogatory subtext. Bash was also sure that she would prefer to keep the reasons to herself. Adèle immediately charged off, her horse running in the quickest speed imaginable. She mounted her horse as if she was in a war and for the first time she manifested the true beauty that she possessed: the beauty of her courage and bravery.

Bash thought twice of his refusal of a marriage between him and Adèle.