Dragon Tamer - Book 1

Chapter 37

Aldren followed the young lad cautiously. He felt naked without his sword and knew Basti felt worse, part of his role as manservant was bodyguard and he could hardly do that without a weapon. He took his duties very seriously

The only reason he had not insisted on keeping the gift from his father was the fact that none of the village men appeared to be armed at all. As they walked (through what he assumed was the main thoroughfare of the village) men, women and children came out of their homes or wandered over from the modest gardens and fields to stare at the strangers in their midst, he saw that, while some of the men and indeed some of the women had knives strapped to their belts, they were wooden handled practical things, more useful for skinning or whittling.

He saw no swords at all. Even in the small villages of Thoughts Burrow the menfolk went armed at all times. Some of the greatest swordsmen of all times hailed from the remote villages to the north, indeed his father had sent him there to train.

He wondered how they settled disputes, if they used their fists or if their knives had a greater purpose.

He also noticed that, true to the legend, every single villager had gold hair, blue eyes, tanned skin and were all quite tall, with regal well boned facial features. Being this isolated it was clearly the result of too much inbreeding, and yet there did not appear to be any of the signs of deformity that came with such activity's, unless they hid all those with deformity's away? The large amount of children running around their mothers skirts disproved any kind of fertility problem, quite the opposite. He understood now why Marcie spoke of her green eyes with an air of bitterness and self hatred, to be other surrounded by all this sameness must be extremely difficult.

The golden haired blue eyed boy child led them to a large well kept building with a large sign over the door that simple read 'Tavern'.

His job apparently done, the boy turned to run off, but Aldren stopped him with a firm grip on his shoulder,

"Where shall we stable the horses?" he asked,

The Boy looked at him blankly, "Eh?" was all he said,

Aldren felt his patience for these backward people reaching its end,

"The horses" he said slowly and carefully, indicating the two beasts, "They need to be housed in a stable or barn, out of the cold, preferable with fresh hay to eat and sleep on"

"Er" the boy said scratching his head, "Henri got a hay barn, all stocked for winter, he wont like you using it though"

Aldren brought out three gold coins,

"Take the horses to this Henri, and give him this" he held out one coin, when the boy tried to snatch it he moved his hand back out of reach,"In the morning I want you to find me and when I check and see that the horses are safe and happy in this Henri's barn, you will get these" and he held up the hand holding the two gold coins.

He watched the child debate for about five seconds then reach out and take the coin, he looked at the horses and Aldren suddenly realised that he had placed these two great war beasts in the care of a small child who had never even seen creatures like this before.

He watched the boy approach the animals slowly. They were thin and tired, not much of a threat after the hell they had been through the last couple of weeks, but they still might lash out if frightened or angered. The boy held his fingers out to the first horse, a pure black mare called Chirion, she nosed his hand, the boy left it on the mares nose and then trailed it down her neck through her mane, his eyes alight with wonder.

Maybe the gold was unnecessary and the boy would have taken good care of his prize beasts simple because they were something never seen before. 

As the boy led them carefully away, Sebastian said, "Boys a natural, maybe you should bring him back with us and train him as a stable hand"