A Maiden and Her Knight

02: The Start of a Journey

Ashley is walking beside the dirt road with a big smile on her face as she can feel the sunlight on her skin and the grass beneath her bare feet. After so many years of being confined to her home, she is finally able to venture out and see the world she has always wanted to. This moment feels surreal to her, almost like a dream; one that she is very happy about. To make this day even better, she is also traveling with a knight.

Ashley looks over at Sir Gabriel, who is riding on her shoulder, the knight watching everything go by from this unique perspective that he now has. The maiden can't help but smile at him, having already fallen in love with him in such a short amount of time. To be honest, she is still having a hard time believing that she is now in a meaningful relationship with someone. Growing up, she always believed that her height would be a huge deterrent when it came to anyone wanting to court her. But this knight here has proven her wrong, and it is something that she is grateful for.

Looking back at the maiden's smiling face, Sir Gabriel can't believe the situation that he is now in. He did have some reservations about traveling on Ashley's shoulder at first, never having done anything like this before; his reasons for this being quite obvious. He did try walking alongside her when they first set out on their journey but two problems kept arising when they were walking separately. For one, she kept passing him by due to her long strides, a result of her extraordinary height. When she was walking at his pace, she felt as though she was walking too slow and she would inadvertently pick up her pace again and start to pass the knight by. With the constant stop and go that these problems were causing, she had finally decided to pick up the reluctant knight and place him on her shoulder so that the journey would proceed a bit more smoothly.

Being so high up, Sir Gabriel kind of feels like a kid riding on their parent's shoulders, except the view is much higher than any average sized adult could provide. The few trees that the two of them pass by barely pass Ashley's hips, Sir Gabriel watching as the maiden needs to sidestep them so that she can avoid hitting the branches and leaves. A problem that is surely unique to her. Watching this does make him wonder what other kinds of problems are presented to her due to her unique stature.

Sir Gabriel looks back the way they came, seeing how Ashley's castle is already starting to disappear in the distance. If he was walking it still would have been in sight. But with Ashley's size her strides are much longer than the average person's, so traversing such a long distance in such a short period of time is nothing to her. He will have to admit, being on her shoulder does have its advantages.

"So where is your horse?" Ashley asks, breaking the silence between the two of them.

"My horse?" Sir Gabriel is caught off guard by the sudden question, his mind being distracted by the view he currently has while riding on the maiden's shoulder.

"Don't all knights have horses?" Ashley sounds a bit surprised as she asks this, the giant woman being unable to picture a knight without his horse. "That way they can ride in gallantly when they go to rescue a fair maiden or a princess who is in distress, like in the stories."

Sir Gabriel now understands the nature of Ashley's question. "I actually don't have a horse. The majority of knights who own horses are those who are either in service to a king or a lord," he explains. The knight can see where the misconception comes from since most tales often have a knight riding on a noble steed as they journey on their quest. "Owning a horse is generally expensive; feeding them, making sure that they are shoed properly, maintaining the saddle and tack. Since my income is dependent on jobs and bounties, which aren't always steady or reliable, I can't really take care of one properly. Which, to be honest, would not be fair to the horse."