Harold the Healer, Chapter 13
"Stop that horse! Please!" The brain of Harold Moser, which had coasted to the somnolence that was the usual effect of long periods of walking on pleasant days, rather reluctantly snapped to attention as he turned and saw a beautiful white horse with a large brown patch on its chest galloping toward him. The darkness that had been in him even before his arrival from Carcosa more than five weeks ago wished that the horse would run him down and end it all, but instead the mare slowed to a trot and then a walk and gave him a good sniffing as he stroked her muzzle and scratched behind her ears.
"Thank you, good sir!" said the man as his obviously exhausted black horse with white patches made its way to where the Healer was standing and he dismounted. The horse then walked to the small watercourse next to the road that was provided for the convenience of travelers and started to drink.
"I'm Harold Moser, Healer and Veterinary Healer at Large," he introduced himself with a polite bow. The white horse had smelled the apples in his right front pants pocket and was bumping it with her nose, so he reluctantly pulled one out, cast Worm Buster on it, and offered it to her; said offer was greedily accepted. "Sometimes I swear that horses are just oversized pigs," he said. His grin was returned with a knowing look. "Would you mind if I were to clean your mount?" he inquired.
"I'm Tak Branson, and please do," he replied and they shook hands. He watched the Healer make some motions with his hands and say some words in an unfamiliar language, whose product was a small ball in his hand that glowed in a mix of forest green and turquoise. He threw it at his horse and when it hit, the colours rapidly spread over the gelding's body, leaving him much cleaner than he had been. The horse shook himself, but kept drinking.
Tak saw a man who was about as tall as him, just over six feet, and was dressed in a dusty brown traveling outfit, probably made from a durable cotton and hemp blend, that was loose enough to mostly hide his physique. He had a broad-brimmed hat and a cloth to protect the back of his neck from the sun, a large and heavy-looking pack and good-quality boots that looked like those he'd seen on people from the nearby Army base. Though the man's face would fit in anywhere and his outfit seemed designed to deflect attention, the unusual shade of blue of his eyes and the well-worn staff in his left hand counteracted it. Harold saw a man with the body build of the stereotypical farmer, well-muscled and with large hands and feet. He was dressed in heavy-duty working pants and shirt that had started out their life a medium blue, work boots, and a shapeless brown hat on top of long, black and gray hair that was tied back in a ponytail in the manner of many people in the Southlands. His dark complexion, brown eyes that seemed to miss little, beaky nose and wide, thin-lipped mouth also marked him as a Southlander.
"I'm sure you're wondering what led to this merry chase," Tak continued dryly as the white horse walked over to the water and began drinking too. He was surprised that he was a Mage. He knew they existed, and that some Healers were based in Margrave, but he'd never met one before. He seemed so ordinary that he was almost disappointed, though he did have a presence that was warm and comforting. Harold nodded and smiled invitingly. He could see that both horses were well taken care of, and that was a big plus in his books. "I was taking Princess here," he indicated the white horse, "and she really thinks that she is one," he added with an eye roll, "to the weekly market in Charnok, which is a couple of miles down the road." This road was Kingdom Highway 1 that began at the Argosy border and went north all the way to The Capital and beyond. They were standing on its southern shoulder so that they wouldn't obstruct the steady flow of traffic in both directions. He traded friendly smiles and waves with two people driving a northbound wagon. "She was a pretty thing as a colt and I'd had hopes that she'd grow up into a farm horse like Ned over there, but that was not to be."
"She's a beauty, that's for sure," Harold replied. "She'd do well as a racehorse or a messenger horse for the Army, doing something where she could run." Tak nodded. Clearly this man knew horses. "I'd go with the Army. I know they take care of their horses. Racers, maybe not so much."
"They always have a few folks from the base at the market, buying and selling. Ned was a surplus workhorse and I got a good deal for him a couple of years ago. I think that they'll be interested in Princess, even with her attitude." The horse was obviously listening to them even as she drank, for she looked up and tossed her head so that her lovely white mane was blown by the midday breeze. The ocean was out of sight from here, but made its presence known by the salty smell of its cooling breeze. Both men smiled at this classic showboating.
"I'm headed in that direction. Maybe I can come with you and we can bring them to the market together." Everything from the waist down was hurting after a long morning's walking and his pack seemed to be getting heavier with each step.
"You sound like a man who really needs a ride," Tak grinned at him.
"That obvious, huh?" He nodded, still grinning.
"Ned is strong enough to carry you and your pack and at a much more sedate pace than we were maintaining trying to catch up to Princess. Besides, he's saddled and she isn't."
"Bareback isn't a good option for a large-ish guy with a heavy pack," Harold agreed, not bothering to hide his relief. The two horses had drunk their fill and had come back to the humans. "Ned, would you mind giving me a ride to town?" The horse considered the strange human who had a glow that the others didn't and who smelled warm and comforting and safe. The offered apple that was also glowing was gobbled and crunched happily. He gave the human a bump with his head, then grabbed his big hat in his mouth and tossed it away. "Hey!"
"Oh, I forgot, he likes to do that," said Tak with a rather expressive eye roll. "You brat!" he scolded the horse as the Healer retrieved his hat. Ned just snorted, lifted his tail, farted loudly and ejected a quantity of turds, which seemed to remind Princess that she needed to lighten her load too. "Totally shameless, disgusting creatures that you are!" The horses ignored him, clearly accustomed to such complaints. Harold nodded, all too familiar with the horses' output, which he quickly examined for any obvious signs of parasites, which would be eliminated by the Worm Buster on the apples anyway. The dry soil of the road's shoulder quickly absorbed the large puddles of piss, by which point they were already on their way, the horses' shoes clopping on the flagstones that paved the road. "I get the feeling that you spend a lot of time on the road. Have you been in this neck of the woods before?"
"I drifted through here about two years ago, though by a different road. Wound up in Margrave, where I got involved in some trouble, then in the back country near the border I got into a fight with some bandits. A unit of the Queen's Horse showed up, followed by a unit of the Argosian Lancieri, and we managed to wipe them out." Tak nodded, looking surprised.
"I heard about that. A nasty business, if what I heard was true." The Mage's bleak expression was all the confirmation that he needed.
