e&tg 37

[rone]

(when last we left our heroes...)

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"Is this some kind of joke?"

I stared unamusedly at the stablehand.  I pointed at Kohasadi with my hand and said, "Yes, i'm clearly joking.  I'm asking for tack for a gryphon just for shits and giggles."

"Well, sir, we don't have any gryphons here.  So i'm not sure why you think i can help you," he replied stiffly.

"Well, sir, you only work for the largest stables in the city, so i thought it reasonable to assume that you had the resources to accomodate my request, and if not, perhaps point me towards someone who can."

He sighed.  "The Stablemaster might be able to recommend a stable that does custom work.  I'll see if he's busy."  He turned with a sniff and walked into an office in the side of the stables.  They were well maintained and æsthetically designed, although they weren't as nice as some of the stables i'd seen in the Asiri-Ticanil campaigns out east.  Some of the nobles there loved their horses so much, it had made me uncomfortable.  Then i looked at Kohasadi and i felt uncomfortable.

My mental rambling was interrupted by the emergence of a large, dark man with very shortly cropped hair from the office.  He walked towards me, then suddenly stopped and stared, then grinned and said in a decidedly feminine voice tinged with an Asiri accent, "Or my eyes deceive me, or... well now.  Jumuwadi.  It is you, yes?"

"Ysadil."  I smiled widely at who i now realized was a woman.  "Of all the places... this is one hell of a welcome surprise.  How long have you been here?"

"In Kromalir?  I came here directly after i left the Asiri service."  She smiled at me.  "And that was only ten days after your magnificent drunken peroration."

I felt myself flush in embarrassment.  "More like my petulant tantrum.  I can't believe i did that.  I'd managed to forget it..."

She laughed.  "Oh, Jumuwadi.  You were an outsider, so it was your prerogative to see the things we'd ignored all our lives.  You were young, so it was your duty to speak about what you saw without consideration for your audience.  And you were right; the reason the war has existed for centuries, and probably still continues, is that it is an intensely personal thing for every Asiri and every Ticanil, drilled into them by their culture since childhood."  She turned to look at the horses in their stalls.  "I got tired of sending beautiful horses to die on the battlefield, so i left the Asiri stables and came here, the home of that young man who fought as if he were already dying, as long as it did not become a personal issue.  And, of course, i never found you."