A horse ride into....
The Never Ending Quest - Episode 20508
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You fight a brief battle with your conscience. You win. You tell yourself
that after
this is all over you will return the horse. You aren't quite sure why, but
catching
up with Aaron before he reaches the pass seems important enough to justify
the theft.
Why is it so important? you ask yourself. After all, when Aaron
asked you to
help him when you first met, you refused. Now that he no longer seems to
want your
help, you insist on giving it. You think it must be that your experience
back at the
village has made you realise that if things stay as they are you will
always be an
outcast, and that your hope that reconciliation might be possible was an
illusion.
Aaron seems to offer the only chance that things might change for the better,
both for you and for the land as a whole. And you admit to yourself that
you do feel
something for Aaron. You are reluctant to call it friendship, let alone
affection, but you
don't want him to come to any harm.
It really looks as though providence is on your side for a change. Not only is the horse yours for the taking, but it wears saddle and bridle; without at least the latter of these you could hardly have ridden it. The reins are loosely tied around a post. Obviously the horse's rider cannot have left it for long, or it woould have been properly stabled. Your guess is that a passing traveller has smelt bacon frying for breakfast, as you can, and gone into the refectory to sample the abbey's hospitality. You wish that you could too, though the monks did at least feed you last night before putting you to bed. You untie the horse and swing yourself into the saddle. You encourage it into a brisk trot. This all seems perfectly natural to you, and you realise that at some time you must have done a lot of riding. There is a choice of only two directions to take, and you assume that the opposite one to that from which you arrived last night must be the right one. What a harebrained scheme this is, you think. You can't even be sure that you are going in the right direction, and you have no provisions. You wonder what would have happened if you had been open about your departure, and had asked the monks for supplies. You couldn't have taken the horse then, of course. In any case, you doubt that the healer would have let you go for a day or two, quite apart from any urging that Aaron might have made that you be detained for as lomg as possible. And Alyssa might have wanted to come along. You wonder if Aaron could have obtained a horse from the abbey. If not, then you should catch him up by noon at the latest. It is turning into a very pleasant morning, with the early chill rapidly departing. As you ride along, for the first time in your memory (admittedly very brief) you feel almost happy. After an hour or two, you breast a slight rise and see, far in the distance, a range of mountains. It looks as though you are headed in the right direction. Then:
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JH
9/2/2002 6:47:47 PM
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