older brother … which probably explained the punches and no present. Pete shrugged and tried to ignore his disappointment. His mum squeezed his shoulder.
‘Boys will be boys, Pete. Don’t worry, Marloynne thinks the world of you. Maybe if you go and help him feed the pigs, do normal activities, it will take your mind off things. And besides, your special birthday meal will be waiting for you when you return from the castle.’
Pete nodded and headed outside but didn’t feel any better. Maybe he could do normal things, but he didn’t want to. This wasn’t a normal day! This was the day he turned fourteen and had to go to the castle and apply to become a OH MY GOD!
He stopped walking and stood with his mouth hanging open in shock. A fly flew in and he didn’t even flinch, he just kept staring. There, standing by the pigs, in the spare pen that never had any animals in it, was Marloynne. Okay, so that wasn’t so amazing, but it was what Marloynne was standing next to that was impressive.
It was a horse!
A young colt, skinny like Pete, but also starting to fill out, the muscles defined amongst the skin and bones. It lifted its front legs into the air, shook its head and whinnied, forcing Marloynne to grip the reins tighter, speaking to the horse softly.
Pete kept on staring, hoping against hope that the horse was what he thought it was (not that Pete’s stupid or anything. He wouldn’t look at a horse and think, ‘Oh man, I hope that’s a horse.’ He was hoping against hope that the horse was meant for him, that it was his birthday present from Marloynne).
Marloynne laughed out loud at Pete staring, not moving.
‘Get over here, rat-brain!’ he cried out. ‘A present is no use to its giver. Come and say hello.’
Pete wandered over, his mouth still hanging open. The fly flew out, a little damp. Pete looked back at the house and saw his mother and Ashlyn standing at the door with huge grins on their faces. He smiled, still in a daze, and went inside the pen, locking the gate behind him. Almost instantly the horse calmed down and stared at him. Pete stared back, wary about walking over in case the horse disappeared or something.
Marloynne loosened his grip and the horse trotted towards Pete, who stood his ground. The horse stopped just short, then leaned in and sniffed. It let its breath out in a snort, right into Pete’s face, who gagged on it, laughing. The horse whinnied, sounding as though it was laughing too. Pete reached out his hand and the horse sniffed it, before letting Pete stroke him. There was a white streak of fur up the horse’s nose which looked just like a lightning bolt. Aside from that he was brown, and not that wussy light brown like those show ponies either, but a deep brown that said, ‘Do not mess with me, my friend.’
Pete smiled, braver now, and moved closer. He ran his hand over the horse’s body, feeling the muscles, feeling the curves and the strength in the slightly built body. A hand clapped him on the back.
‘Well?’ Marloynne asked impatiently. ‘What do you think?’
Pete looked at him, trying his hardest to avoid crying.
‘It is amazing,’ he said softly. ‘Is it really mine?’
‘What? No,’ Marloynne said. ‘Oh wow, no, I am so sorry. The horse is to carry goods for your mum and Ashlyn. I don’t like seeing them carrying all those heavy things.’
He tried to keep a straight face but burst out laughing at Pete’s reaction, the boy’s face dropping, looking as though it might melt with disappointment.
‘Of course it’s for you!’ Marloynne cried. ‘What good is a knight without a trusty steed?’
Pete breathed out a sigh of relief and the horse imitated him, snorting, making everyone laugh. Pete hugged his arm tightly around Marloynne.
‘This is the best!’ he said. ‘How did you how did you how did you?’
Marloynne laughed again.
‘I’ve been saving up for a while now. Ashlyn and I wanted to thank you for bringing us back together, and nothing we thought of seemed right. Except this,’ he said, stroking the horse. ‘When I was accepted back to the castle, I told the King that I would only accept the job if he could promise there would be a horse I could buy at the end of six months’ service.
I said to him, “Look here, King man, if you don’t give me what I want, well, you don’t get my skills” … or something like that anyway. It wasn’t exactly that, but there was no begging or anything … well, maybe a little, but I was strong when I begged, I didn’t get down on my knees … just one knee, but that was only because … ’
Pete cut him off with a punch to the arm.
‘Shut up and let me enjoy my horse,’ he said.
Marloynne nodded and looked over at Ashlyn, who walked over with Mrs McGee. They stood outside the pen, leaning on the fence.
‘There is one other present we have for you Pete,’ Ashlyn said. ‘It’s not actually a present, but more a question.’
Pete had no idea what she was talking about.
‘Marloynne has asked me to marry him,’ Ashlyn said. ‘I accepted, of course, and we are to be wed. We haven’t set a date yet, but we would like you to be our best man.’
‘He’s only fourteen,’ Marloynne cut in. ‘Can we really call him a man? Maybe best almost-man is better.’
Ashlyn stopped his teasing with a glare, and then she looked at Pete.
‘Well, Pete? What do you think?’
Pete leapt up and punched the air, whooping with delight.
‘WOOO! THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER! YOU’RE GETTING MARRIED? SO AWESOME! OF COURSE I’LL BE YOUR BEST MAN! YOU HEAR THAT, NEW HORSE? I AM THE BEST MAN!’
With that he started running around the pen, whooping again. His horse followed him, jumping and prancing and trying to punch the air, but it’s hard when you’re a horse and you’re running and prancing. The others watched and laughed, except for Marloynne, who ran out of the pen to avoid being run over by the crazy kid and his crazy horse.
He watched as more bones and rotting flesh started to poke through the earth. He wondered how many there would be, and why they had been chosen. He also wondered if he would recognise any of the other knights. Even if they had been from his time, they would be in various states of decay.
He himself felt unrecognisable, what with the protruding bones, the rotting flesh, the eyes that bobbled around in his head, the smell … actually, the smell was pretty similar. Baths hadn’t been very popular back in the day.
Sir
