Free Serenity Valley by Rocky Bills Page A

Mildred.
We saw to the water bucket and straw, and by then, it was getting
late. I told Fulk to go ahead and get some sleep while I cleaned up
the horse spit and bread crumbs left on the makeshift table. I
noticed the scroll containing our mini stable plans and thought how
nice it would be to have proper accommodations. I looked in on the
horses and found Demon snoring in the corner while Mildred made
haste to finish her meal. “Mildred, please look after him. I’m
going to bed now.” I withdrew quietly, trying not to wake Demon. I
had cleared the stable area and felt relief. It would be nice to
lie in my own bed and rest my exhausted body.

Chapter 4

    Although the living quarters was a
large dormitory style building adjacent to the stables, each living
space had an oil lamp, small reading desk, storage cabinet, and
bed. It is all I had known since my eighth year, having moved from
the blacksmith’s quarters once the new smith arrived with his
family. They had offered to keep me on with them, but I had too
many sad memories of my stepparents in that place and moved to the
dormitories with the other stablehands. When I reached my bed, I
found the clothes Basilea had taken for cleaning. My leather
breeches were cleaned, scraped, and oiled. Next to my breeches were
all of my underclothes, carefully folded. Stretched out on the bed
was a new dark blue shirt. It was made of good stout linen and had
heavy but careful stitching. Basilea must have been working on this
shirt for some time and rushed to finish it when my clothes were
ruined. I thought of her now and felt a pang of torment in my
chest. I never understood why I felt a sort of pain when I thought
of someone I loved. It seems like conflicted emotions and was very
hard to understand. I put the clothes away in my cabinet and sat on
the bed to take off my boots. I needed to oil them again soon or
they would lose their waterproofing. I stripped to my underclothes
and relaxed on my most welcome bed. By the time I pulled up my
blanket, I was sound asleep. I don’t think I was asleep very long
when I began to dream of Basilea. We were sitting on grass under a
tree, and the breeze was flicking her soft golden hair in my face.
I reached up to touch her hair, and something soft and sticky
grabbed my fingers. With my heart trying to jump from my chest, I
opened my eyes and found Demon staring down on me.
    “Damn it, Demon, you scared me to
death!” I yelled. Demon grabbed my blanket and pulled it off of me.
“All right, all right. I’m coming.”
    By now, people were waking up and
lighting lamps. There were a few ugly remarks from the sleepy
inhabitants. There was also more than a little laughing and many
smart-ass remarks being made.
    Fulk appeared by my bed with a smile
on his face. “Do you want me go back with him?” he
asked.
    “No, it’s me he wants. He’ll just come
back if I don't go. Go back to sleep.” I looked around for Mildred
and saw her enormous head sticking through the window. I said, “At
least you didn’t come in with him.” Mildred just stared at me with
her big innocent eyes. I got up and dressed quickly. I put on my
new shirt so I wouldn’t disappoint Basilea the next day. I sat on
the bed to slip on my boots, and Demon started to position his rear
over the opposite side of the bed. I yelled, “No, no, don’t do it;
don’t even think about it!” Ignoring me, Demon raised his right leg
and tried to sit on my bed. The wood frame shattered, and that end
of the bed hit the floor. Everyone in the dorm started laughing,
including Fulk. Demon just sat there in his regal pose. I slipped
on my other boot and jumped up. “Come on, then, let’s go!” I told
him.
    When we got back to the stall, I
noticed the gate standing wide open. I examined the latch and found
it intact. “Great, now you’re an escape artist!” Demon whinnied and
went into his stall with Mildred tagging along. I didn’t even
bother to latch the gate. I went to storage for a