"What the f..." Lee blurted, seeing a boy rushing out from the stables, pulling a magnificent steed behind him.
While the tall and black horse was beautiful and all, he was baffled by the guy that was bringing it. Skippy was dressed in leather trousers and boots, similar to Prides, and similar to Prides he wore only a linen shirt.
But the similarities ended there – from the distance of hundred yards it was clear that the guy was shaking from cold like a leaf in the wind. And then there was the shocking thing – the boy who was shorter than Lee had a beard!
Only when Skippy got close, Lee realized that he actually was a man in his forties, just of a small stature. And the incredibly tall horse he brought was only huge if compared to the guy from a distance. But it was a big horse nevertheless.
"This is Stella." Prides introduced, forcing Lee to stop daydreaming, "She's almost twenty, but still in a good shape. Show what you can!"
Lee glanced at him, then at the bearded little man, then sighed and mounted the horse. Of course, it was way easier compared to four years ago when he tried to ride a horse for the first ti in this life, but he had to use all his power to make it look like he jumped on the tall steed effortlessly.
Obviously he did everything with emotionless expression, pretending to have done it every other day, but both spectators wrinkled their noses in displeasure from what they saw.
The mont Lee got on Stella, Skippy imdiately let her go. Lee guided her around, making her walk in a circle, then urged to trot.
He had ridden a few horses in his lives, but in comparison this one could almost be considered a machine! To his great surprise, Lee realized Stella listened to his commands as if he was shifting gears on a motorbike and out of curiosity made her even gallop for a bit.
The short ride was exhilarating, but Lee forced himself to calm down and brought the horse back to Prides. Then jumped off and passed the bridle to Skippy.
"I thought you knew how to ride a horse." Prides said, not hiding condescension in his voice. Skippy also shook his head as if gravely disappointed in the newcor.
"I'm sorry, Sir!" Lee said with a shrug, "I guess I'm not a cavalry material."
"You're not!" Prides agreed, "But because you were born small. The diocre cavalry riding skills are easy to grasp. I could make a real man out of you though. Are you interested?"
"Will I have to run around naked during winterti?" Lee said and pointed at Pride's and Skippy's shirts.
"What?" Prides glared at him.
"I was trying to joke, Sir." Lee said, "Sorry!"
"Don't do that! Nothing related to horses is funny! Not breeding, not riding and not even feeding!" Prides scolded while Skippy kept nodding energetically, "But you'll learn. For the first six months you won't get payed, but if you do good, you won't regret it. Our master feeds us well and you'll sleep with the others. The conditions we'll provide you are good, so don't disappoint us!"
After giving the short lecture, Prides marched off with large strides, too wide for his small stature, but Skippy watched him leave with starry eyes. Apparently he had a kind of a man-crash or sothing.
Lee wasn't clear what his job was supposed to be, but from the looks of it he sohow was already hired. No one was interested in his opinion and Skippy, imitating his boss, ordered Lee to follow him.
"Prides is the best stablehand in the world! You're lucky he took you in!" He said, leading Stella back to the stables, "Many years ago he took care of too, so I know how you feel! We, real n, don't talk about feelings much, so rember the deep gratitude you feel today for the rest of your life."
Lee almost stumbled hearing the nonsense, but sohow managed to keep a straight face.
"You'll stay with the boys." Skippy continued, "Einard's room has a free bed, you'll sleep there. Everyone is still out, training ... I guess we'll use the ti to change you into appropriate clothing. It's embarrassing to look at you now."
"What are my duties going to be?" Lee finally managed to ask the key question.
Skippy stopped in his tracks and looked at Lee as if he was retarded, "Training, of course!"
Lee wasn't thrilled hearing he had to share a room with others, but the prospects of training were up to his alley. He also wasn't bothered by the fact that he was not going to receive any pay – as long as he didn't have to shovel horse shit.
And he didn't. Skippy brought him to a storage room, picked out boots, leather trousers and a jacket. When passing over the last item, he gave a haughty remark that with ti Lee would learn to wear only a shirt like the real n did. For so reason he refused to notice how he was still shaking from the cold himself.
Afterwards he brought Lee to canteen and explained they had two sumptuous als a day – in the morning and in the evening, and that they all ate together as a group, just like real n should.
In the end Lee was left alone in a room with six beds with orders to get acquainted with the boys, and report with the rest in the morning. He heaved a sigh of relief when it turned out that the room he was supposed to stay in wasn't in the stables, but in the servant wing – the prospect of sleeping with horses wasn't too enticing.
Lee ditated till the sunset when his roommates returned. He already guessed that his days of calm ditation were over, at least for the next two months, but when the five noisy guys stord in, loudly laughing, discussing and arguing at the sa ti, the last hope disappeared.
The roommates surprised him though. Apart from the oldest guy, nad Einard, who was in his twenties, the rest were teenagers. After noticing Lee, they happily rushed over, welcod by patting him on shoulders and congratulating on the lucky chance that brought him to this place.
All of them wore similar leather trousers and boots, but apart from two exceptions, all wore jackets. Of course, the most common feature was everyone being short and thin, and Lee, who was only about to turn ten years old, felt as if he was around his peers.
The rest of the evening was spent with the shorties telling stories about working for Prides, fun and hard tis, and the limitless prospects Lee now had. Strangely enough no one ever ntioned Minister Orpen. Lee's roommates didn't hide their opinion that the real boss of the place was the guy who actually hired them all – Prides.
Lee was reluctant to directly ask what exactly was their job, but from the lengthy conversations he understood that they were so kind of stable-boys. Their leader's title was the head stablehand, but Skippy was his assistant.
The job titles were kind of ssed up, because from what Lee understood, the actual stablehands had to take care of horses, but this group only occasionally rid them while spending most of their ti training.
The next morning with the sunrise, the boys rushed out to report to the training grounds where Prides was already waiting. Initially Lee hoped that the training Skippy ntioned would offset the lack of ditation he was so used to do. As it turned out, it vastly overcompensated it.
For so reason Prides decided to train his subordinates as if they were mbers of so special forces unit. In the na of turning everyone intoa real n, he abused the youths till they were half dead.
In the evening of the first several days Lee barely managed to crawl to his bed, but probably because of the blue spark, he was fully recovered the next morning. The other guys didn't have it that easy, but from what it looked like they've already gotten used to it.
Running several miles while carrying weights was the warm-up. Then weight lifting, followed by pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups and all the other kinds of -ups one could think of. Afterwards was breakfast and in the afternoon was another round of the physical exercises.
During the day was the relaxing and the hard part at the sa ti. Prides with Skippy's assistance were drilling the horseback riding techniques. While physically it was not as taxing, Lee had never been so ntally exhausted in all his lives.
The verbal abuse that Prides laid on his subordinates was astonishing and made Freeda's swearing pale in comparison. And it was all magnified by Skippy who repeated every word the boss said.
Lee barely finished his first run, and after taking off weights, prepared to mount the horse he was given, when he had to hold back the urge to kick the boss and his adjutant in their faces. Nothing he did was correct – he was even standing the wrong way, to not speak of walking or even looking.
The following two months looked promising.
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