• Solo • [Lysoria] Apple

[Victor Amielle]

Saun 40, Arc 686

“Come on, Lord Victor, and give Apple a carrot”, Mistress Jeanette, a human woman in her thirties with blonde hair that she wore in a bun and dark brown eyes tried to encourage Victor.

The seven-arc-old second son of the Lord of Lysoria eyed the little black and white mare that stood in front of him in the paddock warily before he looked at the thick orange carrot in his hand.

A moment later, he looked turned to the mare again.

She looked at him and whinnied, baring her teeth as she did so.

Victor instinctively made a step back and turned to Mistress Jeanette that had already taught his older brother Stefan who would succeed their father one trial how to ride a couple of arcs earlier.

“The baby horse wants to bite me”, he told her in no uncertain terms and shook his head.

“Apple is a pony and not a baby horse”, Mistress Jeanette explained to him in a patient tone of voice. “A small kind of horse”, she added upon noticing the confused look on his face. “And she doesn’t want to bite you, she just wants to say hello to you.”

“You want to be a hero when you grow up, don’t you?” she asked him. Currently, the little boy dreamed of becoming a knight with a big sword and slaying all kinds of different monsters.

The arc before, he had wanted to become a mage and shoot fireballs at people though.

Victor nodded, tentatively approached the little pony and extended the hand with the carrot towards it. Apple immediately snatched it and started to munch on it quite happily.

Victor looked at Mistress Jeanette for a moment before he patted Apple’s side somewhat awkwardly. The pony seemed to enjoy it, and what more, its fur actually felt kind of nice.

He liked it, he decided.

“Why is her name Apple when she eats carrots?” he wanted to know a little later and looked at Mistress Jeanette questioningly.

Mistress Jeanette was at a bit of a loss for a moment because she had never thought about it before she replied, “It’s just a name, Lord Victor.”

[Victor Amielle]

“Are you ready to ride, Lord Victor?” Mistress Jeanette asked a little later, once Apple and the young noble had gotten to know each other, and Victor had gotten over his fear of being bitten.

(She didn’t remember his older brother ever being afraid of being bitten. Stefan had not asked strange questions such as why a horse that was called Apple ate carrots either.)

“I … I think so”, Victor replied and eyed Apple appraisingly, wondering how exactly he was supposed to get on her back. He had seen Stefan put his feet into the stirrups, but that had looked rather complicated. Maybe he could just try to jump very high as well though?

He was just wondering whether he should do this, when Mistress Jeanette placed some sort of wooden miniature staircase next to Apple. “You can use this in order to mount Apple more easily. Stand next to her, hold onto the saddle, place your left foot into the left stirrup and swing your body across her back, Lord Victor”, she instructed him.

When the little lord did so, somewhat awkwardly, she reached for him in order to support him and make it easier for him to get his right leg on Apple’s other side. A moment later, Victor was sitting in the saddle in an upright position, holding the reins in both hands, grinning.

Now that he was on Apple’s back, he was actually starting to get excited. Soon, he would be just as good a rider as Stefan. No, he would be even better! He would be the best rider in all of Lysoria!

[Victor Amielle]

“Move a little back in the saddle, my lord”, Mistress Jeanette told the wannabe hero. “Do you have both feet in the stirrups now? And can you not see your toes anymore?” she wanted to know when he was finally sitting in the middle of the saddle. When Victor nodded, she smiled at him. “Good! The first step to learning to ride is sitting in the saddle correctly. Now then, shall we go for a little walk, Lord Victor?”

When he nodded eagerly, she attached a long rein to Apple’s halter and led her out of the paddock. Longeing was a good way to develop your posture and learn to sit correctly without having to control the horse at the same time, and at Victor’s age, it was best to take things slowly.

Before long, they were moving across the grounds, past the paddocks and the stables where the other horses were being kept, to the building where the falcons that were Victor’s favourite animals were.

Harrison, his father’s falconer (being the ruler of Lysoria, his father did not have time to tend to his falcons himself) was just standing outside of it, one of the falcons that Victor recognized as Faye, on his arm. When he saw Victor and Mistress Jeanette, he smiled and waved to them with his free hand.

Victor waved back before he informed him in quite an excited tone of voice, “I’m finally learning to ride, Harrison! Look! This is Apple, and she eats carrots”, he proceeded to introduce his mount. Harrison looked at him amusedly before he bowed slightly.

A few bits later, they continued their tour, with Mistress Jeanette leading Apple, and Victor on her back and made his way to the herb garden where the cook grew the herbs for the various meals that he prepared for Lord Amielle and his family. Whenever he saw someone, Victor waved to them, looking quite proud. He had already forgotten that he had been afraid of Apple and her teeth, and he was really, really enjoying himself now!

When they finally returned to the paddock, he looked rather sad and pouted as a consequence, and when Mistress Jeanette extended her arms in order to help him dismount, he complained, “I don’t want to! Can’t we ride a bit more? You could show me how to make Apple move!” he suggested. “I have to pull on her reins, right?”

“Indeed”, the woman replied. “I will teach you how to make Apple move soon, Lord Victor. For now, this is enough though. You will be a little tired and sore, anyway.”

“I’m not tired!” Victor disagreed, but when she gestured for him to dismount, he did so without any further complaints and let him help her. Once he stood on the ground again, she put the reins into his hands. If he wanted to ride a horse, he also needed to take care of it, she explained to him. The riding lesson didn’t end the moment you dismounted and let go of the reins!

Once they were in the stable that smelled of a mixture of hay and horse, she handed a brush to him and told him how to brush Apple and to be gentle. And when that was done, she handed him another carrot. This time, Victor was not afraid of being bitten, but simply held the carrot out towards Apple. His hand hardly trembled at all as she grabbed it and began to devour it.

A few moments later, when Apple had been taken care of, they walked back into the fortress together, and one of the servants took over and accompanied the young lord to his room where he changed into different clothes (his current ones smelled rather strongly of horse).

Victor’s schedule was normally quite busy, especially for such a young child – it was filled with everything from etiquette lessons over language lessons to dance and politics lessons, as a member of Lysoria’s ruling family a lot was expected of him. But after his riding lesson, he was allowed to relax for a while, lie on his bed and play with some of his toys, with one of his nannies sitting in a nearby rocking chair, watching him.

(Being busy with politics and such, the Lord and the Lady of Lysoria could not always take care of their sons themselves and had hired various servants in order to help raise them.)

Gradually, the young lord began to grow a little tired in spite of his planning not to grow tired, and what more, he noticed, making a bit of a face, his back was just a little bit sore!

[Pig Boy]

Victor

Experience: 10 No magic

Knowledge:

Animal Husbandry x1
Mount (Horse) x5

Renown: none

Skill Usage: Appropriate to level

Loot/Losses: none

Injuries/Conditions: none

Consequences: none

Comments: I really enjoy flashbacks to player characters' childhoods. Victor seems like a very normal 7-year old boy, for the mage with a complicated history (and sometimes questionable morality) that he eventually becomes. I wonder if he ever misses Lysoria? It seems like a nice place to be.

The technical details of learning to ride a pony seem to be well in order and make sense to me. They were explained and described in a way that I found easy to follow.

I thought it was cute that young VIctor was afraid when the pony showed its teeth to him as he tried to feed it a treat. Fun stuff!

Anyway, great writing and enjoy the rewards!

If you have any concerns about this review, please PM me about them.