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Although my memories had some impression of this place, I still couldn’t help but gawk a little as we passed a gate with guards and then drove up to the Augustus estate. They possessed a great deal of land, and on the land were several structures. There was the main mansion, and off to the side were the servant quarters. I had spent the majority of my life in the servant quarters, and it was only the unfortunate times I had to deal with the Augustus family and their friends directly that things had seemingly gone wrong.
Mrs. Augustus made a gesture to the driver, who seemed to understand what she meant. I watched as we passed the servant quarters. I thought she was taking me to the main mansion, but the car drove passed that too. We ended up driving around to the back of the mansion, and it was only when I saw the old wooden stables that I got an idea of where we were heading. The car stopped and both the driver and Mrs. Augustus turned to me.
“From now on, you will be working off your debt in the stables. Our stable master has just been complaining that he needs another groom to help him.” She declared.
Her words weren’t a suggestion, and I knew that fighting them would only make my situation worse. Franky, of the kinds of occupations she could make me do, I’d rather be working with horses than something else. I seemed to recall that there were farms on this property too. She could have made me take care of the pigs. At least, this way, I was still around the main house.
I had a good impression of Catelyn and her family. They had all taken care of me for years. Although my mind wasn’t sorted out yet, I had sorted out enough to know I owed them a great deal. Most of all, Catelyn sacrificed her future freedom to become Margaretta’s servant at school. Even if I could ignore all the things from my scattered memories, that was something that had happened to this version of me. I had to find some way to show her my appreciation one day, and I couldn’t do that if I was immediately sent away.
“Thank you for this opportunity, my lady.” I nodded my head and opened the door.
She frowned at me, clearly pleased that I was speaking politely, but not sure if I was in some way being disrespectful or mocking. In truth, I was merely telling her what she wanted to hear. My memories seemed to reinforce the importance of polite words at proper times. Even if you didn’t feel or believe something, lip service could always save you trouble down the line. The former me was a child who didn’t understand this rule and grew hotheaded, but in some ways, that young boy truly had died when the fireball struck me.
After stepping out and closing the door, the driver didn’t wait for me to even step away from the vehicle before he hit the gas. Dust rose, hitting my newly purchased uniform and immediately covering the new fabric in a sheen of dirt. I carried my only change in the bag at my side, and it had thankfully been spared. With a sigh, I turned and headed for the stable. These outfits were expensive, but it was still servant’s garments.
Even a rich servant’s outfit had to take into design the assumption they’d be working hard and possibly get dirty. As I stepped out of the light and into the dark hallway of the stall, I could immediately smell the rich scents of hay, leather, manure, and horse dung. To someone else, it might have been a gross smell, but the smell triggered countless memories in me. My memories were full of men who rode on horseback. For some of them, it was only for sport or show, but to others, they fought, battled, and died riding a horse. Although it was hard to pick out any specific memories on the spot, the overall feeling I had was fondness, like coming home.
“You’re home already?” A gruff voice barked. “What are you doing in here? You’re going to startle the horses. I don’t need any troublemakers. Get lost!”
I turned to see a portly man wearing a white stained shirt and a leather vest over it. He had a big beard and big red cheeks. His voice was perpetually slurred as if he was always drunk, but his steps were always stable and he did his job astutely as the Augustus stable master. His job had been to train the children of the Augustus household how to ride as well as take care of all of their horses. I had very little impression of him except that the Augustus kids enjoyed pranking him, and when caught, I always became the one at fault. This had turned into an antagonistic relationship where the stable master disliked me, and I typically avoided him.
The last thing I could remember was that he had a stable hand as help, but he had ended up getting kicked by a horse and was out of commission. I had vaguely heard that the person at fault was Margaretta’s youngest sister. She had tried to blame it on me, but I had happened to be in Mrs. Augustus’s view during the time of this event, so the lie didn’t stick. Margaretta’s sister had resented me for that and tried to make my life more difficult as a result. Niles choosing to attack me was no doubt encouraged by that little brat, I realized as I reconnected a few lost memories.
“Mrs. Augustus has sent me to work in the stable. You needed a stable hand, right?”
He looked at me, his expression turning ugly. “I need a capable stable hand. If she was going to send me you, she might have well sent me an imbecile to babysit while she’s at it!”
“I’m willing to learn.” I declared confidently.
“Hmph… I’m not questioning whether you can learn. I’m more concerned about your willingness. I’ve seen how you spend your day lazing about. You lie around all day looking at the clouds. I don’t think you’ve worked a single hard day in your life.” He harumphed dismissively.
“Then, give me a chance.” I took a step forward. “I might surprise you.”
Unfortunately, a few sweet words weren’t enough to undo years of animosity. He lifted a finger, pointing it in my direction.
“Muck out these stalls, if you can manage that. I’m going to Mrs. Augustus to get a proper explanation.” He declared, before making a dissatisfied noise and turning his back to me.
I watched him leave and then shrugged. Reaching out for a broom, I quickly figured out where everything was being kept. Despite looking a little slovenly himself, the stable master ran a clean ship. He had to if he wanted to survive and keep his job working under Mrs. Augustus for all of these years. He had even had to personally tutor that evil rugrats. He had to be a capable man.
After coming to understand his system, I rolled up my sleeves and started working. I removed the leftover hay and then scooped up any remaining manure. After putting down some desiccant on the wet spots, I removed those as well. I fixed the bedding, spread the shaving, and added fresh bedding. Then, I removed the water buckets, dumped them, scrubbed them clean, and put fresh water back in.
I was just finishing when the door to the stable burst open. The stable master was walking in deliberately, a dark glint in his eye.
“Mrs. Augustus says that if you cause me any trouble, any trouble at all, I can have you kicked out… of… here…”
As he walked toward me, his eyes seemed to catch the sparkle of the room next to him and his words slowed down. By the time he was next to me, his eyes were staring into the stall I had just cleaned.
“When I’m done cleaning out the stalls, do you want me to groom the horses outside?” I asked.
“Um… yeah…” He licked his lips before turning to me. “Wait, do you know how to do that?”
I did, but I realized it’d be a bit suspicious if I became too knowledgeable.
“Um… modern age, you can just look anything up online, right?”
“R-right…” He responded and then shook his head. “Just come and find me when you’re ready to learn.”
He took a step forward, seeming halfway in a daze as he looked at the stall I had just finished. Was it so impressive? I had just done a halfway decent job. It was no less than I would have expected from my stable boy, at least in the memories I had where had a stable boy.
Leaving the stable master dazed, I continued to clean out stall after stall. As I worked, the stable master had seemingly disappeared for a bit. Once everything had been cleaned, I went out and fetched the horses from their fenced paddock. As I collected them, the stable master appeared once again. He was watching me with his arms crossed, although his expression was no longer ugly. If anything, he looked mildly approving.
“Be careful with that last guy. That’s Niles’s horse. He doesn’t like anyone but Niles touching him.”
The horse he was pointing at was a black stallion that looked very majestic. It fit the prince-like aura that Niles exuded. Seeing him instantly put me in a sour mood.
“So, you’re the horse of that bastard who tried to kill me,” I muttered in a low voice only the horse could hear.
The horse whinnied, and then walked up to me. He bumped into my side.
“Oi, you want to fight or something?”
The horse shook his head, bumping into me again. I doubt he was answering my questions, and my memories didn’t turn me into a horse whisperer or anything, but I did understand his behavior. Somewhere in my distant memory was a horse that acted this way when it was feeling cramped up. It wanted to ride a bit after the owner had seemingly left him for a while. I looked over at the stable master, and then back at the horse.
“Fine, but just this once.”
I grabbed the horse and then jumped onto his back. The horse whinnied excitedly, jumping up in the air. I stayed on as he suddenly went into a full gallop. I didn’t have time to see how the stable master was reacting because the horse was really fast. We had reached the end of the paddock before we knew it, and I realized given his speed just why he hated his small enclosure.
“Woah!” I cried out as the horse jumped into the air.
He cleared the fence designed to keep him in while holding me, and I couldn’t help but whistle. Of course, me here didn’t know a thing about riding horses, but those memories did. Riding a horse with a saddle or bareback felt completely natural. Well, having a saddle would have been easier, but I was managing okay. Since we had already cleared the fence and the horse showed no signs of slowing, I merely held on a closed my eyes.
The wind blew against my face as I listened to the rhythmic galloping of the horse’s hooves. It was a feeling that was both new to this body, and nostalgic for my mind. I slowly held out my hands, trusting my legs and the horse to carry us out.
He ran at near full speed for a good ten minutes, but I knew we were still on the Augustus property even then. It was criminal how small the paddock was given how large their territory looked. He finally started to slow down, and I loosened up and began to ride him more naturally. The sun was starting to set at this point and I didn’t know how the stable master was going to react to our sudden ride. I knew we had to turn back soon.
Crunch! A sound of breaking branches occurred to the side of us. The horse took several steps to the side as a form stepped from the tree. An item came flying down at me, and I reached out and caught it just before it struck my face. It was a small, sweet-smelling orange ball with a stem.
“Fruit? An orchard?” I observed.
There were more movements in the branches above, and ever so slowly legs came out from the tree and then touched the ground. This thing was tall, nearly twenty feet in all. It was dark and see-through, a horrific monster seemingly composed of shadows. Its eyes were bright red, and they were seemingly focused on me!