Disclaimer: I don't own anything by Mercedes Lackey, unfortunately. Namely, Valdemar and its environs in this case. I am just a lowly fan wishing to use the world.
A/N: Thank you for clicking on this link. I'm hoping you'll enjoy this little mini series. These are all just a bunch of drabbles giving you glimpses into the lives and worlds of their subjects. Mostly fluff. Happy people.
Summary: Goats, a mountain, and The Rock. Ronto is a hermit and he likes his life.
Ronto had a favorite rock. It was big, and crinkly, and a nice peaceful color of gray; and the best part was the soft moss resting all over it.
There wasn't really a reason that this was his favorite. There were lots of other crinkly big gray mossy rocks around. But the Rock always made him smile.
Maybe it was because the goats liked it. They liked it a lot, for goats; there was a lot of prancing around involved, he saw, and his goats didn't often skip like that. And when his goats were happy, he was happy. It didn't matter that he subsisted entirely on goat's mild and what he could forage on the mountain. When his goats were happy, he was happy.
He would wake up before he could see the sin, with the goats. He would gather his things and walk up the mountain, with the goats. He would gather his food, with the goats. He would come back to his hut and sleep, and the goats slept outside.
Once, Ronto had lived his fays by the bells of Haven and with his Guard comrades. Those were good times, when there was no war. And then along came Karse, and they took his friends, his face, his hand, his hearing, one eye.
He decided that he liked goats better than hospitals or the people who stared at him, after that. The goats liked him, too. Him and the Rock. So it was a nice life. And he was quite happy, all alone, with only the goats. The goats and the Rock.
The Rock always made him smile. And one day of the many, many, many that ran together in Ronto's mind, he sat against the mossy gray crinkles of the sun-warmed Rock, and fell asleep with a smile on his face. With a smile on his ravaged face and his goats cavorting around him. Him and the Rock.
A/N(#2!!): Thank you for reading. I hope you liked it, and drop me a word!