Written for FiefGoldenlake's Autumn Bingo.
Bingo: travel + orchard + youth + choice + harvest
An Evil Eye in Hell
Zahir looked over the rump of his mare. The carriage and what it contained (virtual imprisonment) were only a few hundred metres behind him, and though he wanted to be as far from it as possible, he did not work his horse any harder. He slowed down, before unsaddling and tugging his sleeves his wrists to cover them from the evening's new coolness. They'd reached tonight's destination, after all. An inn at the edge of a village. Across the road from an olive orchard, its plants branches sagging with green fruit. An inn, next to a village with an olive orchard… On they're way to the Gallan King's Court.
What had he been thinking when he'd been asked? His senses, surely, had left him to his lonesome at the time. He cursed his youthful pride, his need to prove himself to his King and to his father. His choices had led him far from the desert home of his childhood; even further from the lush valleys surrounding Corus that he'd come to call home more recently.
Handing a few coppers to a stable boy he noticed nets stacked against the Bearded Dragon. They'd be woken early if the harvest started on the morrow.
The carriage pulled up all too soon. Damn…
He took the lady's hand, inwardly rolling his eyes. If only Joren was alive to see this…
The woman was nothing special. Taller than average, with hair mussed from their journey.
"Darling wife, how did you find the day's ride?" he asked, face neutral.
She glared at him.
"Chashmi bad dur" he laughed, leading her up the narrow stairs of the public house, towards his own personal hell, hopefully complete with a blazing fire.
Kel stormed away. He laughed harder through tearing eyes.