Goats Are Judgemental

Ugh,  alarms only work if you remember to keep the volume on them turned up. Luckily, David's still asleep!

Roderic had to concede that Egan was the better hunter. The gangling man--who fidgeted so badly on his horse he nearly fell off once a day, and hadn't bothered to bring his sword--disappeared into the surrounding growth and, without fail, returned not an hour later with something edible. Roderic almost hated him for it. Except, that was an attitude unbefitting a knight and he could hardly complain about regular, fresh meat instead of boiled jerky. They'd had no time to fish, so Roderic had to admit nothing on that score.

The trees and long grasses thinned as they reached the mountains, replaced by knotted and bent vegetation and wind-scoured stone. Roderic saw no one, though Egan happily informed him there were small villages dotted all about. Goat-herders, apparently. The goats, they saw plenty of, bleating at each other or staring down at the knights from some improbable outcropping through their beady, slot-pupiled eyes. Roderic detested them, not least because Egan seemed delighted by their presence and was apt to detail just how very well suited to the terrain they were. All well and good, but Roderic was not a goat, he was not riding a goat, and, no matter how much he might wish it, his companion was not going to turn into a goat. He saw no good reason why he should know so very much about them. 

Egan, annoyingly light spirited already, seemed to get more cheerful the higher the road they followed climbed. His fidgeting, however, got worse. The road wound along the side of a ravine, much like the one Roderic had previously fantasized about Egan tumbling down as it turned out. Egan, riding just ahead of Roderic, peered over the side of it, fascinated, it seemed, by the open air and the steep falling away of stone. So fascinated, in fact, that he began to lean out of the saddle, eyes wide and his face strange with some emotion Roderic could not interpret. Egan's grip on the reins began to loosen.

"Hey!" Roderic called sharply. Egan blinked and flailed himself back into the saddle. He turned to Roderic wit ha sheepish grin. Roderic frowned. "If heights bother you, don't look. The last thing I need is for you to tumble down the side of the mountain in a swoon."

Egan smiled. "I'll keep that in mind."