Making a friend

The boy was smiling as he now had an opportunity to get his hands on a sturdy riding horse, he had only seen the richest of the farmers owning a horse, and they were shabby in comparison to this one.

It stood tall with a black mane and a coat with black and white patches covering it. Which made the boy ask himself, 'Am I evil for killing someone? Or am I good for doing that, for he tried to kill me first? And it's not like he can hurt anyone nor do anything now that he is dead, and he was a traitor to boot.'

He let out a loud sigh, and the invisible force previously present in his chest vanished. But he did not think of that, for he had now a horse to tame.

He slowly walked towards the horse and began to pet it, for he had seen the rich farmer Mikael do so to calm their horse before mounting it. While he stroked the horse, he could hear it nighing at his touch.

The horse's coat was so smooth to his touch, and he started to talk to it in his boyish voice. "Oh, you don't have to be afraid of me. I won't hurt you, big guy. I wonder if you have a name."

The boy moved and petted him while he talked until they came face to face, now staring into the horse's eyes. "What's your name, big guy?" The horse just looked at him like a horse does cause they don't understand human language. But the boy was president in knowing if it had a name.

So he turned towards the corpse with missing boots and said. "What could you have named him, I wonder." Then turn to face the horse again. 'The spots on this horse look like patches of snow on the muddy ground. Should I call him Lera (mud)? No, that feels wrong.' the boy looked into its eyes and asked, "should I call you Lera?" but the horse gave no response.

'Okay, seems like he did not like the name, maybe Måne (Moon)?' "So, what about Måne?" they gave the same expression, which happened to be blank. The boy was adamant about finding its name. "Then what about Skymmning (Twilight)?" the horse's ears moved at the word's sound, and the boy took that as a yes. "It's a cool name you have, Skymmning."

The boy could not stop petting the horse. Then, as his hands brushed against its black mane, the horse started to move a little and began to twist its head towards the boy, which made the boy ecstatic and began to scratch its mane very gently with a wide grin. "okay, Skymmning, I will try to mount you now so don't be scared."

He lifted his left foot towards the left stirrup and began to push himself up, but the horse moved and became a little anxious by the movements on its back. He started to stroke the horse's side to coax it into letting him ride it.

And made another try, but the horse moved, and the boy nearly got caught in the stirrup and dragged on the ground, but he had quick reflexes and good intuition, so he managed to grab hold of the saddle before he would have been thrown and dragged on the ground. He then pulled himself atop the horse.

But the horse started to move around and became more and more unhinged as it thrashed around trying to get the pesky boy off its back, but the boy was just as president as Skymmning (Horse) was. So he tried the same tactics he used in the beginning, coaxing.

"Big guy, you don't have to be scared, I am, but a boy, and you are a big horse." He started to pet the horse gently, and with each stroke, the horse began to get calmer. "Skymmning, I have never ridden before, so you have to help me a little, I want to go to Umeå, and I can get you some good food there. But only if you are nice; otherwise, you get to eat grass. deal?"

The horse was now calm and collected, but it could not speak to the boy, so he simply stroked it and asked once more. "Deal?" while leaning forward to reach its ear so the horse could hear him better and scratching its mane as he knew it might like it. And that made the horse nigh, which the boy took as Yes.

So he grabbed hold of the reigns and tried to remember how Mikael the farmer rode his horse. But the boy wanted to do it slowly and carefully, so he didn't hurt himself or Skymmning. "So Skymmning, what's your story, huh? Must be quite interesting for you, as you belonged to that traitor over there." The horse did not move nor make a sound.

But the boy did not care that he talked to a horse, for he had not been able to speak to anyone since his family's funeral, which was six days ago.

"Well, regardless of what you did, you did not stop me from killing the traitor. You probably didn't even know that he would give the Russians the crown's documents."

The horse neighed after he said the word 'Russian' in a very spiteful tone. "From the looks of things, you must have just done what was told of you, which is commendable, but I guess he did not dare tell you what he was doing. For you seem like someone who would definitely fight for our King."

The boy continued to rabble on about all sorts of things while stroking the horse's mane and sometimes clapping the horse's sides depending on what the boy said.

After a while, the horse started to move as it felt restless, which made the boy's face light up, and he began to steer the horse gently towards the south where he was going.

"Skymmning, let's find a place to rest and sleep before night falls, and it becomes cold and chilly outside." The horse, as always, gave no response but galloped along the path while the boy continued to go on about his life.