morning, if we have time, I'll teach you a few more useful tricks to add to your arsenal."
"Why not now?"
Skharr looked around. "The smell of the bodies will bring more of the godsbedammed stink-breath bastards upon us. It would be better to put as much distance between them and us as we can."
Brahgen nodded and cleaned the blood carefully from his weapon while the barbarian did the same. Satisfied with his effort, he stowed it and mounted Jenny.
"You'll have to tell me one of these days why you never ride Horse," the youth said.
"I’m sure I already told you—or I’ve said it so often that it should be common knowledge. I won't force a brother to bear my weight. I wouldn't carry him so why should he carry me?"
"Because he's a horse. That's what they are for."
Horse snorted softly and derisively, and Jenny answered with a loud, mocking bray as she jumped and almost knocked Brahgen from his perch.
"They think all you're good for is to provide them with food," he told him and patted the stallion on the neck. "There is more to friendship than usefulness."
"You want me to be friends with a donkey?"
"She has carried your lazy ass without complaint. The least you can do is be friendly about it."
Brahgen looked at Jenny, who brayed again loudly before she began to plod forward.
"All right," the dwarf muttered. "I think I understand. But how do I speak to her like you do?"
"You listen. And you pay attention. Horses, donkeys, and beasts of all kinds speak not only with the noises that they make but with every inch of their bodies. Listen to that, and eventually, you'll understand what they want to tell you."
"Truly, it sounds like a load of what Jenny dropped this morning."
Horse nickered.
"Don't be mean," Skharr responded. "What you dropped was not any more appealing."
Chapter Six
"She did not say that."
"Why would I lie?"
"I don't know. Why would a barbarian lie about being able to speak to animals?"
Skharr looked at him where he was perched on the saddle. "If you think I lie about understanding them, why would you concern yourself with what is or isn’t being said?"
He made a sound point. Brahgen wasn't quite sure if he believed him when he said he could understand what his horse was saying. It seemed both impossible and ridiculous. Still, the two went about their day with an uncanny silent understanding that made it difficult to deny there was something there.
It felt impossible, and yet a niggling suspicion had settled in the back of his head and wouldn't let him simply discard it as the mad ramblings of an idiot barbarian.
"She cannot mean that I am the heaviest load she's ever had to carry," Brahgen stated finally and realized he had begun to braid his thick black beard again. It was a habit he reverted to when thinking hard and he'd tried to cast it aside but had not been quite as successful as he had hoped.
"Why not?"
"Because she worked for my uncle and I know for a fact that he loaded the poor donkeys with as much as they could carry. And even then, the rest of the dwarves of my clan were heavier than I am."
Skharr leaned closer and Jenny snorted and brayed softly as she tossed her head.
"Ah. Not the heaviest but the most uncomfortable. You lean back in the saddle and your weight shifts with every step. It's uncomfortable for you and makes you feel like every step is jarring into you, and it’s uncomfortable for her as well. You merely need to straighten your back a little and you should be fine."
Brahgen narrowed his eyes skeptically. Horse whinnied softly as Skharr approached the warhorse and gave the beast an apple to settle him. Both had been nervous from the moment they had entered the damn forest. It hadn't improved but if the map told him anything, the dwarf could tell that they were most of the way through.
When his companion wasn't looking, he straightened his back and tried to settle his rear end a little more comfortably.
"How's that, then, Jenny?" he asked and kept his voice low. "I don't mean to make this uncomfortable for both of us. I haven't ridden much, and it's…well, this much time spent on the saddle is not a pleasant experience for either of us."
Jenny showed none of the personality she had responded with when Skharr spoke to her, but her tail swished from side to side and she lowered