Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 235

Chapter 235: Just stop it
“Stop what?” Ford asked suspiciously.

“Whatever this is, whatever you’re doing now. You’re getting what you want, and I’m not exactly going to leave you behind with my family’s horse, am I? You pretended to like me, before. Or at least, were polite enough to satisfy your hosts. I’m telling you, you can drop the act. I’ve decided that I won’t be offended.”

Mia’s little speech surprised him.

“The first time I hurt your feelings, you nearly cried in front of everyone,” He reminded.

“I didn’t expect it then,” She shrugged. “Now that I know you a little better, some offensive remarks now and then won’t get to me as easily. Don’t go out of your way to get under my skin, but the act you put up bothers me more than a casual insensitive remark.”

Ford wasn’t sure what to make of this new attitude.

“Why?”

“It’s just us. If you pretend, I have to guess what you’re actually thinking. If you just tell me, I won’t have to try to figure it out. Doesn’t that seem the easier way?” Mia’s mouth pulled to one side in irritation.

“So how would you have me speak to you?” He shifted his weight slightly off the crutch to give his shoulder a break.

“Truthfully,” Mia looked at him, full in the face. “Honestly, like you would have spoken to a friend back home.”

“I didn’t have any friends,” He told her frankly. Her mouth fell open slightly, but before pity could take hold in her expression, irritating him, she pursed her lips and exhaled firmly through her nose.

“Well, you’ve got one now. The way you speak to a friend is with honesty and kindness. You don’t have to hide who you are, or sugarcoat it, but you don’t go out of your way to upset them. Got it?”

“No, not really,” He blinked at her. “Why are we friends?”

“Because you badly need one,” Mia said with a smile, “and I only travel with friends or family.”

“I don’t get a say in this?” Ford wasn’t really in a position to turn down her friendship–he really needed her and had nothing to pay her with at this point–but felt the odd urge to goad her anyway.

Her nostrils flared with ire, amusing him.

“No! We’re friends! End of story!” She declared with a pout.

Ford blinked, and looked away, trying to hide his expression. The impulse to aggravate her grew.

“Fine. I suppose spoiled girls are used to getting what they want. I don’t need to see a tantrum today, so we’ll be friends,” He grumbled.

Sneaking a glance at her face, he was mildly annoyed to see excitement instead of irritation.

“Wonderful,” She smiled. “Great start to a friendship, honesty about your desire to not really be friends.”

“How is that a great start to a friendship?” Her logic was truly baffling.

“I told you, honesty!” She grinned. “Now, we’ve wasted enough time cementing the nature of things. We should get back on the way.”

“And how do I get back on the horse?” Ford looked at the animal’s tall back pointedly, and Mia chewed her lip in thought.

He didn’t see anything elevated in the immediate vicinity, nor, it seemed, did she.

“I have half a plan, but Harley might not like it. We’ll have to see,” Mia took her horse’s reins and directed the animal to step into the cool stream.

Harley whinnied and shook her mane in protest, but Mia stroked the animal’s forelock.

“Come on, girl, I just need you to stand down in the stream bed for a couple of minutes while we get Ford up on your back. It’s the best I can do right now, but next time we stop, we’ll find a nice tall rock for him to climb on, ok?”

“Does she understand you?” Ford hadn’t spent that much time around animals, but in his experience they didn’t comprehend human speech. Was this animal special, or was Mia a little bit crazy?

Or did she have some secondary magic power she hadn’t explained to him?

“Maybe not exactly, but she gets the tone of my voice and my reassurance,” Mia smiled. “I think she’ll stand still for you.”

Ford limped to the horse. Having her stand in the stream bed did lower the animal height somewhat, but not enough to make a significant difference in the difficulty of climbing up.

He recalled how easily Mia had swung herself atop the other horse’s back, putting one foot in the stirrup and pushing off from the ground, swinging the other leg over.

Unfortunately, for him that would either mean standing on his injured leg while he lifted the other, or trying to lift his injured leg and use it to pull himself atop the horse.

Neither was likely to work well.

Mia was looking at him with mild frustration.

“Can you swim?” She asked suddenly.

“What? No, why?” He responded suspiciously. Miners didn’t need to learn how to swim. The only occasion one would have to swim would be if you fell down a shaft and into a pool of water when the pumps failed to get it out.

The coldness of the water would mean death was imminent regardless, so most miners saw little point in learning the skill. There were other, more important ones to have.

Mia sighed. “I was going to walk her to the very deepest part and see if you could swim over and get atop her that way, but it might also leave you both quite cold for a time. Ah well.”

She strode over and pointed.

“I will stabilize you. Put your uninjured foot in the stirrup, leaning on the crutch and on me.”

Several tries and one almost-fall later, Ford was back up in his saddle panting and sweating.

“It would have been easier to walk the rest of the way,” He complained, but Mia smiled at him sweetly.

“I’ll keep that in mind for next time we stop.”