The artwork used is “Waterfall” by JordiGart, which can be found here: https://i.imgur.com/DyXPDbL.jpg
They’d finally made it out of the rain – and he was glad for it. As his horse continued along the stone bridge he looked behind him to see that his cargo was still intact; the bundle containing several vials was still there. Good. He took in a long breath.
“The air is so much clearer here, don’t you think?” he asked his horse.
The horse snorted.
“Oh,” said the man, “your poor feet must be killing you.”
He patted the horse’s neck and smoothed its mane.
“The next town is just at the bottom of this hill, in the valley. We can rest there.”
The horse made a noise that sounded like a grumble.
“We have enough coin left,” said the man, “I could get you a carrot!”
The horse snorted again.
“Alright, four carrots, and I’ll see if I can’t get you a nicer stall in the stable than last time.”
Their path began to slope downhill, and the horse slowed its steps without even the slightest touch of the rein from the man. The waterfall was a welcome sound after all that time spent traveling through farm fields.
“Passersby are nice,” said the man, “but waterfalls are so much nicer to hear, don’t you think, Falhof?”
Falhof, the horse, made a noise that the man had learned to recognize as agreement. As the path grew a bit steeper, the horse stumbled for a step.
“Steady now,” said the man.
He kept a hand on the rein as they regained their footing. The path soon leveled out – now all that remained was to follow the cobblestone road to the town of Hammel’s Crossing. The man patted Falhof once more.
“I knew we could do it!”
Falhof whinnied as if proud of himself.
“We’ll be there just in time to get some supper, and in the morning we can sell the medicine, and before you know it we’ll be back home!”
Falhof tossed his head a little, clearly excited about the idea of returning home.
“You know, I think I feel a song coming on,” said the man.
Falhof snorted.
“Oh come now, I’m not so bad at it! And besides, who can hear us?”
Falhof’s ears twitched as he attempted to flatten them against his head, but he kept up his steady pace down the path.
The man cleared his throat and thought of a tune he’d heard in his travels.
“Field and plain have I traveled,
and my journey is still long to go,
but mountain and river I’ll face,
if only to see you again;
The rivers I wish you could see them,
so blue and clear as the sky,
and more pretty still would they seem,
to me,
reflected in your spark’ling eyes!”
Falhof made a noise as if to sigh with relief.
“Shall we have another verse?” said the man with no small amount of glee.
Falhof sped up into a trot as the man continued.
“For the road is rough
and the way is long,
and my feet they’ve grown so weary,
but my darling, my dear,
there’s no need to fear,
for I’ll be home again very soon!”
The man chuckled as Falhof snorted at him.
“Alright, alright, that one’s done now,” he said.
He paused.
“But this one is really fun!”
Falhof made a noise as if to groan, but the man kept singing as many traveling songs as he could think of. They arrived at Hammel’s Crossing just as the sun began to sink behind the mountains.
This prompt was found on the subreddit r/writing prompts here: https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/gk86y7/ip_by_the_waterfall/
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