Unforgettable II: Love & War
an excerpt

It seems for the third year running, I cannot get away from the horses. Funny, for someone who used to be deathly afraid of them, I sure write about them a lot.

Glorfindel contemplated this new bit of information. “You do have a point.” He leaned his arms on the tall fence that surrounded his stables and field. One of the sickly looking foals tripped its way over and made a sad sort of noise that resembled a whinny. “At the rate things are going,” Glorfindel admitted, “I may not need the stables very much longer. I have my doubts on whether this next generation will be able to breed or not.”

Pushing the gate open, Glorfindel walked with heavy steps to the stable and opened a box that was nailed to the wall. “Ecthelion believes it to be something in the water or that the feed crops have been bad, though Pengolod assures him that nothing has changed.” From it he took a lump of sugar to give to the foal. He frowned to see it had not followed them, and went back outside, Erestor following.

“I have heard them arguing in council,” said Erestor. They found the foal sitting in the grass nearby, looking utterly exhausted. His mother, who was grazing some distance away, seemed not to notice or even care. “Who do you breed your horses with?”

Glorfindel crouched down next to the foal and offered him the sugar. It was sniffed at, but the horse gave a tired whuffle and leaned his head against Glorfindel instead. “I do that myself.”

Erestor grinned. “I can see how you are having such trouble with them, then.”

“Pardon?” Then Glorfindel heard Erestor snicker, and he shot him a dark look. “Funny, Erestor, very funny. You know what I mean! I do not hire someone to come and take care of it, I just... oh, nevermind.”

“Oh, no sulking, Glorfindel.” Erestor crossed his arms over his chest. “What I meant was, whose horses do you breed yours with? Whose horses sire the ones your mares have, and who do you lend your stallions to?”

“Nobody. Why would I want to give them the advantage? And why would I want to taint the lines I have here?”

Looking down at the struggling foal, Erestor said, “You will have no horses at all if you continue like that. Hundreds of years, and you have not interbred? No wonder the horses are all dying.” He began to walk toward the gate.

“Where are you going?” demanded Glorfindel.

“Stay here. I will be right back.”

Glorfindel spent the time next few minutes coaxing the young horse to stand, and after a few failed steps, actually carried him to the mare. “You take care of your baby, Sunshine. No more abandoning him.”

The mare snorted, and stepped away as soon as the foal tried to nurse.

Giving a snort of his own, Glorfindel walked to the front of the creature and dropped down on one knee. “Look at me.” When the horse continued to graze around Glorfindel’s leg, he took hold of her head and forced her to look at him. “If you are not going to take care of him, then I am sending you off to be made into glue. You want to be made into glue?”

The horse snorted.

“Then take care of your baby.” Glorfindel let go and stood up. He helped the foal to stand again, and this time when the baby started to suckle, the mother stayed put, harrumphing and gnashing her teeth.

A whistle caught Glorfindel’s attention, and he turned to see that Erestor had returned. His friend was riding bareback upon a midnight colored stallion with pure white boots and hooves. Trotting beside him was a dark grey mare, dappled with light grey and brown. “Which ones are your stallions?”

“I only have two. They are still in the stables; they rarely come out anymore.”

Erestor dismounted. “So, if I bring her to them, are they going to be able to handle it?”

“To tell you the truth, I am not sure.”

With a nod, Erestor patted the side of the darker horse. “This is Dragonsong. I doubt you will need to tell him what to do... well, and there he goes...” Erestor and Glorfindel watched as the black stallion sauntered his way down to the end of the pasture where a trio of mares stood.