Troubled Waters: Day 9

Word Count: 54,047

Summary of Events:

Bergljót, feeling well enough, walked to the window to see if the men had caught Nótt and noticed Hallbjörn was bleeding, so she went outside and climbed the tree in which Hallbjörn was seated watching Nótt inside the barn and tended to the wound. A heavy rain — and need of a new shirt — kept Hallbjörn cooped up, and Bergljót's older sister was not pleased at his presence. Bergljót learned from Hallbjörn that his birthday was in four days, and so she decided they should do something for the occasion, seeing how fortunate he was to be alive, and how he was without his family. Once the weather cleared, Hallbjörn started work with Nótt, which, at this point, was sitting astride the barn wall throwing carrots . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

It didn’t get as close to Nótt as Hallbjörn had been hoping for, but it didn’t go unnoticed; in fact, Nótt jumped at the sight of it, all four of his legs going stiff and slightly spread out, his ears flicking around.

After a moment Nótt turned toward where the carrot had landed and carefully crept toward it.

When he figured out it was a carrot, he ate it eagerly; carrots were his favourite snack.

Once he’d finished it, Hallbjörn selected another carrot and tossed it down, a little ahead of Nótt, who didn’t startle quite as violently, and went for it sooner. Hallbjörn used a couple more carrots to draw Nótt over to the wall which he was straddling and then took the light cord he’d brought along and tied a carrot to it securely before gradually lowering the carrot.

This carrot sent Nótt into a panic. He fled from it and ran around the perimeter for some time before stopping to look at it again. Hallbjörn wiggled the cord and as soon as the carrot moved Nótt was off again.

Hallbjörn tried to keep the carrot as still as possible the next time around, but Nótt still wouldn’t approach it and ran around again.

It wasn’t until he’d looked at the unmoving — albeit floating — carrot almost a dozen times that Nótt actually approached it, but then he bumped it with his own nose, setting it moving again, and off he went.

By the time Nótt hazarded a bite at the carrot Hallbjörn’s backside was starting to feel numb from sitting on the stone. When Nótt realised it was a carrot he ate it readily, even pulling the cord into his mouth until he’d chewed the carrot out of it.

Hallbjörn then pulled the cord back up and tied another carrot to it, grimacing as he touched the horse-slobbered cord to untie it and retie it around the carrot, which was of a slightly different diameter.

Again he lowered the carrot and Nótt panicked upon seeing it coming, but Hallbjörn didn’t tease the cord at all, he just waited patiently for Nótt to settle down enough to realise that it was just another carrot and eat it again.

“Hello Nótt,” Hallbjörn said once the carrot was eaten.

Immediately Nótt panicked and tore around the track again. He ran wildly and for longer than he’d done with the carrot.

“Easy Nótt, please,” Hallbjörn said. “You know me, don’t you?”

He kept talking, but Nótt didn’t seem to be hearing him, he was just running around in a mad panic, so Hallbjörn stopped talking and sent another carrot down instead. It took a very long time before Nótt even noticed the carrot, and he was quite wary of coming to eat it.

Surely it would take years before he was able to get Nótt to be civil enough to ride again; and the islanders, he was sure, weren’t going to let him go anywhere until he got Nótt to behave like a civilised horse.