The Job Not Taken // [ Mace + Grace ]
Jun 9, 2017 12:03:41 GMT -5
Post by admin kay on Jun 9, 2017 12:03:41 GMT -5
♕ m a c e ♕
❝ one more word,
and you won't survive ❞
Regalia, his de facto campaign manager, had suggested that he spend a day riding between the farms of the district. It had been a long, long time since he'd been on a horse more than an hour or two. Whicker just couldn't take his weight that long no more, and otherwise, he mostly had no business being outside of the district center. When they visited the orphanage where he'd grown up, they took a carriage. It was just more economical. He'd pointed that out to Reggie but she wouldn't have it. You look like a proper Ten citizen on a horse, and that's all she'd needed to say.
The borrowed stud had not taken kindly to Mace the first mile out of town, but now they'd found a sort of rhythm. As long as Mace let him have plenty of lead, he didn't fuss too much. Mace munched on stringy carrots, feeding off the stud's warmth and the pleasant humidity. He stopped first by a garden and pig farm near town, wishing the residents fat piglets. Now he was far enough from the center that the farms and ranches stretched. Really this hadn't been a terrible plan; if he talked to a dozen people today it would be a miracle.
He approached the next fence with his heart in his throat. It was the first proper ranch he'd come across and he could feel the tug of the path not taken. If he hadn't been reaped, he could have been out there himself, herding cattle and sweating and chewing on sweet grass, just like he was meant to be doing.
Instead he threw the stud's lead around the fence, tied it off and then waddled up to the first person he saw. "Miss Felton, how do you do?" He repeated Reggie's script verbatim ad he doffed his hat. "Might I trouble you for some water?"
