Anya quickly grew tired of her milkmaid chores. She came from a noble family and had sought employment as a concubine. She wasn’t used to hard labor like this! When a smell came from Jess and the former Prince began to fuss, Anya gladly took the excuse to have a break. She changed Jess’s diaper and nursed her, all the while thinking of her next move.
Staying on the farm was not a good long-term plan. She had to leave. But in order to leave, she needed a horse. Traveling by foot was far too dangerous right now. Anya was tempted to steal one of the farm’s horses, but didn’t want to take advantage of people who had opened their home to her. Jess finished suckling and fell asleep. Anya strapped the former Prince to her chest and resumed her chores.
The rest of the day passed by. Anya did her chores, worked on a plan, and tended to little Jess, who was very cute while asleep but fussy when awake. Finally, after dinner, everyone on the farm parted to bed. Anya nursed Jess one more time to lure her to sleep. It worked. With Jess strapped to her back, Anya went to the goats. One, an old billy goat, was not producing kids anymore, and as such would be slaughtered soon.
Anya raised her hands and murmured a soft incantation under her breath. The old goat was surrounded by swirling, glowing light. When it cleared, he had become a young, white female pony, complete with a saddle and reins. Anya sighed in relief. She hadn’t intended on making the goat female, but it happened often with her spells, and was a minor quirk that if she wanted, she could get rid of. Right now, however, she had to conserve as much magic as she could.
The breed of horse that the goat had become was known as a Witch’s Pony. Anya’s family bred them, and as such, she was very familiar with them. A witch could use his or her magic as well as the pony’s inherent magic to travel extraordinarily fast. Anya would need as much magic as possible to use this skill. She mounted the horse, which she dubbed Nan.
“Nan, let us go,” Anya whispered to the new horse. She dug her heels into Nan’s side. Nan promptly took off, taking to a rider like she had been ridden her entire life. Anya carefully began to feed some of her magic into Nan. The night landscape became a blur as they sped towards the Eastern Hills. All the while, Jess continued to sleep in her sling.