A Colt Named Asper

Chapter Two

Homeward

Asper, Clyde, Lee, Golden, and Radiant had reached the edge of town just as the bell stopped its last reverberating ring.  The town bell did a wonderful job of reaching across most of the valley, and letting the ponies know the time.  It was loud enough and at a perfect deepness of sound that rattled your ribs in a pleasant, yet urgent way.  letting you know it was time to be somewhere, for someone, at least.

To Asper and company, it was very close to time to be home.  As they moved between the first two houses on the East end of town, Clyde spoke first.

“It was fun, guys,” he said, a slight lisp of sorts to his speech, making guys more of a guizz.  “But Golden and I had better head home quick.  Ma’ won’t like it if we are late for grub ‘gain,” Clyde said, then smiled his crooked smile, head tilted a bit to the left.

“Clyde’s right, Asper, Lee, Radiant,” Golden spoke each name looking toward the one she referred to.  Asper got his smile, Lee a brief scowl for his antics, before she let up and gave him a dismissive chuckle, and Radiant got a grin and a small hug.  “We have to get goin’ from here if we want to get there on time,”

“Yeah, we get ya’,” Asper replied, smiling at the pair as they turned North, and took their first few steps, though still looking back at the group.  “Have a safe walk you two!”

“Don’ get in twoble!” Radiant tried her best to pronounce the ‘r’, but her little filly self couldn’t quite manage it yet, so she just looked up at the receding pair with a big grin and a couple missing baby teeth.

“Yeah!  Take care! Next time I’ll get you a bit too Clyde, you lunk!” Lee called out to the two.  He meant nothing against Clyde, and the all of them knew that, just a bit of friendly jabbing.

“Awe Lee, you’f got ta have a good time without cauz’in trouble once in yer life!  Take care now!” Clyde hollered back at the little colt, his deeper voice telling of his admittedly advanced age compared to his friends.  He really should have been out of school a few years ago.  Even though his friends didn’t care about any of that, they knew as well as he why he hadn’t gone into older life.

Clyde was a bit slow in speech, a bit slow in thought, and a bit slow in his growing up.  Not physically, but definitely mentally.  No one minded that though, so they went on.

Lee and Asper took to a conversation about school that day, while Radiant chased a couple fireflies and lightning bugs in some of the tall grass stubbornly growing at the base of the tavern wall as they passed through its alley.  She could disappear completely into the clumps of greenery, and seemingly from their world, only to pop out a few lengths further along the wall, a bug on her nose lighting up her face with its otherworldly glow.

“So I know you are working on way harder stuff than me, Asper, but how did you do when you learned fractions?” Lee quizzed, having struggled with the lesson earlier.  Being taught not by the teacher, Mr. Fields, or even by Asper, but rather by Mable Ricket, daughter of the towns lead, and only, proper carpenter.

While she understood the lesson just perfectly, she was not the most patient of teachers, expecting, if not demanding, that whoever she was paired with pick up whatever lesson it was right away.  She would get increasingly frustrated, eventually just giving up entirely and giving whoever it was a silent treatment.  As though they were choosing not to learn what she was supposed to teach them.

“Ah, I get ya’ Lee.  Yeah, I understand fractions well enough.  Smaller ones at least, they are the easiest without paper.  Much larger than tenths and I have to write them down.” Asper sagely replied, “So what’s got you down and all?”

“Well, I don’t quite get it.  one over another, or three twos or something… I might not have payed the best attention either.” Lee reluctantly released, not really one to reveal many faults.  “Could you try to explain them a bit before we get to my lane?”

“Well, I can try.  So,” Asper started, pausing just a moment to check for Radiant.  They had passed the tavern and were almost off main street now, and she wasn’t hopping ahead like usual, pausing, and looking around, he felt a bump on his hindquarters.

“Ooofff!” came a little voice from his left rear leg.  Her little face popping out a moment later with a scrunchy nose and stuck out tongue.

“So…” Lee prompted, his wings flutter a little with urgency.  He had to head off at the end of the block, just past the Barber and half the general store.

“So, you have, say, four apples, right?” Asper prompts, moving forward again with Radiant headbutting his leg lightly, being a little filly of rage at having had her firefly scared off by the impact with Asper.

Lee, simply nodded.  He has four apples back at his house actually, his mom had just gotten them the previous day.

“So you have four apples, and there is one of you.  How many apples do you get?” Asper starts off easy.  He always found it best to build up from the simplest version he could think of.

“Well, I have four.” Lee replies, not seeing it yet, but waiting.  Asper had helped him understand several things before.

“Well now, you still have four apples, but I am there, and you are going to give me an equal share.”

“Well, that’s… two.  That’s two apples each.”

Asper stopped, having reached the corner.  “So we each get two.  Well, now you, me, Golden, and Radiant are there.  We each want the same amount.”

“Sounds like you get all of my apples… one each.” Lee says.  This was making sense, but these weren’t fractions.

“So, there’s fractions.  First was four over one, you get four apples.  Four over two, we get two apples.  Then four over four, we each get one.”

“...Oh…” Lee was putting two and two together, or maybe he was taking them apart.  But the brief lesson did help.  “I get it better now, I should be able to follow along in class tomorrow!”

“I hope so, they all go something like that, you just gotta adjust the numbers a bit.  But you better go!  Your ma’ will tan your hide if you show up any later!” Asper reminded him.

“OH!  Right!  See you Asper!  And You Radiant! Have a good night guys!”  Lee took off at a gallop, he had a few houses to go before his came up, and if his mom caught him late he wouldn’t sit for a week.

“Bye Lee!” Radiant called, sing-songing her way around Asper to lead the way.  “I am the lea-dew!  I will take us to ower house!”

Asper was a good sport, and joined in on the tuneless song.  And together they hopped and scotched their way to the church across the square from them.

“You are the lead-er!  Take us to our home!”  Asper broke out in a full grin, hopping around like a filly half his age and losing what cares he did have.

Before them was a squat, stone building with a wood door in the middle of the front, two small round windows on either side of the door, and a peaked roof with what looked like a moon-eclipsed sun hanging from the main beam.  Inside they would find Glad Lily waiting for them to open the door and ready to rib Asper a bit for being late, even if it was by just a few minutes.  Radiant would be sent right along to supper, but Asper would have to sweep the entry first, like he did every day he was late.

He didn’t mind that.  Not when he had Golden, Clyde, Lee, and little Radiant to keep him company.  He lived in a peaceful little town, removed from the dangers of the outside world, and the bustle of the bigger cities.  He only knew about one of those firsthoof, but through secondary sources had heard plenty about both.

As Radiant and Glad laughed their way off toward the little kitchen in the room they all used as a home, Asper picked up the rough twig broom, and gave a first sweep of the dirty floor.  Thinking more about how far he had come as he swept the entry.  When he opened the door to sweep out the dirt, as he had done many nights before, he had also opened the door to where he had been, letting back in memories that, for a long time, he had tried to forget and live without.