Chapter 873: Julian And Rowena

In a beautiful valley, two young people, one man and woman lived together peacefully in the small hut they've built for themselves. They settled near the woods and river, a perfect space to get firewood, log and close enough to have fresh water. 

Their hut was small, but it was very peaceful. There was even a clothesline with some clothes hung out, a young woman hung her clothes as the sun shone down her face. 

Rowena enjoyed the sun in her face and loved the wind that blew through the valley. Each day was a little repetitive but it was also very nice. It was a slow and quiet change of pace for her.

Until the door to the hut suddenly opened.

"Rowena?" Julian called out. "Look at what I found."

It was never actually that peaceful when Julian was around, he was in a league of adventure on his own. Rowena looked over her shoulder, her golden hair flying behind her as she stared at her friend. "What is it?"

"I was fixing something in the house, and I think I accidentally dropped this pouch. It looked very tattered and I was about to throw it out, but there were seeds inside. Is this yours?" Julian asked.

Rowena's eyes widened as she recognized it. 

She finished drying her laundry then went over to Julian to pick up the small brown pouch. Ever since she and Julian moved away from Ashland and traveled, she always brought and carried the pouch because she intended to actually plant and watch them grow. 

It was a happy memory from when she first experienced the taste of freedom.

Of course, due to the lifestyle that Rowena and Julian both led for the past year, it had been very difficult for her to actually catch a breath when they moved from one city to another. She ended up forgetting about the pouch of seeds.

"Yes, this is mine, I got it from Almere." Rowena explained and happily collected it from Julian. 

"Almere?"

"You know, it always slipped past my memory that I had this, I couldn't even get a pot to plant and watch it grow. It's a good thing that it's been stored nicely. Now that we're settling down here, don't you think it would be a good idea to plant them now?"

"Of course, we're already farmers aren't we?" Julian grinned and motioned over to the patch they've made together. 

Since they started to live in the valley, they made a practical decision of also growing food for themselves.

However, Julian's eyes suddenly widened when he saw a familiar dark horse grazing near his vegetables. "Oh dang, it's Hades. Get away there, boy! We let you roam around free and that's how you're going about with your previous masters, huh?"

Rowena chuckled. 

Julian was brilliant and an excellent mentor, but whenever it came to certain things, he also had a silly side to him as well. 

Whether it was the fact that he actually got seasick very fast or didn't do well when it came to Hades. 

"Come on, it's been nearly two years but you haven't actually gotten along with Hades?" Rowena teased.

"Well, he only likes you," Julian said. "He doesn't like any other humans."

Rowena whistled and Hades reluctantly stopped plundering some of the planted vegetables and moved away. Soon he returned to Cinna's side.

"Wait a second!" Julian's eyes widened. "He got some of the tomatoes!"

"Just leave him be.

" Rowena smiled.

Even though both Julian and Rowena agreed to let the two horses roam around freely, especially since the horses had served them well for the past year since they left Ashland, the two decided to stick around. 

The beautiful dark stallion, Hades, and the beautiful brown horse, Cinna continued to graze and stay around near Rowena and Julian's hut. 

This time, Hades offered the small cherry tomato to Cinna who received it with a smile.

"Look at how cute they are." Rowena gushed. "What do you think of them getting cute foals? Wouldn't that be wonderful, Julian?"

Julian's eyes widened. "F-Foals?!"

"What's so wrong with baby horses?" Rowena tilted her head at him.

She watched his face grow red as he coughed. 

"Obviously, you aren't familiar with horse mating... and I'm not interested in acting as the midwife for Cinna."

"A midwife for a horse?"

Julian nodded. "It's another thing you clearly don't know because you haven't lived on a farm. Do you want me to go on the details of what it's like to cut open a mother pig to save its piglets? So thinking about foals at a time like this is..."

"Okay, I get it." Rowena waved a hand at him. "No need to go through the details. Although, that sounds like a worse case scenario. I'm sure there's also a natural birth. Horses can live on their own after all."

"Maybe, but just so you know, having babies is no simple matter." Julian said as he gazed seriously at Rowena. 

Rowena raised a brow and grinned at him. "I just said that maybe having foals was a cute thing."

However, Julian couldn't even look her in the eye. Instead, he quickly averted his gaze and clicked his tongue. "You may look like you've grown up, but you still sound like a kid sometimes. Practically clueless since when we first met huh?"

"Clueless? We didn't meet when we were kids, I was already a young adult. Regardless, let's stop." Rowena chuckled and checked the small pouch of seeds. "Instead of thinking about horses and foals, how about we think of raising something else?"

"Something else?!"

"Yeah, let's grow these plants." Rowena grinned and raised the pouch. "What were you thinking?"

"Oh." Julian laughed and nodded. He spun around and headed for the hut. "Okay, okay, so you meant that. Gotcha. I'll go grab some buckets and bring some water for the plants."

"Do you need some help?" Rowena smiled.

"It's fine," Julian said. "Unless you're interested in getting a bath at the river, you can wait here and let me do all the work."

"Well, if you insist on taking care of the water, I'll wait for you here and till the ground a little."

"Sounds like a plan then."

When Julian went off to collect the water and brought two buckets with him, Rowena watched him leave. Even though it's been nearly two years since Rowena left her kingdom, it wasn't easy to forget the lessons she received from Lady Mary and Lady Liz. 

Rowena brushed a hair behind her ear and chuckled.

"If these two women learned that I was living alone with a man in this hut for the past year, I'm sure they'll both be entirely livid. What did they always say before?" she muttered to herself.

Rowena's gaze flitted to the two horses who were acting lo

vey-dovey in the distance. 

"Ah, it's impossible for a man and woman to be merely friends... but that's where they're wrong. Although, I suppose it can't be helped that Julian is a man... and he's around the age for marriage. It must be hard for him to be just living with me, poor guy."

She thought about it some more. The past year living with Julian was wonderful and very lovely, they were such good friends and had a strong bond. However, Rowena had to admit that it was also getting a bit too monotonous. 

"After we plant this, maybe we should think about seeing the world again? He looks like he could use meeting someone other than me." Rowena chuckled.