The Boy and His Bull.

[Phersades 1165]

The Boy and His Bull
The Death of Shortcake

 

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[!] A painting of Shortcake.

Spoiler

 

 

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Just like any other bull, Shortcake Kortrevich’s life began as normal as it should. Born on a small closed off farm somewhere, though it did not matter much. His life started simple, he would awaken, graze, and run around.. Answering to his keeper, who unlike Nikolai, was much larger.. His eyes of blue flame and his stature towering over all. He was good though, gentle enough to the animals he kept.

The small calves' routine stayed the same for a couple weeks or so, before he found himself in the arms of his keeper.. Settled within his master's large feathers, the warmth of the creature's body kept the unnamed calf warm as they ventured somewhere up north. Eventually, when the vulture man came to a stop, Shortcake was placed before a five year old boy of blue eyes and black hair.. His accent was much different than anything the small animal had heard prior. What was odd about the small human, the calf noticed, was the blue scar that rippled bright above the child’s right eye.

“Here you go, as promised” The voice of the creature spoke as a lead was tied around the calves neck, the other end being handed to the small child.

The child, who would later introduce himself to the calf as Nikolai Mikhail Kortrevich, nodded up to the vulture with an excited gaze. He had given up a lot for this animal, but he was just a child who would know little of the consequences for his trade. At the moment though, he did not care. He had obtained his cow! Just what he wanted, and the malflame scar that sat on his face now mattered little in the span of it all. This unnamed cow was his and that was all that mattered.

 

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“Lord Nikolai..?”

The voice called out from behind the doors of his room, the knocking accompanying the sound. He opened his eyes and laid there in bed for a moment longer in silence before the voice and it’s knocking came again

“Lord Nikolai..? Szam, but ve think et es time.. Ve vill be waiting for vy en the stables..”

The footsteps of the unknown maid were heard as they left the hall, and returned downstairs. Nikolai, sometime after hitting his twenty-eight nameday, watched as Shortcake slowly deteriorated.. Twenty-three years that cow had lived in Nikolai’s care and here, after all this time, he would now watch as the cow passed. Shortcake was in pain, but Nikolai made sure his last couple of days were comfortable.

Slowly, he stood from bed and got dressed in his favorite suit. It was his fathers, a white furred maroon cape with a black suit, yellowish gold buttons adorning the piece. He knew it would be a hard day, so he dressed the part as he descended to the barns within the gardens.
 

 

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Nikolai remembered the moment he got Shortcake.. It was horrific despite his prize. The child had just wanted to explore some, venture from Karosgrad like the grown up he felt he was. His brother and sisters could do it, and Emelya was training to be a Dame one day. He was strong, and nobody could tear the young Kortrevich down… until he realized he was lost and the wind that carried the coming blizzard picked up. He had food with him, and his coats were more than enough to keep the young lord warm so in his quick thinking, he found safety under the overgrown roots of a large tree somewhere near the Rimevald”s edge. Unfortunately for the Kortrevich, he had been followed. Stalked by a creature that would sit within his mind for possibly the rest of his life. It blocked the child's exit, grabbing his small head with talons that could do their job quickly should the monster wish.. Instead, he spoke to Nikolai

It asked him for his soul, and said it would not hurt… What the child got from the discussion though was that he could have taken this trade, offered the monster a part of his soul in exchange for something. Strength, an item, anything he wanted.. Or.. He was smart enough to figure that if this thing wanted his soul, it’d have taken it by force anyways.

“I want a cow” Nikolai said quickly, no hesitation in his answer.

“A cow..? Is.. That all?” The thing asked in question

“Yep.. A cow”

And just like that, the creature, confused in its entirety, took the little boy out from his spot and walked him back out towards the main roads as the storm settled, and somehow, at some point, sent him home with a cow just as small as the child was.

 

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He took the best care of Shortcake, and in turn, Shortcake brought the boy solace through his life.. Shortcake sat there happily as the child would crawl into haystacks when the inferi nightmares kept his nights sleepless. He felt as if he protected the Kortrevich that fed and loved him so well. Nikolai woke up every morning to tend to the animal. Brushing him, feeding him, bathing him, talking to him.. All of which he did out of love, and in the times when his father hid him away from the world due to the blue scar that illuminated his face, Nikolai’s only friend had been and stayed the bull that grew with him. In return for the strawberries and kale, Shortcake offered the attentive listening and company that the boy needed in his younger years.

The bull saw it all.. He listened as the child ranted within the barns about Isabel’s brash behavior or the pain he went through when he lost his eye to the malflame once more. 

 

Once again, he would crawl into the hay at the age of ten to escape the nightmares.. 

 

He listened to Nikolai gush about the Mondblume, or express his fears and concerns on the arranged marriages. He watched Nikolai pace back and forth before the decision to leave home settled with him and complained little when Kortrevich brought him to Lubbas keep.. He listened to the boy express his thoughts on letting Isabel go, or the anger that he felt over it all; The anger that bubbled within him when it came down to those who manipulated him, the anger over losing his father, the anger from the irrationality of his siblings or how badly they listened or cared. How much he hated Margot and his brother at the time, or how sparse time with Vera became after she took up being a ward of Sigismund.. Shortcake watched it all. He watched as Nikolai grew into a man; the excitement

that came from him as he was awarded new jobs, as he planned the wedding that fell through.. He watched as Nikolai grew into a father figure, his focus on the growing family that finally refilled the halls of Jerovitz with laughter and voices that kept the Lord a little less lonely like he was when he was a boy. 

Shortcake sympathized with the grown man as he crawled back into the Haystack to violently sob over the bull, tears falling for the Mondblume who he still loved so, and had to just help lay to rest, still covered in her blood.

Shortcake watched the man live on, through the ups and downs, and never once did his care falter. Nikolai still loved Shortcake as much as he did when the bull fell into his care. He provided Shortcake his own love, Strawberry, the cow gifted to Isabel Mondblume up until her death where the two cows were reunited in Jerovitz with all of their kin. The bull lived his days happily, and never worried about a single thing


At last though, Shortcake would watch as the farmhands around him tended to the area quietly until Nikolai walked into the barn. The lord kneeled before the twenty-three year old bull, reaching to scratch under his chin that he seemed to have trouble holding up now.. Nikolai’s heart ached as he watched the bull attempt to look up at him before feeling too tired, and settling it back down on the ground below. Over the next hour, Nikolai would sit on the floor before the animal.. Speaking to him quietly to relay recent news that he hadn’t time to tell the bull over the last week. Laying items down like the replica plushie that Isabel had made for Nikolai of the bull, or the last cape Jan wore before his death. Eventually, one of the farmhands settled a hand on Nikolai’s shoulder to let him know that the time had come to allow for them to let the bull rest.

With a heavy and shaky inhale, Nikolai would have nodded with tears in his eyes as he placed a hand on the cows head and through hoarse words, managed to let out a simple goodbye.

“Spasiba, bud..- Ai? Spasiba for staying with eam as long as vy did and through all that..”

And within minutes, Shortcake's head laid on the Lord's lap never to lift again by itself. The man found himself quiet for the rest of his day in silent pain until the news came hours later that some stalls down, the lady mondblume's cow, Strawberry, died as well.

It came as a shock to Nikolai, this detail that some would find so small.. But it brought him a sense of peace to know that who he considered to be his best friend did not leave on his own, to be so fortunate to have passed with the one he loved as well. Nikolai thought only few could be so lucky to have led a life like Shortcake, and still left the realm in the company of another.

The day finished slowly, and despite it all, when Nikolai finally got to  rest for the next day, he had found that for the first time in twenty some years, he had slept as peacefully as he ever had.. How odd. 

 

 

Spoiler

This post is a couple IRP years late, but thats fine, thats okay. 

 

[ibraheemc2000 2592]

Spoiler

This was the most beautiful post I ever read on the lotc forums. I actually let out a tear from this story. Well done.. well done..