Knight Quest. Chris Blake

he is. The horse… not Philbert!”

      Tom looked out at the plump horse that was busy munching grass outside. He doesn’t look like he can gallop very fast, Tom thought. “He looks… er… solid,” he said, nodding.

      Al swigged from his flagon of mead. “Aye. He’s called Acorn. I gave him that name because I’ve been trying this trick where I pick up things from the ground while we’re riding.” Al grinned. “At first it was big stuff like this flagon here, or a turnip. Now I can pick up a single acorn when we’re galloping at full speed.”

      His words were drowned out by a terrible din coming from outside. A herd of squealing pigs stampeded past the hut.

      “Oh no!” Al wailed. “My pigs must have escaped from the field.”

      Tom jumped to his feet and followed Al outside. “Don’t worry,” he shouted above the noise. “We’ll help you catch them, won’t we, Isis?”

      Isis looked uncertainly at the fat, pink animals. “We will?”

      “Let’s see who can catch the most!” Tom challenged.

      “You’re on!” she said.

      When they had rounded up all the pigs, Isis was plastered head to toe in mud. “Look at the state of me!” she wailed. Then she grinned at Tom. “At least I rounded up more pigs than you did!”

      Al scratched his head. “Stumped if I know how they got out,” he said.

      Just then, a young man with neatly brushed, long hair strolled past. He tossed a rich blue velvet cloak over his shoulder with a flourish, and kicked Cleo out of the way with a fine leather boot as he stopped just outside Al’s hut and snapped his fingers.

      “Hey, pig-boy!” he called. “Keep your animals under control in future. They’ve almost ruined my father’s garden.”