15. The Three Outcasts

Misty nipped at still hungover Wayne, who was just trying to pick himself up off the stable floor, and he cursed at the mare with a swat; Ade chuckled as he finished grooming Miles, giving each horse he had groomed an apple as both a distraction and reward. 

“Dodge and the Viper are gonna check out a farmstead ten miles north of here,” Ade informed, cleaning his hands in one of the water buckets. “You can join ‘em if you want, but they leavin’ in twenty.”

Wayne opened his mouth, ready to respond, but instead of words, bile escaped his lips and onto the dried hay beneath his boots; stopping for only a minute to continue throwing up and finally after a few moments, Wayne caught his breath, downed a handful of water from a bucket, then spoke.