Beautiful
By Starwinder
OW
Vin/Ezra Friendship or pre-slash
"We gotta lead the horses from here," Vin said swinging down and turning to face Ezra who still sat on Chaucer's back, looking at him dubiously.
Vin grinned. "Ain't much further. Promise." He looked up at Ezra, eyes twinkling, "Ya come this far...."
Ezra heaved a put upon sigh. "And why that is I'll never know."
Vin's grin widened, "Reckon ya trust me some... just a mite at least. Ya been followin' along for nigh three days now. That's a bit of a ride to take just cause someone says wanna show ya sumthin'... less ya trust them."
Ezra shook his head but he was smiling indulgently and Vin knew that he wasn't about to turn around and ride home now. Vin had told him that whatever was up ahead was worth the ride and Ezra would never head back without seeing for himself whether or not it was.
Ezra huffed another sigh and declared, "This had better be worth it."
"Won't know iff'n ya don't keep followin'."
Ezra waved a hand towards the narrow trail that they were on, "Lead on McDuff."
Vin grinned. He didn't have a clue who McDuff was but he'd heard the expression before so he knew what it meant. He turned to lead Peso up the narrow trail.
Half a mile or so farther along he stopped and hooked the stirrups up over the saddle horn, and lifted his saddlebags and bedroll off of Peso. "Gets real tight up ahead. Ya might want to do the same." He gestured towards Peso with the hand that held the saddlebags.
After Ezra had hung his stirrups up and taken his saddlebags and bedroll off of Chaucer, they moved on.
The trail did narrow sharply and for nearly an hour they led the horses between canyon walls so tight that the animals had scraps along their flanks. Finally it opened out and Ezra could hear water rushing and tumbling up ahead. A fine mist drifted out of the gap ahead of them.
Vin tied Peso to a nearby tree and took the saddle off.
Ezra followed suit.
Vin stood watching until he was done then asked, "Ready to see what I wanted ta show ya?"
"Yes," Ezra replied and came to stand beside him. "Show me."
Vin reached out and took Ezra's arm. "It gets slippery, watch your step."
Ezra nodded and let Vin lead him around the bend to where the canyon opened out wide and long.
A gasp escaped him when he saw what Vin had led him all this way to see.
It was a box canyon, the closed end hidden behind soaring waterfalls. There were at least six distinct tiers of falls, the lowest just a few feet high, the highest soaring hundreds of feet up. Water cascaded down in a curtain that covered three sides of the canyon and the sun shining through the mist created by the multiple falls crashing in the lake that took up half the canyon created incredible rainbows, double ones even a few triple ones.
"Lord, Vin," Ezra said in an awed voice, "this is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
"Yeah," agreed softly, "beautiful," but he wasn't looking at the rainbows.
He was looking at Ezra.
The End