He couldn't help but exhale in relief when the signal to stop was blown as the sun neared the horizon. His legs ached from the strain of pulling the wagon all day. They'd gone through rocky patches today, a nodus, to an already difficult journey away from his home kingdom. They were now reaching terrain unfamiliar to him. The grassy plains were long gone, now it seemed like they were getting into mountain territory.
He waited, head down, breathing in the air, to be unhitched from the wagon. He knew the routine now. Morning oats, hitched up to the wagon, a brief stop in the middle of the day to graze on the disgusting grasses that he could find, and then at sundown, he would be unhitched, tied up and given more oats and occasionally carrots. It was hardly the noble food he was used to, but if he was to survive...he needed to eat. And a lot of it. If they were heading up into the mountains grass was going to be much harder to find.
Nodus - complication, difficulty
Added Info -In Latin, nodus can mean "knot" or "node"'; the quotation "Dignu svindice nodus," attributed to ancient Roman poet Horace, means "a knot worthy of such a liberator" or "a knot worthy to be untied by such hands." Horace's quote shows how long the knot has been regarded as a symbol of a seemingly inextricable problem, and "nodus," which first appeared in English around 1738, carries on the poet's metaphorical application of the word.
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