Gilrayn leaped smartly into the saddle and commanded his steed "Middlemarch!".  Beneath him the mighty horse Eridan tensed for action; its dappled grey flanks throbbed with life, every fibre of its being pulsed with readiness.  It reached down and ate a thistle.  As Eridan meditatively chewed this morsel, Gilraym varied his command - perhaps the wording was inadequate?
"Go to Middlemarch", he ordered.
"Take me to Middlemarch", he requested.
"Can you go to Middlemarched?", he asked.
"I know a fine horse-butcher in Congleton", he remarked.  Eridan's ears pricked up.  Eridan's ears twitched a bit.  Eridan's ears laid down flat again.  Eridan's front teeth found themselves another thistle.
At this point we discover that a wizard's training includes magic words, mystic words, words of command, words of power, words of binding and releasing, and also certain expressive words of only four letters.  Gilrayn had clearly been well schooled in the last category, and was loudly demonstrating the range of his vocabulary as he stalked back across Eridan's paddock.
"Perhaps the stupid animal can't speak English", he pondered.  "Well, a quick dip into petty cash will secure a scroll of speech with animals.  Then we'll see!"
This was now sooner said than done, and so we fing ourselves once again leaning on the same fence, gazing out across the same paddock, where we now see that same mighty wizard seated astride the same horse and reading from a mystic scroll prepared for him by a kindly druid for a mere 840 gold pieces.
This purchasing of scrolls actually took up a day of Gilrayn's time, and a great deal of haggling over the price, but I see no reason why it should take up any of your time to read about it.
"Middlemarch", the wizard commanded.
"Who said that?"  The horse looked up.
"I did".
The horse turned right around, inspecting the bushes beyond its paddock.
"I can't see you".
"That's because I'm up here!"
"I don't believe it!  A talking human!", the horse said, and spent quite some time laughing loudly to itself.  When conversation once again became possible, the wizard narrowed his eyes shrewdly and asked "Can you take me to Middlemarch?"
"Of course", said the horse.
"...And bring me back again?"
"Yes"
"Safely?"
"I should say so"
"Safely in the sense of safe for me, not merely for you?  Safe in mind, body and soul, without damage to any of these, or separation of any one from the other two?"
In addition to their training in words of all kinds, many wizards also choose to take optional classes in law, especially contract law and pedantry.  They say it comes in useful when dealing with demons and the like.  This is strange, since demons are notoriously chaotic, and not at all the sort of beings to take notice of well-worded contracts.  While a pit fiend might try to leave Gilrayn as a perfectly sage frog, or to lock him away in some impenetrable prison, where he would be even safer, any self-respecting demon (and demons are just as famous for their self-respect as for their chaotic ways) would simply eat him.
"...and with all posessions intact, unchanged, and still about my person?"  The wizard had finally come to the end of his small print and loopholes, and the horse had nearly run out of thistles to eat.
"Yes", said the horse.
"Good.  That'll do nicely", said the wizard as he dismounted.  He rolled the used scroll into its case, and tucked the case into his belt.  Blank scrolls are worth at least two gold pieces.  It might even be possible to sell it back to the druid.  "Waste not, want not" has always been the motto of the adventurer.  The wizard ambled across the paddock.
"Is that it?", Eridan whinnied, "Just a load of questions?  I mean, did you bring me all this way just to ask me questions?", and finally a sarcastic neighing of "That's all right, I'm just browsing, thank you".
"That's right", smiled the wizard, and set off home.

Alone before the Brollachan he stood.
Before the Brollachan he stood alone.
Could any other man be found who would
Defy with him the Brollachan?  Not one.

"Here we are then", Gilrayn announced.  "That which we seek lies on yonder mist-shrouded isle".
Gilrayn's mighty steed Eridan looked up from the sandy banks of the broad river by which they stood.  Across the water he saw a small island wreathed in fog.
"It looks a bit damp", the horse observed.
Gilrayn did not react.  This is partly because all he heard was "Neigh, neigh, neigh".  But even if he had understood he would probably still have remained motionless, scanning the tiny isle.  Gilrayn did not care for his horse's opinions.
The wizard's companion AhamaKara joined the pair in staring at the mysterious island.  The fog thickened upon the water until only a handful of soggy elms stood out above it to mark the island's position.  It was a shy island.
"How can you be sure that this is the right island?", she asked.  "So far we have explored at least fifty-three islands, islets, isles, peninsulae, sandbanks, mudflats and piles of silt hardly big enough to build a hut upon".
Not ofr a moment did Gilrayn let his eyes stray from the destination they had found.
"It is destiny", he replied.  "I feel it through the very core of my being".
"Besides", he observed, "there's a boat".
There was indeed a boat.  Drawn firmly up on the beach, and pointed directly out to the island, a large rowing boat invited their inspection.
AhamaKara inspected it.
"It's a boat", she agreed.  "I didn't do the option on 'sailing for sea-mages' at college.  How abot you?"
"I'm afraid not", the wizard concurred.  "Are there any holes in it?"
"Nope".
"Hmmm".  Gilrayn still held his gaze unflinchingly upon the island.  Deep thoughts ran beneath his still brow.  Would the boat take their weight?  Was it sear-worthy?  Was it even river-worthy?  Was there a difference?  He pursed his lips with concentration.  Would the current carry them away?  Perhaps they could contrive an experiment with a spare rowing boat and a suitable ballast of sand, but where could they find a spare rowing boat?  Had the boat been left here on purpose, and if so by whom?  Was it a trap?  Should he go home and come back next week when their would-be ambushers had lost interest and given up?  Why was AhamaKara staring at him like that?
"Well?", she prompted.
"Hmmm", reiterated Gilrayn.  "I think we should get into the boat and sail across.  I shall master the winds with the horn Andulic".
"And what about the horse?", inquired AK.
"We could leave him here", suggested Gilrayn.  "Perhaps he could find some thistles".
AK inspected the beach, and found it as well supplied with thistles as it was with crystal artichokes, and none too generous in either department.  She said so.
"Hmmm", replied the wizard.  The prospect of leaving the horse behind still seemed an attractive one.
"And remember what happened when we left him outside the trasury of Findail.  There used to be a lot of thistles there, too.  Now there's just a sort of miniature desert".
"Very well", Gilrayn conceded, "we'll take him with us.  Let's get this boat into the water".
They carried the boat down to the edge of the beach and set it safely afloat in the shallows.  After the briefest of arguments about who should get in first they both leaped in together, and still somehow managed to avoid capsizing the boat.
"Come on then", Gilrayn called to Eridan, "get in the boat".
"Neigh, neigh, neigh", replied Eridan.
Gilrayn sighed and reached into his satchel for another scroll of speech with animals.  This horse, he muttered to himself, was a damned expensive mode of transport.  Still, he was thankful that he had negotiated a discount for his bulk purchase of scrolls.
"Get in the boat", he repeated.
Eridan favoured him with a look of blank incomprehension.
"You", Gilrayn pointed, "walk over here", walking gestures with his fingers", and get into this boat", much pointing at the boat and an elaborate spreading of the hands to indicate the curved bottom of the boat.  "Then we sail", puffing out cheeks and blowing like the wind, "over the water", waving motion with hands, "to the island", more pointing.  "Yes?"  Gilrayn's eyebrows raised themselves expectantly.
"I heard you the first time", Eridan replied.  "You cannot be serious".
Gilrayn looked at AhamaKara.
AhamaKara looked at Gilrayn.
They both looked at the horse.
"We are", they admitted, "perfectly serious".
"You want me, a horse, to climb into a tiny rowing boat and risk my like on a river so wide the far bank is out of sight?"
"Well, yes", agreed Gilrayn.
"It's really quite a large rowing boat", protested AK, "as rowing boats go".
"And the far bank would be perfectly visible if it weren't for this fog".
"Hprprrr", snorted Eridan, and started up the beach in search of more thistley climes.
"I'll give you an apple", Gilrayn offered.
"AN apple!", Eridan sneered.
"A bag of apples?", suggested Gilrayn.
Eridan inspected the grass at the top of the beach for thistles.
"An apple tree?"
There appeared to be a thistle or two a little way downstream.  Eridan set off to investigate.
"An orchard".
Eridan stopped.  His ears pricked up in case there was any advance on an orchard.  There was not.
"When might you give me this orchard?"
"After we've finished this business", replied Gilrayn.
Eridan paused a moment, then reached a decision.  He cantered down the beach to the boat.
"Well, bring it here then", he demanded.  "How am I supposed to get into your boat if it's bobbing about?"
AK and Gilrayn dutifully drew the boat up to the edge of the sand.
Eridan sniffed suspiciously at it, but eventually climbed in.
Gilrayn stood in the bow and sounded a mighty note on the horn Andulic.  From nowhere a wind arose and gently pushed the boat off the shore and into the stream.  Gilrayn made a rather shaky attempt to sit down in the prow.  The boat rocked dangerously from side to side.
"If you're going to rock the boat", Eridan observed, "I am going to get out and walk".
"What do you mean 'get out and walk'?", demanded Gilrayn.
"This human may be able to talk", Eridan mused to himself, "but he seems no more intelligent than his fellows.  'Get out and walk' means, roughly speaking, climb out of this dangerous contrivance we are presently occupying, and use my own good hooves to carry me to the island".
"You mean you can walk on water?"
"Would I be suggesting it if I couldn't?"
The question caught Gilrayn off-balance.  He was really not sure whether it was rhetorical or not.
"That", explained Eridan tartly, "is precisely what I mean".
"Then why didn't you tell us you could walk on water?"
Eridan adopted a look of pained tolerance.  He could not even summon the enthusiasm to point out that nobody had thought to ask.

"Of course", the wizard explained, "what the stupid horse forgot was that I specialise in contracts".
"Hmmm?"  AhamaKara stopped admiring the pastoral surroundings of Gilrayn's cottage and turned to listen.
"Contracts", Gilrayn explained.  "When we took that boat across the river I made an undertaking to give the horse an orchard when this business was finished".
"So you did", AK agreed.  She turned back to lean on the fence and stare across the paddock.  The afternoon sun streaked the grass with shadows.  Eridan was hard at work on his self-appointed task of defending Gilrayn's estate from the depredations of thistles.  As she watched, another three of the little green invaders met their end.
"But no sane person would accept a contract like that!", exclaimed the wizard.
He paused.
"Well don't look at me", AhamaKara defended herself.  "You said sane.  That lets me out for a start."
She returned to admiring the paddock.  It was a good size.  Eridan obviously enjoyed it too.  It had just the right number of thistles.
"It probably also excludes our four-legged friend", she added.
"Precisely!  You see, anyone with an ounce of sense would have seen through my ploy and demanded to know the scope of 'this business'".
Eridan took a break from his annihilation of the massed hordes of thistledom, and bit into one of the windfalls from the apple-trees in the next field.
"The horse obviously thought I meant the business of crossing the river", Gilrayn went on.  "Whereas I actually meant the whole business of defeating the Brollachan and saving the world.  So it'll be a long time before I have to fulfil my side of the bargain", he concluded with a triumphant grin.
AK looked up from Eridan and his vanishing apple to the trees beyond.  They seemed to be just what was needed to complete the scene.  In fact, she could hardly imagine what the field had looked like before Gilrayn had them planted.  Especially at this time of year, with the afternoon sun picking out the yellow and green of the leaves, and the first reds of ripening apples.  It was a fine orchard.
"Then why does the sign say 'Eridan's orchard'?", she asked.
"I'm just humouring him".