The Forest and the Farm

by Vance Huxley

  Since he’d been reminded, Billi looked round and a lonely figure trekked across the fields, towing his logs. Damn, he’d meant to send some meat anyway because the youth was just that, a youth with his brain still catching up with his mouth. Then hands dragged Billi into the group for the sharing. Eddmune, another of the Hunters who had come to help with the meat, followed Billi’s eyes. “It’ll be a good lesson.”

  “Why?”

  Eddmune looked surprised. “Ah, well from what these are saying, Hektor and Mandy told them you’d offered a share for getting the meat carried?”

  “I did.” Billi waved a crutch. “That’s a bit too much for me to manage, even if my pack was big enough.”

  “I’ll bet. Seifort, Billi doesn’t know what Edan said.” Eddmune beckoned.

  Seifort came reluctantly, embarrassed and probably hoping Billi hadn’t remembered some of the complaining on the way out for the wood. “Well, Edan thought he should have had the spear. That he is older, so he should be the one blooded.”

  Steban interrupted. “Mandy said you asked for the steadiest.”

  Billi nodded. “Yes, I needed someone to look out for the others, not be busy watching me hunting. Hektor did a good job so I told him to finish the boar.”

  “Mandy thought Edan too excitable and he’d been acting up on the trip, that’s why she suggested Hektor.” Steban looked at Seifort. “Then when the loads were being sorted out, Edan claimed they were all entitled to a share. Entitled, not as Hunter’s gift. That’s right, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, he said Billi, er, the Hunter, didn’t do anything, so everyone was entitled to a share. That he couldn’t even, um, sorry Billi, er Hunter, but you couldn’t finish the beast yourself.” Seifort blushed and looked round as if weighing up his escape route.

  “Billi. No point changing it now.” Billi was still puzzled. “But why no meat?”

  “Er, there’s more. Edan said you fell over the meat, that it was bogged down and trapped. He said, um.” Seifort stopped.

  “Go on lad. Billi ain’t mad at you, but he needs to know why Mandy slapped Edan, and stopped him getting a share.” Barimar nudged the youth, probably because he, and all the rest now listening, also wanted to know.

  “He said he could have done it on his own with just the spear and wouldn’t have needed a three legged Hound.” Seifort shut up again but he’d said enough and laughter rippled round the group.

  “If he ever gets to make a Hunter, I don’t reckon Edan will last long.” Eddmune laughed again. “Not if he thinks any bogged boar doesn’t need a couple of arrows and a Hound at least, never mind a Great-Boar.”

  “Don’t worry Billi. We aren’t stupid, and anyway the rest are all telling what really happened. They won’t shut up, probably until after next winter.” Steban slapped Billi on the shoulder. “So what are the shares?”

  “I don’t know.” Billi looked at the meat. “Hektor gets the head anyway. Then I’ll take a third of what’s left, and everyone gets a share of the rest with Hektor getting double. Does that seem fair?” Billi laughed. “If I took any more me and Rabbit would be too fat to get firewood, let alone hunt.”

  Barimar shook his head. “Too fair Billi. Getting blooded is a privilege, not something to earn extra shares.”

  Billi shook his own head. “The extra isn’t for the kill. That youth stood at the rear while I stalked so I couldn’t have done it without him. Hektor’s were the only pair of eyes not following the hunt. I checked a good few times and Hektor stayed alert and looking back, away from me, so he earned an extra share.”

  Hektor had his shoulders pounded by a few more people after that. He also had a couple of maids who had come from the Village congratulating him. Hektor came over with a tusk. “Here Billi. You should have one at least.”

  Billi smiled and took it. “You’d better watch out or some maid will be running off with yours.”

  “It will be a lot of fun letting them try.” That sounded casual enough, but Hektor eyed the maids with definite anticipation afterwards.

  As the crowd neared Billi’s hut on the outskirts of the Village, Mandy and Steban came over with a request. “After the head is boiled, everyone wants to put the cured skin back on the skull.”

  Mandy smiled. “Including the bit over the hump if you don’t mind, Billi.”

  “Then we’ll put it on the wall of the alehouse, next to the Wolf. Syman volunteered to carve the right sized replacement tusks out of cow horn or bone and Viktor has offered to cure the hide to put back on the head.” Steban waited hopefully.

  That puzzled Billi, again. “I don’t mind. I gave Hektor the head anyway.”

  “But not the hide.” Victor, the tanner, had moved closer and put in his copper’s worth. “I’ll cure the rest of the skin for you since I’ve got a house full of layabouts doing nothing better in this weather. Hungry layabouts, and the share of the boar for Bliss will be welcome at the table.” He moved off to join his daughter. Soon afterwards a bemused Billi stood outside his door with Rabbit and a heap of meat and watched something close to a party heading up the track to the Village.

  Billi hadn’t spoken to so many people in one day for longer than he could remember, and for the first time in many years Billi felt he actually belonged. While he packed most of the meat in snow and put it in the cold store to stop the critters stealing it, Billi thought about belonging. He’d always steered clear of the Village because he knew they thought him a freak, and Rabbit as well. He rarely went to the alehouse because Billi felt conspicuous there, and only felt sorry for himself if he had too much ale. Even before he ended up in his hut, Billi didn’t really have many friends. Not even as a littlun.

  Well, not after his eleventh summer when the cart went over him and they cut off the mess that had been his left leg. It had been an accident. Billi ran behind the cart, chasing his Bro, and the pony had taken a couple of steps back for some reason or other. Nobody thought he’d make it, his Ma and Da both confessed when Billi was older. But they’d nursed him through the winter and in spring he started learning to use crutches properly and never stopped. Billi still had the chair his Da had made during that winter with its big solid wheels. No wonder he’d built strong arms and shoulders!

  After that Billi stayed at home while all his sibs and their friends raced about the countryside growing up, and he just lost any real contact with them. The older folk tended to try and pretend Billi wasn’t there, and the younger ones knew Stumpy Billi couldn’t play with them. That all changed the day a Hound with a crippled leg limped down the Village street and whined at his Da’s door. Rabbit stuck a wet nose into Billi’s hands, and moved into the house and Billi’s heart. Billi remembered that all right, the first moment when the song filled his head, happy and welcoming. The whole affair had been a big sensation and even the Tinkerers who came through four or five times a year and the Trader caravans had never heard of a crippled Hound.

  Not really crippled because Rabbit stood full size for a Hound. Big, intelligent, powerful and surprisingly quick over a short distance even on three legs, Rabbit could hunt and loved to. Some resented a cripple getting a Hound, even a three legged one, but to no avail, Hounds never wavered in their loyalty, never changed their allegiance, and with that sort of incentive Stumpy Billi became a Hunter.

  He and Rabbit learned to be slow and patient, and became true if small scale and inconspicuous Hunters. Nobody saw his first kill, because Billi couldn’t keep up with the rest out in the Forest so he hunted alone. Billi put the blood on his own cheeks and stumped home with the small deer, proud as punch. Ma had hugged him and cried and Da took the antlers down to the alehouse to brag. Billi still had that little set of antlers.

  Billi sighed and finished putting away all the pork, or most of it. Even that took longer than it should, cutting everything into pieces he could carry, hopping up and down the steps to the cold room. Billi realized just how much meat he’d just caught, since his third must be over three full-weights, over forty s
tone-weights. Then Billi’s little family helped him to eat a fry-up of liver and kidney, since Rabbit hadn’t eaten it after all. One-shut even deigned to leave his warm spot by the fire and clean up scraps as the raw chunks were sliced.

  Billi thought he would trade some of the extra meat for a couple of loaves of real bread, and use the crust to make sausage. He’d never got the knack of baking and Billi’s loaves were just about good enough to soak up gravy. Since Billi had no cow, he didn’t have butter to soften it enough to eat his bread any other way anyhow. Now he had enough of a surplus to trade for a proper loaf and a pat of butter tomorrow. Billi fell asleep dreaming of soft bread, melting butter, and bacon and eggs.

  * * *

  The next day Billi traded for fresh bread, and some butter, and the number of smiles and greetings he received in the Village were a pleasant surprise. Better yet, the smiles and greetings continued in the following days. Bliss, Viktor the Tanner’s daughter, called by the hut two days after the hunt. “I’ve brought you this Billi. If you want it?”

  “A gift?” Billi looked at the tiny rough stone. “Don’t you want it?”

  “It’s not that. It’s just that when we washed in the stream, a few of us found stones with our bare feet.” Bliss shrugged, embarrassed. “I just thought that, since you shared the meat?”

  “Thank you, Bliss. Really. It’s lovely.” Billi looked at the little stone in his hand. It didn’t look much but they both knew the Tinkerers might trade for it, which meant that it had real value as well as being a kind gesture.

  “In that case, I’d better be off.” With that Bliss ran out of the little gate and off towards the Village.

  Billi looked at the little rough stone for a long time after she’d gone. He couldn’t remember a Villager ever giving him a gift, and would keep this one as a memento regardless of the value. The Traders took all stones, good or bad, and traded them on. The Tinkerers paid more but only bought some, and did something to the stones they bought. Something to make them shine with a deep inner fire, as if a star had been dragged from the night sky and imprisoned in the tiny sparkuls. That’s what they were called afterwards, sparkuls. The Traders offered huge sums for the secret, because if they wanted sparkuls they had to buy them from the Tinkerers.

  The stones intrigued Billi, or maybe just the mystery of where they came from. Once the stones or nuggets in a stream were taken, no more appeared except after a flood when a few might turn up. Sometimes more turned up if a bank collapsed but not every time. That meant there had to be a source somewhere upstream where both stones and nuggets came from, a place Billi wondered about. Because he preferred the Forest to the lonely little hut, Billi often went much further than necessary for hunting, just to see something new. Only Billi ventured up the streams and rivers for any reason except to find the watering places and hunt, but his leg put him off any proper exploration.

  If the maid found stones with her bare feet, the stream had never been searched, and so if Billi went up that stream he might find the source. Such a small stream couldn’t go very far. As long as they found a clear spot to build a fire at night and took care, Billi could travel for days with Rabbit. The Forest truly did hold danger. The number of Hunters who didn’t return from a hunt proved that but Billi didn’t mind being out overnight. Billi and Rabbit never took chances in the Forest. They travelled slowly and steadily, and always camped early in a clear space with a big fire. Even if Billi reached the end of the stream and never found where stones came from, that would scratch his itch and he would know that such a place didn’t exist.

  The idea had popped up several times before and Billi hadn’t followed it up. Maybe the upheaval or perhaps just the right stream being found lit a spark in Billi, a determination to find out for sure this time. As usual he spoke his thoughts aloud and Rabbit watched and listened. Billi wondered once more just how much a Hound understood? Maybe just that it would be a trip into the Forest, which would certainly explain the sparkle in Rabbit’s song as Billi talked.

  Billi told those bright eyes that if he found a lot of good stones the Tinkerers would be very interested. Then he could add to his nest egg, the one for the day his only leg or one of Rabbit’s gave out and Billi had to buy meat, and everything else. Unfortunately, the beguilers would also be interested and they didn’t pay for stones. Well they did, but not with silver or gold because beguilers could be a lot more casual with their favours than other maids. Tinkerer maids were notorious for that, beguiling a man out of whatever they’d taken a fancy to rather than buying it. Though in the depths of a long hard winter the idea of being beguiled out of some pretty stones had a certain attraction.

  Not too much of one because his stump made Billi very self-conscious, especially around maids. A couple of times Billi spent the silver to visit Anise in the back room of the alehouse, but once they undressed she spent too much time looking at Billi’s stump and stroking it. Anise had dealt with his other needs well enough but there was no real feeling there and with her strange interest he’d stopped going. Since then Billi had been alone, something that rarely bothered him anymore. The occasional maid liked a bit of fun with a youth, but not with Stumpy Billi. A few maids were kind, a few were disgusted, and the rest ignored him.

  Though as the days passed it became clear that people were paying attention now, all because of one bit of luck at hunting. Billi hadn’t realised just how bad the local hunting had been as he didn’t often go out in winter except to catch the small hunters for their lush pelts. Snow made hunting even more difficult with crutches so Billi had dried and smoked enough meat and fish in better weather and didn’t need the fresh meat. Now, in addition to the large quantity of welcome meat landing on a good few very surprised tables, the boar came as a badly needed morale booster for the Village. The trickle of visitors didn’t stop, as Billi had expected.

  “Hello Billi. My Ma said that she heard your oven isn’t any good for bread.”

  “No Seibert, I’m useless at making it.”

  The youth shrugged. “Anyway, she sent two loaves, if you want them?”

  “Tell her thank you. They’ll be a really nice change.” Billi watched Seibert go off towards the Village and scratched his head. He’d had apple pies and two meat and tater pies arrive from different kitchens with a similar message. Billi had actually asked Hektor why since the youth made a point of calling by now and then.

  Billi’s success had been followed by a definite improvement in the amount of game taken by the other Hunters. They claimed that he’d broken the bad luck, not just by killing the Great-Boar but by the sharing. Hunters were a generally superstitious lot and certain that Billi had spread his good luck. It didn’t make Billi exactly popular but he had visitors and they were all smiling.

  * * *

  Despite having just been wood gathering, Billi needed more firewood and now knew where there would be plenty. He told the Village families they could come if they wished, and defer payment if they wished. Billi had enough boar meat to last the three in his hut for over a moon, maybe two, and much longer than that with what he’d already got frozen and salted. Someone had even put a long length of intestine in Billi’s share to make sausage from the scraps, meaty sausage as Billi had no spices, herbs, bread or flour.

  This wood gathering trip Billi still had to put up with some banter, but about not finding any meat to cook with the wood they collected. The boar had been reduced to a few chunks of spinal column and some villagers brought back souvenirs to show the size of the teeth that had been at work. The elders quickly took a couple to show as a salutary reminder to littluns of what lurked beyond the Forest edge. The chewed bones also renewed interest in the story and helped cement the new status Billi seemed to have. Coming back Billi had to deal with comments about the lack of anything to eat, but just banter, not complaints about Billi’s speed. Remarkably the change in attitude continued.

  Perhaps nobody had actually considered Billi a real Hunter before since they’d never really seen
what he caught, whereas now even the youths showed some respect. Hektor kept up his usual cheerful chatter but treated Billi with the defence due a Hunter, and since the youth’s trophy gave him real status among his peers and the maids that attitude rubbed off on the rest. Almost all of the rest, Edan still bore a grudge and completely ignored Billi the whole trip.

  With such a really different start to his year, Billi and Rabbit began to go out hunting more often and traded the larger surplus. Billi wondered if maybe he hadn’t considered himself a real Hunter either? Though as he laid by a stream catching unwary fish with Rabbit watching his back, Billi realised he still didn’t hunt the same as the rest. No big beefy prey, just small deer or pigs, wildfowl and fish, and the occasional greedy predator or scavenger trying to steal Billi’s prey. Gradually, for the first time ever, his meat cellar began to look decidedly crowded.

  Billi enjoyed meeting more people and from his song Rabbit enjoyed meeting other Hounds, though both still preferred the Forest to his little hut. Life wasn’t all sunshine in the Village as although the youth’s family didn’t seem to bear any grudge, Edan did and he had a few friends. When Edan’s Da had brought the meat to pay for the wood gathering escort, Billi told him not to bother because he had plenty of meat. But that wasn’t really what the older Hunter wanted to talk about. An embarrassed Canitre got to it in the end. “I’ve heard a few versions of what happened Billi, and I’ve got to ask.”

  “I didn’t hear most of it, but Hektor got the chance to be blooded because he did a good job for me. Mandy had the ruckus with Edan, but a few told me after and they all seemed to tally.” Billi didn’t want to actually repeat the tales.

  “I’ve heard a few tell it as well, and only one seems to tell it different. That’s Edan.” Canitre sighed. “Edan really is too impetuous to make a Hunter just yet. He needs to steady down. Maybe a Hound will do that.” Canitre was a Hunter and had a Hound, Autumn, so he knew about the song and how a Hound could guide the Hunter. Billi agreed that a Hound would calm Edan down and left it at that.