by Vance Huxley
Billi knew her tattoos were different because he’d been close to both sorts, close enough to Dancer to see the blurring from her sweat and the smudges, though nobody else would have noticed in the torchlight and the speed of the dance. Those smudges were going to be in Billi’s dreams as well since he’d made them and a few were places he hadn’t expected to touch any maid in public! Hektor came over with Billi’s crutch and a laughing Bliss, and Billi wondered what she was doing here?
“Hello ssrrong bearr, are the maids going to have to watch out now? After all, we know you can catch them, but none are here to get the warning.” Bliss obviously found the whole thing hilarious. So did Hektor, the bit about the maids being warned had him sniggering nicely. Then Bliss turned serious for a minute. “So do the tattoos go all over?”
Billi sighed and confessed. “Yes, that wasn’t a trick and I was as surprised as anyone.”
“But not as disappointed as the rest since she kept her back to them.” Hektor grinned and Billi realised that was true, now he actually thought about it. Definitely his reward then. Hektor kept up the teasing. “That’s a new one, do you want to see my tattoos? Or was it can I see your tattoos? Nobody could hear what you pair were saying!”
“I didn’t ask!”
“Good job. They’re leaving in the morning or she might have decided to make a run, to capture a permanent dancing partner.” Hektor tried to mimic the Dancer’s voice. “Mmm, ssrrong bearr.”
“I don’t think so. Anyway, I’m tired. I’m going home because in case you didn’t notice, that maid was bigger than she seemed and I’ve been chucking her around the place.” Billi found it hard to be serious because he wanted to laugh. Billi had been a dancing bear. Though his leg hurt now, he’d put it through a lot of punishment tonight even if Billi hadn’t noticed at the time.
“Well you’d know how big she was.” Hektor found that hilarious as well and Bliss giggled.
“Have you two been at the cider?”
“No Billi, well not a lot. It’s just that you’re so proper around the maids. Then she’d got your shirt off and rubbed herself all over you, and you stripped her clothes off in front of the whole Village. Better yet, they were all cheering you on!” They both collapsed against each other and Billi had to join in with the laughter because put like that? He looked round and Rabbit stood over his jacket, though he’d let Hektor take the crutch. Billi donned the jacket but stuffed his shirt through his belt because he was hot and sweaty enough.
He thumped through the crowd and collected his congratulations and slaps on the back until only the track to his hut lay ahead. Billi bid goodnight to Hektor and Bliss, who went off still laughing. Not much cider? A bit too much maybe but then again they were bonded and going home with Dapple, so it didn’t matter.
Rabbit seemed to be triumphant and Billi caught a definite sense of humour, and wondered again just how much the Hound picked up. He didn’t waste time getting to bed when they arrived home because he really did feel shattered, just taking off his coat and putting the shirt over his chair. Billi found the breast-cloth in his coat pocket where he must have stuffed it and threw it on the chest that held his bedding and spare sleeping furs. Just what was he supposed to do with that? Billi laid down and had his first instalment of interesting dreams.
* * *
In the morning Billi called in to see the Tinkerer, and the sparkul had been fasted on its chain. As promised the stone flashed with an inner fire when he took it to the window to catch the sun. The Tinkerer’s two maids were dressed in long embroidered robes and not beguiling this morning. They were a bit taken aback to find that the sparkul wasn’t for a maid and more so to find that Billi hadn’t got one. The maids advised him to hang the sparkul in the window to catch the sun and then sort through the offers for a maid he liked. Both thought they should come and give a bit of opposition to encourage the local maids to try harder. Billi told them that he might hold them to it if he couldn’t find one and they parted laughing.
Billi spent rest of the day preparing for his trip to the valley, and that evening before bed he took all the sparkuls and fancy gold and tucked them in his pack. He hadn’t much else in there because he’d be taking the pot-bellied stove. When Perry turned up in the morning Billi and Rabbit were ready to go which disappointed Perry. He wanted to know all about the dancing and the maid, and did Billi really see all her tattoos, and did they really go all over?
That would be the code, apparently. Billi would be confirming how far tattoos went all winter. The answer would probably lead to more of the curious going to check if the other Tinkerer maids had the same coverage. The whole affair made wonderful advertising for them and Billi wondered if he should have insisted on a share of the silver. That kept him amused as he clumped through the snow and out along the stream to the valley. Being out in the green made Rabbit happy anyway of course, so they had a really enjoyable trip even in the snow.
As well as his musing about Dancer and tattoos, Billi spent the time clumping through the woods in planning for next summer. He would check some sandbanks for dust, ones where he had found nuggets in the past. Billi wondered if he could follow gold dust back to a source? Did all the gold in a stream come from one bank of gravel or a heap of nuggets somewhere? Billi built up some snow to stop the wind as the light faded. With plenty of dead branches to make a fire and Rabbit tucked up against his back, Billi slept warm enough in his furs through the night.
Another hard day’s travel brought them close, but dusk fell so once again Billi built up snow and lit a good fire. Early afternoon the next day Billi arrived in the valley, and used some of his dry wood to light the fire and warm the hut up. He hid most of his gold and stones in little bits here and there, ate, and collapsed into the bed in his lovely warm hut. The following day Billi set into fitting his new stove.
That took all day, because he had to pull out part of his old fireplace while the stones were still a bit too hot for comfort. Though when he’d eventually jammed the new iron chimney pipe into place and sealed round it with mud, Billi found that the Tinkerer had been right. The stove threw out a tremendous amount of heat once the metal body heated up and soon warmed his hut. He ate a late meal of fresh fish, then decided to have an early night. Snow had started to fall and if that continued tomorrow he’d best head home.
Billi lay in his bed considering if there was anything else useful that needed doing on this trip when Rabbit came onto his feet and looked at the door with his head on one side. Billi caught an air of expectation in the song, muted excitement, something new, and then someone knocked at the door! It had to be a Hunter but why hadn’t the Hounds spoken to each other? Billi laid in the dark, ready for sleep, so now he stood and opened the door on the stove for light. He picked up his crutch, and spear because after all he’d just brought those sparkuls out here, and carefully opened the hut door a bit. Then Billi stood with his mouth open, stunned into silence as the shaft of firelight fell on the figure standing in the falling snow.
“Is cold heerr, Hunnerr.” The Dancer and, yes, it would be cold because she appeared to be stark naked without even the tattoos! In a daze Billi moved back and opened the door wide and she stepped lightly through and moved to the stove. In the same moment Rabbit slipped out of the door and into the snow. Billi barely noticed him go as she stood in front of the stove, holding her hands out to the open door. As the firelight gleamed on her pale skin Billi became even more aware that this time she didn’t even have paint on.
The Dancer rubbed her hands on her arms and Billi shut the outside door, put the spear aside and wordlessly picked the fur off the bed to offer. She turned and took it without any sign of embarrassment which was more than Billi could say. “Mmm, warrm. Kind and ssrrong. Many would no coverr me. Dee no like?”
“Er no, yes, er, I mean I like, well, you’re lovely but why? No clothes in the snow? What happened, are the others all right?” It had suddenly occurred to Billi that there should be a line of fancy painted wagons
and a lot of other folk with her, Tinkerers. Surely Rabbit would have bayed if there were? Why weren’t they at the door as well? He had no idea what disaster might bring them here and leave her naked in the snow but it couldn’t be good.
“Drream of dee ssrrong arrms. Everry darrk sso iss now forr me. I come an’ find, uderrs dey bide, maybe, orr I find. Laderr, now iss for ssrrong arrmss.” It was hard work listening, and for her to speak as well and Billi wasn’t sure why. Didn’t she usually speak? Was it a problem with her mouth or just a foreign tongue maybe? He’d heard there were other ways to speak, or maybe her being in his hut and naked wasn’t helping him understand.
“Do you want food or a drink?” Billi finally remembered his manners, or perhaps just didn’t know how to answer her words.
“Juss warrm an furr, good. Dee need bed, iss cold.” Yes, it was, even with the stove. Billi realised that was because he’d put his wet trews to dry and his short pants didn’t cover his stump. A wave of embarrassment swept over him and Billi grabbed the fur from the chair and laid on the bed to get covered. The Dancer had now folded gracefully down onto the floor next to the stove. The door on the stove closed and the light dimmed, then he felt the fur lifted! The Dancer slid into the narrow bed and pushed the warmer fur across, under the cold one from the chair.
“Warrmer wid uss. Now, ssrrong man, big bearr, dee dance wid me?” Dance? Billi realised she’d warmed up fast for supposedly being cold and there really wasn’t room in here. Then there was just enough room as Billi realised what sort of dance she had in mind. By now Billi really didn’t care why.
When he woke in the morning Billi thought it had been a particularly vivid dream, right up until he heard the stove door and then a warm someone slipped back under the furs. He opened his eyes and the morning light through the small, thick pane of glass in the door timbers showed a mane of pale hair on his chest. “Mmm, bederr dan drream.” Yes, Billi had to agree even if he had no idea why this was happening or where Rabbit had got to.
He could still hear Rabbit’s happy song, now spiked with excitement, a happy excitement with no alarm at all. Billi should be wondering what the Hound was up to since Rabbit never went off on his own, but that happiness in the song soothed any worries away. Anyway, Billi was distracted, and suddenly even more so. The Dancer slithered around under the furs, wriggling across him and Billi remembered just how limber that pale body had been in the torchlight, flying and twisting and dancing. Then Billi realised just why she’d started wriggling. Again, in the morning? Though that suddenly seemed a wonderful idea. His arms came up and round and she almost purred into his chest, “ssrrong.”
* * *
Afterwards Billi thought he’d ‘lost’ about six or maybe seven days, perhaps only four or five. He occasionally tried to work it out, but it didn’t worry him as lost days should. The whole period felt like a dream afterwards. The Dancer never gave her name, she wouldn’t. She refused to call him Billi, only bearr or hunnerr, and the way she said ssrrong sounded downright seductive and put a shiver up his spine. Beguiling paled beside it. Billi tried asking how she got here, or where the others were, but every time she would wriggle all over him and her lips would close his mouth.
Billi had trouble concentrating even out of the bed because the Dancer refused to wear a stitch even when she came outside. She did that several times to watch Billi take in his trap lines or fish, and she helped him clean the catch. Somehow, standing in that setting with the snow and the ice of the lakes she looked natural, as if being naked in the snow was as she should be. Maybe because of her colouring, all pale hair and white skin and teeth, and those ice blue eyes. Though it couldn’t really be normal and natural for her as Dancer always had to warm up afterwards. Well she said so anyway, though she never seemed that cold to Billi. Not when the Dancer insisted on only one possible way to get warm. Watching him working in the snow seemed to set her on fire somehow.
Billi found that Dancer didn’t have any tattoos at all. The only small marks on her pale skin formed a birthmark which at the right angle made a stylised running wolf. Just a few curving lines from an angle and in a place nobody else was likely to see it, though Dancer deliberately showed ssrrong bearr. She’d had precious little on after the dancing but Billi realised the birthmark had been safely hidden. For the only time she seemed almost shy, while making sure Billi saw that clearly, odd considering her disregard for coverings. The Dancer insisted Billi didn’t need much on either with the door shut and eventually Billi learned to ignore his stump as she did.
Then she slid out of the bed one morning, kissed him gently, and said “go now.” She wouldn’t take clothing or food, or a gift, insisting that she had all she’d come for. She had something to remember his ssrrong arrmss and was content, but had to go. Yes, now and he couldn’t come, mustn’t follow and no, he’d never see her again except maybe once. A beguiled and bewildered Billi really had no answer. In the end she agreed to take a pale blue stone he’d kept because of the different colour.
Just a small one and he could never be sure where he’d found or traded for it but as Billi told her, it matched her eyes. That Dancer finally accepted and held it as she slipped out of the door after raising a cautionary finger, do not follow. As she did, Rabbit slipped in! The song sounded happy, and quietly and contentedly triumphant. Billi hadn’t seen a sign of the Hound all the time Dancer remained, though the happy song in Billi’s head showed he hadn’t gone far.
Billi ruffled Rabbit’s ears and went to the door, but when he opened it, a pale wolf stood there! Not threatening but a clear message, don’t follow. No wonder Dancer felt safe out there with a companion such as that! Billi shut the door and concentrated on saying hello to Rabbit, and soon afterwards crawled into the warm bed as exhaustion crashed in. Part of his uncertainty about time came because he had no idea how long he slept. The stove only held cold ashes when Billi woke but it might have been burning low when she went, and he’d not topped it up.
However long she’d been here, Billi spent a day getting his head in some sort of order and checking his gear for the trip back to the Village. He had come out here to clear his head, and now felt more confused than ever! How did the Dancer find him here in his valley? Billi hadn’t even considered that before. Nobody should to know where it was, but she’d come straight to his door even in a snowstorm.
* * *
The snow had frozen hard which would help him travel. When he threw the remains of his fish into the bushes Billi could see that the Great Hunter had been clawing the edges of the pool to get a drink. The beast probably didn’t fancy leaving cover to go and drink at the outfall or where the current kept a patch of the lake clear, or maybe he wanted fish. Billi smashed the ice with a rock and pulled the chunks out to slow down the refreezing. He preferred losing a few fish to encouraging the beast to wander around the valley. The familiar work around the valley helped to pull him out of his daze.
The freezing definitely came as a blessing for travelling, because it had snowed hard during the last few days and when Billi looked out past the dam the woods were choked with drifts. He looked around but found no sign of anyone leaving, just animal tracks and few wolf ones. It could have snowed after she went, he wouldn’t have known, and Rabbit wasn’t interested in looking. His song sounded downright smug, as near as Billi could describe the tone of it, and Billi thought of that wolf. Had Rabbit been beguiled? Billi thought of the chip of blue stone and smiled to himself as he’d insisted on being beguiled in a way. Though the Tinkerer maids would be a bit tame after this and his bargaining would be much fiercer in future.
Billi slept in his bed one last warm night, then emptied the stove and swung his pack on his back. He closed the door, put the big timber across it and took a last look around. Then they were on their way, Rabbit leading the way out over the valley edge. This time Billi didn’t hunt or fish. He carried enough fish in his pack with the night furs to get them home and the store at home had plenty of food. Billi concentrated on tra
velling, a chore for him all with the big drifts. The woods were quiet after such a heavy fall, every sound muffled and even the birds seemed reluctant to be their usual raucous selves.
Billi heard a howl far away in the night, and a coughing roar a little nearer, but there weren’t even many tracks since the grazers must be staying put. All but the largest, as the deep trough ploughed through the drifts down to the water showed in a couple of places. If he’d tripped over one of those animals Billi would have to let it go. He couldn’t pack that much meat out in this weather even with a travois and taking it slow, he’d break the crust with his boot every time he heaved. He already had enough difficulty travelling as the crutch and peg still went through occasionally despite the wider end.
Billi talked quietly to Rabbit as he went. Rabbit still sounded in a tremendous mood despite the snow being heavy going for him as well. When the Hound came onto his single foot it sometimes broke through with all his weight behind it. Billi talked about the Dancer, and asked the Hound what he’d been up to out in the snow to be in such a good mood. Was he chasing a pretty white wolf and did he catch her? Because although he couldn’t actually tell from his angle Billi had a distinct impression that the wolf was female, and Rabbit had raised absolutely no alarm at her walking up to his front door.
Then again Rabbit hadn’t made much fuss about the Dancer arriving either. Not that she was dangerous in the accepted sense. Just to his sanity as Billi still couldn’t make sense of most of his time with Dancer. It all blurred, pale hair and white skin and her moving and stroking and speaking in that purring or grrowling way. Billi was grateful the woods were so beautiful and that the snow made him concentrate on where to step next, it kept his mind on something else.