The Forest and the Farm

by Vance Huxley

  “I promise to practice, so I can dance longer next time.” Billi could have danced some more right now, but didn’t dare. If those three maids all sat on his knee and bussed him the same Billi might enjoy it too much. He might forget to keep his guard up and break one of those rules, those rules he really didn’t understand. He’d been reminded a few times tonight that a Hunter with a new landclaim might be a good catch for some maids.

  Billi didn’t want a maid who wanted his landclaim. Which was awful picky for a man who hadn’t expected any maid to look twice, let alone want to sit on his knee and give him Tinkerer bussings. Some of the youths were chasing the maids now, growling, and a couple of the maids were ‘caught’ and sat on a knee to pay the forfeit. If ssrrong bearr never danced again he’d given the maids and youths another way to flirt and chase right out in public. The youths who stood by the post each caught one or two scarves, and one caught the same scarf three times.

  Nortan, Canitre and Eddmune sat with the older men this time. They weren’t really up to dancing or even standing with their families all night. “This arm still hurts too much for peaceful sleep, or for hopping about.” Eddmune smiled. “I didn’t enjoy that thorough cleaning in ice cold water but it seems to have kept the rot from it.”

  “But it is healing?” Nortan looked down at his leg. “This is, or so I’m told but it don’t feel like it. I might need lessons Billi so I can stump along with a crutch.” The Hunter’s smile took any sting from that. “You’ll have to wait up for me on a hunt.”

  “Aye, my arm is healing but might never be quite right.” Eddmune smiled. “I might need to get a bit nearer for the bow work but I’ll be out hunting again eventually.” Billi could see the longing in his eyes, so it wasn’t just Billi who loved being out there. Maybe that love for the green was what brought the Hounds? Perhaps they could sense those who would truly want to be out there? No matter how many legs they had. Billi noticed that the worst injured Hounds were taking full advantage of the sympathy by the door to scrounge extra scraps.

  Some men wanted a really serious talk about this landclaim now. Eddmune pointed out he’d got a youth at home chasing, the maid ran slower every day, and Eddmune already had a house full. “Do you need a Farmer out there Billi, or maybe someone with a few sheep on the hillsides? Then there’d be someone to keep an eye on the place while ye went hunting.” He had a little smile when he said it, as that would mean Billi could keep a few chickens or a goat in the valley. If someone with a dog lived there, Billi could make a proper home out of the place.

  Eddmune obviously knew Billi would work that out, and that it would be a big incentive for Billi to arrange the additional space. Two more men mentioned they had a lad or a maid who might fancy trying a bit of fresh country if Billi found more land nearby. With a Hunter living there they could make a run into the Village now and then to visit relatives or trade, or catch the Trader caravans and Tinkerers. More Hunters and some villagers came to join the discussion for a while before drifting off, adding advice or suggesting who might want a place out there.

  Perry mentioned that with a Hunter living there, it might be worth a Tanner coming out and stopping over for a ten-day to deal with the pelts and hides. Would there be somewhere he could stay? Someone else pointed out that the valley should have at least two Hunters. The idea that the hillsides might support sheep or goats seemed to have really livened up the debate. Billi couldn’t confirm a water supply up on the hillside so there really might be room for more than one family. Billi thought they’d have a Village out there by the time they’d done! Many people thought the fish, as a reserve for bad times, would make homes for at least a couple of families possible. It all made a better subject for conversation than the loss of Raban.

  The wake wound down and everyone said goodbye to Treese and headed home. She gave Billi a quick hug and told him to stop worriting. He was to cheer up and get on with dancing and chasing the maids as any young man should. Young man? Billi was twenty-six summers. He considered the young men to be those such as Hektor, all of seventeen or eighteen summers.

  Then Billi realised that he thought of Ellibeth as a young maid and she must be twenty-four summers, or not much more. She must have bonded young because Ellibeth had been at school the same time as Billi. Billi stumped back through the Village in the dark with several families. The three maids with them, including Ellibeth, were all making a point of hiding the other side of their Da because of the bearr. The joke would be running for a while yet.

  Billi had something new to think about on the way home. Did tonight mean Ellibeth really might be chasing, and if so would he run? Or maybe he’d started chasing a bit by mistake, with Ellibeth just flirting as the other maids did. Though some of the flirting seemed to be beyond what he’d thought, but then he’d no idea really. So perhaps Billi had finally been flirting with a maid? Billi had never gone through chasing a maid round the haystack to buss one. He was a bit old to learn at his age, as any maid waiting to be caught might be serious and not flirting at all. She also might be offended if it wasn’t supposed to be serious. No, safe would be best, so Billi put thoughts of chasing back out of his mind, almost.

  On the way home Billi finally put Raban’s death straight in his mind, because he’d felt just a bit guilty for leading the hunters out there. Treese had managed to settle that tiny lingering doubt. Raban had taken the chance, knowing what might happen, and it could just as easily have been Hektor or any of the others or Billi himself. It nearly had been Hektor, Eddmune, Nortan and possibly Canitre. The Village all seemed to feel the same way, except for a few who would think the worst of anything Billi did.

  * * *

  Billi went out to his valley once more before the thaw. He broke the ice dam again and the ice by the trees. There were plenty of big pug marks this time and they were spread over a wide area. There would be another chore in future summers, as Billi would be keeping the dam repaired. The Great-Hunter had broken open the beaver lodge, the claw marks on the timbers that were pulled aside made it clear who did it. The ice had finally been thick enough to support the Great Hunter, though the beast hadn’t caught the beaver in there.

  He’d caught them breaking out of the edge of the ice to escape after swimming clear of the lodge. Billi read the tracks and the broken reeds and other evidence. The Great-Hunter had thrown one beaver well clear of the water, presumably to stop it hiding in the lake, before killing the other. The thrown one had tried to run but he had gone after it, killed it, and then eaten both. Both would have been heavy with winter fat and a real prize for the beast.

  That also removed the last hold the Wild had in the valley, the last creature of the Wild actually living there. The rest only came at risk from Billi’s bow which matched the Law of the Farm. Billi felt sure that although that might have not been the intention, the Great-Hunter had confirmed his landclaim. That made cropping his bit of Farm even more important. After taking a few fish for his ‘crop’ Billi collected more small soft pelts with his traps, maybe another crop.

  Deer were still coming to drink and scratch for grass underneath the thinner snow on the hillside. One deer made a mistake when, warned by Rabbit, Billi came out of the hut with his bow ready. It ran across the ice and slipped, which gave Billi all the time in the world to make sure his arrow flew true. Two days later a second deer turned to run when it saw Billi and realised that a steep hillside and the line of brambles lay ahead. The deer hesitated too long.

  Each time the bones and remains were gone from the Forest edge the following morning. The pug marks showed the beast must be close by though Billi didn’t see it again. Billi salted some of the deer meat and left it in the meat safe. With all this meat a pony would have been handy and Billi realised that, if another family lived here, the grazing would support one. Gradually he began to accept he would have a neighbour here if he finally did move.

  Broken reeds in the morning showed the path a family of wild boar used to come looking for water plant roots
so Billi waited for them. He took a youngster, nearly a yearling, as much to dissuade the rest from breaking his reeds as for the meat. Billi took a small one because he didn’t have room in his pack to take any more meat out and in addition, the youngster would be sweet and tender. Billi salted more deer meat to make room in his pack for tender pork.

  * * *

  The pork tasted both sweet and tender. Ellibeth slow roasted a leg with some roots and cloves, and salt to make the scored skin crunchy and tasty. It had been a long while since Billi had eaten pork that way as he was a boil or grill man usually, unless he spit-roasted his meat. She also made sure to leave a tidy bit for cold cuts another day or for a sandwich when Billi went hunting, to save him stopping to cook.

  The sandwiches were a new idea because Billi’s bread could never have been used for those. Billi had become quite domesticated and thought more and more about the benefits of a housekeeper. Even privately Billi still daren’t say lass, not even silently in his head. That became almost superstitious now, the idea that even thinking lass might destroy any faint chance of getting one. Though when he’d left a laughing Ellibeth at home after more jokes about cheese and dancers and bearrs, the thought would sneak back in.

  * * *

  Springfest arrived at last, with Billi properly involved for the first time. The celebrations with the eggs and lambs in the morning were for the littluns to celebrate being able to race about a bit and let off steam. The very little were supervised as they searched along the hedgerows for the brightly coloured eggs, hard boiled so that little hands didn’t break them. Then they traded their prizes for honeyed fruit or the hard sweet drops of boiled and set pine sap.

  Those a little older chased around the flocks to find the lambs with ribbons tied around their necks. They had to have a little patience as well, since the ewes soon taught them to be gentle when approaching lambs. Those ribbons could also be traded, sometimes for little honey cakes or tiny buns with berry preserves inside, baked for the occasion.

  Hektor, Mikkel, Eddmune and several other Hunters had descended on Billi’s hut to insist he come to help this year, “Instead of lazing about in your hut.” So Billi and Rabbit joined the rest of those with Hounds, standing watch to make sure that the Wild didn’t take advantage of a careless littlun. The littluns still insisted on the racing about and searching for hidden prizes even if this year the snow and some ice still lingered. That meant that by the time the dance started, as usual the younger littluns were tired and ready to sleep.

  The dance in the evening wasn’t for littluns so Billi had never been until last year. This year he would attend a Springfest, and also dance. The new confidence Billi had gained, that people weren’t always looking at his stump, would get another proper test. He would be in full view of more or less the entire Village again. This time Billi had been told by several maids that even with his gloves he wasn’t going to catch them at the Springfest. Even Billi realised that was more or less an instruction to be there, and a hint he might catch them.

  “I’m worried about this bearr dancing, Barimar. It’s sort of getting out of hand and I’m worried about putting a foot wrong.” Billi gave a faint smile. “Worse for me with only one to start with.” Billi sighed. “It’s a bit past a joke about that Dancer now.”

  “Ah, well, that would be down to me, and Canitre, Cynel and a couple of others.” Barimar looked a little bit embarrassed.

  “I thought it was the youths?”

  “The youths and maids started the jokes after the Tinkerer Dancer, and had made a bit of a game about the bearr catching. Then we thought that making a bit more of it would help Treese through the wake. Give her something to smile about.” Barimar chuckled. “That worked better than expected.”

  “But Perry says it’s not going to drop now. I’ve got maids telling me I can’t catch them even with gloves, and more or less telling me I’ve got to try.”

  Barimar laughed. “Billi, you’ve got to be the only young man or youth in the Village that would worry about it. Don’t fret. The ones you catch will want to be caught, so you buss them and turn them loose.” He shook his head. “It’ll not stop now even if the elders stepped in. The youths and maids have a new way to flirt, in plain view.” The Hunter suddenly looked more intent. “Or is there a maid ye’d like to catch?”

  “Not you as well. Look at this, Barimar. One peg, and a leg that’s taking twice the punishment because I’m a Hunter, so I work it too hard. Rabbit’s got the same problem, and ye know what’ll happen if another of his legs gives way.” Billi shook his head. “That’s not so much of a catch, not for a bonnie maid.”

  “Some will think it is. You could take it easy if there’s all those fish, give your leg and Rabbit a rest.” Barimar sighed. “But you won’t, because ye want to be out there, same as the rest of us. So buss the maids, then get off to your valley and dream about it.” Barimar chuckled. “And if one chases you out there, grab her because she means it.”

  Barimar went off chuckling and shaking his head. Put like that, Billi realised he might be a bit of a real silly Billi. He should buss the maids and enjoy himself while he could. Though a little bit of him wondered if he should enjoy catching one maid quite so much.

  * * *

  Billi knew the rules had been changed again as soon as he braced his back against the post. Perry brought a chair across and put it nearby. There were chants of “bearr chair, bearr chair” from the youths and some maids, so that wasn’t just Perry’s idea.

  “A bearr chair?”

  “In case.” Perry tried again because he nearly choked with laughter. “In case the bearr catches a maid.”

  Billi looked at the chair with dawning realisation and the music struck up. When the maids started dancing, they’d all got a scarf hanging loose. The whole hall started laughing or joking about it but Billi began to worry. Surely every maid in the Village didn’t want to be caught by a bearr?

  Though he soon realised they didn’t. A good few, especially the younger ones at their first dance, were careful not to let their scarves get close enough to be caught. Billi pretended to try anyway, and they shrieked and ran before joining the dance again. The older maids joined in and suddenly Billi had scarves that dangled or fluttered well within reach, so he caught one. “Help, help, the bearr has my scarf. How do I get it back?”

  Billi had to laugh because the maid kept smiling even as the chant struck up. “Buss the bearr, buss the bearr.” He bussed the maid, and she took her scarf before re-joining the dancing to a round of cheering. Billi had no time to wonder when all this had been worked out, because another scarf fluttered invitingly close. As the music continued, Billi once more bussed several maids, including Ellibeth. She bussed him firmly for her forfeit, and so did enough of the others for Billi to wonder if any of them were flirting.

  Then Billi caught a scarf, one still attached to the maid, but not Ellibeth! Eweyna, older sis of Rubyn’s friend Eddwyn, beat feebly on Billi’s chest. “Help, help, the bearr has me. Oh no, not Tinkerer bussing!” She shrieked, but wasn’t convincing because of her big smile.

  “Bearr chair, bearr chair.” Billi found out exactly why Perry put the chair by the bearr. Ellibeth had sat on his knee to give him a Tinkerer bussing when she’d been caught, and now Eweyna expected the same! Barimar had been right though, Eweyna had meant to be caught because she’d pinned her scarf around her neck so it couldn’t come free.

  “Well Eweyna, it looks as if I get to sit on the bearr chair?” Billi left the question in it, to be sure if he’d got it right.

  “Oh no, oh no, he insists. I’ve to sit on his knee!”

  That seemed clear enough, so Billi sat and received Eweyna’s version of a Tinkerer bussing. Nothing like the real thing, but a lot firmer than the bussing to forfeit scarves. Billi took his hand from round her waist to let her free, and she giggled. “How many buttons need to be undone to check for tattoos, Billi?” She glanced down and yes, she’d got an extra button undone!

 
Billi replied just as quietly. “I’m not checking anyone for tattoos in public, Eweyna.” Billi wasn’t checking for tattoos, or even pretending to, here in the hall. Or anywhere since he felt certain that counted as catching, not chasing.

  Eweyna bounced to her feet. “Ooh, the bearr tried to check for tattoos!” She twirled off, waving to her friends and Billi stood against the post again.

  Three more times Billi found that he caught the scarf still firmly attached to the maid, so he caught her as well. Ellibeth and the other two all shrieked and beat his chest, and all three of them sat on his knee for a ‘Tinkerer bussing’ and claimed he’d been trying to check for tattoos. Billi had a lot of fun dancing and now felt sure a couple of the maids really were trying to find out if Billi might chase. Maybe just in case this landclaim turned out as good as rumoured and he needed a lass to settle it.

  The bussing from all those he caught felt decidedly firm, and Billi reminded himself not to buss them back too hard. Ellibeth came twirling by. He’d already caught her scarf once and her once, and her bussings were decidedly firm. Two of the others with loose scarves had already ransomed theirs twice, so Billi caught the scarf tugged.

  He caught the Ellibeth as well this time, a second time. “Oh no, not again. Help, help.”

  Billi tightened his arm a little bit and spoke quietly. “Well now Ellibeth. This is twice.” Ellibeth beat on his chest, and shrieked again, but Billi could see the laughter in her eyes. “So just what do you think the forfeit should be this time?”

  Billi felt certain Ellibeth had already decided, and that her ideas might be safer than trying to guess. Definitely safer than a few that flitted briefly across Billi’s mind. Ellibeth turned to the crowd, scandalised. “He says this is twice, he might keep me until after dark!”

  A lot of folk agreed that he should, and Billi really would have liked to but Ellibeth was a respectable maid. “If that’s what I want, what are you actually going to agree to?”