Gift of Gold (The Year of Churning Bloods)

by Leone, Hudson

  I smiled broadly and casually flicked him away. “It’s mighty bad luck for you that you're in my body and not Gregor's,” I replied without any remorse. As time went on however, it became apparent that I had underestimated just how much Gregor wanted to be elsewhere. One early morning, I awoke to the hushed noises of someone deliberately trying to be silent. Cracking a single eye open, I gave an instinctive yelp as I saw Gregor trying to sneak his hand into Totara’s chest pocket while he slept.

  Gregor immediately leapt back at the sound of my squeal, however misplaced his feet and ended up tumbling to the floor with a loud clunk. Totara sniffed slightly, smacked his lips twice and then rolled over in his bed while still asleep. Gregor wordlessly swooped to my side and clutched my throat as if he were going to choke me. I felt his cold thick hands start to close off my windpipe and for a terrifying moment I honestly thought he was going to follow through with it. He stared me down for a full five seconds before throwing be back onto my bed and giving me a rude gesture along with his worst glare yet.

  I considered warning Totara that Gregor was keen on pickpocketing him for the luck powder however decided against it at the last minute, for fear that he might not believe me. Fortunately for me, Gregor showed no more inclination to steal throughout the stay and instead spent his time sharpening his already thorny gaze.

  One surprisingly warm afternoon after I had finished my work, I sat on a bed of snowy grass and bided my time by silently observing the valley with weary eyes. From where I was sitting upon the small hilltop I could see Totara bustling about in the side hut, looking incredibly busy. “Now what is he doing?” I asked, taking a few cautious steps forward to see if I could catch a glimpse. Maneuvering to a small tree, I peeked through a nook in the branches and gasped as I saw what he was working on.

  Standing as tall as a short man, was a splendid wooden carving that Totara was effortlessly shaping with a small chisel and strip of sandpaper. The sculpture was a swan with its wings outstretched to extent where the soft light of the afternoon almost seemed to be passing through the delicate feathers. From the crest of the bird upward, was the face of a woman. Her braided hair was carelessly flung down over one wing and although it was simple, I found it was terrifyingly beautiful.

  “This was what was under that woolen blanket,” I realized suddenly. All this time I had thought it was more firewood, or more tools. “I have to tell Totara I’m a Grimlar,” I said, surprising even myself. Maybe it was looking at the carving that inspired me, or the warm passion with which Totara tended to the sculpture. Either way I mysteriously felt myself advance forward.

  Umber lingered back in an attempt to stop me. “You don't know what you're doing Jacob,” he warned in desperation. “This could shatter your chances of getting the miracle powder back.” Try thinking for a change,” he suggested optimistically.

  “I can't keep lying to a friend,” I said simply. I sidestepped the man, who was hunched over his creation and pouring over every last detail. His eyes were focused and his body was relaxed. Now that I was a few feet away from the carving, I noticed the odd way it seemed to be drawing in the surrounding light, turning all my focus towards itself. Although notably lifeless, her eyes gleamed with bittersweet happiness, which was highlighted by her kind and lonely smile far down her face. I noticed she was wearing a pendant identical to the one Totara had showed me earlier.

  “Do you like her?” Totara asked, stepping back. “I couldn't remember what her body looked like, but I think I captured the face pretty well.”

  “It’s extraordinary,” I replied breathlessly. “I honestly can’t believe that anyone like this ever lived.”

  With a great amount of effort, Totara turned his attention from the carving and stared at me. “Is there a reason you're here and not preparing for dinner?”

  My lower lip trembled, I wanted to avert my eyes, but Totara's piercing gaze had latched onto my field of vision. “I’ve been lying,” I blurted out suddenly.

  “What now?” Totara asked, looking completely abashed.

  “I’ve told you that Gregor and I are traders when that’s not true. I’m not proud to admit this, but we’re actually Grimlars in training.”

  “But you said you and your brother...?”

  “I'm not a trader and I never had a brother. I'm a Grimlar.” The word felt gritty with filth as it traveled through my windpipe and scraped past my tongue.

  Totara stood without swaying. Time had frozen, and the little warm light surrounding us had gone cold. The man stared at me with eyes I hadn't seen since our first encounter and I found myself trembling with raw trepidation at the memories.

  “Prove it,” he said prudently. I shrugged uncertainly and extended a hand out. Relinquishing a small portion of my energy, I stretched a section of the land upward until it was waist high. Totara leapt back in alarm, while his pupils darted about like marbles in a pond of water. Without waiting for him to say anything else I began to explain about the task that Gregor and I had been set.

  “Orthonus is getting stronger,” I said, holding back the panic in my voice. “We have to stop him.” Totara’s breathing turned frantic as he grabbed cupfuls of his hair and began to pace around. “But it’s not in vain,” I protested while stepping forward. “The reward should I kill Orthonus is three wishes, but only if I kill him within a year.”

  “You lied to me,” Totara growled.

  “You would have kicked me out of your home if I had said anything else,” I protested urgently

  “Then why are you here, if you have only a year?”

  “We need all the miracles we can get,” I said innocently. Totara crossed his arms and paced around the room, seeing me now for what I really was and inspecting me with a look of disgust.

  “Are you telling me this because you want your payment early?” he asked, flicking out the miracle powder from his pocket? “Are you saying that you never wanted any of this?” He outspread his arms and gestured to the entire pavilion. “ Did you just want to lie, stay a few nights and then be on your way?”

  I shook my head earnestly, but this was ignored.

  “You've uncovered the soil of my past that hasn't been touched for seven years, and you expect to just waltz away and never see me again? Have you never considered the possibility that finally having someone to talk to and pass on my trade has been the best time of my seven years here?” Totara threw his hands up and kicked down a nearby stand of well maintained saw-blades. They fell to the floor clattering over one another with a terrible racket. “What would you care about my trade? You were trained to fight and exploit! You listened to my stories pretending to be interested just so that you could reclaim your stupid little miracle!”

  Please! Please listen to me, you don't understand!” I screamed in desperation. The sting in my eyes was too powerful to have been mere tears. Had someone told me I was crying poison, I would have believed them.

  “Well you know what?” Totara asked, now bellowing at an inhuman volume. “Take it! It's yours! It always has been!” The miracle powder was flung to the ground where it flopped around uselessly. “Who am I to just want company, or a little compassion for the horrible decisions I've made? Nobody that's who! I lost Rimu, I lost my clan, I lost my beautiful miracle boat; And now,” he added, shoulders starting to sag. “I'm going to lose the only friends I've made in seven years, just because the mighty Grimlars said so.”

  Without another word, Totara retreated to the safety of the hut. The miracle powder simply lay there, blissfully unaware that it was the cause of the worst mistake of my life so far. I stood there on the spot trembling and wishing I had never gotten involved: Wishing I had just listened to Umber who was no doubt laughing at my misfortune and misery. I pocketed the miracle powder and gave in to the irresistible desire to lay down and weep.

  Chapter twenty-three

  Professor Pocket’s Miracle Powder

  One day find you death

  One fine day fine cheese

 
Luck is nothing new to you

  Yet luck can never please.

  356 days remaining.

  Noticing that Totara had locked himself in his room, Gregor repeatedly asked me what I had done to him. Not even on my dying breath would I have told him I had gotten the powder back.

  “What’s the harm in telling him what happened mortal?” Umber asked in a demanding voice.

  I jabbed my fingernails into my scalp and slowly took three breaths as I felt my patience ebb away.

  “If I told Gregor I got what we stayed for, he’d have me leave and I’d never get to apologize to Totara.”

  Umber groaned in dismay and suddenly swamped my vision with his presence. “So that’s what this is about,” he declared, looking less than impressed. “You want retain this positive relationship of yours with that lumberjack.”

  I bit back a response and struggled to make myself more comfortable in the seat I was sprawled in.

  “Get over yourself!” Umber bellowed. “The world is filled with lonely people, and honestly helping only one is not going to change the rest of the world.”

  As much as I didn’t want to admit it, Umber’s words stung with a point of truth. By leaving now I would be ruining the life of one man but possibly saving the lives of hundreds more. Was I even responsible for those lives anyways? Totara had said a jailkeeper was someone who decided right and wrong for a person, yet didn’t a hero do all of those things? I stroked my face with a trembling hand as an unwelcome realization came to me. “Is a hero the same as a jailkeeper?” I laughed nervously and tried to throw this sticky thought away. “Surely a hero would have a clear sense of what’s right,” I thought to myself defiantly. “Surely a hero would know better.”

  “No one can know everything,” Umber responded coldly. “If you mean to tell me that you know what’s right for everyone then you’d only be living a lie.”

  “Explain,” I insisted quickly.

  “Okay. Consider what would happen if by some ridiculous quirk of fate, you got rid of all war,” Umber said, trying not to laugh. “Not like you could ever do that, but still, just pretend.”

  “Yes quite funny,” I snapped irritably “Get on with it already.”

  “You would agree that no war would be much better for society. However what about all the blacksmiths and armourers?”

  “What about them?” I replied sourly.

  “They would lose all of their jobs!” Umber exclaimed loudly. “They would have no other profession to turn to, and you as the hero would be responsible for all of their losses.”

  I bit my tongue and fastened my clenched fists around the edge of the chair.

  “If you think heroism is doing what’s right for everyone, then you’ll lose,” Umber said after a moment of silence.

  “Well what do you think heroism means?” I asked feeling suddenly lightheaded.

  “I don’t know,” Umber said as if I was being idiotic. “In fact, I don’t care to know because I’m not the one here that constantly strives to be one.” Umber broke my gaze and glanced over to the locked door to Totara’s room. “If think it means staying here in the middle of nowhere to baby a single distraught lumberjack, then by all means do so. There’s nothing more I can say that would convince you otherwise.”

  As Umber flashed out of view I took one more discreet look at the miracle powder in my pocket and sighed uncomfortably.

  After nearly an hour of asking non stop questions, Gregor finally lost patience and threw me against the hut wall, snarling as his eyes flashed green. He tried everything he could to scour through my memories, however Umber halted his every advance. After a few startled silences, he threw me to the ground and furiously began to rub his temples.

  “How do you always do that!?” he shrieked as if in genuine pain.

  “Do what?” I asked, innocently masking a smirk with my hands.

  “Get that orange cloud thing to block your memories! Don't be stupid Jacob, I know it's just another stupid distortion trick.”

  I shrugged to myself and Gregor held a fist dangerously close to my face.

  “Oh but don’t you worry. I’ll find a way to get past you,” he added with a hint of uncertainty in his voice.

  His unease made me a lot happier than I’d care to admit.

  With Totara bolted up in his room all day it soon became apparent that I was going to have to carry on with his work until he decided to come out. This meant I would have to cook, clean, hunt, cut trees, saw wood and hoist the flag for traders all by myself. The reason I said “all by myself,” is because when I asked Gregor to help me, he snorted with indifference and spat at my feet.

  “Good luck with that Sunshine,” he replied nastily.

  “Why won’t you do any work?” I asked, desperately trying to keep my voice calm.

  “Nobody’s making me,” he stated, carelessly propping his feet up against the dining room table.

  I sighed and pressed my whited knuckles into my teeth. “I’m making you,” I explained slowly.

  Gregor raised his eyebrows in surprise and blew a bit of air out the side of his wide mouth.

  “See Sunshine, the last time I checked, you’re nobody.” Gregor tipped both of his thumbs upward and sighed proudly. “And since nobody’s making me work, I don’t have to work.”

  “How am I supposed to do this all by myself?” I asked, stamping my feet in agitation.

  “Ask the lumberjack,” he said, folding his hands behind his head. “After all, he’s had to do this alone for something mental like seven years.”

  My mouth suddenly fell open as I realized that Gregor was right. Totara had worked alone for quite a long time and if he could do it, then surely so could I. Immediately after thinking this, I began to feel guilty again. I tried in vain to ignore this and went about my work. Every tree I fell, I would have to strip of its branches, separate it in two and roll each piece to the side hut where I would chop it up for the merchants. The work was immensely difficult without anyone else to help me and I found myself being taunted by the fact that both Totara and Gregor were getting away with not doing anything at all. I began to wonder if what I was doing was really necessary.

  Gregor didn't matter. If anything this little exercise was only to prove to Totara that I was still willing to work. Hopefully he would come to terms with himself and let me apologize for lying to him. After what felt like hours of labour, I looked towards the hills and saw the sky ablaze with twilight.

  I was unsure how long to make a work day; however given how late it was, I figured It was time to make dinner anyways. I stumbled inside of the hut and gradually slowed my breathing.

  Gregor lay in his bed with his arms folded and his eyes closed.

  For someone who was supposed to be asleep he looked very cross, so I tried my best to maneuver throughout the cooking area without disturbing him. I’d never cooked in my life, so I thought I should make something nice and simple like stew. “How hard can it be?” I chuckled to myself, emptying a flask of broth into a pot and adding a whole carrot.

  “Aren’t you supposed to cut it up?” Umber asked uncertainly.

  “It's stew!” I exclaimed, gesturing for added emphasis. “There can't be a wrong way to make stew.” I glanced above me and saw a shelf filled with vast array of hearty smelling herbs and spices all contained in tiny glass vessels. I took great delight in opening each and every one and inhaling their earthy aromas. Any spice that caught my fancy would be dumped into the pot before I moved onto the next spice. “Paprika.” I read aloud before leaning in to inhale it. My eyes watered and my head shook as the fragrance of the substance overwhelmed me. Seeing as this was the best one I’d smelled yet, I ended up using the entire container.

  Noticing a bowl of potatoes and onions to my right, I grabbed one of each and plopped them into the pot where they sunk to the bottom with the mounds and mounds of spice. I retrieved a large wooden spoon from the cupboard, and furiously began to mash all of the contents in the pot. I tapped the s
poon lightly against the side and watched as everything slowly settled. “That was ridiculously easy!” I thought to myself proudly. “Maybe I should become a chef!” With the thought of being a chef, providing me with extra flamboyance, I filled a saucer of my creation and set it before Gregor with a flourish. He cracked open a single eye, and looked at the steaming bowl with unease.

  “Why is there an entire onion in my bowl?”

  I ignored his question, and filled up a second bowl for Totara. I tentatively reached for his bedroom door handle and gently pulled with my free hand. I was relieved to see that Totara had finally decided to unlock his door. Timidly stepping in, I coughed slightly to announce my presence.

  The room inside was surprisingly tidy, with an organized wardrobe and even a couple books here and there. A half eaten loaf of bread was carefully placed on a plate on the room's side desk. The centerpiece of this dark chamber was Totara, bundled up under his duvet covers where he lay face down. I took a cautious step forward and announced in the bravest voice that I could: “Dinner's ready. I'm leaving you a plate on your desk right here.”