Hyroc

by Freestone, Adam;

  “Is everything understood?”

  “It is,” Hyroc said, returning his attention to Svald.

  “Good. You probably have some things to get done, so let’s get you home.”

  “Thank you.” Hyroc walked over and began warily collecting his things, while at the same time keeping a close eye on Harold; he wanted to know what he was holding. After belting on his sword, he saw Harold put what looked like a small crystal ball in his pocket. Hyroc vaguely remembered Marcus saying something about that kind of object turning blue when it was used on him. It was called a Peering Orb if he remembered correctly. It was supposed to turn purple or black if it detected any trace of witchcraft on a person or object. It must have turned blue otherwise Svald and Harold wouldn’t still be talking to him.

  “Lead the way,” Svald said, once Hyroc had finished getting his things together.

  Feeling nervous showing them the way, he began leading them to his cabin. A crow squawked angrily, fluttering a short distance away as the group passed its perch on the fencepost. Hyroc had seen a crow standing on that fencepost ever since he was brought to the cabin. Looking up into the sky, he saw the dark shape of Shimmer circling overhead. Glancing back at the first crow on the fence, he saw it watching him intently. Something strange was happening with that crow, but Hyroc dared not mention it to the two men escorting him.

  Very little was said during the trip back to his cabin. When they arrived the long shadows and cool light of dusk had settled on the mountain.

  “This is it,” Hyroc said, presenting his cabin.

  “You’re very fortunate to have found this,” Svald said.

  Hyroc nodded knowingly.

  “You two stay here,” Harold said, walking toward the cabin’s door. “I need to check something before we can finalize the deal.”

  A sense of alarm crept into Hyroc’s mind. What was Harold looking for? A bolt of fear shot through him when he realized Kit was tied to a tree near the cabin’s front door. How would they react to him having a mountain lion cub? Hyroc stole a glance at the tree. Kit was nowhere to be seen. Repressing a surge of despair, he watched Harold pull the door open and step inside. What felt like hours passed before Harold walked back out.

  “There’s nothing here,” Harold said.

  “I didn’t think there would be,” Svald said. “But it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

  Hyroc breathed a mild sigh of relief. “We’ll let you get back to whatever you needed to do before dark,” Svald said. “Just don’t forget anything we said and we won’t have any more problems.” With that, the two men headed off.

  The instant they were out of earshot, Hyroc rushed over to the tree he had tied Kit to. The twine that functioned as a collar looked like it had been cut. Kit must have finally managed to chew through it. Night was rapidly approaching and the night predators would soon be out and none of them would think twice about snapping up a mountain lion cub. Repressing a new feeling of urgency, he scoured the ground for tracks. He found none. “Kit,” he called out. No response. He continued yelling as he frantically checked in and under every nearby tree. Hoping Kit had gone to drink from the stream; he quickly made his way over there. Looking up and down the shore, there was no sign of the cub.

  “Kit,” Hyroc yelled as loud as he could.

  He heard a tiny, faint yowl. Doing his best to suppress a flood of excitement, he carefully listened. The yowl sounded again a little closer. “Kit,” Hyroc called out, cautiously walking in the direction of the sound. Several paces later, he started, seeing Ursa come into view. Hanging limply from her mouth by the scruff of his neck, Hyroc saw Kit. “Kit, there you are,” he yelled excitedly. Kit yowled pathetically. After a few more steps, Ursa lowered her head and dropped Kit. With a hiss, he bolted behind Hyroc, growling at the large white bear.

  “I thought something had happened to you,” Hyroc said scratching Kit behind the ears.

  “It’s fortunate,” Ursa said. “I had enough time to get him away.”

  Hyroc narrowed his eyes, anger welling up within him. “I thought you were supposed to protect me!” he said acidly.

  Ursa gave him a curious look. “Is that not what I have done for you?”

  He gave her a baffled glare. “You could have gotten them to release me.

  “What would that have accomplished, besides hurting two hunters that were doing what they thought best for their family? It turned out all right didn’t it?”

  “Yes, but what if they had decided to kill me instead?”

  “Then I would have stopped them. I don’t see what your complaint is? You still have your den, don’t you?”

  “Yes but –”

  A flutter of movement in one of the trees beside Ursa caught his attention. Perched on a branch he saw Shimmer, but beside the raven stood half a dozen crows. Sweeping his eyes around the clearing, he saw still more crows perched amongst the trees, all of which were watching him.

  “Are you making them do that?” Hyroc said, indicating the tree beside her.

  “I’m not making them do anything, I’m asking them to.”

  Hyroc gave her a bewildered look. “You’re asking them to watch me?”

  “Yes, I made a deal with them and they accepted my terms.” Hyroc stared at her strangely a long while, not quite sure how to respond. “In simplest of terms, I told them to watch you and if they did that, the mountain would be safer for their eggs and fledgling.”

  “How are you going the keep your end of the bargain, without killing every predator on the mountain?”

  “I’m not going to keep it, you are.”

  Hyroc gave her a startled look. “WHAT! HOW AM I SUPOSED TO DO THAT? I might think of myself as a good hunter, but I know I’m not nearly good enough to do that.”

  “You’ve already done that,” she said in an amused tone.

  “I’m pretty sure I’d remember killing scores of dangerous animals single-handedly,” he said indignantly. “About the best I’ve done is take out a few rabbits.”

  “Your mere presence makes the mountain safer for them.” Hyroc raised a skeptical eyebrow at her. “By trapping and hunting around here you reduce the number of predators that prey on birds, thus making this area safer for their eggs and fledglings.”

  “But I haven’t killed enough animals to make a difference, have I?”

  “Not really, but birds are just like any other animal, they’ll take whatever advantage they can get. A little safer may not seem like much of an improvement, but it is still an improvement nonetheless.”

  “Are they worried about you, I don’t know, eating them?”

  Ursa gave him a humored look. “I’m a bear, unless a bird is dumb enough to sit there and to let me eat it, I really don’t have any hope of catching one and they know it. But also because I’m a bear, no other animal, except for maybe a weasel or a wolverine, will make a deal with me because I’m a danger to them.”

  “So, you told – I mean, asked them, to keep an eye on me?”

  “Precisely, you couldn’t see me but you never left my watch. Did you ever wonder why The Ministry never got to you after the man who adopted you died?” she said proudly. “They definitely tried.” Hyroc gave her a puzzled look. “The Ministry requires far more parchment than most people realize. Whenever I discovered an order went through related to harming you and other such dangerous instructions, that order would mysterious go missing from a curer’s bag or someone’s desk beside an open window. With the help of my feathered friends, the ones in the capital who wanted to get rid of you could never get their orders to the ones who took care of those things –”

  Hyroc smiled mischievously, imagining a man in a long robe turning from his desk to grab a book from a nearby shelf, then turning back to find his parchment suddenly went missing.

  “– And that woman who looked after you was able to take care of any problems that happened near you. That is, until the incident with that boy happened. There was nothing losing a few orders would d
o to remedy that situation. Anyway, the villagers would not have allowed you into the fold if I had shown up to rescue you. The birds were the safest option. Do you understand now?” Hyroc nodded as he reached down to scratch Kit, who was lightly biting his leg. “Just make sure you don’t raid the nests of any birds on the mountain, unless your need is dire. Your friend knows not to as well.” She paused, looking up into the sky. “It’s getting late; the two of you need to eat.”

  With that, she turned, disappearing into the trees a moment later. Hyroc stood, looking down at Kit when she had gone. “Well, I think everything went a lot better than I had expected,” he said casually. “I thought we were going to have to run.” Kit yowled in what sounded almost like agreement. Hyroc smiled down at him. “But I think things are actually starting to look up.” And it even felt safe for him to allow himself to believe it.

  CHAPTER 30

  An Unwanted Customer

  Thin lines of rain streaked downward, disappearing silently into the ground as Hyroc stood beneath the spindly canopy of a birch tree. In front of him lay the first scattered buildings marking the eastern edge of Elswood. How his frightening encounter with Elsa’s father had turned out still puzzled him. Elsa’s father and brother were shocked by his features, treating him as if he were some terrible beast. Then hours later, when he had convinced himself coexisting with people was impossible, he was released and informed he could come into the village. Elsa’s father obviously thought he was dangerous, why else would he restrain him and summon guards, not to mention threatening to turn him into a blanket. After such a strong reaction, it made no sense for them to simply let him go, least of all in such a polite manner. For as long as he could remember, when somebody feared him that fear never subsided, it often got worse. Maybe his actions with the wolf had somehow changed the mind of Elsa’s father. He did seem suddenly conflicted when he learned of that. Whatever the reasons, he was thankful for how everything turned out, no matter how strange it seemed. Now he needed to figure out if what the two men told him regarding the village was actually true. It would make his life tremendously easier if it was. He really couldn’t think of a reason why someone would deceive him with that.

  He pulled his hood up as far over his face as it would go. He didn’t know how many of the villagers actually knew about him, so it seemed a good idea to try and conceal at least some of his features on his first trip there. Maybe then, it wouldn’t be as much of a shock for those people.

  Reaching down, he untied the pelt of a deer rabbit hanging from his belt. He had caught the horned hare during the morning and despite having cleaned it as best he could, it still smelled of blood. He didn’t fool himself into thinking the villagers would treat him any better than the townsfolk of Forna, but if he brought something to trade, maybe they wouldn’t be as inclined to think he was a mindless monster. Trading seemed a very odd thing for a monster to do, unless it was for human skulls or something. Though, it still seemed prudent for him to bring his sword. Having it gave him a measure of confidence and if things did not go as he hoped, the villagers might think twice before trying to harm him.

  After ensuring his sword was properly secured to his belt, with the deer-rabbit pelt in hand, he headed toward the village. The buildings grew steadily closer together as he walked down the muddy street path running between the structures. He lowered his head, turning away as he passed a group of three villagers gathered at the entrance of a side path between two homes, talking to one another. The group’s conversation paused as they regarded him, but resumed once he was out of their sight. He felt an increasing number of eyes on him the farther he ventured into the village. The street path widened into a circular space with a well where a smaller path cut through at an angle forming what appeared to be the village center.

  Across the space, he saw a building with a carved sign naming it the Black Spruce Tavern. The smell of freshly baked bread wafted over from somewhere to his right. Turning, he saw a bakery and the edge of a butcher shop. On the other side of the village center, opposite these two buildings, were what looked to be a mercantile, tailoring shop, and a third shop with what looked to be kitchen aids. To his immediate left, judging from a fur mounted on a rectangular rack inside the building, lay a furrier. That was the shop he was looking for.

  Taking a deep breath, steeling his nerves for the shopkeeper’s inevitable response, he walked inside. The shopkeeper, a portly man, with a woolen cap mostly covering a large bald spot on the top of his head, stood at a bench near the right wall of the shop with his back to the door. Hyroc anxiously waited inside the door for the man to take notice of him. The man did not turn; in fact, he didn’t seem to have noticed he had a customer. Hyroc smiled to himself seeing how quiet hunting in the forest had made him. He opened his mouth to make his presence known, but wondered if that would startle the shopkeeper. The man would then be surprised again when he saw his face. Startling this man twice seemed a very bad way to introduce himself, so he stepped back and knocked on the doorframe instead.

  “Good afternoon,” the man said kindly, setting something down on the bench and turning toward him. “I just finished a…” the man cut off mid-sentence, startled by Hyroc’s face. Hyroc shrugged. Knowing it was coming still didn’t make it feel any better. ”Oh, it’s you,” the man said in a far less kind manner. Hyroc raised a puzzled eyebrow. The man almost sounded as if he already knew about him. That worried him a little. Had word of his presence already spread through the village? He expected that to happen in a few more days but not this fast. Now more eyes would be on him, people gawking to get a look at the strange thing venturing into their village. He quickly pushed his thoughts from that. They couldn’t hurt him by looking at him. If people weren’t trying to kill him, being stared at was nothing.

  “I guess it was too much to hope for that you had left. What do you want?” he said acidly.

  Hyroc held up the deer-rabbit pelt, eliciting a perplexed look from the shopkeeper. Unsure how exactly to phrase his query, he said, “I want to sell this.”

  The man’s sighed, holding his hand out. “Let’s get this over with,” he said under his breath. Hyroc handed him the pelt. The man held it out in front of him, examining it with what seemed to be only a mild interest. “It’s in surprisingly good condition; I’ll give you five Flecks for it.”

  That seemed a reasonable amount. “Okay,” Hyroc said. Reaching into his coin sack, the man removed the coins and warily dropped them into his hand, doing his best not to actually touch his hand. Without another word, the man walked backward to his bench without taking his eyes off him. Taking that as his cue to leave, Hyroc headed out the door.

  He looked from the bakery and the three shops across from it. His hand drifted down to the bag of coins hanging from his belt. The bag only contained a small amount of coins, but it should still be enough for him to buy a few things. He needed twine to make more traps, a needle and thread would be nice for patching up his clothing, a proper ax for chopping wood, and it was probably a good idea to get a collar for Kit. The mercantile was the first one he headed for.

  A tiny bell rang as he pushed the door open to enter the shop. The shopkeeper and two women standing together stared at him once his face came into view. He tried saying hello but the word caught in his throat, causing him to make a sound more like a burp. Mortified, he quickly turned from the three people and began looking through the shop’s wares.

  “That’s the thing the Shackleton’s found out near their place,” one of the women said in a whisper.

  “It’s hideous,” the other woman whispered in response. Hyroc felt warmth creeping through his face as he continued his search.

  “I hear it drinks the blood of the animals it kills and sucks the marrow from their bones.” He paused, caught off guard by the comment, though not entirely surprised by it. He was used to hearing uncomfortable details about the things he supposedly did. But it was still incredibly irritating.

  “That’s disgusting.”
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br />   “Well, look at it, that shouldn’t surprise you.”

  There was a pause. It felt as if their eyes were creeping over every inch of his body. “I thought it would be bigger.”

  “Let’s just be glad it’s not.”

  “Why on earth would the elders let that into the village?”

  “Too much ale I suspect,” the woman said with a laugh.

  Hyroc found coils of heavy twine and wood axes at the back of the shop. Ready to be rid of the women’s gossip, he grabbed the smallest coil of twine, a wood ax, then went to the shopkeeper. The women stopped whispering, taking a step back when they saw him approaching.

  “How much for these?” Hyroc said, using his eyes to indicate the items in his arms.

  As expected, the shopkeeper seemed even more disconcerted seeing his features up close. After an awkward moment of being stared at from an uncomfortably short distance, the shopkeeper said, “Eight Flecks for all that.” Hyroc fished the appropriate amount out of his coin sack, laying it on the counter in front of the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper’s eyes flickered down to the coins, then he resumed staring. Hyroc waited for the shopkeeper to indicate their transaction had ended. The shopkeeper continued to stare and seemed to become more nervous with every passing second. Hyroc looked from the two women to the shopkeeper. All three continued to stare. Hoping it was now okay for him to leave, he hurried out the door.

  Next was the tailoring shop. Inside he found a slender older woman with long silvery gray hair down to her shoulders, working on a loom. She regarded him in a somewhat surprised manner, but seemed more curious than afraid. She looked at him as if he were some interesting bird she had never seen before. It was somewhat disconcerting being looked at that way, but it was much better than being awkwardly stared at. It reminded him of how the school cook had reacted upon their first encounter. Maybe the same sort of thing could happen with this woman eventually. Sweeping his eyes around the shop, he located the spools of sewing thread.