“Before we eat,” Helen said. “I’d like to introduce everyone. You’ve already met my husband, daughter and I.” She indicated Elsa’s oldest brother. “This is Donovan.” Next, she indicated their youngest son, followed by the old man. “This is Curtis and Walter. Donavan, Curtis and Walter, this is Hyroc.” Hyroc and the two boys acknowledge each other with a simple head nod, while Walter grumbled something inaudible under his breath, warranting another glare from Helen and Elsa, then everyone started eating.
Hyroc eagerly took a bite of his soup. He sighed happily louder than he had meant to at the taste of the hot food entering his mouth.
Helen smiled. “You like it?”
Embarrassed, he nodded sheepishly before taking another bite. He had almost forgotten how good even a mildly seasoned meal tasted.
“I hear you got into a bit of trouble with Carla yesterday,” Walter said. “What did you do, threaten to eat her daughter?”
Hyroc regarded him inquiringly. “Is she the one who owns the shop with all the kitchen things?” he said after swallowing.
“That’s her.”
“She hit me in the face with a broom!” Donavan and Curtis began snickering, but immediately stopped when he looked in their direction.
“Don’t mind her too much, she hasn’t been the same since her oldest daughter went missing,” Helen said.
Hyroc studied her thoughtfully. “What umm – what happened?”
Helen sighed. “We don’t know, she went out one day to pick berries and never came back.”
“Her father thought an animal had gotten her,” Svald said. “But we never found any tracks heading off from where she had gone to. It was as if she just disappeared.”
“Where did this happen?”
“Out past the western edge of the village, a ways from here. She’s been the only person to up and vanished like that, but around fall last year, animals started going missing the same way. People would find the ground torn up a little as if the animal had been struggling with something, but then nothing. And if you’re worried about us thinking it was you, don’t. The town elders know you weren’t responsible.”
Well at least that was something good, but hearing about disappearance was disconcerting. What else could there possibly be here besides giant spiders? Asking Ursa about them later might be a good idea. He didn’t want to have another nasty surprise. “I was just, curious.”
“Like a fox in a hen house,” Walter said under his breath.
“Would you like some more?” Helen said, indicating Hyroc’s empty bowl.
“Yes – yes please,” Hyroc said, holding his bowl out to her.
“Other than Carla, how’d everyone else treat you?” Svald said.
“Good I guess. But the lady who runs the tailoring shop was very nice to me.”
Svald’s eyes lit a little at that. “Oh Luna. Yeah, she’s a sweet old woman. She’s actually one of the people responsible for allowing you to stay.”
Hyroc gave him a look of intrigue. It seemed reasonable someone who could treat him so kindly would play a part in that. “I’m very grateful she did,” he said sincerely.
“So, you’ve been looking to tan hides.”
Hyroc snapped his head in Svald’s direction excitedly. “Yes – yes I am.”
“Well, I can help you.”
“You’ll teach me?”
“Of course, you won’t be able to use any of those pelts if you can’t tan them. But I’m letting you know right now, this isn’t a hand out; you’ll need to give me something in exchange for my knowledge. And since you don’t have anything I want – and frankly I wouldn’t feel right taking anything from you in your current situation – so you’ll pay me in work. Does that sound like a reasonable trade to you?”
Hyroc studied the man’s face thoughtfully. He didn’t like the idea of adding even more work to his days, but he needed the knowledge Svald possessed if he was going to make a living here. He didn’t seem to have a choice in the matter.
“Okay, it’s a deal.”
“Good to hear.”
Svald reached toward him with one hand. Hyroc stared at his hand trying to figure out how he was supposed to react to the gesture. Racking his brain, he remembered seeing people in Forna shaking hands. It was related to finalizing trades or something. Hesitantly he reached out with one hand, mindful of his claws and shook Svald’s hand. Then he let go.
“When umm do we start?”
“We can start tomorrow if you like. I assume you check your traps in the morning?”
Hyroc nodded. “Yes.”
“About when do you usually finish?”
“Before noon normally.”
“Okay then I’ll expect you sometime around noon tomorrow.” He paused a long moment. “It’s getting late; you should probably get headed home soon.”
Hyroc finished off the rest of his bowl’s contents, before standing. “Thank you for the meal,” he said. “It was very good.”
“Thank you for coming,” Helen said. “If you should need anything, our door is always open.”
After a quick goodbye to the rest of the family, with a full stomach, he headed off toward his cabin, feeling much happier than he had in a long time.
CHAPTER 32
Keller slammed his fist down on the map laid across the table in front of him unable to contain his anger any longer. For the better part of a month he had been searching for the Hyroc creature. That search had led him across the kingdom to this guard post near the western edge of the wilderness and he was still no closer to locating his quarry. His assumption that the creature would stick to the more easily traversable terrain of the roads had proven false. But even with his incorrect judgment, his target was on foot and with mounted men it was still only a matter of time until he found the creature. After a week with no sightings he was forced to broaden his search. At which point, the only logical destination for the creature was the western wilderness as it was the closest and least populated region near Forna. And after figuring out what seemed the most expedient path for the creature to do so, he and his men began searching every town it might have passed by. But they found no evidence it had gone that way, not so much as a whisper or even a rumor.
So where was it? How could it possibly be so masterful with evasion? He had known elite scouts that left more evidence of their presence. It seemed ridiculous that it could possibly be so good. Nothing about its time at the school should have prepared it in the least bit for such behavior. Maybe something about its creation had imparted it with these powers.
“How can there be no sign?” Keller said with a raised voice. “Are your men so incompetent?”
The captain before him showed a flicker of anger in his eyes but hid all other signs of emotions. “Sir,” the captain said calmly. “I trained most of these men myself and I assure you they are quite competent. Most have tracked fugitives before; they understand how to hunt.”
“Then why does all evidence indicate otherwise?”
“I don’t know, sir.”
Keller shook his head in irritation. No one seemed to know the answer to that question.
The captain was quiet a long moment. “But if I may, sir. We could be looking in the wrong place.”
“Then where would you suggest we look?” Keller growled. He seriously doubted the man was more knowledgeable than he in such matters and any answer he gave would be wrong.
The man stepped over to the map. He studied it a quick moment before speaking. “We have not searched the northern towns.”
Keller shook his head. “I already thought of that, those towns are too far out of the way and unless I thoroughly overestimated the creature’s intelligence, it would have avoided those towns for a direct path to the wilderness.”
“I understand that, sir. But we have no other leads.”
“There is still plenty of ground to cover here,” Keller snapped. “I know there is some sign of the creature that we’re missing.”
“T
hen may I at least send couriers to those locations, they will not diminish our search parties and they are fast enough to return with any information they find before the month is out.”
Keller shook his head irritably. “Very well, you may send out riders. I suppose it prudent to do so.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“You are dismissed.”
The captain saluted respectfully before exiting through the open flap of the command tent.
Keller shook his head irritably as he watched the man leave. The creature had to have come through this area, it was the only logical thing he could think of. Escape would be the only thing on its mind. Surely it wouldn’t be thinking about finding a place to live. Keller cocked an eyebrow at the thought. Or was it? Was he thinking about this whole situation wrong? Was that why he couldn’t find it? He was fixated on the wrong reasoning.
He turned his attention back toward the map, moving his gaze toward the northern towns. His eyes settled on Flatwood. It still seemed doubtful the creature would have gone anywhere near that town. It was still relatively close to Forna, the creature would have had to go out of its way to get there if it wished to escape into the wilderness. As he studied the town’s location he noticed a small village further north, in the midst of the Elswood forest. The name was written so small it was hard for him to even see. He shook his head dismissively. If the creature went there, the villagers – people who dealt with dangerous forest animals on an almost daily basis – would kill it on sight. It wouldn’t have gone there; and if it did, it was dead and he would have heard about it by now. No, it couldn’t be there. The couriers would confirm this. The creature had to be close by. He was just missing something.
• • •
CHAPTER 33
Chores
“…Now make sure you keep your knife at an angle and don’t push in,” Svald said. He stood in front of a hide he had helped Hyroc obtain the night before which was tacked onto a slanted board, using his knife to demonstrate what he meant. “Otherwise you might cut through and damage the hide. Right now, you’re just removing the hair. This will take a few days so there’s no need to get in a hurry, take it nice and slow.”
Hyroc nodded, eagerly stepping up to the hide. Finally, he was learning about the thing that had eluded him for so long. After all this was finished, it seemed improbable any more of his hides would rot. He leaned forward and trying his best to copy Svald, carefully made a scraping motion with the side of his knife down the hide.
“A little bit more of an angle and not quite so hard.” Hyroc adjusted his next scrape to what Svald said. “Yeah, keep doing it just like that.” He picked up the long curved blade with handles on both ends Hyroc had seen once before and held it up. “Your hunting knife will work fine for this, but I’d recommend getting a fleshing knife like this when you can afford it. It makes scraping much easier.” Hyroc nodded, returning his attention back to the hide.
“That’s probably good enough for now,” Svald said approvingly, little over an hour later. “Now take it down, roll it up and stick it in the shed.
Hyroc wiped the flat of his knife blade on his leggings before slipping it back into its sheath on his belt and taking care of the hide.
“I’ve done my part of our bargain, now it’s your turn,” Svald said. He indicated a pile of wood rounds lying beside an ax buried in a stump. “Head over and start getting those chopped.” Hyroc quietly sighed dejectedly as he headed over to the chopping-stump. He had hoped Svald had forgotten about that part of their deal. But it was the price of learning what Svald had offered to teach.
Hyroc set the smallest wood round he could find on the stump. Lifting the ax, he brought the blade down as close to the center as he could. With a satisfying crack, the wood round split partway down the middle and another strike split it the rest of the way. He tossed the two pieces of wood off to the side before collecting another to chop. This round and the next two split easily, but the fourth was considerably larger, requiring several strikes to split. Hyroc ruffled the fur around his neck with his hand, letting the air dry the sweat forming on it. On the following round, the ax blade stopped, hitting a hard spot in the wood. Turning the round, he growled in mild irritation seeing a knot where the ax had stopped. He leaned forward and pushed on the back of the ax head with the palms of his hands, trying to drive the blade through the knot. No matter how hard he pushed, the ax wouldn’t cut any further. Glowering, he extricated the blade. Looking around he found a small wooden mallet and a wedge propped against a tree. He stuck the wedge where he had split the wood and used the mallet to hammer it in. Each hit slowly drove the wedge through the hard knot, until the round split in half.
With a sigh of relief, he aired out his dampened neck with one hand and reached for his water skin with the other. To his dismay, the skin was empty. He chided himself for not refilling it earlier when he knew a day of work was ahead of him as he made his way toward the lakeshore. Coming around the back of the cabin, he saw Walter working with a smoking rack laden with deer meat. Curious, Hyroc walked over, stopping behind the old man. Smoking his meat or drying it would be another useful thing to know, especially if he got more than he or Kit could eat before it went bad.
“Are you just going to stand there and drool?” Walter said, without turning to face him. “Not that I expect you to do anything else when you see food, considering how I saw you eat the other night, but Svald expects to get some work out of you.” He pointed toward the lake. “Go wash your hands; I don’t want this meat getting covered in your hair, because I actually plan on eating some of it.”
With an annoyed glare, Hyroc headed to the lake, washed his hands more thoroughly than was probably necessary just to spite the old man’s assumptions he was filthy, and refilled his water skin before heading back. With a sideways look, Walter studied his hands and gave what appeared to be some form of approval. Reaching into a small sack lying beside the smoking rack, Walter removed a handful of salt.
“Grab a handful and rub it into the part of the meat not already salted.” Walter demonstrated by rubbing his handful into a piece of meat. “Do it just like that, and try not to drop any, it’s not free – unlike what you seem to think about the food here.” Copying Walter, Hyroc grabbed a handful of salt and rubbed it into a piece of meat. Walter scrutinized the meat, but to Hyroc’s mild surprise, he nodded his satisfaction. “Well, would you look at that, you can follow instructions.” Walter smiled derisively. “Maybe we can train you for something useful after all.” Then in a sarcastic over bearing voice he said, “Good boy,” as if he were speaking to a pet. Rolling his eyes, Hyroc reached into the sack and started salting another piece of meat.
“There you are,” Svald said, as he walked over to the smoking rack.
“I was helping Walter salt this meat,” Hyroc said, indicating the older man with his eyes. He was going to be irritated if helping the man was something he shouldn’t have done. He couldn’t afford to go without learning how to tan a hide.
“Yeah, it looks like we might get some good work out of him,” Walter replied. “I think you made a great deal with this one.”
Svald nodded appreciatively. “Well thank you for that Hyroc.” Hyroc breathed a silent sigh of relief. Everything was good. “Walter do you mind if I take him, we need to get some more work done on his hide before it gets any later?”
“I suppose that’s fine, I was about done here anyway.”
“Okay.”
Hyroc brushed the salt from his hands, followed Svald to the hide and tacked it back up onto the stretching board. Then he began scraping it as he had done earlier.
“DINNER,” Helen called out. Hyroc looked skyward and was surprised to see it was close to dusk. It hadn’t felt like he was here long enough for it to be so late.
“You’re already here,” Svald said invitingly. “So you might as well stay for dinner.”
Hyroc smiled gratefully. “I – I would like that.”
“Good, we like
having you.”
“You do?” Hyroc said taken aback.
Svald smiled. “Of course we do, now come on I don’t want to keep everyone waiting.” Hyroc happily made his way to the cabin’s door.
“Oh, what a surprise, he’s still here,” Walter said dryly, as Hyroc came into the kitchen. “He must have heard there’s food in here.” Helen frowned at Walter. “Try to leave some for the rest of us, if you don’t mind.”
Helen filled a bowl with stew and set it at an empty spot at the table. “How was your day?” she said conversationally.
Assuming the bowl was meant for him, Hyroc settled into that spot, watching for any signs of disapproval on Helen’s face. “It was good.” Helen nodded. Looking down to his bowl, he smiled seeing it nearly overflowing. He began shoveling the stew into his mouth. He then noticed Walter watching him rapidly devour his meal with an unsurprised look on his face. Hyroc forced himself to eat slower to prove to the old man he could. Other than Donovan and Elsa throwing joking insults at each other and Walter lobbing an annoying jibe his direction, the meal passed peacefully.
When he returned to his cabin, the towering spruce had enveloped the structure in its looming shadow. Kit yowled hungrily from the base of the tree he had been tied to. “I hear you,” Hyroc said, as he walked over and undid Kit’s leash. Yowling impatiently at an ever-increasing volume, the cub eagerly followed him inside the cabin. Hyroc cut a slice of venison from his portion of the deer he had been given and tossed it to the expectant cub. Kit immediately stopped making noise, content with tearing into the piece of meat. With his companions needs fulfilled, Hyroc stepped outside to try stealing a glance at the sun before it disappeared below the horizon. He was startled to see Ursa sitting beside the tree he tied Kit to, looking toward the red and orange strips cast across the sky by the setting sun.
“It’s a nice sunset tonight,” she said, without turning to look at him. “No clouds to disrupt our view.”
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