Boelik (8 page)

Ryan glanced back up at Boelik and nodded.
“Follow me,” he said, motioning with his hand. He led the way out
of the door, setting aside the broken pieces.

“
I will fix that,” Boelik
promised. Ryan cast a tight-lipped glance back at him but said
nothing, instead continuing across the open space. He was headed
toward the area where Boelik had landed the previous
day.

The air was warm; a tell-tale sign of the
late summer, and a slight breeze blew by constantly. The plains
were all emerald grass, with gentle, sloping hills. Boelik never
stopped looking for trees, but evidently, wherever they were, trees
were a distant memory, not a whiff of the familiar scents to be
had. And wherever they were headed seemed just as barren.

***

The pair made their way up yet another hill,
Ryan falling to all fours and motioning for Boelik to get down as
well. Once he did, Ryan led the rest of the way up. At the top,
they peered down and saw a small, scattered herd of deer. Ryan lay
on his belly on Boelik’s left, his gaze fixed on them.

“
All right Ryan,” Boelik
said softly. “Thank you.”

“
Will you hunt them?” Ryan
asked, tearing his gaze away from the herd to stare at Boelik, who
nodded.

“
Yes. You think I should
not?”

Ryan shrugged. “I think you should hunt
little.”

“
You want to leave some, do
you?”

Ryan nodded, his gaze swiveling back to the
deer. “The families are peaceful. It would be… sad, to see them all
dead.”

“
I understand. I planned to
only take three, anyhow. Do you see three good ones to hunt?”
Boelik asked. Ryan seemed to stretch a little further toward the
deer, his black eye ticking all over as he scanned the herd for
what he thought was good prey. Boelik examined his face, glancing
between it and the deer to see if he could discern where the boy
was looking.

After a moment, Ryan pointed to three deer on
the edge of the herd by the bottom of the hill, two young bucks and
an older doe. “Those three.”

Boelik looked out to the three. “Why do you
say that?”

“
The doe is old and slow.
That buck, with the smaller antlers, he has a lame leg. The other
buck’s eye is ruined; it looks like it got caught on another’s
antlers.” Boelik tried to see what Ryan was talking about,
straining his vision to try and notice such details. He saw how
sluggish the doe was, of course, but the smaller things were
invisible to him.

“
You have extraordinary
vision. Is that all due to your eye?”

Ryan nodded. “My right eye can see like a
hawk’s.”

“
Well, do you want to see
what I can do, now?”

Ryan gave him a quizzical look.

In a flash, Boelik was gone. Ryan turned his
head as he noticed the doe go down, its throat torn. The two bucks
followed suit. All the while, he could only see a blur around them.
The others panicked and bolted, away from the dead and away from
the hill.

Boelik was beside him again then, and showed
him his claws. Blood stained his silver fur, and he patiently
awaited Ryan’s verdict.

“
That’s amazing,” he
whispered.

“
We don’t have to whisper
anymore. Only the dead can hear us now,” Boelik said, putting his
hand back under his cloak. “Anyway, I’ll take the carcasses to town
and see if the butcher and skinner will give me much money for two
of the deer.”

“
You… don’t seem to be from
around here,” Ryan ventured. “Do you know where the town
is
?”

“
I have a general idea.
South.”

Ryan shook his head. “I’ll show you the way
there, too.

“
Thank you,” Boelik said.
He was gone for a moment and returned carrying the doe and older
buck over his shoulders. “Can you get the last one?”

Ryan looked at him, eyes wide in disbelief.
“You expect me to carry that?” He pointed to the remaining buck
carcass at the foot of the hill.

“
You can’t do
it?”

“
Well, I don’t know. I’ve
never
tried.”

“
Now’s your chance, then.
Go on.” Ryan sighed as he stared down at the carcass and started to
run to fetch it.

“
Wait,” Boelik said. Ryan
turned around, blinking. “Unclasp my cloak and put it on for now. I
don’t think I can stand seeing you bare much longer.”

Once Ryan slid the cloak out from underneath
of the carcasses, he donned it and began down the hill once more.
Soon he was back with the deer over his shoulders, grinning. “It’s
lighter than I thought.”

“
There you are,” Boelik
said with a smirk. “You never know how much you can take until you
try.” Pausing, he asked, “Is your shoulder okay?” Ryan nodded.
“Come on then, let’s hurry up. How fast can you go?” Ryan blinked
at Boelik then looked down at his own feet.

“
I don’t know.”

“
Well, start running!”
Boelik cried, starting off without him.

“
Wait! I can’t lead you if
I’m behind you!” Ryan shouted, stumbling to a start.

“
Then you’d better hurry
up!”

Within a moment Boelik was eating his words
and Ryan was ahead of him. “Don’t fall behind,” Ryan taunted.
Boelik snorted in a laugh, accelerating to catch up. As it turned
out, Ryan also had extraordinary speed, though it didn’t quite
match Boelik’s. And he wasn’t particularly durable.

Boelik’s endurance would have let him run the
route in one shot even with the two deer, but Ryan wasn’t used to
exerting himself so much so the two had to stop periodically to
rest. They would break and drink from Boelik’s flask or from a
stream where they would also refill the often-empty container.

The town was in view by evening, and the two
slowed to a stop. There were lanterns up already, shining in the
dying light. A shallow ditch ran along the dirt path leading up to
the settlement.

“
Okay,” Boelik said,
turning to Ryan. “I’ll need my cloak back. You go hide out in that
ditch there, away from the town.”

“
What about the deer?” Ryan
asked as he set his down and unclasped the cloak.

Boelik set his own deer down and took his
cloak from Ryan’s outstretched hand, putting it on and adjusting it
to hide his left arm. “Well, I can’t carry more than one at a time.
The whole point of this,” he said, gesturing to his covered arm,
“is to make them think I only have one arm. You think you can put
the other two over in the ditch with you?”

“
All right,” Ryan said,
picking his deer back up. Boelik dropped the other buck in the
ditch with him, and Ryan pressed himself to the ground.

“
Now don’t come out until I
come and get you.”

“
I won’t.”

Boelik picked up his carcass and hefted it
over his shoulder, walking to the town. In the streets, he quickly
got directions to the skinner and the butcher. “Hello,” the skinner
greeted as he entered. “What can I do for ya?” he asked, leaning on
the counter towards Boelik.

“
I have three deer. How
much would it cost to skin them?”

“
Oh, about five coin
each.”

“
If I gave you a
skin?”

“
Hm,” the man said, looking
Boelik up and down. “Four coin total. One free, one mine, discount
on the last.”

“
Would you charge me
yours?”

“
Nah.”

“
Deal,” Boelik agreed.
“Here, I’ll leave you to this one. You can decide when you’re
finished which one you’d prefer.”

Boelik brought in the two deer and went to
bargain with the butcher. The butcher gave him a better deal on the
meat; he’d take one, buy one and a half, and leave Boelik with the
rest. When Boelik was done and waited for the skinner to do his
job, he went to talk with Ryan.

“
How are you faring?” he
asked, taking a seat in the ditch next to the boy.

Ryan shrugged, staring off at the sky as the
sun painted the clouds bright, burning colors. “I’m not dying.”

Boelik winced a little at the phrase. “Right.
I’ll buy you some clothes, something with a hood, and then we’ll
both go back to the cottage. All right?”

“
All right.”

The sun gradually went down, turning the sky
from a burning canvas to a cool one. Stars soon began winking into
existence, watching the two in silence. At last, Boelik went back
and got his skinned deer, transferring them to the butcher’s. He
took his money and only waited for his half a deer before dropping
the food off with Ryan. “Watch that,” he ordered. And back in he
went.

At the clothing store, Boelik bought some
trousers, one pair for Ryan and the other for him, a couple of
shirts, a pair of shoes, and a hooded cloak. He was about to head
out when he noticed a gray farmer’s hat with a string to reach
under the chin. He bought that, too, and then bought salt for the
meat. And a jar of honey, which he put in a pouch with the
salt.

Back with Ryan, Boelik tossed him the
clothes. “That pair of trousers on top is yours. The shirts, cloak,
and hat are yours too.”

“
Thank you,” Ryan said,
holding the bundle. He stared blankly at it, as if he wasn’t sure
it was really in his hands.

“
Well, put it
on
,” Boelik said. Ryan started.

“
Right, sorry.” He set the
bundle down and then pulled the shirt over his head and got it
stuck, arms askew and his head only halfway through the
hole.

Boelik sighed. “Never put on a shirt before,
have you?”

“
No, not really,” Ryan
replied, his voice muffled by the fabric. Boelik sighed again,
helped him out of it, and then demonstrated how to properly put it
on. Soon the shirt and cloak were on, but the trousers…

“
Boelik?” Ryan asked,
holding the pants in front of him and looking lost.

“
Yes?”

“
I don’t know how
to…”

“
Well, that makes sense.
Just put your feet through the holes, there. There. Now lift one
leg and… Oh, never mind. Jumping works too.” Eventually Ryan was
clothed like a decent human being in a light, simple shirt, shoes,
a brown cloak and some brown trousers. “And there we are. Here,”
Boelik said, handing him the hat.

Ryan took it and stared at it, then up at
Boelik. “A hat?”

Boelik nodded. “Put it on. In busy places you
can pull it down over the right side of your face—I made sure to
get a decent rim for a reason.”

Ryan put the hat on and pulled the rim over
the right side of his face and turned to Boelik. “Is it good?” His
bright blue eye was wide with hope.

“
It’s perfect. The only
thing now is your legs. If you were a girl and had a skirt this
would be easy, but as it is… Well, only walking around towns in the
dark or standing behind something that covers your lower half in
front of people should do fine.”

“
All right,” Ryan said,
nodding. “Now, back home?”

“
Sure. I’ll race you,”
Boelik said, picking up the deer meat and bag of goods.

“
Ah, no. I don’t think so,”
Ryan said, both his gaze and his voice flat.

Boelik laughed. “All right, but let’s hurry
nonetheless. Dark’s already here, and I don’t know about you, but
running empties my stomach like nothing else.”

The pair was back at the cottage, exhausted,
just before dawn. “So,” Boelik said as he walked in, moving aside
the pieces of broken door with his feet, “hungry?”

“
Starving,” Ryan replied,
flopping onto his bed. “Also, exhausted.”

“
Eating in the morning
then, are we?” Boelik spread salt over the meat as he
asked.

“
I am.”

“
All right then. Eating a
large breakfast.” Boelik put the deer on the workshop bench,
glancing out the window at the full moon. Then he laid the pieces
of the door back over the opening. Looking at it again, it appeared
that the door had been somewhat rotted anyway, making it that much
more fragile. He moved his attention around the cottage to see if
it was worth staying in.

The wood was grayed and dry, and the interior
was a mess. Not just from the intruder the other day, either, by
the looks of it. But taking Ryan into account, Boelik figured they
could at least stay for a little while. At least to get the boy
used to having him as a housemate first, before trying to change
too much at once. Sighing as Ryan’s light, whistling snore filled
the cottage, Boelik lay down in his spot on the floor and passed
out.

The next day, both woke up around noon with
rumbling stomachs. Boelik looked to the hearth on the back wall and
found a small stock of wood next to it. He put some in the
fireplace to get it started, taking flint and steel from his boot
and crossing his fingers in hopes it was old enough and dry enough
to light without tinder.

Once a fire was started, he put the flint and
steel back in his boot and removed his dagger. He moved to the deer
and sliced some meat for two. Ryan watched his movements intently,
interest evident on his face.

Boelik rooted around for a pan anywhere, but
ended up settling on two metal rods probably meant for a
clothesline and spearing the meat to cook it that way. He set the
rods to poke the top-back of the hearth and stabilized them with a
piece of wood for an anchor.