ago Olin had struck up a friendship with the tanner, who had helped them build their cabin and surrounding homestead.
Now, though, Drem could see a tension in his da at the appearance of the tanner, his eyes flickering beyond the barn, just for a moment.
He’s worrying about that lump of rock.
‘A good season’s hunting?’ Ulf asked.
‘Aye, good enough,’ Olin said.
‘I was hoping to buy or trade your skins,’ Ulf said.
Please, thought Drem. He hated the tanning process far more than the cold nights and hard rock and root of the hunting.
‘We were just talking about starting the tanning on the morrow,’ Olin said, tugging on his short beard.
‘I’ll give you a good price and save you the hard work, and the smell …’
‘We’re not afraid of some hard work, are we, lad?’ Olin said.
‘No, Da.’
But the smell. Please …
Olin saw Drem’s look.
‘Well, it’s something we’d not be against discussing, I suppose, is it, Drem?’
‘No, no, it’s not,’ Drem said, trying not to let his hope spill all over his face.
‘We’ll come into town on the morrow, talk on it some more,’ Olin said.
‘Well, I’d like to talk on it now, if it’s all the same to you. Don’t like to go to bed with unfinished business, gives me gut-ache and then I can’t sleep. But it’s hard with the smell of that food cooking,’ Ulf said, smacking his lips and raising his head to take a big sniff. ‘Distracting, it is.’
Olin frowned, his eyes flicking beyond the barn again, but then his face cracked in a smile. ‘Best we do something about that hole in your belly, then,’ and with that they all entered the cabin.
‘Kergard’s bigger than when we left,’ Olin said, dipping some black bread into his bowl.
Ulf had produced a loaf from a saddlebag strapped to his horse. ‘Never go anywhere without a loaf of bread – makes every meal better,’ Ulf had pronounced, and Drem had to admit it had certainly made his bowl of stew much better as he ripped off a large chunk and soaked up the last of the thick gravy glistening with fat and onion juice at the bottom of his bowl.
‘Aye, it is, sure enough,’ Ulf said as he sat back and quaffed his mead, emptying the cup without taking a breath, then belched as long and loud as Drem had ever heard. His da filled Ulf’s cup and sipped some of his own. Night had fallen long since, a strong wind outside making timbers creak and sending the flames of the fire flickering and coiling as darkness pressed in upon them, making shadows dance and writhe on the walls.
‘Close to four hundred new souls living around the crater, I’d wager,’ Ulf said. ‘All of them arriving since you wandered off in the spring towards the Bonefells. Not that I’m complaining: they’ll all be after fur-lined boots and cloaks once they have a taste of winter up here.’
‘Any trappers like us?’ Drem asked.
‘Aye, a few. Not like you two, though,’ Ulf said. ‘Six moons living wild in the Bonefells, now that’s what I call commitment to the job. Most of the others have been back at least a moon, those that are coming back.’
‘Not everyone’s returned, then?’
‘No, Vidar and Sten are still out there, though they’re almost as insane as you two, so there’s still hope they’ve survived the Wild another season. Old Bodil isn’t back, either, which isn’t so good. Don’t expect to see him, now. He’s wintered eight years in Kergard, and he’s always back before the end of Reaper’s Moon.’ Ulf squinted at Olin through one eye, a sure sign that the mead was having some effect. ‘Didn’t see him on your travels?’
‘No. Not him nor any other soul,’ Olin replied.
Hope he’s all right, Drem thought. He liked Old Bodil, though most called him cantankerous and ill-tempered. Drem thought most of that was just straight talking, without any dressing.
‘Ah, well. He’ll not be the first trapper to end his days up in those mountains, or the last. Maybe he ran into the kin of the wolven that ended my trapping days. Course, I doubt they’d ever be as fierce a beast as I had the bad fortune to come across, roaming up in the high places.’
They probably are, wolven don’t become less fierce, thought Drem, gritting his teeth so that he didn’t blurt the words out. He was trying to take his da’s advice and not unwittingly insult Ulf; not that he saw any insult in correcting a