The Savage

Part 2: Chapter Five: Llewellyn

Llewellyn was alone in the yurt they'd shared the night before when he woke. Dressing quickly, he found Brenn with the old woman and Fia approaching with three horses. He recognized Brenn's paint, the large bay gelding that Fia had been riding and his own run away.

"They found him." Llewellyn beamed.

Fia handed him the reins to his horse, "They wouldn't give me your saddle, you'll have to use this one."

The saddle the animal wore now was primitive and well worn compared to the embossed leather one he'd ridden out with. It didn't look comfortable, but he wasn't going to complain in front of Fia.

Folding and sliding a parchment under the collar of her dress, Brenn joined them.

"Did you get them?" Fia asked.

Brenn nodded holding up a new leather pouch. "I shouldn't have been traveling without them."

Their path took them north along the great western peaks of the Sliav mountain range. The forest was dense, the trail narrow, however, despite these obstacles they kept a brisk pace.

Breakfast of an apple was had in the saddle. It was hardly filling for Llewellyn seeing as he was used to a more protein and sugar based food. Within the hour his stomach growled from hunger, but he kept it to himself.

"You don't think we should go to Mor?" Fia asked Brenn around midday.

"The diomhair will be safe. Besides we can't cross the Avainn right now." Brenn replied.

"What's a diomhair?" Llewellyn asked wishing he knew more Duthaichi than he did.

"It's my family's safe house."

"You think your family will be there?" Llewellyn asked clumsily.

Fia gave him a dark scowl.

"I can only hope." Brenn replied.

Llewellyn grit his teeth. How thoughtless was he?

As the day wore on and dusk settled in, Brenn rode off to hunt for their dinner, leaving Llewellyn, much to his dissatisfaction, with Fia to set up camp. Sore and starving, he was in no mood to deal with her scowls and bad temper.

"Gather wood for the fire. Dead wood preferably." Fia said, shuffling a circle in the snow around camp.

Llewellyn did as he was bid without argument but not without grumbling under his breath as he walked away. Arms full, he came back to camp and dropped the wood in the center of Fia's circle.

"Start the fire." She ordered handing him what looked like a crumpled birds nest.

"Why must I?"

"Because I'm still setting boundary." She snapped. "Can you do that?"

"No. But I can't light a fire either."

"Useless." She spat snatching the kindling from his hand. "Watch." She demanded.

Kneeling, she set the dried nest on the ground. Unsheathing a dagger she took a flint stone out. Holding the flint face up and angled down towards the nest, she scraped the blade of her dagger sharply across the stone. Sparks flew towards the dried kindling. She struck it again and the fire took. Dropping her tools, she picked the nest up and tenderly blew on the fire, breathing it to larger life. Setting it back down she used the gathered sticks to build a tripod over the burning nest.

"Keep feeding it the small dried twigs. Don't let it go out." She said, going back to walking the circle.

Llewellyn fed the fire and watched Fia chant in Duthaichi as she walked the circle again and again, placing stones as she went.