Beauties and Beasts Pt 2

Chapter 152

What could Kieran and Lorcan be up to? Not good things, if you remember who their father is. Also, my co-writer has informed me y'all like shorter chapters, about 3-4 pages, so let me know if that's a good length or if you prefer longer ones :)

"What the flock..."

Matthias, stunned into silence for the past few minutes, elbowed him out of habit. "Orson, ugh, sorry, Lorcan, language!"

The blood on his skin felt clammy and the young Sheep's fingers stuck together when he tried to clasp them. Kieran stood by his brother, eyes round and full in the absence of light. Dust still filtered from the ceiling and clung to the open wounds of the Snakes, bound together with rope and several tons of dirt.

"I... I didn't mean to, Shepherd, I swear, I was just..."

He trailed off, unsure of what he was just trying to do. The day seemed muddled in his mind like someone stirred a stick through it and he couldn't quite make out what it was supposed to have been.

"Let's... just get out of here."

They picked their way out of the cavern, the topography significantly changed since the cave-in, and tried not to focus on the stench of Death behind them. Lorcan could almost hear Her now, coaxing the stars from the bodies and nestling them in Her basket, Crook hanging from her arm. He wondered if Death looked like Mom.

They stood in the sunlight, the shade from a towering tree washing over them in the wind. Matthias looked at them both and coughed in alarm. "You're covered... it doesn't matter." He sighed and shook his head, plucking at his lips and making a throwing motion. "Let's get you into the stream."

Matthias ended up changing his mind several times until he found a river that led away from the Village Fold so no one would detect the blood in the water. Submerging both boys to their necks, he grabbed a bundle of sweet nettle and started scrubbing. "What would I say to your sire if you'd gotten yourselves killed?"

Lorcan opened his mouth to reply, but Matthias shoved his head underwater, raking the young man's hair with his fingers.

"And to drag poor little Ro'eh into all of this... He's an innocent, you two! He doesn't have the evil conniving heart you two got from your father!" He turned his attention to Kieran while Lorcan surfaced and gasped.

"We didn't tell him to follow us!" Kieran protested, anxiously scrubbing his own hair to avoid the same treatment.

"Yeah," Lorcan gently soothed the red flesh of his arms, "we just told him to keep his mouth shut about where we were going." The irony of telling a mute to keep his mouth shut was lost on him.

"Ro'eh loves you two like you shared a mother!" Having worn the branches to a nub, he snatched another handful and started again, this time lathering the branches with a thick bar of yellowed soap. "You should know better. The call of Death must have come for your brains as well as your bodies."

Lorcan, used to the abuse, counted pebbles on the riverbed with his toes. Matthias couldn't be too mad at them because this hurt less than last time.

Kieran felt the mental pressure too keenly and wilted beneath his grandsire's hands. It was only a little bit of fun, and it's not like any of the blood was theirs. He didn't understand what the anger and frustration was about since they didn't get hurt and they hadn't damaged the Village this time. It wasn't like the wall was that hard to rebuild anyway... the worst was pretending they couldn't just hammer through solid stone with their bare fists and using the hammer/pole technique expected.

Matthias's angry words dissolved into mumbles, then silence, which seemed much worse. They couldn't gauge how he was feeling, except for his fingers digging into them. He stood and gestured for them to leave the river, pulling two swathes of cloth from his bag and using them to dry the boys. The wool felt just as scratchy on their tender skin as the branches had. After carefully hanging the cloth on a bush to dry, during which they moved not a muscle, he drizzled oil over them, smelling strongly of purple prickle, and started to rub it in.

Lorcan opened his mouth to say something, but at a sharp glance from Kieran, he closed it again. The infused oil stung the scratches, but not as much as it used to.

When he got to Lorcan's scalp, Matthias's fingers froze and he held his breath, carefully probing his skin. Letting out a small sigh, definitely not all the air he was hiding, he continued his ministering, changing focus to Kieran.

When he'd finished rubbing them down, he gestured to their clothes. The piercing scent of the oil clashed with the earthiness of the river and it was all they could do to keep their eyes open as they fumbled for their loincloths.

They dressed under his watchful eye, arms folded across his giant chest. Small for a Sheep, his layers of shirt and scarf hid most of his bulk from all but the most astute gaze. Even when he'd gone swimming with the boys, he'd kept a thin tunic on and kept looking at his stomach. Standing in the bright sunlight under his scrutiny, he walked slowly around them, taking in every detail. When he'd seen enough, or deemed them worthy to return to the Fold, he knelt and lit several small fires, into which he fed bundles of purple prickle and plush-leaf. The fragrant smoke blinded them further and they coughed.

"We don't need anyone smelling Snake blood around here." He looked towards the fields just visible from a distance. "Especially not since predators will be bringing their mates here for medicine any day now. I'd be surprised if there wasn't one at the Village when we got back."

The boys said nothing, although Lorcan's toe began digging in the ground in a show of defiance. He got deeper than he realized before Matthias unhooked the intricately carved crook of their father from his elbow and walked in front of them.

"Come along then."

As they walked, he said relatively little, remarking on different plants they could eat or use to heal females with as he usually did, though the conversation didn't continue much beyond that.

Kieran followed a step behind Lorcan, wondering about the Snakes. They'd been everywhere and he couldn't breathe, their black tails preventing him from using his arms, though he'd managed to keep his legs free. He remembered crushing one beneath his foot and the wall, the bone splintering beneath his foot like a wet branch. He'd lost track of Lorcan, though from the angry cursing echoing around the tunnel, they hadn't killed him yet. There was a landslide, or something, and someone had jerked his leg out of the clutches of the snakes, his fingers yanked from the throat of one who got too close. He'd only wished for his knife when they were standing in the dust.

Lorcan's thoughts were on the burning in his muscles and how to get that again. There'd been a moment, stretched to his limit, when he'd been trying to throttle a Snake with glittering emerald eyes that his muscles seemed to receive new strength and the throat all but collapsed. He remembered the crumble of dry earth beneath his knee, almost falling into the wall as he tore at it, almost sensing the weakest point. He could hear Kieran's heavy breathing, punctuated with a light 'baa' when he concentrated. Good. So he wasn't dead. The balance of the wall tipped and it slowly bent towards him. In a flash, he reached for the only warm skin and pulled as hard as he could, dragging his brother towards the sunlight. A Snake reared before them and struck, his teeth narrowly missing Lorcan's neck as he twisted and dragged his hands down the bastard's face, trying to pull out his cheekbones. His nails sank into the spongy tissue, easier to penetrate than scales, just like debarking a tree. Then there was Matthias, mouth closed in a tense line, grinding his teeth from the sound of it.

Then dust filled their noses, mouths, eyes, and all the world.

"We'll have to make a shirt for you, Kieran, and no more shearing for you, Lorcan." Matthias's voice cut through their recollections and he turned with a grim look on his face, eyebrows sinking towards the middle of his face.

"Why a shirt," Kieran protested, holding his chest protectively.

"Because you two just got your first marks." He chuckled slightly, though there was no happiness in the sound, and turned back to the Village. "Wait until your father hears about this."