Dullahan

2 - A Tragedy - 1

THEY SPOKE OF INCONSEQUENTIAL things as they walked, most of the conversation taking place between Eldred and Cal, who walked behind May. They ran and jumped, laughing and joking around. May, to begin with, stayed mostly quiet, marching forward at a steady pace and trying her very best to ignore them so that she could continue to be annoyed. At one point, when she had moved far enough ahead that they could safely whisper to each other without her hearing, Cal had told Eldred that she'd had an argument with her father- he had not wanted her to go out with them that morning, insisting that she had too much work that she needed to do. She had, of course, refused and insisted that her important work was done, and that she could finish any extra tasks he had for her that evening. It was only after he'd left the room and her mother had given her permission that they'd been able to walk away and leave the house.

Eldred had nodded in understanding- this was not an uncommon occurrence- and the two had run to catch up, walking alongside her for a time.

As they got closer to their destination, climbing over the gate to the field, May had started to participate in the conversations, unable to stop herself from giggling at some of the stories or jokes Cal would tell. They were all grinning by the time they reached their pile of fort-building materials, any reservations or lingering grievances forgotten in the anticipation of having a fort to build.

Thus followed a morning of frustratingly close attempts to make a standing structure. At first they tried a conical shape, trying to balance the logs and branches together around a central post, but every attempt eventually toppled over as they could not drive the middle post deep enough into the ground, and it would work its way out as they added more weight. It took them four attempts at this shape before they changed tactics, aiming for a leaning structure instead. These next three attempts inevitably collapsed as they couldn't get the balance of the initial structural pieces.

Discouraged after their seventh consecutive failure, the three sat on their pile of logs and ate lunch while they tried to think of a different approach.

"We could use one of the trees," May said in between bites of her pastry.

Both Cal and Eldred gave her a look, "'S not a very impressive fort if we can't make it stand on its own," Cal said reproachfully, and Eldred nodded in agreement. She rolled her eyes- she'd been trying to get the other two to see reason, but so far all of her attempts had fallen of deaf ears.

"Maybe we need to find a different branch to build around," Eldred said after a moment's pause. "Maybe if we had a forked branch in the front, it could hold it up or something?"

Neither of his friends seemed very convinced, and none of the three were keen to venture into the forest in search of more branches again. One of the first things Eldred had done upon entering the clearing once more, as construction had begun, was return to the spot where they had first seen the dog from yesterday. Etched into the mud were the shapes of its huge paws, long claws casting deep impressions at the end of each toe. He'd attempted to scuff them, to erase the forms as though that would remove the events themselves. He'd only succeeded in making the prints softer, and their shadows remained buried under a pile of new leaves.

"The problem is," Cal started, looking pensive, "the logs keep sliding off one'n'other, so the whole thing just collapses. Maybe if we tied 'em together...?"

May wrinkled her nose, "With what?"

"We had some old rope at home," Cal said hesitantly, "I don't think dad'd mind if we took it- he said it was too frayed to use for the animals anymore."

She raised an eyebrow, thinking this new suggestion over, "That could work, I think..." she said.

"Could you get it, Cal?" Eldred asked.