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27
Day 120
Relieved to be safe and together again on Ellery, we all sleep in the same room for several nights. Angus and Tolliver on the king’s bed, Hollis, Kava and I sprawl out on mats around them. Each night is darker and darker approaching the new moon. I appreciate the company and the conversations.
The day of my birth comes, and Tolliver makes a plan to go hunting. We are still within reach of the mountains and he thinks we have time to hunt before we reach the end of the range.
We all stand on the surface of Ellery. It is surprisingly warm, and we’ve left our cloaks and furs behind for our adventure in the woods. Hollis and Kava found more clothes in one of the royal chambers of either the queen or her daughters. They stand in the bright morning light wearing long beautiful dresses.
Hollis keeps swishing her yellow dress back and forth, staring into space. Her choppy hair hangs at a sharp angle on her cheeks. I should ask if she is okay. Instead I watch the silver trim on her long sleeves shimmer in the sunlight.
“I wish you would have thought of this sooner,” Kava says with her hands on her hips. She is wearing a light blue Ellerian dress with a rounded neckline and draping sleeves. A silver chain link belt hangs from her waist and drapes to the ground. “It’s stupid for you guys to jump off and run the risk of not being able to get back on, especially after what we went through,” she complains.
Hollis and Kava look out of place in contrast to Angus, Tolliver and I. Angus and Tolliver have collected piles of tunics and slacks left by the Ellerians so they never have to wash clothes. They are both wearing all black: boots, pants, and shirt. I look down at my dirty white shirt and brown slacks. I wash them every couple of weeks. I tip my head to smell my armpit and gag. I need to wash again.
“That’s where you come in,” Tolliver explains. “We have the rope, just in case we are far from the ledge and can’t leap across.” He finishes hammering a large metal stake in the ground and fastening the rope to it.
“Fine, fine,” she shakes her head.
“Besides,” Tolliver says, putting the spyglass in her hand. “It looks as though we will be in the mountains for another couple of days.”
Angus, Tolliver and I gather our weapons and empty canvas bags. Tolliver leaps first and then Angus. I take a few steps back and jump across. My heart is thumping wildly, but it feels good to succeed and land without hurting myself. I think of Alouette’s wings and wish I had a set of my own. It would make life much easier.
The rocky ground pokes through my skunk skin shoes. They are worn away in several spots and the craggy ground tears them all the way through. We walk up the side of the mountain together and head east. Tolliver picks up the pace so we are walking faster than Ellery is drifting.
The mountain slopes down in front of us and is no longer level with Ellery. We follow it down into a small valley of evergreens and leafless trees. Tolliver halts us with a hand in the air then points down into the ravine. There is some sort of beast traipsing through the brush below. I’m not sure what it is from up here, but it is quite big with brown fur.
“Angus head north down that slope,” Tolliver whispers. “I’ll go straight down from here as soon as I see you in position.”
“What about me?” I am armed with a sword.
“Stay here,” Tolliver says as Angus walks away.
“I can do something,” I whine.
“We only have two directions in which we can approach. Angus and I are better shots than you. Stay put, brother.” Tolliver whips out an arrow and tiptoes down the mountainside. I see glimpses of Angus’s red hair through the trees as I lower myself to sit on the sharp rocks. Tolliver descends out of sight.
Sometime later, I hear a shout. A loud roar rips through the valley and I jump to attention. The beast is probably attacking them. I pull the sword from the sheath and shuffle down the mountain. The ground is covered with crunchy dead leaves at the bottom. I hear another roar and head north toward where I imagine Angus bloodied and mauled. I tromp through the brush and crinkly leaves, not worrying about being loud.
Pushing my way through a thorny bramble, I trip and fall out the other side. I land with my face in the leaves. I look up to see Tolliver and Angus standing over me.
“Do you have a wild bird in your head?” Angus laughs. He has a bloody blade in his hand and Tolliver has proudly shouldered his bow. The fight is over.
“I thought—”
“You thought we invited you to this party and we didn’t,” Tolliver says.
“What?” I shriek. “It’s my birthday.”
His eyebrows raise as he retorts, “I mean, we didn’t call you down the hill.”
The pressure of sticking up for myself builds in my head. I want to explode on them and demand they take me seriously and treat me like a man. But I did just stomp loudly into the middle of their hunt. Luckily, the animal is already dead. I grind my teeth as Angus snickers at me.
Angus puts his knife back into the guts of the beast and rips upward towards its head. It looks like some sort of small bear with tusks. Its tongue lolls to the side as Angus and Tolliver handle it. With a sticky sloshing sound, he yanks out the parts we don’t eat and tosses them into the weeds. Tolliver ties the front paws together with a rope, which he tosses up over a tree branch several feet above his head. When Angus is finished cleaning the animal out, he signals Tolliver who pulls the carcass up and ties it off on a nearby sapling. Tolliver holds the carcass still as Angus strips off the hide. Angus uses his knife to saw off each of the back legs. This amount of meat could last a long time.
“Give me your bag,” Angus holds his red dripping hand out to me.
I hand it to him and he loads it with the two back legs. He packs the front legs into another and quarters the torso. He can only get three of the quarters in the rest of our bags.
They discuss how to haul it back to the island and resort to wrapping it in its own skin as a makeshift bag. Angus ties it closed with a strip of leather from his quiver. They each grab a bag and leave two for me.
“Two? Why do I have to carry two?” I yank one onto my shoulder.
“You said you wanted to help.” Tolliver gives a playful wink, eyeing the second one. I lug the heavy bag onto my other shoulder crossing it over the first, pushing the weight to my back. We head up the east side of the valley to catch up with the island. Halfway, my legs are burning, and I am out of breath. I have to stop several times to gulp down air that isn’t reaching my lungs.
When we crest the top, Ellery is a short sprint away and Tolliver prods us to run. I trot like a mule with a load that is too heavy. It bounces and hits me in the back at every step. Reaching my arms back, I hold my load tightly, attempting to make it a little less painful. My brow is sweating, and the cool breeze is icy on my face.
There is another smaller valley in front of us before we reach Ellery. Easily running down, I worry I might die on the way back up.
“Stop, I can’t,” I plead, out of breath.
“No, you knew we’d have to run to make it back. Come on,” Tolliver demands.
“I can’t,” I say gasping for breath. My legs are about to give out.
“Yes, you can,” Tolliver prods. “We are almost there.”
“Wait,” Angus says, stopping us. He is scoping through the trees ahead and pulls out an arrow. Mounting it on his bow he takes a shot and then another. He smiles wide and pumps a fist in the air.
We follow Angus to his kill.
“Nice shot, brute,” Tolliver says grinning. He lifts the rabbit from the place where it died with Angus’s arrow sticking out of its eye.
“I’ve still got the skills,” Angus says with a happy jaunt.
They laugh together as I kneel in the dirt to catch my breath. As I unload the bags from my aching back, Tolliver urges, “Let’s go.”
I groan and follow them the rest of the way. Every step is excruciating. The sharp rocks under my feet. The extra weight that drags me down and strains my back. The burn of my legs and chill on my face. By the time we reach the moving ledge of Ellery, my body is numb. Swaying with exhaustion, I peel the bags from my shoulders and heave them onto the ground. I don’t complain so the girls won’t know how much of a wimp I am. Kava and Hollis are sitting near the edge waiting for us. There is a little pile of fur in front of them.
“What is that?” Tolliver shouts across the chasm.
“We may have done some hunting ourselves,” Kava replies. They each hold up a squirrel.
Tolliver laughs and shows them our dismembered kill. Hollis is confused. She probably can’t tell what it is.
The gap between the mountain and Ellery is widening with every moment, while we stand around chatting. Looking ahead along its route, it will only get wider.
“Tolliver, let’s get over there. Looks as though our leap will get more difficult the longer we wait,” I say pointing at the cliff.
Tolliver nods and throws his bag across the gap. Angus tosses his and one of mine. I heave the last one over to the girls.
“One, two, three,” Tolliver yells. Side by side, we all take a flying leap across. I land and steady myself. When I hear a scream and rocks falling, I whirl around. Tolliver is barely holding onto the surface of Ellery.
Angus and I scramble over to him. We each grasp an arm and drag him up the side of the cliff. As soon as he is safe, Kava’s knees hit the dirt even though she is wearing a beautiful clean dress. She wraps her arms tightly around him while we all sit panting in the gravel.
“What happened?” My heart is pounding.
“He landed and the rocks gave out underneath him,” Hollis explains with her hand on her racing heart. “He nearly slid right off.”
My stomach aches at the thought of him falling down. It would be like getting ground in a grain mill. I’m never doing that again.
We grab our kill and head to the castle. The front of Tolliver is covered in dust particles. His black tunic is ripped open and blood speckles his chest. His expression is serious with tight lips and lower teeth protruding. Kava doesn’t release him the entire trek inside.
