Page 40 of Tiger's Trek
“I warned you. She needs a bit of charming.”
“You’d think she’d like being warm too,” he said as he added logs to the nearly dead fire.
“She doesn’t think the way we do.”
“Magical cottages wouldn’t, I guess. The house kept walking away from me. I didn’t see that it had legs before.”
Shrugging, Yuga said, “Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn’t. Depends on her mood.”
“It almost seemed like she wanted me to chase her. She’d head off on those strange legs and hide in the forest, but never wandered so far that I couldn’t see at least a bit of chimney smoke. Then she’d let me catch up, just in time to dart off again. It was like she was toying with me. After a while, the smoke gave out. Luckily, I’m a good tracker.
“Still, it got hard to see and even harder to carry the water and the wood. At one point, she knocked over my bucket, but then she must have felt sorry for me because she led me to a river. The better part of two days, I chased her. When I was about to give up, she stopped.”
Veru shook her head, struggling to rouse herself. Had she heard right? It couldn’t be. He’d be gone that long? That meant she’d been sleeping for...
“Only two days?” Yuga asked, rubbing her chin. “She must be soft on you. Still, she presented the wrong side, didn’t she? Wouldn’t make entering easy?”
“Showed me the underneath, I think. I sang the verse the way you said, but she only flipped to a different side. It was still wrong. It took several hours of singing and making up my own verses to finally win her over and get her to show the door.”
“Is that right?” Yuga said. “Tell me, what words did you say that finally allowed you entry?”
“Instead of, ‘Little house, little house,’ I sang, ‘Pretty house, pretty house, let me out of the forest, let me warm my bones. Pretty house, pretty house, attend to my calls, and I’ll attend to your walls.’”
“Ah, I see. You bribed her. Flattered her.”
“I’d say soothed her, more like. I calmed her is all. Much like I would a frightened animal in a trap.”
“That’s right. Before you slaughter them!”
Veru slit open her eyes again.
Danik blinked, unperturbed by the old woman’s outburst. “That much is true,” he replied evenly. “Calming them is about all I can do to ease their journey to the hereafter. I wouldn’t take a life if I didn’t need to though. And I keep my promises. You can rely on that much. I mean to work on the house, just like I said I would.”
“I suppose that means you’ll need to extend your stay,” Yuga said, her filmy eyes aimed in his direction and her face screwed up in a calculating way. Veru wanted to warn him to be careful with his words, but she couldn’t even lift a finger, let alone open her mouth.
“I’m afraid we can’t pay you,” Danik said. “We’re poor folk. But we’re happy to help you in any way we can.”
The old woman clapped him on his arm. “I know you will, son. Don’t you worry just now. Take your rest tonight. Soup’s hot. I’m certain you’re famished. Your girl will be resting tonight. She’ll be as ravenous tomorrow as you, but tonight she’ll sleep sound. Maxsim will make sure of that.”
“Thank you for your kindness.”
“I’ll accept your thanks or not when you take your leave. Eat now and rest, boy. There’s a bowl and spoon on the table.”
As Danik began wolfing down his dinner, Veru heard the old woman mumble, “Congratulations on surviving your first challenge, boy. The rest of them won’t be so easy.”
The rest of them?Veru thought. The cat’s purr intensified, and Veru sank into the depths of a sleep so deep she heard nothing else.
* * *
When Veru cracked open her eyes, the cottage was dark except for the banked fire. She could hear the shrieking wind whistling through the cracks in the logs, and the rhythmic snoring coming from the blankets on the floor nearby that indicated Danik was soundly asleep. The cat on her lap was still purring, but lighter this time, as if it were in comfortable kitty oblivion. In another chair, across from hers, she could just glimpse the small burning of a pipe and hear the inhalation and exhale of smoke.
“Yuga?” Veru said thickly, from deep within her blankets.
“Do you need something, child?” a disembodied voice replied in the darkness.
“Maybe some water?”
“There’s a full cup on the table next to you.”
