The Shepherd Boys, 6 Tedus tells his story [lit]
At the dawn of the next morning, the half-orc was already gone. The sheep were flat at rest on the grass, mastiffs were dispersing, each to its place. It had been a long, tranquil night, and the new sun ruled the skies in blue solitude. Tedus stood up, his had been the last shift, and he whistled his fears away, already expecting breakfast. Edra was raising up to prepare it: porridge, as usual, with some honey she had long acquired from uncooperative bees. Elly was still sleeping in the hut. Alone, it was easy to dream this herd was his, that the mastiffs were his dogs and that they all were a small family living a simple life, up there in the mountains, far from any trouble.
Indeed, that was how the first day of their shared new life started. They picked up their things, gathered the flock and march west, closer to the misty woods under the Three Ravens. Sheep needed to move constantly for fresh pastures.
Morning passed away slowly. There was no rushing with the sheep, the lambs still so young. The mastiffs kept a constant watch, though. However, they met nothing worse than passing showers. The world had been placed under the spell of children tunes and sweet ocarinas. Even Tedus recovered his smile. Yes, it was easy to dream their worries away. Only the right there and then mattered, everything else was a fantasy, and so they lived.
Lunch was on the go, all together, eating oatcakes, milk, and little else. Food was a humble routine for the slave shepherds, and so was its drink: water with a splash of vinegar for endurance. Elly tried to approach his friend, but he was still far too human and Tedus far too trasgrin and very alone. Edra would've loved to say something, but she knew it would be of little use. Time alone could do that, for those kids, unlike her, had been born free and would for long cling to that felt freedom, even if it had turned into a bit of a lie.
Close to the night, they arrived to an ancient ring of huge standing stones. Nobody knew their meaning. Edra shared the view that they were stone trolls who got tranced in a dance and forgot what the sunshine would do to them. Even so, a few planks, some rope, and a few lengths of canvas transformed those into a shelter for her and the boys. There, she told the story of the trolls and the spirits that flew among the stones and why wolves never approached them. “trasgrins didn't ever go to this place, either, but”, she winked at Tedus, “there's an exception”.
And so a tradition, shall we say?, began of telling stories every night, and many of those were told, quite a few improvised, but few like, the one Tedus told six weeks later, most appropriately titled: “de day dey got me.”
Tedus' story
So spoke the great Tedus, telling his story
Dere are many trasgrins. But we all want loot. Loot is glory. Loot says “you're brave, you're smart wiz ideas, you'll be a good dad”. Trasgrin girls think you're pretty, and trasgrin girls want> to be merry wiz you and have kids all deir life.
So, best mates and me go one day and say: “it's summer, loot time! Let's raid some place.” But we didn't know what to raid, and we didn't tell de old ones, because they sink it's bad for kids to go a'raiding.
So we just went, went. And we were mighty jolly. And we walked and walked, and we saw dis town, a big wall was around it. We waited for witch-dark-time, and we chatted about all the riches that we'd got and… We fell asleep.
When we woke up, it was almost dawn. So, we went dirty wiz words at each odder and rushed, sneaky, sneaky, in. We got lucky because dis guard was sleepy too, and it wasn't too bright. We, quiet, quiet, climbed, crawled a bit, did a smally jump, jump and tip-toed, mousy, mousy, down the stairs. We were in town!
And so were many folks! Dis human kid jumps and shouts: “trasgrins!, trasgrins!” And lots of bohboh humans jump out of their houses, and we run around, like crazy. We didn't know where to go! So I saw dis ruined house and said: “go inside”.
But Urk, my friend said. “No! Up the roofs we go.”
He tried dat, de humans chucking stones at him, and dey got'im on the head and he went “aaahhhh, crack!” right on de mob and he went no-breathing.
De rest of us got inside. But de guards came, and a big mob too. Dere was no way we could run or hide.
“Don't drop the knives!” I said, because I thought they'd kill us all. But mefriends didn't listen and opened de doors, and de guards tied us, and spit at us and got all our stuff.
And den dey sent us all de way West. And there “Croogks & Stonharts” bought us and two days later, I was in chains with Elly, and that's all you didn't know. It's not a good story, just a bad raid.
Tedus head sunk low, as did his heart.
Edra went to hug the boy and Elly smiled and poured more wildflower tea in Tedus cup. Mischievously, though, he was preparing a few jokes on stupid raids and the results thereof.
Navigation
- Start: Part 1: On the Anvil
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