see this,” he told her.
She blinked her eyes, as the boys came running up to her to show the crickets they had caught.
“We’ll talk tomorrow. Let’s go back home, and I’ll cook some dinner for us all. After all the work you’ve done today, you deserve a hot meal,” Merilla told him as she stood. They walked silently back to the broken cabin, each boy holding one of her hands as Kestrel led his horse. They ate potatoes and cheese for dinner, then Merilla arranged a place for Kestrel to sleep on the floor in the front of the cabin, while she and her children went to their bed in the back of the structure, and they all fell asleep.
Kestrel dreamed of Merilla that night. She came to him in the middle of the night, her human figure enticing in its voluptuous curves, and he let her seduce him, until she suddenly pulled a knife from her hair and plunged it down into his chest. He awoke from the nightmare with a start, and sat straight up, then looked around the peaceful scene. Merilla and her children were silent, and the crescent moon was straight overhead. Nothing was moving or threatening, and he slowly lowered himself back down into his covers, and waited for his racing heart to return to a calmer beat.
When he fell asleep again he slept soundly and dreamlessly throughout the rest of the evening, and didn’t awaken again until well past dawn.
“Do you feel better?” Merilla asked him when he sat up in the sunshine that streamed in through the open cabin wall. “You looked exhausted last night, as you should after all you did.
“I sent the boys to play down in the meadow so they wouldn’t make noise here and wake you,” she continued. “I was just down there with them and got back a minute ago, to see if you’d like some breakfast.”
“Is it safe to leave them alone like that?” Kestrel asked.
“I told them to stay away from the water, and other than that they’ll be safe,” she spoke assuredly. “When you’ve had a yeti in the region for a few weeks there aren’t any wolves or bears or even lynx left around to bother about.”
Kestrel excused himself to go in the woods for a minute, and when he returned, Merilla had a bowl of oatmeal waiting for him, with some brown sugar on top. “It’s the best I can give you, I’m sorry,” she told him as she handed the bowl to him. “With the cow dead there’s no milk, and the yeti got the sow we kept in the woods, and all her litter too, when he first came down out of the mountains, so there wasn’t going to be any bacon this season any way.”
“Thank you,” Kestrel said, eating the bland food without enthusiasm, wanting to show appreciation for her effort.
She sat and watched him eat, then took the bowl wordlessly when he finished scooping out the last spoonful and handed it back to her.
“What are your thoughts about leaving today?” Kestrel asked. “I’d like to find some way to prepare the yeti goods for transportation. If you want to pick out the things you want to take with you, we’ve got the horse to carry a fair amount of goods.”
She sat silently looking around the cabin. “Kestrel, I’m not going to leave this place,” she said at last, as he sat with her and fidgeted nervously.
He looked at her in astonishment. “I’m not going to leave. Youkal is still fresh in his grave; I can’t just leave him here all alone to watch his dream fall apart. Once we leave, this homestead will crumble away, and it and my boys are the only thing on earth I have to remind me of what a good man he was.”
“He took me from my home in the middle of the night when I was fifteen years old,” she said softly, looking down into her lap. “We fell in love and my parents didn’t approve, so he came and stole me away and we got married the next day.
“Youkal brought me and a cow out here into the wildness and he built all this. We’ve started our family, and this is all we ever wanted. Why would I want to leave him alone now?” she looked up and challenged Kestrel with her stare.
“I don’t know,” he said softly.
“Have you ever lost someone you loved?” Merilla asked him. “It’s so hard to imagine that he’s not going to laugh at my next joke, or pinch me when I’m not expecting, or take one of the boys up in his arms and make then laugh.”
She needed time to accept the tragedy that had befallen her, he understood. He realized he could grant her some time; he was under no strict deadline. “I’ll stay a few days to help around here, if you want me to,” he said. “Maybe in a couple of days Youkal’s spirit will be satisfied, and ready for you to go,” he suggested.
She looked back at him, and nodded her head, although he saw doubt in her eyes. “You’re being a good man to try to help, and I’m being stupid not to leave,” she dabbed at her eyes, and tears started to fall. She raised her apron to her face, sobbing, as Kestrel sat quietly, uncomfortably beside her, unsure of what to do.
A minute later she lowered the apron from her face, her eyes and nose red. “Let’s stay here a couple of days and I’ll give you an answer. Can we?”
“Of course,” Kestrel replied, relieved that she hadn’t refused to consider leaving. He stood up, still feeling uneasy about the woman’s open display of grief, for which he could offer no comfort. “I’ll go tend to my horse,” he said awkwardly. “Is there anything you’d like for me to do today around here?”
“I’ll go get the boys,” she also stood. “I don’t have anything in mind. If I think of something I’ll let you know,” she answered, and they went their separate ways.
Kestrel brushed his horse, then mounted it and rode into the woods. He ate a few crickets, always a favorite snack of elves, to satisfy the hunger that Merilla’s oatmeal had not addressed, then strung his bow and shot a brace of squirrels to take back to the cabin and offer for the next meal. He returned before noon, and found Merilla sitting on a chair in the sunshine, watching the boys play in the yard.
She was delighted to see him return, and took the squirrels enthusiastically; he wondered if she had doubted his return. Kestrel gave the boys turns riding on his horse, going gently around the yard to their unending delight, then he led the horse and the boys down to the pasture so that his mount could graze, while Merilla had time to herself in the cabin all afternoon.
They ate a delicious pie with squirrel and potato filling that night for dinner, and after the boys went to bed, Merilla came out to talk to Kestrel under the stars in the yard.
“Why are you here?” she asked.
“I’m here to wait for you,” he answered.
“No, why were you and your friends out here in the wilderness? This is not on any road or any route from one place to another. We never see strangers around here,” she said.
“We were here to check on the yeti,” Kestrel told her. “And we found it.”
“You came looking for the yeti?” she asked in astonishment. “What sane person does such a thing?”
“We were told there was a yeti that had come down from the Water Mountains and was terrorizing settlers in this area. We were told to come check on the reports. It was a test as part of my training. We just happened to come to the right place to find it and fight it right away,” Kestrel explained.
“If hunting a yeti is training, I’d hate to imagine what the full job must be,” Merilla exclaimed. “Who are you? Are you some part of the army?”
“I can’t tell you, Merilla,” he answered, knowing that they had stumbled close to the secrets he had to keep. “And it doesn’t matter now. I’m just Kestrel, and I’m here to take care of you.”
She stood up. “I’ll go to bed now,” she said abruptly. “Good night Kestrel,” she added, then walked into the cabin and turned down the lantern, leaving only the faint starlight to illuminate the yard.
Kestrel crawled into his covers, remorseful for having offended the woman with his secrets, but knowing he had no choice. “
“
Kestrel awoke soon after sunrise the next morning, and quietly went to check on his horse. A movement on the far side of the yard surprised him, and he turned to see Merilla kneeling on the ground beside her husband’s grave. She saw him and stood, then dusted the grass and dirt off her nightgown, and came stalking across the yard to stand directly in front of him.
“I dreamed that the goddess spoke to me last night, and said that Youkal wants me to go with you,” she said hesitatingly. “I know that it is the right thing to do; I’ve known that since you first said it, I just couldn’t speak it
