~
The
morning light was harsh on the eyes. Still too close to winter the sun never
expressed its warmth well. Sir scanned the light further. The sun never reached
its high height in these times either. Much
like an old man. Sir shifted. His joints were old. They complained of their
age, especially in the morning. When the cold reminded just how many winters
had passed observed or unobserved. If the wolf-man would agree everything could
be set right.
“Zach,” he croaked down the room. It
was as if he were a father calling for his son. Sir smiled grim. My son. He rolled his eyes.
“Sir?” Zach replied from the doorway.
“Fetch me my stick. How is the man?”
Sir accepted the stick as Zach gave it to him. Zach stood up straight, hands
behind his back. You’ve always taken
pride in your work dear boy.
“The man complained of his leg in the
night. We gave him something for it and he slept through.”
Something wasn’t said.
“Sir…he’s a wolf in his heart.”
“Is he?” Sir replied. It wasn’t that
much a revelation.
“He moans in his sleep. I had reports
of him growling.”
Sir leant down onto the stick and
shuffled across the room getting himself organised. “He is both wolf and man.
So long as he does no harm you should not worry.” He met Zach’s brown eyes. “I
will worry about that. You have more important things to tend to.”
“Sir,” Zach bowed his head and left.
Such
a good lad. Now, let’s see how you are. Sir pulled the hood of his cloak up
and snaked from the room to the wolf-man four doors down.
“You’re awake. Good.” he shuffled a
bit across bare wood floors and sat next to the bed. The wolf-man watched him
all the way across. Did he always watch? Trust needed to be earned. Clearly. “I
have a proposal I would like you to consider.”
The wolf-man raised both his eyebrows
and crossed his arms over his chest. Sir noted it and moved on.
“Stay here,” he proposed. “I will help
you.”
“Help me?”
“Yes.”
“How could you help me?” He sounded so
surly, distasteful. His face spoke it as well. Sir set his eyes on the rise of
the others’ lip. It snarled. The wolf.
“Tell me of your wolf. Does it control
you, do you control it? Are you one or splintered?” To pose but a few
questions.
The wolf-man studied him almost as
though he couldn’t believe his ears. Surely someone had tried to help before.
Though maybe not. Why else would a man allow a creature within him to kill
without thought or mercy. Untested waters could be dangerous. How turbulent
they could be was unclear. Perhaps both of them would drown beneath the waves
or possibly reach a common shore.
“The wolf doesn’t like you.”
“Do you?” Sir fired back. He kept his
face clear from any expression.
The wolf-man went quiet. His eyes flit
quickly to his leg and back to Sir’s face. The way the dark eyes seemed to take
in every detail it was as if he were searching for something. He never made eye
contact at all.
“Undecided.”
You trust more than the wolf does. With that in mind Sir told him, “Scales
shift constantly in weight. Your leg should be well enough
to leave the bed in a few days.” He rose. The stick was more cumbersome now
each muscle remembered youth over age. Sir lifted it anyway and strode away
from the chair.
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