Summer heat rested long on the land, like a hot burning breath held too long in the chest. The young wolverine breathed in that warmth and tasted ashes as he hurried through the predawn gray that lit the lands over Friar Lowest. The hamlet was a collection of a dozen one story buildings, with steeply arched, thatched roofs, and log slant walls insulated with peatmoss and pitch. Barely thirty beasts lived in the settlement. The Butcher, General Shop, and Smithy did most of the business for the hamlet, with the largest building being an Inn, which belonged to the proxy leader of a proxy leader. The Headbeast. Farms and orchards rested beyond the hamlet’s outskirts in concentric rings. They were fenced to separate field from field and to properly tax farmer and orchard masters. Gulo passed between the lands of two more farms as he made his way down the thoroughfare that belonged to the Hamlet. There were already farmpaws out checking the fences, weasels, and ermines all, dark furred, with eyes that glowed in the dim light, and bodies that stiffened at his approach. Gulo called out to reassure them, claiming to be one of his older brothers, to not arouse suspicion. They still watched him warily, and he felt his eyes on his back. The Weeping made strangers and villains out of even neighbors, and distrust was rampant.
Gulo shifted his burden to his other shoulder, a pair of threadbare sacks held together by leather thongs. He had much to worry about and the least of it did not rest on his shoulder. But the worst of his worries could get his family killed. The young wolverine held himself closer to the hard-packed dirt road as he traveled another league before reaching his family’s plot. Glut, the second oldest of his brothers waited at the fence. He must have smelled Gulo some time before the young wolverine appeared for, he no longer shook with rage. The dim light of the early morning made the massive creature wider and more menacing, especially with eyes that gathered the light and reflected it. Gulo froze, pointing his nose to the dirt, feeling a little shame and the creep of anger at the fact that he had to bow to him. He needed not bother. With his eyes on the ground, Gulo did not see the blow that knocked him flat and sent his burden skidding across the road.
With his head ringing and the taste of iron on his tongue, Gulo leapt to his feet and growled at the larger wolverine.
“Red eyes…evil eyes!” Glut snapped, looming over his smaller brother. “You risk all, our lives…my life! And you dare show those red eyes to me?”
Gulo winced and backed away, nose pointed at the ground. “I’m sorry…I just wanted to help…I didn’t mean it, Glut…honest and truth.”
Glut walked around Gulo, and picked up the sacks that skidded all the way to the neighbor’s fence across the way. His words were clipped and low when he spoke again. “And Poaching? Dah has enough to worry about, than you trying to get his neck in a noose for…for…”-
-Glut tore open the sacks and growled deeply. Gulo heard his stomach rumble as he smelled what was inside. “You fool…of all…Better wild rabbits…or even beast-flesh than this!”
Gulo bowed lower, almost crushed by the shame of being caught. “I know…but the cost of getting caught hunting is already death…even if its only a wild rabbit. Everyone has been so hungry for so long…and I can’t work the way you all can.”
“They’ll kill us all for this you fool!” Glut said, speaking through his teeth. “Go! Get to the homestead. As bad as this is, there is worse that is coming to the hamlet. There has been an attack.”
“What!” exclaimed Gulo, “Is anybeast hurt? Where, and who?”
Glut glared at him in the dim lighting. “Go and ask oldest brother…I’m sure he’ll tell you; he and father has always doted on you! Now, go before I beat you lame!”
Gulo flinched at his words before stepped back, giving Glut a wide berth. Suddenly, both sacks slammed into his surprised muzzle.
“And take your accursed meat!”
Feeling sick, Gulo snatched up the sacks and ran all the way home. Each farm held between a hundred and a thousand acres of land to be worked, tilled and in time harvested. There was also an equal amount Crops were rotated between twelve and two dozen fields and most harvests which happened twice a year were for the tables and granaries of Larder Beasts and the stomachs of wild game. This made for an expanse of farming land, and it was that land that passed underneath Gulo’s footpaws as he raced for the center of the farm. The farmhouse was sprawling as most generational homesteads were and yet Gulo knew it to be cramped and crowded. The roof was tall with heaps of thatch to catch the heat during the winter and there were over a hundred rooms. Gulo’s grandfather technically was the head, but Gulo Gulo, who was Gulo’s father, had long taken over in the practical sense. Farming in the lands, was dictated by Skills and vitality that allowed earth to bring forth vivacious crops. Powerful crops allowed stronger prey animals to thrive. Gulo had eleven uncles and half that many in aunties. He had hundreds of cousins. All his family had spilled out of the massive farmhouse. Gulo saw them even in the dim morning and slowed when he did. A feeling of dread settled in the pit of his stomach.
They parted as he slowed to a tentative walk. His eyes searched the mass of carcajou. It was not hard to make out about what they were talking. It was war and bloodshed. Not one of them mentioned his name. Why…are they letting me through? Gulo Gulo stood on the front step to the Homestead. He was a mammoth wolverine, so replete with muscle that he was wider than he was tall, and he was already thrice Gulo’s height. His pale lambent eyes focused on his youngest and in that moment his great bass voice split the general noise of frantic conversation.
“We will talk about the border later. Right now, I will speak to my son. Go to your work, my bloodkin.”
Gulo’s heart sank lower with each wolverine that passed him on the way to work the fields or replace the shepherds in the pastures. Some offered him words of encouragement but most angrily called him a fool for endangering the family. Gulo said nothing to them. He could not keep his eyes from his father’s eyes. Gulo’s heart pounded. Glutton, his oldest brother, a brute the size of his father, placed a huge paw on his shoulder. His nostrils flared and he looked pointedly at the sacks before shooting a furtive glance at Gulo Gulo, and then back to Gulo.
“You really are a fool.” He said softly, kindly.
“I did it to help, Glutton.” Said the young wolverine, “Everyone is always so hungry.”
“We’re Gulo Gulo,” Glutton said, before quickly moving away.
Their father stopped him. “Glutton, I need you to go to the Hamlet, the Headbeast already knows, but make sure he hears it again from us. The Khendle farm on northern border has burned down, no word yet on deaths.”
“Yes, father.” Glutton said, turning away from the fields and heading towards the dirt road.
Golden morning took its time rising above the mountains in the east, but the blush of light turned gray predawn into a bright wash of color. The sky slowly turned bright blue, the clouds, and peaks white, with blue-gray backs, and deep jade shoulders and valleys. That light rested on Gulo Gulo making a corona of silver hairs from the deep chocolate and pale wheat brown patterned fur. He glared at the youngest of his sons for a time, before jabbing a claw at the dirt yard directly in front of him. Gulo trembled with each step as he drew near. The smell of his father filled his nostrils; his scent was powerful and as solid as the mountains around him. When Gulo Gulo gathered him up in his strong arms, pressing the young wolverine tight against his chest, Gulo sighed.
“I thought…you had been gone for days…far longer than you usually go when poaching. I thought they caught you.”
“I’m sorry, father,” Said Gulo. “I know you think hunting is dangerous, but it’s the only way I can help the family. I can’t work unless someone else is sick. I can’t show myself in town. This is the only way…I can stop being a burden to you.”
Gulo Gulo’s broad muzzle tightened into a frown. “You are a miracle, boy. You have already attained the skills that make our clan some of the best farmers in all Friarhold. Risking your life by hunting game that does not belong to beasts is not the height of your worth.”
“You all go hungry to feed me.”
His father smiled, showing white teeth. “You are not very large, Gulo, you do not eat so much.”
The young carcajou flinched at the blatant lie. He ate as many as ten beasts the size of his father. However, before he could call Gulo Gulo out on it, the larger wolverine spoke again. “I smell our death on you, boy.”
“I did not go into the grove, father. I promise.”
Gulo Gulo snatched the sacks from his son and tore them open with trembling black claws. He reached into them and pulled out deep violet meat that had a soft glow to it even in the light of the morning. Upon seeing it he immediately shoved it back into the ruins of the sack, pushed Gulo into the farmhouse and closed the door with more force than necessary. The front door led into the Great Room. The home was full of the smells of his kin, the savory odor of cooking and the soft lilting song of female wolverines in the middle of preparing enough breakfast for hundreds of beasts. Gulo heard the sweet melody of his mother and tried to shy away from it even as his father pulled him deeper into the home. Ancient furniture older than the young wolverine’s grandfather surrounded a river stone fireplace. There were a host of benches, and long settees, tables and a small ironwood desk safely cloistered in a corner of the great room. The floor was wood, older than Gulo’s grandfather’s grandfather, and worn smooth by the footpaws of tens of thousands of wolverines over the centuries.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
His father pulled him past wings of the house belonging to his uncles and cousins and into their empty collection of rooms before closing the door that opened into their immediate family’s living space. Gulo Gulo pressed his face close to his son.
“Beetle Meat, Gulo! Beetle…How could you be so…so…”
“Foolish?”
“Stupid!” Gulo Gulo snapped. “If a Dragonnite is caught with Beetle Meat, the dragon would kill them, you fool pup! Dragons have fought and died over this ambrosial meat!”
“I did not enter the grove, father!” Gulo said. “And even if I did, I don’t think the dragon knows about it.”
The huge wolverine turned away from his son and strangled the air with his mighty paws but whipping back around to the younger beast. “Eat it. Eat it all right now!”
“It’s…it’s for…its for the family, father.” Stammered Gulo, feeling his eyes burn under the weight of unshed tears. “I brought it back for the family.”
“That meat is too rich for most of us in the family. Our bodies cannot manage flesh that has been so saturated with soulweight.”
Gulo swallowed feeling tear slick his face. Failure! I failed. All I wanted to do was help feed my family. “How do you know that I can.”
“You and I both know that you can.”
Without another word Gulo wolfed down the meat. When his father stared at him as if he did not expect him to do what he commanded, Gulo spoke again. “You told me to!”
Gulo Gulo shook himself.
“Did you get this meat from the corpse of a Beetle?”
Gulo looked down. “Yes.”
“Was it mature?”
The young wolverine answered softer. “Yes, sir.”
Gulo Gulo’s voice trembled only a bit when he asked his next question. “Did you eat all of the creature’s flesh save what you brought back?”
Gulo nodded.
“I promise Dah, I wasn’t being greedy. That bit was the only among I could carry and keep the smell under control. When…when I first tasted it, I couldn’t stop eating it, that’s why it took me three days, I couldn’t stop eating it, Dah.”
Gulo Gulo numbly walked over to a sturdy chair with a patched cushion and sat down.
“We’re going to have to hide you even more now. If your cousins find out what you did. If you knew what it means to do what you did…By the Wolverine In the Sky, if my Dah knew.”
Gulo felt his throat constrict and the bliss of eating that delicious meat turn sour as he studied his father’s face. He looked as if somebeast died. The young wolverine fell on his father’s footpaws. “What’s the matter, Dah?” “I know…I know it was stupid…But I made sure that I wasn’t seen, and the meat is gone now.”
“You don’t understand, cub!” Gulo Gulo snapped, “It will change you. Any dragon will see the difference in you and any mundane beast immediately! And you may not be safe from Dragonnites or Kobolds.”
Gulo gritted his teeth. I have always been different. What could change! “Why? Why would this change anything?”
“And the Weeping…If anybeast guessed about you.” The huge wolverine buried his muzzle in his huge paws. “I don’t think hiding you would be enough.”
Gulo felt his throat tighten at his father’s words. “Please…please don’t make me go…I’ll be good Dah, I promise. I won’t try to help anymore.”
“it’s not enough Gulo.” He whispered. “You’re not safe here anymore…we’re not safe with you anymore. No beast will be.”
Tears ran freely down Gulo’s cheeks.
“What is this!”
The de facto matriarch of the family swept in the common room, like a storm. She was as broad as her husband who was half again as tall, with golden brown fur where most would have chocolate and deep brown where the fur should have been pale. Her apron barely spanned the breadth of her hips or contained her bosom, which stretched to its limits as she fumed. The apron was dusted with flower, and so were her arms from paws to elbows.
“He is chastised enough, Gul. There is no need to punish my little one any further…I’ll not have it!”
Gulo Gulo waved at her wearily. “Please love, sit down, I must tell you something.”
Her eyes started to turn red.
“I told you Gul, and don’t you ‘please love’ me! He’s had enough.”
“Sit down!”
Teresana stiffened and a look of hurt passed over her face so quickly that Gulo thought he might have imagined it and then there was fury that made Gulo’s heart pound and the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. For a moment, the young wolverine thought that his mother would slay his father right then but then she looked at his face, shook herself and then peered deeper into his sorrowful eyes. Without looking at her son, she asked. “By the sweet heart of the Golden Lamb, what did You do, little Gulo?”
“I didn’t mean to…” the young carcajou said, “I didn’t…”
“Sit love.”
Gulo Gulo slowly got to his feet and led his wife to a chair beside his, before dropping down into his seat as if he weighed double what he had just a day before. He told her about the Beetle meat. Her face went from worry to a mix of pain and another emotion that Gulo found hard to discern through his tears. When she spoke to him, he immediately recognized it and was dumbfoundedness and surprisingly a hint of pride.
“This is a thing to be celebrated.” His mother said, “No creature yet to ascend, has eaten starborn flesh and lived to speak it, save a dragon. It is a thing to be celebrated if…and only if what our sweet little cub has told us is the truth.”
“I saw the ambrosial flesh myself.” Said Gulo Gulo, “That sweet sol child, thought to give it to the family to eat.”
“That would have likely poisoned us.”
The huge wolverine snorted. “I know, love. I told him to eat it, to get rid of it.”
Teresana rounded on her husband. “When? Was it before he told you he already ate most of the corpse, or after.”
Gulo Gulo shot a worried look at his son. “It must have been, after.”
Gulo rubbed his face and spoke up unprompted. “It was before.”
“You told our youngest child to consume meat that has slain countless beasts before him, before you knew that he could survive it?” His mother asked.
Once the again the air around the squat female wolverine began to smell dangerous. Gulo Gulo threw his paws up.
“Enough of this, Teresana! You know that he is different from every wolverine pup that we have ever known. You know of his belly, you of any carcajou should know better! Dragons are voracious, wolves are famine eaters, but Gulo Gulo are gluttons. And Gulo is the greediest of us all.”
“It was a foolish thing to make him do.” Teresana said, her voice low. “But I still love you, even if you have a head of stone sometimes.”
Gulo Gulo raised a brow. His mother patted his arm warmly and then turned her eyes to her youngest. “What you did was more foolish. You knew that such meat is not for beasts.”-
-“This is pointless, love.” Gulo Gulo said, “He must leave this place at once! The risk for him is too great! The dragon will make this Hamlet weep blood if he finds out what was done in this place. By the Wolverine In the Sky, I heard that beasts even reporting the sighting of a Hidden Beetle Glen were eaten alive by that old Bloodstar Wyrm.”
His mother shook her great head defiantly. “Not at once. He must leave yes…but there is time yet. After the Weeping would be best.”
“After the…” Gulo Gulo’s eyes widened. “They will come here, Teresana! They would be close enough to smell him, to appraise him. The risk…”
-“It will be the only time that we can do this, Gul.” Said his mother. “Remember, you gave this to me…you said that I of all wolverines would know better.”
“The risks, Teresana!”
“We have long taken the risks, my Gul. And I have thought long and hard during that Weeping, ten years ago.”
“My birth.” Gulo said.
His parents turned to him.
“Go to your room and stay there until one of us gets you.” Gulo Gulo ordered.
The young wolverine felt his muzzle drop open in disbelief. He knew little about what was going on and felt in his bones that they should have to tell him; right then and at once. Gulo cast a pleading look to his mother, who returned it with a flat look of her own. He growled under his breath and stomped past them to a sleeping chamber he shared with three of his brothers. The cuff sent him skidding all the way to the door of his room. Rubbing the back of his head, and not daring to turn around in case he was inviting more.