I

Her dark brown hair was tickling his face. Kate leaned over him, her face covered in shadow. His vision was going in and out of focus. Blood beat in his ears, each breath echoed in his mind like it did off the walls of the cave.

Orange light flickered across her face. He could see tears on her cheeks, shining like fresh cut diamonds. But she was smiling. And her lips were moving.

“What’s your name?” she said. Her voice was so soft on his ears. He felt a warm relaxing sensation emanating from her voice into his body. His eyes slid out of focus again. He tried to respond to her. But he was so tired. And warm. He blinked once.

II

He heard voices. Light voices, chattering away with each other quickly. The earth beneath him somehow felt soft and warm instead of hard and cold. He tried to move his head, but his neck seared with hot pain. His whole body was hurting. He grimaced and took a sharp intake of breath. His arms and legs stung as though pierced with hot glass as he tried to move.

The voices quieted for a moment. He could sense movement around him. He blinked again slowly. Everything was a blur of orange and yellow light. Shadows moved on either side of him. He blinked harder trying to focus.

His head was aching now. Even the smallest movement of his eyes made his head feel like a clasp was gripping tighter over his temples, cracking his skull. He groaned again, trying instinctively to move his hand to his head but his arms were too heavy.

Then he felt cool fingers touch his cheek. He had a moment of relief as the sensation of contact settled over his mind. He blinked harder, trying to focus through the pain. Long hair was dangling over him. It tickled his nose.

“Kate,” he said, his voice cracking. His eyes were clearing up a little as he found her face. She was smiling at him. Still. Her cool fingers gently caressed his cheek. Her face was bathed in warm firelight. Too bright for a torch. He blinked a couple more times, clearing out the last of his foggy vision.

“No,” she said quietly.

She looked down at him with glassy green eyes. Her brown hair was reflecting the firelight, shining a bright gold.

“What’s your name?” said the girl.

But the hair licking his face wasn’t brown at all. It wasn’t the firelight making it shine gold like that. She was blond. Bright blond hair, falling in thick curls around her face.

“Kate,” he said again, looking to the other shadows around him. His neck stabbed with pain as he tried to move, and the cool fingers on his cheek pulled him back.

“No, I’m Elli.” said the girl. He squinted at her, his neck still throbbing with pain and blood still pounding in his ears like an uncomfortable drum beat. It was getting darker again. Elli’s face was being swallowed by shadow. He felt sweaty and queasy. Fighting to stay awake he strained to hold his eyes open casting his gaze in every direction. Shadowy faces were closing in on all sides. There were rafters above his head. He was inside a building somewhere. The firelight’s glow faded in and out in perfect rhythm to his breath, as though he and the fire shared the same breath.

The sound of his raspy breathing was filling his ears now. His eyes were fluttering quickly, fighting furiously. He felt a gentle touch against his cheek and his vision caught the golden hair and shrouded face above him.

“What’s your name?” said Elli.

He felt his eyes closing like a heavy wooden door on a brightly lit room, locking him out of the warmth and safety inside. Darkness consumed the faces, then the ceiling above, finally leaving nothing but the shimmer of golden hair floating over his eyes. Then nothing.

III

The twilight period between wake and sleep seemed to toy with him. He sometimes thought he heard voices. Sometimes he felt hands on his face or chest. Sometimes he felt the chill of the wood and felt as though he would wake in the darkness under an endless canopy of leaves. Other times he would be fighting to lift a heavy pick ax over his head, desperately trying to dig in the darkness of the coal mines of Burk. Still other times he was walking on the road. He would stop and look back at the road stretching into infinity behind him.

And sometimes he would open his eyes and see rafters over his head, and hear fire crackling away beside him.

The room was warm. He was covered with furs and thick wool blankets atop a wood framed bed. He was propped up on some feather-filled pillows so he could easily examine the footboard of the bed through his half-closed eyes. It was simple enough but carved beautifully. There were oval heads to the end posts that had intricate carvings of vines and branches wrapping around them. From what he could see of the footboard, there were similar designs etched into the edges as well. The wood was polished and gleamed in the firelight.

He let his eyes wander around some more. There was a wooden door straight ahead of him. It looked simple enough. It had no hinges and only a small groove cut into the side at waist height for gripping. But no handle. He guessed it must slide in and out instead of opening inward.

Above him, wooden beams crisscrossed supporting the ceiling. Everything looked to fit extremely well. Usually, when he saw structures made of wood, the fit was off. Wood is pliable and brittle when dried out. It caused even simple structures or carvings to flex or bend, but everything here looked to fit exceptionally well. He thought that whoever made this room must be a master woodworker.

He wiggled his fingers and toes experimentally, then his neck and shoulders. His body was still sore and stiff. He grunted more in annoyance than actual pain. It would take time for his muscles to work out the cramps and knots. Time he would rather spend walking than resting.

“Hmm?” said a low voice somewhere to his right. He turned his neck, which cracked loudly. He grunted again and put a hand to it instinctively. That only made things worse as his shoulders and biceps began to burn as he lifted his arm.

There was a man sitting in an intricately carved chair by the fire beside his bed. He was smoking a long wooden pipe and had been reading a book that now lay open in his lap. His greying hair was combed straight back and was thining at the edges of his forehead. He wore an old green coat and long worn out pants that covered his ankles, even though he had crossed his legs at the knee.

“Well, hello there,” said the man with a thin-lipped smile. “Feeling a little stiff?”

“Who are you?” said the boy, peering at him. He did not feel threatened by the old man by any means. Whoever he was, he had spent a good amount of time healing him and putting him up in this house or wherever they were.

“My name is Max.” said the man, closing the book in his lap with a sharp thud. Max put the pipe to his lips and sucked thoughtfully at the end, shifting in his chair to face him properly.

“How did I get here?” said the boy, his voice cracking. He was caught up in a fit of coughing that seared his throat. It felt like it was full of dust and cobwebs.

“Hmm,” said Max standing up. He stepped over to the table beside the bed and took a small jug and cup in his hands. He filled the cup with water from the jug and handed it to the boy.

The boy drained the cup and then the whole jar.

“Yes, well we tried to feed you water the past couple of days, but you wouldn’t keep anything down for the most part,” said Max, as water spilled down the boy’s chin as he drank from the jug. “It will take a while for your body to rehydrate. I’ll have Elli or one of the other girls get some more in a little while.”

The boy wiped his lips with the back of his hand and fell back against his pillows. The jug tumbled out of his hand and landed on the floor. He felt exhausted already.

Max leaned down and picked up the jug. “You have been asleep for almost a week you know,” he said, setting the jug down on the bedside table again.

A week, thought the boy, putting a hand to his face, covering his eyes. His fingers slide across his smooth face experimentally. Someone had shaved his beard. And cut his hair. He ran his fingers through his chopped hair until a sharp pain caused him to pull his hand away.

“Yes,” said Max, his eyes following the boy’s hands. “You had a pretty bad cut on your head that we needed to clean. And on your lip. It was easier just to cut it all off. You were in pretty bad shape when they got you here.”

“When who got me here?” said the boy still stroking his clean-shaven chin.

“Oh, well, the girls of course. It was Linda, Sasha, and uh,” he thought for a monument. “Oh, I don’t remember. It’s not important. What’s important is that they found you before the first storm set in. You and Kate.” He sat down again in his chair by the fire and drummed his fingers on his knees.

“Are we in Northanger?” said the boy.

“Yes, we are,” said Max, with a small nod. “Did Kate tell you about us?”

“Only that she was from here.”

“Well,” said Max after a short silence. “There is not much to tell. It’s easier just to show you around, once you have rested a little that is.”

The boy sighed. “I’ve slept a week.” He tried to sit up but immediately felt as though someone had swung a lead hammer into his side. He fell back wheezing, his hands pressing against his side where the pain still burned. It felt hot even through the covers. He looked down and pulled the furs and sheets away. Beneath them, he saw white bandages wrapped around his chest and stomach.

“What happened to me?” he said shaking his head a little. Blood was now pounding in his ears again.

“A lot of things I would say,” said Max pushing up off the chair again. “I wouldn’t know where to start, but as for your side there; Kate said you had a nasty fall.” Max examined the bandages for a few moments. “These look good. You were bleeding through for a while. We had to change the bandages every few hours when you first got here. And the stitches in your side kept breaking because you were moving around so much!” Max straightened up and walked around the bed to a table against the opposite wall.

“Stitches?” said the boy, eyeing the white bandages over his bare chest.

“Yes,” said Max, grabbing something from the table and turning back to the boy. “Remember this?” he said.

The boy looked at the long metal piece in Max’s hands and shook his head.

“This is what you fell on,” said Max. “Yeah, pretty bad huh,” he said taking in the boy’s expression. “You are lucky you landed where you did. A few inches to the right and you would be dead for sure. But all you got out of this was two broken ribs and a big hole in your side.” Max laughed to himself a little. “Well, you can add a pretty magnificent scar to your already abundant collection. That much is for sure.”

The boy scowled at Max as he took the proffered rod into his hands. It was very heavy, considering it was not that thick or long for that matter. Just very dense. By the look of it, his first impression was that it could be steel but it was possibly a composite.

“Was there more?” said the boy handing it back to Max.

“Oh yes,” he said. “Quite a bit actually. A few of the hunters went back out to collect the bear and to dig up the metal. We got maybe eight or nine more rods like this one. There is more, but it’s all embedded into the rock underneath. We will have to chisel it out in the spring.”

The boy nodded. He himself had spent a great amount of time hammering away at giant slabs of rock containing metal rods of a similar look.

“They also found these,” said Max, and he dropped a pack onto the boy’s legs. It was his pack. The one that Kane and Aiden had taken from him. He quickly grabbed it and rummaged through it. There was the map, some flint, extra cloth, a sharpening stone for his knives, and some string. No book. He pushed the pack away and leaned back in the pillows, his eyes shut. It’s only a book, he thought. An image of the book lying open in the dirt floated across his mind. He felt himself already trying to think of ways to go back for it, but it was pointless. It was just a book.

“They found your long knife as well,” said Max

“Where is it?” said the boy looking up.

“With Kate. Before heading into the wood again I gave it to her. Don’t worry, she will bring it back. I figured it would to her more good than you at the moment,” he said. “We had people searching the wood, trying to find Kate you know. She had not checked in after a week or so and after a few days more we were getting worried. So, they set out for the western end of the valley and tried to track her. The same group that found you had already come across an abandoned camp towards the end of the valley. They said it was a mess. But I guess that is putting it lightly.”

The boy watched Max pace around the foot of his bed to the hearth again.

“Kate told us the whole story,” he continued. “One of the men was still in the camp. Well, some of him. Along with a good amount of wolf pelts.” Max shook his head and turned his attention to the fire. “Poor soul. I thought everyone knew not to hunt wolves. A pack will hunt not out of need, but for revenge when one of their own is killed. Did you know that?” Max glanced at him.

The boy nodded.

Max shook his head and looked into the fire again.

“You said only one was still in the camp?” said the boy.

“Hmm?” said Max, as though his thoughts had just been interrupted. “Oh. Yes.” He wiped his hands together and sat back down, a dark look across his face. “Yes. They found the other. They thought he was dead. Almost left him out there but they could see his breath on the air. Your knife was nearby sticking out of the dirt, covered in blood.”

“Is he still alive?” said the boy.

“For now,” said Max.

There was a silence between them for a long time. It felt that way to the boy at least. His mind flitted between memories of Kane and Aiden, of the wolves tearing into flesh, of the wood, of Kate, and of the bloody knife.

“Where did you get it?” said Max.

“The knife? I made it,” he said.

“You made it?”

The boy nodded.

“Did you make this one as well?” said Max, pulling the boy’s small knife out of his pocket.

The boy nodded.

“How?” said Max, moving forward and handing the knife to him.

“With a forge,” he said shortly taking the knife in his hand. Both he and Max looked at the shining blade. “Just like all of them.”

“You have made more than two?” said Max.

“The boy nodded. “Many more,”

“Are you form Stonebrook? Across the mountains?” said Max

The boy shook his head. Running his thumb along the sharp blade, listening to the almost song like note that vibrated through the air as he did so.

“I was afraid of that,” said Max, his face darkening. “Tell me, what are we to expect? Are you alone in your travels?”

The boy nodded.

“Well, I hope you are telling the truth. We can deal with no more men from the west. Our home has been through enough.”

“I don’t want any trouble.” said the boy. “I am just passing through.”

Max eyed him for a moment. “I don’t think you do. Kate seems to believe you are trustworthy.”

The boy’s mind flashed an image of Kate leaning over him in the dark wood. Her hair swaying in the breeze. A single tear running down her smiling cheek.

“What is your name boy?” said Max.

The boy looked away from his shining reflection in the blade and up at Max. He did not feel much like telling this man, but then again, he had been the one to save him, hadn’t he? Well, he had kept him alive until this point. And he knew Kate. He considered the man named Max for a while more, and then made up his mind.

“Grey.” said the boy.

IV

Days past by slowly. Most of the time, Grey sat idly watching the ceiling of the small room. Max helped pass the time pretty well. He came in twice a day and would talk to him and check his wounds both in the morning and at night. Every night, the bandages wrapped around his chest were changed. There was a swollen red lump of skin just under his rib cage that had ugly black and grey string sewn into it.

Looking down at it made Grey feel sick, but he would clean away puss and dead skin and apply a thin layer of paste that Max had given him that smelled like mint. It had a nice cooling sensation that eased the pain a little.

Frustrated by how weak and feverish he felt, Grey did his best to stretch and move about to let his muscles breath while he was awake. Soon he was walking around the room, feeling everything from his neck down to his toes cracking and popping constantly. Standing made his side hurt even worse. He could feel his insides shifting around and putting weight on his side building pressure against the hole that had been sewn shut.

Max did not like him moving around too much but Grey did it anyway.

“You know; you might just hurt yourself even worse than you already are,” said Max one evening. He had just walked in, holding a small book in his hands, while Grey was standing by the fire.

“I’m getting better,” he said looking at the book.

Max followed his eyes and held the book up. “I thought I could read to you today. Our conversations are usually pretty one-sided anyway and I am running out of things to say.”

“Do you have a lot of books here?” said Grey taking a step closer, starring at the book.

“Yes,” said Max, looking a little surprised by the excitement in Grey’s voice. “I have quite a collection upstairs in my study. Can you read?”

Grey nodded. “How big is your collection?”

Max was about to answer, but he stopped to think for a moment and then said, “Do you feel strong enough to walk a bit?”

Grey nodded again.

“Then come with me,” said Max beckoning with the book in his hand. He left the room and Grey followed slowly.

Grey looked up and down the hallway. He was about halfway down a corridor lined with closed doors identical to his own. Max headed left down the hall where Grey could see a large entryway and a door that looked like it led outside. Grey followed him down the hall to the entryway slowly. He put a hand to his side as pain shot through his ribs and stomach. Grey slowed a little breathing sharply.

“You alright back there?” Max called from the entryway.

Grey did not answer. He took in the smooth wooden walls and doors. The floor was highly polished and there was a long wool carpet stretched down the middle of it that spanned the length of the corridor.

In the entryway, there was a large dining room to his right and a large sitting room to his left. Max was standing to the left a few feet above him on a steep set of stairs leading up to the second floor. “This way,” he said with a smile. “And mind you don’t open up your side. I don’t want to have to keep changing those bandages.”

The stairs took a few minutes. Stepping upward put a good amount of pressure on Grey’s side, causing spasms of pain to rip through his body. He ended up having to sidestep his way up to the second floor where Max waited for him patiently.

Grey reached the top, panting a little and holding his side, just as Max turned and headed off to the left. There was another corridor similar to the one below and a large closed door to his right. Grey looked around for a moment, taking it all in before heading to the left side of the landing where Max stood, sliding a door open for him.

Inside was a study. Straight ahead was a large wooden desk ornately carved with designs of birds and trees and fields along the front. The desktop was polished and held nothing but a small stack of paper and a large inkwell. The room was lit by a small fire in the hearth just to the right of the desk. The left side of the room held a couple of large winged armchairs and a beautiful bay window looking out to a dark night. The window panes were frosted at the corners.

Grey only had a moment to take it all in before his attention was seized by the wall behind the desk covered from floor to ceiling with bookshelves. He limped over to them and examined the spines facing him. They all were worn and creased. Some of the titles he could not even make out. He had never seen so many books in one place before.

“Feel free to borrow any of them,” said Max striding over beside him. “Did they teach you to read out west?”

Grey shook his head.

“Then how did you learn to read?”

Grey’s eyes fell on a large green book with faded gold letters along the spine. “What words are these?” he said, raising his arm painfully to trace the letters with his finger.

“I don’t know,” said Max. “The whole thing is a different language. It has some fantastic illustrations in it though. Take a look.”

Grey pulled it off the shelf and opened to a random page. Already he found an intricate drawing of a man with a black curled mustache and dark eyes. He looked angry. As he flipped through, he found more pictures of mountains and rivers and stone pyramids. He looked closely at one page that depicted a huge pyramid amidst the jungle that had large stone steps and snake faces carved into the four base corners.

He marveled at the drawings for a while but his musing was interrupted by a small burst of giggling from behind him. He turned and saw a few pairs of eyes disappear from the doorway as he snapped the book shut.

“Hmm,” said Max striding over to his desk. He pulled open a drawer and removed his pipe. “That would be some of the girls,” he said pulling a bright white knife from his pocket. It was small, no longer than Grey’s thumb, but looked sharp. “I have a few attending nurses here. They were taking care of you for a while, but I have taken over since you have woken.” He used the white knife to clean out his pipe. He jabbed away at the black ash building up in the base and emptied it into his hand.

Grey gently placed the book back on the shelf starting to feel dizzy and a little sick to the stomach. As Max moved over to the fire to deposit his ashes, Grey stumbled a little, leaning against the desk for support as he moved over to a chair.

“-smart young ladies no doubt about that, but I thought that you could use some peace and quiet for a little while.” Max was packing his pipe with tobacco that he had taken from the mantle as he spoke. “You seem to be doing better now so I guess it would be nice for you to get to meet some new people. And I have a feeling they are all open to the prospect of meeting you as well.”

Grey fell into the chair in front of Max’s desk and wiped sweat off his forehead with a shaky hand.

“I should probably explain a few things about this place before I introduce you to...” Max turned to see Grey sitting in the chair sweaty and shaking and stopped mid-sentence. “Oh dear,” he said.

Grey leaned back his eyes closed feeling strong waves of nausea hitting him. He felt like the room was spinning and his head pulsed like a giant heartbeat.

Grey could sense Max moving toward him and heard him placing his pipe on the desk. A moment later, there was a cup of water pressed into his hands and Max was saying, “Drink this and stay still. Your body still needs some time to heal before you start moving about.”

Grey drank the cool water and waited. After a few minutes, he started to feel less dizzy and he opened his eyes. Max was leaning against the desk, arms folded, sucking on his pipe. His grey eyes watched him closely.

Exhaling a large cloud of smoke, Max said, “I think we should take you back downstairs.” Grey nodded. He felt exhausted, and his side was on fire again.

Max helped him out of his chair but let him go after he had balanced himself on his feet. Grey headed for the door, limping slightly, as Max was saying, “Don’t worry, just give it a little more time and you will be feeling just fine. I’d say that you will be feeling better than ever! You know I think I will bring some of these books down later and you and I…”

As the pair of them left the study, Grey heard a small cough somewhere off to his left.

“Hmm?” said Max behind him. Grey looked over to see a beautiful girl standing by the staircase smiling over to them.

“Is everything alright?” she said. Her voice was light and soft. She looked right at Grey as she spoke. The first thing he noticed was her rich green eyes. He stared at them for a long moment and she stared right back. She had long blond hair that was tied into a ponytail, with long bangs that fell along the edges of her cheeks. She stood straight with her hands behind her back and shoulders square. Grey thought her posture looked uncomfortable or nervous but her face was serene.

“Yes, everything is fine my dear,” said Max stepping forward.

“It’s nice to finally meet you, Grey,” she said, moving closer to them.

“Oh yes,” said Max sounding a little uncomfortable. “Grey, this is Elli our head nurse. She has been helping me take care of you for a while now.” Grey just nodded at her, and she took another few steps forward. She was wearing a simple white and blue dress with a long blue cardigan wrapped around her shoulders. She looked much too young to be a head of anything. She could only be twenty. Perhaps not even nineteen.

“I put in your first line of stitches the night you arrived,” said Elli. “Max was out on the other end of town helping prepare for the storm so I had to step in.”

“Yes,” said Max. Grey glanced at Max to see him looking awkwardly between him and Elli. “She did a very fine job. If she hadn’t been there I don’t think you would have lived.”

Elli’s eyes never stopped beaming at him, even as Max spoke about her. “It was nothing really,” she said, her cheeks reddening. “You know, you and I spoke a little. Do you remember?” Somehow, Elli’s long hair had come to fall over her shoulder and she pulled at it absently as she spoke to him.

Grey looked at the rich golden hair, remembering her leaning over him as though it had been in a dream. He nodded, “I think so.”

She beamed even brighter.

“Well,” said Max clearing his throat, “Elli would you mind grabbing fresh water for our other guest downstairs?”

Elli’s eyes flashed over to Max, “But I just…”

“Thank you, thank you,” Max was saying. “I’ll just be taking Grey back down to his room for now. He needs some rest.”

Elli looked disappointed but stepped aside saying, “Of course. It was nice to meet you, Grey.” She smiled at him again. Grey nodded back and limped over to the stairs behind Max.

In the hall downstairs, Max turned back to him and said in a low voice, “I do apologize for not introducing you to some of the girls a little sooner. It’s just that… this place is a little different than some other places you may have been too. We don’t get a lot of...” he scratched his head absently, stopping in front of the door to Grey’s room. “Well, we don’t get a lot of...”

Grey leaned his shoulder against the wall, attempting to relieve some of the pressure his weight was putting on his abdomen and watched Max struggle to find the words. His mind was puzzling over the girl he had just met. She was very beautiful. Like Kate. But different. It felt strange to have met two different women in such a short amount of time.

“-you see a long time ago our town was a lot bigger and we had all sorts of...” Max was saying.

“Are there lots of women here?” said Grey cutting him off and wiping more sweat from his forehead.

“Woman?” said Max. “What… I mean, why do you ask? Of course there are women here.” Max rubbed his chin and looked down at him, shifting his weight from foot to foot. “Why wouldn’t there be? But, uh… that’s what I am talking about. Well, that’s what we need to talk about I suppose. It’s just that you are… well, you and I are… uh…”

Grey was tired of Max trying to find his words. He reached past him and slid the door open and walked in. “I haven’t met many women before. It’s strange to have met two already.” Grey limped over to his bed and clambered up onto the covers, wincing as he rolled over onto his back. Max followed him into the room.

“Did you say you have only met a few women in your life?” he said. He twiddled his thumbs standing over Grey who struggled to get comfortable.

Grey felt sick again. He closed his eyes feeling his exhausted body pulling him into sleep. He blinked, blurrily seeing Max shuffle towards the door.

“Oh dear,” said Max. “This will be very interesting won’t it?” He spoke to himself more than to Grey.

V

Days passed more quickly with books. Grey worked his way through a number of very strange volumes. He didn’t understand a couple of them, but they were fascinating all the same. His favorite described a sea captain and his journey to kill a giant white monster. The book described wooden ships of a size Grey had never imagined could be possible. There were illustrations of giant white sails being pushed on the wind, pulling the wooden giants across the waves.

He had seen boats in Burk, but never anything of the scale described in this book. He questioned whether or not it was even possible, but his imagination could picture the scene clearly and it filled him with wonder.

One book described a city with buildings hundreds of feet high. There were no illustrations for Grey to examine, but he did his best to picture the towering buildings with walls of glass.

Then there was the Encyclopedia of the Natural World. Grey spent most of his hours reading information on plants, mountains, and animals. The book was thick and heavy and the pages held fine print and pencil illustrations. He flipped dusty smelling pages to the sections on wolves, and then found his way to birds, and then insects. He flipped through the seemingly endless book, drinking in the information covering random specimens, some he was familiar with, and some he had never seen or even heard of.

A few days after first meeting her, Elli entered his room. Max followed her and re-introduced them. He explained that Elli needed more practice with live patients and said that she would be examining his wounds and changing the bandages.

“Kate told us the story you know,” said Elli, sitting beside him on the bed. She was looking at his side and dabbing on more of the minty substance with a cloth.

Max had pulled up a chair and was sitting in front of him, leaning forward, examining the scarred tissue as well. Grey felt extremely uncomfortable with both of them eyeing him and occasionally prodding his side experimentally.

“She said you were really brave.” Elli continued.

Max’s eye flicked up and met Grey’s for a moment like he was checking on him or something. Grey didn’t say anything.

“I don’t know what I would have done,” said Elli. “I feel like I would be too scared to move with a bear charging at me like that! What was it like?”

Grey thought about it, not sure how to answer. “I don’t know,” he said after a moment. “I didn’t think about it all that much.”

Elli chuckled. Max’s eyes flicked up to Grey again.

“Well,” said Max after a moment. “It looks like you are still healing pretty well. We should be able to take the stitches out soon enough. Elli, could you grab fresh bandages?”

Elli stood up. As she moved her hair flitted over Grey’s neck and cheek sending goosebumps down his body.

“Where is Kate?” said Grey.

Max was watching Elli closely as she grabbed a folded bundle of bandages from a bag at the foot of the bed. “What?” he said looking back at him. “Oh, Kate. Yes, I forgot. She is out in the wood. She stayed with you while you were asleep for the most part. We couldn’t get her out of the room actually. But once the storm cleared up she left for the wood again.”

“Why?” said Grey. He felt something in his stomach jolt as he pictured himself lying in bed unconscious with Kate sitting beside him for days on end.

Before Max could answer Elli said, “She thinks she found a pass through the valley to Stonebrook.” She unfurled the bundle of bandages roughly and leaned down to wrap them around Grey's abdomen. Grey lifted his arms gingerly as she pulled the fabric tight around his midriff. He winced and scowled at her. “Sorry,” she said loosening the wrap a little, her eyes meeting his for a moment.

“Yes,” said Max looking between them. “After you were brought back, there was a rush to get back out there and collect the bear and any of the metal from the site that we could manage before the first snow hit. Kate went with a small party to get everything and while they were out there she thinks she may have seen a pass through the valley.” Max spoke to Grey but his eyes watched Elli as she continued the layer the bandages.

This required her to be very close to Grey, who determinedly looked straight ahead at Max. Elli’s hair tickled his bare arms and his side as she leaned over him, her arms wrapped around his middle, passing the role of bandages from hand to hand around him.

“She said the old pass is blocked,” said Grey.

“Yes,” said Max handing Elli a small wooden toggle to hold the bandages in place. “The Boneyard is no longer an option. It started out with just a few people going missing; we thought that they were just held up in Stonebrook, but then…well...”

“Well what?” said Grey.

“One man did come back. We sent out a larger search party, six or seven in all, and only one came back. He was covered with cuts and scrapes. He had multiple broken bones and one of his eyes had been clawed out. And his neck was torn open completely. It was a miracle he ever made it back…he died within an hour or so once we got him back into the hospital.” Max’s eyes stayed focused on Elli’s hands and Grey’s chest, but he coughed a little and his expression changed slightly. “He was a good friend of mine.”

“Did he say what happened to him?” said Grey.

“No,” Elli said.

He looked at her, and her fingers slipped on the toggle and the bandage came loose. She blinked rapidly and tightened the wrap. “But people say he could have fallen off a ridge and crawled his way back, or maybe he was attacked by those savages from the plains or a giant man-eating beast.”

Max cleared his throat pointedly, looking at her.

Elli blushed.

“I think it more likely that a new savage tribe of some kind has taken over the area. It is a sheltered, fertile piece of land ideal for a small community. I can see a group like those people from the western plains taking refuge there.”

“How long has it been since anyone has been through?” said Grey looking back to Max.

“Through to Stonebrook? Close to fifteen years now. We haven’t had any contact with them. And we have suffered for it. That’s why we are looking for another pass.” Max looked downcast as he spoke.

Grey’s feelings seemed to mirror Max’s, although he also mixed in a flame of frustration. Roadblocks seemed to be piling on top of one another, as he got closer to this Stonebrook place. He had no idea how long it would be before his side healed enough for him to travel. And when it had, he couldn’t risk going around the mountain range. The peaks stretched for hundreds of miles to the north and south. He couldn’t risk not finding a pass through the steep hills in either direction.

“How does it feel?” said Elli. She was still sitting very close to him. Their knees were touching.

“Good,” said Grey looking at her. Her green eyes were watching him closely and she smiled at him.

“Well,” said Max. “We should let you be then.” He stood up. “Come on Elli, let’s let him rest now.”

Elli stood up. “I’ll see you tomorrow Grey,” she said, and she followed Max to the door. Before she had disappeared into the hall, Grey called out to her and she turned back eagerly.

“When will Kate be back?” said Grey

Elli’s face seemed to darken a little but she still smiled at him. “I’m not sure. She was supposed to be back a few days ago. Mappers and hunters are supposed to check in every eight days or else a search party is sent out for them.”

Grey felt his stomach sink a little. “Are there people looking for her now?”

“No, not now, but I’m sure she is fine,” said Elli trying to reassure him. “The weather is turning bad again. Max said we can’t risk losing anyone out in the wood. He didn’t want her to leave but she was afraid of forgetting where she thought she saw a pass.”

Grey leaned back against the pillows feeling something similar to annoyance. It was stupid of her to go out again if she knew the weather would be bad.

Elli seemed to guess his line of thinking because she said, “We expect the big storm to come any day now. She knows to come back before it sets in. She’ll be fine.”

Grey didn’t answer. He was lost in his own thoughts again. Memories of the wood were floating across his mind. He saw Kate leaning over him in the darkening night once more. Her hair was shining as firelight bounced off her curls. Tiny flecks of snow were drifting on the night, and landing in her dark hair like tiny white stars.

“Have a goodnight Grey,” said Elli from the doorway.

He looked up in time to see the door sliding shut, and a wisp of golden hair disappearing into the hall.

VI

The snow outside looked untouched. Grey stood on the front porch looking out at the main square of Northanger. All of the buildings had snow-covered roofs and icicles pointing down from the eaves. There was no one out in the early morning, but smoke was pluming from the chimneys of all of the wooden buildings.

A thick mist hung over everything. The snow almost blended seamlessly into the misty morning air. The street leading deeper into town was swallowed by the white mist. Grey could only see a hundred feet in any direction.

Even though there was an almost claustrophobic atmosphere over the town with the mist seeming to close everything in, Grey thought it looked rather pretty. It was quiet and still. And the cool air felt good on his lips and in his lungs. He let out a long sigh that turned into a small cloud of hot mist in front of his face.

“You ready?” said Max standing beside him and pulling on a pair of thick green gloves.

Grey nodded and they set out into the town square.

VII

The town was set in a large valley mostly surrounded by mountainside and steep wooded hills. At the north end of the town was a massive wooden wall. It stretched twenty feet tall and was a hundred yards long. The placement of Northanger was very defensible because of the mountainous terrain.

Northanger sat in a basin created by the mountains around it so there was only one way in and out through a narrow pass at the northern end. The wall blocked this pass very well. Torches were set up along the top of the wall every ten yards or so and as they approached it, Grey could see two figures standing atop the wall looking out at the wood.

Max led him all the way to the base of the wall to a set of wooden stairs. The pair of them made their way to the top slowly as Grey had to take it one step at a time holding the railing for support.

Once they reached the landing, Max rubbed his gloved hands together and said, “Well, there it is.”

“There it is,” said Grey looking out at the wood beyond Northanger. There was a long stretch of open space between the gates of Northanger and the wood beyond. It was hard to see the dark outline of the trees through the thick shroud of mist. The tree line looked more like long jagged shadows falling over the white snow than actual trees.

The snow looked untouched. It was like looking at an abyss of nothingness. Just white. And mist. Grey shivered, but not from the cold.

Footsteps were drawing nearer to them. Grey looked to his left and saw a dark figure holding aloft a burning torch walking towards them.

“Max, is that you?” called a voice through the mist.

“Sasha, good morning my dear,” said Max. The dark figure slowly materialized into a woman as she approached. She had dark hair tied back and a round face. She wore a heavy grey fur coat and padded gloves. A leather quiver was strapped to her back with arrows poking up over her shoulder and she held a bow in her free hand.

“Good morning,” said Sasha. Her cheeks were pink from cold but she looked cheerful. “You must be Grey.” Her eyes turned to him as she flung the bow over her shoulders so the bowstring and quiver strap crisscrossed over her chest. “It’s hard to recognize you without the long hair and beard! You look good!” She stuck out a gloved hand, her cheeks looking a little redder.

Grey shook it firmly. “Are you one of the nurses?”

“Me, no way,” said Sasha with a laugh. “I’m a hunter and a mapper. I was part of the group that found you and Kate in the wood. And it’s a really lucky chance that we did find you. We had been tracking that bear for two days you know! Anyway, I thought you were a goner but I’m happy to have been wrong!”

“Well, he still has a lot of healing to do,” said Max. “I am just showing him around the town for a little while, so we should get going.”

Max made to say his goodbyes, but Grey cut in and said, “Did you see the pass that Kate was talking about when you were in the wood? The pass through the mountains.”

“Uh, no,” said Sasha, frowning. “She found it on her own after we went back out.” After a few moments of silence in which Grey simply waited, she continued. “Well, it took us almost hours to get you back here to Northanger, and we were really husling. We had to make a sort of stretcher out of sticks and blankets to carry you, and then we had to retrace our steps all the way back. We took three or four more girls with us to help harvest the bear and the metal, but that just slowed us down being a bigger party.”

“It must have been well past midnight by the time we made it back to where we had found you and it was pitch black. And the storm was setting in fast! As we got closer, we had to split up to search. The area is extremely rocky and hilly so we stayed fifteen yards apart and walked the mountainside. I think Linda was the one who found the bear again,” she glanced at Max for confirmation but he just shrugged.

“Well, we all got back together and started digging out the metal and skinning the bear. No one realized that Kate was missing. We were working too fast to notice anything really. She got back with us just as we were finishing up and she was excited about something but it was hard to hear her yelling over the wind. We all ended up high tailing it out of there and made it back just as the storm started to really come down.”

Sasha finished her story with a small shrug. “I didn’t know she had thought she found a new mountain pass until a few days later when she left for the wood on her own again.”

Grey nodded, looking back at the white out over the wall.

“She will be back soon,” said Max clapping him on the shoulder. “Come on we should get going. Thank you, Sasha. Let us know if you see anything.” He turned to go.

“What do you think?” said Grey to Sasha. Max stopped again behind him and turned back with a sigh.

“Uh, what do you mean?” she said. Grey just waited. “Well, Kate loves being out in the wood. She knows it better than most of us I think. She will be fine out there. And she will be back soon.”

Grey nodded and turned to go, but stopped thinking of something else. “How much metal were you able to harvest?”

“A good amount,” she said shrugging again.

“What are you planning on using it for?” said Grey.

Sasha looked at Max who said, “Farming, digging, the usual things we use metal for around here. We do not really know how to make good metal tools here, but we find some uses for it. Digging and plowing for the most part I guess.”

Grey looked from Max to Sasha. He could not imagine why they could collect all of this metal if there was such little use for it. However, he did not say anything. “Where do you keep all of the metal you find?” said Grey.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“I can show you,” said Max. Grey nodded and stepped aside to let Max lead the way down the stairs back toward the main square of Northanger.

“It was nice to meet you!” said Sasha as Grey followed Max down the steps. He turned back and nodded to her. She was smiling at him and she waved. Grey hesitated a moment and then turned to follow Max down the steps again.

Once they reached the bottom, Grey fell into step beside Max and glanced over his shoulder at Sasha. She was hard to make out already because of the mist, but she stood atop the wall watching them leave.

“The women are strange here,” said Grey.

“Hmm?” said Max. “What makes you say that?”

Grey thought about it, not sure how to answer. “Well,” he said after a few silent moments trudging through the snow. “They smile a lot,” he said.

“Hmm,” said Max thoughtfully. “Yes, yes they do don’t they,”

Grey could feel his side cramping up as he continued to plow through the snow. He put a hand to it, wincing a little as they entered the square. The small houses around them seemed a little more active now that the morning was setting in. He saw a couple of woman out on their front porches airing out sheets and quilts. There were a few more young woman walking arm and arm down the road ahead of them, bundled up in thick coats and large boots.

As they walked by Grey watched them curiously. He was so unaccustomed to being near so many women. Perhaps all woman were smiley and friendly when you got near them. In Burk, he had very limited experience with women of any sort. And when he did it usually did not involve smiling or laughing. He remembered them turning up their noses and sneering at him. They would whisper insults behind their hands and laugh at him.

He was lost in thought for a while as they walked when he realized he was not the only one staring. As he walked past, eyes would find him and follow him. He caught the eye of one woman leaving her front door with a large basket in her arms and she stopped to stare at him. Grey’s eyes narrowed as he looked at her but she continued to watch him.

And there were more women in the windows above them. Eyes were staring through the glass at them as they passed by.

“There are a lot of women here,” said Grey.

“I know,” said Max. One of the girls walking on the street in front of them had heard them talking and turned. Grey watched her nudge her companion in the ribs and they both stopped dead in the middle of the street watching him draw nearer.

“Hi Grey!” said the shorter one once they were only a few feet away. She looked to be around his own age. Perhaps in her middle twenties. She had brown hair cut at her shoulders and her cheeks were very pink, probably from the cold. Both girls were smiling at him.

Grey nodded and they both giggled. He scowled, as he and Max continued and the two girls began to whisper behind their hands.

“I think you and I need to talk. Now is a good a time as ever,” said Max as they turned off the main road and headed off into a more deserted section of the town. Ahead of them were fields of snow that stretched far ahead and disappeared into the mist. The large fields were bordered by dark wooden fences.

Max didn’t say anything for a few minutes as they walked along a path between two rows of snow covered fences. Sunlight was beginning to burn away the mist. Small patches of blue sky were visible above them and they could see farther and farther ahead of them by the minute. Grey watched the slow process of a misty morning evolving into a chilly afternoon all around him.

He had given up on Max saying anything after they put a good distance between themselves and the main square and the gates of Northanger. He watched another group of girls a few hundred yards away from them opening up the sliding doors to a large barn in the middle of one of the pastures. They were all bundled up and working fast with practiced movements. A few moments later a small herd of cattle came wondering out into the snowy pasture and they walked about stupidly, shaking their heads and breathing out large clouds of mists in the cold air.

“Everyone is getting ready for the first big storm now that we have gotten our first snow of the season. They are just letting out the herd before it sets in. They won’t be able to get out for a while. It’s good to have them stretch their legs. Over on the south end, Mrs. Marlow should be getting her sheep out and about as well.”

Grey continued to watch the cattle slowly finding their way out of the barn and wonder about. Then he noticed a few of the girls waving to them. Grey squinted at them. Not a single man was around them. Strange, he thought as Max waved back at them. He was not accustomed to seeing women doing such arduous manual labor as looking after cattle. Surely that would fall upon the men in Northanger.

“Why are they doing that?” said Grey, as the small group of girls stared at the pair of them.

“Why wouldn’t they?” said Max, turning away from the path. Grey followed him and they trudged through the ankle deep snow toward a lonely looking shack sitting by the base of the mountainside.

“I am not used to seeing women that kind of work,” said Grey.

“Well,” said Max looking down at his feet mindful of his footing on the uneven snow. “There is no one else to do it.”

“What do you mean?” said Grey.

Max looked troubled. He put his hands in his pockets and sighed, mist pouring out of his nostrils like smoke. “Grey, you being here is something of a predicament. I don’t know if I like it. On one side it is nice to have a new face around here. It’s nice to be of some medical use. It’s nice to talk to a young man for once.”

Grey’s eyes narrowed as he watched Max trudge on not looking up from his boots.

“We have not had visitors here at Northanger since the Boneyard pass was open for trade with Stonebrook. And we have not had a man or woman from the west inside this valley for over twenty years. They are the reason we built our wall in the first place.”

Max stopped and looked up at the sun peeking over the mountain’s ridge two hundred feet above them. Grey glanced at it but looked back at Max, waiting.

“Our city was attacked. I don’t know if you know about it. You are too young to have been a part of it. Perhaps it’s what you do in the west. Conquest.” He sighed again and glanced at Grey for a moment.

“This place once was a city if you could believe it. There were thousands of us! But now,” he turned on the spot sweeping his arm over the barren snowy landscape. “Nothing but farmland and a few hundred farmers.” He gently placed his hands into his pockets again. Grey watched him quietly. Max’s eyes were glazed over with memories and his face sunken with stress. “We had nothing but bone tipped arrows and stone-tipped farming tools. They had metal swords and armor and clubs, and chains. It took no more than an hour for them to burn most of our city, and round up all of the survivors.”

“They took almost every able-bodied man that they hadn’t already killed. They took them away in chains and disappeared into the wood. There were only a handful of us left. Most of us badly wounded. I had my hands full back then. I learned a lot about healing. I was only an apprentice at the time but my master died in the attack so I was on my own. I think I did okay.”

Max turned to face Grey and shrugged. “That’s our story I guess. After a few years, we had begun to rebuild. The wall went up. Buildings were restored and then the Boneyard started taking more from us. Call it a beast or a savage tribe, it doesn’t matter. We lost a lot of people as they traveled to Stonebrook. At that time, we had a total of thirteen men left in Northanger. By the time we realized the Boneyard was no longer safe, we were down to five. Three more died of pneumonia after a particularly fierce winter about seven years ago, and a fourth past away only two years ago in his sleep. Tom was seventy-one. And now, I am the last man left in Northanger. At least, until you showed up that is.”

Grey didn’t say anything. Max shrugged again. “Are you beginning to see the predicament? No? Well, let me put it to you this way. There are a little over two hundred people here at Northanger. Two of them are male.” He gestured to himself and Grey. “I would say that most of the rest of the population is between the ages of about forty to fifty-five. There are some here and there in their thirties or sixties but most fall in that range. Then there is the younger population. The youngest person here is Susan. She is thirteen. My late friend Tom’s youngest of five daughters. Imagine our luck there,” he said with a laugh.

“So” he continued, as Grey remained silently waiting. “That leaves about twenty, maybe even thirty, girls between the age of thirteen and thirty that have had no interaction what so ever with any man in their entire lives. And then you show up.” He finished gesturing at Grey with both hands out.

“What about you?” said Grey putting his hands in his pockets.

“Me? Grey, I am far too old to be of any consequence to such young ladies. Besides I am more of a father figure to all of the younger woman here than anything else. You on the other hand…” his voice trailed off and the two of them fell into an awkward silence. Grey kicked some snow around his feet and thought about everything Max had just told him. It made a lot of sense. Now that he thought about it, it seemed so obvious that this would be the case here. Burk had a steep demand for labor and they had a brutal way of getting their laborers shipped in. He remembered more and more men being walked in chains through Burk and sent into the coal mines and the forges. Men from the north and from the south. And the East. But no women.

“I have been wondering Grey…” said Max in a thoughtful tone. “I have been wondering what kind of man you are. Tell me, should I be worried about you? Are you like the men I described from the west?”

Grey thought about that for a moment. “What do you mean?”

“What I am saying is; should we be worried? Do you pose a threat to the people here? Do you mean to do again what was done twenty years ago?”

“No,” said Grey.

“Are you alone, or are there more of you coming?”

“I am alone,” said Grey

“Are you a killer Grey?” said Max. His jaw was set and he stared directly into Grey’s eyes. Grey felt a knot in his stomach tighten as Max’s dark eyes bored into him.

“You have nothing to fear from me,” said Grey in a smooth voice. “I am just trying to get through to the next city over the mountains.”

“Hmm,” said Max peering at him a moment longer. “Well, I wish you luck. But I am afraid you are stuck here for a while. At least until the big storm is over and the snow begins to thin out.”

“How long is that?” said Grey.

“At least two months. The big storm will be here any day. We are all getting ready. That will last a while and then winter goes pretty smooth. But there is no getting through the Boneyard. Let’s hope that Kate has found another means of getting through the mountains.”

Grey scowled as Max moved forward again, brushing past him. He headed for the small shack by the base of the bluffs. Grey followed and Max led him inside. It was small on the inside and cramped. Scrap metal sat on the floor and along shelves in jumbled piles. There were metal rods like the one Grey had fallen on, large square pieces, broken and dented pipes, and long thin sheet metal. Everything had a coat of dirt on it like they had all been dug out of the ground and most looked a bit rusty. Here and there were a few tools like hammers and chisels that someone had made crudely out of scrap and wooden handles.

“See anything good?” said Max looking around at the heaps of scrap metal along the floor of the shack.

“I don’t know,” said Grey. He moved around touching random pieces. Occasionally he winced in pain as he overstretched his side while crouching or stepping over smaller piles of scrap.

It all looks promising, he thought. The only problem was getting all of the other materials together.

“Max?” said Grey, turning back to the front door of the shack.

“Hm?” said Max, looking up and tossing a small metal peg back onto a rusty pile at his feet.

“Could you help me find some rocks?” said Grey.

VIII

It was still early in the day, and Max was able to help him locate a good number of rocks and bricks from around Northanger. He was even able to find an old wooden sled that they could use to drag heavier loads over the snow. By the time Grey had collected enough, he dumped his last load by the metal store and headed into the shed to find something resembling a shovel.

“You know you should probably rest some more today,” said Max, standing a few yards away in the muddy snow, his hands in his pockets. Grey glanced at him as he stepped out of the shed with the shovel in his hand. “Your body needs rest. But obviously, your spirit remains as strong as ever.”

“I need firewood,” said Grey measuring out a good fifteen feet away from the door of the shack.

“What for?” said Max, as Grey drove the shovel into the snow forcefully.

“Fire,” said Grey. And he started to carve an outline in the snow of a wide circle.

Max scoffed. “Of course. But, may I ask what the fire could be for?”

Grey continued his course, finishing an eight-foot circle in the snow. He examined the size for a moment, stepping back and looking back over his shoulder to make sure he was far enough away from the metal store.

“You’ll see I guess,” said Grey. He did not feel annoyed. He just felt he couldn’t be bothered explaining the details to Max at that moment. At that particular moment, his mind had already become engrossed in the task and he could not be distracted by any means other than the physical limitations of his injured body.

Max walked away a few minutes later, leaving him to his work. Grey continued with the shovel for the better part of the day and was able to dig a moderately large ditch. He worked past the snow and into the dirt beneath which was hardened from the cold. His hands blistered quickly and his arms ached from the constant shoveling over his shoulders.

Max returned in the early evening with firewood and a few girls, two of which Grey recognized. Sasha stood beside Max, cheeks pink with cold, her coat swapped out for a lighter burgundy sweater. On the other side of Max was Elli, wearing a white scarf that covered her chin and most of her lips. Grey could still see the smile on her cheeks as she said hello. Her blond hair was in a tight bun on her head. The third girl was thin and tall and looked similar to how Sasha had done that morning atop the wall. She had a thick coat, unbuttoned at the moment, and a quiver of feathered arrows poking up from over her shoulder. But no bow.

“This is Linda,” said Max gesturing to the tall girl.

“Hi,” she said shortly with a small wave. Grey nodded to her, and the others, from down in the pit. They all had dragged small sleds holding logs and twigs.

“What are you doing down there?” said Elli.

“Uh,” said Grey, not sure where to begin explaining. He was not used to being asked questions.

“Ladies,” said Max. “Why don’t we just leave all of this firewood inside the metal store and help Grey back to the study. It's getting late Grey.” The girls moved about, dragging their firewood to the shack to be left inside the shelter. “You should head back with us before night sets in. It can get very cold out here. You can pick this up in the morning.”

Grey nodded, watching the three girls piling the wood into the shack.

IX

The following morning was as misty as the first. Grey did not much like the idea of heading out alone into the mist. Besides, he still needed a good amount of supplies. He decided to talk to Max about how to find them, but Max would have nothing of it.

“Come with me boy, come with me. It's Monday! We are headed into the lecture room this morning.” Max lead him to the second floor, a large book under his arm, and the two of them headed into the room opposite his study. The size of the room surprised Grey. It was long and rectangular. Wooden desk chairs were arranged in even rows facing the front of the room and a small stage.

There were windows every few feet along the opposite wall looking out at the white misty skies and wooden carvings of letters and animals and other symbols Grey did not recognize lined the walls.

“What is this?” said Grey looking around the room. There was a long table against the wall where paper stacks sat neatly beside a box of pencils.

“It’s our lecture room,” said Max.

Grey turned to face Max standing on the stage at the front of the room. He was beaming, his chest seeming to puff out a little.

“Let me show you,” he said, stepping down from the stage and setting his book on one of the desks. He gestured to the paper and pencils on the table, picking up one of each and handing them to Grey, “Paper and pencil, made by hand of course. And in here,”

He started pulling out drawers revealing other small trinkets. Grey frowned and listened intently. Max seemed very excited by it all. Grey found it interesting but he was distracted by the many pearly white tools and objects being offered to him.

“What is this?” said Grey, holding up a long rectangular object. He ran his hand over the smooth white surface. It was worn down and cracked and oddly pliant and yet sturdy.

“That’s a ruler,” said Max. “We use them for mathematics. Also straight edges. This place is a sort of workshop as well. A lot of the girls come in here to fashion new necklaces or arrowheads or...”

“I know it’s a ruler,” said Grey. “I meant, what is this? What is it made of? What are all of these made of?”

“Hm? Oh yes!” said Max catching on. “That’s bone. Almost all of our tools are made of bone or a combination of bone and wood.” Max smiled at him as though he was pleased with the smartness of their use of bones.

“What kind of bones?” said Grey, eyeing him closely.

Max laughed. “Calm down, calm down. Only animal bone. I’m sure we have all sorts. Rabbit, deer, bear, bird, whatever. We don’t have metal tools like you my boy. We found out a long time ago that bone works a lot better than wood. Wood is too brittle. Bone is stronger and more flexible. A little harder to shape, but we all have a lot of practice by now. Bone also keeps a sharp edge. Wood and rock do not.”

At that moment, a few girls walked in. Elli was among them. They were chattering away, but the conversation ended on the sight of the two men standing on the opposite side of the room. There was only a moments silence before a few of them giggled and whispers spread between them.

“Ladies!” said Max spreading his arms wide. “Good morning, and welcome, welcome.”

There was a chorus of good mornings returned to him before Max sprang into action, taking the top of the stage, book in hand, a smile spreading across his face. “If you will all take your usual seats we can all get started. There you go,”

There was a flurry of movement as all of the girls, ten or twelve of them in all, quickly wound their way between the desks finding their usual places facing the stage and Max.

Grey was the only person left standing aside from Max, who gestured for him to find a seat before he went on again, “Now I know it has been an exciting couple of days here, but I am happy that we have all found our way back! Now, if you will all remember where we left off last time in our discussion about the weather. We were talking about the clouds of summer; the cumulus, cumulonimbus, stratus, and stratocumulus.”

Max went on for quite a while. Grey smiled watching him perform atop his stage, occasionally reading from the book under his arm and always making great sweeping gestures and painting illustrious images into all of their minds of different cloud formations, spectacular yellow flashes of lightning and of starry night skies.

He focused his lecture mostly on ways to recognize different cloud formations and to learn from them what kind of weather could be expected from them. He described how it could help with forecasting rain, lightning and even wildfires.

And yet, Grey noticed a few eyes glazing over as Max continued to drone on about the highest clouds in the sky, cirrostratus. One girl sat slouched forward, resting her chin on her fist. She would slowly drift off to the side and catch herself quickly before falling asleep and out of her chair. Another stared blatantly out of the window to her left at the white nothingness of morning.

Occasionally a few pairs of eyes would sneak a look at him sitting in the back. They would look out of the corner of their eyes or gently stretch and turn as though to get rid of a crick in the neck. But the eyes would find him. Elli sat at the front of the room, and yet her eyes found him more often than the rest.

Max talked for a few hours on a variety of topics but eventually released the girls from his lecture. A few of them broke up into groups to chat and glance back at Grey sitting alone at the back of the room, and a few others walked to the front of the room to ask questions.

Grey did not like the idea of meeting so many new faces all at once, so he excused himself and headed downstairs and out into the cold misty morning.

He was not quite sure where he should go because he still didn’t know Northanger all that well. He stood in the square for few moments thinking and breathing deeply. He did not feel rushed. On the contrary, he felt very relaxed. He looked up into the misty sea of white above him. If he looked closely, he could see water droplets drifting like snow petals in the light breeze. He let out a long breath that misted on the air and then looked around. People were stirring within their homes again. No snow had fallen that night but the cold sleet had hardened the snow atop the buildings and doubled the number of icicles hanging from the eaves all around.

Even through the mist sunlight found its way into the icicles causing them to shine a deep blue. They almost glowed like blue torches.

This winter was unlike any he could remember. Burk town was hot and windy all year long. He had seen snow before in the mountains, but never quite like this. Grey liked the muffled sound of the world around him. It was as if everything was hiding under a thick wool blanket.

“Grey!”

Grey turned with a start. Elli was coming down from the steps behind him and heading into the square. She had thrown on a dark coat and her white scarf and was holding a black bundle in her arms. She tossed the bundle at him once she drew near and Grey caught it. He found it to be an old patched coat.

“Max told me to bring you that. It’s an old one he doesn’t use so you can keep it,” she said sticking her hands in her pockets and spitting a small strand of hair out of her mouth. “Aren’t you cold?” she said as he continued to examine the coat.

Grey shook his head, though he was not sure why. Now that she had mentioned it, he was cold. But he didn’t know what to say so he tried to throw the coat over his shoulders but winced after lifting his arms up. His side seared with pain and he gingerly slid his arms into the coat, gritting his teeth. Ellie watched him with a pained look and said, “You okay?”

Grey just nodded and adjusted the coat, pulling the cuffs and aligning the collar.

“Where are you going?” said Elli, as he fumbled with the buttons with cold fingers.

“I don’t know,” he said after a moment. “I need a few things.”

“For whatever you are making out by the metal store?” she said. Her breath fogged the air between them rapidly. It looked like all the heat from her body was trying to escape.

Grey nodded.

“Well, what do you need?”

“Uh,” he said looking around the square again hoping to see a signpost or some sort of directional ornament along one of the buildings. “I need animal fat. And a large bucket, or a feeding trough. Something to hold it all in. And I need heavy metal grips. Something that can withstand a lot of heat. And gloves. Really thick gloves.”

He did not look at her as he spoke. He felt awkward asking for help, but again he was not sure why he felt that way. But when he finished he looked at her. She just nodded and said, “Well the gloves are easy. And the trough. I think if you want any metal tools or animal fat you are going to have to go to the same place.”

“And where is that?” said Grey.

“I’ll show you,” she said.

X

Elli took him down the street to a butcher shop. Along the way, she would point out buildings to him and name them.

“That one over there is Sasha’s house. She lives with her mom and sister. I think a few of the other hunters live there as well. Over there is Aunt Lisa’s house. She is not actually my Aunt but everyone calls her that. She grows a lot of different spices and herbs. Over there is our wool house. Most of our clothes are made there. Mrs. Callaway is getting really old but she’s still the best seamstress at Northanger. She gets all of the wool and leather and pelts from whatever the hunters bring back and from Mrs. Finn. She is in charge of most of the livestock. And this,” she said, stopping and presenting a long flat building to him. “Is the butcher shop.”

“Anna runs this place. She should be up by now,” said Elli

Grey followed her up the stairs, looking up and down the street at all of the buildings. Most had front porches and on closer inspection, Grey noticed the intricacy of the carvings along the pillars and railings. Even the backsplash of the steps had minuet designs or scenes carved into them.

“How long does it take to do this?” said Grey as he examined the step railing to the butcher shop.

“Oh that?” said Elli. “I don’t really know. A few hours maybe. It depends on who is doing it.”

“Only a few hours?” he said, bending down to examine an intricate bear carving atop the handrail. Its mouth was wide, bearing sharp wooden teeth. Lines of fur had been carefully etched into the woodwork but had faded and blended over time. The eyes still held a lifelike quality, however. Grey frowned at it.

“It depends. We all try to find our own specialty here at Northanger, but pretty much everyone here is a woodworker. You need to be, so you can make the right tools.”

Grey straightened up rubbing his icy hands together. His fingertips were turning red with cold.

“What do you mean?” he said, blowing a cloud of misty breath into his hands.

“Well,” she said, taking a step down closer to him at the foot of the stairs. “I study with Max almost every day. I want to take over for him one day as the doctor here. He has taught me all about medicine. I still have a lot to learn but I am the best of all his students.”

“Does he teach all of you medicine back there?” said Grey, jerking his head back down the street from where they had come.

“Oh, no. Well, he does teach us medicine at the school but not only medicine. He talks to us about a lot of things, like math, and literature, and stuff.”

“And clouds,” said Grey.

Elli laughed. “Yeah.” She smiled at him, fiddling with the stringy end of her white scarf. “We have classes like that twice a week. But he teaches all the time. He has open lectures for anyone who wants to go on all sorts of topics, but he tries to keep the ages similar. But really none of that matters. Max’s door is always open if you want to talk about something.”

“So you study with Max. Can you do this as well?” said Grey gesturing to the wooden bear.

She shrugged. “Not like that, but I can make a lot of things. We all learn about woodworking. I remember practicing all the time when I was younger. That classroom back there is a sort of workshop as well. I know Sasha is in there all the time making new arrows along with the other hunters. There are a lot of carving tools and we learned all about the best woods to use stuff like that. But for a long time now I have been learning from Max. So, that’s what I am good at. Your living proof I think.” She smiled again and took a few more steps down so she was back on the street with him.

Grey cleared his throat, taking an involuntary half step back as she drew up to him. “What else do people practice here?”

“Well, a lot of girls learn to sew and to farm and to look after livestock. There are some who become butchers, there are carpenters, glass makers, and then there are hunters. And mappers.”

“Like Kate,” said Grey.

A funny look crossed Elli’s face as his words touched the air. It was as if she had just tasted something sour. But she recovered quickly and said, “Yeah she is a hunter. And a mapper I think.”

“Do you ever hunt?” said Grey.

“Me?” she said, “Never. I don’t think I could survive out there. I would get so homesick and so,” she shrugged, “I don’t know. I just couldn’t. I’m more of an inside girl. I never liked the woods. Whenever I go out there I feel...” she paused, looking at him. “It's stupid. Never mind.”

Grey didn’t say anything. She watched him biting her chapped upper lip.

“I don’t know,” she said again after a few moments silence. “I just feel like everything is closing in on me. I feel like everything is watching me. Even the trees. I just like being inside the walls. I like being here at home.”

Grey looked at her for a long moment. She half smiled at him, a little sheepishly.

“You probably think I’m just being silly and scared. You have lived out there a long time haven’t you?” she said.

Grey nodded.

She nodded back, waiting for him to say something. When he did not she went on. “I feel like you have had a really hard life. Out there in the wilderness. Out in the west.”

“What makes you say that?” said Grey.

Her ears and cheeks, already pink from the cold, reddened a bit. “Well, I saw all of your scars.” She shuffled her feet and would not meet his gaze as she went on. “When you first came in I mean. You were covered in blood and shivering from the cold. We put you down in front of the fire, pulled off most of your clothes, and started to clean the blood and dirt away. I had to stitch you up really fast. It was hard keeping the needle strokes even because you were shaking so much. And we had to cut your hair to get to that gash on your head.” She raised her hand to touch a spot atop his head, but Grey jerked slightly away again reflexively.

“Sorry,” she said, blushing again. “Uhm,” she seemed to have lost her train of thought for a moment. Grey felt awkward and a little bad that he had moved away. But he didn’t quite know what to say.

“Well,” Elli said, “After we got you cleaned up and your breathing started to even out, which took a few hours, by the way, I started to notice all of the old bruises and cuts along your back and shoulders and arms.” She pointed to his left hand and said, “That one looked like it was really bad.”

Grey looked down at his fingers sticking out from the cuffs that were a little too long for him. He pulled the sleeve up to reveal a long thin scar that he knew stretched from the knuckle of his middle finger, all the way up his arm to the tip of his shoulder and over onto his back.

“What happened?” she said

Grey did not answer. He flexed his fingers, looking at the white scar, thinking silently to himself.

After a few moments, Elli put her hand on his and squeezed gently. “Come on,” she said pulling him up the steps. “You don’t have to tell right now.”

Grey followed her into the butcher shop.

XI

Elli did most of the talking with the woman behind the counter; a Mrs. Lars, or just Anna. Anna was a round woman with a constant smile. She was eager to meet Grey. He was berated with questions he felt no need to answer. Many of them he thought to be redundant like, how is your stay with us going, or will you be here long, or I heard you have been getting better every day, is that right?

Elli offered an explanation by saying apologetically, “Grey doesn’t talk much. He is still getting used to Northanger.”

Anna needed no explanations or apologies, however. Grey thought that even if he had bothered to answer she would have had no time to heed his words. She was full of opinion and talked enough for the three of them. It was some minutes before Elli was able to get the conversation onto animal fat and metal tools.

Anna was happy to oblige them and busied herself collecting what she could. Eventually, she was able to supply them with three buckets of whitish paste hardened by the cold that was a mix of bear, dear, and rabbit fat. She was also able to produce a very old and dented pair of metal tongs. Grey took them in his hands feeling their thickness and considerable weight.

“These will do,” he said nodding to Anna. These were the only words he spoke in the entire half hour they spent in the butcher shop, but Anna could not have noticed as such. She barely heard him and instead rattled on about how she had gotten them years ago from a trade man from Stonebrook for nothing more than a skinned chicken. “He didn’t even want the feathers! Can you believe that?”

“Sorry about her,” said Elli once they regained the road. Grey just glanced at her as they headed away from the shop. As it had been the day before, more women were up and about as the morning matured. Eyes followed the pair of them down the street and whispered echoed from the porches and windows. Elli did not seem to notice.

“She’s a really nice woman. She just talks a lot when she is excited,” she said.

Grey did not see the need for an apology from either Elli or Anna, but he said nothing. He did not say much as the pair of them made their way back to the metal store and Grey’s collection of rocks and bricks and the pit he had dug.

They moved slowly, Grey dragging the sled holding their supplies behind him. His side felt stiff and sore but he ignored it. Just a few more days and it should be back to normal. His mind wandered to the architecture of his plan. It would take him the better part of the day to have everything set up the way he wanted it.

“So what are you planning to do with all of this stuff?” said Elli, as though reading his mind.

“I am making a furnace,” said Grey after a few moments.

“What for?” said Elli.

“I need something to heat the metal. So I can form it. Mold it.” he said.

“You know how to work metal? Like the people from Stonebrook?”

“I don’t know how they do it. But yes, I can work metal,” said Grey.

“How did you learn? Did they teach you in the west?” said Elli. Grey nodded. “Well?” she continued. “Tell me about it! How does it work?”

Grey looked at her a little confusedly, but said, “Well, you have to get the metal hot. Then you have to form it with a hammer or something similar. It’s not that complicated.”

“Why does it have to be hot?” she said.

“So it will bend. Metal won’t mold easily without being superheated.”

“How long does that take?” said Elli.

Grey scowled at her. “I don’t know. It depends on the fire I guess. A good fire can superheat an average piece of metal in about an hour. Some types of metal take longer. You can tell it’s ready when it turns red.”

“The metal turns red?” said Elli. “What do you mean, it changes color?”

“No,” said Grey with a sigh, “Not like what you are thinking. It’s like the metal is burning. Like wood burns. Metal burns. It just takes longer. And it depends on the type of metal.” Grey could see the metal store a few hundred yards away and started to move a little quicker.

“How many types of metal are there?” said Elli, quickening her steps to keep up.

“Copper, iron, steel, bronze, composite…” said Grey.

“I didn’t know there were different kinds of metal. What kind do you like best?” she said.

“Depends on what I’m making.”

“What are you making?” said Elli.

“A few things.”

The pair of them arrived at the pit and Grey dropped the line to his sled and hopped down into the pit. He grunted a little as pain shot through his side on landing but tried not to make it noticeable.

“Hey, take it easy,” said Elli, not fooled at all by his muffled groan of pain. “You shouldn’t even be out here yet. Why don’t you just take a few more days? There is no rush to get any of this stuff done now. The first storm will be here any day and then we will all just have to ride it out until the sun breaks through. You can pick this up later.”

Grey did not answer. He crossed the pit to where most of the rocks and bricks lay and began to sort through them so he could begin to construct the furnace.

After a few moments, Elli said, hopping into the pit behind him, “Do you need any help?”

“No,” said Grey.

“What about with that stuff?” she said. Grey glanced over his shoulder to see her indicating the animal fat at the edge of the pit.

“You can just leave it there,” he said, turning back to the bricks.

“What’s it for anyway? You said you were burning metal.”

“Uh,” he said only half listening as he weighed a large brick in his hand. “Fat can sometimes help start fires. When its cold out I mean. And I need something oil-based to harden the metal.”

“Huh?” said Elli, walking up beside him and looking at the brick in his hand as well.

“Metal gets brittle after its heated and formed. It needs to be hardened so it doesn’t break.”

“And you do that with animal fat?” she said, taking the brick from him to look at it.

“Well, I need to melt the fat so I can dip the metal in it. I have to heat it several times and put it into the fat and cool it quickly,” said Grey watching her frown at the brick in her hand.

“And that hardens the metal?” she said, looking up at him.

“Yeah,” he said with a sigh and he held out his hand for the brick.

She handed it back to him. “Are you sure you don’t need any help?” she said putting her hands on her hips.

“Yes,” he said, tossing the brick to the center of the pit and bending down gingerly to grab a few more.

She watched him for a few minutes until she finally said, “Alright, well I should be getting back I guess. Would you like me to bring you anything? Something to eat? Maybe something warm to drink?”

“I’m fine,” he said.

“Okay,” she said with a shrug. “I’ll see you later then.”

Grey listened to her footsteps crunching through the hard packed snow for a while and then glanced over his shoulder to look at her retreating form. Her white scarf blended into the snow all around but her golden hair shone in the growing sunlight. He watched the wind tickle the ends of it and pull it eastward as she got farther and farther away. Then he shook his head and got back to work.

XII

By the end of that day, Grey had managed to build a makeshift furnace out of the rocks and bricks. It was very simple but it would get the job done. He put the heaviest rocks at the bottom, built his way up keeping the center area clear, and sheltered from the wind. The bricks he used to make a more level surface towards the top and he created a little shelf that would remain exposed to the fire beneath but stay sheltered from the wind and cold outside.

The following morning, Grey was out of bed early. He was having trouble sleeping through the night because of the pain in his side. He would roll over, wake suddenly with a sharp pain, and then have to struggle to find sleep again. He lay in his warm bed for a time, one hand on his throbbing side, until he could wait no longer. He sat up gingerly and swung his legs to the floor letting his toes graze the ice-cold wood.

He dressed quietly and headed out into the hall. As he slid his door shut, he heard a fit of coughing coming from the room next to him. He hesitated for a moment, listening to the incessant coughing and then moved forward and slid the door open a crack to look inside.

The room was almost exactly the same as his own. Small, with a burning fire in the hearth and a wood framed bed. Grey could see an arm reaching up out of the quilted blankets covering the owner’s mouth as he coughed.

Grey slid the door fully open and stepped inside. From within the sheets, a hoarse voice croaked at him. “Water…”

Grey walked forward to the edge of the bed and looked down into Kane’s face. He was sweaty and heavily bandaged. His eyes had a sunken look to them and his cheeks looked pale and hollow. Grey watched him silently for a moment, and then Kane opened his eyes.

The pair of them stared at each other for a long time. Kane did not seem to recognize him at first, but then a smile crept over his face and he said, “Come to finish me off them?” he coughed into his fist. It was an awful sound that resonated deep within his chest. “How ‘bout it then, boy?” Kane laughed a wheezing sort of laugh. “I could use some water if you’re not here to kill me then.”

Grey considered him as he fell back into a fit of coughing. Kane looked pathetic. His skin was sallow, pail, and covered in a thin film of sweat. His hair looked thinner and his eyes darker. Grey could see the lines of his ribs on what was visible of his chest, and a white bandage was tied around his neck that did not fully cover the jagged teeth marks.

“How do I get through the Boneyard?” said Grey.

Kane looked up at him, turning his head on the pillows, clearing his throat. “He speaks! Good for you, boy; looks like they managed to teach you something here after all.”

“How do I get through the Boneyard?” said Grey again. “Everyone here says that it’s impossible.”

“Water,” Kane said in a tired voice. “Water, boy, I don’t have time to be talking gibberish with you now.”

Grey picked up the jug of water on the bedside table and pulled a chair by the wall around and sat beside the bed. Taking the cup from the bedside table as well, he filled it and placed the jug on the floor. Kane’s dark eyes followed his movements hungrily.

“Tell me,” said Grey, holding the cup for Kane to see.

“I don’t know no Boneyard! Just give me the water boy!” said Kane, wheezing and coughing.

“How do I get through the eastern end of the valley? Through the pass out of the mountains.”

“I don’t go to the eastern side of the valley. No one does! Just give me the water!” said Kane.

Holding up the cup, Grey waited and watched him closely.

Kane’s face pinched with anger and choked back another round of coughing, stretching he neck from side to side. “What do you want, boy?” he said in a low, raspy voice.

Grey leaned forward and place the cup of water into his boney hand. Kane immediately raised it up shakily to his lips, spilling most of it down his chin. Picking up the jug from the floor, Grey said, “Why doesn’t anyone go to the eastern side of the valley? Are their more people like you there, stopping anyone from getting through?” He leaned forward again, taking Kane’s hand with the cup so as to steady it from his shaking, and refilled it.

Kane drank greedily, and Grey waited, refilling the cup again. When Kane dropped the cup from his lips the third time, he breathed heavily as though winded from a sprint, and closed his eyes. After a few moments, the eyelids fluttered back open and his dark eyes settled on Grey again. “People like me…” he said in a cracked voice. He chuckled to himself. “The Savage. I hear them whispering. When they come in and check on me. Why not just let me die?”

Grey said nothing.

Kane lay back against the pillows, still looking pained. “There are no people at that end of the valley.”

“What is out there? Some kind of animal?” said Grey.

Kane closed his eyes again. “We are all animals boy. Desperate. Hungry. Savage. We’re all savages, here to hunt and kill anything we can to hold off the hunger and death that waits for us.”

“What’s out there?”

Kane licked his cracked lips silently. “I’ve heard of a few who have tried to trap it. Tried to best the beast in the wood so theys’ could roast it over the fire and be the best of us hunters and trappers. But it’s not like any wolf or buck. You can’t just dig a ditch and hope he falls in and gets spiked. You can’t use bone tipped arrows or knives. Not with this thing.”

“What is it?”

“I don’t know. You never see it. But you smell him coming. When you’re downwind, he reeks like a three-day-old kill in summer. They say you hear the flies buzzing around him before he ever makes a sound. The ones that have seen him are the ones who ran. The ones that saw throats torn out and eyes slashed open. They leave all their women and children behind. They can outrun them see. It’s easy to get away when everyone else is slower.”

“Tell me the truth,” said Grey.

Grey watched him fall back into silent laughter; laughter that caused him to shrivel up in pain as his dry throat and thinning chest worked harder and harder. Kane’s eyes were watering with the pain.

“Why hunt wolves? You must have known they would come for you,” said Grey.

Kane’s eyes fluttered rapidly, as he settled fell back against his pillows. “We needed to stay warm.”

Grey put the empty jug back on the table beside the bed and looked down at the emaciated form of Kane; covered in sweat and bandages. He wondered if he had looked like that when he had first arrived at Northanger. A part of him felt sorry for Kane, as he watched the broken man falling into a restless sleep.

But Grey also wondered about this ‘beast’. The bad smell reminded him of whatever animal had been circling him and Kate when they had been in the wood. Whatever it was, it was huge and powerful, but it did not like fire. Perhaps Kane was telling the truth.

Grey left the rank room and slid the door shut behind him. The hallway had a refreshing smell and a cool feel after the sick room behind him. He took a deep breath through his nose and thought for a moment, absently rubbing his side. Then he headed back into his own room, picked up the encyclopedia from his bedside table, and began to flip through it again.

He was not quite sure where to start. The first page seemed as good as any unless he wanted to continue flipping through at random. An index at the beginning section made navigation easy, however. He smiled, running his thumb down the index looking for a good section to start with and sat gingerly in the chair by the fire so often occupied by Max.

Grey read quietly for a long time wondering what this monster in the wood could be. Not a wolf. Grey’s fingers trace the lines of a faded a black wolf depicted in the book. The section described a few different species of wolf, how they lived, and what they hunted. Some were larger and more aggressive than others were, but he still thought that they were too small. Besides, wolves hunted in packs. Whatever had been stalking them was alone.

He moved on to bears. Black bears, grizzly bears, panda bears, polar bears and more. Grey had had a few encounters with large bears before, but he was fairly certain that whatever it was out there was not a bear of any kind.

He closed his eyes trying to remember what he had seen. It was dark in the wood. The night closed in around him. It was as if the world outside the ring of his fire light’s had ceased to exist. He could hear the breathing and the low rumble of a growl. He could see large white eyes shining in the darkness, watching him. He could see a wide snout protruding out of the shadows, sniffing the air. Long whiskers, black fur, and a gaping mouth that sucked at the air.

Grey continued to flip through the book. There were more dog-like creatures. Dingoes and African Hyenas looked promising, but they were both relatively small. It could not be an alligator, or a Komodo dragon, although Grey spent a while examining the two of them. They both were classified as ambush predators and he was happy to learn that his chances of seeing either were slim because of the climate and terrain around Northanger.

He flipped quickly through a long section on snakes and lizards, looking for more leads when he started hearing the sound of voices carried down the hall through his open door. It sounded like people were arriving for Max’s morning lecture. Grey stood up and thumbed to the end of the reptile section to find a picture of a small black cat with yellow eyes under the heading Felidae. He marked the page and tossed the book onto his bed before heading for the hall.

Again, he sat in the back of Max’s strange teaching session and listened intently. Max had a lot to say. The girls were mostly of the same group as the day before but there were a few newcomers. Again, all eyes would find their way over to him once or twice as Max lectured, and whispers and red-cheeked smiles followed him out of the building and onto the street.

By the end of that second day, the furnace was working at a good pace and he was able to use the makeshift hammer he had found in the metal store to pound a sharp edge onto the end of a metal rod to create a chisel for cutting hot metal. He also had time to start making a new knife. Max had given him the long metal rod that had pierced his side two weeks before and Grey used it as a base for the new weapon.

On the third day, Max’s lecture room was completely full. There were at least twenty girls there of all ages. Grey and Max walked into the crowded classroom together and a hush fell over everyone.

“Well, well. Quite a turnout today, ladies. If I had known you were all so excited about mathematics I would have prepared a longer lesson!” he chuckled to himself and pushed his way forward to his podium, glancing back to pass a small wink at Grey. “Take your seats, take your seats, please. Thank you.”

Every eye, apart from Max’s was on him as they shuffled to find seats. He felt a little light headed as he took a step towards his usual seat.

“Hi Grey!” said a young girl close by him. She hopped forward, her hair in long braids hanging over her shoulder. “We haven’t met, but my name is Anastasia. It’s really nice to finally meet you!” she stuck out a hand, smiling broadly at him.

Grey nodded and shook the girls hand briefly.

“Hi Grey,” said another girl, smiling at him.

He nodded to her.

“Hi,” said another, and another, and another. Grey cleared his throat, not sure how to handle all of the smiling faces looking up at him. He made his way to the back of the room as usual but was this time accompanied by Elli.

She appeared at his shoulder and whispered, “Sorry about all that.” She grabbed his wrist gently and pulling him over to a set of desks. “Word got around that this is where you would be in the morning. We couldn’t keep you secret forever.”

The lecture was boring. Max went into a description of complicated mathematical formulas that seemed to pass right over most of them. Elli seemed to follow along pretty well. She had taken paper and pencil from the side table and was taking notes. A few others did as well. Grey was able to follow along pretty well, but he kept getting distracted by the many more eyes that seemed to follow his every move. There always seemed to be a pair on him.

Elli helped him escape relatively unnoticed once the lecture ended and the two of them made their way towards the metal store and Grey’s furnace.

Once they made it out into the square, Elli said, “This way,” and led him through a stretch of allies along the main road away from prying eyes.

“This is better,” said Grey with a half-smile.

“Yeah,” said Elli with a laugh. “Sorry again about all that. We’re not used to having a boy around here. You have everyone pretty excited.”

“I’m not used to being around so many people,” he said.

“I can tell,” said Elli with another small laugh. “You didn’t have a lot of friends in the west?”

Grey laughed this time but did not answer.

“What?” said Elli, pulling him down another side alley.

“Nothing,” he said. “No, I didn’t have a lot of friends.”

“Why is that funny? That sounds kind of sad,” she said.

“I guess it’s not that funny,” he said, following her down one last alley. They emerged out in the open snow outside the main square and they made their way to the path, hands in their pockets and heads bowed against an icy breeze.

“It’s getting colder again,” said Elli. “The storm is coming.”

“That’s what everyone is saying,” said Grey, his teeth chattering a little.

“It is,” she said. “You don’t know what it’s like. We are ready so don’t worry. Everyone will be fine. It’s just a big deal once it sets in. We will all be locked indoors for a couple of days. Last year it lasted a week and almost buried our house up to the second-floor windows!”

“Do you think Kate will make it back?” said Grey glancing at her.

The corners of Elli’s mouth tightened a bit but other than that, her expression remained neutral and her voice unchanged. “I think so. She has been gone a while, but she has been known to disappear into the wood. She loves it out there. That’s why it took so long for us to send a search party last time. She is probably just outside the walls, maybe a few hundred yards into the wood just hanging around.”

“Or maybe she found a way to get to Stonebrook,” said Grey.

“Maybe. She is always saying she knows where to go. She thinks she knows the wood better than anyone.”

“Maybe she got hurt. She could have fallen. Or have been attacked by an animal.”

Elli laughed. “The beast! The big and scary beast lurking in the shadows! That’s what got here!” Elli kicked at a clump of snow, still giggling to herself until she saw the look on Grey’s face. She cleared her throat and said. “Sorry, you sounded like one of the hunters. Listen, she’s fine. Don’t worry about her. Even if there was a big scary beast, I’m sure she would know what to do. She pretty much lives out there. She will be back.”

“Hmm,” said Grey.

As though trying to change the subject, Elli went on, “Besides, you already killed the beast of the wood didn’t you,” She smiled at him, nudging her shoulder into his, and walking a little closer to him.

“What do you mean?” said Grey, wincing as she bumped into his injured side.

“We have all heard the story from Kate. You fought that bear! You killed it!”

“No I didn’t,” said Grey.

“Sure you did. Tell me about it!” said Elli. “We only heard the story from Kate so far.”

“That was no beast. Just an injured bear. And it fell off a ridge.”

“Bear or beast, what difference does it make?” said Elli. “You were really brave. I couldn’t have done it. Kate said you ran right up to it as it was charging her and you hit it in the face with a burning torch!”

Grey did not answer. His mind had latched onto Elli’s references to “the beast” in the wood. He was already sure it could not be a bear. The animal who lefts those imprints in the earth had poise, and a long powerful gait. Elli made it sound as if Kane might be telling the truth after all. There was a least some sort of legend about the beast here at Northanger.

“How long have they been telling stories about this beast?” said Grey.

“What do you mean?” said Elli.

“You said I sounded like one of the hunters. They talk about a beast in the wood. How long have they been talking about it?”

Elli laughed again. “There have always been stories about a big scary something out there. Some say they hear voices like the trees are talking to them, or the wind is whispering in their ear. Some of them talk about the beast! That’s it. They all say they have seen it but, everyone describes something different.”

The pair of them arrived at the edge of the pit. “Wow. Looks good!” said Elli looking down at the furnace. “Why did you have to dig a hole for it?”

“Block the wind,” said Grey distractedly, and he hopped down with a grunt.

“Need any help?” she said, rubbing her hands together and blowing a cloud of misty breath over them.

“No,” said Grey.

There was a short silence as Grey set about kindling a fire at the bottom of the furnace.

“You know, you don’t have to do everything on your own,” said Elli. “You might not have had any friends in the west, but we are your friends here. I can be your friend.”

Grey spread some cold animal fat over the logs and twigs and looked around for the spark stone he had left from the day before. He looked left and right and then almost bumped into Elli standing right behind him. He straightened up and saw that she was holding out the spark stone, eyebrows raised waiting for him to talk first for once.

He took the rock from her hand but she held tight, glaring at him, waiting.

“I don’t know what you could help with.” he started to say.

“Doesn’t matter,” she said letting go of the spark stone. “Just show me what to do.”

Most of the time was going to be spent waiting for the metal rod Grey had begun working on the day before to get hot, so Ellie helped him set up the fire. After that, they looked around the metal storeroom picking up pieces of metal that could be useful and pilling them up next to the furnace. Once that was done, Elli decided to leave and get something for them to eat.

She did not return for a long time. Grey used the metal grips he had borrowed from Anna the butcher to take the metal rod in and out of the furnace and to hold steady on top of a level rock face he had set up as a sort of anvil. He hammered away at the metal and it slowly took shape. The furnace burned hotter and hotter and Grey began to sweat through his jacket.

After a while, he took off his coat, left it off to the side, and rolled up his sleeves. He used two more thin rods of similar look to add girth to the flattened piece he had made from the metal rod. The metal pieces melted together and he hammered them home to make sure they blended properly.

His mind found a sort of dull peace as he continued to take out the red-hot metal, place it atop the anvil-like rock and hammer away. Sparks erupted up from the metal and showered down on his shirt, leaving scorch marks over his chest. His arms ached from the constant work in a familiar sort of way.

He thought more about Kate and whatever creature was lurking in the dark wood beyond the wall. He wondered about this storm that he had been hearing of. And he thought about Elli. Her face continued to crop up into his mind. He would picture her smiling at him, and her blond hair lazily rippling in the wind. He thought of her hand on his cheek when he had first opened his eyes here at Northanger. He thought about the moment she had grabbed his wrist and pulled him down the side alley earlier that same morning.

As the blade took shape, he began to heat it and then use the hammer to gently tap the shape of the fuller and central ridge down the center of the blade. He also thinned out the top end and used his metal chisel to cut a curved edge at the top. It was a hard sixty-degree shift in angle but it would round out into a smooth curved edge after he finished sharpening the blade later on.

A few hours later, he had a dull, uneven blade fashioned out of the metal pieces and he began thinking of what he could use to make a finer shape, when he heard Elli from behind him say, “You never told me how you got that scar on your arm.”

Grey turned around. Elli was watching him from the top of the pit, holding a large jug under her arm and a plate of cold meat.

Grey did not answer. He watched her for a moment. She hopped down into the pit and placed the plate and the jug on the edge gently and then unshouldered her bag and place that beside her other items.

She wiped her hands together and began to unbutton her green sweater, moving towards him. “You know; I have scars like yours,” she said, looking up at him from the brown toggles of her sweater.

“Do you,” said Grey, taking a small step back as she moved closer. Casting a look around he saw that, as usual, there was nothing but bleak whiteness all around.

She peeled off her sweater, dropped it to the ground, and began to lift her shirt. Grey cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Uh, what are you...”

“See,” she said cutting him off. She folded the shirt up over her midriff to reveal her smooth stomach and moved closer to him. Grey gulped involuntarily and looked down at her fingertips as they followed the lines of a white scar just under her bottom left rib.

“That’s, uh,” he said looking at it. “That’s a scar.” He cast another look around hoping to see Max or anyone else, but they were still alone.

“Here,” she said taking his hand. She placed his fingers on her side over the scar. Grey felt a burst of many different sensations all at once. His fingers, rough and callused, glided over her smooth, soft skin. The scar lifted his finger like a rough patch on a perfect canvas. Her body felt warm. His heart pounded in his ears like it had when he saw the bear charging him as he stood beside the ridge two weeks before. His stomach felt light all of a sudden but not like he was going to feel sick. It was kind of like falling. And his face felt hot.

“I was nine,” she said. Her voice was soft like she was telling him a secret. “I was running away from my mother because she was mad at me. I thought she was going to punish me. I hid in the wood all day. Not far inside the wood, but deep enough into the tree line that the canopy covered up most of the sky. I got lost. I didn’t know which way would take me deeper into the wood and which would take me home. Everything looked the same to me. I cried for a long time sitting on the roots of a big tree.”

“I thought they would never find me, but after a long time, I heard people calling for me. So I ran to them. But the voices seemed to echo off the wood from all sorts of directions. I think I was running towards them, but then I would hear a voice from somewhere father off in another direction. I didn’t know which way to go so I ended up running around randomly following the voices until I tripped on something and fell on a sharp piece of metal.” She gave him a little half smile, looking up into his face, still holding Grey’s hand on the scar. “They found me lying there in the dirt, crying and bleeding. I needed seven stitches. Max was so kind to me. After that, I started to study with him. I think that’s why I wanted to be a doctor here like him.”

She had moved even closer to him as she told her story. Grey didn’t know what to say. “Why was your mother upset with you?” he said, trying to stop her steady advances.

“I don’t remember,” she said with another smile. Her green eyes were getting very close to his. He could count her eyelashes if he wanted to. Her misty breath warmed his lips and he felt her hands wrapping around his waist.

“Well,” said Grey, taking his hand from her side and stepping back. “That’s good. I’m sure Max is a good teacher.” He felt the heat of the forge scorching his back and changed direction back towards the edge of the pit.

“He is a good teacher,” she said, straightening out her shirt with both hands. “When you showed up, I think it was the first real test any of us has gotten. I wasn’t alone, but the other girls were terrified, so I had to step in.”

Grey did not say anything.

“I saw all your scars,” she said moving a little closer to him again.

Grey shuffled his feet uncomfortable, looking around.

“So,” she said gesturing to his side, “I know about that one, but what about the others?”

“Scars?” he said

She nodded, continuing to close the gap between them again. “I told you my story. Now you tell me yours.”

He must have looked unsure because she walked over and took his right arm with both hands. She pushed the sleeve up past his elbow to his bicep revealing two puncture marks. They were slightly concave and jagged in his skin, though very old. “What about this one?” she said her fingers tracing the uneven skin.

“Chain cuff,” said Grey shortly.

“What does that mean?” she said.

Grey did not quite know how to answer without giving himself away. “Uh, it was a metal clamp I had on my arm for a long time.”

He was relieved when she did not press the subject. Her hands moved to his chest over his heart. “What about here?” she said, looking up at him. Her green eyes swirled with the white mist reflecting off them from the morning air.

Underneath his shirt, across his chest was a red burn mark. It had once stretched from left shoulder to right hip but had since faded to only over his chest where the worst of it had occurred.

“I was burned,” he said, locked onto her large green eyes. They were very bright green, like pine trees in spring. And they had flecks of grey and gold in them, like small stars. She was only slightly shorter than he was, but he felt that their eyes lined up perfectly. She waited for him to say more. “I was working a forge like this one.” He continued, jerking his head in the direction of his makeshift furnace. “And, uh, accidents happen with hot metal.” It had not been an accident.

“And this?” he could feel her breath against his lips again. She was moving closer, her hand slid from his chest up to his neck. He could feel her fingers running through his hair behind his ear and over his neck. They came to rest over a small raised scar behind his left ear. Her fingers traced the lines of the scar slowly as she looked at him, waiting.

This is what she wants to know about, he thought. He felt himself pull away from her touch, ever so slightly, but her hands did not move from his neck. She held him there looking into his face. He felt tense, blood pounding in his ears, jaw clenched, stomach falling, heart beating.

“This is another burn?” she said.

Grey nodded.

“Who did this to you?” she said, softly. “What does it mean?” When he did not answer, she went on. “I didn’t show Max. I didn’t show anyone.” She held him closer still and silence settled in.

He thought for a moment, with a mixed feeling of excitement and terror, that she would try to kiss him. But she didn’t. Her hands slid down to his chest again and then back to her sides. “You didn’t tell me about this one,” she was pointing to his left hand. He looked at it, flaring out his fingers. Between the knuckle of his middle and third finger was the white line that traced all the way up his arm to his shoulder and over onto his back.

“That one...” he said staring at his fingers.

She looked at his hand too and took it with both of her own. She placed a thumb on the very tip of the scar between the knuckles and traced it up to his elbow where it disappeared under his rolled-up sleeve. She lifted her chin up and locked her starry green eyes with his again, and said, “Tell me that story.”

Just then, a low reverberating note struck the air from somewhere to the north. It carried on the wind like the bellowing of some woeful beast from the mountains.

“What is that?” said Grey, turning toward the sound, eyes searching the white abyss.

“That’s the gatekeeper,” said Elli, also looking north. “She is sounding off before opening the gate.”

“For who?” said Grey.