Carack

Ch5 p4

It was a fitfull sleep and, in between dreaming, he caught fragments of the conversation between Cam, who sat wrapped completely in his cloak, and N’zar who was on watch.

‘He is only a kid, ‘Zar. Can’t you let up a little? He’s doing his best, even if he is Madron’s there is no way he’d run off tonight, he’s completely exhausted and have you seen the state of his feet?’

‘Or he acts exhausted, a little hard ground will not hurt him, thy soft heart doth override thy soldiers instincts again where he is concerned. I didst see him with them Cam! No we must keep an eye on him, if it is that he is not their pawn then will we have kept him safe.But if he is Madron’s man tis then, perhaps, he will be useful as a bargaining chip.’

Later as Gerent rose to semi conciousness trying to cover himself from the cold and finding nothing to do it with, he heard N’zar saying:

‘No, thee dost not Cam, thy will freeze thyself, let me, I at least hast on a shirt underneath my cloak.’ Then Gerent felt warmer, as though someone had covered him up, but he was too tired to find out how. The next weird thing he felt was that he was being slowly dragged away from the clearing. He dreampt he was being pulled away through a green hall of tall waving ferns fronds. Then he thought he was lifted and was warm. But he told himself this was a dream brought on by his hunger and tiredness and he fell into a deeper sleep once more.

Gerent was awoken by the sunlight hitting his face, he buried his head into the clean, white, fragrant cotton pillow case and sniffed it in appreciation. His mum always did make the pillowcases cosy. He snuggled down into the bed, glorying in ites warmth and feeling that he did not want to ever get up, no doubt though his mum would call him soon. That was it then, he thought, the dream was over, he had woken up. Wow, that dream had been real vivid though, he flexed his arm, which felt fine, not broken and he stretched his feet and they felt fine. He was safe and well, he snuggled deeper.

‘Bacon?’ Came a gruff voice and Gerent sat up. He was in a one-room log cabin with – with a huge black bear standing on two legs, cooking bacon in a frying pan over a black pot stove.

‘Bacon?’ repeated the bear looking at him. Gerent gulped, he wasn’t home at all, this was yet another dream. But a bear! The bear put down the fish slice he was holding, placed both his paws on his hips, and looked at Gerent with his head on one side.

‘Don’ cha like bacon?’ he asked puzzled.

‘Oh, er, I- I’d love some bacon,’ stammered Gerent recovering from his fear.

‘Better get up then,’ said the bear and pointed to a chair beside Gerent. ‘There’s some clothes and shoes fur ya. I should put yer hauberk on as well, just in case.’ He returned to the frying pan and a nervous Gerent pulled on his hauberk and then the cotton shirt and trousers by his side. The new clothes were a perfect fit, even the shoes were the right size After a supper of sour leaves the smell of cooking bacon was maddening.

‘Sit ya down at the table,’ said the bear and he dished up bacon onto Gerent’s plate, accompanied by tomatoes. There was fresh bread and butter already on the table. The bear also brought a coffee pot from off the stove and poured some into a huge cup which he placed beside Gerent. He had a kind look in his eye.

‘Eat up, got to keep ya strength up don’cha know,’ he said.

‘You’re a bear,’ said Gerent with a gulp. ‘And you can talk and cook!’

‘Well done! Sancret said there would be no fooling ya, was goin’ to tell ya I was a sheep but ya might have said ewe are ya kiddin’,’ the bear chuckled at his own joke and his whole body quivered. ‘Eat up now, I spent ages getting that ready fer ya. We can talk after.’ The bear placed a jar of jam on the table, then sat down opposite Gerent and cut into the bread.

Gerent ate some of the crispy bacon and several slices of bread, a million questions were going through his head but he was hungry, so he kept quiet until he was done eating. When there was only the coffee left and both he and the bear pushed back their chairs.

‘Fire away then,’ said the bear, nodding at him.

‘Well, first off, who are you and how did I get here?’

‘Me? My name is Meendhu, I’m a friend of Sancrets. Ya got here because I brought cha, while ya were all sleeping I dragged ya off. We couldn’t have ya walking around like that. That N’zar, he forgets that he is a trained soldier and that they are all used to living rough for periods. I do not have any patience with the man, he is too quick tempered for my liking, but there ya are, Sancret thinks he is worthy and honourable.’

‘How come you can talk and, well, live like this?’ asked Gerent.

‘Ya mean like a human?’ asked Meendhu, Gerent nodded. ‘Oh well that’s down to Sancret, when he was a young man, not a fully trained Warlock, he saw me dancing. I was a wild bear then, dancing on a chain, ya know what I mean?’ Gerent nodded again, he had seen such things on TV. ‘Well, my master, who was not very pleasant let me tell ya, and Sancret got into an argument over the way I was being treated. The upshot of which was that Sancret said my master was worse than an animal and he gave my master the intellect of a bear and me the intellect of a human. Caused quite a stir and set up Sancret’s reputation as being a mighty Warlock. ‘Course people wouldn’t accept that I was like them as I am a bear so I went with Sancret and have been with him ever since.’

‘Then this Sancret is here?’

‘Oh no Gerent,’ Meendhu laughed. ‘This is not where we live, it’s only a hunter’s lodge. I’m only here waiting fur ya, I’m to go with ya to Sancret so that ya arrive there in one piece. If we left it to that N’zar ya’d be half dead by the time ya got there.’

‘You called me Gerent! How did you-?’ Gerent got to his feet.