Deck The Halls With Brand New Stories: Ho Ho Holiday Anthology

Blizzard Walker

This story was contributed by ErichW 

Noah Slivers stood on the porch surrounded by a seemingly endless fresh sheet of snow, blanketing a thicket of trees, and warmed by the sun's rays. He looked to the skies. The clouds swirled in from the south, dark and angry.

The storm will be here before long, he thought.

The burly man kicked the wall of his cottage; the powder stuck to his boots and furred-covered shins salted off. She won't have it, he thought, looking down at his feet then to the doorknob. To hell with it...

The door to the cabin squeaked open and a white reflective glow poured around the man, illuminating a small room. Noah stood in the doorway grizzly-like while the smell of apples and cinnamon tickled his nostrils.

"Don't you take another step, Noah. You know better than to come into the house soggy as a dog."

"But Meredith," he sighed, tugging on his flaming-red beard frosted white. It flaked. "A storms a comin." He slid off his coon-pelted hat, "I'd like a quick bite and to warm these bones before headin' into town."

"I'll fill a mug and you can drink it outside." She said. Her skin white as snow and eyes glimmering like light off ice. "That or take off your boots and sit by the fire—your choice—but I don't want to hear your griping. You know the rules of this household."

Noah felt the wind bite at his neck and he shivered.

"Let him in, Ma," Rhan said, wiping his lips on the sleeve of his undergarment. He didn't have the coal-black strands of his mother, but instead the fiery thick red hair of his father, drawn up in a tangled mess. "Pap is bringing the chill inside just standing there." He took the bowl to his lips and slurped.

Noah's voice boomed in laughter. "And what of my health?"

"I didn't tell Ma to shut the door on ya, now did I." Even at eleven he was as sharp as a skinning knife. "But if you don't make a decision, I'll lock you out myself." He smiled and golden liquid seep through his teeth.

"I'll stay out 'ere—"

"Come in," Meredith said, "And shut the door." She poured stew from a ladle into a bowl. "I won't have you gone hungry into town. What kind of wife would that make me?"

Noah closed the door and hung his coons hat on a hook. "One without no beat in her heart."

"That's not too far from the truth," she smiled warmly and set the bowl on the table.

Noah pulled off his furred mitts and sat down. He looked to the boy, placed a hand on his head and gave him a rub.

"Hey, what was that for?" The boy tried to swat the heavy arm away with no such luck.

His father bellowed with laughter, "looks much better now." He recoiled his arm.

Rhan smirked, "who asked you," and took another sip from his bowl.

"What do you think, love?"

Meredith placed her arms around the large man's shoulders, squeezing around his neck. She leaned a chin close to where his ear used to be, now hidden behind braids of red strands. "I think he needs a haircut."

"Ah, Ma," the boy plopped his spoon into his bowl. "I'd freeze by spring. You know no man can survive winter without a head of hair. Ain't that right, Pa?"

Noah eyes looked to Rhan's braids that draped past his shoulders, long as his beard. He shook his head, "the boys got a point."

"The boy does have a point," Meredith said, "he's no man, not yet, but one day. Till then we'll need to chop that mop."