Twentyseven
Saga was slowly awakened by somedeer poking her with something. She opened her eyes and realized somedeer was Vigg and something was his antlers.
"There's breakfast," he said through the ladle he had in his mouth. "Porridge and coffee. Get up."
Saga moaned and rolled over, thereby twisting their blankets around her even more.
"The sun is barely up," she said. "It can't possibly be time to get up yet."
Vigg snorted.
"It’s winter in Poatsula," he said. "In a few weeks the sun will rise at noon."
Saga moaned some more and rolled out of the blankets and into the snow. She stood up and shook off the snow, then she stretched.
"Sweet dreams?" she asked Vigg, who was spooning up porridge and pouring coffee.
He smiled and shrugged, his mouth full of porridge ladle and coffee pot.
"Dreamed about me?" Saga said fluttering her eyelashes in an exaggerated fashion.
Vigg avoided her gaze.
"Dreamed about Mistress Sparkle?" Saga said and grinned.
Vigg looked very interested in his porridge.
"Dreamed about me and Mistress Sparkle... together?" Saga said. Her grin more or less went around her head.
Vigg buried his face in his porridge. Saga laughed, then started with her own porridge. They ate in silence. Well, Saga giggled a little now and then and looked at Vigg.
After licking the bowls clean and beginning a second cup of coffee, Saga rolled a cigarette and lit it.
"Do you think Kvalhissir will come during the day? Before noon? At all?" she said.
Vigg shrugged.
"I’ve no idea," he said. "We'd better get comfortable. We have food until tomorrow morning, I have checked. Even better if we take the time to graze or gather some more."
"I think people worrying about us is more important than running out of food," said Saga.
"I did a short recon before you woke up," Vigg said. "There isn't much to eat on the ground, but the trees should have shoots and moss and so on. And there’s plenty of firewood."
"Ooh, you did a 'recon'," said Saga. "Have I told you how hot you are whenever you are all woodcrafty like that?"
"Erh... yeah," said Vigg and blushed deeply. "You kinda explained that last night. Speaking of which..." He cleared his throat. "I saw a nice slope at the other end of the plateau. There's even a place to jump without breaking your legs. I... kinda want to test that, and thought I'd do some skiing while waiting for Kvalhissir. Would you want to come and... watch?"
Saga blew out a thin stream of smoke, deep in thought, and then shook her head.
"Sorry, but no," she said. "Not my thing, even when you do it."
"Huh?" said Vigg, a bit deflated. "What’s not your thing?"
"Sports," Saga said.
"But..." Vigg began.
"Look, I think... grazer skills, let’s call it that, are amazing, and I'm really impressed that somedeer like you is so good at going cross-country, say," Saga said. "I'm really jealous, though I shouldn't be, because you worked hard for it. But downhill skiing or race skating or ice hockey, that's just sports. And watching them bores me. Sorry."
"But... what are you going to do otherwise?" Vigg said, a bit miffed. "While waiting, I mean?"
"I brought my Gamecolt," said Saga and nodded towards her saddlebags. "I might take a nap. And I think I'll trot around the place myself and check it out. Maybe pick those shoots and firewood you talked about."
"Okay," said Vigg. He drank the last of his coffee. "I'll get down to the slope, then."
"Don't break anything vital," said Saga and smiled. "And don't look like that, I'll do the dishes as well."
Vigg had felt rather down as he walked away from the cave (which was suspiciously convenient for travelers, when he thought about it), but by the third time he fell while skiing down the hill, he had forgotten it. When the body works it sweats out frustration. Vigg had taught himself that long ago. The cliff that made for a natural jump had looked safe enough, but Vigg had poked about the snow below it with his staff to ensure the landing was also safe. Then he had started to tame the thing.
As he was picking himself up and digging snow out of his orifices he heard Saga calling from the top of the slope. He looked up and found her standing there, only in her natural fur. He assumed her shawl and jacket were back at the cave.
"Lunch!" she bellowed.
"Coming!" he bellowed back and trotted up the slope with the single broad ski he had used on his back.
"Having fun?" Saga said as he came up to her.
"Yeah," he said amiably. "And you?"
"Its okay," she said as they started to trot back to the cave. "The freezing bunnies don't want to mate, though."
"What?" he said. Saga giggled.
"It's the game I played," she explained. "It's one of those simulation games. Supposed to teach pony kids how to manage nature like they do. I can't get the bunnies to mate. I think I planted too few flowers."
Vigg shook his head.
"And here I thought you played games about killing zombies or something," he said.
"Killing cute little zombies?" Saga mock-gasped."Never! Anyway - dinner is served. Soup of reindeer moss with fresh pine shoots, willow shoots and hanging lichen."
"Well, you're a regular little housedoe," Vigg said and winked at Saga.
"Not to mention my fawn-bearing hips!" Saga said and spooned up soup for them as she shook said hips. Vigg blushed a bit.
Saga was studying the minuscule screen of her gaming device as they were eating. "Can I ask something?" said Vigg.
"Go ahead," said Saga.
"How can you afford that thing?" he said. "I mean, before we left town yesterday you talked about living in the slums, and its not like your Gramma has any money to spare. And just the gems and runes in it must cost a fortune."
"It was a gift from Daddy," Saga said and shrugged. “Daddy tends to think expensive presents are good presents, no matter what the present is.”
"Didn't you say you moved away from them when you... when you started to See things?" Vigg said. "When you skipped school? You told me, in the sauna..."
"It's not like I stopped talking to them because I live with Gramma," said Saga. "In fact, its more like Gramma started talking to them because I live with her. Like every other month or so. So yeah, I got a gift for my birthday. Not the one I asked for, mind you, but they remembered my birthday. And I remember their birthdays."
Vigg looked distinctly uncomfortable.
"What's the matter?" said Saga and looked up from the Gamecolt. Vigg sighed.
"It's just... it feels so wrong they don't let you stay," he said and his face hardened. "Not let you do... your own thing."
"But they did!" Saga said. "Things turned out okay. Seriously, don't worry about me. I'm fine, really."
Vigg sighed again and looked down.
"Maybe I should worry about you instead," said Saga quietly.
Vigg raised his head.
"Things didn't turn out okay for you," she said. "They didn't, did they? Palace or no palace."
Vigg met her eyes and said nothing, at least verbally.
"I mean, if you had been like now, except somedeer had said 'Okay, let the fawn go away and live with his Uncle in a Grazer camp far away from his jerk of a Grampa and the crazy press and bad memories', it wouldn't have been sugarcubes and saltlicks, but the bad thing would not have been Jarl Vidar and the grazer camp, would it?" she said.
Vigg smiled a little.
"No, it wouldn't," he said.
"Look, if you ever want to talk about it we'll talk, okay? If you ever think I am asking nasty questions just tell me to stuff it, okay?" she said and poked him with her muzzle.
"I will," he said. "And I will."
They ate the last of their cooling soup in silence. As they rose to scrub their bowls in the snow, Vigg said: "Would you like to follow me to the slope?"
Saga looked at him, opened her mouth as if to speak.
"Not to watch me," Vigg said. "To ski. Ski yourself."
"I haven't done downhill before," she said.
"Then you should try," he said.
She smiled a crooked smile.
"Okay," she said. "Okay I'll try something you do if you try something I do, okay?"
"Like what?" said Vigg. Wary, but smiling.
"One day, when we have time off from saving Poatsula and stuff like that, you'll go clubbing with me," she said.
"Sure," said Vigg and laughed. "Whatever. If you want to embarrass me."
"As if I won't spend the rest of the day falling on my rump!" said Saga and went to get her skis.
Saga screamed or perhaps shrieked a lot more than Vigg's usual circle of friends. She also swore a lot more, including things involving Princess Hrimfaxi, her moon and anatomically impossible acts performed on the slope. Vigg was certain that was serious blasphemy even if you didn't work in a temple. She wasn't completely helpless. Going down hills is part of cross-country, after all. Hills happen. It was mostly the one-ski innovation that caused her to fall over. For each time Saga walked uphill, she became out of breath faster. For each time she came screaming downhill, she became more and more hoarse. Other than that, she kept improving.
“Skiing slopes should have a little machine to pull you up after you have come down!” she said as she came up from the latest of many attempts to use the jump and end on her feet.
“That would be the day, when skiers didn't have the strength to walk up a hill,” Vigg said. “But seriously...”
“Seriously what?” said Saga and shook melting snow out of her coat.
“You needn't do this jump for me or anything,” he said. “I mean, to impress me or prove a point or anything. I'm not certain I should use it, really, there could be a rock in the snow below it I have missed...”
“I'm not doing it for you, silly!” Saga said. “Besides I'm getting it right!”
“Well, you have fallen so far, and pretty badly,” Vigg said. “Seriously, it actually hurts to see you. I keep expecting you to break all your four legs.”
“Hey, I'll show you!” Saga said and contradicted herself. “I'll get it this time! Hey, let's make a bet!”
“A bet?” Vigg said. “What do you mean, bet?”
“If I can't make it this time... and make it means landing on all four hooves and not falling over...” Saga began.
“Yes?” said Vigg.
“Then I'll stop trying!” she finished.
“Okay, good,” said Vigg, “just one more try then?”
“But if I can make it this time, then...” she pondered. “Oh! I know!” Saga giggled fiendishly.
“Then what?” said Vigg and couldn't help laughing himself, since she looked so silly right now.
“Then... when we go to that club...” she said and smiled cruelly.
“Yes...” said Vigg.
“I'll get to style you when we go out!” she said. “Style everything!” She mimicked holding a pair of shears and using a comb.
Vigg blinked. “Okay,” he said. “Sure! Now make your last jump, crazy vaja!”
“Ah, I'll... show you!” Saga said and trampled up to the starting spot.
Saga wobbled when she sailed off the jump and swayed as she flew through the air, but when she landed she kept on standing, whooping all the while. Then she sped onwards into the forest below.
Vigg didn't shout. One doesn't have time to shout in such a situation. When Saga failed to duck low enough and her antlers caught a stout fir branch he cried out after the fact. With a shout of "SAGA!" he jumped down the slope himself and followed after her (of course bypassing the jump). Meanwhile she more or less bounced off the branch, miraculously avoided getting stuck, and spun like a top until she came to a stop by slamming into another tree. Shaking, but still standing on all her four hooves.
That was why she was hollering happily when he reached her.
"I did it! I did it! Whooo!" she shouted. "Did you see me! Did you see me!"
"Are you okay?" Vigg shouted back, mortally afraid. "Did you hurt yourself?"
"I'm so great, I love you!" Saga shouted gleefully and incoherently, snapped her hooves off her ski and jumped him.
"How's your head?" Vigg said and tried to grab it with his front hooves and look her into the eyes. "Did you get a concussion?"
"You'll be sooooo pretty!" Saga gushed and interpreted his hooves as an attempt to hug, so she hugged him backed and kissed him, which would have paralyzed him at any other time. "You'll be even prettier than now!"
"Yeah, whatever, please stand still," Vigg said anxiously, "I want to see your face."
Saga giggled and fidgeted but did almost stand still enough for Vigg to look into her eyes. He realized he didn't know much about concussions but her eyes did focus - though she was bleeding at the left side of her mouth.
"You’re bleeding!" he said and tried to get her to open her mouth. She obeyed temporarily, then kissed him again.
"I bit my lip when I slammed into the tree," she said. "Did you see how awesome I was?"
Still wary, he didn't answer but tried to investigate her legs and flanks with his hooves.
"Getting frisky, are we?" she said happily.
"Stop fooling around, Saga. Does this hurt?" he said, anxiously. "Have you broken anything?"
"I won the bet you know," she said and pouted. Vigg sighed.
"I'll do anything you want," he said. "Just please be calm and let me check on you."
Saga calmed down a bit but talked to no one in particular about coat treatment and tribal makeup and accessories for cool yet hot young stags, while Vigg felt very bad for not knowing more about first aid.
"Okay," he said, "you’ve scrubbed yourself on a knee and bit your lip deeply. I don't think you have hurt anything else, but let’s.. let's rest a bit, OK?"
Saga nodded happily.
"You're a healer as well, aren’t you?" she said as Vigg started to half-drag, half-lead her up the slope. "You're such a hero! I'll make you look awesome"
"Yeah, because heroes always let untrained deer do dangerous stuff without proper supervision," Vigg muttered. "You can do anything, please just come carefully to camp and we'll lay down for a bit, OK?"
They walked up the slope slowly, leaving their skis and staff haphazardly at the bottom. Saga alternately talked makeovers and described single-ski downhill skiing as awesome. Vigg alternately admonished Saga anxiously and broke out in nervous giggling fits.
When they were a bit above and beyond the ledge they noticed the moose. Except for one or two stifled giggles from Saga, they fell silent.
There were several dozen of them, spread out in a semi-circle, obviously prepared to meet the skiing reindeer. They stood in silence, breathing clouds of vapor from their huge jaws and nostrils, looking sternly at Vigg and Saga. They were mostly cows, and most wore the same kind of outfits as Kvalhissir: scarfs or cloaks with caps, and tons of clanking metal jewelry on all their legs and pierced into noses and ears and lips.
In the middle sat a very old cow sphinx-like on a kind of toboggan. She had more accessories than all the others combined, and mostly looked like small heap of gold and silver with bits of amber, moose and mountain crystal poking out. On either side of her, with harnesses that showed they had pulled the toboggan, stood a truly enormous bull. Unlike the other moose they wore no jewelry except for a few pieces of horn or bone pierced here and there. They wore what was obviously barding under the harnesses and huge stone axes were slung at their sides.
Regular moose jewelry jingles too much, Vigg thought as he met their calm, uncaring eyes. They must need to move unheard.
To the left of one of the armed attendants stood Kvalhissir. The face of the old farmer was not pleasant: not angry, not sad, but deeply irritated, as if there was no way he was going to put up with this nonsense any longer. To his left side stood two other warrior moose, though not as gargantuan as the two attendants to the old cow.
"Are these the ones you talked about?" one of them said and turned to Kvalhissir.
"Yes," said Kvalhissir's mouth, while his eyes, glittering with angry sarcasm, said No. They are some other reindeer. This remote and unknown place is completely lousey with unsupervised calves.
"I say we kill them," said the warrior moose and scowled at Vigg.
Vigg grew very cold inside. First, he suddenly realized the outer edges of the semicircle had moved as he and Saga moved forward and that they now were technically surrounded. Then, he saw that several of the moose nodded thoughtfully at the suggestion.
"Yes," said the other armed moose. "Let us kill them. Resolve this quickly."
Thanks to LadyMoondancer and Wheelwright for helping me with the proofreading. It feels frustrating some times but the text becomes that much better.
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Oh dear, what will they do now?
It is a test, prove their worthy. Kvalhissir knows they are, thinks the other mooses are being <pun intended> Bull headed
This chapter, revenge for making Vigg faint!
great story! please don't let it die, it's way to good to die
208167
Ah, thanks!
But it hasn't died yet - the next chapter is written and is being proofread right now.
158675 I think I ran out of air during the coughing fit I had when I read this... but it is fitting considering the number of facedesks I invoked when I was reading the shipping-soaked chapter.
Well... dang...
158665
Well, Saga will scream before having her head crushed, and Vigg will die trying to protect her.
"Sweet dreams?" she asked Vigg, who was spooning-
WHAT?!
-up porridge and pouring coffee.
oh.
You're an evil doe, Saga.
Well, that's a fine welcome.