Chapter 24: Chapter Seventeen – Tenderfoot

With meticulous stealth, Livid crept to the top of a thick spire of red rock which jutted out from the mountain like the prow of a ship. The side that she climbed gently sloped up from the ridge, but this ended in a sheer drop off that afforded her a clear view of the surrounding landscape.

Coming to the spire’s pinnacle, she laid upon her stomach and scanned the craggy slopes below. At first, she only saw a few cliff-swallows flitting from the blackened limbs of a long dead tree to their nests hidden high within a nearby crevice. That narrow crack was formed by two huge boulders that leaned upon one another like friends stumbling home from a tavern.

In this shaded cranny, the small songbirds had built their nests using the same rusty-red dust that covered everything in the Red Mountains, and so, their nests were hard to distinguish from the surrounding rock.

For a second, Livid wondered if she might find some eggs in their nests, but before she could think any longer on this opportunity for a meal, her gray eyes caught sight of new movement off to her right. As soon as she saw what it was, an angry snarl came onto her gray sickly-looking face, and she hurriedly readied her sling.

Quietly fitting the sling’s loop over her forefinger and gently pinching the knotted end between the same finger and her thumb, she glanced around for a rock. Seeing a stone that was a suitable size, the gray shepherdess reached for it while locking her eyes upon her target – a lone shabby reddish-gray wolf.

As a shepherdess, there were few things she hated more than wolves. Watching the lanky half-starved creature sniff around, she quietly growled to herself. She guessed he was searching for her flock’s scent.

Still reaching for the rock, her gray fingers blindly groped while her eyes refused to look away from her target. However, after unsuccessfully grasping the stone, she let out a frustrated grumble and then tore her eyes away from the wolf long enough to aid her hand in its task.

In the same moment that she reached for the stone, a voice suddenly startled her from her objective.

“What are you doing?” it asked with innocent curiosity.

The shepherdess quickly spun around to find a boy looking at her with a confused expression.

“Tender!” Livid growled the boy’s name and then turned back to snatch up the rock while jumping to her feet.

Hastily fitting the stone into the pouch of her sling, she looked for the wolf but only caught a glimpse of the creature as he glanced directly up at her and then darted behind a boulder.

“Doom and darkness!” The gray-maiden swore and then kicked a rock off the spire. The stone loudly clacked several times as it bounced down the mountainside.

Without knowing exactly what he had messed up, the boy dropped his gaze and muttered, “Sorry.”

Rolling her gray eyes, Livid flopped down with a frustrated sigh and rubbed her brow with her colorless hand.

“I said I was sorry,” Tender pointed out miserably as his lower lip pushed outward. “I didn’t know you were hunting. It just looked like you were crouching there.

Livid looked up and eyed the boy for a long moment taking in his striking features.

Tender had dark reddish-brown skin like all the other citizens of Mudbrick, but his right eye was surrounded by a blotchy patch of pale flesh, and his right hand bore the same mottled skin. While his left eye was reddish-brown like those of the desert people, his right was colored with varying shades of green. Lastly, his hair was also like wool, but it was not black. Instead, it was a dark auburn color.

Some in Mudbrick whispered that he was so different because his father was a Pict. Livid did not know much about that race other than they were supposed to be a strange people who lived far off in the great grassy plains of the east.

Everyone in Mudbrick called him Tenderfoot because he limped when he walked. But it was odd to Livid that they all looked past his truly unusual features and focused upon a simple lame foot.

The name never seemed to bother the boy, but it made Livid angry, and so she refused to call him by it. Instead, she shortened his name to Tender, and though she never said so, she thought of him as Tenderheart, for he alone seemed to care about her. This was partly because they had been raised by the same old slave woman named Yore.

Though several years apart, they were both orphans. Livid had been found in the desert and given to the old slave woman. About ten years later, Tender was born, and when his mother died, he too was put in Yore’s care. While none could be sure, Livid imagined that Yore had to have been over a hundred years old before she finally died.

They both still missed her terribly. How she told the most wonderful stories!

Livid began to feel bad for the harsh tone she had used with the boy. “No, I’m sorry. It wasn’t really your fault,” she grumbled while shaking her head. “I should’ve already had the stone fitted into my sling.”

“What were you hunting?” he asked while glancing over the sheer edge of the spire.

“I was trying to kill a wolf,” the shepherdess answered with a defeated sigh.

“Oh!” Tender responded with sudden understanding. “Do you think he’ll be back?” he asked while searching the land below for any signs of the beast.

“Not today,” Livid replied with a frown. “He’s more cunning than most. He’s been following us for weeks now, so I’m sure he’ll be back.”

“How’d you know it’s the same wolf?” the boy questioned while still looking over the cliff’s edge.

“His right front paw is white… Wait!” the shepherdess suddenly stopped and eyed the boy with suspicion. “Why’d you come all this way? You shouldn’t be out here alone – it’s not safe,” Livid added with a wag of her forefinger.

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“I’m almost seven!” Tender objected with a pout. “Anyway, I have a sling too, and you taught me well.”

The shepherdess shot him a side-glance and then let a smile come onto her gray face. “But why are you out here?”

The boy shrugged. “Jocund sent me to Sweet-water to call you and your flock back to Mudbrick for the shearing.”

“Already?!?” Livid frowned. “They’re not due until next month.”

Tender nodded. “Most of the other flocks have already been shorn, but they didn’t produce enough wool. Jocund’s calling you in early because he’s hoping your flock will do better. He needs more money for Niggle’s twentieth birthday feast,” the boy added in a grumble while rolling his differently colored eyes.

The shepherdess clinched her teeth at the mention of the other girl’s name, but she kept herself from cursing in front of Tender again.

“Her birthday’s still more than a month away,” she grumbled when her temper cooled some.

“Yeah,” the boy agreed with a shrug while unconsciously scratching his nose. “Anyway, like I said, master sent me to Sweet-water to wait for you there, and when you didn’t come for three days, I started to worry.”

“I’m not going to that well anymore,” Livid grumbled and looked back off the edge of the spire as if the wolf might have returned.

A confused expression grew upon Tender’s little brown face. “But where else could you water your flock?!?”

She shrugged as if it did not really matter. “I’ve been taking them to the western well.”

“Mudpot?!?” Tender grimaced with disgust. “But why?!? That well smells like rotten eggs!”

The gray-maiden sighed. “I don’t like the way Sweet-water makes me feel.”

“But Mudpot?!?” the boy said again and looked as though he was going to be sick.

Quickly changing the subject, Livid stood and dusted off her clothes. “Well, I guess you’ll have to camp here with us tonight, and then we’ll head to Mudbrick in the morning.”

At this, Tender’s face brightened with a grin that revealed his missing front tooth.

The shepherdess placed a gray hand upon the boy’s small shoulder and began to guide him toward her campsite. “Dawdle and the sheep will be happy to see you again.”

“Oh! I forgot!” Tender’s gapped smile grew even larger. “I brought you and Dawdle some treats,” the boy announced.

“What’d you bring us?” Livid asked as their voices trailed away from the spire.

“Well, I ate a few,” the boy admitted.

“Did you?!?” the shepherdess growled and playfully pushed him away from her.

“Hey, I waited for three days!” Tender exclaimed and the two laughed loudly together.

When their voices finally faded far into the distance and the mountainside around the spire fell silent, the mummy-like figure crept out from the shadows of a nearby crack in the cliff face. Crouching down, the strange creature stretched out a wrapped hand and dragged the tip of its cruel sickle-shaped dagger across Livid’s footprint like a bestial claw.

After doing this, the figure brought the point of the blade to its hidden nose and sniffed loudly.

“She’s the one,” the creature growled. “I just know it.”

“But how can we be sure?” it replied to itself.

With an indifferent shrug, the figure answered its own question. “Simple! We kill her, and if nothing happens, then we know she’s not the one.”

“Yessss,” the figure hissed to itself. “But Rue must be very careful, dearest. She could easily kill us with her cruel rock thrower.”

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