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Excerpt from a novel I've been working on for two years.
The grey bearded man and the boy walked quietly over the
soft, deep snow, stopping occasionally to look around and
listen. The boy walking about two yards behind, having to run
often to keep up with the older man. Rafe Younger was fifty
years old but he could out walk any man in the valley. He had
tramped these mountains and streams for forty years and he
wasn't about to slow down now. The boy on the other hand had
only been in the valley for a year and still couldn't
match the pace set by his uncle. His mother called him Sky, mainly because he hated the name Skyler. Rafe just called him "boy ".
"I'm hungry," the boy suddenly said.
"It won't be long," Rafe replied. "Five more traps and we'll stop for lunch".
"But we've got enough beaver pelts for the tribute now," he protested.
"Yeh". Rafe said softly. He paused. Then added. "We have to feed ourselves too". "Don't we"?
They walked on in silence. The boy thinking about home with warm food and a warm fire. Rafe thinking about the boy and the tribute. The tribute would come from selling hides to the buyer in Old Town. The boy had come to him last winter along with his mother after the funeral of Rafe's brother Shad. Shad was killed in a train accident. Annie, the boy's mother and Shad's wife was a wonder to Rafe. She came here to the woods and took over the house just like she had done it all her life. She was un-tiring and always pleasant as well as being the most beautiful woman Rafe had ever seen. He had come to love her in the last year as a sister but often looked at her as he had his wife when they were first married. Rafe suppressed his feelings about Annie who was ten years younger than he was; he thought but had never had the nerve to ask her age. He never let her suspect how he really felt, but he loved to sit by the fire on the cold winter evenings and bask in the glow of her beauty and countenance. He had come to love the boy too. Rafe thought him small for his ten years but he was a hard worker and fast learner. He never complained about the work or cold unless his belly was empty. He was complaining now. "Can't we stop and eat, then finish checking the traps?"
"We'll be finished with the traps in another hour, then you can fill your belly." Rafe said with a slight smile. "You wouldn't want the protectors to arrest me for not filling the tribute would you?"
"No". The boy answered. "I've never seen one. Have you?"
"I've seen pictures of them". Rafe said. "They are short ugly guys and as mean as snakes". He laughed. "And I hear they like to eat little boys".
"Well, I guess I'm lucky I'm not a little boy any more. Ain't I". Sky said. He ran ahead of his uncle and found the next trap. It was empty. Rafe checked the set and they trudged on up the creek.
In the remaining traps the two found only two beaver. Rafe skinned them on the spot and stuffed the green pelts in the backpack he carried. They stopped for lunch in a small pine grove where the ground was bare under the trees. Rafe built a small fire and they heated the beans and venison in a small skillet the boy had in his backpack. They ate the beans and meat and cornbread in silence for a while then the boy asked. "Uncle, where did the protectors come from"?
"I'm not exactly sure". The old man said. "I was a couple of years younger than you when they arrived. My old Dad told me they came from the sky in flying ships. He said they came to protect us from evil people who wanted to enslave us.
I've never thought much about them. The yearly tribute is very small and easy to fill. They never bother us here so the people in this valley only have contact with their agent who comes to town at year-end to collect the tribute." Rafe paused and drank some coffee. "It's really less than the tax we used to pay under the old government. I think it a small price to pay for them protecting the whole world. I hear it's quite a big world even though I personally have never been farther than Old Town. I'm sure it takes a lot of people and money to keep peace everywhere".
The boy was silent for a while. Finally he said. "My father wouldn't have agreed with you. He said the protectors are an evil people who have conquered our world. Not with war but with wile".
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