Elwis did indeed lead Halthor to a traveler's rest. It was ramshackle and poorly tended, but still it was shelter against the weather and had a hearth for a fire to beat back the cold. It was nearly sunset when they reached it. The red eared white dog ran in circles about Halthor excitedly as they entered the building. Halthor looked up in the waning light of day that came in through the doorway. Deeming the roof sturdy enough not to collapse upon them as they slept, the red haired builder sighed. He was exhausted. The fight on the cursed battleground had made him weary and the long walk through the holloway just increased that weariness to bone numbing exhaustion. He was tempted to throw himself to the ground and just sleep. He knew, however, that if he didn't light a fire that he wouldn't wake in the morning.
Halthor set his pack down beside the rough shelf that served as a sleeping space. He found it curious that it was fashioned out of earth and near the fireplace. The strangeness of the arrangement, however, was put out of his mind as he stepped back out into the rising wind to find wood. While he scoured the small grove of trees about the traveler's rest, Elwis nipped at his ankles. "What is it?" Halthor said crossly. The dog ran to the windward side of the building and began to dig in the snow. "Oh, come on now," he groaned, "That's just a drift of snow." When Elwis pulled out a branch almost as big around as Halthor's forearm, the 'drift' shifted and a pile of wood was revealed. "You must have one hell of a nose," Halthor commented. Elwis paused in shaking the end of the branch like a rag doll and looked over at Halthor in a classic look of doggy confusion.
Halthor walked over to the wood pile and reached into it. He began pulling out an armload of wood when Elwis yipped almost cheerfully. "Yes, you're a good dog. You did very well today. You're not eating all of my rations, however. If I had some fresh meat, I'd give it to you before carving it up for the pot," Halthor said to Elwis, "Let's get out of this cold and start a fire." Elwis trotted happily, pulling the branch behind him. As they came to the doorway of the traveler's rest, Halthor again wondered why this one was so different from the others. Elwis dropped the branch half in the doorway and began to worry at one of the straps on Halthor's pack. "Hey, stop that!" he shouted, waving an arm at the dog. Elwis looked at Halthor and gave a growl as the dog pulled on the pack, almost toppling it down off the ledge on to itself. Halthor heaved a long suffering sigh of exasperation. He walked over and picked up the pack. As he set it aside, he pointed at Elwis, "Stay out of that or no meat."
Halthor turned his attention back to the work of starting a fire. Soon, he had a decent fire going and the one room building began to warm up considerably when Halthor shut the door. He knelt beside his pack and looked inside. His supplies were still well stocked thanks to the generosity of the Blue Lady. Thinking of the elf-woman, Halthor wondered if she was alright. He decided that Freystein would likely stop to check on her and put the matter out of mind. He set his cook pot in the fire after half filling it with snow. As the snow melted, he pulled out of his pack a sack with mushrooms and dried vegetables in it. Halthor smiled. "Not quite your style, but it looks good to me," Halthor said as he dumped them into the pot.
Elwis whined at the door. Halthor got up and opened it. "Don't wander off too far," Halthor said, "We've seen enough trouble for one day." After several minutes, he heard the fey dog barking at the door. Halthor was in the process of trying to calculate how much of his supply of jerky he could conserve and how much he'd need to feed himself and the dog. He set the leather sack of jerky aside and opened the door. Elwis trotted in with a freshly killed rabbit. "Now how did you find that in this weather?" Halthor wondered as Elwis deposited it at his feet. Elwis nudged Halthor's leg and looked meaningfully towards the door.
Halthor stood and went to the door to find not far from it was a hole excavated from the snow and the dog's tracks going into it. Beside the hole was another dead rabbit. Neither rabbit had been chewed upon, though they looked as though they had been tossed about harshly. "You did this, boy?" Halthor asked, looking down at the dog at his left side. Elwis yipped cheerfully and did another lap around Halthor. "You must be my luck bringer," he said, shaking his head with amazement.
"Go on, fetch the other one, I'll get them ready for the pot." Halthor set to work skinning and cleaning the rabbit before him when Elwis arrived with the second. The dog sat by his side as he worked, all but ignoring Halthor in his efforts. When he had the offal of the first rabbit laid aside, Elwis's ears perked up. Halthor prepared the second and laid the offal of it upon the guts of the first. Halthor gathered up the cut rabbits and carried them into the traveler's rest. As he put them into the pot, he suppressed a shudder as a chill breeze blew in from the partially open door.
The last of twilight was fading from the sky as he walked out the door to find Elwis happily dining on the innards of the rabbits. "Good dog," Halthor said, "Come to the door when you're done. It's going to be a cold night." About the time that Halthor's rabbit stew became fragrant and savory to smell, he heard Elwis whining at the door. Halthor opened the door, expecting to see the fey dog with a red muzzle. To his pleasant surprise, Elwis's muzzle was somehow clean. He figured that the dog rolled about in the snow given the sprinkling of the white stuff on his coat.
Halthor set a hand on the earthen sleeping bench and pulled it back in surprise after finding it warm. He shook his head with amazement. The stew in the small cook pot was bubbling and the fire lit the room with ruddy light that was comforting after the horrors of the day. It reminded Halthor of the hearth-fire of Alaric's house. He supposed that the house was now his when he returned to Starhaven. He thought of the city of his birth and life before this strange journey. A sharp pang of homesickness hit him.
"Once I see Olerand, this buiness is done and I'm going back to Starhaven," he said, "A nice quiet life for me. I was a fool of a boy to want adventure when I was young. I asked the gods to give me a quest for the glory of the kingdom. And, here I am. They say when the gods put you on a road, it never ends. We must be halfway through Ranyth by now. The mountains have turned eastward in the distance. The hills are not as steep. We should be on a town soon, if we're lucky."
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