The Stargazer and the Toolmaker

CHAPTER 3

It snowed hard for two more days, and then the sun came out and another two days after that it was all melted.  The trail to Lakeside was a muddy mess but Rodne knew it wasn't going to get any better until spring came, and so the two of them set off right away.

No one was more surprised than Rodne to see how many of the residents of Lakeside were actually relieved to see him.  They were happy to see R'dek too, but mostly it was the people who were waiting on trades from him that were the most relieved.  R'dek was used to this, but Rodne was a bit confounded to learn how well regarded he was, after a fashion.  It did seem that many of the villagers worried that if some misfortune befell their fortune teller then it must be some sign that the gods were ill disposed towards the whole community, but more than a few of them, including Li'bet and Caresn, had been genuinely worried about his well being.

The hunters had all returned to Lakeside with the snowfall and Radek found that the bachelors' lodge was rather more crowded and noisome than before.  He was happy to accept Caresn's offer of hospitality but that meant that for his first night back in Lakeside he and Rodne would be sharing Caresn's spare palette.  Rodne knew that Caresn wouldn't say anything when he saw how closely he and R'dek were snuggled together the next morning, but he did throw them a pleased and indulgent smile to which Rodne replied with a proper scowl.

Rodne did his best to take his leave of the toolmaker in as casual and light hearted manner as possible, but he knew perfectly well that this was only possible because he was aware that R'dek wasn't planning on leaving the village any time soon, certainly not before spring.  He had enough raw flints now to keep him busy for many moons, and therefore no reason to leave the village.  This was what Rodne silently consoled himself with as he left Lakeside that morning, and how he maintained his peace of mind for the next several handfuls of days.

He had plenty to keep him occupied, as usual.  The weather was as clear as he could ever have wished and his observations were as illuminating as always.  He even found another companion of sorts.

He had gone out to gather tinder from a large tree near his home which dependably left a generous litter of small, dry twigs beneath it.  He approached this tree a bit cautiously as he knew that a small wildcat had made her den beneath its roots and, though it was rather late in the season for this sort of thing, she'd had a litter of kittens some moons ago.  She was, naturally, prone to be a bit defensive if she was around, but as often as not she was out hunting and so Rodney was free to collect tinder at his leisure.

Today, however, Rodney found a scene of carnage at the base of the tree.  The wildcat's tracks, easy to spot with fresh snow on the ground, were mixed and blotted out with the distinctive tracks of a wolf, and the white snow was stained with blood here and there.

"Damn," said Rodne to himself, for though he and the wildcat tended to ignore each other most days, Rodne was convinced that her presence in the area kept the vermin in his cave to a minimum.  Also, Rodne hated dogs of all sorts with a passion, and wolves definitely fell into that category.  As he approached the tree more closely, however, glancing up into its branches to see if there were any good looking twigs that might be easily knocked down, Rodney spotted a lone survivor.

There was no telling how long the kitten had been up that tree, though it seemed possible that the signs of the wolf attack were two days old or more.  The creature's instincts had likely compelled it to stay there until its mother returned, with no way of knowing that she was never going to.  For long minutes Rodne stood at the base of that tree, his natural survival instincts contesting with the powerful sympathy he felt for orphaned kitten –a creature with whom he had a too much in common.

In the end, Rodne found himself cursing himself for being nine kinds of idiot and, stripping down to only his deer-hide tunic and loincloth and the big hide pouch he'd planned to fill full of tinder, he grasped the bottom branches of the tree and begin pulling himself up it.  It had been a good long time since Rodney had climbed a tree, and the stupid kitten was perched more than halfway up this one.  It didn't move as Rodne approached, but it did make a spitty, hissing sound as he drew near.  There's thanks for you, Rodne thought to himself.

It became evident just how weak the creature was as Rodne drew close enough to grab for it, for it made one half-hearted swipe at him and then promptly lost its grip on the branch it had been clinging to.  Rodne managed to catch it before it fell and got a number of long raking scratches down his arm for the trouble –which he was sure would become infected and ultimately lead to his demise.  Grasping the weakly struggling creature by the scruff of its neck, Rodne maneuvered it into his bag and began to make his way down again.  It was nothing less than a miracle, he was convinced, that he arrived at the bottom in one piece.

The kitten struggled a bit in the bottom of Rodne's carry pouch at first, but not much and so, after wrapping himself once again in his winter garments, Rodney lingered long enough to gather an arm load of tinder before returning to his cave.  He did wonder if it might be too late to save the creature that had too quickly subsided in his pouch, but when he set the pouch with the kitten down by his fireside and offered it a piece of his oh-so-precious cheese, the creature ventured forth and gobbled it down.

Next, Rodne heated up some water in order to soften some of the dried meat he had to hand and the kitten made short work of this as well.  When it had finally filled its belly to bulging, the kitten stretched, gave itself a cursory wash, and then curled up to sleep on the scrap of sheepskin Rodne laid for it by the fire.  Rodne would never admit to anyone how long he waited, in the silence of his cave, to hear the creature purr, nor how happy it made him to hear it.

For more than a handful of days the kitten, who Rodne found himself referring to as Spitt, did little more than sleep, eat his food and piddle in the corner.  It was from watching her do this that Rodne determined that Spitt was a 'she', shortly before introducing her to the idea that piddling needed to be done outside.  After a some time, however, Rodne noted that the evidence of vermin in his pantry had declined considerably, and came to the conclusion that his investment had been worthwhile.

The moon, as Rodne observed it diligently, passed from new to full to new again and more snow fell and stayed.  He and Spitt developed a routine of sorts, which did, of course, involve Spitt curling up next to his face early each morning after her nightly hunt.  He watched the stars and discerned yet more of their secrets and filled his life with all the things that had proved more than sufficient to keep him content in the past, and found that now, somehow, it was not.

Ordinarily Rodne thought little of the village and its inhabitants until the approach of midwinter, when he had learned that it was worthwhile to travel there and visit.  A few years after he had settled in the cave and become known to the villagers as a 'fortune teller', Rodne had discovered that if he appeared at Lakeside's midwinter festivities he would come away laden with gifts.  Giving gifts to a hermit and 'holy man' as some thought of him was, evidently, the equivalent of making offerings to the Gods themselves, and Rodne was hardly going to dissuade them of this notion.

It was R'dek that Rodney mainly found himself thinking about, wondering how he was getting on with Caresn and if he had turned out any more masterpieces like the knife Rodne took pleasure in using most every day.  He also, however, found himself thinking of the coming festivities, and how he had come, over time, to enjoy the gathering itself, the storytelling, drinking and feasting and general camaraderie, in spite of how he constantly insisted on how much he detested the company of his fellow man.

He even found himself wondering what kind of gift he could give R'dek, as the exchange of gifts between friends and family was traditional at midwinter, and Rodne considered that R'dek, as a newcomer, would not have all that many friends, or any family in Lakeside.  He could always pass on to the man some of the many bountiful presents he was accorded, but that seemed cheap, and besides, the ones who gave him those gifts had intended them for the holy man/hermit, and might take offence at having them delivered to another.  What Rodne really wanted, anyway, was to give R'dek something of himself -something that he had done with R'dek in mind, and it took some hard thinking before he figured out what that could be.

Of all the things he did for the villagers, the one that seemed to please people the most was telling them the positions of the stars at the births of their children.  Most of them wanted him to give some kind of prediction about their child's character or aptitude as well, but many, Rodne had noticed, were quite pleased just to know where, exactly, the heavens stood at the moment of their infant's birth.  Rodne's special genius lay in being able to tell an expectant mother just what this would be, a moon or more before her child's birth (assuming she was accurate in predicting when the child would actually be born), but it dawned on Rodne that it would be no more difficult for him to figure the patterns of the heavens backwards in time than it was to look forward.

Radek had told him, over one of their late night conversations, just how many winters he'd seen and what season he'd been born in, and equipped with that information Rodne was fairly sure he could figure out just where the stars had been on the night of R'dek's birth.  It would be a gift of dubious utility, to be sure, but Rodne could not help but think that R'dek would be pleased to have it.   It took him three days of figuring, which he could never had done without the use of the number marks, but he did at last arrive at a reasonable approximation of the location of the stars at the time of R'dek's birth.  When he had done this, however, it occurred to Rodne that he'd like to have something tangible to give R'dek, so he flattened a bit of birch bark and used the glowing coal at the end of a twig to burn in it a series of number marks and the crude symbols Rodne had derived to stand for the various stars and constellations.  No one else would have any idea what the thing was, but he was certain that R'dek would figure it out right away.

Once he had made the thing, of course, Rodne found that he was impatiently eager to give it to R'dek, even though midwinter was nearly two moons away yet.  He wrapped it in a scrap of leather and placed it on a ledge of his pantry to keep it from distracting him, but then found himself compelled to check on it nearly every day to assure himself that the mice hadn't got to it (though Spitt had, by now, pretty much eliminated all the mice in his cave).

Rodne also found himself fretting over the upcoming journey to Lakeside, suddenly convinced that this year the weather would be too bad for him to make the journey (though this had happened only once in his memory).  Still, every day that dawned with fair weather left Rodne more and more convinced that it was certain to turn just as he was planning on leaving.  Rodne wasn't so much concerned for his own sake –the last time everyone had simply saved his gifts for him till he could make it down- but he did want R'dek to have a gift on the day everyone else in the village was exchanging theirs.

The solution, of course, was to make an early trip, on some excuse, and surreptitiously hand the gift off to Caresn, who would see to it that R'dek got it on the day, whether Rodne was there or not.  The excuses Rodne cobbled up as he prepared to leave were fairly threadbare -that Spitt had put an unseemly dent in his food supplies and that it was past time for the next load of the firewood he'd bargained for to arrive- but they would have to do, for he could think of no better and he remained convinced that the weather was bound to turn foul any minute.

So certain was he of this that he almost didn't stop for the night on his voyage to Lakeside, but the snow was deep now and hiking though it had left him nearly exhausted and so he thought the better of it.  Fortunately the weather remained clear for the rest of his journey and by the time he reached the village Rodne was feeling a little foolish and was keenly aware of just how transparent his excuses were.

"Goodness, Rodne," the headwoman greeted him as she met him at the edge of the village.  "I don't think we've ever seen you come down to the village so many times in a single year, much less in a single season.  What brings you into town today?"

Rodne managed to make much more fuss about his late firewood delivery than was entirely necessary, but it served to dissuade Li'bet from asking any other questions as she accompanied him to the center of the village.   It was downright unsettling to find how happy he suddenly was at the sight of the little toolmaker, contentedly knapping away at the central fire pit, and even more so to feel how his heart was lifted at the sight of the bright smile that broke out on R'dek's face when he spotted Rodne approaching.

"Rodne!" he cried, dropping his tools as he stood to greet him.  "I did not expect to see you again until midwinter."

"Yes, well," he said, pulling out his second excuse and trying to dampen the smile that wanted to answer R'dek's.  "I, ah, had an unexpected drain on my food supply and figured I'd better come down and restock while the weather was good."  Now Rodne launched forth with the story of how he had come to acquire Spitt and before long he had a regular audience, as often happened when he had a tale of any sort to tell.  Certainly it did distract everyone from how unnecessary his journey to Lakeside had really been, and when he was finished with the tale he saw that Caresn had been alerted to his presence and come to find him, which suited Rodne's needs perfectly.

"Rodne," he called as the crowd began dispersing, "could I have a word with you?"

This suited Rodne's needs perfectly as well and, reaching into his pouch to find the carefully wrapped piece of birch bark and assure himself that it was still there, he followed the healer back to his hut.  Before he could begin with his request, however, he found that Caresn had one of his own.

"I know your privacy is important to you, Rodne," he began, "and if you're dead set against sharing your space with anyone, I suppose I'll understand, but you did seem to be getting along with R'dek so well, I wondered if you might… consider having him stay the rest of the winter with you?"

"Why?" Rodne asked right off.  "Isn't he getting along here okay?"

"Oh he gets on with everyone just fine," answered Caresn, "and he's no bother as a houseguest here, for the most part, it's just that… well, I've no privacy to start with." Caresn blushed a bit here.  "I mean, Loren's been back in camp for over a moon and there's never been a chance for the two of us… to have some time to ourselves, ye know?"

Loren was the eldest of the men in the bachelor's lodge, and arguably the best hunter in Lakeside.  He was also the one person who might be found spending the occasional night in Caresn's hut more frequently than anyone else.  Few were willing to gossip about the possible backwardness of the village's best hunter, but no one was really expecting the man to start a family and settle down any time soon, either.

Rodne grimaced with sympathy.  He knew his own desire for privacy sprang from a general misanthropy, but Caresn had, well… needs.

"And that's not the only thing," Caresn continued.  "I know the man means well, and there's no doubt that he's very good at what he does, but I just can't get him to stop… 'helping'.  He's replaced all my cutting tools, which I do appreciate, but I had rather gotten used to the ones I had, ye know.  And he keeps tidying up the place.  I expect to find things where I've left them, and there's no chance of that ever, now."

Rodne knew well that Caresn the healer was hardly a tidy man, and he'd never minded on the occasions he'd spent sleeping in the man's hut.  He'd seen how Caresn always knew where the thing he needed was to be found, whether it was hanging in a neat bundle from his rafters or under a pile of old leather scraps at the foot of his bed.  His hut was customarily the most cluttered in all of Lakeside, but he had good reason for his clutter and Rodne could well imagine that having someone around who insisted on ordering it could prove most distressing to the healer.

"I don't want to seem ungrateful," Caresn said unhappily.  "And I know he means well.  I fear I'd hurt his feelings terribly if I asked him to go back to the bachelor's lodge, but if there was somewhere else he could go where he might feel a bit more welcome…?"

It wasn't that R'dek would be exactly *un* welcome in the bachelor's lodge, but the place was crowded during the winter months and the young hunters were a rowdy, uncouth and particularly untidy bunch.  R'dek might be welcomed there, Rodne knew, but he would not be comfortable, and certainly not for the whole winter.  On the other hand, Rodne had enjoyed every minute he'd spent in R'dek's company, and had found his presence in his own home fairly unobtrusive.  Rodne wasn't exactly a 'tidy' housekeeper, but he was a person of such few belongings that it hardly made any difference.  How would it be to have R'dek living with him for the duration of the winter?  Rodne wasn't sure, but the more he thought about it the more it seemed like it might actually be sort of nice.  Also, it would make the whole question of delivering Rodne's midwinter gift moot.

"I'll have to think about it," said Rodne.  "But I'll let you know before I go, okay?"

"Thank you, Rodne," Caresn said gratefully.  "Now, I've heard that you're looking to acquire a bit more food for the winter?"  Rodne nodded.  "Well it just so happens that Meera, the one who's mate is such a good fisherman, seems to be expecting twins, and that means that she's not as far along as we thought the last time you were here, so she'll be wanting another consultation from you, and since it's twins I'm sure she'll be likely be more than generous in exchange for your time."

She was, in fact, quite generous and Rodne came away from the consultation with a big sack of dried fish and another filled with wild rice.  In addition he'd been invited to join the whole family for their evening meal which was bountiful if clamorous, as Meera and Hallen, her husband, already had a fair sized brood already.  Rodne had made his escape as soon as it was seemly and made his way to Caresn's hut, where he and R'dek were just finishing their own evening meal in peace and quiet.

Caresn's hut was also, for obvious reasons, the nicest smelling hut in the village and Meera and Hallen's place smelled, well, like young children, which are unavoidably smelly creatures, especially in the winter, when you can't throw them outside to make their messes.  Rodne appreciated all of this as he enjoyed a pleasant post-perandial conversation with his two friends and considered what it would be like to enjoy this kind of thing on a daily basis.  Caresn was clearly encouraging him to consider this, from the meaningful glances that the healer kept throwing his way throughout the evening, and while it was tempting, Rodne could not help but wonder if it mightn't get tedious if it came every day, rather than being the occasional pleasure he enjoyed now.

Caresn needn't have worried though, because the deciding argument came not as they chatted comfortably around Caresn's small fireplace, but later, as Rodne found himself unable to stop the yawns that interrupted his discourse.  He finally declared that he was going out to relieve himself and then avail himself of Caresn's spare bed, as he was accustomed to.  It was as R'dek joined him outside on a like mission that Rodne realized that someone else would be sharing that bed with him.

His own body remembered quite fondly how pleasant it was to have R'dek's curled close as he slept, even as he tried hard to quash those memories.  The happy light in R'dek's eyes, as the two of them prepared for sleep told Rodne that he, too, looked forward to sharing his bed for a change.  There was a knowing smile in Caresn's voice as he bid the two of them goodnight and extinguished the light, and though Rodne struggled for a brief time with his reawakened and overwhelming need for physical closeness, the battle was really lost before it was begun.

The moment he felt R'dek's arms coil around his back, and his cold nose press against his throat, Rodne found his own arms traitorously responding in kind.  When he considered the possibility that he could have this every night, there was no debate, really.  The only question remaining was what kind of excuse he could make for having R'dek come and join him while keeping his reputation, and self esteem intact.  He had a fair strategy assembled by the time he fell asleep.

Caresn was up and bustling about when Rodne and R'dek woke, still snuggled together on the pallet.  Rodne could tell that Caresn was biting his tongue to prevent himself from commenting on how adorable they looked, or some such nonsense, and Rodne gave him a dangerous glare when he thought that R'dek wasn't looking.  Rodne waited until R'dek had gone outside to relieve himself before turning to Caresn and muttering, "Okay, fine.  I'll take him.  Just let me do all the talking."

"You know," Rodne started in later, as they were finishing up a breakfast of dried fruit, bread and goat cheese.  "I've been hearing some talk among the villagers here that they're worried about what will happen if Caresn needs to treat a sick person in here.  Had you heard anything about this?"

Caresn shrugged.  "Just a bit," he replied.  "I figured that R'dek wouldn't mind spending a few days in the bachelor's lodge if I needed this space for a patient."

"Of course," said R'dek, looking a little troubled.

"Do you think that you'll need to bring Meera here when she has her twins?" Rodne asked.

"Likely not," said Caresn casually.  "She's had no trouble with birthing before, and besides, that won't be for several moons yet."

Now R'dek was looking even more troubled.

"And speaking of kids," Rodne continued.  "I also heard that you've been having a hard time with some of the village kids bothering you while you worked.  Is that true, R'dek?"

Now R'dek shrugged.  "It is true that they seem quite curious about what I do," he said reluctantly.  "Many are quite admiring, and I don't like to be harsh with them, as I am a guest here and they are the children of my hosts, but I confess, I do wish I was free to work without such attentions from time to time.  May I presume that you have a solution to propose, Rodne?"

"As a matter of fact," said Rodne, "I do.  How would you like to spend the rest of the winter with me?"

R'dek seemed utterly startled by the idea.  "But… what of your privacy?  Rodne, I would never wish to impose…"

"You wouldn't be," said Rodne.  "Look, what I said before, about your not being like most other people, I meant it.  I've never spent time with anyone like you before and after the last few days we spent together…"  Now Rodne paused, because this was the honest part of his argument and he'd never in his life confessed such a thing to anyone before.  "I guess… I guess I kind of missed you… and I've been thinking that it might be kind of nice to have you around."

"Oh," said R'dek, seeming quietly astonished.  Then a slow grin began to grow over his features.  "Really?"

Rodne drew a long breath, biting back a sarcastic retort, and then said, "Yes, really.  But if you tell another soul I ever said such a thing…"  He glared at both R'dek and Caresn, who seemed to be holding back a smirk.

The healer managed to pull a straight face, though his eyes still twinkled.  "I've been made privy to many secrets in my work," he promised Rodne.  "Yours won't be the first, rest assured."

Rodne relaxed, then turned to R'dek to gesture impatiently.  "Well then you need to get packing if you're coming with me," he said.  "And make it fast; the weather could turn at any minute."

An experienced traveler, R'dek had himself packed up and ready to go in short order and the two men headed out of the village long before the sun had reached its zenith.  Rodne had wanted to take his leave without drawing attention to himself, or the fact that he was taking the toolmaker with him, but there was no escaping Li'bet's watchful eye.

Still, Rodne was relieved to find, she refrained from commenting on the fact that he was departing in the company of the toolmaker.  Her look, as she passed her gaze over the two of them, was measuring, and her smile, as she bade them journey well, was kind.  She also made sure to invite them both to their midwinter's celebration.  "The story telling will not be the same without Rodne's contributions," she told R'dek..

"You tell stories?" R'dek turned to Rodne to ask as they stepped out onto the trail to Rodne's cave.

"Not on purpose," Rodne muttered.  "I had to make them up so that people could remember which group of stars was which, and what order they came in, and that worked fine, as far as it went.  They all seem to know this stuff pretty well now, but they keep wanting to hear *me* tell them again, especially at midwinter."

"This is nothing to be ashamed of," said R'dek kindly.

"I know," Rodne sighed.  "It's just not what I wanted to be remembered for."

"Most would be satisfied to be remembered at all," commented R'dek.  "I know I would."

"What," said Rodne, "you think you won't be?  Gods above, R'dek, the tools you make, they'll last for generations.  If people have any sense at all they'll be singing your praises for the next ten score of winters or more."

R'dek smiled and looked away bashfully. "Perhaps," he said quietly, and then,  "Rodne… I must thank you for inviting me to stay with you.  Caresn was a very gracious host, but I think he had begun to wish I had somewhere else to go, and was too kind to make me leave."

Rodne shrugged and told R'dek he was welcome and they walked on in silence for a while until R'dek spoke up again.

"Also," he said at last, "I think… I was missing you too."

"Yeah?" said Rodne, his smile giving away more than he meant to as he paused to guide R'dek over an icy patch in the trail.  "That's ah… that would be a new thing for me."

"Me too," said R'dek, looking up at him with those guileless, pale blue eyes.

"Huh," was all Rodne could think to say to that, but he could not help but think, silently to himself as he trudged through the snow with his new friend, that this might just be the best thing that had ever happened to him.