Boelik Read Online Free PDF

built in the first year of their union, her hand on
her growing belly as she stared at the hearth. Bo sat on the other
side, sharpening his knife. The only sounds in the cabin were the
crackling of the fire and the sound of Bo’s knife as he struck it
against the whet stone in a practiced rhythm.
    “ Bo, I know you won’t age
like me,” she said without warning. Bo looked up at her from the
other side of the table, his eyes wide with surprise, his carving
knife poised for another strike against the stone. Olea only gazed
down at her belly with loving eyes. “In only five years I can see
that.”
    “ Yes?”
    “ So, how much older are you
than I?” Olea asked.
    Bo sighed and put his blade and stone on the
table. “You are of five and twenty years, correct?” Olea nodded,
eyes shining with curiosity. “I am only about ten years ahead of
you.”
    “ Ten! You look no further
than three.”
    Bo shrugged. “That’s when I stopped seeming
to age.”
    “ Well, then, will you
outlive me?”
    “ Surely.”
    “ Our child?”
    Bo nodded.
    “ And further?”
    Bo finally looked away, his hazel eyes dark.
“I will live for a very, very long time if it is only age that
tries to take me.”
    “ But you don’t want
to?”
    Bo met her gaze, his hazel eyes level with
her brown ones. “If I were to die, and our child after
comparatively few years, would you want to continue to live?”
    Olea broke eye contact this time, giving
another motherly glance at her belly. “I suppose not. No; I know I
would not.” Bo sat back in his chair with a sigh and put a hand
through his long hair. “But Bo, you could watch over our children,”
Olea suggested. He tilted his head, and she laughed at how he
looked like a wondering puppy.
    “ What do you mean,
Olea?”
    “ I mean, you can watch our
children after I am gone. And their children after them. You can be
a family protector,” she insisted. Bo leaned forward and put his
elbow on the table, his human hand holding his chin as he
thought.
    “ It would be a long time
before you saw me again.”
    “ I would wait. I am
patient. And I could watch over you.”
    “ I’d miss you,” Bo admitted
after a moment, an apologetic smirk on his face.
    “ And I would miss you,”
Olea agreed. “But you’d see us both in every child, if you looked.
So you could always see me, whenever you wanted to.” Bo’s mouth
twitched into a smile.
    “ How did I end up with such
a lovely woman?” he asked.
    “ You asked,” Olea replied
with a grin.
    Bo stood and leaned over the small table to
give her a peck on the forehead. “And I received. I’ll be back in
time for dinner,” he said as he stood back and donned his two
cloaks.
    “ Going hunting?”
    “ Of course. How do you feel
about rabbit for tomorrow?”
    “ I feel like it would go
wonderfully with some fresh vegetables if they’d grow quickly
enough.”
    “ We’ve only just finished
planting the seeds. It might be a while before we get anything
worth eating.”
    “ I know. But you did ask
how I felt about rabbit.” Her eyes sparkled playfully in the light
of the candle that sat on the table.
    Bo grinned. “I’ll be back soon.” And he
opened the door to head out.
    True to his word, Bo was back by dinnertime.
His silver hand carried two rabbits as he walked back into his
grove. He put the prey in the little shed, glancing over at his old
house. It was tiny, with hardly enough room to stretch. It was also
quite pitiful in appearance, with a barrier of branches as a door
and cracks everywhere.
    Inside he’d had a small place for his
pelt-bed, a place to pace, and a chair to sit on while he carved
whatever he needed along with the little figures that he crafted to
talk to from time to time. He’d taken the chair to the new home.
The little figures were long burned—often the night they were
made—though Bo had made a few for Olea now.
    He turned away to look over at his new home.
It was a stark contrast to the little hovel