Boelik Read Online Free PDF Page B

he’d built. This home
was far larger: with room enough for a bed of hide, an area to cook
indoors, a place to sit and eat, and room enough to dance on Olea’s
whim.
    It held a stew pot and fireplace, and Bo had
made a table and another chair. Any cracks in the walls were filled
with clay, the door was a real door, and Bo could at last stretch
his arms indoors.
    Bo walked inside and saw Olea tending the
stew. He was thankful that she’d returned to the village and gotten
supplies from her parents. Of course, Mar hadn’t come back through
the village after he was scared off, so it was easy enough to
convince the villagers that he’d killed Bo and given up on her as a
wife. Then she managed to convince them that she’d married a farmer
not far from the village, and Bo had bartered for a calf with the
wolf pelt, and he traded the calf for Olea.
    Of course, Bo being ‘dead’ meant that he had
had to have Olea remake his deals with the skinner and tanner in
his place, and that she had to act as though he were a sickly sort
of man. This was the only way the people would not question her
coming alone every time she came into the village. But it still
gave her pleasure to visit her family on those trips, and it was
that alone that kept Bo from moving again.
    Olea turned from the fire with a smile as Bo
entered, her lithe form broken by the lump in her belly. Her golden
hair was lit up by the fire behind, which was now the only light in
the house, and Bo smiled at her while he replaced the door behind
him. She glanced down at his hand and her smile disappeared,
replaced with a raised, speculating eyebrow and a hand on her hip.
Bo looked at his now-crimson-furred hand, covered in rabbit’s
blood.
    “ Boelik?”
    “ Yes?” he replied
sheepishly, avoiding her eyes.
    “ Wash yourself before you
eat, please.”
    “ Right,” Bo said, an
abashed smile on his face. He moved over to the little urn of water
beside the table and dipped his hand in, rubbing the other over it
for a minute before pulling it out relatively clean. He looked over
at Olea quizzically and held it up to show her. She
nodded.
    “ Now we can eat,” she said.
She ladled some stew into a bowl and handed it to Bo. He set it at
Olea’s place at the table and then came back to get the second
bowl, which he sat down with. Olea came soon after and they ate in
patient silence for a while.
    “ The sun will set soon. Do
you want to go out and see it?” Bo asked near the end of the
meal.
    Olea swallowed the mouthful of stew she had
before answering. “I think that would be wonderful.” Bo nodded.
    After another few moments of silence, Olea
asked, “Was the hunting good today?”
    “ Oh, yes. I’m sorry about
the blood from earlier as well. I’ll change the water
tomorrow.”
    “ Speaking of tomorrow,
could we go to the apple orchard? I think that they should be ripe
enough about now.”
    “ Of course. But remember
that a basket does not make a good weapon.” Bo’s eyes glinted
playfully at Olea in the dim light from across the
table.
    “ You cruel man,” Olea
squeaked, indignant, though a grin was breaking out over her face.
“That is five years past!”
    Bo laughed. “But I clearly remember. That
basket was certainly quite durable for the situation.”
    “ Well, now I have you, I
don’t need to worry about that, do I?”
    “ Not anymore.”
    It wasn’t long before dinner was finished. In
fact, it was just in time for the two to take the path out of the
forest and sit on the hill at the edge of the forest as the sun
set. Olea rested her head on Bo’s shoulder as they basked in the
light of the blazing sky. A breeze made the trees whisper behind
them and made the grass ahead appear as though it crashed in waves
like a great, fiery ocean.
    “ You realize I wouldn’t
trade a day of this life for anything, don’t you?” Olea
whispered.
    “ I know,” Bo replied,
putting his arm around her and pulling her close. He gently laid
his other hand on