The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart Read Online Free PDF

Instead he sat away from the fire, ears pricked for the sound of movement from the mountainside below. After hours of this
     futile exercise, he gently kicked his brother awake and lay back down.
    Manfried awoke at dawn, his brother snoring beside him. The ashes were cold, indicating his slovenly brother had packed it
     in hours before. Cursing, he moved behind his brother and knelt down, putting his lips beside Hegel’s ear.
    “Up!” Manfried hollered, startling both brother and horse awake.
    “Eh?!” Hegel rolled away and scrambled to his feet, peering about blearily.
    “Sleepin on watch.” Manfried shook his head. “Shameful.”
    “Who’s sleepin on watch? I woke you last, you bastard!”
    “Liar, you dozed off your first turn at it.”
    “I kicked you, you miserable goat!”
    “When?”
    “When I was done lookin out!”
    “Hmmm.” Manfried chewed his beard, dimly recollecting a foot to his side in the depths of slumber. “Well, I suppose it’s no
     fault a either a us, then.”
    “No fault? You sayin you didn’t get up at all? What the Hell, brother, that’s your fault clean and simple.”
    “Should a made sure I was up,” Manfried grumbled, then brightened. “Fuck it all, Hegel, what’re we on about? There’s loot
     waitin just down the hill!”
    Snatching seared pieces of meat, the two raced down the trail to the scene of the slaughter. Any nocturnal scavengers had
     left the bear’s share for the Brothers, who meticulously piled anything of worth in the middle of the trail. After a brief
     council, they plodded down the switchbacks to where Bertram had come to rest after his horse rode off the side of the sheer
     path. Defying the odds the hardy man still lived, although his splintered spine prevented him from moving anything more than
     his lips.
    “Gross,” he mumbled through the wreckage of his face. “Gross bar.”
    “Yeah,” Hegel allowed, “that’s us.”
    “Tough, ain’t you?” Manfried was impressed.
    “Bass,” the man wheezed. “Bass. Bass.”
    “What’s that?” Hegel scowled, smelling a slander on the wind.
    “Turds,” came out as a gurgle, Manfried experimentally pressing on Bertram’s chest with his heel. “Bastards.”
    “Now, that’s hardly fair.” Hegel squatted in the dust. “We both recollect our father’s face, even if our mother didn’t.”
    “He’s past pain, brother,” said Manfried, sliding off Bertram’s boot and poking his toes with a knife. “Look, he ain’t even
     flinchin.”
    “Kill,” Bertram gasped. “Kill. Ill!”
    “Who, you or us?” Hegel grinned and turned to his brother. “Tore up to death and still talkin vengeance! Not a bad sort, not
     at all.”
    “Mercy, then?” Manfried asked. “I was dealin with old Cunter, so’s I didn’t see. Say his horse took’em over?”
    “Yeah, the one we seen on the slope above, all busted up.” Hegel looked Bertram in his unswollen eye. “That’s you served proper
     for puttin faith in a beast. Should a dismounted, might a stood a chance.”
    Bertram tried to spit but only drooled blood.
    “Seen’em before?” Manfried asked, still absently cutting into Bertram’s foot.
    “Can’t say that I recall’em from our small times.” Hegel scratched his beard. “On account a his cowardice in bringin a horse
     to a man-fight, I’s a mind to leave’em for the birds.”
    “He didn’t run, though,” Manfried countered, having taken a shine to the man’s perseverance. “Didn’t cut out on his fellows
     like that other fuckscum. Didn’t try to get all dishonest with a bow, neither, and lived all night in the cold.”
    “Still, brother, a horse? He meant to ride me down. Just think, Manfried, me, kilt by a goddamn horse!”
    “A test, then,” said Manfried. He set down his knife and joined his brother in squatting by Bertram’s head. “You want mercy,
     coward?”
    “Hell,” Bertram belched. “Die. Gross.”
    “See?” Manfried smiled triumphantly at his brother.