Gatherings: Billao companions, #2

By F B Dorr

Taking care of people in dire straits is just proper. But when Maria's family rescues an unknown armed man from the clutches of a snowstorm they put their secluded life in danger. Now he might be the only person able to bring her to her family.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shiruf Entertainment
• Release date: May 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9781497708006

Book preview

Gatherings

Billao companions, Volume 2

F B Dorr

Published by Shiruf Entertainment, 2013.

This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

GATHERINGS

First edition. May 28, 2013.

Copyright © 2013 F B Dorr.

ISBN: 978-1497708006

Written by F B Dorr.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Gatherings (Billao companions, #2)

Further Reading: It Cuts Both Ways

Also By F B Dorr

1. Weird people in the forest

He could hear his bones groaning, frozen and brittle. His ears, rigid for hours already, had stopped hearing the wind's whistle, monotonous, and he could hardly see the trail among tears. He'd had to retake the path back several times.

He'd never have imagined it'd be this way: in the old maps the weather in the region was cold but gentle; it was strange that hamlets were cut off more than three days in a row in winter. However, should the snow stop right then and the sun start to shine even during nighttime, grass would still be hidden for, at the very least, another week.

He shouldn't have thought so much: his left foot, seemingly gathering the effort of the whole body, failed him in a bad moment and when he realized it he was already falling. Where to, he couldn't tell: he could only see the gale's veil.

He awakes feeling his skin burn. He opens his eyes and, when they finally adapt, he looks upon a slanted, wooden ceiling. To his left, flames crackle in the hearth and to his right a stone wall shelters him from the outside world; by the noise, still an angry one. The wall is far enough not to feel the cold, him over several thick blankets on the floor. He sees, seemingly far away, his luggage and his weapons leaning over a chair. He hears the door opening or, rather, he's startled by the noise outside. A young boy, effeminate enough to make him doubt, comes in in a hurry and closes the door behind him, showing his back.

He feels a sudden light pressure in his head. He's never felt such and his mind is not yet clear enough, but his wanderings have taught him to defend himself. Without wanting to, without ever having done so in similar situations, he closes upon himself. Without realizing it, all his muscles start using their, hardly recovered, reserves to build up some strength.

I cry. He didn't attack, but I was way in and I didn't expect him to awake, much less that he'd realize or that he could close, even so: instinctive, basic, true. I almost get closed in. I can see him relax and I feel him somehow calling me. Not like Da, not even my boar of a brother. He's even more primitive, but he does it carefully.