The Skeleton Stone by Troy Osgood

Author:Troy Osgood [Osgood, Troy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780692692769
Publisher: Barking Fire Publishing
Published: 2016-04-18T18:30:00+00:00

Davey Tobiason, along with his father, walked out onto the plateau in front of the mines carrying a plate of food and a couple mugs of ale. The sun had set but the entire space was well lit by torchlight. The smelting building was empty, but torches had been placed in the brackets on the building’s exterior wall. The forge in the Smithy was still lit, giving off light. Other torches had been placed on poles and set around the space, concentrating on the mines, where the shadows of men could be seen on watch.

A small campfire had been lit on the ground in front of the rock cluster in the middle of the area. Davey suppressed a shudder as they walked towards the rocks, remembering how he had hid behind them when the skeletons had come out of the mine. He had never been so scared in his life and it shamed him. He hadn’t told his mother, and especially not his father, about how he felt yet. He doubted he would. He had been scared like a little kid. He was almost a man now; he should not have felt that way.

When the skeletons had come out, he had been frozen with fear. He would have died if not for Culann Hawkfall. Davey was ashamed of his inaction. He badly wanted to make up for it, to do something that would lessen that feeling. To make his father proud, to be worthy of sharing the name.

The Far Rider now sat on the ground, leaning against the rocks, in front of the campfire. He was poking at it with a stick, pushing the logs around.

“We thought you would be in the smithy,” Sheren said as they approached.

“Had ta take a break,” Culann replied. He set down the stick as Davey handed him the plate of food.

Sheren sat down next to the Far Rider, setting one of the mugs down. Culann nodded his thanks as he dug into the plate of food.

“This is good,” he said between mouthfuls. “Thank ye.”

Silence fell as Culann ate the dinner. Sheren turned and watched the villagers that were guarding the mines. Davey just looked around seeing how the glow of the fires added strange shadows and shapes to a space that he knew so well.

“I hope ye donae mind I started this,” he said setting the plate aside and pointing at the small fire. “I took a couple logs from the forge. I do me best thinking by campfire and under the stars,” he added looking up at the night sky. He reached for the mug, taking a drink as the three watched the stars appearing.

“Not at all,” Sheren replied. He shifted his position, looking back at the mountain looming over them. “Hard to believe that there could be an entire city in there.”

“Dvorkan Cradle are unlike a city as we know it,” Culann said looking at the mountain as well.

Davey turned and studied the peak that he had lived beneath his entire life. It was a mountain, like the rest in the range that Minoda was built on.

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