Fractious by Carrie Lynn Barker Page B

continued to grumble
quietly as I went outside and shut the door behind me. I decided that I felt more comfortable
hanging out with Fractious the mule, so I went and sat by the corral and listened to the mule try
to convince the goats to take his place as the sacrifice. After an hour had gone by, Fractious had
had no luck and I wasn't having much either. I'd found a chicken and was attempting to teach her
to play Tic-Tac-Toe, since the mule had had no head for the game.
    The chicken was winning when Cu came out of the hut with a broadsword strapped to
his back. The chicken scratched her last X, taking me out easily, and I got up in a huff, kicking
the bird across the yard in my anger. The chicken fluttered her useless wings yet landed safely.
She looked at me with contempt then clucked and began pecking at the ground. I stuck out my
tongue at the dastardly bird before I went to take a look at Cu's new sword.
    "Pretty," was the first word that shuffled out of my mouth.
    "Swords aren't pretty," I heard Tat say from behind me.
    I turned to face the old man.
    "Swords are deadly," Tat said. "And fancy."
    "Fancy?" I repeated.
    Tat shrugged. "Whatever."
    I didn't know what else to say except, "Can I hold it?"
    Cu turned to face me and said, "No."
    And that was that.
    We had a sword and Tat made me take a goatskin canteen full of his wonderfully tasting
yet nasty ass tea. If I forgot about what was in it, it tasted pretty damned good. I couldn't quite
get past the lingering flavor of goat dung. In the end I shared most of it with Fractious the mule,
who didn't seem to mind the goat dung in the slightest. He did seem a little bit bummed about the
goats not wanting to come along for the fun, adventure and sacrifice to a dragon.
    We continued along the path through the mountains. The air got thinner and the path got
windier, but I couldn't think of anything to talk about so I kept my mouth shut. I just trudged
along behind Cu, pulling my pony by his reins and looking past Fractious the mule's gray ass to
the sword on Cu's back. It looked like what I imagined a Scottish broadsword to look like. It had
a long blade, almost too long for Cu, and it shone bright and new in the dim light in the
mountains. There was a groove in the blade that I knew was for letting blood run down it. The
hilt was wrapped in black leather and it had a silver cross piece where the hilt met the blade. A
Claymore I think is what they call it.
    I wanted to hold it, just so I could say I knew what holding a sword felt like, even
though this sword was half the size of a sword in my world and would probably be classified as a
dagger instead. I knew that Cu would never allow me to hold such a thing, but I daydreamed
about it just the same. I saw myself wielding it, pretending like I was Sean Connery in Highlander . I couldn't do a Scottish accent, not even in my wildest dreams, nor were
there any heads to lop off, but it was fun anyway. It kept me occupied as we trudged along.
    I was beginning to wonder if it ever got dark here in the mountains, when it suddenly
began to get dark.
    "Where are we going to sleep tonight?" I said to Cu's back as it moved along before
me.
    "There's a cave up ahead," he said without looking back.
    "How do you know this area so well?" I wondered how he knew about the sword smith's
house and the cave. I still had a hunch he'd been down this road before so I said, "How many
people have you brought up this road to feed to the dragon?"
    "Oh, a couple," was his reply.
    "A couple?!" I shrieked. It was the answer I was expecting but I still wasn't really
expecting it. "Are you serious?!"
    "Quite," Cu said.
    I stopped short and my pony accidentally ran his head into my rear. He snorted at my
back then moved away from me. Cu stopped just up ahead but neither Fractious the mule nor his
pony ran into him. I was just lucky in that, I guess. Things like to bump my butt...
    "Come on," Cu said. "It'll be dark in ten minutes and we're almost there. You don't