Page 18 of Heart of the Mountain King

" — are part of the Song, right. I'm starting to understand," Sten said ruefully. "And by that, I mean I think I'm realizing how very little I understand anything."

"Good," Rask grunted, satisfied. "Then Sten already learning."

△▽△▽△▽△

"Where do you sleep?" Sten asked, his gaze traveling over the sparse chamber of the cave as Rask set him down. “And do you have room for me? Or…maybe something soft I can make a bed of?"

"What Sten mean?" Rask replied, thoroughly confused as he looked around the little dimly lit cavern. From where it hung in its baskets, the sullen amber light of the glowmoss cast the hard stone floor into stark relief, giving an almost sinister look to the goats milling about nearby in their pen.

Rask frowned. "Sten no sleep here."

"Alright, understandable," Sten said placatingly as Rask fetched the pitchfork and pulled a good amount of hay down from its netting strung high above the now-eager goats.

They'd spent the entire day grazing, the greedy things, and they'd be up again at daybreak calling for more. But that should be enough to see them settled for the night, leaving Rask free to tend to more important matters.

He checked the goat's water trough and pulled down the big wooden swing door over the entrance to the cave, securing everything for the night. The goat pen was latched, and the nanny goat who'd had no appetite this morning was eating just as hungrily as her sisters again.

"I can take my blanket and try to find a dry patch of grass outside instead if you'd prefer your privacy," Sten chattered nonsensically. "I swear — I really don't mean to be a bother, Rask. Only… I’m not looking forward to hiking back down this mountain after sleeping on a rocky cavern floor.”

"Then why Sten make fuss?" Rask said, returning the pitchfork to its stone peg before unlatching the door beyond the goat pen. "Rask's home much better. Sten come inside, then see."

Rask reached for the little human and picked him up again handily. Sten's arm looped easily across the bergsrå's shoulders, Messy giving a muffled yip from within the depths of her sling.

"Not sure I'll get used to this," Sten chuckled nervously. A sound that quickly dropped to a soft gasp as Rask ducked, carrying Sten through the smaller door set in the back of the cavern and properly into the bergsrå's home.

△▽△▽△▽△

Chapter 7

A Patient

△▽△▽△▽△

"It's beautiful in here,” Sten whispered; his attention roaming over the warm, carved woods and brightly patterned furnishings of Rask’s home as the bergsrå carried him in. “All that outside… It was only your barn, wasn't it?"

Rask nodded, distracted as mulled over where to set Sten down. He needed to examine the man's injured ankle, but they were both still drenched and muddy from the rain. Already dripping water all over Rask's stone floor, he didn't relish having to clean the big braided rug under his kitchen table — or worse, one of the overstuffed armchairs by the bookshelves…

Sten shivered, making up Rask's mind for him.

"Rask show Sten sauna," Rask asked, already moving in that direction. "Unless Sten hungry?"

"Yes," Sten answered with a cheeky grin. "To both. But sauna first, I think."

The little wooden stairs down to the rock-walled understory were narrow and steep, and Rask had to take extra care going down them sideways so he could fit them both. The glowmoss down here was overdue to be changed out for fresh, Rask noted, the dim amber light barely illuminating the sparsely adorned hall.

At the furthest end, beyond the root cellar and the pantry, lay the bathing chamber; Rask pointing each out for Sten as they walked by each identical pine door. And tucked in the corner just outside, there was an old basket of clean, folded rags Rask kept down here to dry off with.

"Messy too small for sauna," Rask murmured, careful not to disturb the pup sleeping in Sten's lap as he nodded at the basket. "Safe here. Cozy."

Between the steep stairs, the sturdy pine doors, and the walls of timber-braced stacked rock and solid earth behind that? There was nowhere for Sten's pup to go should she wake. Still in the sling in which he'd carried her up in, Messy didn't even stir as Sten gently lowered the entire bag into the basket. Safe and secure in the basket, its sides of woven river reeds were high enough to keep her from falling out in her sleep.

Inside, Rask pointed out the two pine doors set into the far wall of the bathing chamber; the necessary on the left, and the sauna on the right. The main room itself was more stacked rock and timber; the raw trunks oiled and aged until they gleamed a warm gold.

It was not a terribly large space, and Hjarta had forever talked about extending it one day. But Sten was much smaller than a bergsrå, and stuck attentively close to Rask's side as he explained how everything worked, so it suited well enough.

He showed Sten the little fissure in the wall where fresh water seeped up from an underground spring, before collecting in a glossy obsidian bowl Rask had set into a ledge below it. From there it spilled over the sides into a sluice running along the room’s edge, before disappearing into a channel set into the wall separating this chamber from the adjoining privy, and eventually heading onward back into the ground below from there.

Placing both hands on either side of the smooth black basin, Rask hummed. He asked the volcanic glass to remember the days it flowed like water; to Sing with him the melody of warmth. Soon, steam rose from the water's surface as the stone recalled snatches of the ancient Song, and Rask ducked into the sauna to do the same with the metal basket of scoria stacked in the sauna's corner.