Free The Extremely Epic Viking Tale of Yondersaay by Aoife Lennon-Ritchie Page A

one ex-redhead all said good-bye to Lewis MacAvinney, who raised a hand in a shy wave to Mum. Granny shot Mum a sly look, and Dani shot her a worried one, and out they spilled into Yondersaay Village.

At the Greengrocer’s

     
     
    Dani came out of the shop first, puffing herself up and doing her best to make sure Ruairi couldn’t be seen behind her. She glanced left, then right, and walked out, falling into step on the outside of Ruairi and just ahead of Granny and Mum.
    “I see what you’re doing,” Ruairi said.
    “What do you mean?” Dani avoided Ruairi’s eye.
    “You were trying to block me out, like a big bodyguard. You do know we’re pretty much exactly the same size.” Ruairi rolled his eyes.
    “I’m much taller than you,” Dani said.
    “I bet if we measured again tonight, I’d be slightly taller than you now.” Ruairi smiled as he spoke.
    “Complete rubbish! I am at least one sixteenth of an inch taller than you.”
    “You won’t mind if we measure then?” Ruairi raised one eyebrow.
    “Fine. But just remember, even if you do end up taller than me one day,” Dani switched into a sing-song voice, “you’ll always be my wickle brother!”
    “But only for three hundred and sixty-two days of the year! For the other three, I’ll be the same age as you and taller than you!”
    “Dream on, little man!” Dani chanted. “Dream on!”
    “Anyway …” Ruairi said, coming closer to Dani so Mum and Granny couldn’t hear. “That butcher guy was looking at me funny back there, wasn’t he?”
    “Maybe he just needed a loaf of bread, but I highly doubt it. There was nothing stopping him from coming in to get it, and why was he pointing you out to those two others? Besides, he was looking at you in an extremely odd way when we were in his shop too.”
    “That’s what I thought. Are you sure? I mean, definitely, totally sure?” Ruairi started to fidget. “They couldn’t possibly have gotten a good look at us last night,” he assured himself.
    Dani thought a moment. “Maybe that’s not why he was looking at you like that.”
    “Then why?” Ruairi asked.
    Granny swung open the door to the greengrocer’s at the bottom of the village. If Dani and Ruairi had been thrilled and delighted with the changes they found in the bakery since they had last been on the island, their reaction was equal and opposite when they walked into the greengrocer’s.
    This was the place Dani and Ruairi liked most on the island because of the “Thing” Eoin Lerwick had. They were not quite sure what the “Thing” was, and they knew not to ask for details. Dad had winked at them and put a finger to his lips when he had told them about it years ago, so they knew it was all hush-hush. He had whispered to them that Eoin Lerwick had a “Thing” for Granny Miller.
    Every time they went into the shop, Eoin Lerwick would get them whatever sweets they wanted from the rows of jars on the shelves behind the counter and let them play with all the toys. Ruairi’s favorite sweets were the grape gobstoppers that took a week of sucking to get to the purple liquorice in the center. Dani could not be doing with something that took a week to get to the good bit. Her favorites were the lemon sherbets—the sticky ones with the powdery sour center—that you could suck for a bit, or crack in one go if you wanted.
    Eoin Lerwick would sit the two of them down and tell them the most amazing stories. They were always terrifying or hilarious, sometimes both. He would often act them out as well. It was lovely to see Granny laughing so hard. They had been best friends growing up and knew each other inside out. Eoin had two pet ravens called Thought and Memory, and he could make them do tricks. He could speak to them, and they understood him. At least that’s what it looked like. They would rest on his shoulders and swoop around the shop like synchronized swimmers in the air, and they would fetch anything Eoin asked them to fetch. Once,