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

in the middle of summer, he asked Thought to fly out, find a snowflake, and bring it back for Granny Miller. Thought was gone a very long time, and they’d all but forgotten about her and were about to leave when in she flew, the tips of her wings covered in snowflakes. She had hovered just above Granny’s head and beat them softly, a tiny blizzard of snowflakes fluttering down onto her upturned face.
    On this particular day before Christmas Eve, Eoin Lerwick was nowhere in sight. His birds were distinctly absent, and the shop was, quite frankly, a dump. It was dark and dirty. As they walked in and looked around, they noticed all the lights were off, and there was no produce in the front window or in crates on the street like usual. There was hardly any stock on the shelves, and what was there was covered in dust. It was like the shop had closed down years ago.
    Dani and Ruairi wandered about, trying not to touch anything; it was all so rank. Ruairi flipped over the part of the counter that swung on its hinges and went to have a look at the jars of sweets. Dani vaulted over, getting a layer of filth on her hands. The jars were either empty or full of a putrid, oozing mess. Dani made retching noises, which made Ruairi smile. Ruairi pulled down the jar of grape gobstoppers and opened it. There was one sweet in there. It looked bigger than he remembered them being. Rougher but shinier. And more purplish, somehow. He reached in and pulled it out. Ruairi was turning the gobstopper over in his hand when there was a surge in the putrid smell of rancid flesh and rotting vegetation. A slow movement at the corner of his eye made him turn around.
    Silently, as if he’d slithered out of nowhere, a lanky sliver of a man with greasy hair, a pointy nose, and a pointy chin appeared in the center aisle before Granny. Ruairi tapped Dani on the shin with his foot, and she looked too.
    “With your permission,” the man said as he bent down to move a crate out of Granny’s way.
    “Hello, Mr. Scathe. Is Eoin here, please?” Granny asked stiffly.
    “You have literally just missed him,” Mr. Scathe said to Granny in a voice that was at once high-pitched and quiet.
    As soon as he spoke, Ruairi and Dani gasped. Ruairi instinctively stepped out from behind the counter, and putting the gobstopper in his pocket so he could close the counter flap, came and stood shoulder to shoulder with Dani. As quickly as they could, they moved backward toward the door and away from the man. Dani and Ruairi stood safely behind their mum and granny and stuck their elbows into each other’s ribs, but they didn’t make eye contact. They didn’t need to.
    “I will leave a message for him. See I’m writing it down now, and I’ll give it to him just as soon as he comes back,” Mr. Scathe continued, his gaze briefly landing on Ruairi. Granny started to speak again, but he cut her off. “No, I’m afraid I don’t know how long he’ll be. He didn’t say. I’ll literally get him to call you as soon as he gets back.” His mouth turned into a greasy smile. His eyes didn’t change at all.
    Ruairi wanted to leave. The shop smelled like everything had gone off. He had no doubt that this was the stooped man from the River Gargle the night before.
     
     

     
     
    On their way back from the distillery, Mum suggested they finish up now and go home—it was very dark by this time of course, and it was icy cold. It was starting to snow. Nighttime snowfall on Yondersaay is a very beautiful thing. Ruairi looked into the sky and saw emptiness all the way up into the black. The snow fell from just there, it seemed, tumbling softly down as though someone were standing on a ladder and sprinkling it from that height and no higher.
    Mum herded everyone back toward the High Street and shouted over the sound of the wind that it was the perfect night for hot chocolate with roasted marshmallows and Granny’s story in front of the fire. “And if you’re up to it, if you’re