Free The Bowl of Souls: Book 01.5 - Hilt's Pride by Trevor H. Cooley Page A

so, she will forge a stronger bond between the academy and the Roo -tan. I can’t really disagree with her there.”
     
    There was a whistle from the trees and Yntri entered the campsite clicking happily. The elf held out two rock squirrels that he had shot. He was also dragging a sapling that he had cut down somewhere along the way.
     
    “So we are adding squirrel to our meal tonight?” Beth asked with a smile.
     
    Yntri clicked and Hilt chuckled, “He says they may not be the world’s largest, but they will have to do.”
     
    “Good!” Beth said. “I was wondering how we were going to get by on one snake split three ways.”
     
    Yntri held out Beth’s snake and asked a question, pointing at the head.
     
    “He wants to know if he can keep the head,” Hilt said. “He has a use for the venom.”
     
    “Uh, sure,” she said, then added with a hesitant smile, “And Hilt, what I said earlier about cooking the snake? I am a good cook, really I am, but don’t be too disappointed if it doesn’t come out like I promised. I don’t really have the means with me to cook it the way I usually do. I mean, I would bake it in my oven at home with garlic and butter, but I have none of that with me now.”
     
    “Don’t worry,” Hilt said with a reassuring smile. “Yntri makes for a great travel companion. He holds his own in a fight, he’s not too talkative, he cleans up after himself, and he’s a pretty good cook as well, you’ll see.”
     
    Yntri unstrung his bow, grabbed the smooth grey wood and twisted. A section of the bow came off and changed in his hands, taking the shape of a knife. He began gutting and skinning his catch. He laid the carcasses out on their skins, then carefully removed the viper’s head and skinned it as well.
     
     The elf opened his small pack and pulled out two pouches, one containing ground salt and the other filled with dried leaves. He rubbed both salt and herbs into the meat and skewered both squirrels on a sharpened stick. He then wrapped the viper meat around them and hung the laden skewer between two y-shaped sticks he had planted on either side of the rock circle. The elf squatted by his newly made spit and slowly turned the meat over the fire.  
     
    Yntri looked at Beth and clicked a long question, curiosity in his ancient eyes.
     
    “Good question,” Hilt said, echoing the elf’s expression with his own eyes. “Why are you on this mountain?”
     
    “Because the prophet told me to.”
     
    “We know that part,” Hilt said. “Would you mind telling us the rest?”
     
    Beth looked back and forth between them and swallowed. “That . . . is a long story.”
     
    “I told you my long story earlier,” Hilt said. “Your turn.”
     
     
     
    Beth looked at the two of them and hesitated. She didn’t tell people about her past. Every question would just lead to more questions and . . . she just didn’t want to relive it all again. However, Hilt had risked his life several times to save her and whether she had wanted his help or not, he had earned her trust.
     
    “Okay, I’ll tell you, but I need to sit down.” She didn’t add that her feet hurt, her back hurt, she had a headache, and she was pretty sure that her entire left side was one massive bruise from when Hilt had dropped her. But she never had been a complainer. She had left that to her mother.
     
    “Here,” Hilt said. He opened his pack and pulled out a small bundle of pink cloth about the size of a handkerchief.
     
    “I’m supposed to sit on that?” Beth asked. Hilt chuckled. He was so quick to laugh. It reminded her a bit of her husband. “No. But it should keep you warm.”
     
    He unfolded it and kept unfolding it. The cloth was thin and gauzy and by the time he was done it was the size of a large bed sheet.
     
    “That’s supposed to keep me warm?” The pink thing fluttered in the breeze and if he let it go, she imagined it would soar off into the sky.
     
    Hilt sighed and gave her