Faormuc by J.B. Jones (general ebook reader .txt) 📕

"It is my fond wish that you enjoy your nights spent in the bunkhouse, Husband," she said in honeyed tones.

He sat in one of the chairs and enjoyed shade with the cat.  He could not concentrate on the sparse facts he knew of the faormuc.  They watched the sun gather up skirts of cloud as it curtsied toward midafternoon.  Kayla clattered out the door, a brace of heavy duty gardening tools over her shoulder.  She was scrubbed clean and had on galoshes that swallowed her to the knee.  Her eyes flared a warning at the two beasts that stood and watched her galumph toward Her Farm.

*****

Colryn smiled at the cat, shook his head, and then smiling wider, made his way toward the bunkhouse of the men he employed to watch over the animal herds and patrol the nearby forests to keep predators at bay, those with two legs and those with more.  Along the way the cat fell into loose formation with him.  As they skirted the fenceline that contained some of the cattle that Col owned, an ambitious young bull broke from the herd and trotted toward them.

Col and the cat that was larger than he remembered watched it come.  His cattle were not the passive, grass-fed, stout and somewhat lazy sort that dotted the pasture land of some of the neighboring ranchers found here in Selena.  These were aurochs; rangier, more muscular animals that were prone to foraging for their food in the predator filled wilds of the surrounding forests.  They were hardy beasts, impervious to foul weather and unrivaled protectors of their family groups, in particular, and the entire herds' calves, in general.  These bonds extended to the select few humans that provided care for them.

Several adaptations set the auroch apart from their more sedate cousins, one of those being they were omnivorous.  They could, and would if necessary, eat meat.  Also would they eat grass and hay, which made it possible to domesticate them to some extent.  This breed much preferred the forage to be discovered far inside the old growth forests, and that is what made them worth raising despite the challenges involved.

In the wild, their cloven front hooves, sharp as the finest cutlery, were both weapons against aggressors and tools used to dig past the roots and into the forest floor to uncover a species of mushroom that grew in massive colonies below ground.

Their necks were far longer, close on a third of the body length, which enabled them to reach high into the surrounding trees for fresher meals, with a greater water content.  This variation also gave the animals access to a variety of nuts and seedpods as well as the somewhat common chewsome herbs that sprouted from the gnarled bark of a few of the tree species.

The diet of nuts, seeds, mushrooms and herbs combined with the auroch's other forage to make their meat a tasty, and expensive, delicacy much prized by the well-to-do and those ranchers ambitious enough to raise them.

The curious bull halted as the cat jumped to the top rail of the fence.  It bowed and pawed at the earth, swinging a head topped with forward facing horns tipped like lances.   Atop the railing, the cat sat watching the bull do what bulls did. The near-cat-once-more twitched tufted ears as some insect or other buzzed and caroused around its head.  The bovine rushed forward a few paces and resumed swinging its head and pawing the ground.  The feline hopped down, turned away and sprayed the animal full in the face with musky urine.

   Colryn chuckled and moved further away.  "Cat, I believe you will find this lesson simple to remember."

With a trumpeting nasal squeal that caused the others in the closeby family group to turn toward it in alarm, the bullock ran to the fence, placed its front hooves on the top rail and shot its own stream of urine at the cat, drenching it.  With an affronted yowl, the soaked feline tore off across the yard.  It stopped now and then to give a violent shake that wrung a nimbus of pee droplets from its coat, then rolled in the grass and screeched disgusted cat noises.

Jonsai rode around the bunkhouse on one of the acquired horses to see what the commotion was about.

Col continued toward him, still chuckling, holding up a hand to stay his progress.

"Tis nothing, Jonsai.  The cat was learning things.  Gather the men, we need to jaw some about today.  Has Marku gone?"

"Nay, Col.  He is still working on his kit," he said.  Looking at the animal tossing in the grass and spitting cat curses, Jon frowned, then asked, "Is that thing bigger?"

"That is one of the things we will talk about, Jon.  Round them up."

*****

 Striding through the door of the cabin, Colryn saw eleven men scattered around the great room, some leaning against the oaken walls, others seated.  Jonsai came from the kitchen area with a large mug of coffee, steam wafting from it as he offered it to the boss.   Col blew across the top of the cup and sipped. 

"Who is not here?"

"I have Boots and his crew riding herd on one of the family groups out in the boonies.  They will return before sundown, Col.  Marku is in the tack room.  Shall I fetch him?"

Shaking his head, Colryn told him, "We wait until the others return."  He sniffed the air.  "Cookies has outdone herself again." 

He chatted with the men, while food smells made empty stomachs grumble, tobacco smoke wafted from an assortment of pipes and rollups and coffee flowed.  Colryn had the group laughing at his telling of the stories of the scalded cat and Jon's scholastic hectoring of the captives, when the lowing of the returning family herd sounded.  Jon dispatched several of the group to go and help the crew get the animals settled and insisted they hurry everyone back to the bunkhouse once that task was finished.

In groups of twos and threes, Boots and his five men, along with the few Jon had sent to help them, traipsed through the doorway.  Marku cantered up to the house and hitched his horse to the porch rail, comiing in last.  He caught Colryn's attention and flipped the beribboned scroll to him.  Catching it, he raised a questioning eyebrow but the woodsman just shrugged.

"Found it in the emissaries cast-offs."

With a thoughtful look, he tucked the scroll away then Col told them all to get some food and something to wash the dust down. 

Cookies scurried into the room and announced, "Chow.  Eat, you buffoons or the hogs will feast on your dinner."

A playful chorus of comments like, "As well they should!" erupted from the gathering.  Cookies harrumphed and turned her rather large and prominent backside to them, giving it a sharp slap, muttering under her breath, "Ungrateful wretches.  Serve you right if alls ye ate from here on is beanies an' pork rinds."

The men chowed down on large bowls of hearty stew in a savory spiced gravy with fresh-baked herb bread.  Cookies wandered the room refilling coffee mugs and was returning to the kitchen when Col stopped her.

"You should hear this, Cookies.  It may concern us all." 

She nodded and motioned with the coffee pot that she needed to return it to the cook fire, then came back and scowled at Boots until he moved over on the large bench so she could settle her out-sized behind.

"I am sure most of you have heard some of what happened to Michaela this afternoon.  I shall not retell the whole of it, Jonsai can fill you in on the details.  There is one thing of import that every one of you should know.

"It concerns Kayla's mostly-cat.  It is not, any longer. Or, not only a cat, I suppose."

Confused looks and muttered questions spread around the group listening to their boss.  'not a cat?'

Holding up a hand to garner their attention once more, he continued, "It may have once been a cat but now it is different.  Why it is different is what is important.  Kayla can tell you much more about this, but for the nonce this is what you need to hear.  The animal is storm bent.  As she once explained to me, any animal may suffer this and it is not known why.  A storm bent creature has but one focus and is quite attuned to the darkest of sorceries.  In the presence of profound and most dangerous evil wizardry, these animals change.  They become something very different - faormuc."

He paused to drink from his mug and give the hands a chance to take hold of his message.  Marku, perhaps the most worldly amongst them, leaned against the wall tapping his steepled fingers together, a thoughtful frown behind his beard.  Cookies hissed in a noisome breath, her eyes widened and she stabbed forked fingers before her in a superstitious gesture said to ward off evil.  Jon gazed into the distance, a neutral expression on his face, thin lips sipped his own coffee and the others again looked confused and voiced still more questions amongst themselves.

"Once more, Kayla is the authority on this.  She has forgotten more of the lore of magick than any of us will ever know.  Speak with her as you will, but know this:  The faormuc come to be so that they might battle the darkest and most powerful adepts of sorcery.  This day did we run afoul of a formidable and dangerous magician."

*****

For a short while after, Colryn worked the room making small talk with his men, answering what questions he could until Marku caught his eye, then walked out the door onto the porch.

Colryn worked his way to the door while Jonsai set the night's watches and the others drifted off into smaller groups throughout the house. Before leaving, Col made it a point to stop and speak with Cookies who seemed to have been sorely affected by the information he had shared. 

Snatching a hunk of the herbed bread and dipping it into some gravy, he nibbled at it as she spoke of her concerns.

Winding down, Cookies said, "A'int afeared to tell ye, bossman. I wants no part of sorc...uh, sorce...damn wizards and theys ilk.  Theys foul, them magickers is." 

Holding up the last bite of bread, Col smiled at the distraught woman and said, "Cookies, you are a magician.  No one that did not practice wizardry could do the things in this kitchen that you do."  He popped it into his mouth.

She blushed and swatted him on the shoulder.  "Be off with you, flirt.  And take this to Miz Kayla," she told him, handing Colryn a bowl covered with a towel and several chunks of the bread resting in a small covered bowl set atop some coals held in a larger earthen container.  She returned to the kitchen to begin cleaning up the evening mess, growling under her breath, "Was I some damned wizard I could magick this slop away."  She snorted and went to work.

Moving to the door, he put down the bowls and clapped Jonsai on the shoulder,  "I owe you my thanks, Jon.  And Michaela's, as well," Col told him.   Only just able to conceal his mirth, he went on,  "But we really