The svart-elf Eldri visits the home of Mr. Gulley. Finding him out, Eldri lets himself in. He goes down to Mr. Gulley\u2019s basement.<\/p>\n
He stares at Fenris for a while.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy word, \u201d he says, softly. \u201cYou\u2019re almost free.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou look like Hell, Eldri,\u201d says the wolf.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was nuked,\u201d says Eldri, which is true. There\u2019d been an incident in Bibury. \u201cBut I had a shelter. Don\u2019t suppose nuking would do much to you<\/em>, would it?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFeel free,\u201d says Fenris, \u201cto try.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d like to come closer,\u201d says Eldri. \u201cI\u2019d like to put something on those wounds. Numb them a bit. And take advantage of the opportunity to evaluate the status of the chains.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDo it, then,\u201d says Fenris.<\/p>\n \u201cWould you eat me?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEventually,\u201d concedes Fenris.<\/p>\n Eldri scowls. He waves in his ultimate fetch-playing robot. It\u2019s a robot that\u2019s extremely good, at playing fetch. The robot wiggles a finger in front of Fenris\u2019 nose. Fenris follows the finger. Then the robot mimes throwing something.<\/p>\n Fenris lunges. Fenris smacks into the basement wall. Fenris blinks three times, dazed.<\/p>\n The wolf looks back at the robot in betrayal.<\/p>\n The robot has used Fenris\u2019 distraction to scoop up a real ball. It is a fifty-pound sphere of metal. It shakes the ball. It throws it.<\/p>\n Eldri creeps closer.<\/p>\n Fenris eats the robot. Fenris whips its head around to glare at Eldri. Then it hacks. It coughs. The ultimate fetch-playing robot was stuffed to its metal gills with boot leather.<\/p>\n \u201cGah,\u201d says Fenris. \u201cGack. Glargh. Gah!\u201d<\/p>\n Fenris is extremely bad at chewing, swallowing, and digesting boot leather. Fenris is extremely bad at spitting things out once they\u2019re in its mouth, throat, or belly. These weaknesses combine \u2014 into a single, perfect storm!<\/p>\n \u201cGlack!\u201d whimpers Fenris, combining several previous sounds. Its throat works. Its eyes roll.<\/p>\n Eldri sneaks closer.<\/p>\n Eldri attempts to check on the bonds that hold the wolf.<\/p>\n The wolf snaps at him. It bites down on something like bubblegum. Eldri is prepared. <\/em>The substance it has bitten into expands in the wolf\u2019s mouth and levers open its jaws until they meet the limits of its muzzling-cord. The wolf has trouble seeing over its wide-stretched muzzle. It squints and wriggles its head, trying to see the dwarf.<\/p>\n It is practically the worst thing the wolf has experienced since Eldri and Brygmir tied it up in the first place, fourteen hundred years before.<\/p>\n It panics. It flails.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s an accident, really, what happens. It\u2019s not really anybody in particular\u2019s fault.<\/p>\n If the wolf had tried<\/em> it then Eldri would probably have stopped it. The wolf doesn\u2019t try. If the wolf had intended <\/em>it then Eldri might have read that intention. It doesn\u2019t intend it. It\u2019s too busy panicking over the robot in its throat and the gum in its mouth and its inability to get a good line of sight on the svart-elf smith.<\/p>\n But \u2014<\/p>\n Intent or no, it does it anyway.<\/p>\n It\u2019s scrabbling. It\u2019s retreating, and it\u2019s scrabbling, and it catches Eldri in the lower part of his stomach with one of its great long claws and rakes it upwards and sideways and out it spills his guts.<\/p>\n \u201cOh, God,\u201d says Eldri.<\/p>\n Blood rushes out.<\/p>\n \u201cOh, God,\u201d he whispers.<\/p>\n He is not just upset because of his agonizing stomach wound. He is staring at what\u2019s remaining of the wolf\u2019s svart-made silken cord.<\/p>\n He and Brygmir had made it from the footfalls of a cat and the arms of a four-armed ape; the spittle of a bird and the sacredness of death; the torment of the willing and the bearing witness to the wrongness; and the tape that binds an emu; and the perseverance of hope. And at the time it had seemed pretty sturdy.<\/p>\n But now . . .<\/p>\n He can see where the tape of emus has been scissored; where the torment of the willing is rather frayed; that the bird\u2019s spit is so dry it isn\u2019t helping; and the sacredness of death and the perseverance of hope have been swallowed, eaten, and forgotten \u2014<\/p>\n If there were ever such things at all.<\/p>\n Eldri thinks about how to fix this, even though he is dying. He works, even though he has no time left. He tries, so very desperately, to add the fading life of a svart-elf <\/em>to the structure of the chain but \u2014<\/p>\n A paw comes down on him. It breaks his back. It crushes it.<\/p>\n He dies so fast he\u2019s still trying to do something smith-like for like three whole seconds after he is already gone.<\/p>\n After a while Mr. Gulley comes home and he stands at the top of the stairs. He looks down.<\/p>\n His face is affectless.<\/p>\n Fenris hiccups up a bit of robot, gum, and boot. It sniffs miserably at the resulting scraps. It looks up pleadingly at Mr. Gulley.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t possibly expect me to clean that up,\u201d says Mr. Gulley.<\/p>\n Fenris noses Eldri\u2019s corpse. It wants to eat it. But it can\u2019t eat it. For the first time in a life of hunger it cannot imagine how it would keep food down.<\/p>\n The wolf hiccups again.<\/p>\n \u201cWho is that, anyway?\u201d Mr. Gulley asks.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know. Somebody. You left him out,\u201d says Fenris. \u201cThat makes this your fault. You\u2019re not supposed to leave dwarves and robots out around the wolf.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSays who?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cStands to reason,\u201d argues Fenris.<\/p>\n \u201cWho is<\/em> he?\u201d says Mr. Gulley. \u201cAnd \u2014 you\u2019re not supposed to kill people. Look at him. He had a life!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe was trying to check my cord,\u201d says Fenris.<\/p>\n Mr. Gulley turns off the lights. He stomps away. He slams the door.<\/p>\n After a while he comes back.<\/p>\n He\u2019s holding a loaded shotgun. It\u2019s completely useless, but he points it at the wolf anyway.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s got wolfshot in it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Fenris sulks.<\/p>\n \u201cBad wolf!\u201d says Mr. Gulley, but he can\u2019t make himself fire. Not even to make a point!<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not my fault,\u201d says Fenris. \u201cHe was bothering me.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Gulley sighs<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want him to just lay here dead,\u201d says Fenris. \u201cI don\u2019t want to eat his body.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll eat my<\/em> body,\u201d says Mr. Gulley. Then there was a pause. \u201cI mean,\u201d he says. \u201cI mean, you\u2019ve expressed plenty of willingness to kill and eat me<\/em>. And you ate my Dad.\u201d<\/p>\n Fenris tugs at the cord. The wolf stretches. It leans. Blood oozes out where over fourteen hundred years the cord has left its furrows; there is a gust of sickening stench; but the svart-cord does not budge.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to eat you either,\u201d the wolf says, after a while.<\/p>\n \u201cWow,\u201d says Mr. Gulley. \u201cEither you\u2019ve gotten better at lying or you\u2019re really sick.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI could\u2019ve eaten you any time,\u201d dismisses Fenris.<\/p>\n \u201cCould you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI could\u2019ve,\u201d Fenris says. \u201cBut you\u2019re company.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted company,\u201d says Fenris. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to be locked up in the Gulley basement alone <\/em>for all these last few seasons of my chains.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh,\u201d says Mr. Gulley.<\/p>\n He lowers the gun.<\/p>\n He sits down. \u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d he says, softly.<\/p>\n Fenris licks at Eldri\u2019s corpse a bit. The wolf looks queasy. The wolf sighs, and it turns away.<\/p>\n Mr. Gulley turns the lights back on. He makes sure the kibble bowl is full. He backs away, and he closes the door.<\/p>\n Fenris tugs with a futile irritation against its last several strands of cord.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The svart-elf Eldri visits the home of Mr. Gulley. Finding him out, Eldri lets himself in. He goes down to Mr. Gulley\u2019s basement. He stares at Fenris for a while. \u201cMy word, \u201d he says, softly. \u201cYou\u2019re almost free.\u201d \u201cYou look like Hell, Eldri,\u201d says the wolf. \u201cI was nuked,\u201d says Eldri, which is true. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"series":[50],"class_list":["post-5619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vidars-boot-chapter-4","series-vidars-boot"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Wolf_2b_Partially_Chained.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5619"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6073,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5619\/revisions\/6073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5619"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fseries&post=5619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}