Snippet from "The Wolves of Kilgaryn"

Here there be raw verbage and my telltale runon sentances. I didn't want our page to get stale so I'm throwing this out to show we are indeed going to finish a short story this week. Since this format would get long over the course of the week, tomorrow I'll likely just throw a paragraph or two up rather than the whole kit and kaboodle.

The Wolves of Kilgaryn

It was a cool, comfortable morning, but I had worked up a sweat nonetheless. The hill was steep enough for a young man and that had not described me for many years. Indeed, the climb made my left knee throb a bit, though not too badly. All in all I felt quite well and even stamped about some where it was more of a gentle rise rather than an incline. Being none there to say otherwise I was king of this hill and proceeded to survey my domain. Small stands of browse were leafless, showing that small herds of goats had already crossed this hill. The grass itself was yet ungrazed and sparkled in dew left from fog that was thinning as it slowly made it's way through the valley. It had already left the upper pastures and was flowing slowly past Castle Kilgaryn and the small village of the same name. Small white spots contrasted verdant green in the area that surrounded the castle proving the prosperity of the land and herds of sheep.

Not caring that my cotton breeches would soak up dew and be later uncomfortable, I tossed my macintosh and cudgel next to a likely spot for a seat. Early, yes, but a pipe smoke was what would be the thing right now. The short-stemmed meershaum had been pre-filled with a favorite blend in expectation of an old man's pleasure, and the breeze moved just enough to bend the flame and carry off the ensuing cloud to mingle with the misty ocean down below.

Pleased with my forethought in preparing for the hike I sat in perfect contentment. The fog still slightly obscured the village, but the range to my left was in perfect view. It was beautiful the way the forest flowed around the larger hills, seemingly leaving them as islands in a tide of gently swaying green. The trees had made an attempt at covering the smaller hills, but were thin near the rocky crowns. It was on one of these sparsley covered hilltops that I noticed some dark shapes moving in the direction of the valley. They were several hills and miles from the open pastures that were near the castle, but I knew what they were and so also knew that it would not matter just yet because it was still morning. These were wolves and they would probably be content to lurk just inside the forest until nightfall. I looked back to the pastures to see if a shepherd was present. Often blending motionless with the landscape near his charges, a shepherd would be difficult to spot from my current location.