Caillte 3

Mairy was just settling down to a cup of tea after her less than satisfying dinner of re-heated stew, when she heard a familiar if unexpected sound just outside the cabin.  She scrambled up from her chair and brushed down her skirts before heading for the door.  Patting her hair into place she opened the door wide, a smile there to welcome her Thom.  She looked up, then out to the right and to the left.  Where the devil was the man?  Then she felt the nudge at her hip.  The familiar nuzzle that had to be her Conn.  She reached down and gave him a scratch behind the ears, still peering about looking for Thom.  Not seeing him, she kneeled down, "Well then, where has he gone and hidden himself?"

"Och, ye aren't goin to tell me know are ye?  Been off on the hunt with my fool man, an now I'll have to tease ye back to me side? Is that the way of it?  Well, now, come on it and we'll see who has who wrapped around a pinky," Mairy smiled as she lead the way into the house.  She went over to the cupboard and pulled down the tin where she kept the hound's biscuits.  Twas a good thing she had taken the time to bake and fill the tin to brimming.  She turned, surprised to find that Coll had followed Conn in.  It wasn't often that the grey came into the house. He preferred to be out of doors, only coming in on truly chill nights to share the fire with his brother.  She sighed, and pulled out an extra biscuit.  "One for each of ye rascals then, I guess," she mumbled as she fed them each a treat.

Walking to the door she waved them out, "Now tis' your turn to give me a treat.  Take me to Thom loves."

The hounds moved through the door and down the short steps to the ground.  They walked as far as Cait's pen and then turned and sat.  Their mangy heads turned a bit sideways, the beards of their chins wagging just a bit.  Mairy noticed that Kevin and Finn were already in their pen, resting as if the trip had been long, too long for them to bother with trying to finagle a treat of their own.

That as very odd.  The pack almost always made a bee-line for her to claim their treat for bringing Thom home safe and sound.  Where the hell was the man?  And where was Cait for that matter?

She whistled for Cait.  Mairy had bonded to the she-hound when she saved her and her pups over a year or so ago.  They spent a good deal of time together.  Cait even stayed in to listen to the books she read to Conn.  It was odd how the hound had changed after the whelping, she was far more motherly to these two pups than she had been to any of the ones that had come before, that was a certainty.  And Mairy found that she liked the gentler Cait a great deal more.  She whistled again, but still the hound did not appear. She looked over at the pens, where Kevin and Finn lay with their heads down on their paws, eyes on her all the same and where Conn and Coll sat, now turned away from her to stare into Cait's pen as if she might be in there somehow.

She walked over to them, moving to stand between them.  The two hounds stood and leaned into her, one to each hip.  She scratched them beneath a shaggy ear.  "Somethin's happened hasn't it.  Some strange thing that cannot be explained, but there it is anyway.  Only you canna be tellin me anything more than silence and absence.  If ye are here and they are not, then I best be getting ready to go look for them, eh?  An I am of the thought that ye best plan on comin' wi' me."

She crossedt to the house in quick strides, her eyes glazing with unshed tears.  Opening the door she turned to the younger hounds, now on their feet and peering up under their bushy brows at her.  "Well, in or out, ye can't have it both ways.  I can give ye a night to rest as I get me stuff together, but on the morrow we will have to be gone.  And ye are gonna need to help me.  Goodness knows I ha' not a clue what I am supposed to do at this point."  The hounds moved with a quiet, soft pad over the ground and up into the house, going at once to lay down before the hearth..  Mairy closed the door.

She ran her hands over the smooth wood, then rested her cheek against it.  "Please give me the strength and the courage to stand through this trial.  Help me to find Thom, let me not give up on my journey," she whispered against the wood.  Rubbing a tear from her cheek with the back of her hand, she made her way to the small cellar and began to gather the small supplies she thought she would need and could carry.  It took her about an hour and a half to pull together what she thought she would need and then to set aside what she knew she would not be able to carry alone for long enough to make taking it along worth while.  Finally, she sat down in her chair next to her now very cold tea.  Conn moved to rest his muzzle in her lap.  She stroked his head and let her head drop against the back of the chair. She felt Coll at her other side, a hard edge pressing into her arm.  Looking down she was surprised to see the hound was nosing her book.  "Well, wonders truly abound, tis not like you at all to seek a story Master Coll.  I wasna thinkin of readin tonight, but perhaps a page or two will help."

She sat back in the chair and opened the book, beginning to read the Tale of Oisin outloud to the two hounds that lay at her feet, their eyes resting upon her.  She made it only a few short passages before the tears fell again and she had to set the book aside. "I'm sorry boyos, not tonight.  It's for bed I am. best get your rest, we'll be off to find Thom in the morning." She tamped the fire and pulled a blanket up over her on the chair, curling up to catch the last bit of heat and praying that sleep would come to her as easily as it would to the hounds at her feet.