Member-only story
By the Dark of the New Moon
“There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.” — Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man’s Fear
Otso leaned back in his chair and rubbed thick fingers down his gray beard as he frowned at the game board. Sáhkku was a traditional game of the Sámi people of Finland, and he learned to play from his father on those long, winter nights when the reindeer herds were still far off, grazing on the high plateaus until the spring migration. However, after sixty years of playing, Otso admitted that he was still not very good at the game.
Sitting on the porch across from him his oldest friend, Henddo, studied the board with an ill-concealed smirk. Where Otso was large, burly, and indefatigably serious, Henddo was a small, wiry man with an ever-present smile. Osto watched as Henddo’s eyes scanned the wooden playing pieces; cone-shaped wedges represented the male soldiers, and hook-shaped wedges fashioned after the traditional Sámi laddjogapir hats represented the female soldiers. Henddo had carved the pieces himself and took particular pride in the king piece, which he had whittled to depict a seated bear with remarkable detail.
Otso rolled his eyes and waved at the board, groaning at his paucity of remaining light-colored pieces confronting Henddo’s dark-painted ones. “Just roll the dice, Henddo, and…
