5 — The Path to Heaven

5 — The Path to Heaven

“Will you stop bleeding moaning?” Lutx hauled Gimol up the steep bank. “You’ve done nothing but moan all bloody morning.”

“You nearly pulled my arm off.”

Lutx pushed Gimol on the shoulders, sending him tumbling back down the bank and into the rushing water. “Happy now?”

“You stupid bastard!What did you do that for?” spluttered Gimol, sitting in the chest high water of the stream.

“To give you something to bloody well moan about. How old are you?”

“What has that got to do with the price of eggs?”

“Nowt. But, I’m trying to figure out why you are such a useless prick. If you say you are six and missing your mummy, that might explain it.”

“Help me out.”

“Get yourself out.”

Gimol tried to climb the bank but the pain in his ribs was too much, so he waded upstream until he found a shingle beach that gently sloped up from the water. Lutx was waiting for him. He laughed at Gimol’s drenched and bedraggled state. “You’ll dry soon enough,” Lutx said, “and stop bloody moaning.”

They had not seen hide nor hair of the threatened hounds and hunters. Though Lutx was sure the threat was bluster, to be on the safe side they had…