4 Saun Arc 720
Oram frowned without looking up from his labors. ”You could get out of my light,” he groused back, ”if you aren’t actually going to help.”
The older brother scoffed and then shuffled to a corner of the tent, where he set the bag he had brought at the foot of his younger brother’s cot. He sat himself on that cot and exhaled loudly while he took off his straw hat and wiped his brow; he was already drenched in sweat just from the short walk out here. ”You could get a workspace in town, too,” he added.
”It’s cooler here, I think,”Oram retorted.
”Not for me,” Osric answered, causing the hunter to grin. Oram had set the tent up as a large fly, with the canvas walls stretched out horizontally and lashed to trees, so as to afford as much as possible of both whatever breeze there was and also shade against the now-paired suns. In addition to being (hopefully) cooler, this arrangement was much roomier than the tent’s normal walls-down configuration.
”Have some water and cool down while I finish up here,” Oram invited. He had been in the process of drilling holes in a block sawed off a four-by-four timber. Since he did not have an actual drill, he was using the end of his knife to start the holes, then the narrowed end of a harder piece of wood (hickory) to expand them. That piece was itself a sawed off section of fishing-pole, which he would eventually mount onto said baseboard when he was ready. Which he wasn’t yet. Another short section of four-by-four sat next to him, on which were mounted two arches of willow, stuck into holes in the baseboard that he had drilled with the same combination of knife and hickory. It had taken a break and more just to do that work. With a wood drill, he could have finished it in half the time.
Oram did not have to suggest drinking to Osric twice. His older brother opened up a water skin and gulped down several mouthfuls while he put his work aside. Osric peered at it curiously. ”Scissor trap,” Oram said, answering the unasked question in his brother’s look. ”New way to catch mice. I’m trying out putting it on a baseboard to make it portable.” Osric nodded. ”Blocks are kinda big, though, don’t you think?” he offered.
Oram shrugged. ”It’s my first attempt, and I wanted to leave myself lots of room for error. Once I get the hang of it, I’ll make ‘em smaller.”
Osric nodded again, then reached for the bag. ”I brought us some bread. You got any stew left?” Oram pointed at the pot on the tripod over the fire outside his tent. ”Sure do. Made extra in case you showed up.”
Os leaned over so that he could look around his brother at the pot. ”The stew any good?”
”It should be. Your wife prepared most of it, after all. I just added some meat and salt and cooked it.” Signy had a way with broths, and with adding just the right mix of vegetables. The stew smelled delicious, even from all the way where the brothers were sitting.
The two brothers wiped the sawdust off the crude table Oram had set up, and draped over it a stained, threadbare stretch of burlap that would have given Signy fits had she seen the men using it for a tablecloth. Oram wouldn’t have even bothered with the cloth if he weren’t entertaining his brother. They laid out a couple wooden bowls and spoons, and set their knives alongside. Oram went to the fire and brought over the stew while Osric broke up the bread.
They ate awhile in silence. Osric looked at something behind Oram. ”I see you’re making more fish baskets, too.”
Oram nodded mutely, chewing on a piece of bread. His brother continued to regard the thing, frowning. ”You got some kind of square hole cut in it?” Oram nodded again, then after a moment swallowed. ”Customer wanted a little door in the cage so that it was easier to change out bait or ballast.”
Osric’s eyes brightened and narrowed at the same time. As with most of his brother’s expressions and looks, Oram knew this one: his brother was about to propose something he found exciting.
”Doors use hinges, you know. Latches, too. I can sell you all sorts of metal parts, really cheap, too. Make your traps better.”
Oram shook his head. ”Like you yourself said, metal parts corrode too quickly underwater. Remember?”
Os rolled his eyes. ”Of course I remember! I wasn’t talking about this particular trap. Think about it in the future, okay?” Oram, simply to get his brother off his back, said he would. They ate the rest of their lunch in silence.
