the tent for shelter and I did and I felt happy in that tent with Arrn with the soft rain outside and very soon I fell asleep. I liked them stones, named after Arrn. I liked that spring with the laughing water. I liked being in the tent with Arrn lying by me and Drunkle outside with his gun against the monsters and I liked Rhiannon bringing me soup in the futureness and I liked being in the High Places miles away from NotDad in the Town in the belowness and all of them things were why I fell asleep so very soon and easy.
I was waked up by a drummy noise, the noise of the rain on the tent sounding like a drum. The noise was in my head too between my ears and my hand went out for Arrn but he wasn’t there so I sat up and moved on my bum to the door of the tent which hadn’t been zipped up so it was open and I looked out at the watery world, the mist and the mountains and rain falling down all over everything and I saw Drunkle sitting up against one of them two tall stones and he was wearing an orange anorak thing with the hood pulled up and he was drinking from a bottle cos he’s my Drunkle and Arrn was with him too and Arrn saw me then there in the tent-door and he came over to me doing a wag and I patted his head and he came inside the tent with me and sat by my side. Drunkle saw me and smiled.
—Feeling better, bach? Bit of sleep sorted you out, aye?
I didn’t know the answer to that cos I’d only just waked up so I just drank some water from a bottle instead and asked Drunkle if he’d seen any monsters or beasts while I’d been asleep.
—Not out
here
, boy, no, he said. He kind of waved his bottle at the mountain and he said the word ‘here’ as if it weighed more than his other words. —There’s some food in a bag there for you. See in the pocket?
He pointed to the side of the tent and I saw a bulge in that-sided-ness and I reached over Arrn and took out the bulge and it was a white Co-op bag with some food in it, a Mars bar and a pastie and an apple and some crisps. I opened the pastie and Arrn’s red ears and his eyebrows too went up at the rustlement so I gave him a bit of the crust and he ate it and I ate as well.
Pat pat pat went the rain. Pat pat pat on the tent.
I asked Drunkle if he wanted to come in the tent with me and Arrn out of the rain but he said no he was okay. Said he liked the feeling of the rain on him and that the stone he was leaning against was all the shelter he would ever need altho I could not see how that could be cos I mean what if it was to go all of a sudden stormy? No roof on the stone it just went up and didn’t stick out or anything nor did the other one next to it. They were both just two tall sticky-up stones like an eleven.
Drunkle was going to start speaking His Words, I could tell. Was going to start telling his stories like he does but they’re not really proper stories I don’t know what to call them I just call them Drunkle’s Words.
—See that? he said, making a point with his bottle hand into and through the rain which pat-pat-patted on the tent. —See that mound over there?
There were millions of mounds out there and I didn’t know which one he meant so I just told him yes. Arrn nose-nudged me so I gave him the last bit of pastie and I started to eat the Mars bar. I mean the whole High Places were moundy. A million massive mounds there are in these High Parts.
—It’s called a tumulus. It’s a burial mound. Some people call it a barrow but barrow, tumulus, it means the same thing. Inside it there are the bones of a person who was very very important to the people that used to live up here. There’ll be bones in there, and trinkets, things like jewellery and weapons and other bones too maybe of that important person’s dog or horse. Dogs were revered by those people, see. Cos of their role in hunting.
I put one hand on Arrn’s back the hand without the Mars bar and I felt his back go up and then down again in a softness as he breathed because
I was waked up by a drummy noise, the noise of the rain on the tent sounding like a drum. The noise was in my head too between my ears and my hand went out for Arrn but he wasn’t there so I sat up and moved on my bum to the door of the tent which hadn’t been zipped up so it was open and I looked out at the watery world, the mist and the mountains and rain falling down all over everything and I saw Drunkle sitting up against one of them two tall stones and he was wearing an orange anorak thing with the hood pulled up and he was drinking from a bottle cos he’s my Drunkle and Arrn was with him too and Arrn saw me then there in the tent-door and he came over to me doing a wag and I patted his head and he came inside the tent with me and sat by my side. Drunkle saw me and smiled.
—Feeling better, bach? Bit of sleep sorted you out, aye?
I didn’t know the answer to that cos I’d only just waked up so I just drank some water from a bottle instead and asked Drunkle if he’d seen any monsters or beasts while I’d been asleep.
—Not out
here
, boy, no, he said. He kind of waved his bottle at the mountain and he said the word ‘here’ as if it weighed more than his other words. —There’s some food in a bag there for you. See in the pocket?
He pointed to the side of the tent and I saw a bulge in that-sided-ness and I reached over Arrn and took out the bulge and it was a white Co-op bag with some food in it, a Mars bar and a pastie and an apple and some crisps. I opened the pastie and Arrn’s red ears and his eyebrows too went up at the rustlement so I gave him a bit of the crust and he ate it and I ate as well.
Pat pat pat went the rain. Pat pat pat on the tent.
I asked Drunkle if he wanted to come in the tent with me and Arrn out of the rain but he said no he was okay. Said he liked the feeling of the rain on him and that the stone he was leaning against was all the shelter he would ever need altho I could not see how that could be cos I mean what if it was to go all of a sudden stormy? No roof on the stone it just went up and didn’t stick out or anything nor did the other one next to it. They were both just two tall sticky-up stones like an eleven.
Drunkle was going to start speaking His Words, I could tell. Was going to start telling his stories like he does but they’re not really proper stories I don’t know what to call them I just call them Drunkle’s Words.
—See that? he said, making a point with his bottle hand into and through the rain which pat-pat-patted on the tent. —See that mound over there?
There were millions of mounds out there and I didn’t know which one he meant so I just told him yes. Arrn nose-nudged me so I gave him the last bit of pastie and I started to eat the Mars bar. I mean the whole High Places were moundy. A million massive mounds there are in these High Parts.
—It’s called a tumulus. It’s a burial mound. Some people call it a barrow but barrow, tumulus, it means the same thing. Inside it there are the bones of a person who was very very important to the people that used to live up here. There’ll be bones in there, and trinkets, things like jewellery and weapons and other bones too maybe of that important person’s dog or horse. Dogs were revered by those people, see. Cos of their role in hunting.
I put one hand on Arrn’s back the hand without the Mars bar and I felt his back go up and then down again in a softness as he breathed because
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