Working Thanksgivng in

Darkness choked the magicked forest; a light
kindled here and there to trick to travelers
but not the patrolling Rangers whose sight
ignored the forest’s enchanted feelers.
Sarn shoved away an inquisitive branch,
looked about for evidence of distress.
Another boring watch with not a branch
out of place and still more hours in this press.
“Why’re we out here? There’s nothing happening,”
he complained batting a thin bough aside.
“You want to hear Thanksgiving’s beginning?”
Nolo asked; he sped up to walk beside
making conversation possible ‘gain.
The trees leaned to listen to talk of men.

~ ~ ~

Sarn nodded, stepped o’er a recoiling root.
Nolo’s story was meant to mollify
no early dismissal for this recruit.
“Long ago, men came to escape the eye
of tyranny. Long they’d traveled to reach
Shayari; their rations spent and winter
beginning. Starving, freezing, they beseeched
the Magic Kind to share food that winter,
and teach them to forage in the forest.
The following year, they shared their bounty,
Years later the Magic Kinds’ lands they wrest.
because they didn’t want to share its bounty.”
Nolo fell silent but Sarn had to speak,
“They weren’t grateful to their saviors, the sneaks.”

~ ~ ~

Neither man spoke again. They trudged on through
the night with Sarn checking slivers of sky
through tangled branches above for some blue
hint that morning dawned and the time for pie
had come. No horn blast meant no trouble still
and he hoped for an early dismissal.
Their path bent towards Mount Eredren, uphill,
’till his magic tingled. In the thistle,
his sixth sense pointed. He found a turkey,
its leg trapped, mangled, with death in its eyes.
A flash of Nolo’s knife killed the turkey,
Nolo field dressed his kill, “It’s a good size.”
Sarn nodded; he was glad he hadn’t kill it,
but what to say to Ran when they carved it?

~ ~ ~

Part  of a series of Thanksgiving posts starring Sarn, his brother Miren and his son Ran. You don’t have to read them all but if you would like to, you can see them in order on my Holiday page.

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Read more about Sarn in the Curse Breaker Saga. Like vignette-style poems? I’ve got lots on my Tales of Shayari page or my Poetic Fantasy page.

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What are you #thankful for?