Chapter 2
Cornell woke up early. The sun had yet to rise and the cold air of the night still loomed outside. Cornell took a deep breath and sighed. He got out of bed and stretched as his wolven senses began to awake. For the meanwhile, he went to the kitchen and sat at the table with his head laid down.
"It is nice to see you awake this early."
Matthew's voice was somber as usual. He came and sat in front of Cornell.
"Since you are up so promptly, would you go into the forest and collect more firewood?"
"Sure, Father." Cornell mumbled. He got up and left the kitchen, off to search for his coat. After a few minutes he realized he had given it to Ada. Ada! Cornell had nearly forgotten!
"Have you found your coat yet?" Matthew asked after watching Cornell search.
"Um...not yet..."
"Hmm...that's queer..." Matthew came into the room that Cornell was in. "I don't remember seeing you with it yesterday evening either..."
Cornell looked up at Matthew. So he had noticed... This was his indirect way of asking what happened to his coat...
"Oh. Yes...that is right..." Cornell said. He looked back down with a puzzled expression, stalling for time to think up an excuse. An excuse clever enough for Matthew to believe.
"I...gave it to a drifter, you see..."
Matthew raised an eyebrow. "A drifter you say?"
Cornell looked up at him and nodded earnestly. Matthew gazed into his son's eyes with suspicion. Cornell did his best to look sincere.
"And why might you give your coat to a drifter...?"
"He was cold."
"He was cold...?" Matthew repeated.
"He was cold."
Matthew remained silent for a moment. He had given in from questioning him and narrowed his eyes at Cornell instead.
"Drifters are insignificant..." Matthew said, turning away and heading back to the kitchen. "They would have died sooner or later anyway."
"You didn't say that about Mother..."
Matthew stopped and glared back at his son. Cornell stared at the ground again.
"Just a thought..." Cornell mumbled and hurried out the door before Matthew could say anything. He headed to the forest to check on Ada first. When he arrived, the snowless circle was empty. She and his coat were gone as well.
"Ada?" He called. "Ada!"
After a few minutes, Ada came running out from the trees. She looked up at Cornell and ran over to him.
"I'm glad to see you too." Cornell said. "I haven't any food for you now though..."
Ada looked slightly disappointed.
"That's alright though. I'll go look now."
After another meal of cooked hare, Cornell wandered back to the tribe's village to find new clothing for Ada in the store shed. Cornell opened the door to the large shed and peaked inside. Goods that the tribe had collected from the raids in the past seasons were kept here: Clothing, weapons, books, human trinkets and many other things. By some man-wolf standards, the store shed was organized quite neat. Books were piled on one side and miscellaneous things piled on the other. Clothing lay in a large pile in the back of the shed. Marcell was inside examining goods the tribe had gathered. He looked to see who had entered.
"Hey! What are you doing here, Cornell?"
"Just looking..." Cornell muttered, looking around as though he were interested. He wandered over to where the clothing was. "And what areyou doing here?"
"Looking for books to read..."
"Oh..." Cornell said. He spotted a gown a little bigger than Ada's size. Cornell picked the gown up and folded it neatly. "There's a surprise..."
"Yeah, well... Father's giving me lessons on scroll writing. I heard from him you're pretty good at it."
"Of course. Matthew makes sure of it... If even one line is jagged, I'll have to write it all over again. It takes me an age just to write one of them!"
Marcell laughed. "Good luck for you... I can't write one! My handwriting is horrible. Looks like a bunch of chicken scratches, my father says..."
Cornell gathered the rest of the clothes he found for Ada and another coat for himself. He rummaged for a pair of matching shoes for Ada, and got up with the clothing stack.
"Your father is much nicer than mine." He said, hurrying out the door before Marcell could see him. "I've got the mean one in the family. Well, I'll see you..."
Cornell came back to where Ada waited. She sat in the snow and made small snow figures (which looked more like lumps of snow). He picked her up and carried her in one arm, the clothing pile in the other.
"Now to give you a good washing. I know it's cold, but we can warm water."
Cornell found a deserted cauldron big enough for Ada to fit inside twice. He also found some spare cloth and a piece of soap in the store shed. He placed the things, including Ada, in the cauldron and dragged it to a lake in the forest.
"Whee!" Ada exclaimed, as Cornell dragged the cauldron across the ground swiftly.
"Easy for you to say, I'm the one pulling this heavy bucket!" Cornell looked around to make sure no one had spotted him. The camp was still and quiet. There wasn't a sign of any life around. Bears weren't the only ones hibernating...
After giving Ada a bath and new clothes, he left her with more food and created a shelter for her under a make-shift tent. Next, he would find some sort of toy or puzzle for her to play with. Cornell filled himself with pride. Maybe he wasn't such a bad caretaker after all! Once he was out of the forest and headed home, he remembered the firewood his father asked him to get and nearly collapsed. He was tired from all the walking and chores that he had done for Ada.
"Firewood..." Cornell sighed. He grabbed the ax that he had left home in the first place and headed towards the forest once more. He came back home that evening with a wheel barrow full of wood. The sun had set and the camp was as much a still and quiet snow village as before. Not the type of snow village you'd find in one of those fancy glass orbs, Cornell thought as he looked around the empty and dark streets, but a desolate one that held the fears of mankind. It was a village that was taken and driven by force, whose inhabitants cared nothing for it but their own survival. Cornell felt guilty of his existence once more. He felt that he had been the one who took away Ada's home and parents, forcing her to live in the wilderness.
As he returned home, he didn't bother notifying his father. He had been mysteriously gone all day and had missed his study lessons. No, he didn't bother. Cornell placed the spare wood by the back of the house and dragged himself silently inside for bed.
