Twa From A Tree: II: A Cauld Day

Two. Of the many numbers in existence, Two is one of the Three Significant Numbers. The other two are Three and Seven. Three is everywhere, it seems.

There were three horses in this hunting party. They walked in single file, with the most important rider at the front. Leading this party was the Laird of Roxburgh, an old, tall, thin, stately man of seventy-seven, with a shock of white hair upon his head. A white handlebar moustache graced his upper lip, and a goatee beard his chin. A golden yellow cloak hung about his shoulders, and his grey eyes gleamed with a level of intelligence seldom found among statesmen. In his left hand he held a hunting horn, and in his right hand he held a lance. He had named it Fox-Render, for how often he had used it in fox-hunting.
Behind the Laird rode Tam Lin, his grandson, a sprightly youth of 17. His hair was a golden crown, his eyes were like unto emeralds, and he wore a silvery grey cloak about his shoulders. A dagger was sheathed at his waist, and he groaned as his horse trod along. He felt sick. He didn't want to be here.

Last of all came the Laird's butler, Malcolm, who the Laird had decided to give the day off, as the previous day had been incredibly busy for him. He was wearing a bronze-orange cloak about his shoulders, and is of little relevance to this tale.

The Laird sounded his horn, Blaw, Blaw, Blaw, Blaw. The horses cantered furiously through the wood, in pursuit of the fox. The hounds had been riled up into a frenzy, baying loudly with a deep lust for the fox's blood.


"Tam!" Yelled the Laird.

"Grandfather?"

"Ah see the fox o'er there!" He pointed to a nearby thicket of hawthorn bushes. The path was too narrow for any dog, but low enough for a horse to step through easily.

"Gan after it!"
"But grandfather, what aboot me hawse?"
"Dinnae mind the bloody hawse, just get the damn fox For Bride's Sake!"

"Aalreet, aalreet, Ah'll get the fox, just dinnae harass me aboot it!"

Tam Lin turned his horse around, and let it bolt. It thundered into the thicket, its legs and hooves getting violently scratched by the thorns, but it wasn't long before the fox escaped down a nearby hole. Tam swiftly dismounted, and crawled under the bush to get to the fox. He plunged his hand down the hole, the dagger gripped in his hand.

The fox was nowhere to be found. Something else gripped Tam's hand by the wrist, and tugged; and pulled, and WRENCHED until his whole arm was pulled down the hole. Then something miraculous happened. The hole widened by three feet. Soon Tam's head was in the hole. The hole widened again by another foot. Then another. Then another. And then another five feet, before Tam Lin's whole body was falling freely down the hole, now a shaft, into the dark abyss below.

The last thing he heard before the surface world disappeared into nothing was the joyful barking of the fox, which had returned to the surface, and was poking its head into the hole, barking at Tam in such a fashion that Tam could have sworn that it was laughing at him.