FORTUNE

FORTUNE, by Scott T. Hutchison, art by Miguel Santos

 

 

Revered Old Ones tossed bones to read the ominous
certainty of futures and dark change; the man regards signs
in the rawness and rarity of his circumstances. A long life,
in the modest, remote village of Utterby–that’s never known war.
Not in his time. Fifty-four years that he’s gently shared his breath

with hearth embers, raised them to their fulfillment: consuming
branches and the hearts of tree. He’s felt
the warmth of fulfillment blanket his own needs.
Good water sings lightly nearby in the night.
Drink and ceremony flavored with red-flowered bog myrtle.
Enough nearby game. Endurable insects in summers,
no hordes of locusts, no spirals of birds
consuming the crops of peas, oats, millet, linseed.

There are neighbors who have always brought care
when anyone took sick or fevered or came home broken.
Neighbors who whelped and lost children and, sometimes, lost
wives like everyone else. Shared faith, aging, remembrances.

Daily practice with blade and spear—fifty-years of block and
whirling slice, chest-throws aimed to rupture another man’s
rib-trunk and all its treasures. If this is the time, then let it come
before younger, less-ready men must defend his own decline; Gods,
allow his arms and heart a steady beat, protecting all fires and ash. When
wounds drip upon the ruins, his vowed reverence will not go to waste.

The woman, fine daughters, one son taken beneath the churn
of waterfall. Grandchildren. The man shakes his head—
he has patted more good dogs than they ever will, combined.
Years. A good and patient woman. Thirteen daughters and a boy
who ventured beyond the village to discover and reap his fortune.
Forty-two more children brought to sunshine from their loins.
The village growing with laughter from all corners. Ever more homes
for offspring and children’s children of the other smiling men,
the community practicing their martial arts each morning.
A life with twenty-two dogs choosing his side for night warmth.

It is coming. This tragedy they’ve all heard in their bones,
ringing in their shared stories. When it bursts through the trees,
screams across the fields they have planted, he smiles
in his whirling dance. He knows his blood is costly, and rich.

 

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Scott T. Hutchison’s work appeared in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Vestal Review, and NBAP Literary.  New work is forthcoming in Baltimore Gothic and Bristol Noir.

 

Miguel Santos is a freelance illustrator and maker of Comics living in Portugal.  His artwork has appeared in numerous issues of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, as well as in the Heroic Fantasy Quarterly Best-of Volume 2.  More of his work can be seen at his online portfolio and his instagram.