[crow]

Empty reassurances could only go so far to relieve a troubled mind, since they offered no reasoning with which to dispel the fears.

Instead, he had chosen to give it shape. The threat he had chosen to tell her about was a relatively mundane one in terms of the range of possibilities that he had thought of. A snake was a known danger, but not one that seemed particularly impossible to deal with. If one was careful, one could dodge or remove the snake.

[Barn - 77]

[crow]

And if it did manage to land a bite, well, there were anti-venoms to deal with that too. If applied in time, they could save someone's life with no real ill effects.

But on the other hand, a snake was still very much the sort of threat that a child relied on an adult to deal with. If Rhodes floated too harmless an idea of what might be in the hay, Suvi might feel compelled to see if she could tackle it herself.

[Barn - 78]

[crow]

Suvi didn't much care for snakes--- this was something Rhodes knew too, from having lived with her and listening to her recount her adventures in the summer. The funny thing was, insects didn't seem to bother her much, but she drew the line at certain other things like snakes. The preferences of children really could be quite baffling.

Meanwhile, Sivain was edging closer to where they had heard the movement in the hay. He was scanning it for any signs of movement, or any sign of a color difference now.

[Barn - 79]

[crow]

It wasn't terribly different from what Suvi had been doing before, come to that. However, Sivain was doing this with a much more serious bent, and the stakes felt as though they were higher. This wasn't a game of pretend anymore.

The rustling came again, slightly to the left of where Sivain had been looking. He had just missed it... No, there. This time he saw it. Rhodes saw him go tense, the motion of it a little like that of a cat preparing to pounce.

[Barn - 80]

[crow]

What exactly was he planning to do? Was he going to grab it with his hands? Could someone like Sivain be poisoned, or catch a disease like rabies? Rhodes had never seen him take sick, but that didn't mean it was impossible.

He had never quite asked exactly what aspects of his apparent immortality remained to him, after Sivain was evicted from the pantheon of his native realm. Now that it was relevant, it was too late; there wasn't very much that could be done now.

[Barn - 81]

[crow]

But Rhodes trusted Sivain's judgement in these situations. It was true that Sivain's sense of self preservation wasn't as strong as Rhodes might have hoped, but his abilities as a fighter couldn't be questioned, especially in light of recent events.

And Rhodes wasn't an expert on the matter himself, either. He wasn't so egotistical as to think he knew better even in other people's areas of expertise. He would just have to trust Sivain to be aware of the dangers, and act accordingly.

[Barn - 82]

[crow]

Rhodes had actually wondered whether Sivain might make use of the pitchfork, but in the end, what he chose to do was to remove his coat. At first, Rhodes wondered at the logic of his doing so.

After all, the coat provided him a great deal of protection relative to bare skin, or the thin clothes he wore beneath. It wasn't the one that he wore at the front, which had actual portions which were armored, but it was still better than going without.

[Barn - 83]

[crow]

It couldn't be that he had gotten too warm, could it?

It was true that it was warmer here in the barn than it was outside. At first Rhodes hadn't really noticed, too preoccupied with other things to really think about it. But now that he thought on the matter, it really was noticeably warmer here than it was outside. In fact, it was warmer than the mere presence of walls and insulating hay could have accounted for--- warm as though he were indoors at someone's home.

[Barn - 84]

[crow]

Was there some sort of heating element in here that he didn't know about?

The thought of fire hazards came to him again, unbidden, at this realization. Suddenly that seemed like a much more relevant concern than it had been when the thought had first flitted through his mind.

They had more pressing matters to attend to now, however. He could get back to that thought after this hay creature had been dealt with, or when the barn actually caught fire, whatever happened first.

[Barn - 85]

[crow]

Once Rhodes saw the way that Sivain was holding the coat, however, he could more or less make a guess at what Sivain wanted to do.

Sivain held it stretched out in both hands, almost like some sort of makeshift net. Rhodes suspected he meant to drop it over top of the creature. From where Rhodes was watching, it was hard to ascertain the exact location of it, or how big it was, but what Sivain had seen must have given him an idea.

[Barn - 86]

[crow]

And based on the method that Sivain had chosen from there, Rhodes guessed that it couldn't have been very big. Sivain was tall for a man, and the coat was a long one even on him, but it wasn't so large that it could contain a creature of any significant size.

And now Sivain really was like a predator waiting to pounce on his prey. He had to pick his timing wisely. He would probably only get one shot at doing this, after all.

[Barn - 87]