Blood Bargain

Fifteen: In Which Granny Returns Home

"You are hopeless with an axe, ya know that?" Ellie drawled, shaking her head. "Here, gimmie that. I'll do the splittin', and you chuck the logs in a pile."

"I am perfectly strong enough to split wood," Kaz grumbled.

"Moot point if ya can't aim right." Ellie laughed loudly and took the axe, going back to splitting logs with a vengeance.

The radio broadcast informed them that a late winter storm was headed their way, and now Ellie and all her neighbors were prepping for snow. The town residents were likely doing their own prep in Boone proper, but there wasn't time to make any kind of journey down there on foot today. There was plenty of work to be done in preparation to hunker down inside for a couple of days after the storm swept through.

Ellie and Kaz were splitting logs in her yard, restocking the firewood they'd need for the next several days.

"Hey, Ellie!" Simon called as he walked by the yard. "Looks like Granny made it back just in time."

Ellie went absolutely stiff. She paused with the axe in midair, raised over her shoulder for a strike, and turned to Simon, eyes wide.

"Granny's back early?"

She never came back early from her yearly trip down the mountain. Never. She said her old bones couldn't take the mountain cold, but Ellie thought she just liked spending time with her old witch friends down in the piedmont.

"Yep. Tyler's off unloading her things from the pickup. Just in time, too! Wouldn't want her gettin' caught in the snow on the way here."

"Yeah, definitely," Ellie said with a shaky smile.

She went back to chopping wood, but the next two pieces were terrible splits. Her aim was almost as bad as Kaz's was, now that her mind wasn't on chopping wood at all.

"Fuck," Ellie hissed as soon Simon was out of an earshot.

"What's wrong?"

"I was hoping to get this... business... all tidied up before Granny got back from her trip, but I guess she came back early 'cause the storm's on the way," she muttered.

"And risk getting caught in it on the way up the mountain?" Kaz's eyes narrowed, and Ellie couldn't blame him for being suspicious.

"She's got a ride," Ellie said with a shrug. "She's good with the weather, too. Never was my strength, but you can plant your garden according to Granny and make out just fine every time. She probably knew when she needed to leave."

"If there's a storm coming, couldn't we just... avoid seeing her? If you're that concerned," Kaz suggested, leaning against the fence around Ellie's yard.

"It's either we go to Granny, or Granny comes to us, and if we go to Granny, at least we have the power to walk off and leave if we need to," she said with a sigh, rubbing her temples with both hands. "She raised me, and I love her dearly, but when she wants to talk to ya, you ain't gettin' out of it."

"It can't be that bad. She's just an old woman— hey!" He cut off as Ellie picked up the besom she kept outside for her yard and smacked his rear with the softer end.

"Don't you talk 'bout Granny like that," she snapped, though there was no real malice in it. "She'll have your hide if she hears you call her old. And while you're stacking wood, fill that wheelbarrow up, too. I'll cut extra and we'll drop some off at her place."

"Bossy mood today, I see."

"Oh, you like having something to do," she said, flashing him a brief smile before going back to cutting wood.