[Nogrod]

Stigend was relieved to hear Garstan’s words. “I do agree with you on this”, he said and nodded to him. Then he turned his gaze to towards the boys again.

“You seem to be still hungry lads?”

Both boys nodded after they had first checked quickly each others intentions. Neither seemed to wish to be the only one admitting the hunger.

“I still can’t believe you wasted your whole day shearing that one sheep, even if you had to give it a good chase...” He studied the boys trying to find clues from their expressions. Both boys were trying to pull a stone face.

“So how about this? You tell us the rest of the day’s adventures and then you’ll get something more to eat? And we'll skip your studying today.” He glanced hastily at Garstan and he seemed to agree.

Garmund and Cnebba exchanged suspicious looks.

“Cnebba couldn’t hold the sheep still. That’s why I couldn’t shear them!”, Garmund exclaimed.

“That was because you were nicking them all the time! It was all your own fault.” Cnebba snapped back.

“C’mon now children!” Garstan came in between. “Now surely Ordulf saw all this. Didn’t he make you try the other way around?”

The boys were quiet for a while looking away from their fathers and each other in some embarrassement. After a short silence it was Cnebba who began this time.

“Unlike him, I learned to use the shear blades!” He threw a face at Garmund.

“Oh, did you! That was just because I could hold them still!” Garmund protested and returned the face to Cnebba.

Garstan and Stigend exchanged looks in amusement.

“So how many sheep did you shear today?” Stigend asked the boys as they had frozen still after noticing their fathers’ amusement. They looked a bit confused and were seemingly both struggling to come up with a figure.

“It was fourteen we did”, Cnebba said eventually.

“Huh! Fourteen? It was fifteen!”, Garmund disagreed strongly.

“You can’t even count!” Cnebba called him back.

“Just wait and I’ll show you some counting!” Garmund shouted.

“Okay, listen now you two!” Stigend said loudly enough for the boys to stop their bickering. “It looks that you have not fared too bad after all, so what’s all the hassle now? If you learn to pull it together it will be an easy week for you two, and you’ll get the nice wintercoats for it. I’ll promise we will find someone who will turn your wool into coats. If you're worthy of the wool... So think about it.”

The boys looked at their fathers and then carefully at each other. Garmund especially had to check Garstan's expression and Garstan nodded to him in approval of Stigend's words.

“Now go and get some more bread and soup to yourselves before you starve to death”, Garstan said and gave a short laugh. Stigend had to really concentrate not to burst himself before the boys had left to get something more to eat.

After they had chuckled a moment Stigend turned towards his friend.

“They truly seem to be like fighting cocks, but I guess we may succeed in this. You saw their shuffling and shifting when it came to things where they had succeeded today?”