by Njord Kane
"Who are you?" demanded Rowan.
"My name is Tom," he heard it say in the darkness, "Tom Tay."
"Listen," Tom began, "Stay here through the rest of the night and try not to make a sound. Only come out when you can see that the sun has risen. When you exit this hallow, you will see some white flowers that have grown on a rock. Head in the direction and stay on that course. You will have to pass through the forest, but you will be safe as long as you wait for daylight. Later in the day, follow the sun though the forest and when you emerge, you will recognize that you are not too far from your village."
"Wait, how do you know who I am and where my village is?" questioned Rowan. "Who are you and what was that thing out there?"
"I told you. My name is Tom, we will meet again and that thing out there was a troll." Tom replied. "A rather hunger one at that," he added.
"A troll!" Rowan said shocked. "I thought those things weren't real."
"I am surprised you still don't believe in things after what you seen come out of that mound. Dead things aren't suppose to come back either, but it chased you over a cliff didn't it. There are many unseen things out there, both good and bad. Sadly, most are bad. Well, at least for humans like yourself" Tom said.
"We will meet again, follow my instructions and you will be fine. For now, I must go."
Before Rowan could say anything, the small thing that called itself Tom ran out of the hole. So fast that Rowan only got a tiny glimpse of it in the darkness.
It was like a tiny human, probably no taller than house cat. But it was dark and Rowan really didn't get a good look at it as it ran out of the hole. Before he knew it, it was gone. Interestingly, the being that called itself 'Tom' exited the hole and disappeared without really making a sound. Tom Tay seemed to be extremely light footed and very fast.
Chapter 7 - Through the Forest
Rowan did what Tom had advised him to do and stayed in the hollow for the rest of the night without making a sound. After learning that trolls were real and having one nearly discover him, sleep was out of the question. So Rowan kept a vigilance inside the hole until he seen the sun rise and announce that morning had come.
Emerging from the hollow that had been his refuge, Rowan followed Tom's instructions and entered the forest. He immediately found a rock which was covered in the white flowers of moss heather.
Rowan putting the morning sun to his back tread his way through the forest heading west. He still had the stick that he had armed himself with during the night and used it as a walking stick. His body was beaten and he hadn't really rested for a few days. On top of that, he hadn't eaten. He felt weak from injury, fatigue, and hunger.
Suddenly he remembered the honey biscuit he had wrapped up and tucked inside his shirt.
Rowan stopped walking and dropped his club/walking stick on the ground. He quickly reached inside his shirt and felt around for the biscuit. It wasn't there!
He pulled his shirt out and shook it, hoping the wrapped honey biscuit would drop.
It was gone! He must have lost it when he fell off the cliff and through that tree.
Disappointed, Rowan fixed his shirt and looked ahead. He could see what looked like golden flowers. It was the tell tale signs of what was probably chanterelle.
He picked up his stick and began walking towards them. As he approached them, he could already smell their fruity aroma. These were definitely the yellow edible mushrooms he was hoping they'd be.
Rowan rejoiced. He wasn't out of options yet.
His stomach gurgled as he picked them. Having no means to make a fire and cook them, he ate them raw. To his surprise, they were very peppery in contrast to their sweet smell and also very chewy. He wasn't sure if it were safe to eat them raw, but his hunger overrode his wisdom and he gobbled them down.
He only ate enough of them until his hunger subsided, but already his stomach felt ill and he wondered if he should have eaten them after all.
He knew some mushrooms were poisonous and hoped he hadn't been foolish and allowed his hunger to seal his doom. His stomach was upset, but he wasn't really ill from it. Although not at his best, he felt confident that he'd be okay and proceeded with his trek through the forest.
As he walked through the forest, he made sure he kept his direction true by checking the sun now and again. Because of the mushrooms, he did have to stop on occasion to let his stomach settle. He wasn't really ill and he didn't feel nauseated, but he sure felt uneasy.
It was when he had stopped to lean against his walking stick and let his stomach settle that he heard something rustling behind him.
His heart beat began to quicken as soon as he thought of the troll. Remembering the tales he'd heard about trolls, he was sure they never came out in the daylight. Daylight was bad for them, he couldn't remember why, but he remembered that trolls absolutely could not come out in the day light. The sun did something very bad to them.
Because the Sun was out, it most likely wasn't a troll. But something was there.
Cautiously he slowly turned and looked behind him.
Nothing was nothing there.
At least he didn't see anything, that didn't mean nothing was there. Maybe it was that wee Tom Tay character that had helped him avoid the troll last night.
He decided to call out, "Tom? Is that you? Tom Tay!"
Rowan listened for any kind of response, but got none. Save for the occasional bird or breeze blowing through the trees above, he heard nothing.
Feeling confident it was just his imagination, Rowan continued walking through the forest. It wasn't but a few moments later that he heard it again. It wasn't just a rustling of leaves that he heard, but the sounds of footsteps.
They didn't sound like those made by a human. They were to soft and sounded like they had sort of a leap to them. Like how a deer would trot, but with only two legs.
Rowan stopped again and turned towards the sound to look and listen, but again he seen and heard nothing.
Something was in the forest following him, he was certain that. He scanned the trees around where he figured the sound had came from. Looking for any sign of something hiding in the foliage.
As he looked around, he couldn't help reflecting on the fact that there certainly seemed to be many things in the forest that were out to get him. He couldn't believe it. All the stories he'd heard about the various creatures living in the woods. Stories that he thought were just meant to keep children from wandering off in the forest and getting lost. Stories about things that actually existed after all.
After a moment of listening so intently that he hardly breathed and seeing absolutely nothing, Rowan decided to proceed. This time with a quicker pace. Whatever it was, wasn't going to show itself apparently. It was best just to get through the forest as quickly as possible.
The Sun had passed over him and he was still making its way west. According to Tom's directions, it shouldn't be that much further.
Quite frankly, he couldn't wait to get out of the forest. The drab life of a blacksmith's thrall wasn't so bad after all, considering everything that's happened. At least as a thrall he rarely had to venture out into the wilderness where things we set on killing him.
At that point it dawned on him about the blacksmith and his son. They were dead. He wouldn't be able to return to life as it was before. What was to become of him? Who in their right mind would believe him when he told them what had happened. He knew he wouldn't believe such a story himself if he'd heard it being told. Especially such a tail told by a thrall. They would suspect that he'd murdered his master in an attempt to escape his servitude. Surely he would be put to death for murder.
Rowan's wandering mind was quickly silenced when he heard the footsteps again. It was like a trot and it was now to his left. He noticed that he was at a half run himself. He didn't even notice his pace had quickened, but it had. He also noticed that his heart was also pounding.
He continued his pace and pretended not to notice the trotting off to the lef
t of him. He tried not look in its direction, for fear it would try to hide out of sight from him again.
He did his best to look in the corner of his eye, without turning his head to try and see what it was.
In the back of his mind, he was hoping it would just be a deer, but over the last couple days he'd learned that it would be expecting to much for it to be something normal and ordinary. Besides, there was nothing ordinary about a deer trotting beside a human anyways.
Rowan did finally catch a glimpse of it. He caught a short quick glimpse of what appeared to be a woman with long flowing curly blonde hair. He also thought she was nude as well, but wasn't sure.
Before he got a good look at her she disappeared in the trees and was out of his sight once again.
He stopped abruptly in his tracks and looked in the direction that she'd gone. He could still hear her moving through the trees. It sounded like she was trotting off instead of running. But his imagination and perhaps because of the mushrooms he'd eaten were playing tricks on him. He was also fairly sleep deprived as well.
The sound faded off and Rowan took a quick look around him to make sure nothing else was there.
Feeling satisfied that he was once again alone and perhaps the trotting was nothing but a deer with his mind playing tricks on him. It may have been something else, but it didn't matter. He set off again to get out of the forest.
His stomach had finally settled down and his shaken nerves had given him a sense of renewed energy. His pace at a half jog. Getting out of the forest was now his priority.
Rowan had kept this pace up for quite a bit until he began feeling tired from it. Which was acceptable, because he could see a clearing ahead. It meant that he was about to come out of the forest. He was relieved.
Even though he was exhausted, he decided not to rest and continued walking. He was determined to get to the clearing and out of the forest. However, as he started walking towards the clearing he heard the sound of giggling behind him.
Rowan stopped walking and just stood there frozen in his tracks.
As he stood there motionless, listening, he heard it again. It was a female's giggle.
Reluctantly Rowan turned around in the direction he heard the giggling coming from and was surprise to see the face of a woman peering at him from behind a tree.
It was the woman he thought he'd seen trotting past him earlier that had disappeared in the woods.
Although he wasn't sure if he'd been seeing things or not earlier, he was sure of what he seen now.
It was her. She had the same long curly blond hair that fell over her shoulders. Her hair covered her shoulders and the rest of her body was hidden behind a tree. Rowan still wasn't sure if she was nude or not, but her shoulders and arms were bare.
She just smiled as she looked at him and then giggled again.
Bewildered, Rowan just looked at her with his mouth agape. She was beautiful, perhaps the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. That is, of what he could see of her.
Rowan relaxed his guard a bit realizing that he must be near the village and this was just someone he'd never seen before. Maybe a visitor from another village perhaps. He was just about to ask her who she was and if he was near the village when he spotted something most peculiar.
On the other side of the tree that she was hiding behind, he swore he seen a tail swish. It looked like a cow's tail or something similar. It had swished and then was quickly hidden behind the tree again.
She reached her arm out and beckoned him to come nearer as she giggled again at him.
Temptation was overwhelming, he couldn't help feeling extremely attracted to her and he didn't know why. But he hadn't forgotten about everything else that had happened so far and thought better of it. She seemed friendly, but that didn't mean anything out here in the forest. Besides, why was she hiding behind the tree? It could be a trap, so he decided to play it cool and said to her in the most polite way he could.
"My apologies, but I am in a bit of a hurry. I hope to see you again soon though."
He didn't feel right about this, so he quickly turned and walked away. Rowan kept his quickened pace the rest of the way out of the forest. He did, however, carefully listen as he walked to make sure she wasn't following him.
His mind raced as he walked briskly out of the forest. She was beautiful and probably naked, but why was she naked and why was she hiding herself behind the tree? And was that a tail he seen flicking behind her? He swore he'd seen a tail swish behind her.
She didn't seem to be following him, but he didn't hear her run off either. He wasn't going to take the chance of looking behind him to make sure she was gone. His instincts told him to not look back, just keep going and don't stop.
To his joy, he reached the edge of forest and had entered the clearing. There was a ridge line ahead, so Rowan decided to take a quick look and see if he could figure out where he was.
When Rowan reached the summit of the ridge, he seen the fjord below and recognized the hillside. He wasn't too far away. He knew where he was now and which way to go to get the rest of the way back.
Chapter 8 - The Inquisition
After a couple more hours of trekking down the hill side and through a few patches of woods, Rowan finally made it to the outskirts his village. The blacksmith's longhouse where he belonged was located on the other side of the village.
He paused overlooking the village and pondered how to best proceed. He would need to inform the Blacksmith's family as to what had happened to the Blacksmith and his son. Jarl Erling, the leader of the village, would have to be informed as well.
But he didn't know exactly how to handle that. As a thrall, he had no equal voice as did the Karls, the freemen. His master was the one that would speak to the Jarl on his behalf if it were ever needed.
But his master was no longer alive. It would be best to speak to Gwenda, the blacksmith's wife, and have her speak with the Jarl.
Rowan figured it would be best to go around the village settlement and make his way to the blacksmith's long house. This way he could avoid everyone else and not have to explain himself.
Satisfied on his solution, he began making his way around the village. He tried to keep just inside the wood line and out of sight.
Unfortunately his plans were ruined when he heard, "Thrall! Where's your master the Blacksmith?"
Someone had called out to him. Already, his plans have been foiled.
Rowan stopped dead in his tracks, turned and looked in the direction of the voice. He recognized the man, it was one of the Karls from the village. Apparently he was in the woods chopping firewood and Rowan didn't notice him while he was walking through.
Rowan just stood there surprised and looked at him without saying anything. The man was sitting on a felled tree that he'd apparently just chopped down and was quietly taking a rest.
"I asked you a question thrall, where's your master?" the Karl demanded.
Rowan's heart began to race, he didn't know how to answer. The very direct question he was intentionally trying to avoid until he'd at least spoken to Gwenda was just now presented to him.
The Karl angrily stood up while holding his chopping ax and demanded more forcefully, "Answer me thrall!"
Rowan looked down upon the ground and quietly said, "he was killed on the mountain by a beast."
The man gave a doubting lift of his eyebrow and stood there for a moment thinking as he looked at Rowan up and down.
Finally he said, "come with me" and motioned Rowan to walk with him towards the village.
Rowan obediently turned and began walking towards the village. He had no choice really. If he refused the demand of the Karl, one of the village's freemen, he would have been cut down by the man's ax.
There was a difference between a thrall, whom was property, and that of a freeman. It would not of been considered murder to kill a thrall. There would only be an obligation to pay the thrall's owner for damage to their property. It was no different than killing a c
ow or breaking a tool and then having to pay the owner the amount for replacement.
They walked the whole way without saying a word. Rowan walking in front with the Karl behind him, holding his ax over his shoulder. They walked this way until they reached the village and continued towards the center. They gathered an occasional curious look from the villagers that took noticed them.
They stopped when they reached the village center where the Jarl's Hall was located. This was were Jarl Erling resided, although Rowan himself had never been inside. He'd been to the village center many times and even to the Jarl's Hall, but was always told to wait outside. The Hall was a place for freemen.
However, this time Rowan got to go in and see what it looked like inside for the first time. The Karl who led Rowan there had pushed him inside while he told him to go in.
Rowan stumbled in the doorway and nearly tripped and fell flat on his face. As he entered he was momentarily blinded. It took a moment for Rowan's eyes to adjust to the lighting inside.
He was surprised by the hall's size. It looked even bigger from the inside than it did from the outside. The design was very different than the typical longhouse. It was much larger and more open to accommodate a larger group of people.
There were three great fire pits in the center of the Jarl's Hall. Each fire pit had heavy wooden tables and benches lined on each side of them. Along the walls were additional rows of heavy tables that also had benches on each side. On the opposite end of the hall there was a seat that was raised up above the others.
Rowan could see Jarl Erling seated at this raised chair with some of his armed House Karls at guard on either side of him.
Rowan knew what the Jarl looked like, he'd seen him on numerous occasions when the Jarl requested items to be made by the blacksmith. Bjord had crafted many things for the Jarl on many occasions.
The Karl that brought Rowan into the Jarl's Hall grabbed him by the iron collar that he wore around his neck and used it to lead him to the Jarl.