Chapter 17

By the next new moon, we were on the verge of summer. Several things had changed, while some had remained the same. What was same was that Erika and Siv had spent two more nights with me but they both were still virgins - in the sense that my dick hadn’t been inside their pussies. However, both my fingers and my tongue had visited both honey pots, and I knew that both girls had only part of their hymens left. When I mentioned that, they both admitted that their own fingers had been there quite a lot, and some accidents might have happened. They both looked so remorseful that I had to laugh, which made both girls attack me. We ended up rolling on those sheepskin rugs for a while. Again.

What had changed was that construction had started on both ends of my house. There would be new rooms at both ends of the house, and after those extensions, the house would be big enough for a family. At the same time, we would be adding more and bigger windows. I still felt a bit bitter, since I’d be spending another of my bonds for upgrading the house to the same level as my old home had been. On the other hand I felt good, since I really owed nothing to the people living in my old home village. I was sure that at least some of them felt bad about the way I had been handled. Especially after I had saved the girls.

Another thing that had changed was that now I was able to ‘feel’ the magic all the time. Or, in most cases, I could feel the absence of it - but to me it was present all the time, somewhere in the background. I had tried to remember and go through what I did when I escaped the attack of the challenging Troll. I was almost certain that I’d be able to do it again, if necessary. Almost certain. On the other hand, I had absolutely no intention of getting into a situation in which I’d need that skill. However, I did try something like it. One of the times when I went hunting, I didn’t hide myself the way I usually did. Instead, I tried to convince the herd of deer that I was one of them. I wasn’t sure how well it really worked but I was able to shoot my target. The disadvantage of that method was that I was very tired and a bit sick, afterwards. Stalking was easier and much less tiresome.

I had no idea why woke up in the middle of the night, except that I knew that something was wrong, seriously wrong. As soon as I was awake, Tariel - who had been resting partly on top of me - woke. I could almost sense the protest in her gaze. At least she didn’t scratch me this time. As I didn’t know what to expect, I dressed quickly and silently and, after a moment of consideration, I picked up a knife, my two bows, and a bunch of arrows. All the time, the feeling of uneasiness inside me just grew.

Then I heard two kindred thumps outside the house. I knew that particular thump very well. I had heard it several times myself when I had practiced with my crossbows. My mind was still processing that thought when I heard two more equal thumps following each other. All that could not have taken any longer than a few blinks of an eye, but it had felt like an eternity. Someone was shooting arrows at the front of my house, or at the timber stored next to the house.

If the sound wasn’t enough to alarm me, the hint of the coming smell definitely was. Any way, I knew that I was in serious trouble when the next sound was of fire catching some dry wood, and the smell was the smell of lamp oil. Getting out the door while there were at least two persons waiting with their bows ready, didn’t really feel like a good idea. I could sense at least two persons in front of the house, but nothing else. I closed my eyes for a moment and tried to think. In the case of Trolls, that would probably be a trap.

Suddenly I felt stupid, very stupid. Just a day before, as a part of the house renovation we had checked the wall structure in one corner of the house. We had drilled and sawed the two bottom logs in order to see if there would be any problems in making the doors to the new rooms. Those log parts were then temporarily attached, and they could be easily removed. Now that I knew how to get out, I had a moment to think about my next actions. I forced myself to be as calm as possible, and I started collecting stuff in my backpacks. Some clothes, extra pair of shoes and some other things. The last things I packed were my books. By the time I was ready, Tariel was already nervous and was meowing and looking at me. There was smoke coming in under the door, and even Tariel understood that there was no going out that way.

I hoped that whoever had set my house on fire would have problems seeing past the flames. They probably knew that there were no windows on the other side of the house, and I guessed that they were located so that they could see the windows on the sides, and the door in the front. Those loose log parts were in the two lowest logs and I could only hope that the timber located close to the house would give me some cover.

I managed to pull the log parts inside, and before sneaking out by myself, I carefully put out both my backpacks. Somehow I had managed to do that and keep Tariel inside. Finally, I took her and lifted her outside, before crawling out by myself. All the time, I remained low and avoided looking at the fire even though I could already feel the heat. Slowly, very slowly, I crawled away pulling and pushing my backpacks in front and on my back. Only when I was outside my yard, I dared to stop crawling and sneaked behind the trees. Once I felt secure enough, I took some dirt and covered my face with it, then started sensing my environment with all my ability. If only I were able to do that simultaneously while doing something else. Yeah, if only.

There was a terrible feeling of loss growing inside me, but I forced it to the background. Now I needed to focus on catching those who had put my house on fire. I had no idea how I would make Trolls pay for my house but there had to be some way to do that. Of course, I’d need to catch them first - without killing them. I had really no idea how I could do that but I needed to try, since I wanted my revenge. It’s hard to punish someone who’s already dead. Besides, killing them would just be much too merciful. Much too easy for them.

It wasn’t much later that I was fully aware of the figure hiding behind the tree, watching the burning house. I didn’t really look at him but I just passively kept track of where he was. I had put my bow aside and instead, I had my knife and a sturdy branch. I knew that a hit to the head might easily be deadly but I was much too angry to be worried about that. And if my blow would be too light I had a knife as a backup option. Sort of a final backup option. Very final. So, I stopped being a hunter, and became a predator. I also masked myself away the best I could, ignoring the possibly following headache. I had only one goal: to put the man with the bow down, hopefully hurting him during the process.

It was just like when I was hunting - at some point I became so focused on the task at hand that I really didn’t think of my actions. I was fully aware of my surroundings, even if I had fully concentrated in putting down my target. Gradually, I got closer and closer and soon I was only waiting the right moment. That came when something in my home collapsed into the fire. For a moment, there was absolutely no risk that anybody could hear my movement. For the first time in my life, I really understood how Tariel must feel when she attacked her prey. That whole feeling was so dangerously uplifting, that it was scary when I started my swing. I had prepared my blow with the branch so that it would securely incapacitate a sturdy Troll, and if something more serious would happen I wouldn’t lose my night’s sleep because of it.

Only, the target of my blow wasn’t a Troll, but a boy in his teens. A boy younger than me.

Once you have started an almost deadly blow, there isn’t much you can do about it, but I pulled back all I could. Still, the sound of the branch hitting the head of the boy was sickening and his knees folded immediately. I dropped the branch and took hold of the falling boy before he hit the ground. As soon as he was down, I carefully checked his breathing and his skull for the damage I had caused. I sighed in relief when he seemed to be breathing normally, and his skull seemed intact. I soon started to wonder at my own reaction. What difference did it make if the people who burned down my home and tried to kill me were humans or Trolls? Nothing, if they had succeeded in killing me. Nothing, when they didn’t. I looked at the boy who was lying on the ground. I realized that I knew him, he was one of twin brothers from my old home village, just a few years younger than me. Now I truly hoped that I didn’t do too much damage to him, since I really wanted to hear what this was all about. Then I sensed that something had changed! Another person was moving towards me!

I quickly pushed away the branch and retreated to the darkness. When he came closer, I could tell that he wasn’t especially silent but there really wasn’t much need for that, since the burning house made enough noise to cover all the minor sounds.

“Kjell, Kjell? Where are you? We need to take the small horses and get going. Sooner or later someone will come to check the fire.”

Kjell. Kjell and Knud Arnesen. Now I remembered those two twins from my old home village. However, I could not get into my mind a single thing that I had done to those boys or their parents, that could have caused this. My grip around my crossbow tightened almost involuntarily.

“Kjell, why are you lying there? Are you okay?”

Whatever these twins were they weren’t professional hunters or accustomed killers. Knud’s voice was clearly trembling when he found his brother lying in the ground. Still, these young bastards were burning down my house, and had tried to kill me in the process. By stealing those small horses they would probably have managed to make it look like the Trolls had done it. I could not help wondering why - but that’d need to wait.

“Drop your bow and lie on the ground. NOW!”

Even in the light coming from the burning house didn’t brighten the hideout too much, but I could see how scared he was. He didn’t even try to raise his bow.

“Drop your bow or you die!”

The poor kid didn’t even try to protect his bow when he dropped it to the ground.

“Now, get on the ground. On your stomach, NOW! Put your hands behind your back!”

He dropped to the ground probably faster than he would have fallen if I had shot him. Even though I was almost sure he presented no danger to me, I moved carefully behind him and kicked him between his legs. Hard. Not very hard, but hard, and the wailing and crying that resulted was enough to convince me that I had really hurt him. I didn’t care. I just settled on my knees on the back of the crying boy and used my knife to cut bands from his parka, which I then used to tie his hands behind his back. Almost absentmindedly, I noticed that by doing that I totally ruined a nice parka. Yeah, like he totally burned down a nice house.

Only when I rose, I noticed that his pants were wet because he had probably peed himself. Just why, why did these two kids want to kill me and burn down my house? There was no point asking anything of the whining and crying kid right now. I rechecked the status of his brother, and he was breathing steadily. For some reason, I felt huge relief. Even though these kids had just tried to kill me. After a moment of consideration, I cut some more bands from the already ruined parka, and tied his brother’s hands behind his back, too.

After that, I considered the situation. I had some strong doubts about Knud’s ability to carry Kjell, and it hadn’t helped that I had kicked him in his nuts. However, I didn’t want to stay hidden here, and I also wanted to use some decent rope to tie up these two youngsters. I sighed and put my cross bow on a sling in front of me and then lifted Kjell’s limp body over my shoulder. He was somewhat heavier than my usual game, but it made no sense to build a travois for this short trip.

“Knud, stand up.”

“I can’t.”

“Then you can crawl; but I’m sure that you’d like walking, more than crawling with an arrow in your leg. Now, stand up!”

It turned out that he was able to stand up, and to walk. He was still sobbing a bit, and the way he walked intimated that he was in some pain. Once we got to the front yard of the house - or the flaming remains of the house - I ordered him to stop.

“Now, lie down again. On your stomach.”

He didn’t question me, and did what I asked. Once he was firmly on the ground, I half-lowered and half-dropped his brother on top of him, just making sure that his head got no more hits. I’d be fine with him getting a few bruises.

“Stay there. If you run, remember that I’m a hunter. Besides, your brother would still be here.”

I was not surprised to find them both there after a quick trip to the stable to check the horses and to pick some decent rope. Once I got back, I used the rope for re-tying their hands and I also tied their legs together. I might have hurt Knud a bit, but that was just for my own security, right? Once I was satisfied that they wouldn’t be going anywhere, I checked Kjell who had started to moan a bit. Somehow, I felt relieved that I hadn’t killed him. Maybe just because I wanted to punish both of them for what they did.

After that, I went back to the stables after some oiled cloth and once I got back, I helped the kids to sit on one piece and made sure that their backs were protected. Also, Kjell was sitting now, even if he didn’t look fully oriented yet. Then I took another piece for myself and protected my back while I looked at the gradually dying fire. Inside me was a terrible urge to ask the brothers what had I done against them. Why had they tried to kill me? But instead of asking any questions, I just ordered them to stay quiet since I was sure that some other people would be here soon. Even though I lived somewhat outside of the village, there was no way that a fire of this size would remain unnoticed.

I have no idea how long it actually took for the first people to arrive, as I had been silently seeing how my dreams were turning into ashes. I wasn’t really surprised to see Jarl and Bjarke among the first people to arrive. I also wasn’t surprised to see that Erika and Siv weren’t there. The fire was already fading by the time the people started to appear, and I was much calmer than I had been in the beginning. Unfortunately, together with the calm, came the understanding. I had spent more than two hundred crowns on my new home. The people around here, normal farmers or stockbreeders could not normally spare that kind of money during a year and there was no way these two kids could pay me back. Maybe in ten years, if they didn’t want to start a life of their own. I wanted payback, I wanted my revenge, but I couldn’t really see any way of getting it from them.