Chapter 8

“There is no way I can pay you back from this!”

The owner of the store, the local merchant in a nearby village, waved the Bond I had tried to use in making some purchases.

“Did Torvald send you here?” he demanded.

“No, He just decided that his village doesn’t acknowledge anything from the Guardians anymore, since they won’t be needing their services in the future. So, Torvald will not accept any Bonds anymore.”

I made sure that I didn’t dramatize or hint that I’d hated Torvald and anybody else in my old village. It turned out that there was no need.

“How come ... oh! Never mind, son.”

I couldn’t help feeling a bit delighted at his reaction, since the look on his face gave him away clearly enough. He clearly believed that Torvald had done something really stupid, but as they probably had to do some business together he didn’t want to say anything. The truth was that the Guardians didn’t want much. There were no taxes for us living between the rocky coastline and the fjells. The only charge the Guardians expected was the occasional support, some food, and sometimes accommodations.

“Maybe I could open an account here.” I suggested. “After all, I’ll be needing quite a lot of supplies, like clothes. Besides, I’ll also need some place to live. I’ve been sleeping mostly under the sky for about a year, and I’d be happy to change that. So, you don’t happen to have any abandoned houses, here in this village?”

This time I wasn’t able to keep the bitterness out of my voice. In a way, I could handle the fact that my old village had abandoned me, but the loss of my old home was just robbery, plain and simple. Luckily for me, the merchant was deep in his own thoughts while he tried to process my suggestion.

“That might work, especially if you will be staying here for some time. Do you have any long-time plans, son?”

“Well, the things that I really can do well, are hunting and tracking; but I have no idea if there is room for another hunter in this area.”

I could see how his face lightened. It was as though he had just started doing some calculations inside his head. The outcome became better and better after each calculation. Somehow, I was sure that he had just figured a way to use the Bond on the table in front of him, and that possibility made him excited. Well, it should - one hundred Crowns weren’t maybe a fortune in a big city but up here you should be able to get much more than a new wardrobe with it. Much more.

“Would it bother you if the house were a bit outside the village? I don’t really know if it’s in a livable condition right now, but we could get some villagers to help with that.”

Yes, he certainly would be able to use that Bond. On the other hand, I needed a place to live - and what else would I do with my Bonds? I tried to sound resigned, “No, not really. I’m quite sure that I could manage that.”

This was a step forward, but I couldn’t really say that we managed to get things rolling, since he wasn’t willing to leave his store, and it would be a while until one of his sons would be able to show me the place. However, we did get acquainted with each other, and he asked me to call him Ake. Well, I’d probably be giving him quite a lot of business in the future.

I used some of my spare time to prepare a polite letter to the Guardian office in the village where I had said my goodbyes to my Guardian friends. Since they had been the ones who gave me my Bonds, they’d probably know what to do with the people who decided that they didn’t need the Guardians. I finished the letter, and even if I didn’t have any official seal to add to it, I was quite certain that no sane person wanted to mess with letters addressed to the Guardians.

I had a nice lunch with Ake, his wife, his two sons and their wives. I offered to pay for it, but they didn’t accept my coins. Well, I was quite sure that I’d end up paying quite a lot for all the support I would be getting but I decided not to worry about that. After lunch, his son Holger and I started walking up alongside the stream, and away from the village. Being a merchant’s son Holger wasn’t that curious about my time with the Guardians. He was much more interested in my profession, and the ways I could promote his business. When he told me that they had a room that was kept cold with ice collected from the river, I quickly became interested! The rest of our trip to the house we discussed the possibilities of storing either fresh or smoked game in their cold room and selling it from there - with commission, of course.

One moon - or four weeks - later, a good part of my credit was used, but now I had a new home. The first look I had given to that small house and it’s a bit bigger stable, hadn’t been very promising. A big reason for that was that the former garden and the surroundings had been able to run wild for a few years. The good thing about these busy weeks had been that I had had absolutely no time to bewail my losses. I had either been helping the men with the house and the stable, or I had been hunting for some meat. Besides that, I had managed to make the yard a bit more presentable. As a final move, I also started a respectable garden plot. All the fresh hay I was able to cut was stored for Luna. I was sure that I’d need it when the next winter came. The only big task that remained would be the fixing of the cellar; but that could wait, since there would be nothing to store in it before the Autumn.

The problem was that I was running out of things to do. Of course, there was fixing the cellar and building the smokehouse, but the truth was that I was in no shape to start, or even supervise, either of those projects. Physically I was more than fine. I had made sure that the men who had been helping me had been eating well, therefore I had been eating well myself. No, the problem was that I was mentally exhausted. I had been both working and making sure that everything got done. Well, there was also the fact that I had no furniture except for a stool I had found in the stable, and a small table that had been inside the house and which I had repaired.

After taking care of Luna and hanging around the house and the garden, I decided that there was one thing I could do. The Guardians had made sure that I had a decent pack of new clothes when I parted from them, but now some of them started to show that I had done some heavy physical work and some of them had become tight - or short. It seemed that I had grown a bit, and also had developed some muscle. Sometime earlier, I had agreed with Ake that I could visit the local seamstress. She would then get her payment by purchasing items from him. Of course, he’d take his commission from all the purchases. Yes, Ake was a real merchant and his elder son, Gustav, was learning all the same tricks. The whole idea about the commission was that it was so small, nobody could really complain about it - but it was there.

I hadn’t really seen the other villagers, except the boys and the men who had been working with me while fixing the house. I had heard about them, and I knew several people by name and profession. One thing that I had been told was that I’d need to wait a year or two before the girls of this village would be old enough for me to woo. I was both disappointed and relieved. I was disappointed since I’d miss the sex, and relieved because I wasn’t ready to open my heart to anyone any time soon. Like during the following year. Or two...

I hadn’t known what to expect when I knocked on the door on the house of the seamstress. She was a short woman, probably in her late thirties with a little gray in her otherwise black hair. Besides that, there wasn’t much more. No hips, no breasts, nothing. However, she seemed to know her business, and she had been delighted when I brought her the clothes that I hadn’t really been able to wear. I had offered those to her, so that they could be used for helping the families with growing kids - or whatever she would be able to figure out. I still remembered how my mother had complained about my ability to wear out my clothes.

“So, you are the young man who has stirred up the whole village.”

“I don’t think that I’ve really done anything, ma’am. Just made sure that I have a place to live.”

She just snorted to me while she walked around me like estimating the amount of cloth that would be needed to cover me. After that we had a quick discussion what kind of clothes I’d need - while the answer was simple: all kinds of clothes. There was only a limited amount of clothes you could carry with you, and I had used almost all the usable clothes I had. She walked away for a moment and returned with a low stool.

“Strip.”

“Excuse me, ma’am?”

“Strip. Do you expect me to measure you correctly with those clothes on?”

I knew I should have guessed this, but the truth was that I had not really given a single thought about what would happen here. Or, I could say that that I hadn’t thought about it at all. Yes, I did have clean underpants. The only problem was that they were too small. Much too small. The day had been unusually hot considering that the summer was only starting, and I was wearing a sleeveless tunic and short pants under my normal clothes. So, without any other argument I took off my shirt and pants and folded them next to the stool. Then, at her direction, I stepped onto the stool. She took a piece of wire and started taking measurements.

It took only a few minutes for me to understand that I was in trouble. Maybe it was her hands touching me or it was the faint scent of some herbs that came to my nose when she occasionally brushed her short, dark hair. Whatever the reason, the truth was that I was getting fully hard, and fast - and there was no way that my hard member would fit inside my pants. After one more touch of her hands I couldn’t help wincing.

“I’m sorry, ma’am. It was just...”

Before I could say anything more she just pulled down my pants, releasing my rampant member. I let out a sigh since I had started feeling really uncomfortable because of the pressure.

Without any warning she gripped my dick and took the crown to her mouth. I had thought that I had been fully erect but suddenly I felt that I grew a bit more and became even harder. Soon it was clear that she knew what she was doing, and I started to really enjoy what I was feeling. Of course, I had released some pressure every now and then, but it had been a while since the last time and I knew that I wouldn’t last very long. As soon as I felt some pressure building I tried to warn her.

“Ma’am, I think that I’m going to...”

She just squeezed a bit tighter and I could feel her tongue do some magic on the underside of my hard member and that did the trick. I started shooting burst after burst to her mouth and down to her throat and while doing that I could barely prevent my knees from giving up. Once she released my softening member from her mouth I took a step down from the stool and looked at the small seamstress who had a hint of a smile on her lips.

I took her face carefully between my hands and placed a kiss to those lips. My gesture surprised her but when I carefully started pushing my tongue against her lips she gave in to the pressure and after a moment our tongues were wresting happily. After a moment I could feel that she started pulling away and I released her from my grip. I put my finger under her chin and looked into her dark eyes.

“Thank you. It’s been a while.”

“No need to tell me that.”

I wondered if that was the widest smile she ever wore. I assumed that it was a smile. Damn, she’d be almost pretty if she’d smile even a bit. Suddenly I smiled even more.

“Now, what kind of a man would I be if I didn’t return the favor?”

Then, without any further warning, I lifted her to the nearby table and knelt in front of her.

“Young man, what do you think you’re doing?”

By that time I had lifted her skirt just enough to be able to kiss the insides of her knees.

“I told you, ma’am, I just want to return the favor. Nothing more.”

I ignored her spoken protests since she opened her legs wider when I moved upwards.

Finding her pleasure nubbin was not a problem! If she was otherwise small, with no real hips or breasts, her pleasure nubbin down there was not. Well, I had only seen the one of Saga’s, and it had been almost like the ones in the illustrations. The one I was now facing was almost like a half of her little finger when it was poking up. - and I hadn’t touched it yet. Well, technically, I hadn’t touched her at all if you didn’t count my tongue and lips. For a few moments, her whole body shivered but right now I was only teasing her, hopefully building up to something bigger. After a while when I felt that she was about to start shivering again, I took her pleasure nubbin gently between my lips and touched it rapidly with my tongue.

She slammed her legs against my head! If the thunderstorm had not decided to start at the same moment, her neighbors might have heard her squeal. Well, maybe not the neighbors. But anybody standing close to her door. Her legs kept my face right between her legs when she in turn squirted something on my face. Gradually the pressure released, and I was able to lean backwards grinning like a madman. Somehow the idea of giving her a mind-blowing orgasm made me feel good. Surprisingly good.

“You bastard, my skirt is now wet - and it smells, too.”

For some stupid reason I could not help laughing when she started accusing me for giving her a huge orgasm. Besides, my ears were still a bit sore, and it was my face that was all wet. I just continued grinning.

“My name is Stian, not bastard; and I think that there is nothing wrong in the way you smell - or taste. And if you have problems with that skirt, I’m willing to assist in taking it off.”

“Big words from a boy!”

The look on her face felt like a cold rain and it washed away my smile.

“I’m sorry, I had no intention to hurt you in any way. But I really was grateful for what you did to me, and I was more than happy to return the favor. Look, I only wanted to make you feel good, too.”

I could feel those dark eyes on me when she came down from the table. Without saying a word, she lifted the skirt she had been wearing over her head, and then a small woman was standing there, naked, in front of me.