Chapter 3

Eoric rinsed the dead bird in the mountain stream and then stuck its carcass onto a stick and held it over the fire to cook. The fat from the duck dripped down into the flames, spitting and burning. The smell of the cooking flesh made his mouth water and before long he was burning his fingers as he tried to cut off strips of meat with his knife.

When he had finished the duck, Eoric decided it was time to set off on his journey to Dunadd. He determined that he would try some other things on the journey to test out his new abilities. He headed west in order to avoid having to pass the villagers and the druid. His route took him through Glen Kinglass and along the shores of Loch Etive, looping south so he could pass Loch Awe and continue towards the hill-fort.

As he walked he could feel the various rocks and earth types beneath his feet, feel their constituency and how rich in minerals they were. As he descended to the floor of the Glen the richer soil was clear to him and he sensed the various plants and trees around him, feeling a definite affinity with them all. He felt himself 'connected' with all the animal and bird life he passed and simply enjoyed soaking it all up.

"You have to stop this now, you're reaching dangerous energy levels."

Eoric stopped walking when he heard the voice in his head once more.

"Stop what? I'm not doing anything," he said.

"You're leeching energy from the ground, from the trees, and even from the animals and birds. If you gather any more energy to yourself, we don't know what will happen."

Once the voice had spoken the words Eoric became aware of a strange buzzing in his ears and felt his entire body literally fizzing with energy. He realised the voice must be right and wondered what he could do to drain off some of the energy. He started walking again, now more aware of how he was connected to nature and concentrating on not drawing off any more energy.

He crossed a rocky slope and became aware it contained a heavy seam of copper ore mixed with other minerals. He stooped and looked down at his feet. There was no visible evidence of the metal, but he just knew it was there. He held out both of his hands, palms down and focussed on pushing energy down into the rock. He felt a rush down both arms, heard an almighty bang and felt himself lifted from his feet and flung through the air.

He landed perhaps twenty feet away from where he had been standing, falling to the ground with a bump. Eoric scrambled to his feet, pleased that he seemed to be uninjured and made his way over to where he had discharged the energy. His eyes opened wide with amazement as he saw the deep gash in the rock and the pure seam of solid copper. He knew roughly how hot a furnace had to be to melt ore before metal could be recovered from it. His blast of energy had to be even hotter than such a furnace if it could extract the copper so quickly he thought.

The buzzing in his ears had at least died down and his blood was not fizzing within his body to the same extent it had been before. He recognised how powerful he now was and how useful, but potentially dangerous this ability to build up energy could be. He would need to learn how to control his use of it or there could be disastrous unforeseen consequences he knew.

Eoric started walking again and decided he would try and see whether he could now fly as his next test. He raised his arms at his sides and focussed on lifting himself off of the ground. Nothing happened. He started to run and then leapt up into the air, beating his arms as he did so. Again nothing happened and he landed back on the ground from his leap.

A solitary wolf was hidden on the slopes of the glen, watching the strange human below as he ran and jumped up into the air. The wolf had not managed to kill anything for over a week and was almost out of its mind with hunger. Normally it avoided all contact with humans, but it had reached a desperate state and its hunger overrode its normal sense of caution around them. It started to creep down the slope towards Eoric.

Eoric became aware of a violent essence, an essence driven by hunger, an essence that carried a picture of his throat and a burning desire to sink rank, dirty fangs into it. He sensed the essence was moving stealthily towards him and stopped, turning full circle. He tried to pinpoint where it was coming from and quickly spotted the wolf, his pulse racing for a second with fear.

The wolf saw the human stop and turn towards him. He could smell the sudden surge of fear that rushed through the man and prepared itself to cover the few remaining yards to sink its teeth into the human's flesh. Just as it gathered its hind legs under itself to spring forward, the wolf felt a searing pain in its head and a clear voice.

"Not today Mr Wolf, not today. You've picked the wrong target this time my friend, now go on your way and leave me in peace before I get annoyed."

The smell of fear on the human had vanished and now the wolf could sense the great power that emanated from him. The voice was overwhelming and compelling, the wolf knew that it had to obey. It turned and slinked off, quickly hiding itself back amongst the rocks and stubby bushes on the slope.

Eoric smiled, pleased with himself that he had controlled his fear and used his abilities to avoid a confrontation with the wolf. He was doubly pleased in that he had managed to do so without hurting the wolf, somehow that seemed important to him.

"You are connected to nature now so you naturally want to protect living things, you hold them almost as sacred. Killing to keep yourself alive will be easy enough for you - to defend yourself or to secure meat and plants to eat. But apart from that your spirit is so connected to living things that you will feel their death almost as the death of a little part of yourself."

He began to realise just how much his life had changed with these new-found abilities. He still wasn't sure of the range of things that he could now do, as he hadn't really extended himself, but each thing he discovered brought an increased responsibility on him.

Eoric continued on his way, the morning sunshine felt pleasant and there was a spring in his step. He had managed a further two or three miles when he heard voices and the sound of horses' hooves coming towards him. Stepping off of the path, he stood with his back to a rock face and gripped his sword tightly.

It was an hour or so later before a group of a dozen or so riders came into view around a bend. Eoric realised he must have heard and sensed them while they were still some distance away. He sighed with relief as he recognised them as Celts.

He fully expected the riders to speak to him when they drew level, but they continued on past his without a glance. He stood with a puzzled look on his face as the riders carried on towards the pasture. He overheard some of their conversation, but also something else that surprised him.

"Many seem to have simply run for the hills instead of fighting the cursed Picts," said one man.

"Aye, cowards the lot of them. Why the King wants us to round them up and make sure they get back to their villages safely I don't know. They're not worth saving!" said another.

"A bit like you then Garaic. I wonder if the villagers smell as bad as he does?"

Eoric had been looking directly at the man that he knew these words had come from, but the man hadn't spoken. He realised that somehow he was able to read what the man was thinking. He quickly focussed on the man again and tried to tune in once more.