Chapter 16

Strange dreams plagued me through the night. I did not dream of any further acts of death and mutilation, instead, they were of being in the forest. The sights and smells, sounds and tastes of the hunt, of stalking an elk, and the thrill of the chase. The feeling of satisfaction as the elk is brought down by a twist of my jaws on its neck. I kept having the same dream repeatedly, waking up startled and disoriented. I was confused until I recognized the feel of a soft breast against my arm, and the soft breathing of my goddess beside me. Watching her sleep, I smiled as the emotions of her dream played softly across her features. Most of them seemed to be of joy, of surprise, of happiness and of contentment. I tried to return to sleep, but it would not come. I lay in bed, thinking of what I would do now. I was set on going for a long hunt, to figure some things out. I knew that Violet would not be happy, and, undoubtedly, want to come with me, but that could not happen. She would need to stay here if I am to sort through things properly.

I laid my eyes on her once again, I was lucky that such a beautiful creature loved me as much as she did. I only hoped that I would be worthy of that love. I spent the rest of the night just watching her, as I waited for the sun to begin its journey through the sky. Just after dawn, Violet woke up, stretching her beautiful body, and greeted me with a warm smile. She gave me a soft, passionate kiss, got out of the bed, and left the room. A short time later, she returned with a tray of bandages. She laid the tray on my lap, and began to remove the bandages from last night. We both looked in surprise at my shoulder, it was completely healed, and there was no trace of my shoulder ever receiving any wound at all. Violet gasped in shock, and fled the room as fast as possible. I tried to hear what was going on, and was surprised to hear them whispering, but I could not make out what they were saying.

They whispered for a while, I could tell Violet was worried, by the tone of her voice. Ruben seemed rather calm about what they were discussing. Ilane was not saying anything about whatever they were discussing. When the whispering ended, I heard footsteps approaching the room. Ruben entered, and came up to me, inspecting my shoulder with a focused look on his face. It was a look I would see when he was thinking of what design to carve out of the wood. I spent the next few moments moving forward and back, lifting and moving my arm around as Ruben watched. I had not lost any range of motion, and I felt absolutely no pain from where I had been injured.

“Well Davik, it looks as though your injury is healing nicely, “he said. ìThough I must confess I am very surprised as to how fast you are mending.”

I nodded and replied, “So am I. I have no idea what is going on, I plan to take some time to try and figure out what is happening to me.”

Ruben had a strange look on his face as he asked, “Just how do you plan to figure out what is going on with you?”

I thought a bit before replying, “I plan to go north for a little while, do some hunting and thinking. It helps me to clear my mind of unnecessary thoughts. I did it after my elder parents died, and it helped me deal with my grief. My only worry is Violet, if I tell her, she will no doubt want to come.”

Ruben nodded with a smile. He was more than familiar with how stubborn his daughter could be about some things. He knew I had a fight coming for this.

“One of us will return with some clothes for you to wear, I am sure you want to be off to begin your preparations.” I thanked him for all he and his family had done for me; he simply nodded, smiled, and left the room. A short time later, Ilane arrived with fresh clothes, my knife, and my boots. I was a little confused as to why my bow and quiver were not here.

Ilane sighed and said,” I am sorry Davik, when we brought you in, we collected your things. Your bow was broken in half; the quiver had a huge bite taken out of it from when the wolf, Brant, bit your shoulder.”

That put a bit of a damper on things, the bow and quiver had been a gift from my elder father, that he had made them himself. It was one of my most treasured possessions, and its loss was hard, as was the loss of the quiver. I would have to find suitable replacements before I left to go on my hunt. I got out of bed, removed my old pants, and began to dress in the new clothes they had for me...

“Oh my!” I turned to see Ilane, holding a shirt, staring wide-eyed at my crotch. I could not help what happened next and I began to get hard. Ilane merely watched as I grew to full hardness, her eyes taking on a glassy look. I quickly grabbed my pants and it was difficult to get them on with my erection as hard as it was. It was a very embarrassing position, hopefully Violet wouldnít hear of this. She would likely chop it off right before she murdered me.

Ilane got a strange look on her face, and I knew I had to get it in my pants soon. There was something dangerous about the look. I finally succeeded and put on my boots. I watched as Ilane snapped out of whatever she had been in, and handed me the shirt. I put it on, and we both went downstairs. I thanked them for their hospitality. Ilane had a slight blush, but said nothing, as Ruben wished me a good day, and Violet just looked worried. I hugged her and told her I would talk to her later, kissing her forehead. I held her for a moment, before heading to the door. I knew that I would need to face the aftermath of that night.

As I stepped out of the house, I could feel the shift in atmosphere. The eyes of all of the people in the market were now focused on me. Some were looking in awe, others in fear, the rest looked to be a mixture of both. It was a bit unsettling how much peopleís opinion of me could be changed by a single event. I turned to make my way back to my home, when I felt a hand on my arm. I turned to see Ruben, holding something in his hand.

“While you were recovering, I took the liberty of carving you a new bow. I also made you a matching quiver, I hope you like both.”

He handed me the quiver, the bow was inside of it. The strap looked to be reinforced with two types of leather, stitched to ensure durability. The quiver itself was two feet long, decorated with an astounding wolf motif. The image on one side was of a wolf howling at a moon, the other looked like part of my fight with Brant. A man using a log to hold a wolf at bay. The border of the image was just as amazing, it seemed to be part of the background, yet contained the image. Another amazing aspect was the buckle for the belt; it looked to have been carved out of bone. It was carved as a profile image of a wolf howling. I put on the quiver, enjoying the feel of it, and I took out the bow to inspect it.

The bow was even more fantastic than my last one had been, with carvings along the entire length. The arrow rest had a wolf’s head in exquisite detail. The ears were carved standing at attention to add extra stability when aiming. Along the shaft from the head were images of trees and the natural surroundings of one of those creatures. On either end of the shaft, where the bowstring connected to the shaft, was carved into the likeness of wolf paws. I had never seen anything like this before. I thanked Ruben for this amazing gift; he simply nodded and returned to his shop. With a smile on my face, I once again set out to return to my home. I did my best to ignore the stares and whispers as I passed by, and all the pointing. It did bother me a bit, but I did not stop until I reached my house. As I approached, I saw some people throwing things at my house. I broke into a run to find out what all this commotion was about.

As I got closer I yelled, “What the hell do you think you are doing to my house? And why are you throwing stuff at it!”

The vandals jumped at the sound of my voice and turned to see who made it. A few of them paled when they realized that it was me asking the questionsí One, however, looked at me defiantly, he must have been the leader. He looked to be a few years older than me, and about eleven inches shorter. He was balding, with a large stomach, mixed with a rather unpleasant smell.

“You killed our Patron, î He yelled, spewing spittle as he talked. ìEveryone saw the bodies that were left after the blood moon. You said you would protect us, yet they ended up dead! It is entirely your fault, and we want you to leave our village! Forever!”