Chapter 7. My mother’s tale.

‘This is it, the moment of truth.’ I look in front of me with excitement as my mother is opening the door.

“Well, Asger, if you are ready lets go.” Said mother with a smile on her face.

Now that the door is open and I can finally go out, many different emotions run through me. From excitement to fear, from joy to sadness, but no matter what step after step I walk forward.

The moment my foot first time touches the snow, a bit cold wind runs through my hair and the freshness of nature floods my nose I understand simple truth ‘it’s good to be alive.’

My father was already outside so when he saw me dazzled by everything he didn’t say anything and simply smiled.

“Ok let’s go. We don’t want to be late. Or that old goat won’t stop nagging us for days to come.” With my mothers words I awoke from this trance. Noticing that my parents already started to walk, I followed them close by.

While walking I saw something like a barn. It was quite big and from inside could be heard, what I think is sheep sounds. Near it I saw a chicken pen with 19 inhabitants.

Our house is on something like plains. There are just few trees. With all this snow I can’t be sure but I guess that some farming is going on here. Futher there is quite a number of other houses with barns and all, in this plain.

About 200 meters to the east, to the direction where we are going, I can see a palisade ‘that’s most likely the town.’

There is just one thing that I tried not to see. Since it is a huge fault in this world and something that’s most likely is going to haunt me for the rest of my life. It’s name is ‘field toilet’.

‘New world, adventure and even being a hero everything sound really fine and dandy, but when the business number two calls for you… When a toilet with pluming becomes a simple bucket and toilet paper transforms into a straw. You understand that a fairy tail has ended and harsh reality has slapped you in the face once more. And a great spirit is nothing more than a simple, street conman.’

‘When I grow up I will definitely make my dream come true. And my house will have a toilet with flushable water. The only problem is: where do I acquire some pipes? This might be a pro… Oh!’ I was so deep in thought that I didn’t even notice how we walked to the gate.

‘Well it is pretty much what I expected. A bunch of wooden houses just packed together. But something just doesn’t match up. How did this get here?’ I am a bit puzzled as I look at the ground.

As my father noticed this he started explaining. “Interesting right? This isn’t some dirt road. This is one of the three main roads between North and Southern human kingdoms. These roads were made about 1000 years ago by combined forces of Northmen and Humans. And it took about 100 years to finish them. Originally this town was just a simple worker camp but at some point people started bulding houses and making families here. Now this is a rest point for all travelers and merchants.” He sounded a bit excited while telling this story.

“Let’s not make him wait.” My mother said while walking inside.

And as we were following her, father was still explaining about how people of Landamot was patrolling this road to make it safer for travelers and bla… bla … bla…

‘I got a feeling that I should never ask him again about this.’

The town wasn’t really small from what I saw. Because I already counted about 70 houses and we still didn’t reach a center. There were also some smaller dirt road going sideways with more houses around them. Along a main road was mostly shops, taverns or inns. And quite a number of taverns and inns were even made from stone.

Buildings aside, there was another thing that really caught my attention. What I saw was a kid calling two different women his mothers and some dude with a huge black beard his father. ‘That’s really strange. Maybe I should ask my parents for an explanation?’

But once again as I was about to talk, father started first noticing where I was looking.

“Asger…” There was a short pause.

“Let me tell him that.” Suddenly mother spoke.

“Are you alright?” Asked for some reason worried father.

‘I am getting a bad feeling, that I am asking things which will open old wounds.’ I was disciplining myself for not thinking about others.

“Don’t worry I am ok.” Mother calmed down father and continued.

“Asger, you see here in north normally a birth rate of men is a bit lower that women. Also while growing there is more deaths of boys than girls mostly because of their stupid, hot temper, to charge into danger.” As she was saying that my mother rolled her eyes while father just grinned.

“So there is a rule that when a man grows up he will have more than one wife. So this is why that kid no almost everyone will have two mothers, some even more.” My mothers tone changed to serious.

‘Why I am so unlucky? It isn’t enough to spend my life alone and miserable. Noooo!!! You have to take even more than one of them as your wife and then you have the pleasure to feel what true despair is… Lyru I am so sorry for calling you a conman, so please drop at least an ounce of luck to my side.’ Once more I start to lose hope while thinking about future.

“You also had another…” Mothers hard tone somehow brought me back from delusions and made me listen to the story again.

“She was my sister Friin. Both of us married your father about 5 years ago. The three of us lived in the same house happily until that fateful day.” She makes a small pause until continuing.

“She was a member of patrol group. And their job is to search and exterminate all dangerous monsters in surrounding areas. Well those groups consist of at least 10 people so it isn’t really that dangerous mostly what they get are some scratches. But that day was different, since they found not a monster but a nightmare which was brought by a howling winds of a storm from a far North. Those nightmares are more often called as Ice Wyverns. It is a huge creature, bigger than our house, with a sharp claws and teethes, which can tear through iron like paper, and breath, which can freeze to death any living being.” She was telling me this story while looking straight into my eyes.

“What happened then? Did they retreat to call for help?” Somehow I really got into the story to the point I even got a goose bums.

She shook her head. “No. This is a story told by those who survived. But remember this,Asger, never let fear take over you when you are in the middle of a battle.’ She lingered a bit over this as if telling the one and only rule by which everybody should live.

“My sisters group was the first to encounter that beast. But I told you it was after the storm because of that more than few patrol groups were there. So after hearing sounds of battle 3 more, who were close by, came to help. The battle was as bloody as it can get. Some charged the wyvern with their weapons trying to make it bleed while others using magically hardened steel chains held it to the ground. The most agile jumped on its back trying to cut off it’s wings. The fighting went on for a long time. Even with it’s wings cut off the beast didn’t gave up, still using his claws and teethes, Ice wyvern showed what a true nightmare he is. In the end home came back only 12 warriors out of 40. And one of them was my sister. But her wounds were too deep and to cure them a really strong healer would have been needed. In the end Friin and Ragnhildr, another warrior who came back from that battle, sailed to the other lands… And now their names will forever be etched on the stone in the place where the beast has fallen.” Mother finished her tale with tears in the corners of her eyes.

== End of chapter 7 ==