The tide turns

Chapter 16 / The hunted

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"Thorfinn..."

Thorfinn looked up. He hadn't listened intently to the conversation the huntress had had with Leif. Thorfinn had been occupied. He had been injured fighting that bear that now lay skinned by the huntress' feet, and he had been cleaning and bandaging that wound.

"Your name is Thorfinn? I've never seen a person be able to fight a bear with just a single dagger," she continued to speak as she still worked on the bear. Thorfinn still felt a little on edge; he felt like she was looking at him and speaking to him in a different way than how she was treating everyone else. "Do you have experience in battle?"

He straightened his back a little, letting Gudrid tie the bandages on his back.

"In the past. Now I'm just a traveling trader."

"My name is Hild, daughter of Hrafnkell of the Calm Fjord. Hild"

"Thorfinn, son of Thor, You saved my life; thank you,  Hild."Thorfinn introduced himself just as she had, but that hateful look returned to his eyes when he did. Still, despite his confusion, he kept smiling.

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Hild shared a meal with them; after all, it had been her prayer. It was the bear's meat they were eating. It had turned into quite a delicious stew of meat and vegetables.

Hild said many things that worried Thorfinn. She spoke of evil bears and evil dreams, of the loss of her family, and of her facial deformity.

If she had said it all with tears in her eyes, if she hadn't cast furious glances at him, maybe he would not be worried about being so close to her.
The others got along with her just fine.

Gudrid seemed to like her, finding another woman with such an unlikely profession. Maybe she felt less alone.

Thorfinn was ready to dismiss it all until she talked about how she had lost her family.

She was seething with rage, a rage that Thorfinn felt that he understood, and then she said that name.

"Askeladd"

His mind began to race. Hild. Askeladd. The calm fjord. 8 years ago. He tried to remember it all. How old had he been at that time?

He couldn't look at her any longer.

He was sweating; he could hardly breathe.

Hrafnkell...

He had been a chieftain of that area. He was a carpenter; he had killed him. And yes, there had been a daughter. He remembered her now, but he had never gotten her name back then.

She had been in shock, and he had been cruel, and she fell.

He thought she had died.

"I vividly remember one of his comrades calling his name." Hild spoke, her voice low, and it tore through Thorfinn like a hot blade. "Thorfinn"

Nobody was even chewing their food any longer. It was a complete and deafening silence.

"So it was you. You killed my father."

"You..." Gudrid started. She was shaking as well, but she stood up. Was she about to defend him, even though she definitely knew that he was capable of doing something like that? "Thorfinn!" She quickly turned to him, like she wanted him to defend himself against Hild's accusations.

"She's right," he righted himself, feeling more sweat run down his face when he raised his head to look at Hild while he admitted it. "The man who killed your father was me."