Jack in the Wald

Chapter 1: The Burg of Thurn

Jack

It was an unusual thing to find in the deep of the wood.

The spear stood driven into a mound of grass, as if it had been hurled from the heavens. The shaft was speckled with moss, the copper head tarnished green with age. A marker for a grave, perhaps? Jack wondered, kneeling to examine the artifact. The last time spears would have been used for warfare in that corner of Alrea would have been during Ansar the Conqueror's time. That would have made the spear around a thousand years old, but after so long a time lying exposed to the elements there should have been nothing left. Odd, Jack thought.

It had been a hot day of work, and Jack was bone tired. Twilight was nearing and he knew Eidna would have dinner in the pot. It may have been wiser to leave the spear and continue along his weary path toward home, but for some reason Jack found himself drawn to it. He leaned his axe against a nearby tree and began cleaning the moss from the shaft of the weapon. The wood was carved in swirling patterns and was hard like heartwood. Jack took a firm grip and pulled the point free from the earth. Below the level of the ground, the hardened copper still shone as if new. Very odd, Jack remarked to himself again.

Holding the spear gave Jack a different feeling than wielding his axe or saw. Those were tools with which his hands were familiar and comfortable. The spear, on the other hand, was something that had been singularly designed for the work of killing, and had likely been used for such. The weight and balance were optimized for the rending of flesh, the head just thin enough to slip between the ribs of a man.

Though the weapon made him uneasy, it also excited his mind. He was used to reading history, but now he was literally holding it in his hands. He tried to imagine the warrior who bore the weapon within the heat and press of the shield wall. Jack had read about the ancient battle formations that Ansar had brought with him from the East in Macione's Compendium. When utilized correctly, the phalanx was nearly unstoppable. Each man would have to be of equal strength and determination to prevent the wall from breaking, and thus united the battle line would become a mechanism of death dealt by spears such as this one. It was Macione's belief that this necessity for trust among Ansar's warriors eventually resulted in the creation of the Brotherhood of the Einherjar. Jack, who was solitary and untrusting by nature, felt a certain fascination toward the idea. Eidna had taught him love, but no one had ever taught him brotherhood.

His mind was so occupied imagining ancient battles that twilight passed by without his notice. It was nearly dark by the time he carried on, his axe on one shoulder and the spear on the other.

--

The stars were already winking to life in the eastern sky when Jack hopped over the creek and entered the clearing. The tinker's wagon glowed red in the firelight, Heavyhoof grazing behind it. Eidna was sitting on an upturned log by the cookfire, stirring ingredients into a stew. Lightfoot was beside her, but he sprang up and ran to meet Jack the moment he heard the tread of his master's corked boots upon the grass. Jack laid down his tools and happily greeted the pup, scratching at his jaw and playfully cuffing him.

He leaned the axe and spear against the wagon and then embraced Eidna beside the fire, wasting no time in reaching under the skirts of her workdress. She batted him away before he could get a hold on anything choice. "After dinner! Everything will burn otherwise!" she scolded. Jack smiled and pulled her into a kiss.

The first year of their marriage had passed like a whirlwind. Their wedding in Tierna boasted only three guests: Eidna's Aunt Gretel and two of her young cousins. Eidna refused to speak to Gretel about her father, and had only reluctantly allowed her Aunt permission to write Heinrich with the news of her nuptials. The next day they were traveling northward out of Elidia, and had already passed into the Burg of Thurn by the time the letter would have reached Eidna's father in Brecht.