The Rise Of a Shadow [Preview]

The story of a shadow II

II

He recognized that for being rich, Katarine did some things that haunted him, like the time she laughed openly after he told her that he hadn't eaten in two days. He, however, always ignored these events every time she looked at him with those bright deep blue eyes. He believed Katarine to be one of the only two people in the world who treated him as the human being he felt he was.

"Useless bastard, go get some more firewood before I beat you for not having died before you learned to speak!" said Great Sêlkior.

Ronn lowered his head and left quietly, fear shooting through his veins at the slightest sign of his father, but soon after, it was replaced by hatred, which boiled inside him every time the Great Sêlkior looked at him as if he were looking at an insect or talking to him with the same tone he reserved to the goats that defecated where they should not. Not that he hadn't grown accustomed to it by now, after all, it had been this way since ... Well ... Always.

He left the tavern by the stable and gathered the wood as fast as he could. He'd learned early that slaps on the back of the head hurt and he'd always take them if he didn't come in, do what he had to, and get out of sight as quickly as possible. He also discovered early how to steal food from the market and the tavern's pantry without people taking notice of missing items, and taking objects from the merchants and some unpleasant people without them even realizing it.

When he least expected he had become a thief. He wasn't proud of it, but if he didn't steal, he would have died a boy, though he had also almost died a boy anyway, several times, whenever he was discovered, oh, and believe me, he had been discovered several times in the early years.

As the years went by, Ronn received less and less punishment for theft, until he failed to receive them altogether. As a reward, he earned scars on his body and the title of Bastard-Eider.

He went back through the back door, going through the stable and the kitchen - since he was not allowed to use the conventional entrance - crossed the bar, took the wood to the fireplace on the opposite side of the tables, and sharpened his hearing, waiting to hear new stories.

"Damn you, I'm telling the truth!" A red-faced man with a beard and dishevelled straw-coloured hair stood up "They call him ræv fe8, they say he is intrepid like Loki9. Hail10 Loki!" The man continued.

Ronn proceeded to accomplish his task of gathering the ashes more lengthily in order to hear the man better.

"People say that if he settles in some land, the creatures begin to flee and the land becomes infertile." The man looked fearful.

He must be a goat shepherd who was in town to sell fur, Ronn deduced, after looking over his shoulder to get a better view of the man. These shepherds used to be superstitious and always trembled with fear when they heard some stupid story about Cernunnos11.

"No Ræv fe would be so powerful, man, forget this stupid story!" The other one, shorter and with a lack of hair, exclaimed. But he looked equally fearful, Ronn thought.

The man seemed to calm down and think about what the other had said.

"You're right, a damn sorcerer would not be so powerful." The man ran a large hand through his beard and sat down, neither of them spoke again.

"Skiderik!" Ronn bit back a curse at the voice of the Great Sêlkior, the plump woman was the most unpleasant thing he had ever seen, because of her he had been punished several times when he barely spoke. What blame did he have, if her husband liked to warm up other beds?

Ronn never had any contact or empathy for his mother, she had handed him over to the Great Sêlkior as soon as he had weaned and then she left town, as far as he knew. He could never tell why she had not merely abandoned him in the forest when he was born, as women who birthed bastards often did, or why Sêlkior himself had not, though he suspected he had been kept to become just what he was, a slave.

"Dame12" He replied without lifting his head, he was never allowed look at her as an equal, he learned pretty early on.

"Finish this right away and disappear from the customer's view, you useless."

Often, Ronn compared the woman's voice to the duck's croak that originated his bastard title, and often he came to the conclusion that croaking was less irritating.

"Ya Dame" he replied in a low tone.

For months he had been more uncomfortable than usual with her, once caught her looking at him in a way that gave him shivers and the urge to vomit his insides as she went to the stable carrying hay.

He finished his service and left, covered himself with a black, old, and dusty blanket, and left treading the filthy alleys of the city, he was not normally called to work at night.

Obviously, those hours were the coldest, but he was not allowed to be in the tavern, because it was also the time with most activity. So he used the free time to visit Katarine, she would retreat to her room around that time, to sew things to her non-existent marriage.

Since she was fifteen, Katarine had suitors, but her father did not think them good enough for her, which was a relief to Ronn since he didn't know what he would do if a marriage was arranged.

When they talked about it, he said that if he was rich, he would certainly court her, she drowned out the laughter with the back of her hand and said only that he would be an excellent horseman for her when she married, then she mentioned all the positives of leaving of living in the stables, and he just smiled at her sweetness in proposing to pay a bastard for a decent job.

He understood his place in the world long ago, which did not necessarily compel him to enjoy living as he did. No, he repudiated it with every breath, however much he appeared to be accustomed to his life - he had to be - he recognized that as a bastard he had been lucky to have a roof over his head, under the "protection" of the Great Sêlkior.

He was also not allowed to call him father, ever.

Glossary:

7. Bastard-eider: Reference to duck-eider flying at high speed during the stampede to the south;

8. Ræv fe: Translation of "fox fairy"; mystical creatures who once were human and died for a great injustice, awakening the God of justice Forseti, who by touching their spirit with the golden axe, endowed them with the abilities to be immortal, to walk in the material and spiritual world, relieving pain of wronged spirits attached to the material plane, to know all the memories with a touch and to change to animal form freely;

9. Loki: God of fire, of the trickery and mischief of Norse mythology;

10. Hail: Greeting usually used after uttering the name of a god or deity, as a demonstration of respect;

11. Cernunno: Meat-eating creatures that have horns and snakeskin;

12. Dame: Title given to the lady of the house;

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