Egad
With his mother caring for Egg’s baby year old baby sister and his father busied with running the farm and manor house it’d left Egg to be brushed to the side. Without S – without the Ashford family, life in the countryside proved to be a tad more than boring. With time to waste and mixed emotions to vent, Egg had taken up the skill of bow and arrow. The forest beyond the fields had become a second home to him, a place of solace where the loudest sounds were the songs of the birds high up in the trees and the crunch of root and rotting leaves underfoot.489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnaZnkvuRnL
With only a shirt of white linen and pants of patchy, rough-cut leather and boots, a quiver full of duck-fletching arrows at his back and a wooden bow in hand Egg stood atop a giant, fallen tree. He crouched by the stump of a broken branch and examined the clump of grey fur snagged on the point. It was smooth but spotted with blackened blood he found, rubbing it between his fingers.
“Seems old Fenrir’s still kickin’,” Egg muttered to himself, looking to the paw print tracks below the fallen tree leading into the brush.
Got two arrows into him and he’s still going. At least I made him bleed, should slow him down at the very least.
Egg jumped from the log and landed in the yellow clay carpeted clearing that sucked and dirtied his brown boots. No sooner than he stood the brush began to shake, some creature clearly hiding within. Following an instinct honed by two years of hunting Egg stepped back and went down on one knee, slipping an arrow and drew back the string aiming for the shaking bush. It slowed for a moment…and then whatever was hiding took off without an effort to at least try and be subtle. Egg let the arrow loose but clearly missed the fast moving target. Egg cursed under his breath and sprinted after the creature. With the brush and leaves it was near impossible to see what exactly he was chasing, but Egg found he really didn’t care. He needed something to chase. He needed something to hunt. It didn’t really matter whether it was his old prey Fenrir the great wolf or an unfortunate deer that had happened upon him.
Spotting a boulder to the right he was quickly approaching, Egg dodged to the right and leapt atop the boulder using the overlooking height to his advantage. He drew an arrow and let it fly at the figure still running through the brush. His aim was off as he’d been forced to take such a quick shot. But Egg heard the creature’s high-pitched cry and its frantic struggle through the brush clearly urged on in adrenaline and fear.
Not Fenrir, then. Still worth the chase I s’ppose.
He quickly lost sight of the rustle amongst the bush and instead followed the patches of fresh blood it left behind in the orange sunlight. When it came to hunting, his mother had only three rules; be back before sundown, hunt only prey that cannot hunt you back and whatever you do, do not speak to strangers. Egg supposed 2/3 broken rules could do no harm, he could clearly take care of himself after all. The young hunter slowed to a walk, taking his time to enjoy the view of the orange light glinting through the dew-slick leaves. Two crows cawed to each other deeper in the forest, the only other sound the faint breeze twisting and dancing through the leaves and branches like a fair maid dancing in the summertime.
The hunt was usually the best way to clear Egg’s mind, the best way to forget his worries about his mother’s frail health or his father’s debt…and what Egg was to do with the rest of his life. It was a question that had haunted him since he’d realised he truly did not wish to be his father. When Egg thought of it too much it made his thoughts spin in circles and tie themselves in knots, and his skin would grow hot and it’d make him impatient and feel things he wasn’t quite sure what to think of.
Egg very much disliked the knot it made in his mind and in his stomach, so he hunted, and he hunted. But even now as Egg hunted what was most likely a deer, his thoughts just couldn’t help but circle back to that. For the most part of his young years he’d always done what he knew would make others happy. Now that it was Egg’s turn to decide on what he wanted, he found himself without a clue how to be selfish.
He’d even hinted the fact to his mother one fine morning. Egg had been nibbling on a chunk of slightly hardened cheese his father had nicked from the manor before it went to the rot, and his mother was busying herself with braiding Myra’s quickly growing mane of black waves. The smell of baking bread filled the kitchen, dust mites flying lazily about in the honey-glazed morning light drifting through the open windows.
“Eggsy my darling, if you don’t wish to become a farmer or caretaker I shan’t force you and I’ll make sure your father won’t either. You have a wondrous advantage on us all, that nice lord’s boy taught you to read didn’t he?” His mother had said, looking to him.
Whenever either of Egg’s parents mentioned…him, Egg was almost convinced that they could suddenly read and see his thoughts, that they knew the way he desperately tried to forget the way he sweet way he smelled or how Egg loved the way he spoke in such an elegant way…or the how his lips had tasted of the cherry wine he’d sipped tenderly before and how badly Egg wanted to hold his hand.
“-Egg?” His mother asked, concern in her hazel eyes.
He blinked, and then nodded. His mother watched him for a moment more than continued to braid his little sister’s hair as Myra chewed on a wooden toy of a train.
“All I ask is that before you leave you teach little Myra here before you go…wherever it is you wish to go, my darling.”
“I’ll try,” Egg muttered, returning to his strong-tasting cheese.
“And maybe before you go you might meet a nice girl, from the way I see it Ella from Gillwick’s farm a day’s ride away has taken a liking to you, judgin’ by the way she blushes every time you come round their place whenever we’ve milk to sell from the manor cows,” His mother said, smiling.
Egg had forgotten about going for a horse ride about the fields with Ella that day and taken his bow and quiver and disappeared into the forest from dawn till dusk. In fact, he’d forgotten about ever riding with Ella again since that day.
As the blood stains grew fresher, the sun sunk deeper behind the horizon. The faint whisper of a stream met his ears, and Egg lowered himself into a crouch, readying an arrow into the string. He drew it back, silent as he held his breath and aimed the arrowhead at the figures own head. It raised its head and glanced behind.
“If you’re going to shoot me, could you at least have the courtesy to do it well?” A girl’s voice said. Egg let the tension in the string relieve but kept the arrow notched. He stood and left the cover of the brush and found it was a girl that squatted by the streams bank, her leg bloodied with a familiar arrow laying broken by her foot.
Quickly piecing together what had happened Egg returned his arrow to its quiver and crouched by her side to help her in some way.
“Oh, God I am so, so terribly sorry I never meant to hurt you!” He exclaimed, going to touch her bloodied leg which his arrowhead had buried itself into. She flinched and making to move away from him fell, and cried out in even more pain.
“Just…help me get to my camp…it’s not too far away…we can talk th-there…” The female huntress groaned in agony. Egg took her arm around his shoulders and hoisted her up. She pointed the way, and he pushed the scratching branches away and tried his best to make his way through the dense wood in the fading light. Egg could tell she had taken up the same trade as him by her rough spun garb caked with all sorts of forest matter. Her hair reminded Egg strangely enough of a bears, filthy and oily and yet it was the most beautiful shade of oaken brown. He could easily feel the strength that alone rested in her arms by her grip. Despite her shortness and small stature, made to look doubly so compared to the tall Egg, he knew how powerful a hunter she must be. Well, at least until he put an arrow into her leg.
With only a slither of sun for light they made it to the huntress’s rag-tag encampment. It was more of a pile of stones surrounding a pit of ash and a collapsed tent that smelled of soured milk. Egg set her down by the fire pit.
“I, err, - I don’t really know how to help you….” He began.
“…Dayna. I’ll walk you through it. Check the tent, there should be flint rock that should help you out with getting a fire started seeing as we’re running out of daylight,” Dayna said, prying her boot off tenderly with a grimace. Egg found the flint and did as she bid, and soon enough the small pit was aflame. The fire provided a small comfort with its warmth and plenty of light for Egg to see the bloodied mess he’d made of Dayna’s leg.
“Um, next?” He asked shakily, shaking the blood dampening his fingers. Dayna grunted as she reached for her belt and gave him a half-filled canister of water.
“Scent o’ blood is gonna attract some critters you don’t wanna might in the middle of the night and I won’t be able to leg it and it’ll be your fault when I get gobbled up. First things first, wash away the blood,” She instructed, clenching her teeth. As Egg washed away both the fresh and dried blood Dayna used her teeth to tear away a strip of cloth from her shirt.
“Here, tie this around the wound once you’re done. Tight now,” She said with the cloth between her teeth. Egg took the cloth and did his best to tie it tight as he could .
“Better?” He asked cautiously, sitting. Dayna sighed and lay down.
“Good as it’s gonna get for now I s’ppose.”
“What now?” Egg wondered, looking around at the dark forest pressing in around them.
“Well, there’s no making our way out of the forest in the pitch black with wolves on the prowl. It’s best we stay round here with the fire n’ such. I haven’t any food so we’ll have to go hungry for now,” Dayna replied, closing her eyes.
“Fantastic,” Egg grumbled, following her lead and laying down. For but a few moments they lay there in silence save the chirp of a lone cricket and the occasional rustle of a bush surrounding the clearing. With her eyes still closed Egg peered at her closer in the flickering light of the fire. Dayna couldn’t have been too older than him, in fact, she was probably a tad younger. Around her blue eyes her cheeks were spotted with brown freckles, the same tawny brown as her hair.
Egg squeezed his eyes shut and pretended to have been resting when Dayna opened her own eyes and partially sat up on her elbows.
“I’m ah, Dayna Eller by the way. I’d go to shake your hand but ah…heh, problematic at the moment. Who’s you?” She asked, cocking her head to the side slightly. Egg sat up and crossed his legs, hunching a little as he faced the fire.
“Egad Northwood,” He replied.
Dayna grunted, and smiled to herself. “I’d say it’s nice to meet you, but under these circumstance it ain’t quite true ey?” She said.
“Aye,” Egg said, bowing his head apologetically. For some reason or another Egg found any conversation that came to mind die a quick death inside his parched throat. Maybe it was because how she looked at him. Maybe it was her blue eyes.
“May I ask why on god’s green earth did you decide to shoot and then chase down something you couldn't even see?” Dayna wondered incredulously.
“In all honesty, I thought you were a wolf. When I first started hunting in this wood I was attacked by the largest wolf I've seen to date and I've been hunting the overgrown old bastard since. A few days back I managed to stick him with an arrow, I was tracking him this afternoon when we crossed paths. S’pose I wasn't exactly thinking clearly, and needed to left off some steam so I shot the first thing in sigh,” Egg explained with a shrug.
“So, that's why you do it?” Dayna asked.
“Do what?” Egg replied.
“Why you hunt, to vent?” she said simply. He took a moment to consider this, never meeting the huntress’s eyes.
“Suppose so,” Egg shrugged. Dayna smirked at that.
“You don’t realise there’re other ways to…let off steam? How old are you Egad?” She asked with a strange look in her eyes.
Egg shifted. “Fifteen.”
“And you’ve never been with a girl?” Dayna asked, eyebrows raised.
“No,” He replied bluntly.
She can’t be suggesting what I think she’s about to suggest…?
“Well, we’re stuck here all night long. We got no songs to sing, no food to eat and hours to waste with only this pitiful fire for warmth. You wanna vent, Northwood?” Dayna proposed.
I do owe her one. I shot her with a damn arrow for Christ’s sake.
Egg didn’t reply, only shrugged off his quiver and bow from his back and got up. He went between her legs and planted a hand beside her head and the other cupped the side of her face, pulling her close. Egg used every inch of willpower not to lose himself in Dayna’s blue eyes, because Egg knew if he did his thoughts would delve into thoughts of him. They kissed, her lips tasting of honey and sweetness. But having his eyes closed proved to be even worse. It left plenty of room for his imagination to barge in and overwhelm him. Kissing Dayna tasted sweet but left the aftertaste of ash, with everything inside him struggling away from her touch. But…just thinking about kissing him such a fashion made a fire spark inside his belly, and the deeper and more passionate they kissed the more the fire grew. Until that was, Dayna took his hand and slid it beneath her shirt and onto her breast. At that, the fantasy was snuffed out as quick as it had been lit.
Egg retracted both his tongue and his hands and threw himself away. Dayna sat up in a start, her blue eyes wide with hurt.
“Wh-what’s wrong?” She asked, covering her bare chest. Just as always, before he cried there’d always be a tingle in his nose just before the tears would begin to flow just as it did now.
It’s not fair, It’s not fair. Why me? Why must there be something wrong me? Why can’t I kiss girls the way everyone else does…
Egg didn’t even try to hold back or wipe away the tears that flowed freely from his amber eyes. Acting on impulse and nothing else he threw himself back on her, pinning Dayna down and kissing her with a knew bout of ferocity. It was neither love or lust that drove his ferocity, only frustration. She dug her fingers into his neck and kissed back with equal intensity. When nothing happened, when nothing sparked and thoughts of Sol were just too much to bare, Egg simply gave up. He drew back, his tears now falling on Dayna’s freckled, confused face. After a few moments of silence and Egg’s sobs, Dayna reached out for him. She brushed away the tears, and cupped his face with a sad smile.
They looked to each other for a while, but before either could speak the howl of a wolf broke the quiet night. Both looked to where the bushes shook violently, and a pair of fat amber eyes stared at them from the shadows. Egg froze in that moment, taken aback at his luck. With the grace of a cat Egg threw himself back and took up his bow and three arrows. Too slow it seemed, as Dayna sitting there dumbstruck on the ground, Fenrir launched himself from the brush and onto the wounded huntress. Quick as he could Egg notched the three arrows and drew the string back. Fenrir savaged Dayna’s arm, his yellowed fangs sinking deep into her arm, possibly to the bone. Egg let the arrows loose, all three meeting their target and connecting with the beast’s thick neck. Fenrir let go of the girl’s arm, his muzzle splotched with fresh blood and neck fur matted with his own the old wolf stumbled away and collapsed atop the fire, dying where he lay. Smoke rose from his foul smelling corpse, and soon he was alight.489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPG1fN8UfO2
“Dayna!” He exclaimed, rushing over to her. She was still alive, but she wouldn’t be for long with that amount of blood pouring from her arm. Despite the pitch black night and his guideless march and dying girl in his arms Egad Northwood yet again completed one of the three things he thought impossible.
The first was being able to kill Fenrir. The second was being able to navigate through the forest at night and survive. The third was being able to feel the same way about a girl the same way he’d felt about Sol.489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAS5w0wOX29
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