The Thrall (The Viking Hero Series Book 1) (3 page)

He knew he'd better not dawdle in his daily tasks,
so he got up and went to the byre area to milk the cows. Being
mindful not to disturb anyone, he fetched the milking bucket and
noticed that the goat was on the other end of the house standing on
the anvil looking back at him.

Obliviously, Grumpy didn't get any sleep as well
and had kept a vigilance throughout the rest of the night perched up
on the anvil stone.

Rowan smiled thinking, "don't worry goat, I
didn't get any sleep either."

He slowly positioned himself around the cow, being
mindful that it may still be a bit skittish from last night. After a
moment of reassuring the cow and feeling that it was calm enough, he
reached down to began milking her. Just before he got the first
drop, Rowan noticed something in the milking bucket.

It was something wrapped in a piece of cloth.
Rowan reached down in the bucket and picked it up. It was a piece of
Helga's scarf. He unwrapped it and found one of her honey biscuits.
Rowan smiled.

He quickly wrapped it back up and stuffed it in
his shirt.

The milking had to be done first thing in the
morning. Gwenda wanted to make as much cheese as possible before the
cows started to slow their milk giving at the end of the season. The
mil
k would have
to
set out and curd. He began steadily milking the cow.

A sudden voice came
from behind Rowan, startling him and made him slightly jump. The cow
he was milking was also spooked and mooed in protest while taking a
step sideways.

It was Bjord. Rowan
didn't hear him get up while he was busying himself with the milking.

"Forget the
milking today and let Thelsa finish doing it."

Rowan looked up at
Bjord and nodded. He then stood up and hung the milking bucket on a
hook that was on a support beam so the cows wouldn't kick it over.

"Thelsa! Get up!"
Bjord barked, loud enough to stir everyone in the house out of their
peaceful slumber. "Finish the milking!"

Thelsa, still dazed in
the drink of sleep, rubbed the tiredness from her eyes and started to
get out of bed.

"That's the
thrall's job..."

"Do what I tell
you lazy girl!" scorned Bjord cutting her off before she could
finish protesting.

He turned back
towards Rowan and said, "gather several fathoms of rope
,
enough to tether each of the sheep if we need to."

As he gave Rowan these instructions, he walked by
Sven's bed and kicked him on the bottom of his feet. "Get up
boy, it's time to fetch those sheep."

"Make sure you grab your bow," he
further instructed his son as he gathered supplies himself, stuffing
them into a leather shoulder strap bag.

Gwenda got up and headed towards the cooking fire.
"Do you want me to cook you anything before you go?"

"No, I'll just grab some dried meat to take
with us. I don't think we'll be gone very long."

Bjord walked over to where Gwenda was standing and
grabbed some dried meat that was hanging next to her. He cut off
several chunks and stuffed them into his shoulder pack.

"Those sheep couldn't have ran off very far,"
he said with one final word before embracing his wife and then
turning to head out the door.

"Come on boys, I want to get this over with.
We have lots to do when we get back. There's really no time to be
messing around looking for skittish sheep."

The three of
them, Bjord, Sven and Rowan, exited the longhouse and set ou
t
in the direction the sheep had ran off last night. They followed the
livestock's trail left behind
as it
led across the field and into the woods. Heading directly up the
hillside.

Rowan didn't
like the idea of going into the forest
up
the hillside. He had a bad feeling about it. The sheep were always
too skittish to even get close to the wood line. It was just
some
thing they'd never do for fear of predators ambushing
them. They always wandered in the other direction and steered way
clear of the woods when they grazed. It was a bit odd that they'd
intentionally run into the woods. Albeit, they were being chased by
something horrifying.

Rowan shook these thoughts off. Such worrying
thoughts were meaningless. There wasn't anything that happened last
night that made any sense. So why should the sheep running in the
woods make any sense.

After awhile, the trail began to lead into the
thicker trees and brush of the forest that went up the mountainside.
This area was seldom, if at all, ever ventured into by anyone fr
om
the village. Superstitious or not, nobody wanted to chance venturing
too far into the wilderness and never being heard from again.

Ahead of them,
Bjord noticed something whitish in color in the bushes. He stopped in
his tracks
trying to see
what it was. Sven, not really paying any attention, kept walking.
Without looking away from whatever was in the bushes ahead, Bjord
reached his arm out and caught Sven by the
shoulder
as he walked past him, stopping him.

"Look," he
said to Sven, pointing at the bushes ahead of them. "There's
something in that bush."

Sven looked around for
a moment, but didn't see anything. Then he noticed it and gasped.

"Go see what it
is."

With a gulp, Sven
looked back at his father horrified. But before he could answer,
Bjord stepped forward to look himself. "Never mind boy."

Sven cautiously
stood behind Bjord to
get a better look at what it was.

It was one of the sheep.

"That's one of them, " Sven confirmed as
he looked over his father's shoulder. "It's been freshly shorn
and its wearing one of our collars."

All the livestock that belonged to the
blacksmith's house wore a leather collar that had a single iron ring
hanging from it inscribed with the word, "Bjord" to mark
his ownership of them.

Even Rowan's neck collar was inscribed similarly
with the word, 'Bjord.' Except instead of leather, Rowan's collar was
made from iron.

"You could tell it ran itself to death, its
eyes are still wide open from fear." Bjord pointed out while
still looking at it.

Rowan said nothing regarding it and just stood
there looking around. This place made him feel uneasy. Something
about these woods just wasn't right and he knew it. He knew not how,
but he just knew they should not be here. The sheep weren't worth
whatever awaited them.

Sven looked at Bjord for a moment and then said,
"I'm hungry, can we stop and eat?"

Bjord turned around and looked at him for a
moment. He was just about to say something, but then dropped his
shoulders and softened up.

"Yes, we should rest a moment and grab a bite
to eat. There is no sense continuing on with an empty stomach."

Bjord removed his shoulder bag and sat on the
ground with his back to a tree. Sven and Rowan sat down next to him
as he reached into his bag and pulled out a thick slice of meat. It
was a slice from a haunch of smoked boar.

He broke the chunk of meat in two and handed the
smaller half to Sven, keeping the larger for himself. Rowan wasn't
given anything to eat and just sat there awkwardly waiting for them
to finish.

After about twenty minutes or so, Bjord satisfied
he'd eaten and rested enough, put the remainder of his chunk of meat
in his bag and stood up. He wiped his hands on his pants and dusted
off.

Rowan taking the hint, stood up as well and
adjusted the rope he was carrying over his shoulder.

Bjord looked down at Sven. He was still eating and
ignoring everyone.

"Come on boy, you can eat that as we go. We
haven't got all day."

Without waiting for him to get up, Bjord turned
and began walking through the woods, following the trail the sheep
had made. Rowan followed behind him, taking a final look at the dead
sheep on the ground.

Sven got up and
followed, taking a few more bites off his chunk of meat before
deciding he had enough and tossed it into the bushes. Rowan heard him
throw it and heard it hit the ground as his stomach slightly
grumbled. He didn't give Sven the satisfaction of looking, he was
quite used to this kind of treatment. Besides, tucked under his
shirt, wrapped in a piece of cloth was one of Helga's honey biscuits.
He'll enjoy that himself later.

As a thrall, he wasn't mistreated in general or
even abused. He knew he was fortunate to be owned by the blacksmith
as he'd seen how other thralls were treated by other owners. Many of
them abused and quite often beaten. Rowan had never been beaten and
even though he had no intention of running away, he still had to wear
the neck ring. There were just times like this when his status, for
some unknown reason, was made clear.

Bjord motioned forward and said, "come on,
we've got to find the others."

They continued to follow the trail left behind by
the running sheep pack. Sven and Rowan followed behind Bjord as he
tracked their way up the mountain. The route was gradually starting
to incline steeper as they went further.

The men were starting to sweat and Bjord stopped
and sat down on a rock to rest. The younger two sat down on the
ground near him. It was then that Rowan noticed that something just
wasn't right around them.

The forest was just simply too quiet.

The usual sounds of wildlife and birds were
missing. There was an unsettling stillness in the forest. The only
thing that could be heard were the occasional sounds of leaves
rustling when the wind blew, but that was all. It was too quiet.

"Do you hear that?" Rowan asked nobody
in particular.

Bjord listened for a minute and said, "what?
I don't hear anything."

Sven, who had also listened, nodded in agreement.
He didn't hear anything either.

"Exactly. There's no sound, not even the
birds are chirping." Rowan pointed out.

Sven began to look openly worried, but Bjord
shrugged, stood up and said, "come on, we've got to find those
sheep."

They continued up following the trail until they
came upon another dead sheep lying on the ground halfway in a bush.
It was like the first one, you could tell it ran itself to death in
total fear. Sven shuddered at the sight of it.

"Rowan, pull that sheep out of the bushes."
Bjord said. "I want to be able to find it on our way back. I am
sure we can salvage some of the meat from it."

Rowan did as he was told and pulled the sheep out
of the bush it had fallen into when it died. Sven stood back and
watched, offering no assistance. Not that Rowan expected any help, he
was used to Sven idly watching him. It just amused him how Sven
seemed to be afraid of it.

After Rowan had the sheep pulled away from the
bush Bjord turned and continued walking up the hillside. There was
still a visible track and he followed the remaining trail up the
hill.

"Keep moving, there's still four sheep that
may still be alive. That is, if the wolves don't find them before we
do."

As they proceeded further up the hillside, ever
determi
ned, the trees and brush
began to get even thicker. Even though it was only mid day, the
density of the foliage was starting to make it darker and darker
around them.

Pushing their way
through the brush, they suddenly were overwhelmed by the most
horrendous smell of rotten decay.

It seemed to be
thick in the air and clung on everythin
g like a thick
invisible fog. It permeated the air as if it had been there for quite
awhile.

Sven gagged and said, "what's that smell?
It's awful!"

"Something dead nearby. Keep going, it'll
pass." said Bjord as he used his arm to cover his mouth and
nose.

Rowan had never smelled anything like it before.
He'd once came across a rotting boar carcass in the forest when he
was gathering wood. The boar was discolored, bloated, and putrid. It
was definitely dead and definitely had been there for a while. It
laid in a patch of sunlight that beamed in through a clearing of the
trees. It was so putrid, not even the flies wanted it.

The smell in the air now was similar, but way
worse. It made Rowan's stomach churn in a most unpleasant way. He
tried using his sleeve to cover the smell. It didn't even help.

By the looks on Sven and Bjord's faces, they were
just as disgusted and feeling just as green as Rowan was.

The men stopped in their tracks. They were all
trying to cover their noses and mouths as best as they could. Bjord
looked at them and said, "well,.. [he abruptly stopped to gag]
we've indeed found something unpleasant lurking about here.
Something's definitely dead near here. I don't think it's any of the
sheep. They haven't been dead long enough to rot and smell like that.
Plus the other sheep we found didn't smell."

Sven and Rowan both nodded in agreement not
wanting to speak and uncover their mouths.

"Whatever it is, it's been dead for awhile. I
don't know what would make such a stench, but I don't think I want to
find out." Bjord added.

The notion made both Sven and Rowan turn pale as
their hearts fearfully sank. They've all heard the stories about the
things that supposedly lived in the forest and in the mountains.
Places said to be for
bidden to men
where both unseen folk and beings from the legends were said to
inhabit.

In the brush, they
could clearly see where the remaining sheep had ran. They ran right
through, breaking limbs and everything else in their way, as if they
were desperate to escape whatever was chasing them.

The entire way had
been this way. It didn't take any real tracking skills to follow the
panicking sheep's trail. In this spot, the trail ran right through
some dense bushes.