The Thrall (The Viking Hero Series Book 1) (7 page)

Feeling confident it was just his imagination,
Rowan continued walking through the forest. It wasn't but a few
moments later that he heard it again. It wasn't just a rustling of
leaves that he heard, but the sounds of footsteps.

They didn't sound like those made by a human. They
were to soft and sounded like they had sort of a leap to them. Like
how a deer would trot, but with only two legs.

Rowan stopped again and turned towards the sound
to look and listen, but again he seen and heard nothing.

Something was in the forest following him, he was
certain that. He scanned the trees around where he figured the sound
had came from. Looking for any sign of something hiding in the
foliage.

As he looked around, he couldn't help reflecting
on the fact that there certainly seemed to be many things in the
forest that were out to get him. He couldn't believe it. All the
stories he'd heard about the various creatures living in the woods.
Stories that he thought were just meant to keep children from
wandering off in the forest and getting lost. Stories about things
that actually existed after all.

After a moment of listening so intently that he
hardly breathed and seeing absolutely nothing, Rowan decided to
proceed. This time with a quicker pace. Whatever it was, wasn't going
to show itself apparently. It was best just to get through the forest
as quickly as possible.

The Sun had passed over him and he was still
making its way west. According to Tom's directions, it shouldn't be
that much further.

Quite frankly, he couldn't wait to get out of the
forest. The drab life of a blacksmith's thrall wasn't so bad after
all, considering everything that's happened. At least as a thrall he
rarely had to venture out into the wilderness where things we set on
killing him.

At that point it dawned on him about the
blacksmith and his son. They were dead. He wouldn't be able to return
to life as it was before. What was to become of him? Who in their
right mind would believe him when he told them what had happened. He
knew he wouldn't believe such a story himself if he'd heard it being
told. Especially such a tail told by a thrall. They would suspect
that he'd murdered his master in an attempt to escape his servitude.
Surely he would be put to death for murder.

Rowan's wandering mind was quickly silenced when
he heard the footsteps again. It was like a trot and it was now to
his left. He noticed that he was at a half run himself. He didn't
even notice his pace had quickened, but it had. He also noticed that
his heart was also pounding.

He continued his pace and pretended not to notice
the trotting off to the left of him. He tried not look in its
direction, for fear it would try to hide out of sight from him again.

He did his best to look in the corner of his eye,
without turning his head to try and see what it was.

In the back of his mind, he was hoping it would
just be a deer, but over the last couple days he'd learned that it
would be expecting to much for it to be something normal and
ordinary. Besides, there was nothing ordinary about a deer trotting
beside a human anyways.

Rowan did finally catch a glimpse of it. He caught
a short quick glimpse of what appeared to be a woman with long
flowing curly blonde hair. He also thought she was nude as well, but
wasn't sure.

Before he got a good look at her she disappeared
in the trees and was out of his sight once again.

He stopped abruptly in his tracks and looked in
the direction that she'd gone. He could still hear her moving through
the trees. It sounded like she was trotting off instead of running.
But his imagination and perhaps because of the mushrooms he'd eaten
were playing tricks on him. He was also fairly sleep deprived as
well.

The sound faded off and Rowan took a quick look
around him to make sure nothing else was there.

Feeling satisfied that he was once again alone and
perhaps the trotting was nothing but a deer with his mind playing
tricks on him. It may have been something else, but it didn't matter.
He set off again to get out of the forest.

His stomach had finally settled down and his
shaken nerves had given him a sense of renewed energy. His pace at a
half jog. Getting out of the forest was now his priority.

Rowan had kept this pace up for quite a bit until
he began feeling tired from it. Which was acceptable, because he
could see a clearing ahead. It meant that he was about to come out of
the forest. He was relieved.

Even though he was exhausted, he decided not to
rest and continued walking. He was determined to get to the clearing
and out of the forest. However, as he started
walking
towards the clearing he heard the sound of giggling behind him.

Rowan stopped walking
and just stood there frozen in his tracks.

As he stood there
motionless, listening, he heard it again. It was a female's giggle.

Reluctantly Rowan
turned around in the direction he heard the giggling coming from and
was surprise to see the face of a woman peering at him from behind a
tree.

It was the woman he
thought he'd seen trotting past him earlier that had disappeared in
the woods.

Although he wasn't
sure if he'd been seeing things or not earlier, he was sure of what
he seen now.

It was her. She
had the same long curly blond hair that fell over her shoulders. Her
hair covered
her shoulders
and the rest of her body was hidden behind a tr
ee. Rowan still
wasn't sure if she was nude or not, but her shoulders and arms were
bare.

She just smiled as she looked at him and then
giggled again.

Bewildered, Rowan just looked at her with his
mouth agape. She was beautiful, perhaps the most beautiful woman he'd
ever seen. That is, of what he could see of her.

Rowan relaxed his guard a bit realizing that he
must be near the village and this was just someone he'd never seen
before. Maybe a visitor from another village perhaps. He was just
about to ask her who she was and if he was near the village when he
spotted something most peculiar.

On the other side of the tree that she was hiding
behind, he swore he seen a tail swish. It looked like a cow's tail or
something similar. It had swished and then was quickly hidden behind
the tree again.

She reached her arm out and beckoned him to come
nearer as she giggled again at him.

Temptation was overwhelming, he couldn't help
feeling extremely attracted to her and he didn't know why. But he
hadn't forgotten about everything else that had happened so far and
thought better of it. She seemed friendly, but that didn't mean
anything out here in the forest. Besides, why was she hiding behind
the tree? It could be a trap, so he decided to play it cool and said
to her in the most polite way he could.

"My apologies, but I am in a bit of a hurry.
I hope to see you again soon though."

He didn't feel right about this, so he quickly
turned and walked away. Rowan kept his quickened pace the rest of the
way out of the forest. He did, however, carefully listen as he walked
to make sure she wasn't following him.

His mind raced as he walked briskly out of the
forest. She was beautiful and probably naked, but why was she naked
and why was she hiding herself behind the tree? And was that a tail
he seen flicking behind her? He swore he'd seen a tail swish behind
her.

She didn't seem to be following him, but he didn't
hear her run off either. He wasn't going to take the chance of
looking behind him to make sure she was gone. His instincts told him
to not look back, just keep going and don't stop.

To his joy, he reached the edge of forest and had
entered the clearing. There was a ridge line ahead, so Rowan decided
to take a quick look and see if he could figure out where he was.

When Rowan reached the summit of the ridge, he
seen the fjord below and recognized the hillside. He wasn't too far
away. He knew where he was now and which way to go to get the rest of
the way back.

After a couple more hours of trekking down the
hill side and through a few patches of woods, Rowan finally made it
to the outskirts his village. The blacksmith's longhouse where he
belonged was located on the other side of the village.

He paused overlooking the village and pondered how
to best proceed. He would need to inform the Blacksmith's family as
to what had happened to the Blacksmith and his son. Jarl Erling, the
leader of the village, would have to be informed as well.

But he didn't know exactly how to handle that. As
a thrall, he had no equal voice as did the Karls, the freemen. His
master was the one that would speak to the Jarl on his behalf if it
were ever needed.

But his master was no longer alive. It would be
best to speak to Gwenda, the blacksmith's wife, and have her speak
with the Jarl.

Rowan figured it would be best to go around the
village settlement and make his way to the blacksmith's long house.
This way he could avoid everyone else and not have to explain
himself.

Satisfied on his solution, he began making his way
around the village. He tried to keep just inside the wood line a
nd
out of sight.

Unfortunately his
plans were ruined when he heard, "Thrall! Where's your master
the Blacksmith?"

Someone had called out
to him. Already, his plans have been foiled.

Rowan stopped dead in
his tracks, turned and looked in the direction of the voice. He
recognized the man, it was one of the Karls from the village.
Apparently he was in the woods chopping firewood and Rowan didn't
notice him while he was walking through.

Rowan just stood there
surprised and looked at him without saying anything. The man was
sitting on a felled tree that he'd apparently just chopped down and
was quietly taking a rest.

"I asked you a
question thrall, where's your master?" the Karl demanded.

Rowan's heart
began to race, h
e didn't know how to answer. The very direct
question he was intentionally trying to avoid until he'd at least
spoken to Gwenda was just now presented to him.

The Karl angrily stood up while holding his
chopping ax and demanded more forcefully, "Answer me thrall!"

Rowan looked down upon the ground and quietly
said, "he was killed on the mountain by a beast."

The man gave a doubting lift of his eyebrow and
stood there for a moment thinking as he looked at Rowan up and down.

Finally he said, "come with me" and
motioned Rowan to walk with him towards the village.

Rowan obediently turned and began walking towards
the village. He had no choice really. If he refused the demand of the
Karl, one of the village's freemen, he would have been cut down by
the man's ax.

There was a difference between a thrall, whom was
property, and that of a freeman. It would not of been considered
murder to kill a thrall. There would only be an obligation to pay the
thrall's owner for damage to their property. It was no different than
killing a cow or breaking a tool and then having to pay the owner the
amount for replacement.

They walked the whole way without saying a word.
Rowan walking in front with the Karl behind him, holding his ax over
his shoulder. They walked this way until they reached the village and
continued towards the center. They gathered an occasional curious
look from the villagers that took noticed them.

They stopped when they reached the village center
where the Jarl's Hall was located. This was were Jarl Erling resided,
although Rowan himself had never been inside. He'd been to the
village center many times and even to the Jarl's Hall, but was always
told to wait outside. The Hall was a place for freemen.

However, this time
Rowan got to go in and see what it looked like inside for the first
time. The Karl who led Rowan there had pushed him inside while he
told him to go in.

Rowan stumbled
in the doorway and nearly tripped and fell flat on his face. As he
entered he was momentarily blinded. It took a moment for Rowan's eyes
to adjust to the lighting inside
.

He was surprised by the hall's size. It looked
even bigger from the inside than it did from the outside. The design
was very different than the typical longhouse. It was much larger and
more open to accommodate a larger group of people.

There were three great
fire pits in the center of the Jarl's Hall. Each fire pit had heavy
wooden tables and benches lined on each side of them. Along the walls
were additional rows of heavy tables that also had benches on each
side. On the opposite end of the hall there was a seat that was
raised up above the others.

Rowan could see Jarl
Erling seated at this raised chair with some of his armed House Karls
at guard on either side of him.

Rowan knew what the
Jarl looked like, he'd seen him on numerous occasions when the Jarl
requested items to be made by the blacksmith. Bjord had crafted many
things for the Jarl on many occasions.

The Karl that brought
Rowan into the Jarl's Hall grabbed him by the iron collar that he
wore around his neck and used it to lead him to the Jarl.

When they were in
front of the Jarl, the karl pulled Rowan down by the iron collar and
commanded, "on your knees thrall!"

Rowan obeyed, keeping
his eyes lowered and knelt down before the Jarl, whom was looking at
them with great curiosity.

"Jarl
Erling, my lord, I found this thra
ll outside the village. I
asked him where his master was and he claims that his master had been
killed by a wild beast."

The Jarl nodded without saying a word.

The karl added, "we haven't seen the
blacksmith in a couple days, I suspect this thrall has killed his
master and his son."