by Tamalak » Tue Apr 12, 2011 3:30 am Areoch wrote:Tsk Tamalak doesn't have the flair for the dramatic. Let me tell the story of our dear departed Russian.
…...
It had been a good harvest this new moon and I was out in the field scything wheat. It was tiring work and my seedbags hung heavy on my belt. So much wheat and such seeds had to be carefully stored to know which deserved to make it to the next cycle.
I took a swing and as I wiped my brow I noticed a stranger coming to the shoreline of my home. At first I thought it was someone from the village, but this man wore nettles and had a face I did not recognize.
The stranger stepped over the boundary into my land and strolled to my tanning tubs. I nearly choked at the indignation at such casual thievery. I rushed over hefting my scythe and demanded, "Just what are you doing? Who are you!"
The man moved from the tubs to the chest near them having not found the leather. "I need sling." He replied, his eyes hardly bothering meeting mine as he took it and returned to his boat.
"Hey.. HEY!" I sputtered as he paddled off, frantic I called upon my lawspeaker Tamalak to come to me and tell him of what had transpired. Tamalak nodded gravely, "The Rus people are famed for their bloodthirsty nature. You are lucky that the sling is all that he took and not your life."
I returned to my farming and brooded on this, there were the scents to track but could we afford a battle over such a thing as a sling? There was many injustice in the world of Jorb, perhaps I should learn to live with the price of not having a palisade built around my home.
As I took another swig from my canteen I saw the stranger returning in his boat. I stared in disbelief. The gall of him to return so to the scene of his thievery. Had he come then to take more? He docked his boat and motioned to me.
Warily I approached, unsure at what kind of trick this was, would he wave me over only to cut my belly? Instead he hauled this carcass of a boar from his boat and threw it upon the edge of my claim, "This is for you. I needed sling for hunting. Bring chest for meat. I will hunt more." As he entered his boat he gave a final remark, "In four hours death will come."
And with that he was off once more, leaving the two freshly slain boar on the ground. Thievery was expected, but.. generosity? It was almost an alien concept. I brought one of the chests and a few of the crates over and begun the slow work of butchery. Tamalak returned to me and we tried to puzzle out the meaning of that final cryptic statement.
"Was it some kind of warning? A threat?" He asked, looking with me over the fresh killed animals.
"I don't think.. he seemed to mean himself and I-" I was interrupted as the Russian had returned and this time brought out two deer to pile on the shore beside the boar meat.
Tamalak and I shared a glance and as I opened my mouth he grabbed my arm and hissed, "Be careful. Look at how fast he killed those deer. That sling he stole he might as well kill us in an instant in his hands." I stared at him before tentatively approaching the man.
The Russian had a satisfied expression and had lit a hearthfire on the shore. "It is only for four hours. Then I die." He assured me.
Well that was one mystery solved. Yet so many questions. The Russian went to work at hacking the animals he had killed with smooth efficiency. His well practiced hands cut through meat and bone which he threw into the chests we had gathered.
I began to feel very afraid, the blood flew from his axe and yet he did not even so much flinch at the sight of it, pulling long coils of intestine in the manner of someone who had long seen his share of gore.
At a loss of a topic to speak about I asked, trying to keep my voice from breaking, "So why are you going to die?"
"I have the scent murders on me." He replied smoothly in that accented voice. His axeblows on the animal bone sounded a loud cracking emphasis, "47 of them."
He added then, "Bring me chest. This one full." Before returning to his work.
Shakily I return to my home and emptied out another chest to bring to the shore. It seemed very unwise to refuse a request from this stranger who shamelessly confessed to murder.
Tamalak met me on the way and set his jaw, "Should I ask him?" I quavered to him. "He'll probably tell you the 47th person asked him why he killed 46." The lawspeaker replied gravely.
Still I could not help myself to ask the man, "Why did you kill them?" I ventured as I put a fresh chest beside him.
The Russian had started on the second deer now and he spoke between swings.
"The last man accused me of stealing his water."
*Clack*
"He attacked me."
*Clack*
"He died."
With a grunt of pleasure he broke the antlers off the skull and gave me a rather frightening smile, "These are good quality."
I took the antlers and placed them in the chest, trying to not show how much they shook, "And the rest?"
"Oh they died when we raided their villages. Many deaths by my hand." He had the same toneless inflection of a war veteran. His eyes appear dispassionate. I shivered when his gaze met mine and I could not help looking away.
"It is time." He said softly as he took his clothing off and with the same care of neatness he showed in butchering the animals. He piled the possessions at the water's edge. "Goodbye." He said and threw himself into the river.
"W-wait!" Unsure on what to say I rushed to the edge but he was already breast stroking into the river. He actually crossed it, paused turn back and he was nearly back to me before he simply paused in the center of it and circled. The river that would have claimed me if I put one foot into the treacherous waters seem to bother him no more than a shower.
He laughed then, chilling laughter as he laid on his back.
He was still laughing as the water finally took him down.
Tamalak ran up to me, "What happened?"
But my eyes were downcast and I stooped to pick up what was on the top of the discarded clothing. "He is gone... dead." I held up what I had found. It was the sling.
I started to laugh then myself, the world was indeed a strange place.
==
(Addendum)
"Maybe we should mark the place that he died." Tamalak suggested still unsure at what to make of it.
"We don't know his name. Maybe we could call him Crazy Ivan?" I said as I dragged the boxes back to our town.
"Well we still- AHHHH!" Tamalak screamed and pointed.
I looked and nearly screamed myself. It was the Russian, back from the dead and as nude as the gods made him.
"Damn hearthfire." He grumbled.
We helped him then to destroy the fire and remove his anchor to the world. He laughed when we told him we only had 30 strength. "I still have 50!" He exclaimed. He was different, those dead eyes alight. The river had provided a strange baptism indeed.
He donned his linen cap and hoisted his fishing rod over a shoulder. "I will go now. Thank you." And with that he vanished, leaving us with his name.
"I'll be damned if I know how to write it." Tamalak groused
That's what I said.
