It Took Quite Some Time To Find Any Tracks At All, Other Than Those On That Bush.

I gently stroked through its fur “I thank you, Brother. May your spirit pass on, while your body feeds me”

Yøû ssërióùssly köntinûé wïz zât? Cøme oñ, $hê åïnt 'røùnd nømôre. Jüst kîll ít ænd bê dönê wïz ít.

I held the rabbit up at its hind legs, took a club lying nearby, and hit it in the back of the head. I tried poking an eye, to see if its really dead.

It was.

I fastened it to my belt, and continued.

Did you want anything?

Why ærê yøu sstïll dôiñg zåt? Shæ âiñt 'røûnd tö nôtïce íf yøù dön't.

What does it matter if Ingrid is 'round? She introduced me to it, but I don't do it for her. I do it to show some respect to my prey, to thank it for giving me its body, its flesh. But why do I bother to tell you, it's not like you'd listen anyway.

Büt zêræ ï$ nø ssëñssê în døing zåt, ïts nôt åwæ-

How would you know that? Can you tell? If you can, tell me how

Î... Ï... Åh fück yøû hümâñss ånd yøûr ëmótìónàl sstüff! $sînk mørë rrråtiønæl, lësss êmøtiônål. Yöúr kìnd îs zë ønly ånimæl zât døe$s zæt, zê ønly kînd zæt ssínks êmøti-

Again, how do you know? How can you be so sure?

Didn't hear any more from him after that. Did I corner him? Interesting, doesn't happen very often.

© The Zero 零 Squad, 2013-2016

I didn't have much to pack. Didn't come here with much else than the clothes I was wearing... who weren't even mine. But thanks to Ingrid I had some stuff to take with me, and not only knowledge.

I was still wearing the same old clothes, far less holes in them now tho. She had given me a small bag filled with food too. And there that thought came up again. Me leaving, without being able to give anything back.

She lifted my head a bit with her finger

“Hey, no bad feelings now. You've got a long way to walk, and much to do. So you better hurry, before you grow roots here.” she said jokingly

“Well I... You are right, I gotta go. Gotta find ou... do... stuff.”

“Right, you got to. But give me a visit when you're around, tell me what you learned, what you experienced.”

“I... I... I will. Whenever I'm around. So be careful of those boars and the like while hunting” I laughed

She hugged me, saying nothing. Then she turned me around and pushed me out the front door. I looked at her, tilting my head. She was just standing there, waving goodbye. I saw it in her, she was bad at this, bad at saying goodbye. So she wanted it to be over. I complied.

Smiled,

waved,

turned around,

and got on my way.

© The Zero 零 Squad, 2013-2016

In the beginning, the traveling itself was very exhausting. I took breaks often, even tho I walked at a comfortable pace most of the time. I drank lots of water, really, lots. Until I was reminded that the content of my flask was only finite, and that there wasn't always water around to refill it.

Learning that was rough, but I think I'll never forget that again.

In the Night I mostly sat up a small fire and slept next to it. After these long days of walking I was mostly deep asleep within moments after lying down. Looking back on that I was pretty lucky actually. It was foolish to just set up camp out there, especially when you're going to be sleeping like a rock till sun up and beyond. I could have got attacked by animals, robbed by other people... IT could have taken over. But I was lucky, nothing happened.

Woke up every time just like I laid down. With the exception of being rested & kinda stiff from sleeping on the ground.

Must admit, even now the whole walking all day is still quite exhausting, less than in the beginning, and even less if I'm on horse-back part of the day, but I guess it will never quite stop taking most of your vigour.

© The Zero 零 Squad, 2013-2016

Martin

A Hard Teacher

Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder.

Looking around I was kneeling in grass. No more trees around me. The hand was a man's. It was big and scarred, but it's touch gentle.

'Wha's wi' ye wee 'un?'

I tried to say something but I couldn't bring out a word. I began to cry.

'Noo Noo, na need te blart. Ye git a name?'

'...Bjorn' I said faintly

'So Bjorn, ye hungry?'

I nodded, wiping away my tears

'Folloo me then. Name is Martin by th' wey'

Picture Male Peasant by dashinvaine

Music A Hard Teacher by Hans Zimmer

© The Zero 零 Squad, 2013-2016

May the Brave Come

Temple of Light

While being there, in that cave, doing nothing, I gradually got hungry. And I thought about it for a long while.

Should I find something to eat? Or should I just let hunger end this? NO-- I won't give up. If I don't get to be Bjorn anymore, I'll be the monster of this forest. May the brave come and test their skill on me.

I went outside my cave, to look for something eadible. It wasn't easy to find anything with this sight. Suddenly I noticed another gleaming thing. So they've already come for me? I screeched, to scare them.

The gleaming vanished for a moment. Then it was there again, moving into the distance. But it didn't look like a human, it didn't even move like one. It was much faster and it made quick, long jumps instead of running.

Was that-- a deer? Does that mean these gleaming things... I looked around. It didn't take long to find another. It moved similar to the deer, but it was much smaller. This gleaming, it's movement. So I can only see moving things clearly.

Picture Magic deer! by Reneder

Music Temple of Light by Electus

© The Zero 零 Squad, 2013-2016

The branch I found to my liking was thick. I could comfortably sit on it.

So now I had to play the waiting game.

Nothing on the first day.

Neither on the second.

I wasn't sitting still up in that tree all the time. I had to move around a bit, but it wasn't that much that I could be scaring off anything with that.

At first I began to doubt my eyes. That I was too far away from the pond to see slight movements. So I changed position. Hid in a large bush near the lake. Focused completely on my hearing instead. Sitting there in silence for a long while. But I heard nothing. Just a slight, consistent rustle of wind through the leaves.

I knew wild animals aren't really the ones to come stomping through here, breaking every branch lying on the ground, walking into every nearby bush and jump into the water. But still, they had to make some sounds, break this silence somehow, add something to it.

But I heard nothing, not a sound.

© The Zero 零 Squad, 2013-2016

Whø ëls$ê shøµld håvæ döné ìt?

Errh... I don't know

Æxåctlý

But still, why?

Årë yøû såýìng yôu'd råthër bê dæd nøw? Håd räthêr gôt chøppéd òf yøµr hëâd bý thîs såd ëxcú$sé ôf å swørds$smân?

Nono... Just wonder why you do help me

Ëâsy, yøû'ré nøt thè önlý ønë thât dïê$s

...Wait... what?

Yøû hærd mê, nów léàvê mê bë

No! If I die, you die too? But you're just some... thing, you'd just go back to where you came from.

He didn't answer anymore. What he said really left me wondering. If I'd die, he'd do too. But that shouldn't cause any problems for him. He's just some... I don't know what he is, but I can't imagine dying being of any concern to him and his like.

© The Zero 零 Squad, 2013-2016

I just ignored him in that moment, even considering that for a moment could have been a severe risk.

Another high swing from Lord Whatever. I managed to pull myself together and dodge it, even tho I had to use my left leg again.

AAARGHHH!!! without this leg... could beat him... attacks... too open

Another high swing. He seemed to be getting slower, taking longer between each swing. They didn't look as powerful anymore either.

I noticed something moving in the corner of my eye. I risked a short look only to see that his hound was about to jump at me. I held up my arm as defense. He bit right into it.

Lord High-and-mighty grinned at me triumphantly.

Suddenly something gripped and pulled on my other arm too. I took a quick look

Another hound? From where?

A short hissing sound behind me. Then something hit me in the back. It pushed me to my knees.

I looked down at myself, something metal-ish gray and pointy was protruding at the side of my stomach. I couldn't make it out clearly, my sight got blurry all of sudden.

© The Zero 零 Squad, 2013-2016

Childhood - Bjorn

Reading the Leaves

My life before I became an orphan was that of a usual kid. I think. I played with the other kids in the village, helped mother in the garden now and then, watched the smith working when I had time. Nothing unusual.

Father was working in the mines. It was seldom that I could help him there. One time he called me and showed me this gemstone he found. He told me that I should show it to mother and ask if she likes it. I did just that. And she did like it.

It's been a very long time since that happened. Many things have changed since then. Many things...

Picture Medieval Village by rissking Music Reading the Leaves by Falling You

© The Zero 零 Squad, 2013-2016

New Theme

Note from the Author

Sadly I have to change theme since the Library Theme from Themes By Eris does not seem to work anymore.

I'll take a look into it and see if I can fix it by myself but I can't promise anything. And even just the fixing might take a few weeks. So for now this blog is back to Optica, either till I fixed Eris' Library Theme or found a good replacement.