Blood.

The trees were covered in it, their crowns burning torches. The ground was covered in it, barren earth soaked with the corpses of animals and men. The sky itself was a driven scarlet, as if some celestial deity had been gut and ripped across the clouds.

And I was soaked in it.

Its acrid smell assailed my nostrils, its disgusting iron taste coated my tongue. I felt the desperate need to wash myself, to remove this filth from me, but there was nowhere I could.

In the midst of this carnage, lay a figure. A gigantic man, three times the size of the corpses that surrounded him even as he lay prostrate on the ground. In his arms he held another giant, almost as large as himself, whose face was turned away, shrouded in darkness.

Despite myself, I approached.

My boots sank into the blood. The forest of abandoned spears and swords cut into me like a bramble of thorns, still I advanced inexorably towards the figure.

The giant gave a start, then its head turned. Slowly, one eye fixed upon me. A blue eye, as deep as a mountain lake. It gleamed in that scarlet landscape, a blooming orchid in the firepit.

An eye that matched, in hue and depth, to my own.

There sounded a roar, rattling the earth and shaking the world, the clouds moved apart as if the sky itself was about to split in two. I barely had time to look up before I was overwhelmed by a blinding light.

…

I woke up with a start, feeling as if my own heart were to beat away from my ribcage and run in fear. Sweat beaded my forehead and droplets fell on my eyes, irritating them. My insides twisted even more as I realized I could still taste blood in my mouth, before I understood it was my own, seeping from my lip, that I had bitten in my sleep.

I sat up in bed, letting the large bison fur slide over my bare chest, exposing my sweat-soaked skin to the cold morning air. I welcomed the icy touch as a blessing, as it managed to chase away some of the remnants of the nightmare from my mind. My wife, still asleep, did not appreciate the sudden cold, and curled up even more tightly in the fur. Her loose red hair fell onto her pillow, made of a rolled up cloth.

Feeling the need to go out, I very carefully slipped from the bed. Tying a woolen cloth around my waist, so as not to be completely naked, I pulled aside the curtain divide and left.

Berth was sleeping right next to our room, wrapped in sheepskins that left only his small tawny head exposed. He was protectively clutching the wooden sword I had given him, as if he feared someone would steal it while he slept.

Despite the tender scene, I felt a shiver of uneasiness, perhaps still from the nightmare that was lingering in the back of my mind. I hurried to leave the hut, trying not to wake him. But in the darkness I stumbled on a wicker basket containing several rolls of wool. The threads scattered across the beaten earth floor and I gathered them up as best I could, realizing that I had created a mess when I put them back in the basket at the foot of the loom where it was possible to see an almost finished blanket.

I opened the wooden door and went outside. Hundo, hearing the door, raised his head and began to wag his tail. I gave the dog a few scratches behind the ears, before I leaned against one of the pillars that supported the thatched roof and looked at the horizon

The sun had not yet risen, but the sky was already brightening. A white line gradually widening along the horizon to announce the dawn.

The light entered the valley, blooming across fields where the wheat was just beginning to sprout, and touching gently on pastures filled with blissfully sleeping animals. Huts with thatched roofs rose here and there along the slope, circling and crowding around several buildings that were larger than the others. From none rose smoke, nor the smell of cooked food. No children played among the houses, no one washed clothes, hammered metal, modeled clay or did any work of any kind. At most, someone was awake in the towers positioned on the peaks of the hills, scanning the horizon for dangers, but otherwise the whole valley seemed still immersed in its dreams.

I breathed deeply, trying to draw some calm from the air. Too soon, my attention was drawn to the door behind me opening. Heike stepped outside, completely wrapped in the gigantic bison fur, that seemed to almost swallow her beneath its hide.

Her pink lips curved in a light smile of comfort and she came a little closer. I could smell the musky scent of her red hair and feel her golden eyes on me.

Hundo woke up again and approached her, wagging his tail, demanding more cuddles that the woman granted him, a bare arm emerging from the fur as she bent down.

"Is that nightmare still tormenting you?" she asked me, while still scratching the dog's ears.

The air condensed around her mouth as she spoke, drawing small clouds of mist from her lips.

"You shouldn't go out in this cold, not in your condition" I told her.

"So the man in a loincloth says," she riposted.

"That's not true. I have my own fur to protect me" I responded, rubbing my hairy chest with a smile.

"You're right. You might as well take off that rag and run off into the woods hunting deer with your nails and teeth like the wild men do at the ends of the earth" she said jokingly, standing up. Hundo, wanting more, circled around her, wagging his tail and trying to get her attention by nudging her with his nose.

"Not without you. I'd take you deep into my cave to have you all to myself" I growled, mimicking a feral voice.

"And what about our children?"

"They can be with my brother. I want you all to myself."

I pulled her close and kissed her passionately. I could feel her swollen belly through the pelt, pressed against my lower abdomen as she sank into me.

We remained entwined for countless moments, before she finally pulled away.

"I know you've tried to change the subject. Don't you want to talk to me?" she asked, looking at me with sternness, but also with understanding.

I let out a long sigh, cursing my wife's perspicacity. (no one will know this word but feel free to keep it in)

"I don't want to talk about it," I replied, leaning my shoulder against the pillar.

"Maybe tomorrow you can talk to the Wise Men. They might know what to do" she said, trying to console me.

"I'm just a simple head of the family. They'll never listen to me."

Hundo, realizing he wouldn't get any more scratches right now, lay down again by the door and closed his eyes.

"But there must be some meaning to your dream. The gods wouldn't bother like this if it wasn't something important. I'm sure they'd understand, if they didn't already know."

"Who says it's the gods, maybe it's just a cruel curse cast to torment me. I have an idea who might have sent it…"

"I doubt he'd be capable of doing something like that," she dismissed easily, swatting an imaginary fly.

"I'd really prefer it if Gunnar had sent it to me. Frankly, it would be much worse if it were the work of the gods."

I clenched my fists in frustration, but Heike's gentle touch made me flinch. That simple touch was all it took to calm my mind and I felt a deep warmth in my chest.

I squeezed her hand and looked at her, and she reciprocated. We exchanged another kiss, more delicate, less animalistic, yet even more intense.

"If you say it wasn't Gunnar, I guess I have no choice but to believe you," I sigh, detaching myself from her

"Why?"

"Because if I'm one of those wild men, you must be a forest sorceress, one who can bend an army of wild beasts to her will and calm them with a simple touch," I said, with a smirk.

"I don't need an army of beasts. You're enough," she smiles, stroking my thick black beard.

At that moment, a cold wind came between us and all the hair on my back stood up completely. Only then did I realize that my toes and fingers had lost their sensation and were starting to tingle.

"Despite the hair, I guess I'm not a wild man anyway, it's best to go back inside" I shrug my shoulders.

My wife led me back into our cabin and, once out of the wind, gave me her fur to warm me. Under it, like me, she was naked.

Even though she had been my wife for a long time, it was still hard for me to believe that I could admire her milky skin and generous curves whenever I wanted, even though her body was now weighed down by a child about to be born. It wouldn't take much longer now, it could be the time at any moment.

Berth still seemed to be asleep in his bed and we returned to our room as quietly as possible. Once we were inside, she closed the door behind us and turned to me.

"Do you think you can get some rest before the hunt?" she asked in a whisper, so as to not wake our son on the other side.

"I don't think so," I replied, in about the same volume of voice.

"You should try. Perhaps bringing a particularly valuable prey to the feast will attract the attention of the Wise Men. Then they might be able to help you."

"Thank you for trying to cheer me up, but we both know that's unlikely to happen. Only some magical creature from legend could force them to talk to me."

"But you might get noticed by the Reiks. He might intercede for you with the Wise Men" she said.

"Perhaps."

"Well, try to get some more sleep anyways. Hunting can be dangerous, and it's best to be awake and alert when you go into the forest".