Aelberth

The forest was silent, there was almost no wind, and the sun filtered through the trees creating a mosaic of lights on the dark ground. The air was heavy with the smell of resin and moss, thick enough that I could almost taste it.

Regimund, who was the best archer among us, walked a little higher up the hillside so that he could see much further than we could on the path. Fridurik, Walthari and Gairowald were lower down and we had spears and clubs in case any animals approached.

Regimund let out a whistle, and shortly after a bear appeared from the brush. It was large and dark in color, its muzzle still dirty with berries, probably cranberries given the crimson crowned bushes it had emerged from.

The animal saw us and took a threatening position, baring teeth that could crush bones. The five of us made ourselves visible and moved slowly sideways, never taking our eyes off the animal. The situation remained at a standstill for a while, but there were many of us and the animal was still quite far, and soon went on its way.

I still remembered the first time I saw a bear and how scared I had been. Those animals were impressive, capable of breaking a man's back like a twig with one blow, but my father had taught me that they rarely attacked people, especially in groups, and that if you did the right thing it was even more difficult for them to attack.

Of course, my father had also taught me not to go into the forest without what he considered a good reason.

At one point we saw a boulder positioned vertically that emerged from the foliage, covered in ivy and with some signs of incisions that the rain had long since softened to shadows in the stone. A little further on, climbing higher up the hill, a cave opened up between the rocky mountainside, from which a small stream flowed that disappeared among the trees. Inside, the floor of the cave was three-quarters covered by a body of water, continually fed by seepage running through cracks in the walls.

"Okay Walt, go get the wood to light the fire" I said.

The boy with the crooked nose seemed rather intolerant, but before leaving the valley we had drawn lots to decide who would do it, and so he had no other choice.

While Walthari went to get the firewood, the four of us went into the cave. Once inside we left the things we had brought on the hard rock ground.

Then we took off our clothes and dove in.

The water was cold, and when it touched my skin I shivered, but after working all morning I welcomed the feeling. I stayed in for a few moments before coming up, rubbing the water from my eyes.

“It was a really great idea to come here,” Regimund said, brushing his long hair out of his eyes, addressing the youngest son of the clan chief.

“I’d rather go back and fight that bear with my bare hands than sit with my father while he pontificates about this and that,” he said, shivering. “I’m not going to be the chieftain anyway.”

“Yeah, it’ll be Alrik,” Gairowald said.

I groaned at that and splashed the water on his freckled face.

“Stop talking bullshit. Theobald will be the chieftain,” I said, unable to keep the annoyance out of my voice.

"We could have planned this better anyway. Maybe we could have brought the girls if you had suggested it the day before," Regimund said to Fridurik.

"What girls? With your face, you'll need whole herds of cows to convince someone to marry you," the boy replied, seizing the opportunity and causing everyone to laugh.

Walthari came back with his arms full of dry sticks, watching us enviously as he put them on the ground and started stacking wood to light the fire.

"I'm glad to be here anyway. My sister doesn't stop whining like a child at everyone she meets. Ada and Hilde didn't make such a fuss when they got married and frankly if she wasn't ready then she shouldn't have gotten caught with that guy from the Byar clan," Gairowald said.

"It'll never be as boring as herding sheep. I dumped it on my brother, telling him it was 'a grown-up responsibility'. The kid took the stick and happily sat down on a rock with a face so intent it looked like he was trying not to shit himself," I said.

"You shouldn't talk like that about the future Reiks. I'll tell him and he'll punish you," the freckled boy teased.

Tired of his taunts, I lunged at him and tried to push him under. We fought for a while, until I finally managed to hold him under the water.

"That'll stop you being such a dick," I snorted, holding him still as he struggled.

"Hey, what are you doing with the beer!" Regimund suddenly exclaimed, making me turn around and letting Gairowald resurface, inhaling loudly.

Walthari had the canteen full of beer in his hand and he had some left between his thin blond mustache.

"Fuck, you should have waited before taking it!" I shouted at him.

"I lit the fire so I'll take the first sip," he replied.

"What sip, you're gulping it all down," Fridurik protested, trying to get out of the water.

Walthari pushed him back into the water with his foot and took another swig. Then we all attacked him at once while he continued to knock us down and drink, until finally Gairowald managed to grab his pants and throw him into the water. But when he managed to grab the canteen he started to chug it himself, and a new fight ensued.

We continued to snatch the canteen from each other and drink until it was empty, even though a good quarter of the beer must have ended up in the water. When that happened we threw it out and got out of the pond, completely soaked and with a few bruises, but laughing.

While we were drying ourselves with cloth and Walthari was taking off his wet clothes, the son of the clan leader approached.

"Hey Berth, can I tell you something?" Fridurik asked me.

"Sure, that's fine."

"Start putting the ham on to roast, we two need to talk about something for a minute," the son of the chieftain said to the other three.

"Don't make him scream too loudly back there or we'll want to eat," Gairowald said.

I rubbed my cloth vigorously over my crotch, then threw it in his face.

"I can smell your underball, damn it!" the boy exclaimed, taking a step back and falling into the water again.

Fridurik and I went deeper into the cave, to a point where the cave became darker. When we were far away Fridurik came so close that for a moment I wondered if he was really hitting on me, but then he began to speak in a low voice.

"Listen, I have to warn you... about Alrik."

"Stop this!" I exclaimed, exasperated. "Alrik is my younger brother, he can't even become a Householder."

"Well, your father was-"

"I'm not stupid enough to fall for the newlywed wife of the clan chieftain's heir."

Fridurik bit his lip, trying to stifle what he was about to say. I knew his lineage had a different story about what had happened between my Uncle and his Aunt, and even though it had happened long before I was born, many still remembered it, and it had been a source of tension between our two lineages for as long as I could remember.

"The problem is what happened at the clan gathering. Everyone saw what your grandmother did and what she and the Wise Men said," he said finally.

"So? I barely remember it," I lied.

I was young, younger than Alrik was now, but I couldn't forget something like that. My grandmother climbing onto the platform, petrifying the Reiks with who knows what spell, and then setting one of the Wise Men on fire. But most of all, they said that the whining infant had a great destiny.

At the time I didn't understand what it really meant, but as I grew older I’d noticed that everyone was keeping a closer eye on Alrik than they ever had on me, as if I wasn't the older brother.

When my brother was just born he shat himself just like everyone else, when mom told him stories about trolls and ogres he hid under the covers and when he fell and skinned his knees he cried like any other child. What the hell was so special about him?

"Listen, my father feels threatened. Gairowald wanted to provoke you, but there are those who are really thinking of your brother instead of mine. Some, to tell the truth, would like to directly replace my father" he said.

"And how can you say that?" I asked him.

"It may not seem like it, but my father is smart and knows how to listen".

"Maybe he knows how to listen, but he must be stupid to think he can be replaced by a child".

"Maybe not by the child, but by his father? Yes".

I looked at him, not believing what he was saying. Someone thinks they're going to replace Gunnar with my father just to give the title to my younger brother?

"Do you have to fuck yourselves back there much longer?" Gairowald yelled at us from the cave exit.

"Shut that toilet or I'll fuck you," I yelled back. "This story is absurd and your father is paranoid, you know that," I told him, starting to walk towards the fire.

"I'm not telling you now just because I am. My father hasn't acted yet because he's afraid of your grandmother, but he knows her condition and is just waiting for the right moment. So please, be careful," Fridurik said from behind.

I stopped, but then shrugged, and walked towards the fire.