Hello to you all!
This is my first English fanficton and it's a translation of my Finnish story Vainottu. I basically write only in Finnish so this one is something I do when I have time or I'm bored. I hope I will eventually translate the whole story, but if you know anyone who would like to do it instead, please tell!
The characters belong to our sensei Himaruya Hidekaz.
This is a story about witchcraft and I will tell you right away that I don't hate Christianity at all! It's just that it was at the Middle Ages pretty different and this is only fictional so please don't start bombarding me with comments about it :)
Now please enjoy the story :)
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The rain water splashed from the puddles on the ground as a young boy clothed in a black robe stepped in them. The boy ran straight the sand road glancing behind him. Far behind him could be seen distant lights of the flaming torches in the darkness of the night. The boy prolonged his steps and felt nasty pain in his chest.
"They are coming! They are reaching me! Too tired… NO! I have to carry on!"
Sand road meandered in the open field area where wasn't any place to hide.
"Catch it!"
"Death to that devil's child!"
The boy glanced once again behind his shoulder and doing so he tripped over the hole on the road. He fell down on his face in the mud. The boy got up fast, but the falling had shortened his and his pursuers distance greatly.
"I will die", the boy though desperately. He felt tears burning his eyes, "They will catch me and torture me before they drown or beat me to death. NOOO! Mom! Dad! Big brother!"
Hard wind threw the boy's black robe's hood off his head. His straw blond hair wetted in the rain and slipped front of his light violet eyes. The boy scanned horrified ahead, trying to find an escape off this hell, where he had entered into. The rain and wind pulling him around and suddenly behind the rain fog rose a big wood bridge decorated with shed. The boy knew the bridges to be the end for him because he could spot behind it more lights.
"They have spread the word to other villages!"
He ran to the bridge and stopped. Both sides of the bridge streamed river, which no common mortal could survive alive. Also piece of tree trunks were crashing into the rocks in the stream. Storm had ripped everything with it and slammed it in the river. The boy eyed the river thinking furiously his big brother's words.
Remember that everything you ever need will be found from the environment. It will help you.
The boy took a deep breath and rose his hand above the stream. At that very moment striking pain made him to take a step backwards. His head had been hit with a rock. The boy swayed and looked around. The bridge had been surrounded from both sides. Both in front and behind there was a sea of angry and scared faces.
"You animal! How could you murder Buuris?!" village's fierce carpenter shouted. His hands tightened around an axe and his teeth screeched as he bit them furiously together, "Buuris let you and your brother stay in his stall and this is how you thank him?!"
"I didn't kill him!" the boy shouted desperately and grabbed the bridges rail to keep him balanced, "He ate poisonous berries!"
"Lies!" hissed an old woman who carried one of the torches, "I saw you touch him and he just fell down and started to groan! I saw!"
The woman smiled evilly at the boy's horrified look.
"That's a lie! I didn't even touch him! I was just trying to warn him not to eat those berries! I could have never done something like that to Buuris!" the boy said with a trembling voice.
The crowd shouted and mocked scornfully, and lifted their weapons and torches.
"He blames the old Marjalanne is a liar! Our village's chaste man's gentle wife!"
"I gave you once the remains of our meal! You viper!"
"He has probably intrigued his evil ploys the whole time with his brother to kill Buuris!"
"A devil like that shouldn't be let to be here with the holy and chaste people! He and his people must be captured and killed right away!"
The villagers started to get nearer the bridge and the bad weather seemed only to feed their anger. The blood poured from his head on his eye and fogged his sight. He squeezed the wooden rail harder and then made up his mind and… jumped right into the freezing and dangerous river. The crowd both sides gasped and ran spreading to both sides of the river.
"Where did it disappear?"
"Did it drown?"
"Did the trunks crush it?"
"Did it die?"
The village's old priest stepped forward. He bend on the riverside and eyed the merciless foams. He sighed deeply frowning and did the cross sign. The carpenter came to his side and glanced towards the river also.
"Father Johannes? Is he…", the man left the question in the air and helped the priest to get up from the riverside. The old priest straightened and glanced sadly at the villagers.
"The God gives us life and he also decides when it ends. This vermin of Satan has now confronted The Lord's verdict. His soul will now end up in the purgatory. We shall have longer mass this Sunday so his alike will not drift to our village anymore" the priest said and started calmly walking the road which lead back to the village.
The carpenter glanced the man besides him, who carried a torch, and nodded indicatively. The man rose his torch and flung it above his head back and forth six times. The people besides the river started to cheer and leave to their villages. The carpenter stayed behind and glanced once more at the furiously churning river. His look showed only feelings of disgust and he spit in the river before turning and going after the other villagers. The witch had died.
Further, at the rivers lower course, a small body maneuvered on the riverside tired. The water had threw him all around like a ragdoll and twigs and tree trunks had hurt him badly, but the boy was alive. He crawled further away from the river, towards the woods, which rose ahead of him. Even the small distance from the river to the woods limited the blond boy's strength greatly. He still managed to crawl in the cover of a big fir three's rhizome's. The roots were huge and between them there had build up a small dint for a hiding place. The boy cowered in the shelter of the fir and covered his head with the black hood again.
He was freezing so bad his whole tiny body was trembling and he hugged himself feeling miserable. Everything had turned out badly. One little trip to the village to thank the nice horseman, had lead him in this miserable state. He had gotten separated from his brother, who though his little brother was safely traveling with a bribed ferryman.
"He doesn't know that I'm not aboard. He doesn't know that when he comes to the meeting place I won't be there."
The boy tampered the pendant around his neck with his fingers. The bone talisman was a gift from his big brother. It's meaning was to replace him when they were separated. The boy squeezed the talisman and remembered his brother's advice. He lifted his face determined and started to examine himself. His head was bleeding again because of the rock that hit him. Also the trunks and the rocks had beat his body to bruises and small wounds. The boy had beneath his robes once warm, now ragged clothes made from animal leather. His unbelievably pretty face was covered with small cuts and mud. Actually, he was covered in mud all over.
The boy sighed assessing the damages. Now he didn't have a choice. He was too tired to even think about gathering herbs and he couldn't be in the woods longer than couple of days. The boy knew everything about blood halting. He knew it was really dodgy to do it to himself. If he halted his blood, he might sink to the spirit state and never return. The boy had always got along well with the spirits so he believed they would be sympathetic to his acts. He was strong. The boy laid down so he was as comfortably as he could in the bumpy ground and relaxed his body. It was extremely important to know how to relax during the blood halting.
He closed his eyes and halted his blood.
His body stopped.
Everything froze.
They boy trembled trying to stay on the right side of the world. He felt his body's balance. The wounds on his body started suddenly change to dark violet color and close. The change begun from the bottom and kept going all the way to his head wound. When there was nothing to fix anymore, the boy started to restore his body back to normal again.
The freezing feeling melted away.
The awful stagnation started to let him free.
Soon the boy opened his eyes again, but he didn't move. He couldn't. The blood halting took always great amount of strength, and he wouldn't be able to do anything else than lay on the wet ground. The boy smiled pleased with himself. He had already done powerful magic two times in one day. That couldn't be done by just any witch. The happy face however changed quickly to a sad grimace.
Ivan.
His brother. Ivan would go mad with worry when he would realize his little brother was missing. Would the villagers think he was dead? If so, would the information reach Ivan. The boy bit his lip and tried to hold the tears imagining his brother looking for him. Ivan would find him. His brother could always cope. Now the boy had to concentrate on his own survival. He had to get to a safe place and find something to eat. He would find a village where the villagers wouldn't want to kill him and then he would stay there to wait. As irritating it was, that's what Ivan had told him to do.
"Do you understand now? If we ever get separated, you will not leave to search me", Ivan said when they sat on a field full of sunflowers. His big brother gazed at him sternly.
"But!"
"No! You have to find a peaceful and friendly village and try to survive. Even if it took forever, I will get there and took you with me. In the meantime you concentrate practicing and surviving", Ivan said strictly.
"Ivan…"
"Don't talk back to me. There are villages there that can stand our kind as long as we don't cause trouble. You are a sweet kid. They will surely help you", Ivan cut one of the most beautiful sunflowers with one smooth wave of his hand and smelled it. He smiled at his little brother and handed the flower to him.
"Just wait for me"
"Okay…"
Ivan smiled and stroked the boy's cheek with his thumb.
"You are dear Tino"
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Well how did you like it? After this chapter there will be a time skip so this is the only chapter when Tino is child. And he's something like 12 so he will age pretty much because he will be 23 at the other chapters. Here is also a fun fact. The magnificent internet told me that the typical witch in Middle Ages Finland was male so that's how I come up with Tino being a witch :)
Please be nice and comment :)
