Leave it to Emil to find the helpful beasts.
He didn't really know where it came from, or why it was there at just that time, but when it came to beasts no one could really understand them, could they? Mostly Emil wondered why it had chosen him to come to. Sigrun and Lalli were also in the building, but they hadn't even heard it approaching. Well, Lalli might have, but no one could tell what that man was thinking.
Still, the helpful beasts came to Emil. For the moment its large head was peeking in through the broken window and its round eyes fixed on Emil. It didn't move. Emil's hands slowly made their way to the gun as he talked softly with the beast. It covered behind the wall when Emil got the gun out. Emil lowered the gun again, talked with a soft voice to it, and its head came into view again. Its eyes were clouded and things were crawling around in there, but the beast still looked wise beyond that. It nodded towards its back and Emil stared at it, not understanding what it wanted. It let out a sigh and then disappeared. Emil went up to the window, looked out, but it was gone. He decided to just go back to the others.
After a while he could hear some light knocking on the door. Sigrun made no move to acknowledge that she had heard it and while Lalli reacted, he seemed to decide it was nothing. Emil decided to take their approach, but as he heard the light knocking a second time he decided to check it out.
The beast strode right through the open door when Emil appeared, knocking him over as it did so. The four hooves barely missed Emil and he moved his hand to his knife, slowly got up, but the beast saw their backpacks, lifted them and put them on its back. Emil blinked.
"...You're a Bäckahäst!"
The beast let out a quiet neigh and Emil could see the razorsharp teeth in its mouth. He bit his lower lip, pondered what Sigrun would do. "Kill it dead." He couldn't do that.
"W... wait here! I'll be right back!"
The beast looked at him and he hurried through the building, found Lalli and Sigrun in the room with all the books, and he pulled at Sigrun's arm.
"Sigrun, uhm... What would you say if I found a way for us to bring more than the regular load back?"
"Sounds great, but it's probably not as good as you think."
"I promise it is."
"Look, if it's a wagon or something the street isn't good enough to pull it."
"It's not a wagon..." Emil hesitated for a moment. "It's a Bäckahäst."
"WHAT?!" Sigrun's voice cut through the building. "You found a beast and didn't kill it dead?!"
"It wants to help us!"
"Sure, probably by eating us alive! Show me where it is, I'll finish it off."
"No!" Emil grabbed Sigrun's arm as she made a move to leave the room. "I promise! It's one of the nice ones!"
"There are no nice beasts, Emil."
Emil wanted to protest, but Sigrun pulled herself free from his grip and hurried away. Emil quickly ran after her, noticed how she took out her knife and saw the beast back away. He hurried his steps, stopped between the two and blocked Sigrun's path with his arms.
"I promise it's not going to kill us! Look, it's already ready to help!"
"Emil, get out of my way."
"I won't let you kill it."
They stared at each other, the horse nuzzled Emil's hair and he shivered slightly. It kind of reminded him about the ponies back in Sweden, except with a bit more death sprinkled over the touch. Sigrun glared at him, glared at the horse.
"We can't take the risk. Beasts only care about one thing."
"Why haven't it attacked us yet, then?"
Emil and Sigrun glared at each other, neither backing down. Lalli looked between them, looked at the horse and then walked back into the room. Emil gestured after him.
"See, Lalli doesn't care."
Sigrun continued looking at them, her glare getting softer.
"I guess it would be kinda nice to bring all the books..." She looked at the horse. "But if you try anything funny you're dead meat, you hear?"
The rash-horse let out a neigh and Sigrun went into the room again. Emil turned to the horse and it nuzzled his forehead. He gave it an awkward pat on the neck.
"I hope you really are one of the nice ones now, Sigrun will skin me alive if you do something to anyone of us."
The horse pressed its head against Emil's chest and Emil shivered. Standing this close to Death was still scary, even after weeks in the Silent World. The horse pushed him backwards, to the room, and Sigrun looked at him as he entered the room.
"Might as well get to work. Grab the books, we're leaving as soon as it's packed."
Emil nodded, started filling the bags and putting them on the horse's back. When the shelves were emptied and the bags on the horse's back filled to the brim Sigrun took the lead, Lalli following her closely and Emil and the horse ended up a bit behind them. Sigrun looked back at them every tenth meter, waiting for the horse to do something, but it trotted beside them, not showing any sign of wanting to attack them. The tank came into view, Sigrun ran ahead to tell the helpless babies to stay inside and Mikkel looked upset and confused when Emil and Bäckahästen came into view.
"What are you people thinking bringing a beast here?"
"Pretty boy there refused to let me kill it."
Emil blushed as Sigrun gestured in his direction, started unpacking the horse, putting the bags next to the tank so Mikkel could take care of the books. Sigrun kept a close eye on the beast as she worked and Mikkel seemed a bit happier when he saw the haul they had brought back.
"Still lots of trash, but at least you did not only bring trash this time."
Emil pulled the last bag off the horse, patted its neck
"Thanks for the help", he whispered to it.
The horse neighed, shook its head. Sigrun and Lalli looked towards it, pulled their knives as the horse opened its mouth, its sharp teeth flashing in the setting sun. Emil took a step back, but the horse sank its teeth in his shoulder, Emil felt the blood flowing from the wounds, saw his coat getting red around the bite. He braced himself, prepared for the horse to pull him away, but it released its grip, ran away. Lalli ran after it, Emil fell to his knees and Sigrun's voice cut into his head, but his mind wouldn't register what she was saying. Mikkel's hands pulled him up, pulled the coat and the shirt off him.
"You are going to need some stitches."
Emil nodded, didn't know what to say, and then Lalli returned, shook his head, and Sigrun cursed, yelled at Emil again and he found himself smiling, laughing.
"Hey, at least no one died!"
He continued laughing, Mikkel and Sigrun exchanged glances and Lalli tilted his head, looked at Emil. Mikkel shook his head, started working on decontaminating them all before stitching Emil up and preparing dinner.
xxxxx
Emil's shoulder hurt quite bad the next day, but he told himself not to complain. It had been his suggestion to use the beast and a damaged shoulder was a small price to pay for such stupidity. The "I told you so"-glares from him captain every time she saw him or every time he winced was much harder to endure. At least Mikkel was more than satisfied with the books they had brought back.
They stopped around ten near another place to check for books and Emil and Sigrun got ready to head out. Sigrun started talking to him as they walked, as if she had finally forgotten the day before, and when they reached the building their spirits was on top again. They scanned the house for the books, found them on the upper floor and started packing the three bags they had brought. After 20 minutes Emil stopped.
"...Did you hear something?"
Sigrun continued looking at the books, but shook her head. Emil went back to work, but soon stopped again. He was certain he had heard something. Sigrun waved towards the door.
"Go check it out if it bothers you. Make sure it's not something that's gonna follow us."
Emil nodded, left the room. Took the stairs down and stopped, listened. He could hear scratching from the entrance and grabbed his knife. Dead eyes looked at him as he entered the room and he stepped back, prepared to be attacked. The beast looked at him, entered the room. A dog, a lot wider than the one he had put down shortly after Reynir joined them. It kept looking at Emil, its head low. Then, it laid down. Emil took a step back.
"No. Nonono."
It gave a weak whimper. Emil took a shaky breath, went closer to it. It just looked at him, silently begging him, and Emil took a tighter grip around his knife, kneeled next to the beast.
"Don't run away now..."
The beast didn't move and Emil lowered the blade, bit his lip as the beast gave a last whimper under his hands. He dried the blade off, stared at the dog, sheathed the knife and looked towards the door. Outside of it he could see several beasts bowing their heads for him, waiting for him to put them out of their misery and he let out a sigh.
Leave it to Emil to find the helpful beasts.