Long winter nights

Chapter 3: Legends of recent

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were - I have not seen
As others saw - I could not bring
My passions from a common spring –

Edgar Allen Poe „Alone"

The sharp smell of cooked meat and vegetables assaulted her nose. Shizuru felt slightly nauseas and warmth surrounded her, she could feel the scratchy structure of the wool blanket on her bare arms.

Wait a minute…Blanket? I remember falling in the snow…A dull throb at the base of her skull made her wince when she tried to turn her head it became worse.

Feet, heavy and gruff, were coming her way. They scuffled over the rough cut floorboards she could see out of the corner of her eyes.

„You've been lucky, Miss. You've fallen down right in front of my doorstep. You've been quite sick !"

The deep voice rumbled like a empty barrel in a dark cellar. It was a kind of voice which made you feel …safe!

Rough hands with many old blisters on the fingers thrusted a wooden bowl in her face. The smell intensified and Shizuru's stomach rumbled.

She groaned as she tried to sit up. Her head felt hot like a furnace and she could barely lift her hands. In the end she did manage to support herself with one arm, laying the bowl in the crook of her elbow while eating a few spoons. Everything felt so heavy and the throbbing in her head intensified as she was trying to swallow the broth.

„You've been very ill, young miss. A few moments I thought that you would leave this world behind. The strong wrinkled hands finally lifted her into a sitting position and Shizuru couldn't help but gasp.

no..silly me. She scolded herself. Grandfather Yaruslav has been dead since ten years.

But still the old weathered man with his bristling white beard sitting in front of her, holding a bowl of soup, could have been his twin brother.

"How…?" her voice was only a shadow of the smooth alto she possessed since she had turned 14. It croaked and cracked like an old rusty water pipe and the brunette simply closed her mouth.

It would need days to get it back in old shape.

A sparkle of mirth stole itself into the eyes of her benefactor. His deep voice rolled around the house while he was laughing slightly. He had the typical Kurgan accent with the rolling r. Shizuru had been speaking to Kurgans before and back then she had decided she liked their way of talking.

"The headache will go away, young lady. Give it time. You ask how long you've been asleep? " For unexplained reasons she felt her face go hot and she hoped that he couldn't see it, because of the fever.

His chuckle indicated otherwise.

"There's not a thing to be embarrassed about. For your information it's been nearly a week now that you are here. " he adjusted his hold on his bowl, spoon still in hand pointing at her. " It's the cold. It creeps into your bones, chills everything and the next thing you know is that you're freezing to death somewhere in the woods."

He took a mouthful from his bowl and raised his eyebrows. "Eat! Eat! You'll need the strength to get healthy again. I'm Michail by the way. " His white mustache lifted up and showed only one remaining tooth while he grinned at her.

"I'm Shizuru…" the old men mentioned her to be quiet, just to go easy on her voice. So she ate a few spoons of the surprisingly rich broth and soon fell asleep afterwards again.

Strange dreams invaded her nights from there on.

She saw a beautiful castle slowly crumble to ruins, snow coming and going like the seasons, wolves running wild in the forest and always someone was there…right at the corner of her eyes. She always just caught a glimpse of black hair and the woman, somehow she was sure it was a woman, managed to stay out of her sight.

Joy, laughter , the edginess of playing children in the snow, fear , frustration and anger. These emotions assaulted her from all sides but she also could feel the loneliness covering it all up like a blanket.

It was the third night in which his guest woke up with a start. A silent scream on her lips, never to be heard by anyone. Michail had noticed her fidgeting since she had fallen asleep at dinner.

He laid the carving knife back on the table, ready to tend to his patient should the need arise.

The next days continued in the same vein.

This night seemed to be even more unpleasant than the ones before. Shizuru , an odd but fitting name for the calm and gentle girl, was sitting up in her makeshift bed. Back as straight as a wooden post and a hacking cough wracked her frame.

It's no use…She won't get any better if she continues to scare herself like that…he stood at the small window on the right side of the house. His worried gaze regarded the growing snow outside with more unease than ever before. It was hard to live in the woods and if…his gaze got gloomy again…if the girl couldn't get a decent sleep, she would never survive till spring.

He risked an affectionate gaze on the now again soundly sleeping form under the cotton blankets. It was hard to just sit by and watch something this beautiful wither away.

Slowly the condition of his guest had gotten worse after an initial good start on the first day of her awakening. On the third night the fever had taken a turn for the higher degress again. Since then she had lain on the makeshift bed, barely able to move...and now Shizuru's headache had intensified again, pounding at the inside of her head with steel jack-hammers.

She couldn't eat, couldn't sleep right. When she did sleep her dreams were eventful and generally unfitting for a fevering patient. She didn't want to die like that! A small voice in her dreams always told her that she had still so much to do, so much to learn. She just couldn't simply die from a common cold or a flu. She wouldn't let it happen. Her battles were fought silently and proved to be utterly futile.

Michail was frightened. It was nothing new to him that people got sick, even this bad with the coughing, it had happened before. Though back then he hadn't been living alone in the woods with the next medicus miles away.

The girl needed special medicine or she wouldn't survive the next week.

At the end of the second week his guest began to talk to her parents.

Michail, who liked the girl a great deal already, spend the days outside, cutting wood and praying for her to get better just to distract himself from the impending death wandering around his house.

It was getting near dawn again and the snow glowed in all shades of red in the light of the setting sun.

The cold was growing in the same tempo that the sun needed to disappear behind the horizon. He would have to be home again soon.

Suddenly a snow-hare jumped out of the brushes not 2 feet away from him. Despite the age gnawing at his bones, Michail's aim still was true and his eyes keen. Quickly he threw a small log at the animal and hit him right between the ears. The hare twitched a few seconds on the snow and lay still forever.

Just when his hand reached down to pick the carcass up, he heard growling right behind him.

Slowly he turned and his eyes turned wide and he threw up his hands to guard his throat.

Behind him stood a wolf, as white as the snow, baring his ivory teeth and staring at him and the dead rabbit.

The thing that Michail nearly gave an heart attack was standing behind the beast in the shadows.

He just saw glowing green eyes and the silvery tip of an arrow pointed directly at his chest. A low whistle and in the next moment the wolf in front of him jumped at the dead animal and carried it off in the bushes.

Something had hit him in the chest and for a few seconds Michail believed, that whoever that was, who was hiding in the bushes had shot him. Now the young woman in his hut would be claimed by the fever and eaten by scavengers.

He stared.

Obviously he was still alive...then ...what had hit him?

It was a small parcel, wrapped in watertight oil-parchment. Carefully he opened it and a few dry leaves fell out.

"For your guest!" the words had been spoken quietly, but the woodcutter had heard them nonetheless. He nodded, but when he got up and looked back under the trees, nobody was there.

Another week went by and despite the mysterious herbs the woodsman suddenly had produced out of nowhere, Shizuru's healing process was quite slow.

It was right in the middle of winter when she was able to walk around again. The snow had gotten even higher and on some days they were literally snowed in.

To regain her strength Shizuru helped the old man cutting the wood on days with good weather.

Michail had taken her in his heart and to pass the time on the bad days he told her old stories and legends form Kurgan in exchange for her help. Shizuru was an attentive listener and even produced a few legends of her own lands.

But soon she was getting restless.

"Say Michail, how high did the snow get now?"

The man frowned while gazing out of the window. "I told you...much to high for you to walk in it. Even with snow-shoes."

The huntress didn't say anymore but Michail kept her under close watch the next day.

He felt her restlessness, much like the proverbial elephant in the room and often he found the young woman at the windows gazing out the trees. It had been going on for five days and it tore at his heart that eventually he would have to let her go.

"I can't explain it...there's something out there that seems to pull at my strings."

They were curing rabbit-hides at the moment and the smooth, silky fur seemed at least to ease her troubled mind a bit. Michail raised his head to see her in the eye.

"I'm searching for something, but what it is I cannot say. I just it's calling to me...and I have to follow."

The old woodcutter raised his salt and pepper eyebrows at that explanation.

"Did you have this ...yearning all the times since coming to this land?" His hands hovered over the fur which he was cleaning and then he put away on the small table.

She had his rapt attention.

He had learned a few things about her past in the long nights of her illness. Some of them he had sworn to himself to not tell a living soul. He often thought her to be the granddaughter he didn't have and often in the last few day she would call him Balyshka...Grandfather in her own language.

Under this aspects it was totally understandable that he regarded her with concerned eyes now. After all he new the stories of his homeland and what the girl was telling him was not sounding good in his ears.

A small smile on her still slightly chapped lips. She hated the feeling of the chafing skin, but right now it couldn't be helped.

"I'm not trying to kill myself, Michail. I just feel ...eager to be somewhere. Ever since that strange dream..."

Michail's head whipped around, like the branches of a young willow in a storm.

"Dream? What dream?" Fear was evident in his voice as he gripped her small hands with the sudden strength of...despair?

"What did you dream of child?"

Shizuru gazed at him, unsure as how such innocent a comment could bring out so intense a reaction. Gently, she freed her fingers from his death grip and stared out of the window.

"It was maybe a day before you found me before your door. I got lost in the woods, disorientated myself while deciding to walk all night to find a suitable resting place. I remember the cutting cold, the numbness in the limbs and that I tried to make a fire, but somehow the wood got wet." she chuckled humorlessly.

"I already must have been sick by then...maybe the beginning fever clouding my judgement. A storm was coming up and I feel asleep in the snow. I couldn't make a fire and I huddled down under a great fir to at least protect myself."

A strangled gasp on her side drew her attention again. Michail was gripping the edges of the wooden table so hard she could see the splinters forming between his fingers.

"There are not many firs around here...you mean those great crooked ones. Just a few minutes down the hill...the one on the edge of the meadow.?" Curiously she still stared at his hands when he shouted at her. " That's dangerous territory...I told the stories surrounding that place. No one goes there! Not even at day!" He drew a calming breath, sucking in air in big gulps.

The huntress raised her hands to placate the old man. "Honestly, I don't remember much...I felt warm, some fur had been wrapped around me. Someone touched my face...but I can't really tell what the voice said." The woodcutters eyes went wide and he gripped his chest tight.

"She talked to you...! What did she say? Tell me!"

The old man began to frighten Shizuru now for a bit.

" Michail, Balyshka! What's wrong? Why is such a thing so important?"

Still frightened the woodcutter that down next to her on the cot and gripped her shoulders.

"It may be the answer to all your questions..." he drew another raspy breath.

"It's about time I think that I told about HER..."

It's a story of long tradition here in these parts of these lands. Since Ephraim I came to this lands to build the county of Kurga as a gift from the emperor it is said that his family had special relationships with the spirits of nature.

The story tells that Ephraim came from Darlan, a kingdom long lost to the dusts of time. The emperor had granted him the land around the woods as a fief for valorous service.

When he came around the lands and woods were still occupied by savage tribes and barbars.

At first he tried to get to a peaceful solution with the chiefs, but soon enough their personal greed and ambition drove him away. The numbers of his followers were dwindling and not much time had gone by when he found himself hunted by a mighty chief from the mountains.

It was here in these woods were their hounds caught up to him.

He found a young wolf in the trap-pit of a peasant and he rescued the little beast despite being in danger himself.

Suddenly the mother wolf appeared behind the trees and lured the dogs away from him so he could flee into the valleys.

There he found friends and vassals and could gather an army to conquer the north. Within half a year he had all the chiefs under control and establish his own set of laws, thus creating the county of Kurga.

Two years after his success one night a young woman stood in his private chambers. Ephraim had no idea from where she had come, nor how she had managed to come by his guards.

He reached for his sword.

"Hold your hand Ephraim." the young lady said and raised an arm. "I'm a messenger of forces who have watched you for quite some time now. We have tested you and found you worthy."

She took a step forward and laid a small packet on the ground. "In two days you will see...open the parcel tomorrow and on the next day you will know what to do."

Then she turned around and disappeared like dust in the wind.

Two days from there a your lady, so beautiful, appeared in the city under the castle and Ephraim, mindful of the prophecy of the spirit openend the parcel found a ring in it and married the woman. Saliah, the nymph she was called and the marriage was quite a happy one. Six children were born to those two and his great-great-great grandson was the first King of Kurga.

It was a good marriage and he build a mighty castle in these woods for his wife. It is said she was an Aruth, a wolf spirit and that she was often seen in her other form roaming these woods. It was also said that the art of changing the form was passed down from her through the royal family.

The story was artfully told and Shizuru had soaked everything up like a sponge. Though she couldn't quite make the connection.

"It's a nice story, Michail...but why are you telling me this?"

The woodsman raised a hand, took a swig from his cup of tea and rolled his eyes at her.

"Not long after the king had died, the people in the villages around here told me that they often saw a big black wolf with white markings running around."

The young woman paused in mid swig. "A big wolf? How big?" Michail raised his hand above the ground. "At least as big as a small horse..." Shizuru raised her cup, taking a large sip.

Michail got up and began to close the shutters of the small windows. "I believe if the stories about the wolf and the woman in the snow are true, then it couldn't be anyone but her. The very ancestor of the Kruger family and she's out to punish the people for the deeds done in the time of war."

Outside the hut a wolf began to howl. The people in the hut stared at the windows for a moment. The call had been so melancholic, so sad that Shizuru for a moment was tempted to go to the door.

It was like it was calling her.

The fine hairs on Michail's thick arms stood up and he was visibly shaken.

"You see..." he turned around eyes running wild. "It's too dangerous outside...in combination with those dreams you had..."

A cough tore itself from the young womans throat. How had he known?

"I watched you closely while you slept." came the wise answer when the old man sat down on his chair again.

"What have my dreams and nightmares to do with this...and what is your concern with them?" the question had come out harder than she had intended but the years had taught her to be on guard for personal things. At least she hadn't told him everything about her past.

So she was a bit surprised to see the aged but still powerful man shrink back into his chair. In the next moment he was gripping her hands over the table and looked her in the eyes.

The huntress was surprised by the concern she could see in his eyes. And here I thought nothing could shake him...

"She spoke to you ...maybe even touched you. She has put her mark upon you, child and I fear what the outcome for you will be."

Shizuru simply smiled at that and put her empty cup back on the shelf.

He had learned a lot about the young woman he had let into his home nearly a month ago. With or without her talking he still knew a great deal about how her mind worked. She should be angry with him, maybe she was. He knew that Shizuru cherished her privacy above all. So he was quite surprised to be pulled into a hug.

He had seen her smile a lot. Though the smile she wore now was so radiant in his opinion that she could have set up a blaze with it. It was a true smile which reached her eyes and it made her even more beautiful in the low light of the beginning evening.

"Thank you for your concern, Balyshka. It is nice to know someone cares. I had not the impression that this mystery person was trying to kill me. I've even got a guide when I seriously needed one."

Gently she released him from her arms. "I'm grateful for everything you've done for me..." her eyes looked past him, at the door, a far of look with so much behind it, that Michail could no longer watch. "...but tomorrow I will have to go."

Her slightly accented words still rung in his ears the next morning, when he looked after her retreating form, slowly disappearing into the forest.

He looked and waved till the young woman was just a purple speck in the never ending sea of green trees and disappeared behind a hill.

"I wish you luck young lady. May it be true what you said ... and she'll be friendly."

It hurt her soul to leave the old cutter like this. The snow was really deep and true t Michail's words she had difficulties walking.

She pressed on though, eager to be somewhere else, finding new adventures…and maybe finally finding what was calling her into the woods.

Strangely she felt happy and energized. The cold wind blowing over her face promised her new things to happen and she felt herself lookg forward to it.

It was like at the very first beginning of her journey.

The long stay in the hut had opened her eyes for new things and when she looked around she noticed new things around every corner.

Like, how the frozen snow build tiny sculptures of ice on the tree branches,or like the tracks of different animals made complicated mosaics on the ground.

When night drew nearer she build a snow-hole on the side of a small hill and tucked herself in for the night.

This had been the moment he had waited for. The human was on the road again. She had been marked. To top it off by the person he despised the most. He could smell it, the wind carried over the stink of the old human's house just behind the hill.

Oh how he hated the smell of burning coals.

She had been marked…all the more reason for him to kill the female and eat her heart.

He gave the sign for the group to circle the small snow hill.

She awoke from shuffling and growling just outside her "doorstep".

Wolves….! Are they trying to dig me up? Shizuru gripped the shaft of her weapon and a knife and waited.

I've got two options: Either those are my savior and some friends trying to help me again. Or, and that is even more plausible, those are normal hungry wolves smelling an easy meal.

She decided that it would be better to stay put and wait for the right moment to do something.

He could smell the human, right under the thin sheet of snow, though something was missing.

The fear…normally the air around the humans was ripe with it, when they got wind of being hunted down.

This one was different…and it made him furious!

He monitored his minions to move faster.

They were now only a few centimeters of snow away. She could see the dark shadows on the white ceiling. The shuffling got faster and Shizuru could already see the first paws breaking through the surface.

It was a decision of seconds and one shaggy wolf stumbled away from the hole, blood spraying everywhere. The huntress knife had hit him right under the jugular when his searching head had broken through the snow.

His comrades got more furious and desperate.

The snow broke away and snarling, snapping heads were met with cold hard steel.

Two of the young ones fell back, seriously crippled and another veteran stayed on the snow.

It was time that he should take a part in the fight and show that human something to be fearful of.

He sniffed one of the dying pack brothers and barreled furiously through the mass of furry beasts blocking his way.

Shizuru suddenly saw herself confronted with a moving, snapping and furiously growling mass of teeth. Small yellow eyes stared evilly at her out of a thick mane of grayish spotted dark fur.

A thick burn scar covered the left side of the wolf's face, making it even more hideous and Shizuru did retreat further back into the hole.

She managed to nick the beast on the burnt side of his skull. Hell broke loose.

It had been just a small scratch but the already injured side of his face exploded in pain as if the human had poured acidic poison over his head.

His conscious shut down and his only goal for the next few minutes was to get his teeth into the white flesh and tear and break till nothing was left of the source of the pain.

The brunette for her part had trouble to keep the mad and frothing beast away from her. The teeth gleamed in the low light of dusk and the wolf managed to snag a piece of her coat.

She felt like being tossed around like a piece of wood in stormy water. A mighty jerk with from the wolf and Shizuru was flying out of the hole, landing hard on the ice encrusted surface of a very small pond.

The human was wounded and disorientated. It was the perfect moment to strike. He bunched his muscles and made ready for a charge, head on. He only heard the whistle when the object flew by his ear. He saw his comrades fall like leaves in fall and vowed to end that human treachery now and for all. Just a few moments now and all would end.

In the next moment he felt a weight crush him to the ground. Something had jumped him. A warning growl in his ears set him on edge even more and then he felt sharp teeth close around his neck.

The huntress couldn't really follow the unfolding event anymore. Maybe she had cracked her head on the eyes…she didn't know for sure. She could feel the darkness creep into the edges of her vision and desperately tried to stay awake.

These wolves must have been following her for days. They had been so intent on killing her, the ambush had been far to coincidental. They had known where she had been hiding.

Shizuru could feel that a wam liquid was coating the side of her face and matted her hair. She tried to battle the rising panic, but the pain distracted her.

Oblivion was grabbing at her with cold hard fingers and the last thing she saw, was a black wolf in the size of a small horse standing on the carcass of her attacker. It was fending off the other members of the pack and just the second before she lost consciousness, shining yellow eyes looked at her.

A/N:

Balyshka = (in Kurga Baruyshka) means Grandfather or old man