Wives' Tales

When the rebel company set off after a few days, Torleif refused to let Matthias ride a horse of his own and instead banished him to take up seat in the back of Berwald's cart with the weapons. The roads were narrow and ill maintained, every bump they hit made the equipment rattle angrily, and Matthias had to hang on for dear life. He was bored out of his mind and it didn't help that Tino would ride past and exchange a few words with him and Berwald in between his shifts scouting ahead of the company and returning to report. And the ride got even more uncomfortable when he noticed he cart behind their was steered by none other than Eir, who was sending blood freezing glares in his direction as if she was expecting him to die horrendously right before her eyes just to make all of her hard work keeping him alive worthless. The burn on Matthias' chest had started to heal nicely. The red had faded, the skin was cool to the touch and it no longer hurt. Still, they had left behind raised lines and if he moved his arms, he could feel how the skin pulled uncomfortably around them. He still had a little left of the herbal mixture and applied it in secret when they stopped for the night.

If only he could read, the long slow march would seem infinitely shorter since he could have made some sense out of the papers tucked in his pack. Now, the only entertainment he had was to watch the scouts ride out on missions and listen to their reports. They visited the small towns they came by and told the people of their situation. Sometimes they brought back volunteers who wished to fight with them. They had taken with them what they had as weapons, most of the times that included axes, knives, and even pitchforks and left behind what little they owned. A few people came from towns far away and brought rumors of even more people moving across the land searching for the rebel force.

Torleif usually rode in the very front, but he sometimes asked somebody else to take the lead so he could ride beside the weapons cart so he could discuss tactics and plans with Berwald and Matthias. He seemed determined to include them both and especially Matthias in as many steps of planning as possible, molding him into a leader. The thought was frightening. Matthias barely trusted his own instincts and the thought of everybody wanting to follow him into what could quite possibly be their own deaths was terrifying.

Now Torleif came riding towards them and turned his horse to ride beside them. Berwald barely cast him a glance to acknowledge his presence before his focus fully returned to the road.

"I have been trying to decide where we should go next," Torleif said, trying to make his horse match pace with the cart. "We have a few options on what move to make next. We can continue as we have so far, riding around, trying to find out which villages are about to be attacked. However, so far we tend to come to late only to pick up the pieces of what the soldiers have left behind. We could also just move around to pick up more people to build our army and slowly make our way towards the capitol. It would mean less travelling around chasing leads on limited supplies, but we risk having many people injured or killed because they will be without defense against the soldiers

His voice faltered and Matthias narrowed his eyes at him, noticing the leader's hesitation to continue. "And?" he prompted.

"It is a foolish idea" Torleif sighed.

"Lay it on me anyways. We don't have the luxury of ignoring any possibilities."

Torleif sighed heavily. "We could just march directly towards the central towns and head for the capitol. Walk straight into the viper's nest so to speak. That is a very dangerous move. There is a chance the king has not done anything to alienate his supporters in that part of the land, the citizen will probably not be willing to abandon their safe lifestyle and join us in our rebellion. They might even support him"

"But they probably won't pick up arms to fight us themselves," Matthias reasoned. "They live a nice life and have not been trained to fight. It is more likely they will just send word for the soldiers and when they arrive, we will have moved on to the next location. It will be them chasing us instead of the opposite like it have been this far. We just have to move quickly. The faster we can end this rebellion the better. People are suffering and will keep on doings so for as long as all this fighting goes on. It might be worth the risk."

"I'm not sure" Torleif sighed. "There is no telling what we might meet in the cities. Do not forget that that commander saw some of our faces. There might be posters hanging all over the place and people just waiting to turn us in for a pretty penny. Anything to help them through the coming winter."

"We can just send in a group of scouts to see how the situation is." Matthias suggested. "Found out how much support the king truly have."

Torleif hummed in some vague agreement. "That is the only reasonable option if we should decide to just head straight for the capitol. I will have to consider this a bit further and ask the others before I make a final choice. Now I know where you stand at least." He pulled on the reigns to make a sharp turn and head back through the caravan, seemingly assessing the state of their troops, a deep crease marking his forehead.

Tino rode up beside him almost as soon as Torleif disappeared. "So what did Torleif say?" he asked curiously. The horse tossed his head in annoyance at his rider's sudden, excited movements.

"He is considering moving directly towards the capitol" Matthias answered in earnest.

Berwald turned around for the first time in ages. "But he is not sure that is the right way to go. He is worried we might lose more than we gain. He is worried about what might happen next. He keeps asking Matthias for his opinion, molding him into becoming a leader. He knows that if something is to happen to him we need someone who can continue to lead the rest of us."

"But there are plenty of others who can do the same." Matthias protest weakly.

"Stop selling yourself short" Tino cut in, clearly frustrated from the high pitch in his voice. "Why do you fight it so much?"

"Maybe I don't understand what he can possibly see in me." Matthias said, even though he knew very well what some of the people saw in him. Several others had also remarked how he would be fit for leadership. The problem was that he knew that not all of his feats could be solely be placed on him alone. He had mostly received help and usually the one to supply it was Lukas. If the people knew whom Matthias had help from, it was no doubt that they would turn on him. The man that had slain Brynjar. Matthias might end up facing the same fate they had wanted to give the general for the betrayal. A public beheading.

Tino was desperately struggling to find some words that could help convince Matthias that Torleif had done right to choose him judging by how he kept opening his mouth to speak but changed his mind. Even if he was to come up with something, Matthias was not very willing to listen. A part of him wished there was something he could do to discourage the massive support he received. The only positive thing about the entire situation was that it was far easier to convince people, including Torleif to follow his advice now that he had proved himself on so many separate occasions.

Berwald just stared at him judgmentally end shook his head.

If Eir was equally willing to listen to him, then maybe, he would have a chance to make her help him read the texts hidden in his backpack and find out what was so important about them.

The day dragged on and the roads they travelled became increasingly horrible to follow as they headed towards a mountain pass. The snow had piled high and heavy and the wagons often caught on hidden rocks and other obstacles. The weapons cart lurched threateningly on a particular nasty bump and it jarred every bone in Matthias' body as he bounced around among the weapons.

When they halted for a break and Torleif rode along the convoy yelled they would rest for an hour before moving out again. Matthias saw his opportunity to move on with his plan to get Eir talking. He snatched his pack from the wagon and headed towards his intended target.

"Where are you going?" Berwald asked gruffly when he noticed Matthias bringing his things along with him.

"Seeking out a more comfortable ride," Matthias replied brightly. He was almost getting used to the suspicious looks Berwald kept on giving him whenever he did something that made little sense. Matthias did his very best to pretend he had not noticed it and hid his nerves behind a slight smirk before turning his back on the smith.

"What do you think you are doing and why are you bringing your bag?" Eir hissed suspiciously and for an old woman she was astonishingly similar to a predator zoning in on a kill. "You are supposed to take it easy and I'll have you know I have ordered anyone who would listen not to allow you even near any of the horses. Get your butt back to the cart, because you will not be riding anytime soon."

Matthias tossed his bag up in her cart, loaded with medical supplies and put on his most charming smile as he climbed up beside her. "Berwald drives like a maniac. The way that cart bumps, I will have you know a horse would have been more comfortable and would have caused less damage to my still healing injuries." He gestured towards his chest.

Her eyes narrowed even further to just two small slits remained. "What are you playing at, boy? We would allow you to ride if you just rode along the rest of us, but I do not doubt for a second that you will ride off the minute we got you one. You would probably go on some breakneck ride to either scout or race or who knows what young people do these days. I know you are planning something, I just can't figure out what you can possibly gain from this."

"Maybe I just enjoy you company?" Matthias smirked at her.

She snorted loudly and even a few people turned around to stare in their direction at the sound. "I don't believe that for a second. More likely, you are just trying to annoy me so I will have to Torleif to give you a horse to get some peace. I have no patience for your games. So tell me what it is you want right now or I will kick you off this cart and you will have to walk. Perhaps some exercise will do your mind some good."

Matthias ignored her foul mood and kept smiling brightly at her. "You wouldn't do that to an injured man, would you? It is in your nature to heal people not hurt them."

"Something I have regretted several times after I met you." She muttered darkly.

One of Torleif's men rode past, telling everyone to pack up and prepare to move on.

Eir scooted a bit further to the side and handed Matthias the reigns with a sigh. "Well, if you have to ride with me, you can at least be useful. It might be nice to relax just a bit, let somebody else take care of the reigns for once." The suspicion in her tone had not faded even in the slightest and if she had not been a healer Matthias suspected she would have made an excellent law keeper with the way she kept sensing somebody was withholding the truth. It could also just be that Matthias was terrible at hiding the fact he had ulterior motives, making it easy for her to sense it.

The cart Eir had been in charge of was much lighter than Berwald's and so moved a lot easier over the bumps. They remained silent for a while until Matthias figured it was time to begin the conversation he badly wanted to have. "So," he tried. "You have lived a long life; do you have any stories to share?"

"Are you implying that I am old?" she asked with a vicious smirk that was so unfamiliar on her face it immediately made Matthias more nervous than he had thought to be. "I believe it is impolite."

Matthias opened and closed his mouth repeatedly and struggled to find his words again. He should have planned this conversation better. "I never meant to… I just mean. I lived my entire life on the farm back in Griven. I only ever left for short periods to hunt, until now that is. Now, everything is just chaos and all everyone talk about is the rebellion."

"Somehow I doubt you want to hear the life story of an old lady," Eir muttered partly to herself and turned away from him to stare at the forest passing by.

"Before the rebellion I never even heard stories of our king being a sorcerer, yet it seems everyone in Dalahurst knew of the story. It seems your villagers tell way more stories than ours."

"Torleif and the veterans knew" Eir remarked. "You heard him tell parts of the story himself."

"Yet he never shared them before that. Now that we have seen without own eyes that magic is possible, it just makes me wonder what else might be out there."

Eir turned back to him and her face smoothed out in a soft, barely-there smile. "So what you are truly looking for are fairytales?" she asked and Matthias was happy that it seemed he had found a way past her barriers of suspicion.

"Are they truly fairytales if there is truth to them?" Matthias asked.

Eir sighed heavily, but there was a playful glint in her eyes. "I know a few stories. My grandmother told me many strange tales when I was a child. About dragons, trolls and other creatures you could usually just conjure up in nightmares. There was never any doubt that those stories were fiction. Then there were the ones she claimed were real. Stories of how men disappeared into the forest never to return. She said a creature called Huldra had taken them, because they were unfaithful to their wives. Then there was Nøkken and Draugen who would take people who were alone and careless around lakes or the sea." She sighed again and dragged her hand thoughtfully over her face. "But these were all just nonsense stories to scare children from playing by the water alone and explain why husbands disappeared from their wives and children."

Matthias was listening intently, ignoring the parts where she tried to explain away the tales as cover-ups for other things instead of being about actual mythical creatures. "There are other creatures as well aren't there?" Matthias asks.

"You have something specific in mind?" Eir asks. "Because I somehow get the feeling you are not just fishing."

"I found some pages with stories when we camped at that farm. I can't read, but there were pictures and I wanted to know what it was all about." Matthias turned around and grabbed his bag to find the papers. The horses pulling the cart tossed their heads in annoyance and Eir had to lean over and hold the reigns to make sure they did not turn off the road when Matthias turned around so suddenly and apparently forgot completely that he was holding them at all.

"You are one strange boy," she muttered as she handed the reigns back and accepted the stack of papers he gave her. Her brows quickly knitted together as she scanned over the words. "This is not from some storybook," she says thoughtfully. "This is more like a bestiary or something. A book that describes creatures, their habitat, habits and such. I have never seen anything like this."

Matthias feigns disappointment. "So no story?"

"Are you sure you found this at the farm?" She shoots him a sharp stare, and then shuffled the papers around to get them in the correct order. "Usually farmers don't have books laying around; I highly doubt they would have something like this if they did."

"There was a lot of stuff laying around and I was bored. I do not know if it belongs to the farmers or to somebody else. We were all kind of huddled together in the few buildings there was, so it could technically belong to anyone." Matthias scratches his neck. Yet again struggling to make up stores of his own. "So will you tell me what it says? It seems to think it is interesting. All Tino told me was the title, Vette and said he wasn't good enough at reading to tell me more."

Her brows furrowed deeply in concentration and moved her eyes around the pages again. "Well… it says that vette is just a collective term for several mystic creatures. I mentioned Huldra earlier. She classifies as a land-vette. Nøkken is a water-vette and there are several others here that I have never heard of." Matthias felt a slightest spike of annoyance that Lukas had yet again been vague when he had told the truth. A vette could apparently mean just about anything. "It is all sorts of classification and description of behavior. It is almost as if the author really believes this all to be fact and not just legends. I don't know what to tell you boy, this sends chills down my spine."

"Do they all follow the same rules or do they all act differently?"

Eir drew a long breath of air and started on reading aloud. The two of them barely lay notice to the people on horseback passing them by. The text obviously meant for a scholar or someone with higher education and not commoners was heavy with information. Still Matthias absorbed as much as he could when Eir told in horribly detail some of the behavior of the more vicious of the creatures. Huldra would seduce men in order to lure them to her home and when they gave in to her charm, she would devour their souls. Nøkken would lure people to the water of which they dwelled only with the purpose of drowning them and he had particular tastes for children and pregnant women.

Eir huffed at the last particular story, but she looked pale and the reading had definitely made an impression on her. "I told you there was a lot of superstition to warn people away from dangerous waters and scare them to behave appropriately." She tried explaining it away again.

"So are there any specific forest-vette or something." Matthias decided to push his luck, because he might not have a second chance to talk about mythical creatures. . He still had hoped to hear more specifically about 'forest creatures' since it was what Lukas had identified himself as.

Eir narrowed her eyes at him. "Not that I can see, but there is a remark here that says most of these creatures prefer to live in secret and so most of the known descriptions are about the malicious ones that have ended up targeting people.

"So all of this is just a warning to stay away from these things then?" Matthias asked. "Since many of them are that dangerous I mean."

"I think these texts might serve a purpose to inform people about their know behavior so you could more easily avoid getting hurt. It is just too bad commoners cannot read it to find out how to protect themselves."

Matthias was beginning to see a reason why Lukas had given him the papers and it made his stomach clench uncomfortably, but he asked anyways, just to be sure. "What do you mean protect yourself?"

"There seems to be some guidelines here in addition to the common warnings to stay away from water if you hear singing and don't flirt with random women who wants to lure you into the forest. The different types of vette connected to their element and their powers are stronger when they are in their natural habitat. For example, if you get a water creature out of the water, their spell can stop working on you. If they stay in water, their song will sound appealing and you might see some strange beauty in the water that lures you all the way to the edge so that it can pull you in. But get it out of water their voice will change and their true face will show."

"And let me guess. There are about as many methods of protection as there are creatures." Matthias sighed. It was highly unlikely he could make Eir read through them all and after all that remember what she had said and later remember it all since he could not read it to get a reminder. "There is no specific vette defeating weapon is there?"

She snorted loudly. "You are aware this is purely superstition and wives tales just wrapped up in a serious format. It does not make it any truer. But if you want general advice should it turn out to be reality, it would just be to avoid their comfort zone and they should be weakened."

Matthias started thinking. Not only about vettes. If what Eir said were true then he would have to get Lukas outside of his element to have an advantage. He was a forest-vette. Did that mean he was weaker anywhere outside of the forests? He had after all spent 150 years in the castle and fighting the king's war, probably far away from the forests and still he was very powerful. Then his mind started applying the principle to other hypothetical situations and his mind started to work out a long string of plans. "Does that only apply outside of the fairytales?" He finally asked.

"I would think so," replied Eir. Her frown had lessened and she seemed more grandmotherly than she had ever done before. "People and animals all alike do best within their own comfort zone. A corn seed will give yield if you give it rich soil, rain, sunlight and the right temperature. Plant the same seed in a desert and nothing will come of it because the environment is all wrong."

"Do you think then, that the king and his men will do best in their castle and city? I mean, that is where they live when they are not in battle. They train there, patrol the streets and know every turn of the streets. In addition, their commanders and their king is there to lead them. Would that mean that we have no chance of defeating them there, at their home base?"

She thought for a moment. "Technically yes. They have knowledge of the city and its defense. They have supplies to last them a long time. We do not have the numbers or equipment to lay siege on the capitol. However, as a seed is in need of good soil and water, an army needs food, shelter and many other things, or less it will crumble."

"Torleif should have put you on the war council," Matthias said with a slight smirk. "We might not have the forces to attack the soldier's main army in the capitol head on, but we don't need to attack them head on to remove some of the things they need to function. It would only take a few people to sneak into the castle and sabotage their supplies, be that food or weapons. The best would have been to take out the king. He is the one leading everything. If he were to die, then who would pay the soldiers? Who would give orders?"

"You are getting a little ahead of yourself there, boy," Eir said. "Sabotage is a plan that might work. Assassinating the king would be a lot harder. You have to remember that you have never been to the capitol. From what I have heard, the king lives in the castle at the very middle of the capitol and several large walls protect it. There are security checkpoints at every gate not just any commoner can get past."

Matthias mind was whirring with activity. An idea had struck him. His plans might be crazy, but no one would expect an attack from the inside. If they could only get a few people into the city or better, the castle.

"And all you wanted was old fairytales" Eir laughed quietly when she saw him deep in thought. She skimmed over a few of the pages she had not yet read. I just remembered something else my old grandmother told me once. "To keep the forest dwellers at bay, keep foxglove in your pocket. She dumped the pages in Matthias' lap and pointed to the picture of a flower with bell shaped petal in white to purple hues. She took the reins from Matthias and laughed quietly when he barely acknowledged her presence. "She also told me to keep a pouch of ashes by my hip, but it seems you have something more important than ashes and flowers to keep your mind occupied with for now."