An elk’s cough was heard though only hour old tracks found. Novrus made to sky for home or a shelter. He slumped face first into the snow. Exhaustion or a drugged knife wound abating his progress.
Circling a few strides for a defensible hiding spot getting two snare noisemakers up is all he could do before his eyes could no longer open.
He woke up with snow fall moistening his face. Brushing it off he stood. Alive. He was still alive. It was the start of the morning rising light. He must have slept for nearly half a day. A meal of meats and a drink of cool water from the skin tucked inside his fur clothing.
He decided to ski north. To tell and warn the village. To learn if anyone was missing or lately robbed. Also perhaps their healer could check his shoulder wound.
The village of Greulfen can into view with the sun still clearing the southern horizon. Young Uddi had clambered up a pine tree to see who was coming.
“Novrus! Its been a long time!”
Novrus lifted up his lynx face fur, “That is has. Be a good lad. I have news for your head man. Run ahead to tell him. That’s a good boy.”
“Okay!”
Uddi slid down the tree. Like a lynx he bounded as much as he could in the deep snow. He would tire soon but surely not before the word got out.
Only a few ski strides more had Novrus taken before Lauri the shaman approached.
“As I saw,” said Lauri, “Now let me see your wounds.”
“You saw?” asked Novrus.
“That a wounded friend was coming. This the forest sang. Only a few could have heard it.”
Lauri busied with probing the shoulder wound. With a knitting needle he flecked out a sliver of steel. Novrus told him of the robbers and their demise.
“All our people are safe,” Lauri said.
Novrus was pleased. Before he could be questioned more Lauri sat down with his back against a pine tree. His snoring was almost instant.
Novrus then set about trading. The bandits had a northern bow which with other goods traded for a fur. The fur and bits of bandit clothing traded for one of Gruelfen’s fine northern bows. The two they had had a better spring to them. Lauri explained the best bent trees had been used to make three of them. The pick of the year’s fishing had done into the skin backing. One was with a long adventuring village man and his wife who traveled to the south west. These two were set for trade else gifts.
Lauri said, “I am happy to trade you for it. The bandits were a risk to us as you say. I feel this is both a trade and gift to you Novrus. What you traded, the robber’s goods, is proof too you defend this land, spirits and our people.”
Carrying on he found a good spot for a hunting shelter. He had learned that having longs views of mires in different direction was superb for spotting distant large game. He set a shelter up but while setting the trail markers for it found a better one.
The loop snare noisemakers, of which he now carried four, aided in the security of these scattered rest spots. Novrus reflected one could put lever traps or others at them. The problem is that you would not come by often enough to find the catch. They would rot uselessly. This was improper for a hunter and certain to anger the spirits. The loop snares you could easily pick up and take with you. In fact one might know to make primitive cordage and leave enough at a camp. For now Novrus preferred to carry those he used.
Day 4 of the 4th week to summer season.
Scouting the mires toward the Point cave was so far without game. He might sleep in the cave tonight then head back to attend to the drying wolf meat. There was a flash of a figure a few hours from the Point cave.
Novrus skied closer to see. A Nerjpez Red foe with little gear. Perhaps an outcast or outlaw expelled. Perhaps a member of war band that fell behind. The closer view showed he had at best a hand axe for a weapon. Novrus felt little concern in fighting. Then he checked himself.
“Treat each battle as one that matters. It makes you ready for the ones that are,” Grandfather had said.
The chase is brief with Red Foe doubling back almost immediately. Red foe swings first and in doing so the hand axe slipped from his frost bitten hands. Now with a plain knife Red Foe fights for his life. Novrus switches shield behind fearing little from the knife. Blows, misses and dodges. Then Bear-Biter cuts his torso as the man leans forward. Immediately Novrus’s left knee screams in pain as the knife thrust comes home.
“Treat each battle as one that matters. It makes you ready for the ones that are,” Grandfather had said.
Novrus flopped along a spruce’s branches spraying snow as he fell. Novrus tries to butt thrust but red foe is on him with the knife stabbing his abdomen. In the flailing of almost over top becoming a tumbling knee-gouging head-butting tumbling both lose their weapons.
Novrus gets a hand on the head of Bear-Biter not the haft, just so the Red foe couldn’t get it. His other hand draws his self-made broad knife. Dueling knives exchange attempts at cuts and stabs. Novrus uses Bear-Biter as a crutch for the pain in his knee.
Novrus holds defensive like that. One hand on the top of Bear-Biter for support the other with the leveled broad knife. Disarmed the Red foe begins to speak in his foreign tongue. Was he offering a truce?
With no response Red-Foe suddenly kicks! Novrus, little skilled in knife fighting, misses with his counter thrust. The kick wallops but padded fur dissipates its energy and Bear-Biter keeps Novrus standing.
Novrus repositions with a reverse bent over kick tapping his face but lacking in force to harm. Bewildered the broad knife is lipped back into the sheath. A tuck of his abdomen avoids the next kick.
Novrus sums up his fierceness. Facing the pain he pulls Bear-Biter to hand. The swing misses. Red foe keeps up a desperate fury while Novrus swings rarely seeking to gain the breathing advantage.
Its hardly working as sky fills Novrus’s vision. Flat on his back the Red Foe stomps on his ribs. Lamellar metal padded by furs limit it to the shame of being ground pounded.
With an axe threat Novrus gets to his feet. Looking past he can see Red Foe’s dilemma. He had gone into a circle of trees with only one way out. The way were Bear-Biter is swinging. Red foe can not escape. Novrus reverts to shield and axe. Behind the shield to recover.
Kicks and punches at the shield do little. Red foe slips but rolls to avoid the axe. Rising they exchange again. Then Red foe’s face contort, he crumples. Bear-Biter had found his groin!
The next blow cuts half way through the neck and Red foe is finished.
By the light of smoky funeral pyre Novrus dresses his wounds. The new knee stab and the puncture in his left shoulder.
Novrus was happen to the Point cave finding its door needing to be freed of a light layer of ice to open. He set the near-door safeguard trap before starting a fire and enjoying rest in the furnished portion of the cave.
Waking he was even sweating in the heated cave. The foods he had packed though were running out. He should have traded for a food at Gruelfen as well. The Red foe had food but that and a portion of the clothes were burned on the funeral pyre. After eating hard tack and a turn over he gave herbal leaves for the cave spirit.
There was a stock of food in the cave stores. That had been wise to bring. He took up some of the turnips and one portion of dried meat.
It seemed fitting to reward the cave with an expansion of the furnished area. A few more strides of floor boards were balanced, wedged and pegged into place. Within the safety of the cave he again cleaned and dressed his wounds. The stored water was stale and cold. First he placed the wood bowl on a chimney ledge to warm at least. Spruce twigs and branches were put into storage with spruce now as bedding on top the second sleeping bunk.
<Novrus at Point cave 3>