My Father's Lands

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Short chapter this time, but more will soon come. Please review!!
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Heero walked past moors and farmhouses. He slept for a handful of hours at night, and would stop for quick naps during the day. He was unsettled by staying in one place for prolonged periods of time and naps during the day were ubiquitous so he was not cast a second glance sleeping under the midday sun.

On the second day after slaying the lame giant, Heero stopped on his path and took in his surroundings. Before him the path was shadowed by the upcroping of a dense forest of pine trees. The path cut through the forest and Heero knew this is where he would encounter this tree-bender. If Heero found this macabre situation to be as the villagers had said, his resolve to rid the land of this horrifying murderer would be greater in intensity than his urge had been to take on the giant.

Far into the forest Heero was assaulted with a fetid odor: that of rotting flesh. The deeper he walked into the forest the more of this murderer's horror he saw. Bodies hung from the trees like nightmarish fruit and the forest floor was littered with carrion. It seemed that this monster killed man and animal alike in sport. A lesser man would have quailed at the sight, but Heero strode on with fury alight in his eyes.

Overhead vultures and ravens lazily circled the sky. Here and there the shadows of the circling raptors would block out some of the little sunlight filtering through the trees. The shadows made it harder to discern motion in the forest.

Heero pulled out the Sword of Yuy and raised the sword parallel to his face readying himself for the inevitable encounter. To his right he heard the rustling of leaves created from disturbed air by a quick moving object. He turned towards the noise staying completely still but still in attack position. Another noise to his left. Heero inclined his head in that direction, his eyes darting through his surroundings.

From behind Heero something long, slim and dark flew out from the trees and fluttered above his head before the loop at the end fell down around his neck also encompassing the sword. It was drawn tight and jerked Heero backwards, the blade of the sword slapping Heero’s cheek. He held onto the sword tight and turned the blade outwards and cut himself from the noose. Quickly he rushed into the bushes where the rope had come from. There he found a huge man that had outfitted himself in pelts of various ferocious animals. Upon seeing Heero burst through the bushes, the man raised a weapon--the handle was the trunk of young pine with a sharpened stone strapped onto the end like an axe-head.

Having rushed the man, he had little space to attack taking into account his surroundings. Swinging the axe back, it tangled up in a low hanging bough rendering him immobile for some seconds. Seeing his opening, Heero attacked stabbing the killer in the stomach.

The pine-bender let go of his axe in order to clutch at his stomach wound, dropping to his knees. The bough that had the pine-bender’s axe lodged in it snapped because of the weight and fell down towards the pine-bender’s head. Swiftly jumping back, Heero watched as axe and bough fell on the pine-bender’s head rendering him unconscious.

Heero dropped to his knees at the pine-bender’s chest and grasped his throat in his hand holding him firm. As the man came to again, Heero gripped his throat with more force and leaned down over his face. As he opened his mouth to say something, there was a quite noise from behind. Snapping his head over his shoulder, he checked the area out of the corner of his eye while keeping the pine-bender’s face and hands within sight. Considering the situation safe for the moment, Heero turned back to the killer.

“Pine-bender,” he began, “you will have a clean death before you are hung up and to be feasted and torn by the vultures.” The pine-bender looked up at him with wild eyes laced with fear. Grabbing a small dagger kept strapped to his belt, Heero slit the pine-bender’s throat. Blood surged out of the killing wound staining the ground around the man’s head and encroached on the area where Heero was kneeling. Fluidly standing before the blood could stain his pants, Heero walked over to where the rope that had tried to ensnare him lay. Using the rope Heero bound the body and bent back two pine trees and did to the corpse as he had done to so many victims before.

Wiping off his dagger on fresh grass, Heero holstered it. Now that the pine-bender had been killed, Heero had time to reflect on the situation at hand. There was something else out in those woods with him. The noises he had heard before had been too light and too cautious to have been the pine-bender. In a covert manner, Heero once again scanned the woods for a sign of this other potential threat. Without so much as a hint as to this other being, Heero continued on through the forest confident that he could deal with imperil ahead of him.

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The forest began to thin as Heero came upon a small stream that flowed towards the sea from a small hill. Pulling out the dagger he used to slay the pine-bender, he washed it off in the stream cleaning it of the last vestiges of blood and gore. Sheathing his dagger, Heero washed his hands in the blue, crisp water making sure they were free of grime before cupping them to drink. Rubbing water on his face to refresh himself, Heero entertained the idea of quickly bathing. As it stood, there was grime and a bit of gore on his person, but there was the insoluble danger of another being following him.

Still crouching along side the stream, Heero reflected on his journey thus far and the possibility of this stranger. The cracking of a twig alongside the upland path before he slay the giant had been so light he had thought it the pressure from a small animal. This might have been the first evidence of this other being. Heero mentally berated himself for dismissing the noise so quickly. This realization was disquieting because this unaccounted for being had potentially been following Heero from nearly the moment he began his journey. It was impossible for anyone to have known his personal mission but his mother. A sudden fear clenched at Heero’s heart that his mother could have possibly been in danger, or may still be. Quickly pushing the emotion aside he resolved to send word to his mother when he happened across the next town. It was imperative to focus on the here and now.

Still squatting next to the stream, Heero let his fingers drift in the water being pulled by the current. The light refracted off the swift moving water and off the scales of the minnows darting between the rocks. Still debating a bath, he opting for the lesser of two evils. He took of his shirt to rinse it out in the water. Watching the water pull the filth from his shirt, he removed a handkerchief from one of his pant pockets. Laying the shirt out on a nearby rock, he used the wet handkerchief to wash off his arms, neck and torso.

Finally clean, he rested up against the rock that his shirt lay on. Closing his eyes he rested and relaxed his body and relaxed his mind of thoughts while still attune with his surroundings. He sat completely relaxed for quite a few minutes before he felt eyes on him. Without opening his eyes or moving, Heero strained his ears to catch something from his unwanted guest. Not a sound or whisper of wind was made. Slowly opening his eyes he searched the tree line. There was a hint of movement and Heero quickly grabbed his dagger and threw towards the movement. The dagger made the dull sound of sinking into a tree trunk. Heero was now crouched close to the ground with one hand touching earth to stabilize him and another hand hovering over his sword. His eyes darted back and forth looking for another movement. Suddenly his dagger came sailing back out of the tree line towards him landing in the earth about a foot from his body. To Heero, the message was clear. This being that was following him was a master at stealth as proven throughout the journey thus far. Had this being wanted the dagger to hit him, Heero grudgingly accepted the fact that the aim would have been truer. Being that the trajectory of the weapon was a foot off from his body Heero discerned that the being meant him no harm for the time.

Dislodging his dagger from the ground, Heero stared off into the tree line with a small scowl pulling the corners of his mouth down. He hated he was prey to this being’s actions. Sheathing his dagger again, he put on his still damp shirt and crossed the river to continue on the path through the forest. The being may have had the upper hand today, but Heero would soon change it in his favor.