Samhain Sacrifice

And Fer was suddenly spurred into action. All the times that his grandfather had beaten him came rushing back into his head, and he began walking forward again toward where he could barely make out the curtain. He ran into a stool and then something else that rattled in the dark, but stepped around them. He reached the curtain and flung it open.

"Who's there?" his grandfather called out again in a loud voice, and then he heard his grandfather saying, "What? What?"

Fer could only see pitch blackness in the small bedroom behind the curtain, but he knew instinctively where his grandparents were sleeping on their cot at the far end, and he was guided by their voices as he walked steadily toward them in the dark with his axe raised.

Suddenly he sensed something moving in front of him and swung forcefully at it with his axe, and it struck something heavy that fell off to the side. The next few minutes were a flurry of chaos and terror as Fer swung wildly in the blackness of the room, hitting the bed, walls, sausages hanging from the ceiling, and his grandfather and step-grandmother's bodies. When either of them yelled or screamed in terror or pain, he swung in that direction, he felt wet platters on himself that felt like sweat but he later realized was blood.

Though grievously wounded, his grandfather finally managed to escape out from the curtained entrance to the room where he tripped and tumbled head over heels and tumbled across the table in the center of the outside room. Fer followed his silhouette against the moonlight shining from the open door and finished his grandfather off with the axe where he laid sprawled in the kitchen over the broken table. Then he went back and made sure his step-grandfather was completely finished off as well.

"Well, now I've broken both of your skulls later, haven't I?" he mumbled to himself.

During the chaos, Fer had bumped his head on the low entrance to his grandfather's room and his head now rung and he could barely think straight, but he dragged his grandfather's body back into the bedroom and then went back out to the barn.

He wasn't sure how much noise he had made or how loud they had really screamed but he hoped none of the nearby houses noticed anything. He didn't see anyone outside. In the barn, he got another keg of beer and splashed some more around the doorway of his grandfather's hut. He wanted to make sure his grandfather's hut burned to the ground, but it and the neighbor's wattled and thatched huts should burn easily enough regardless.

After going back in to loot any dried sausages and portable foods and goods he could salvage from his grandfather's hut in the dark, he loaded them onto the back of the pony in the barn along with the other things. Then, having almost forgotten, he went back inside and fumbled around and found his grandfather's sword in a sheath beside the bed. "You won't be needing this anymore, old man," Fer said in the direction where he thought he grandfather's almost decapitated corpse lay in the dark.

He had planned to burn down the huts of the men standing guard outside the maiden's hut tonight, but he had forgotten to check who was actually there tonight. He also realized it was harder to find his way around the community in the dark than he had realized. Some of the local hound dogs that roamed the community approached him and began to bark at and lick at him as well as he stood in his yard. When he stepped into the moonlight, he realized it was because his tunic was covered in blood. He took it off and let them have it.

It was time to stop now and just start the fires, he told himself. He went back into the barn, lit a small oil lamp, and entered back into his grandfather's hut with another keg of beer to splatter around including in the bedroom. In the lamplight, he saw the full horror of the grisly scene and grimaced.

When the inside seemed to have started burning, Fer exited the building and walked a ways the neighboring hut, and tried to light the thatch on it too but it kept smoking and going out with sudden gusts of wind, and he could already smell the smoke from his grandfather's hut.

The dogs started bothering him again too, and feeling a sudden sense of panic, he turned and ran back to the barn, took out the loaded-up pony, and set its thatch and straw alight using a final keg of beer for flammability. Then he led the pony out across the moor to a patch of woods about a quarter mile beyond, where he tied the pony to a tree and watched his grandparent's hut and the barn. At first, he didn't see much but slowly he started to see smoke rise up and silhouette against the moonlit sky, and then he saw little bits of flame, first in the barn, then in the hut as the thatched roofs caught fire and burned.

Then the dogs began to bark, and after what seemed like forever, Fer heard shouts and could dimly make out people running about in the darkness in the community.

When it seemed like there was enough commotion, Fer left the pony in the woods, and, taking the axe in one hand and his grandfather's short sword in the other, he crept back out across the moor and toward the hut where the maiden was kept, keeping low to the ground, though he knew he wouldn't make much of a silhouette because he had his to the woods.

When he got close enough, Fer dropped to his stomach and tried to make out if the guards were still there at the fire in front of the hut. He saw the silhouette of one and crept closer. Then someone, probably the druidess, came out of the hut and Fer overheard the guard and her conversing.

They walked out in front of the fire and pointed at his grandfather's house and barn which were now in flames and smoking on the other side of the community.

"I sent Cellach to see what's happening," Fer made out the remaining guard saying. Then after a little more talking that Fer couldn't make out, the druidess went back inside the hut and the guard continued to anxiously pace in front of the fire.

Fer's heart was racing and he decided to seize the moment. He stood up and began walking the final hundred paces toward the fire. The guard didn't notice until he got very close.

"Baetan," Fer said, recognizing the guard, "there's a fire."

"I know, I don't know what happened," Baetan started to say, walking toward Fer. Then he saw Fer's weapons in the darkness and stopped for a moment, looking at him quizzically. Fer lunged forward and sunk his axe into Baetan's skull, bringing him to the ground with sickly thunking sound.

Fer didn't particularly hate Baetan but he was Aid's cousin. If only it was Aid he had just struck down, he thought. Then turned his attention toward the bolted doors of the hut.

He took out the wooden bolt and tried to push it open, but it didn't move. It must be bolted from the inside too he thought.

Thinking quickly, he knocked on the doors insistently. "What is it?" he heard the female druid say from within.

Trying to mimic how he remembered Baetan sounding, Fer replied to come out quickly.

"Why? What is it?" the druid asked again, sounding afraid.

Fer tried to think of an excuse and there was what seemed like a long silence.

"I see something strange and I want you to come look at it," he finally replied. There was no answer.

Then he saw the light of the fire reflected in a pale eye looking out at him through the slit in the middle of the bolted doors. Almost on instinct, he stabbed his sword directly through the opening and into the eye. A cry shrieked out and the eye reeled back. Then Fer stuck his sword lower down through the opening and used it to pry the wooden bolt up from the other side and open the door.

Moonlight flooded into the entrance, the same area where Fer had often entered and washed himself before visiting the maiden, and he saw the terrified druidess with blood streaming down her face sprawled before him on the floor and shrieking. It briefly reminded him of how his step-grandmother had shrieked when he pushed her into the mud. He stabbed down at her repeatedly with the sword in an effort to shut her up and then nearly beheaded her with the axe.

Then he unbolted the smaller door leading to where the maiden was kept and opened it. It was pitch black inside, as evidently they closed a door over the opening in the roof at night.

"It's me," he called. "Come quickly."

After there was no answer, he opened the door wider to let in some moonlight and saw the maiden standing naked in the corner. Finally, she came toward him and followed him out.

"Quickly," Fer urged her, and they ran out past the body of the druid in the entrance of the hut and Baetan by the fire outside. Fer guided her across the moor and into the grove of trees where the pony was waiting for him.

Fer lifted the maiden up onto the pony, still naked, and then climbed onto it himself and began to ride away from the community as swiftly as it would go. Glancing back one last time, Fer thought the fire at his grandfather's hut and barn seemed to by dying down, but it was hard to tell. The maiden coughed from the smoke which he could smell strongly too even from this distance.

They rode all night and as much as possible the next day, always in an easterly direction away from the community. They crossed vast moors and woodlands, and then hills and mountains. After the first night, they would huddle under boulders or little makeshift shelters to sleep. They lit fires for warmth after the first few nights, but Fer was still nervous about being followed. He realized it wouldn't be very hard for the community to guess that he had something to do with the fires and killings and stealing the maiden. Then they would probably try to track him down.

The maiden was dressed in a spare tunic of Fer's now for warmth and wore a cloak wrapped around her, as did he. After the first few days, they made love for the first time since the escape on a cloak by the fire. The maiden looked more beautiful than ever as her skin reflected in the flame.

On the second day, Fer had used a dagger to pry the metal collar off her neck, and she had flung it into a river.

Fer kissed her bare neck now and her breasts and face and caressed her all over. The maiden kissed and caressed him as well moaned as he made love to her on the cloak.

"I love you," she gasped.

"You're mine now," Fer answered as he came inside her. "Finally, you belong only to me."

They ate the sausage and bread and hardened cheese Fer had brought with them on the pony from his grandfather's house, but soon that ran out and Fer realized he needed to hunt.

He took the bow and arrows he had brought on about the fifth day and descended the hill where they were camped to some woods to look for deer, but after several hours of not finding anything he went back up to where the maiden was and said it was time to move on.

They only ate some scraps that night where they camped in a different place. The next day Fer went hunting again and got off a shot at a deer but missed, Again, they only ate the last of their scraps. The next day, more determined, Fer finally brought down a small doe and they skinned and cooked it on the fire. They lived like this for weeks, but always moving and traveling further east.

When Fer finally asked the maiden what her name was, she answered said it was Fausta. The name sounded somewhat strange and foreign to Fer. Though she still had a thick accent, she explained that she had been captured by pirates about eight years earlier and kept by the druids in the mountains until now. She picked up some of the language during that time but even that was difficult as the druids rarely spoke to her while holding her prisoner, but she came to learn what fate awaited her. There were other girls held prisoner there too who she had sometimes secretly communicated with.

One day, Fausta told Fer that she thought she was pregnant and asked him to feel her belly. He caressed her belly which seemed slightly swollen and then kissed her on the lips and pushed her to the ground right by the river they were camped beside. They rolled into some tall grass as a cushion, and Fer pulled off Fausta's tunic, kissed her all over, and then flipped her around and fucked her from behind. He liked fucking her from behind the best now because she was the tightest that way.

Fausta moaned but looked a little disappointed afterward and tried to kiss Fer again facing him. Fer saw her disappointed look and felt angry. She didn't like how he fucked her anymore? After all he had done for her?

He kissed her back, but then pushed her away and went to continue butchering the deer carcass he had been working on.

As winter set in, deer became scarcer, and they began to hear wolves howling in the distance. Fer finally decided they would spend the winter in a cave he'd found on one of the mountains they had been staying near. He went hunting, but increasingly made less and less kills.

By the middle of winter, Fer and Fausta had been reduced to a state of starvation. Their faces grew thin and they could feel each other's ribs when they fucked briefly by the warmth of the fire in the back of the cave, an increasingly rarity.

Fer continued to go out to hunt, but for over a month he hadn't come back with anything. The last of their once strong pony that they had been forced to kill and eat was almost gone now or its flesh too rotten to be consumed.

Finally, Fer stopped going out to hunt. "It's too cold. It's the dead of winter. We're going to die," he said. He would only go out to collect more firewood now as he starved.

Fausta urged him to continue, and then tried to go out to hunt herself with his bow but found herself too weak as well and didn't know how. Maybe Fer was right. She did feel herself dying and felt hopeless again as she long had in the many years she had spent as a slave of the druids, being abused, beaten, and raped, and dreading the fate that she knew would ultimately befall her. This scrawny boy, Fer, had rescued her she owed her life to him. But she also saw that he was brutal and selfish. He had murdered his grandparents and kidnapped her because of some kind of jealousy toward another boy his age, as he had told her. Now this Fer seemed resigned to his own death and hers, and that of their unborn child that still seemed to survive inside her despite her malnutrition.

At last, she knew what she had to do. She would not die. She would not die after all this. She would survive and return to her homeland and find her family again.

That night, after Fer had fallen asleep huddled against her for warmth under the blankets in the cave, Fausta slowly and stealthily extricated herself. Fer seemed to wake but seemed to assume she was only relieving herself or putting more wood on the fire. Instead, she fumbled in the flickering light of the dying fire for the axe that Fer kept in the corner with the other weapons. She picked it up, feeling its weight in her hands. It was heavy but she could still swing it fast enough.

She hesitated for a long while thinking about whether to go through with it. Finally, she turned and walked back toward the bundle of blankets where Fer lay, holding the axe concealed behind her back. He didn't look up at her. Suddenly she pulled out the axe and struck it down at the top of Fer's head sticking out of the blankets as hard as she could.

The axe bounced as it hit his head with a sickening thud and Fausta almost lost her grip of it. Then a shocking and terrible sound echoed out as Fer sat straight up in the blankets, his mouth agape in a horrible scream. He looked up at her, his eyes wide and wild with terror and rage as thick blood matted his hair where she had struck him.

In a panic, he began to scrawl away from her toward the fire. Fausta was in shock too but tried to recover herself and followed him, quickly striking him over and over on the back of his head and neck as he tried to crawl away. Finally, he was still and silent.

Fausta then sat for a long time over his body. She didn't weep but simply rested her hand on his chest where his once beating heart had been as the warmth slowly faded from him. After many hours, night turned into morning and Fausta stood up and began to butcher Fer's body, carefully shredding off all the meat, cooking it on the fire which she frequently gathered more wood for, and set it aside on a blanket when it was done as she had learned to do to make it last as long as possible.

After five days of eating his flesh, Fausta had regained a lot of her strength and felt much better. She also miscarried her fetus during this time and felt less burdened by that as well.

Then the wolves came. The howling that she and Fer had first heard several months ago had come increasingly closer, and one day she saw one down in the valley outside the cave. She had anticipated their arrival and stowed the weapons and tools inside a deeper inner part of the cave separated from the main part by a narrow tunnel. She also stored Fer's meat and the remainder of his carcass in there were it was always cool and helped to preserve it.

When she saw the wolf, she retreated into the inner part of the cave to hide. After a while, it followed her in and looked around, but didn't pursue her into the narrow passage. That night, Fausta stayed awake listening into the darkness, but trying to keep a small fire going in her deep passage, although it was hard because of the lack of ventilation. Then she saw them silhouetted against the moonlight at the entrance of the cave. Not just one wolf but at least several. They approached the narrow passage, then growled. Fausta leveled one of the spears at the narrowed point of the passage and had a sword and axe nearby.

She growled back when the wolves growled at her and there was a standoff for what seemed an eternity. Finally, one of the wolves entered the passage and tried to slip through the narrowest point. Fausta stabbed it quickly and repeatedly with the spear and it whimpered loudly and reeled back. All the wolves then fled the cave, though they came back the next day to scavenge the pony and deer carcasses strewn about the cave floor.

Fausta had to be constantly alert in case the wolves against tried to get through her passage but they seemed to have learned their lesson and left her alone. Eventually they gave up on the bones in the cave and left for better hunting opportunities.

Fausta ate the meat slowly and made it last as long as possible, and she rested as much as possible at the entrance of the tunnel. She broke open his bones with the axe and sucked out the marrow. Fer's body had restored her strength and kept her alive, but she would need more meat or she would start to deteriorate again.

It seemed warmer now and Fausta finally ventured back out of the cave for the first time in over a week, bundled in several tunics and cloaks, and holding a bow with arrows and a sword.

She practiced shooting the arrows into the hillside, and then began looking for deer each day. Her condition began to deteriorate again as she ran out of the last of the meat and failed to bring down a deer, but the weather got warmer, and finally, one day, she shot a deer right through the neck and brought it down. She then dragged it back to the cave, butchered, and cooked it.

When spring came, Fausta finally moved on, carrying what she could on her back including well-cooked strips of meat and moved on in the direction she thought was eastward.

She moved on like that for about a few more weeks, hunting and camping in one place for a few days, and then moving on.

Finally, as she reached the peak of another hill, she saw the eastern sea on the horizon. Home. She felt an excitement and joy she hadn't felt in a very long time.

Soon after that, moving down the valley, she came across goats and saw a shepherd in the distance.