Welcome to my seemingly endless journey.
A trip that will take you to places I might have visited many moons ago.
It´s a tale that came back to me when I meditated on one of my past lives. A life I told you about in my unbelievable true story.
As promised in that story I will now share this story with you.
Chapter 31
In ever-widening circles, I go around the place where the lord of the forest lies felled. The forest offers a wide variety of plants. I don't know many, but I manage to discover a number of soothing and pain-relieving herbs in this twilight darkness. Then I hasten back to the fire to make an infusion. I have more than doubled the dose that I would normally use, I assume that the huge body needs more than the average person.
Numico is talking to the giant, I quickly grind the herbs to a pulp and add them to a new bowl of boiling water. The smell of the blend is terrible, it smells like rotting wood. But without the slightest resistance, the giant takes it. He empties the bowl in a single gulp. Then he bows his head to me as a sign of gratitude. The giant stretches and lies down in a comfortable position. He closes his eyes, not long after he is asleep with a huge snore as proof.
"Martio do you expect those fire monsters to come back?"
"To be honest, I have no idea, although I think we've given them a good scare for now. But if you mean whether we can leave the gentleman to his fate here, I'm afraid not. That wound needs to be cleaned and as much as possible refrain from any exertion whatsoever It looks like we will have to stay here for a few days so let's hope we can spend those days in peace As I don't know what the day will bring it seems a good idea to me I think it's your turn to close your eyes again,” I say laughing to Numico, who just closes his mouth after a huge yawn escaped.
I wake up restless, clouds deprive me of any idea of what time it would be. Numico had slept quite a long time before I woke him up and I feel like I've had a good rest as well. Only the forest giant is still asleep. Fortunately, the more rest the faster he is back on his feet and therefore the faster we can travel further.
"Martio, while you slept, I looked for some carrots and vegetables." Even before he has finished speaking, my stomach rumbles so loudly that I no longer have to wonder if I'm hungry. I eagerly start eating the food. Between bites, I ask Numico what he talked about with the lord of the forest.
“He was very suspicious of us in the beginning,” Numico begins. “The idea that we humans responded to his cry for help seemed almost impossible to him. His surprise was therefore great when he discovered that I also speak the language of the forest. His distrust turned to disbelief. Only when we had chased away the fire monsters did he really believe in our good intentions. He found it very difficult to understand that the kind that has haunted him for as long as he can remember was now waiting for him and in all likelihood saved his life.”
"After you nursed and bandaged him I tried to find out who and what he really was. Well, he was so grateful to you that he told a hundred stories. Turns out he was born in one of the villages around here, probably the same village as where those fire monsters come from, although he knows almost nothing about that time."
His childhood memories are limited, I think repressed. He was taller much taller than his peers. His build and his one eye made him a pariah, which no one except his mother wanted to do anything with. Children no matter how small followed him. They scolded him for everything ugly. Somewhere in his youth he 'forgot' to speak with the human tongue".
"Although he could probably have easily broken the back of anyone who attacked him, he never turned to violence. He must have been, by what he describes, seven when some men drunk on the Reiku harassed his mother. They were on their way to their hut, which was just outside the village when the men started shouting."
"His father had fled the village within half a year of the birth. He could not bear the disgrace that 'the monstrosity' that his son was. He no longer wanted anything to do with the child and the woman who had given birth to it. He left the village and never returned."
So his mother was attacked, she walked without batting an eyelid until one of the men grabbed her, his hands went under her clothes. His mother screamed, but no one heard her. A tear rolled down her cheeks, as tears had flowed down her cheeks before when his father left them."
"He loved his mother dearly and vowed never again that a man would make his mother cry. The pent-up sadness, all impotence, and anger clenched together in this giant child. His arms and legs trembled, his breathing quickened. He was about to rip this man's head off his torso. His mother had to be treated with respect because she was a queen."
"The young man boiled with rage, and was about to explode in violence, but managed to contain himself. Stunned and gasping for breath, he begged the man to leave his mother alone. The man laughed at him and wanted to lick the woman's neck with his tongue."
"Even before his tongue had reached the soft woman's skin, the boy's coal shovels were clenched around his neck in such a way that breathing was impossible. The man's eyes widened every second. They looked at him questioningly, then even pleadingly, but it was no use anymore. The discharge of years made the neck snap in seconds as if it were kindling.
"The other men saw their comrade collapse to the ground and fled. Although the boy had only protected her, it was the mother's fear of the consequences that drove them into this forest. Her tribe has little respect for women. So the young men's action would soon be dismissed as well-intentioned and playful, making her son's response disproportionately violent."
"Everyone would claim their lives, if only so that they would no longer have to face the monstrosity. His mother died several years later. He remained in the forest and took care of everything that lived there. Until the day when he came face to face with a human. His reaction was that of a startled animal, he fled deep into the forest."
"Unfortunately for him, this human turned out to be one of his tribe. They've been hunting him ever since. Whenever something negative happens in the village, groups of hunters come looking for him. There is a wholehearted belief that the forest man has cast a curse on the village. The curse can only be lifted by killing him."
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