The Forest's Silence by Tao Wong

Author:Tao Wong [Wong, Tao]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tao Wong
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

The Great Forest of Pirin stretched for miles as the group crested the next hill, a sea of green interrupted by a clearing dotted with the brown thatched houses of a village. The dirt road the expedition had been travelling on for the last two days, pushing through the mud and washed out gravel banks, led here—the village of Olyne. Olyne was the last outpost of civilisation for the Kingdom of Brad in this portion of the world and the last stop for the expedition before they entered the forest.

As the expedition crested the hill, Omrak walked over to Tula who stood by the side of the road, just past the hill so that she was not profiled against the sky. The Ranger was pensively biting her lips, her gaze locked on the village in a way that the Northerner had never seen before.

“Your home?” Omrak said as he came to a stop next to the short woman.

“Yes,” Tula said. Surprisingly, she continued speaking, utterly unlike her normal close-mouthed attitude. “It’s been three years since I was last here. It’s not changed, not much. Another pair of houses, a bigger sawmill. Cut down more trees…”

“It’s hard, home,” Omrak rumbled. “I have not been home since I left four years ago.”

“Four?” Tula said, surprised. She turned her head to look at Omrak, gaze drifting over the youthful giant’s body.

“Yes. I left when I was fourteen,” Omrak said, answering her unasked question. “It is customary among my people to consider a boy a man after his first kill. Mine was when I was thirteen. My mother refused to let me go until I was fourteen though.” To the last sentence, Omrak continued to sound aggrieved. “But my father insisted that I be allowed to make my way.”

“Do you regret it?”

“Regret what?”

“Leaving.”

“No,” Omrak said, shaking his head. “There is no place for me at home. My older brothers have the farm. When I have earned my coin and made my name, I shall return. I will buy the land below my brother’s and raise sheep then. And then I will hire a farmhand to care for the sheep while I hunt in the mountains.”

Tula snorted. “That’s a nice dream.”

“Aye. So, the village survives on lumber?”

“Lumber and beast harvest are the mainstays,” Tula said. “But it’s expeditions like this one that give us the money to improve.”

Omrak nodded. It was not that different in his village. When you lived at the edge of nowhere, the community became used to creating the majority of their needs themselves. However, some things were just not possible to be created in a small village, and so the occasional traders and expeditions provided the necessities. In some ways, Omrak figured, this village was better off than his own for they had the guarantee of regular traders looking for monster parts. The highlands he came from had the same, but monsters were much rarer and much more dangerous.

“Ranger,” Sava said as he hopped off his wagon, joining the pair as they watched the village.

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