The Tale of the Huntsman (Novel Excerpt)

Below is a short folk tale that's contained in my upcoming novel, The Blood of Life. It relates to the plot of the book but it also stands on it's own.

Many years ago, during a time of great war, a hunter, desperate to feed his starving family set out into the woods in search of game. He rode for days, but he found nothing. The war had driven away all the game from the land, and so the bear returned to his village, heartbroken and hungry.

However, upon his return, he found the village under attack and ablaze. The hunter took his bow and dagger up and fought bravely. He slew many enemies, but he could not reach his home before his wife and two children were slain. Only when the dust settled could he find her, an arrow in her back, their children dead at her footpaws.

The remaining villagers tried to comfort the bear, but the hunter would have none of it. He went out into the woods again, alone and broken. He wandered for many days, with no set direction in mind, and only his tears, bow, and dagger with him. During his wanderings he stumbled upon a small cottage, deep in the foothills of the mountains. In it lived an old woman there, a fox with fur of silver. He was going to pass the cottage by when she saw him and called out to him.

“Why do you stalk my home?” she asked, fur standing up.

“Forgive me, baba, I only happened by here. I do not mean to darken your door.”

“You do not hunt?” asked the fox, noticing he carried a bow and a dagger.

“I hunt no more, because there is no one left to feed.”

The fox looked at his haggard and gaunt appearance and could see the truth in his words. “And why have you given up hunting?”

“The war has taken everything from me I hold dear. I could not protect those I loved. Now they lie dead, and I have nothing to offer anyone in my village. If I could not protect my family, how could I protect them from this awful war?”

The fox beckoned him closer. “I can give you the strength to protect those who cannot protect themselves, but the cost to you would be great.”

The bear considered for a bit, looking over his shaggy pelt and the ribs sticking out his side. “And what use would I be in this shape?”

“I have water most wonderful in a spring nearby, and I will give you a sip. It will restore your vigor, but you must use this strength to protect your village and these lands from those who would take it from us.”

The bear agreed, and the fox gave him a sip of the waters, and the bear was indeed restored to his health, and he returned from the woods, to protect the village. He built a lookout tower upon the hill above the village, and he guarded the village from there. When the war ended, he started a new family, and as a sign of his gratitude the villagers built a stone keep to replace the watcher. The huntsman was happy, but only with time did he learn what the fox had done for him.

To give him the strength he would need, the fox had given him a sip of the waters of life, and after that encounter, the hunter never aged. Eventually, when everyone he knew in the village had passed away due to old age, the hunter moved out to the woods, so as not to disturb the villagers with his agelessness. His children continued to live in the keep while the huntsman lived deep in the woods. When trouble came to the lands though, he was there, fighting for them. No enemy could pass through the woods that surrounded the village without him setting upon them.

Even today they say the Huntsman is still out there in the woods around Tarsca, watching for trouble while his ancestors inhabit the keep they turned in to a proper castle.