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Landsbyen -Into the North- An Epic Poem 76

The night sky was dark but for the beam of light that glared through the trees before them as they walked into the woods.  Joulupukki and Lumi were careful not to get to close to the humans in front of them, all of whom kept casting wary glances over their shoulders at the two strangers.  As they grew closer to the light they could hear the rustling of their boots and the murmurs of their whispers.  Lumi felt uneasy and kept a keen eye set for any possible trouble.  The group was not large, they could only convince six others to go with them.  This made for the two leaders, the man and his wife, Remy, Guiot, a man who appeared to be related to Guiot and two brothers and their sister who refused to be left behind while her brothers had all of  the excitement.  With Lumi and his King, that made for a group of ten.  As they approached the clearing the leader spoke clearly, it had taken Lumi just a short while, with the help of his magic, to learn the basic speech of these humans.
     “Now Lads, we're gettin close.  Keep your eyes open.  When we get to the clearin we will relieve the three guards who spent the day here and we will quietly prepare for the Dragon.  The net needs to be set at the far end of the field.  Those of you with bows stay with me everyone else gather near the trees on this side and when you see the Dragon make as much noise as you can to drive him into the net.  You two,” he addressed Lumi and Joulupukki, “stay out of our way.” Joulupukki nodded and followed them to the clearing.  As they entered the open field the lead human walked over to one of the men 
who was already there and had a short conversation with him.  It was difficult to make out what they said but the guard eventually began to nod at the the man and motioned to the other two to follow him and they left the field, heading back through the woods.  
As the elf and his companion surveyed the surroundings, they both noticed that the light beamed down on the only tree that grew within the bounds of the clearing.  It was a gnarled Willow tree, much like the one that grew in the courtyard of the Keep.  It seemed the immense power that Erlenkönig still possessed upon his demise was transferred into the growth of this tree which stood above him, protecting what yet remained.  Joulupukki took Lumi by the arm and slowly made his way back into the forest.
     “The game now begins,” Lumi whispered.
     “Yes,” said Joulupukki, “but a dangerous game it is.  Be careful and do not let your guard down.”
The two waited for several hours until the humans set their traps and settled into a haphazard routine, most of them already tired of being out on a cool dark night with clouds covering all of the lights in the sky including the moon.  The only thing visible was the eerie glow of the beam casting moving shadows as the wind blew threw the limbs of the Willow.  The bowmen huddled in a tight group about half way to the light, while the others kept a short distance from the trees, seemingly almost in fear of something reaching for them and dragging them into the shadows of the forest.  This was what they waited for.
     “It's time,” Joulupukki said to Lumi, “there.”  He pointed at the sister of the two brothers who had wondered a little to close to the woods.  Lumi with incredible speed ran through the darkness, stripping the ragged human clothing from his Elfin undergarments and stopped just behind the girl.  He pulled his hair back behind his ears and reached and grabbed her shoulder.  She spun around and entered a defensive crouch, her scythe held before her ready for an attack.  This stunned Lumi for just a moment.  He had not realized that some human women were as fearless as their male counterparts.  What he did know was that the girl in front of him was similar in stature to him and seemed to not fear him, so he took a different approach.  Turning slightly sideways to be sure she saw his ears, he began to laugh.  Using magic, the laugh came out loud and deep and, from his limited knowledge of humans, what he thought a human would think as being how a demon would sound.  The determination in the young woman's eyes quickly changed to fear as she dropped her weapon and started backing away, 
looking side to side for the support of her brothers.  When she found they were not there, she screamed at the top of her lungs and Lumi vanished.  During the confusion of the  moment, Joulupukki cast into the sky the image of a large ferocious Dragon, glowing with flames spewing from its mouth.  All of the humans in the clearing screamed at the sight of it at first.  Then several of the bowman gathered their courage and began to shoot arrows into the creature.  Unlike the night before when the image they saw startled them, on this night they were prepared and the arrows flew true.
Despite some of the humans standing their ground nearly half of the group closest to the trees almost instantly turned and ran as fast as they could back through the forest to their village, about a quarter of the bowman doing the same.  They were down to three as they gathered together, the person in charge, his wife and Remy, even the big talking, Guiot, fled in fear.  Lumi and Joulupukki left the edge of the forest and entered the field at different angles.  The small group saw Joulupukki first as he stripped the old outer coat away.  Bewildered, Remy, stepped toward him until he caught Lumi out of the corner of his eye.  He quickly let forth several arrows at Lumi, his aim on target.  He was good with a bow, but Lumi easily danced away from each arrow he 
sent, still moving closer to him.  Joulupukki magically broke his bow in half as well as the other bowman's.  As they drew nearer Remy was the one to become leader.

Copyright © James Inman | Year Posted 2021

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