A Painful Blessing

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A Painful Blessing
Skar Doorishmurk Adventure Series

Young Bergulf is running for his life.

On his first raid to the low lands, young Bergulf escapes a group of pursuing Veritoori knights by fleeing into the forbidden forest of Oolinor. There he is captured by the Alfr archer Tywynn, who plans to take him back to her tribe for trial and punishment. But his determined pursuers have other plans for both of them.

A short story set in the fantasy world of Bulinnärm.

Copyright ©2013 by L Frank Turovich. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

An excerpt from A Painful Blessing:

The howling urged Bergulf to continue running.

The youth maintained a steady relentless pace that ate up the distance even as his pursuers sought to run him down. For the last day and a night he had successfully evaded the Veritoori knights efforts to capture him. The knights sought to eradicate his residual threat to their domain, the soldiers wanted vengeance for slain comrades, and the hounds hunted for the pure joy of the kill.

Tall, rangy, with wide shoulders and strong legs, Bergulf ran on, his stained mountain sewn leather jerkin and trousers dark with sweat and worn boots stolen from a villager that no longer needed them. He wore a great sword cross-strapped to his back and a large hunting knife bounced against his side. Born into one of the mountain clans of Worldheart, his people were famous for their strength, endurance, fighting ability, and feared by all nearby kingdoms. A factor the clans used every spring to raid and terrorize the lowland kingdoms.

The area he ran through now was a collection of high grasses and flowing plants, small copses of trees budding in the early spring warmth, and small hills that he used to avoid being seen while fleeing as fast as possible. He leapt over a fallen trunk right into a swarm of insects and spent the next few steps sputtering them out of his mouth. A herd of deer startled up as he jogged past, and then bounded away in fright.

His first instinct had been to fight, but soon realized he was vastly outnumbered and fled. Behind him were several Veritoori knights on horse, a bevy of soldiers on foot, and several trained hounds and handlers, all thirsting for revenge of their slain countrymen.

Bergulf continued running east.

East was home, where his clan lived, where the tribes of Worldheart survived in the highland mountains. To the North was the Oolinor forest, home of the forest Alfr, a reclusive race that killed trespassers on sight.