That evening after they stopped working for the day the 4 of them and Alaric were sitting around the table that Meira built for them, eating dinner. As it drew closer to evening Meira and Adriana made their way up to the house to prepare dinner. When they were leaving, Meira made eye contact with Bjorn and just nodded, a look for determination on her face.
While eating the mood was light, as Bjorn and Meira recounted the time that they helped save a town of werewolves from some bandits who captured them. Between the two of them Bjorn was the better story teller and enjoyed telling a story more so Meira let him do the majority of the recounting.
A look that was a mix of a smile and wonder was on Caiden’s face after Bjorn finished the recounting. “Wow, that is amazing. I just wonder how they managed to capture the werewolves though. Everyone knows they are wicked strong and dangerous, all it takes is a single bite to spread the curse.”
“That is easy. Werewolves are misunderstood people. Don’t ever take away their humanity. Sure sometimes they transform and can lose themselves. But when they aren’t transformed they are just like you and me. The same attributes, the same strengths, the same cares and worries. What they told me is that when they are transformed some races of werewolves fully lose themselves in blood lust and anger. The vast majority though aren’t like that at all. For the rest of the time they are just as normal as you and me.” Bjorn explained.
Adriana spoke up next. “Why don’t you tell us another story about your world Bjorn. I would love to hear about the giant metal birds that you can ride in across the sky. You said you would tell us about them next time.”
Bjorn just shook his head. “Actually it’s been long enough, I think Meira has a story she would like to tell tonight.” He wasn’t throwing her under the bus to try and get a story that she didn’t want to talk about out of her. Before dinner Meira was the one who told Bjorn that she had a story she wanted to tell. So all Bjorn had to do was set the stage for her and let her take over.
Both Caiden and Adriana’s faces turned towards Meira where she sat across from Bjorn. Smiles plastered on their faces. They looked at her expectantly.
Meira just smiled. “I actually have a story that Bjorn’s words brought to mind. But I don’t know if I should tell it, it is about my past, which wasn’t always a good time like our lives are here. I don’t want to ruin the mood of the evening.”
Of course she knew exactly what she was doing and she knew her audience. She knew that by using those exact words it would feel like forbidden knowledge to the kids. She was well aware that they would insist and push. After all a story alluded to and held at arms length was always more enticing than one freely given. Sure it was a manipulation, but it was a manipulation that she didn’t feel bad about.
“Come on, don’t hold back on us because of our feelings.” Caiden said.
Adriana was the one that Meira wanted to catch in her net though. Adriana grew quiet and sat forward in her seat. Her body language stated that she was both listening intently and excited to get to learn more about the enigmatic powerful woman that was both her neighbor and mother figure. “Please. Tell us.” She said in a quiet yet powerful voice.
Hook, line, and sinker.
Meira put on a show of debating a little bit longer before she relented. “Very well. But we should clear the table first, this story is a bit of a long one. I don’t want to have to clean up after we are done.”
Another small manipulation to get them to clean up after dinner? Yes, but it worked. Both of the kids got up from their seats and quickly collected everything. Sounds of dishes being cleaned came from the kitchen. Bjorn just smiled at Meira.
“Good job. Are you sure you want to share about your past? You don’t talk about it much.”
Meira firmed her jaw and nodded. “I am sure.”
Bjorn moved around the table and put his arm around her and pulled her in close. They stayed like that, not talking for the next 10 minutes. When Caiden and Adriana finally came back into the room they found Bjorn and Meira sitting side by side with Bjorn’s hand on her leg. She had her arm wrapped around Bjorn’s arm and had her head resting on his shoulder. They moved and sat on the opposite side of the table from the couple.
“Alright, are you ready?” Meira asked them, to which they both nodded vigorously. “So, I told both of you what happened to my family, correct?” To which they both nodded. “What I didn’t tell you was when that happened to me I was just a little younger than Adriana is now. When I finally got the courage to leave my hiding spot the goblins were long gone. Everyone from my village was either taken as slaves, killed, or violated and then killed. I was alone. And I was afraid. I didn’t know what to do or where to go.”
She paused briefly to take a drink of water. It seemed like she stopped to drink to wet her throat. To Bjorn though, he had known her almost his entire time in the Eld, he knew different. The real reason why she stopped was because she was starting to get emotional due remembering what she felt at that time. Under the table where the kids couldn’t see Bjorn squeezed her leg. In response she squeezed his hand.
“That first night was the loneliest and coldest night of my life. Everyone I cared for was gone, or so I thought. In the morning I woke up to the sound of footsteps crunching on the broken glass of the neighbors, they were always so proud of that window, it was the only glass window in the entire town. I was afraid at first, afraid that the goblins came back, so I made my way back to my parents home. I wanted to make it back to my hidey hole the night before I couldn’t bear sleeping in my home. My mother’s body still lay where she stopped struggling after the goblin killed her.”
“The only problem was that the neighbors house was right in the way, so I decided to try and sneak a peek at who was making the noise. I stuck my head out from around the corner and saw the back of the man. He wasn’t a goblin, thankfully. No, it was a man that my parents had been friends with for as long as I was alive. His name was Jasper, he was a kind man, he had soft eyes and a firm strongness about him that made you feel as if everything would be alright.”
“As you could guess I was relieved to see him. It gave me something to cling on to, I felt like it would be safe when I laid eyes on him. I rushed over and he swept me up in his arms. After I finished crying into him we explored the remains of the village. By mid day of the next day we left and made our way out into the world, unfortunately we didn’t find anyone else alive. That day we dug more graves than I cared to count. The only nice thing for us was that we had more money than we ultimately needed.”
Meira shifted in her seat grabbing more water to drink. “We wandered around for a while trying to find a place to settle. The next year was moving around from town to town, no where felt right or even really good. We both were small town people who didn’t like being around large groups of people. That is why Jasper moved to my home town. I quickly learned that I didn’t like large cities. We eventually decided to settle down in a small town in between the serrated mountains and Escar.”
“What was the name of your home town?” Caiden asked.
“Hatchings. It was called Hatchings. Always, I guess I should give you a bit of context as to what type of relationship we had. He was very much the only person that was left alive from my childhood, and he watched me grow up, so he sort of became my adopted father. We slowly became like family, which was easy to accept as he had been there throughout my entire life.”
“Getting back to the main part of the story. Eventually we settled down in a small town, it was a good fit for us, we didn’t like large numbers of people, and we liked the slower paced lifestyle of a smaller town. By this point I was in full bloom of womanhood and was losing a lot of my childlike features and began to fill out into my body.”
She paused to take a deep breath. “At first when we moved into town everyone assumed that we were a couple. By this point he was close to 45 or 50 years old, and I was around 18. Even though he was so much older than me he looked surprisingly good, fit, and young for his age. For my part I developed young and looked mature for my age. It wouldn’t have been such a stretch for two people who looked like us to have been a couple. So everyone in town assumed that we were one.”
By this point Meira’s gaze had subtly fallen on Adriana. “At first he corrected them every time. He would explain who I was to him, that I was his friend’s, who died, daughter. While doing it he would vehemently dispute any talk otherwise. As time went on our neighbors never believed him, or didn’t care as they would keep making cute couple comments to us. It made me uncomfortable. Each time it was brought up I could see and hear him push back just a little bit less. Eventually he stopped correcting them.”
Adriana sat perfectly still as she was leaning in to listen to Meira’s story. ”Even so his corrections or lack thereof didn’t bother him any more as when we were together just to two of us he never did anything. It was hard to notice the change, we had been sharing a house together for over a year and a half, 2 if you count the time we were on the road. As you can guess though, it didn’t stop at correcting the neighbors.”
“As time went on I think some part of him began to become twisted to reality and forget that we were in fact not a couple. We touched each other often enough, as a father and daughter would do. Soon after he stopped correcting everyone, those touches began to change, subtly at first. A second too long touch here, a slightly too long hug there. Mentally I just chalked it up to a misunderstanding. I was young and naive.”
“As these things do, eventually he overstepped. I think for years he had been developing feelings that were not plutonic while he was becoming more and more planted as a dad from my view point. Looking back on it there were a thousand different times where I could have acted differently, and that might have changed what happened between us.” Her voice grew almost lilting.
She cleared her throat. “One night after we had our evening meal I sat down outside to watch the suns set. I always love to see the colors dance across the sky. He came out and joined me. At first he just put his arm around me, sitting on the back of my chair, as he had done a hundred different times. But this time something felt off, at this point I had convinced myself that I was misreading what was happening and brushed it aside. As we watched the suns set that night his other hand fell on my thigh, uncomfortably high up and on the inside of my thigh. I quickly excused myself and went to bed. Nothing happened that night. But it just started to go downhill from there. Something happened 3 more times in just as many months.”
As Meira told her story Bjorn was paying close attention not only to his wife, but also to Caiden and Adriana to see how they were reacting. Adriana’s face fell and her body began to sink into her chair. Caiden started to throw darting glances at Adriana as Meira talked. This was more than enough to tell Bjorn exactly what he wanted to know.
“Each time his touches grew bolder, and bolder. I was in denial as to what was happening. He was my father, at least to me he was, how could he want something else from me? It always made me uncomfortable and I began to slowly withdraw from him. I think he felt it. One night when he was drunk he went too far. He climbed into bed with me, something he had never done before. He began trying to pull me close and kiss me. I fought back and tried to stop it. He tore off my shirt, now there was no doubt what was happening. I pulled my dagger from where it lay next to my bed.”
“After what happened with my village I never went anywhere without a weapon of some sort. I pulled it on him and slashed at his arm. Even with what he was doing I still didn’t want to hurt him or kill him. That seemed to wake him up from his drunken stuper. He climbed out of bed and left the room. I didn’t sleep at all that night. Early in the morning I packed up a bag and left. I never looked back and never saw him again.”
A silence fell over the room as Adriana and Caiden began to process what Meira was saying. In a small voice barely over a whisper. “What are you saying?”
Meira dropped all pretenses and made full on eye contact with Adriana. “That sometimes the ones closest to us are in the best position to hurt us. That sometimes they do things that we wish never happened. That sometimes the best way to handle the situation is to tell someone that you trust.”
Caiden and Adriana shared a look and then she began to speak. “Father hasn’t touched me in any way like that. But he does hit us.” Her voice was timid as if she was afraid what would happen to her for admitting that their father abused them.
“For the longest time it was only me.” Caiden said. “I think some part of him blames me for mothers death. Which I am responsible for.”
“No you aren’t.” Bjorn said. “You are not to blame for complications that happen all the time.”
Caiden gave Bjorn an almost dead stare. “But you can not tell me that if I wasn’t born that my mother would be alive today.”
“Yes we can.” Meira said. “You never know what happens in life. If she hadn’t died during your birth then she might have died of sickness. Or maybe she would have fallen off of a cliff, or tripped and fell on a sharp stick. Maybe she would have run into a hungry wolf. There is no guarantee that she would have survived until today. You are not to blame for what happened.”
“Exactly, you were a baby. You had no choice as to what happened during the birth. You aren’t at fault. If you were this age and made the conscious choice to kill her then you would be to blame. That isn’t the case so it isn’t fair to you for either you or your father to blame you for your mothers death.”
Caiden began to cry at their words. His entire life he had been told by his father that he was the reason that his wife died. He internalized those words and soon felt like he was the one who was at fault, not his father. He had never been close to another adult, so he never was told by another adult that he wasn’t at fault. Years and years of guilt that built upon itself began to slowly unravel. Meira got up from where she sat and moved around the table grabbing Caiden and pulling his head into her chest and letting him cry into her. She held him there as he sobbed.
Bjorn looked at Adriana. “When you say he hits you. In what way? Where does he hit you? Does he hit you hard enough that it hurts? What about leaving damage?”
Hearing what Bjorn and Meira had said to Caiden about guilt and blame, her body positioning slowly changed. At first her eyes were towards the ground, her shoulders were hunched, her chest caved inwards. As they spoke her eyes slowly drew up from the floor and started to look at the couple with hopeful eyes. Her shoulders started to square up and she started to sit straighter in her chair.
Emboldened by their words she started to speak. “It isn’t all the time, maybe once a month or every other month. Sometimes it's when he is drunk and sometimes sober. I don’t know what sets him off, what makes him angry enough to hit us. Usually it is just back hands or punches, once it was a full on slap to Caiden’s face. He is careful, even though we aren’t close to many other adults he still doesn’t want to leave marks where they can be seen. He isn’t soft on us, but I don’t think he uses his full strength when he hits us. Otherwise it would be worse. Normally he beats Caiden hard enough that he is sore the next day, occasionally he loses a few hp. It is always on our bodies where our clothes can hide the bruises."
As she spoke Bjorn an anger, a fire, slowly grew in his stomach. Aiden wasn’t a man, he was a boy. A man wouldn’t take his anger out on those around him, or even those he loved, or at least loved at one point. A man wouldn’t lay hands on those who obviously loved him. “Do you have any bruises right now?”
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
Adriana shook her head. “I don’t have any. But Caiden does.” Upon hearing his name he drew himself out of his crying session and looked at Adriana, panic in his eyes once again. Adriana just nodded at him. “It’s okay. You can show them.”
“But dad says that we can’t let anyone see our bruises.”
“We have already gone this far, and decided to trust these two. Might as well show them how bad it can be.”
Caiden nodded and slowly and gingerly pulled himself away from Meira. He stood and took off his shirt. Bjorn realized that in the last 2 years of knowing both Caiden and Adriana this was the first time that Bjorn had seen Caiden’s upper body. Normally young boys hated wearing shirts and would find excuses to take them off whenever they could. His body was covered in yellowing flesh of healing bruises. It started right below his collar bone and ran all the way down the front of his body. The bruises on the front of his body were sporadic and spaced out. His left and back though were a different story. His side was basically a single splotch of bruise that started right below his arm pit and ran down past his waist line. His back had obvious impact sites where Aiden’s foot slammed into his back. It hadn’t fully healed yet and there were splotches of black and even a little red here and there.
He moved to remove his pants to show them the extent of the bruising, but Bjorn stopped him. “That’s far enough, based on what is on your upper body we can guess what's below as well. I am assuming it is just as bad.” Caiden nodded. “Meira?” Bjorn asked.
His question wasn’t necessary as she had already begun the hand gestures and speaking the word for her healing magic. Light suffused both her hand and his body. As they watched, the bruises on his body began to fade away. Reds faded to blacks, blacks faded to yellows, and yellows faded to normal pale unblemished skin. A look of relief crossed Caiden’s face.
“Better?” Meira asked.
“Yes. It feels as if a cool water poured over my body washing away the aches and pains.” Caiden said.
“So you said that Aiden doesn’t normally hit you right?” Meira asked Adriana.
She nodded.
“How many times has he hit you?”
“Twice.”
“Tell us about that.” Bjorn said.
“The first time was about 6 months ago. It wasn’t bad, he just slapped me one day while I was talking back, trying to stop him from hitting Caiden. I got in his way and he hit me. I think what he did sunk in when I went sprawling as he stopped hitting Caiden and left for the rest of the day. Normally he wails on him for close to 10 minutes. My guess is that when he hit me instead of Caiden he regretted it, it was the first time after all.”
“I think it was a blessing and a curse.” Caiden said.
Adriana nodded in agreement. “I think it led to an easier punishment for Caiden but opened up the flood gates for me. I think it allowed him to turn his full fury onto me when his anger flared up again. Now he doesn’t have to feel guilty for hitting me, as he had done it already.”
“Yes he does.” Bjorn said. “Continue, tell us about the second time.”
“That happened 2 months ago. He and I got into an argument. He has gotten it into his head that I have become a burden and wants to get rid of me. He has gotten it in his head that the easiest way to do that would be to marry me off. He keeps trying to arrange a marriage between me and William in town. It wouldn’t be a terrible union, as you know William is the baker's son. It wouldn’t be a bad life, but there are a number of reasons I don’t want to do it. The main one is that I don’t find him attractive. The next one is that I think he is a cruel boy, I have seen how he interacts with the town stray. I have seen him kick at it and throw rocks at it. He never succeeds at landing a hit, as the cat is too fast but I don’t think he is a nice boy.”
She shifted in her seat. “We were arguing because father wants to get rid of me and I don’t want to marry William. Gareth is a better choice, at least if I had my way. But father doesn’t want me to marry Gareth as his parents sold him a rooster that doesn’t mate with his hens, he claims that they sold him a gay rooster. Words got heated and he hit me. At first it was just a punch to the gut. But I am not like Caiden, I am not used to the beatings so it dropped me. Aiden left, a few minutes later he came back and really laid into me. He went too far, he left bruises all over my body, where they couldn’t be hidden. He also broke two of my ribs. You know how I didn’t come around for 3 weeks? That was because I wasn’t allowed to leave the house, I had to stay inside until the bruises were healed. My ribs are still broken I think, at least it hurts when I breathe.”
Meira frowned and moved over to her, she began casting a different healing spell. Weak mend bone. A tightness on Adriana’s face that he didn’t realize was there disappeared as the healing magic worked its way through her body and the pain with the broken ribs disappeared. It took several castings before Meira was satisfied. When she felt around Adriana’s broken ribs and didn’t feel anything out of place.
“Better?”
“Yes. So needless to say, this time when father got drunk we decided to try staying here.” Caiden spoke up. “You have always been so nice and welcoming to us. We thought that this might be worth trying.”
“As we have said. You are always welcome here. You are safe here, we will make sure that no harm comes to you if you stay here. We will protect you with our lives if it comes to that, but I doubt it. Meira and I aren’t that easy to put down. Creatures and monsters considerably more powerful than your father have tried and failed to do so.”
There was a brief lull in conversation as Caiden and Adriana drank in the fact that they were both safe and welcome in this house at all times. Bjorn and Meira were having a silent conversation between the two of them. After a minute Bjorn spoke again. “Well I think it’s time for you to go to bed. We have an early morning tomorrow, we need to go to your home and get some things for you for as long as you want to stay here.”
The kids both got up and made their way to their respective rooms. Caiden walked into the room and closed the door. Adriana paused one foot on the bottom of the stairs leading up to the second floor and turned towards where Meira and Bjorn were sitting next to each other. “Thank you, for letting us stay, and for hearing what we had to say. I really do appreciate it, and I know Caiden does as well. He looks up to the both of you.”
Meira’s face softened from the stormy expression she had been wearing. “Of course dear. You are very much welcome.”
With that Adriana mounted the stairs moving up to the second floor. Bjorn and Meira sat there for a few minutes in silence. Bjorn leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Come let's go to bed. We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow.”
Meira stood with Bjorn and they walked into their room. As they were getting ready for bed Meira spoke. “You know what we have to do tomorrow right?”
“Of course. Aiden will never lay a hand on those kids again.”
Early the next morning the 4 of them got up and Bjorn, Meira, and Adriana were the ones to leave the house heading to Aiden’s farm. They would have brought Caiden as well, but they wanted him to take care of Alaric. They didn’t want to bring the baby into this. Caiden complained at first, saying that he should be there, that Adriana wouldn’t get the items that Caiden really wanted. Eventually when they asked for him to stay behind and take care of Alaric he reluctantly agreed.
The walk through the trees was quiet as both parties were lost in their own thoughts as to what would happen. Just after suns rise they made it to the farm house, it was dark and quiet. Adriana looked at Bjorn and Meira and frowned. “What are you going to do?” She asked. She may have not had much experience in the Eld and with the way the world worked, but she could clearly see that Bjorn and Meira both were on the war path.
They exchanged looks with each other. “We are going to make sure that he never lays hands on you ever again.” Bjorn said.
She looked at Meira and saw the same resolve on her face. “Can you do that later? If he sobers up he may be more reasonable to talk to. There is no need to hurt him.” Even after everything he had put both her and her brother through Aiden was still her father and she loved him. She didn’t want to see him injured by her favorite adults.
“Adri.” Bjorn started. “A man like your father is a bully. Bullies only ever understand 1 language, strength. He flexes the strength and power he has over you and you suffer for it. He likes the power he has and likes to use it to make those around him miserable. The only way we can get through to him is by proving to him that he isn’t stronger than everyone.” His voice contained barely controlled rage.
“He’s right dear. Your father will continue to live the way he does unless someone puts him in his place. He needs to realize that his abuse of you won’t be tolerated. He has to realize that his actions have consequences.”
Adriana’s face took on a pleading expression. “Please.” She begged.
Bjorn was about to say no and start walking towards the house when Meira put her hand on his arm. The touch surprised him and he snapped out of his rage briefly and looked at Adriana, really looked. Her face contained a hint of fear directed at Bjorn that hadn’t ever been there before. He realized that if he went through with what they were planning then he would never be able to repair his relationship with Adriana.
He sighed. “Alright. We will give you a chance to get your stuff and get out. If he wakes up though we will step in. I will not stand idly by as he lays his hands on you, you don’t deserve that.” Bjorn paused and took a deep breath, letting it out in a heavy sigh. “I will trust you. If anything goes wrong just speak up and we will be there in a moment.”
Adriana just nodded. The fear turned into resolve. “Alright, let’s go.” The trio began picking their way out of the trees and through the almost cluttered yard of their home. Aiden was not neat by any stretch of the imagination. Tools and refuse lay strewn over the ground surrounding their home. They made their way to the door and Adriana held out her hand signaling them to stay put as she slipped inside.
They stood there for several minutes waiting as the silence continued. Bjorn was starting to get anxious when the sound of raised voices could be heard within the building. In a flash Bjorn burst through the door and beheld the scene before him.
In all of their time being neighbors he had never seen the inside of Aiden’s house. It wasn’t an overly large or even well built place. It was basically piled stone with a roof attached. There was a wooden wall that separated the family room/kitchen/dinning room combo from the single bedroom. The walls were filled with shelves that were laden with containers and other various tools and implements.
In the middle of the room stood Adriana with her eyes downcast and her posture hunched. Looming over her was Aiden who had his hand wrapped around her arm squeezing with obvious force. “Where did you and your lazy good for nothing brother stay last ni..?” His question trailed off and died in his throat at the sound of the door into the house being thrown open.
He turned to face the door and see the new intruders but it was too late. Bjorn’s body came flying through the house, closing the distance between the door and Aiden in just a second. It was fully horizontal when Bjorn slammed into Aiden. The force bore both men to the floor, luckily the surprise nature of the hit made Aiden loosen his grip on Adriana and she was able to keep her feet.
Bjorn had the fighting experience, but Aiden had the strength advantage. He was also larger, something Bjorn had never noticed. Apparently working manual labor and farming for your entire life led to some surprising strength. As grapples often do, pure raw strength and size gives you a much better chance in the fight, especially when it is hand to hand, and no weapons are involved. If weapons had been involved Aiden wouldn’t have stood a chance. Aiden was also considerably older than Bjorn was and had gained plenty of experience making him a higher level than Bjorn. The last thing that Aiden had going for him was that he had no access to magic so he could invest all of his attribute points into pure physical stats.
Even with the element of surprise Bjorn soon found that Aiden was starting to get the upper hand in the fight as the two combatants struggled against one another on the ground. “What in the 13 hells do you think you are doing? Why are you in my house?” Aiden began to yell, his words slightly slurred either by exhaustion, or from him still being drunk.
Bjorn had been in more than enough hand to hand combat fights that he could tell that if things continued the same way that they had been going he would lose the fight. The only reason he had lasted as long as he had so far was because of Alaric’s training. Doing something on impulse Bjorn pulled up his character sheet in the middle of the fight and dumped all 4 attribute points that he had gained from his most recent level into strength.
Power flowed through his body as his body changed before both Meira’s and Adriana’s eyes. His muscles that laced his arms grew both denser and more defined. Because of those extra points of strength things began to tip back into Bjorn’s direction. He managed to slip one of his arms free of the brawl and use it to jab into Aiden’s collar bone, as Alaric taught him. After his fingers shot pain up Aiden’s arm and he reeled back. Bjorn followed up by wrapping his fingers around the bone and giving a sharp tug. Using his legs to brace against Aiden’s body he pulled with just enough strength to dislocate the bone.
What actually happened was that the bone that was designed to break and protect the more important parts of his body did exactly what it was meant to do. It broke and the strength in that arm immediately decreased. From there it was a foregone conclusion. With the weakening of one arm for use Aiden couldn't really fight back. Bjorn got on top and started to pummel the larger man. Each punch was punctuated by a word. “This. Is. For. All. Of. The. Beatings. You. Gave. To. Caiden.”
It very quickly became obvious that the fight was more than over. It also became obvious that Adriana cared for her dad. Even with all of the physical and psychological torture that he put his kids through they still cared. She came forward and grabbed ahold of Bjorn’s arm trying to stop the motion as it was about to rain another blow down on the beaten man. “Please stop it. You'll kill him.”
Fortunately for Aiden, even in Bjorn's rage he didn't fully give into his instincts. All he wanted to do was make sure that this man wouldn't lay hands on Caiden and Adriana again. He didn't want to end his life. So even in his rage he was still holding back, his punches were done to leave obvious bruises on exposed parts of Aiden's skin. To make it so that he couldn't hide his shame.
Fortunately for Aiden when his daughter stepped in Bjorn listened to her and stopped hitting the man. Instead he got off the stop of the injured man and picked him up by the front of his shirt. Moving to the wall he drug Aiden along with him. He slammed Aiden's back against the wall and held him there, Aiden’s feet dangling a foot off the ground.
Adriana begged him to stop but he didn't. He held the bully in place and leaned in to speak to him. “If I ever find out that you have laid hands on either of your kids again I will be back here and I will make sure that this beating will be the least of your worries. Do you understand me?”
Contrary to what one might expect, Aiden's gaze was nowhere near Bjorn. What he hadn't noticed was when Aiden had been pushed against the wall Meira stepped up behind him to give extra force to his words. He couldn't see it but his wife's body took on a yellow glow as she channeled mana, her eyes took on the same intense glow as the rest of her body. Aiden's look of fear was centered on Meira and not Bjorn, even though she hadn't contributed to the fight at all.
Bjorn pulled him off the wall and slammed him back into the wall. The motion made Aiden’s eyes fall away from Meira and land on Bjorn. “I said, do you understand me?”
“Yes.” The pain he was feeling was obvious in his voice. His tone was usually one of cocky assurity, was now fraught with fear and cowardice.
Happy with Aiden’s acceptance Bjorn let go of him, which he promptly fell to the ground in a pile. Just to make sure his point was driven home Bjorn got down to eye level with Aiden. “Using your power over others to abuse them doesn’t make you a man. It doesn’t make you stronger, or better than they are. It makes you a bully, a coward, and a child. I don’t know how you did it but you raised two wonderful kids. You’ve abused that power over them long enough. They will be staying with us, if, IF, they decide to come back you will never lay your hands on them again.”
Throughout Bjorn’s speech Aiden’s eyes were drawn to Meira standing behind her husband the glow of channeled mana still suffusing her body. Bjorn grabbed Aiden by the jaw and pulled his head to face Bjorn again. “I want to hear you say it.”
“I will never lay a hand on them again. Now get out of my house.” He almost spit that last part. Bjorn almost complied, he stood up towering over Aiden looking down at the person which didn’t deserve his fury. He turned to leave and was going to leave it like that until he heard Aiden say in a low voice. “Run, run away with your little elf bitch, she is why you won today.” The voice was so quiet that Bjorn could barely make out what he said.
Bjorn stopped and turned around slowly. “What did you say? Say that again.” The cold venom in Bjorn’s voice would have gotten through to any rational person. But in the state that Aiden was in he didn’t have the wherewithal of a dog.
He spat at Bjorn, and spoke loud enough for everyone in the room to hear him this time. “You heard me. Run, run away with your little elf bit-” He never got to finish his sentence. He was cut short by Bjorn’s booted foot coming in contact with his face. It was a good solid kick, one that Alaric had drilled into Bjorn. He planted his right foot and rotated his hips and his left leg came flying at Aiden. It connected with Aiden’s jaw and the man crumpled to the floor unconscious.
“Did. Did you kill him?” Adriana asked, a note of fear in her voice.
“No, he will live. I can tolerate him talking bad about me, but don’t you ever speak ill of my wife. Come let’s go home.” Bjorn walked over to the pile of clothes that Adriana dropped when confronted with her father and picked them up. He turned to smile at her and held them out to her. She stepped forward and cautiously took them from him. “Are all of those your clothes? Did you get what you needed to for Caiden?”
The mixed look of fear, wonder, and worry that Adriana gave Bjorn wasn’t lost on him. Until this point she had only seen one part of Bjorn, the soft kind part of him. His last two years on the farm and his interactions with Adriana gave her the wrong impression. Her view on who Bjorn was began to crumble as she understood that he would go to hell and back for those he cared about. Some part of her understood that she was now a part of the list of people Bjorn cared about, another larger part took pride in knowing that no harm would come to her if Bjorn had his way. Finally the last part of her was afraid that he was capable of harming others, this part was responsible for her fear.
To see him flip the switch in between nice and soft, and hard and determined, scared her if just a little. In her mind, one side or the other had to be true, there was no way that Bjorn was both. She was just trying to figure out which side of Bjorn was the true Bjorn.
He kept up a string of conversation as he picked up the rest of Adriana’s things and Caiden’s things and he made his way out the door. Adriana followed a few paces behind. She paused next to Meira as she was watching Bjorn walk through the yard. “What was that? Has he done that before?”
“That’s the side of my husband I fell in love with. The side that isn’t afraid to do what is needed.” Meira said as she followed him out of the house.
