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He stared dreamily at the water lapping gently against the smooth time-worn stones.

The sounds were peaceful, occasionally being broken by the calls of two ravens up above; When they would move there would be a small avalanche of snow falling from the branches. He did not mind the cold flakes dusting his shoulders.

The young man knew this was the only place on the farm that he could pretend to be free; there was no threat of someone finding him here.

The short break he was stealing should have been done long ago, but as he looked out at the lake and the small waves, he could not help to stay longer.

He dreaded going back to the house. His mother would surely be bitter and galled at his failure to fulfill his duties.

But alas, he stood up and walked back towards the settlement with a tired sigh. His mother was going to have his hide for disappearing, might as well get it over with.

As soon as he stepped into the home and closed the door behind himself, there were words being spat out towards him.

"You are as worthless as your father. Where were you, boy? Were you at the lake again?" His mother spat, pausing from her task of grinding rye at a table. "Answer me!"

"Yes, mother. I am sorry, I lost track of time." He responded, pulling his arms to his front in defense.

"I am sure you did, Eldhustfifl. Kneel. Apologize for your stupid behavior."

She backed away from the table in favor of pointing to the ground with a scowl.

The young man did just that, not wanting to cause any hardship for his wrongdoings.

"I am sorry, Mother; for my stupid behavior, it will not happen again."

He barely had time to react when his mothers booted foot came quickly forward and embedded itself into his side.

There was a sickening crack when the blow landed, the young man screaming out in pain sharply.

"You are right. It will not happen again. Now, we require more firewood; I am sure you can manage to chop a few logs before your mind is completely useless." His mother sneered harshly and turned from her wounded son, the sound of the grindstone continuing without another word.

The young man gasped and reached a hand to his ribs, whimpering quietly at the pain that bloomed at the touch.

He stood up from the ground slowly, feeling tears prick his eyes as he stumbled out of the house. The tears would do nothing but make his mother angrier or confirm the other villagers notions that he was weak.

Walking out into the forest calmed the pain; he did not have to worry about another person seeing him in such agony. Not to mention he would need to chop the firewood so his mother did not react poorly.

The area of which the wood was stationed was a fair distance away from the main area of the farm, and by the end he was a nearly gasping for air. Perhaps the wound was worse than he had originally thought.

When he lifted the axe sitting patiently against the chopping block, his side bitterly disagreed with the movement and he dropped to his knees, his knees no doubt becoming muddied from the wet semi frozen snow.

"Hello?"

The young man lifted his head harshly, spotting a larger man coming from the woods cautiously. The axe in his hand seemed more useful now, and he groaned as he lifted it up.

"Who are you?" The young man rasped out, panting lowly and pointing the axe towards the strange man.

"My name is Hemming. You are hurt badly; I can help."

The man stepped forward slowly, his hands coming up gently.

"Are you a healer?"

"No, but one of my family members is. They are back at our camp..." Hemming questioned with his head, tilting it into a nod towards where the wounded man was on his knees.

"Calder."

"Well, Calder. I believe it might be beneficial to come with me. Your rib is likely broken and pressing into your lung by the way you are holding yourself. You seem in pain."

Calder breathed deeply and regretted it, his bone did feel broken.

"I cannot give you coin. It is best if you leave, My mother does not like when people come to our farm."

Hemming furrowed his brow at this, walking closer towards the kneeling man.

"Is she the one who did this to you?"

Calder stayed quiet, turning his gaze to the ground ashamed. His mother would be even angrier if she found that he was telling strange men about what she did to him.

Though, as the other man drew closer and he was forced to keep his eyes up, Calder could not help but notice that he was handsome. Dark braided hair; when down it probably reached his shoulders. There was thick beard growing against his jaw, also donning braids as dark as the soil beneath the snow.

"You would stay with the woman who wounds you so? I wish for no coin, Calder; only that you allow me and my band to heal you. You could travel with us as we search for land to claim."

Hemming was close enough for Calder to reach with the axe, but he did not feel it necessary to lift the tool to the man. He did not know if he could wield it if he tried, his breath was becoming shorter and it was harder to inhale.

"I cannot leave my mother. She...I am her only child." Calder let out halfheartedly.

"It does not seem like she cares much about that, seeing how she can hurt you and then send you to do labor. Come with me, Calder. You would be safe with me and my band."

Calder looked up from the dirty snow covered ground, Hemmings eyes were truthful and shined a bright hazel; He truly believed he could keep Calder protected.

"Your family member can fix me?" Calder asked, feeling another shot of pain course through his body; it was stronger this time.

"Yes." Hemming nodded and stepped even closer, holding out a hand for Calder to take .

Calder looked at the hand and attempted to lift his own, but pain raked through his body and he gasped; the air tried to fill his lungs, but Calder could not get a good breath.

His vision blurred both from the wound and his inability to intake more air.

"Calder? Calder, you need to stay awake."

Hemmings voice was distant, and Calder tried to listen but everything became too much and he finally let the darkness come over his mind.

He periodically came to, but was only met with more pain; he was being carried the first time it happened.

The second time he woke to voices and his body being set to the ground, he could barely feel the harsh snow bite at his back.

Another time he woke to a sharp metal object being pushed into his side, and he could not help the scream that echoed from his throat.

After that, waking was only for a moment and Calder did not see a reason to stay awake.

_________

The smell of roasted meat brought him from his dormancy.

Calder opened his eyes and found a clear black sky, the trees around him flickering with the light from a fire.

He barely had to move his head to the right to see the very fire creating that light.

There were six people sitting around the inferno, Calder only recognized one of them as Hemming. They seemed to be talking quietly while eating what looked like roasted rabbit.

Calder made a noise that was supposed to be a word of greeting but came out as just a scratchy hum.

It seemed to work anyway; Hemmings head turned to him with a flash and he set the meat down on a rock before standing and crossing over to where Calder was laying.

"Calder, here. Drink."

Hemming squatted down and pulled a water skin from off to the side where Calder couldn't see.

As the water was tipped into his mouth, Hemming using a warm hand to hold his head up for Calder.

He tried not to hone in on how large that hand was or how dirty his hair must be, and instead focused on swallowing the water.

"There you go. Are you feeling okay?" Hemming cooed and a thumb gently moved across the span of Calder's skull.

"Yes. What happened?" Calder asked and sighed after swallowed the last mouthful of water.

"The wound was too painful and you were rendered unconscious. I brought you back to camp and Padma corrected the damage."

"The family member who was a healer?"

Calder moved his arms and tried to lift himself from the ground. The pain was still there, throbbing and Calder could very clearly feel that there was an incision where the break was.

"You should keep still. Padma retrieved the shards of bone from your lung, but there is still an amount of healing you need to do." Hemming placed a hand to Calders shoulder in order to carefully push him back to the ground.

Calder noticed that there was not snow underneath him, and instead there was a thick fur pelt that was brushing his thinly clothed back.

"I have prepared a poultice for the wound to stave off infection. Your wound was luckily not as bad as it could be; only the tip of your very bottom rib was broken."

This would be Padma then. The person had long dirty blonde hair, not unlike Calder's own hair color, and their appearance was not heavily female nor male.

They were sitting close by and applying a paste onto a bandage. It was a grayish green and made Calder bite his tongue as to not ask what was in it; best not to offend the person who has healed him.

"Thank you. For healing me." Calder said and grimaced when he moved the wrong way and pulled at the string that was stitched through the cut.

"Of course. Now Hemming, if you could lift his shirt?" They smiled quickly before replacing it with a stern look to the large male.

Calder tried not to blush at the feel of Hemming's warm hands lifting the thin tunic from his stomach. He could have done so himself, yet the man had already took hold of the muddied linen.

The cold air was sensitive against his injury and he took a sharp inhale, sending a sharp pain through his side.

Padma applied the poultice quickly, wrapping the bandage around Calder's waist with help from Hemming. The paste stung, but in a way that made Calder relieved that it was working.

"Whenever you feel as though you can stand, we will start moving east once again. You are welcome to come with us." Hemming said and helped Calder pull his shirt back down over his abdomen.

Calder looked at the man oddly.

"You would let me join your band with hardly any knowledge of who I am?"

"I do not tend to survive off knowledge, when I can tell in my gut that you are a good person." Hemming smiled and Calder's heart fluttered sweetly. "I can tell you are open minded, intelligent, and strong willed; those are only a few of the things you have shown me in this short amount of time."

Calder's mouth opened as if to say something but shut again. This man, Calder had never met someone like him.

He should not be getting so close. Whenever he had gotten close to men that he thought were attractive, it always ended badly.

"You have time to think, Calder. Your wound is still too fragile to walk anyway. Just give it some thought." Hemming chuckled and stood, walking back to the fire and sitting with the other people that Calder had yet to meet.

Would it be in his best interest to go back home? He knew his mother would already be mad that he wasn't home by dark with the firewood. Calder wondered if she even cared that he was gone.

If he went back to the farm with a bandaged wound and no firewood, she would most likely care about the wood more than his injury.

Hemming seemed to care. If anything else, he did bring Calder to his camp and treat him kindly.

But is it wise to leave with six people he knew absolutely nothing about? Kindness does not matter if they hurt you anyway.

But is it also wise to go back to a women who would without question hurt him again?

Calder sighed deeply, his side didn't hurt all that much when he breathed at least.

As he laid, the warmth of the fire was at his side. Off on a branch nearby, there were two ravens perched; they were huddled together and sleeping, Calder frowned at the sight.

Those ravens had followed him from the farm. When he saw them at the lake it was nothing... but seeing them now is quite strange.

"Here."

Calder pulled his eyes from the birds in favor of looking towards the new voice.

It was a large man, blonde hair cropped to his skull and a long beard. He was holding a wooden plate with a few bits of meat and a portion of bread.

"Thank you." Calder said and grunted as he sat up. "I am Calder."

The man looked at him stiffly, handing him the plate once Calder had maneuvered himself to sit comfortably.

"You're welcome. I am Nadir."

Calder took the plate with a small smile.

"Well met, Nadir."

Nadir only grunted and nodded, going back to his place around the fire quickly.

Calder did not mind the actions; he only turned to his food calmly, eating the bread and rabbit with his fingers while he stared out into the forest in front of him.

This was not so bad.

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