Ollo Vae

Chapter 1

I race across the soft pine needle-strewn forest floor as quickly and quietly as I can. I can hear the heavy thump of giant paws behind me, and pick up my pace. I leap over a small stream and narrowly dodge a large branch as I continue to race across the forest, the bear at my heels. Finally, I enter the clearing and put all the strength I have into getting to the cottage. The bear picks up its pace as well, and I can feel its hot breath running down my tunic.

I stream into the clearing, clearing the distance between the forest and the cottage as fast as humanly possible. Just as I'm about to reach the door, however, I feel a giant paw sweep me off my feet, and I'm tossed several feet into the air. As my body hits the ground again I get the wind knocked out of me, and force myself to breathe out even more to get my diaphragm moving again. I gulp in air as the bear stands directly over me, staring into my eyes in almost a sort of disgruntled amusement.

"Hmm," the bear growls, shifting back to his human form. "Still needs work." I roll my eyes with a small smile.

"Sure I didn't make it this time, but next time I will beat you, I'm sure of it Beorn," I rasp, my smile turning to a wide grin. Beorn chuckles, holding out a hand. I take it and slowly get up. Beorn pats me on the back a couple of times, grabs an ancient-looking key out of his pocket, and unlocks the door to the cottage, gesturing for me to walk in.

I walk through the wide open door. Beorn follows me in, locking the door as soon as it shuts. He lights a small candle and walks around the small room, lighting the other candles with the one in his hand. Then he sits down in one of his armchairs and looks back at me.

"Did I at least do better than last time?" I question, hastily sitting down across from Beorn. He slumps slightly in his chair and looks back down at the arm of his chair. "I'll take that as a yes," I say, straightening my posture a bit victoriously.

"Just go practice your knife-throwing, please," grumbles Beorn; he clearly doesn't want to put up with me at the moment. I take the key from Beorn and run to the door, unlocking it and grabbing my dagger belt, which holds two large daggers and two smaller daggers; perfect for throwing. I lock the door behind me and walk over to the edge of the clearing where there are trees with multiple puncture marks from previous dagger practices hitting their marks.

I brush my hand over the hilt of my first dagger and slowly unsheath it about an inch before quickly taking it out the rest of the way and expertly hurling the dagger at a conifer tree, hitting it right in the middle of the trunk and drawing sap. I take the next one out and cast it towards an oak a couple of trees away from the conifer, also hitting it perfectly down the center. I draw out my third dagger and aim for another conifer further away, but miss and throw it into the bushes instead. I sigh in relief as nothing comes out right away and turn, only to hear the whistling of an arrow from behind me where the bushes lie.

I quickly backbend out of harm's way with elf-like reflexes and kick the arrow down with my iron-studded boots. Then I hurriedly leap up, throwing my last knife, and have just enough time to see my target, a lone orc, before it's lodged deep in its throat. I smirk in a sort of dark satisfaction as I walk towards the carcass and slide the dagger out of its throat. Then I grab a rag from my pocket and clean the blood off, and move on to collect the rest of my daggers. And just at that moment, a giant bear comes tearing out of the cottage. When the bear doesn't see any threat, however, it shifts back and comes running towards me.

"What happened?" Beorn asks. I ignore him and point towards the carcass.

"Dagger throwing practice," I say simply. Beorn stares for a couple of seconds before walking past me and cuffing me on the back of the head.

"Ow!" I say, rubbing my head. "What did you do that for?"

"You could've been hurt," says Beorn, frowning down at me.