LULLABY

By Soulforged

         The father had just finished reprehending his son, quite the beating the poor boy got. After crying for a while, crouched by the table in the dining room, he remained in silence staring to his father, perhaps with the wish of stealing from him an explanation, which he wasn’t going to get. He knew it from experience, it wasn’t the first time he received a beating, even less from that man. Meanwhile the father was still eating, and occasionally smiled at his son as if nothing had happened. The boy, Lino, had heard a lot of stories about bad daddies that injured their sons, some terrifying ones about incidental deaths too, but he wasn’t really worried…Until this very moment.

He remembered that time when he left his house at night and his father broke his nose when he returned, or that time when his dog suffered the consequences of his casual laughter. The memories of the beating and the suffering grew always stronger inside him, his fingers reacted at the sound of crackling table, the opening of a door or the very putting of the Sun. The sight of his father made his mouth stutter, his eyes, his ears and his cheeks, even his scars, remembered the treatment that he had undergone for years now.

For some reason, perhaps because he didn’t exactly know what motivated the beating, this time around he felt alone, sore, with a dry mouth, trembling and suffering a sudden pressure to get up and run, thing that he couldn’t accomplish for the terrible fear he had of abandoning his father’s house. He never strayed that far from the house, when he got out, he knew the house was in the middle of the fields; he and his father plowed the fields and harvested their earnings every season, and therefore the city was not even in sight. The outskirts of Vizima are a dangerous place to roam at night, or by day too, for that matter, even more if the one roaming it happens to be a little boy, filled with fear for the man he lived with and knowing only how to travel the surroundings of the house. The outer world was a real mystery for Lino. Every time the boy heard some story told by a visit, usually his grandfather, a man that Lino respected and loved, to the point of staying too much time with him (according to his father), every time the old man told his stories, about his travels and the things he saw in the city and beyond, the boy couldn’t help it, he always ended up amazed. And just as Lino wanted more stories his grandfather had more and more stories to tell. So Lino always waited peacefully, with his head down and hearing every order that came out from his father’s mouth, he waited with the hope of seeing his grandfather again. With his mother dead and no brothers or friends, he didn’t have an escape from his terrible and routinary existence, until his grandfather came by.

That event should happen the next day actually, when his father and his grandfather had a family reunion to talk, mainly about business. The truth is that since the death of his wife, Lino’s father wasn’t the same anymore. He couldn’t quite recall if the routinary beating started before or after that, what he noticed was how cold his father’s temper has gotten. The only time his father smiled after her death was after he beat his son, and even then it was a nervous smile, almost while crying.

This last beating wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, except for what was already told, so he did what he always did, asked for permission from his father to leave the room and go to sleep, though it was barely noon. After a few seconds of chewing his bread he gave it away, Lino quietly got up and went up the stairs to his small room. Once inside he closed the door, removed his shoes and lied on the bed. The miserable boy tried to close his eyes for enough time to start sleeping, but the truth is that he didn’t eat that day, at all; the beating had prevented him from doing so. So he kept salivating, circling his mouth with his tongue, breathing heavily, putting a finger between his teeth and gently licking it. Occasionally he looked at the window, seeing a powerful sun as it still blinded his view from anything that could be seen outside. He daydreamed about the coming of his grandfather the next day, and perhaps that, or sheer tiredness brought him down to a full sleep.

When he finally woke up, the next day, it was at the end of the afternoon. Any person would have been tired of sleeping so much, and would have the extremities worn and constricted. However Lino was still twelve year old. Rubbing a little his eyes, while they got used to the light again, he remembered that probably his grandfather was at home, it was strange that his father didn’t even came to wake him up for sleeping so much, so he was probably entertained by his grandfather. He quickly grabbed his shoes and went to the nearest reflective surface he could find. The black eye was still there from after the beating, contrasting with his milky white eyes, a previously broken nose in the middle and a pair of little lips marked across with a thin scar. The round face of the boy was deformed by war even before coming of age, when the visits came and saw his face as it was the father always came up with a new imaginative (or less than imaginative) story to explain the clear signs of beating (he was beaten by another boy, he fell down the stairs, he was running an tripped on the fields, etc). He arranged his thin hair with haste and ran to the stairs, almost tripping on the process. When he reached the main floor his grandfather was already waiting for him with open arms and a wide smile inside his short beard.

Yes, grandpa’s visits were in many ways a blessing, just what the family needed at the right time. Had it been two or more weeks later he probably wouldn’t have found Lino, and Lino’s father would have to come up with another story to explain his disappearance. So Lino could finally smile while he hugged his grandfather and rubbed his face against his tick white beard. Lino completely ignored his father for the next moments, but when turning to his side he watched how him was staring back at him with his cold eyes, so he left grandpa’s embrace and respectfully leaned before his breeder without saying a word. The father quietly passed his hand through the boy’s head slowly going down to his neck and gently teasing his hairs. Though the gesture was a love inspired one -the father certainly felt some love for his son even if it was only by instinct-, the boy reflectively shook his head as a dog shakes off the water after a rain, the father wasn’t surprised or shocked he just accepted it quietly and kept looking in another direction fixed upon the contents of the table. The boy walked around his grandfather and sat on his side of the table. The old man had a curious face, he couldn’t still understand the scene, so he asked the boy if something bad happened, but as ever before the boy answered no with the head and smiled. For the next couple of hours, until the sun went down, the three ate whatever they could find on the table. Lino had been listening to the dialog between the two man, with attention but without understanding much of the conversation, he wasn’t really interested in that, he was more interested in the time when his grandfather would accompany him to his room and tell him one of his stories, so he could sleep. At the end of the long conversation the old man asked to the boy’s father what were those marks on his face. The father came up with an story about wild animals in the plains that attacked him the previous day, as the boy didn’t deny the story, he never did, the old man accepted it, though every time he heard another of this stories, every time he distrusted his own son more and more, this wasn’t an exception and he threw an inquisitive sight at his son for a moment to see if the man reacted, but the father was lost in his own thoughts and didn’t even flicker.

When everyone had finished their eating and talking, the father was the first one to leave the table, he raised from his feet with his eyes fixed on the stairs, and without speaking a word disappeared in the darkness created by the shadows in the way up. After a while the old man spoke to himself, forgetting that his grandson was by his side: “That man is lost to me.”- When he turned around to see the boy’s face, Lino was staring with curiosity but cheerfully at him. The old man smiled back and replied quickly, as if making an explanation of his previous statement: “But here we’ve a light that has started to shine…”- Without saying a word the boy pointed with his finger at himself, like asking if the old man was referring to him. The grandfather just nodded, and followed saying: “So would you like to hear another story!!”- The boy’s face shinned and exploded in a red, that could be shame, but indicated more a contention of his outburst, that would have otherwise waken up his father. The old man continued: “Then I shall tell you an scary one lad. Come let’s go to your room”. The boy followed his grandfather diligently through the stairs, to his room, where he lied on the bed, while his grandfather sat next to him.

“The story begins” -he started- “when in my way to Redania –that’s on the to the north. -  I found a lady running towards me. She had all her clothes torn, almost naked, she tried to speak to me from afar, but I couldn’t hear a thing. As she approached, I had my eyes fixed upon her, I could hear more screaming coming from the background, probably carried by the wind to me.” “The wind can do that?”-Interrupted the boy. “Sure it can lad, the wind can carry more blessings and misfortunes than you think, that’s why you should always close your windows tight”- said the old man while blinking an eye to the boy, and continued- “So the lady was approaching me. When she finally reached she was tired and barely spoke any coherent word. I told her to calm down and try to explain everything to me, slowly. After breathing some air and recovering she told me what happened. Apparently a group of wolves attacked her small village, the animals had slaughtered everyone but she managed to escape. She asked for my help, her little daughter had fallen behind and she was afraid to return by herself to the now empty village. I agreed, never pass an opportunity to help someone lad. I had a sword with me and my horse, she wanted to come with me, so I told her to get on the horse. We started moving towards the village and when we were about to reach it I left the horse with her and told her to keep a safe distance and take care of my mount, so she did. The image of the village was a desolate one, only the smoke from that day’s meals could be seen, none a soul in my sight. The sun was still up and bright so I figured that if I was to hunt some wolves that was the best moment. So I unsheathed my sword…”- again the boy interrupted- “Could you teach me how to use a sword someday grandpa.”- The grandfather followed- “Yes, as soon as your father lets you come with me…”- the boy made a sad face, but the old man continued regardless. – “… I started to search the houses, one by one; no wolves could be seen in any of them. Finally I saw some traces on the ground; they looked like dragged body traces and some footprints, but no blood whatsoever. After that I returned to the lady and told her of my findings, she wasn’t happy, of course, since I couldn’t find her daughter, sadly she was probably dead by now, and the mother knew it, but she had hopes yet. So I told her that she could wait for me at the village while I followed the tracks. When she was safe I started to follow the footprints. After a while I noticed that some of the footprints were larger than the others, still made by a wolf, but a big one, five or more times your size lad.”-The boy opened his big eyes. – “I was not going to face that beast, for certain, but for the sake of the lady I thought I should at least search for whatever was remaining of her daughter. So I kept walking until I reached a forest, thick as my beard.”- The boy giggled- “And I started to move tree by tree, slowly, to not rise suspicions. When I was at the middle, more or less, I heard some grunting behind me, so I turned my head to see, there was nothing there, I looked both sides, but nothing. Then when I was about to give my next step I realize I’m actually surrounded by six black wolves all wanting a piece of me, so I try to leave the circle and fight them one by one. I pushed one aside when he tried to beat me and then made a deep cut to another one that managed to grab me by the leg with my sword, that one didn’t rise again. I made a mistake though; instead of running directly outside of the forest I was running towards a clearing in the middle. As I ran I kept swinging my sword now and then to scare the animals, I was having some success, even if they were pretty restless, as if they were protecting something. It was pure bad luck for me that it was exactly at their den that I was heading without knowing it. When I finally got to the clearing, tired and breathing heavily I thought I had gotten away and I felt safe for a moment since the wolves that pursued me where nowhere to be seen. However it wasn’t safe, far from it. When I raised my head to catch the light of the sun to guide me out of the place I heard a deep howl coming from a little cave nearby. I was paralyzed, it sounded unnatural and it freezed my blood. It was the big beast, a black wolf that almost reached the roof of the cave. Big white teeth and a terrible smile, which showed signs of intelligence and seemed to communicate that I was going to be his next victim. I was truly helpless and looking only at the beast, watching as death approached in four legs, every movement of his legs, and every nod of his head, hearing every intimidating bark the beast made… Those were my last moments for certain. When the beast was so close that I could almost smell her rotten breath I catch a shadow moving in the corner of my eye. The light finally grabbed this figure as a whole letting me identify its form as that of a human. He interposes his body in the way of the beast, and then he makes me signs to back up. Everything happens so fast that I still remember it as flashes. Turning my back to start running the other way I hear a big explosion and I see a big flash of white light that envelops the whole clearing. For a moment everything is in silence, I thought the wolf had eaten the man. But to my surprise, after I could completely open my eyes he was standing before me without a scratch and the wolf was gone, no other wolf could be seen either. I raised my head to see the man completely as he towered above me with an unexpressive look on his face. “You’re safe now.” He told me. For a while I hesitated, but then he asked me: “What are you doing here? Were you following the wolf’s trace?” –I nodded. - “That’s not an intelligent thing to do”. I told him that I was there for a little girl; I made a promise to find her. “I’m afraid you’ve been fooled, there’s no little girl here, and the wolves usually only hunt around the area, they barely leave the woods” I explained to him what had happened, told him about the lady and the village. “That village has been deserted for weeks now, the wrongdoing wasn’t the job of any wolf.” –He made a pause for a moment. – “Heed my advice on this traveler, take care: there are beasts who take the form of man and man who take the form of beasts.” –I could not understand why he said that at the moment, so while I tried to reflect on his words I noticed that he was leaving, so I asked for his name and he told me: “I’m a witcher, just call me Vesemir” –the boy couldn’t contain his excitement. - “So you met a Witcher, that’s the best story ever!” – Yes boy, until that moment I had only heard of them in tales, just like the ones I tell to you, but seeing one in person makes you realize why people tell such stories about them, his presence was powerful and his eyes yellow as amber… “So what happened next?” –asked the boy. – “Well I returned the way I came and applied some herbs and bandages for my wounds. When I reached the village I went directly to the woman’s hut to ask for some explanation, but when I entered the house nobody was there, the lady had left the house, I stood there for a moment thinking about what the witcher said about man and beasts, but to no avail, so I left the hut picked up my horse, tied up outside, and left the place towards Redania…”

The boy was really thrilled by the story and kept asking questions to the old man until he slept. His grandfather stood by his side for more than an hour, remembering the tale and what the Vesemir said, for some reason that phrase struck him more deeply this time and he couldn’t get it out of his mind, until he fell asleep too. After a couple of hours an abrupt and loud noise coming from the other side of the window stirred him. He stood up with a jump and told the boy to calm down; when he looked on the bed he couldn’t see the boy. Wondering what happened to the boy and what was that loud sound on the other side, slowly he started to open the door while peeking through the small breach to see what waited on the other side. It was already very dark and the light of the moon barely touched the next room, so he was cautious. But then a scream erupted from an unknown source and he also heard the screams of his own son, so he pushed the door open and jumped inside. What he found on the other side shocked him. A man with a bright sword, which practically absorbed all the light in the room, was standing by his son’s bed. The sword was dripping with blood and the man was hiding his face in the darkness looking down on the lifeless body of someone. The old man approached without making any noise, but when he saw whose body’s was that laying on the bed in a pool of blood he couldn’t help but scream, and was suddenly thrown back by a mighty force, against the wall, like pushed by an invisible hand. His own son lied dead before him. He was shaking and speechless mourning his only son in silence when the mysterious man turned around and saw him. The old man looked back at him, with sad eyes and a single question: “Why did you do that?” The man just gazed upon him. The old man found himself without any strength to stand up and fight the man, even if he was filled with hatred and only wanted revenge. So he gave up and resigned to his death, if it came upon him. However the man approached him slowly and sheathed his sword taking the old one by his chin and raising his head until it made contact with the attacker’s eyes. However the grandfather had his eyes closed shut, and just like that the attacker started speaking: “Why do you cry old man?” – as the old man was seeing that he was no longer under any threat, o so he thought, he opened his eyes. He recognized the face of the other man instantly: it was the Witcher, the same one who saved him! “What are you doing here?” –babbled the old one. – “I was hunting a monster, that’s what we do.” –answered the Witcher. – “But you killed my son!” –told the grandfather outraged. The Witcher didn’t answer, he just moved backwards reaching for the body and moving it aside, almost out of the bed: “I came here hunting a shadow, stalking it, following it up this window, I’ve been paid to do so. But when I was about to leave the room in pursuit of the monster I saw something strange on the bed.” –he made a pause to see if the grandfather reacted. –“But why did you kill my son, witchers don’t kill humans do they? Oh God!! What sin he committed to deserve this punishment!!” The Witcher was already at the window and told the old man: “Don’t weep your son for too long, the monster is still here and it isn’t safe for you or the boy…” –in that moment the old man remembered that the boy was still missing so he incorporated himself. – “…I suggest you leave the house in the morrow, I won’t be here to defend you.” And then Vesemir just left the house through the window.

The old man was still catching his breath and wouldn’t reach for the bed yet; he was sunken in his own thoughts. But he finally gathered the courage to see his son’s body again. When he was next to the bed he couldn’t see very clearly, so he started testing with his hands, passing them throughout every texture on the bed, until he reached a second body laying by the first one and then he heard a fading voice: “Grandpa….” The joy finally invaded him for he had found his grandson. As he tried to get the boy into his arms and pull him out of the bed he took a look at his own son and again that phrase resurged in his mind: “…take care: there are beasts who take the form of man and man who take the form of beasts.” He closed his eyes and negated with his head, as a sign of regret, then he closed his son’s eyes and took the boy.

The next day Lino was fully recovered and his grandfather was taking him on a caravan to the city. When the boy woke up he realized that his father wasn’t with them, so his first question was: “Grandpa, where is my father?” To that the old man answered with a distracted expression: “You’re living with me now, your father has set you free lad”. The boy only smiled.