Otter's Tale

Susan D. Guyer

Otter's Tale

Journey to a new world

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Inhaltsverzeichnis

Titel

Part One

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Impressum neobooks

Part One

Sweden

April 1653

Chapter One
Flight

Normally Otter didn't mind getting wet, but now she was fed up with it. It had been raining steadily all day and she was soaked to the skin. The long woolen skirt that Björn's wife, Jutta, had handed down to her dragged in the muddy trail, making it even harder to walk. She stopped once again to pull up the heavy skirt and then howled out her frustration in a long wail, "Grandmother Sunna!"

The older woman who was trudging along the narrow path ahead of her with a heavy load strapped to her back stopped to see what the problem was, wiping her face with the wet shawl wrapped over her head and shoulders. Seeing the young girl standing still and shivering in the cold rain, she called back impatiently, "Come along now, Otter! We can't stay here! Just a little farther and then I'll look for a place for us to camp."

Otter rubbed the throbbing lump on her cheek and looked back along the small trail that wound through the dense forest. "They're probably searching for us on the main road," she called to her grandmother. "Nobody would come back here in all this rain."

Sunna sighed and shifted the bundle on her back. "It'll be getting dark soon anyway," she muttered and looked around for a good place to leave the trail. As Otter drew closer, Sunna noticed the reddish purple swelling on the side of her face. "That must hurt," she said curtly. "Once we get a shelter set up, I'll see if I can find something to make it feel better."

They moved downhill away from the trail, careful not to slip and fall on the wet undergrowth. Soon they reached the bottom of the hill and found themselves near a small, marshy lake. Sunna pointed to a dead fir tree that had half fallen over on a hillock near the water. "We can turn that into a shelter," she told Otter.

Otter watched in fascination as her grandmother untied the large bundle she had taken off her back and unrolled it. It was a very large piece of leather made of raindeer hides that had been cut in wide strips and sewn together carefully. "This is part of the lavvu or tent that your grandfather and I used many years ago before we came to Nordmark," she explained to Otter, stroking the leather gently. "I had to cut it apart because the whole thing would have been too heavy for me to carry. But it should be enough to keep us out of the rain through the night."

She skillfully draped the hide over the fallen trunk of the tree to make a small cave that was just large enough for both of them to lie in. There was a pile of old leaves under the tree that had kept fairly dry, so she spread these out as a sort of bed to lie on.

"Stay here where it's dry while I try to find something to put on your cheek to take the swelling down," Sunna told her, at the same time handing her a chunk of bread and some cheese she had taken out of a pouch tied to the belt around her waist.

While she was waiting for her grandmother to return, Otter munched on the bread and thought about what had happened that morning. Spring was late that year. It had been raining and cold for several days, which put everybody in a bad mood. When Otter climbed out of her bed around dawn, she noticed that Sunna was gone, but that she had gotten everything ready for breakfast. The fire in the hearth was crackling cheerfully, a large pot of water had been boiled and moved away from the flames, there was bread and cheese on the table.

Her older half-brother Björn stuck his head through the curtains of the cupboard bed he shared with his wife. All of the beds in the house were in the kitchen, which was also their living area. It was much warmer that way during the long cold winter months. "Have you seen Jutta?" he asked sleepily. "She's not here."

Otter was surprised that her sister-in-law was already up and about. Usually she was the last one to join them for the breakfast that Sunna always prepared. Otter shrugged her shoulders and was opening the door to go outside to their outhouse when Jutta rushed in. Her shawl and hair were dripping wet and her face was flushed. Triumphantly she held up the head and bleeding neck of a dead goose and waved it at Björn, who was now climbing out of their bed with a shocked look on his face.

"It's witchcraft!" Jutta shrieked. "I caught her in the act. She took my favorite goose and killed it in the forest. I saw her smear the blood all over a rock up there on the hill. She's put a curse on me! That's why I haven't been able to keep any of my babies!"

Still standing next to the open door, Otter shook her head in disbelief. Of course she knew that Jutta had had several miscarriages since she married Björn, but Otter was sure that her grandmother had played no role in that. Sunna was a skilled midwife and healer. Otter seriously doubted that her grandmother would ever put a curse on anyone, not even Jutta. That's not the way Sunna was. Jutta, on the other hand, was vindictive and mean-spirited. If anyone were making any evil curses, Otter thought, it had to be Jutta.

The poisonous atmosphere in the house had become much worse since Otter's father Isak died just before Christmas. Björn and Otter had different mothers, but Isak was their common father. Björn also had a younger brother named Elof, but he had moved away a few years before. When Björn and Elof lost their mother as young boys, Isak had moved home to Nordmark to live with his parents on their farm so that they could help look after the boys. After his parents' deaths, he and the two boys got by as well as they could. Then Sunna and her daughter Raija arrived back in Nordmark. Isak took them in, and Sunna soon had the household and family under strict, but benevolent, control. The older man had gradually fallen in love with gentle Raija, and Otter was the result of their marriage. Sadly, Raija had passed away when Otter was only three years old.

"She's a witch!" Jutta cried out again. "Haven't you seen how she smeared butter on our doorframe to attract the devil? And those evil-smelling brews she fed your father just before he died? I'm sure she poisoned him!"

Björn was not a fast-thinker, but he was quick to lose his temper, especially in the morning. Otter could see his neck and then face turning red and feared that he would hit Jutta to knock some sense into her. But then Sunna came hurrying in from outside. She, too, was wet from the rain, but carefully shook out her shawl and wiped her feet before stepping into the room.

"What do you think you're doing?" she confronted Jutta, grabbing the goose head from her outstretched hand. "You're dripping blood all over the floor."

The two women glared at each other, neither of them willing to back down from this battle. Björn looked from one to the other, not sure whose side he should take.

Jutta turned to him and shouted, "If you don't do something about it, I'm going to tell the village priest! I won't have a witch in my house!" When Björn didn't react immediately, she snatched back the goose's head and ran out the door in the direction of the village.

By this time, Björn was so angry and confused that he took a threatening step towards Sunna, his hand raised, ready to strike. This was too much for Otter, who dashed between the two of them and pushed Björn back and away from her grandmother. The blow he then delivered flung Otter across the room, where she landed on the floor in a heap near the hearth.

Shaking with rage, Björn rubbed his mouth and struggled to get himself under control. "You have to leave," he finally told Sunna. "I can't protect you if she goes to the priest. You remember what they did to you the last time."

He turned and looked at Otter lying on the floor. "Take her with you. My wife will make her life hell here. The only peace I'll get is if both of you are gone!"

He quickly pulled on his breeches and shoes, then put his jacket on over his nightshirt, grabbing his hat from a peg as he went out the door. "I'll try to slow them down, but you need to leave fast."

Stunned, Otter watched from the floor as her grandmother went to the table and calmly packed the bread and cheese in a pouch, tying it to her belt. Seeing Otter lying on the floor, she sharply told her to put on as many layers of clothing as she could. In the meantime, Sunna went to her own cupboard bed and began pulling things out of the large drawer at the bottom. By the time Otter had finished getting dressed, Sunna had tied everything together in two bundles - one large one for herself and a smaller one for Otter to carry.

They quickly left the house, walking past the smithy where Isak had worked so hard, training his sons as they grew older to become skilled blacksmiths themselves. When she and Sunna reached the nearby river, Otter looked for the family of otters that lived there and felt relieved to see them frolicking in the water as usual, despite the stormy weather. As she and Sunna began climbing the hill to reach the trail in the forest, Otter looked back and saw the little otter heads popping out of the water to watch her leave, as if they had paused for a moment in their play to say farewell.

She remembered learning how to swim there in the river with her favorite half-brother, Elof. He was the one who had given her the nickname Otter. With her wet brown hair slicked back on her head and her curious, playful eyes watching his every move as she treaded water before diving once again to explore the bottom of the river, he decided she looked like an otter pup and the name stuck. Turning away to follow her grandmother, Otter wondered where Elof was now. If he had been at home that morning, maybe none of this would ever have happened.

Chapter Two
Bliss

In his home in the village of Wira Bruk on the other side of Sweden, Elof gently cradled his baby son in his large, calloused hands, watching his wife, Adelia, as she and their cook prepared the evening meal. The baby caught his attention, flashing charming smiles up at him, so he began making funny faces and cooing noises that imitated the sounds the baby had just started to experiment with. Soon Elof was so entranced by his son that he didn't even notice when Adelia's father walked into their kitchen.

"What a blessed scene!" his father-in-law called out merrily, causing Elof to look up with embarrassment written all over his face.

"Oh, Papa!" Adelia exclaimed as she rushed over to hug her father. "The baby's learned to smile. Come look!" Proudly she led her father over to Elof, who handed him the baby to hold. Adelia's father awkwardly took the child, who looked up at him earnestly and then farted loudly. Looking embarrassed himself, he quickly handed the baby to his daughter and rubbed his hands together as if to wash them clean.

"I just stopped by to see if the roof is holding well enough against all this rain," Adelia's father explained. He pointed to an outside wall and went up closer to examine the corner of the ceiling. Adelia had always lived in this large one-story house, the only child of the well-to-do iron merchant and his wife. Her mother had died young and her father never remarried. Adelia had grown up with a series of housekeepers and a doting father who fulfilled her every wish. When Adelia and Elof got married, her father moved out to a smaller cottage nearby, hoping to leave plenty of space for lots of grandchildren.

"Stay with us for supper," Adelia suggested. "It's almost ready and there is more than enough."

Her father gladly accepted the invitation and sat down at the head of the large wooden table while Elof fetched a pewter mug and poured him some ale. Elof was still amazed that Adelia's father had given them permission to get married. As a wealthy merchant, he was well-accepted in the best circles of the village of Wira Bruk and was active in their parish of the Lutheran Church. Elof, on the other hand, brought no money or connections whatsoever into the marriage.

When he was a young man, Elof's father Isak had been chosen to work in Örebro, where the best blacksmiths of the time were gathered together to make weapons for King Gustav Adolf II and his army, who were off fighting in the Thirty Years' War. After his wife's death, Isak had returned to his home in Nordmark with his two sons. He was a skilled blacksmith, but there was not much money to be earned in that trade in Nordmark. He had given his two sons the best training he could, but it was clear that only one of them could take over the smithy in the small village. When Elof was about 16, his father decided to send him away to Wira Bruk to become a bladesmith.

Wira Bruk was located to the east of Nordmark, just north of Stockholm. It had been founded in 1630 to make arms for Gustav Adolf II and the Swedish army, like the smithy in Örebro, but Wira Bruk was intended especially for blade-making. German bladesmiths were smuggled into the country to teach the men working there the newest methods for edged steel weapons like bayonets, swords and even fancy rapiers for the courtiers attending the King. Now Gustav Adolf II's controversial daughter Christina ruled the country from Stockholm. The demand for fancy swords and daggers at court had not decreased, despite the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648. Although tools like scythes and axes were also produced in Wira Bruk, Elof had concentrated on learning how to make the more beautiful, though deadly, weapons.

When he first arrived in Wira Bruk, Elof lived with the other apprentices and workmen in a large house near the forges. Most of his time was spent hammering away at a hot forge, but in the evenings he joined his friends at the village tavern to quench his thirst. On Sundays they enjoyed watching the girls of the village walk home from church with their families. Competition for the girls' attention was tough with so many young men living and working there. Elof soon realized that his appearance was less than fashionable. Although he was tall and strong, so were many of the other young men working in Wira Bruk. With the money he saved from his first paychecks and from not going to the tavern so often, he had the village tailor make him a short jacket and baggy breeches in the latest style to wear with a new ruffled white shirt with its large detachable linen collar. It was important that the collars be snowy white, which is why they were made to be easily taken off and washed separately. He left his reddish golden hair long, but shaved off his beard and trimmed his moustache in the latest fashion. A new broad-rimmed hat with a feathery plume topped it off.

Finally, with his new look he managed to catch the eye of one of the most attractive girls in Wira Bruk. Adelia Andersdotter not only came from a wealthy family, she was also very pretty and had nice manners. Some of the other young men thought she was arrogant and spoiled because she would not flirt with them, but Elof soon discovered that she was actually extremely shy, which is why she kept herself aloof from the romantic efforts being made by the young men on her behalf. After tenaciously begging Adelia over a period of several weeks, Elof was finally granted permission to walk her home from church, sometimes exchanging a few words, sometimes not talking at all. After a few weeks, though, he managed to gain her confidence and they were able to have lively conversations about all kinds of things.

When Adelia's father realized that their relationship was growing more serious, he invited Elof to spend a Sunday afternoon with them. After reading out loud from the Bible, they enjoyed some cakes and tea while he asked Elof about where he came from and what his future plans were. He took a liking to the young man, who came across as a practical person, but who also had a vision of what he would like to do and be in the future. Although Elof did not possess much, Adelia's father had no doubt that he would find a way to be successful in life. It was obvious that Adelia and Elof were in love and his daughter's happiness meant everything to him. So when Elof had asked for his blessing to marry Adelia, he said yes.

After their wedding, Elof continued to work at the smithy, and his skill as a bladesmith grew rapidly with experience. Soon he was being given work commissioned by officers of the Swedish army and he delighted in the beautiful blades he was allowed to create. Adelia had turned their new home into a cosy and happy place to return to in the evenings. When she told him that she was expecting, he considered himself one of the luckiest men alive.

Looking down at the sleepy child Adelia had handed back over to him while she got the table ready for their meal, Elof suddenly remembered the other baby he had so often held and played with, his little half-sister Otter. Although there was an eleven-year difference in age, he and his sister were very close. Perhaps it was because in those first years when Raija and Sunna came to live with them, he had attached himself to Raija and followed her around everywhere. When his baby half-sister was born, he helped out as well as he could, especially after Raija got sick. Just before Raija passed away, he had solemnly promised her that he would take care of her daughter. Now he felt a little guilty about having left Otter at home with his nasty sister-in-law, Jutta. But both Isak and Sunna had been adamant about him leaving for Wira Bruk.

He had often been homesick in those first years at Wira Bruk before his marriage. Once he even experimented with a different metal, making a small silver charm in the shape of an otter, which he had sent to Nordmark for Otter, along with a pair of steel scissors for Sunna and a dagger he had made for his father. Elof was good with figures and math because he needed it for his work, but he had never learned to read or write very well, so he had included no letter. Nobody at home could read anyway, so there was not much point in trying to write one.

He wondered if that package had ever reached Nordmark safely and tried to imagine what Otter looked like today with the small charm tied around her neck. He hadn't seen her for about four years. She must be about eleven years old now, he realized with a start, on the verge of becoming a woman. She would still have that long brown hair that Sunna fought to keep untangled by putting it in tight braids. But what was most remarkable about Otter were her dark blue eyes. She hadn't inherited them from her grandmother. Sunna was a Sami from the very north of Sweden, short and chubby, with a round face and brown eyes. Sunna's daughter Raija, on the other hand, had been tall and very fair, with almost white-colored hair and blue eyes. Sunna had told him that Raija looked like her father, Tero, except that his eyes were a much darker blue, like Otter's.

Elof looked down at his son and then at his wife, trying to find similarities. The baby didn't have much hair yet, but what he had was reddish like Elof's. On the other hand, there was something about the nose that looked like Adelia's. He was a delicate-looking baby, but his hands and feet were large, so he might grow to be as big as his father, Elof mused. The most important thing was that he was healthy, he figured. He got up and put the sleeping child in its crib, looking forward to his evening meal.

That night was so windy and cold that Adelia decided to take the baby into their bed to keep him warm. When Elof woke up the next morning, he pulled open the curtains on his side of the bed, realizing from the position of the sun that it was later than normal. The baby had been unusually quiet, allowing both parents to get a good night's sleep. Adelia woke up too and rubbed her eyes sleepily before sitting up and reaching for the baby. She held him in her arms for a moment before looking at Elof with panic in her eyes.

"Something's wrong!" she exclaimed. "He's not breathing!"

Elof took the baby in his arms and went closer to the window for better light. The baby hung limply in his arms, his eyes closed. Even without the light, Elof knew his son was dead, although he could not comprehend how or why it had happened. He cuddled the child close to his chest, tears running down his cheeks, his back turned to Adelia so she wouldn't see him crying.

But Adelia sensed that something was very much wrong and rushed over to him, pounding him on the back he had turned to her. "Give me my baby!" she howled. "Don't take him away from me!"

Elof turned and silently handed their son over to her. With a strange calmness she went over to the bed and wrapped the child in her shawl. Then she climbed back into the bed with the baby and pulled the curtains shut.