Fish and venison...it would be a feast. Goron’s stomach growled at the thought. A loud grumble that made the deer’s ears twitch in alarm.
Goron inched closer and made hushing sounds to soothe the animal, arms outstretched to show he meant no harm. The doe soon lost interest in him and again returned her attention to the moss.
At ten feet Goron decided he was close enough and took aim.
The spear thudded into the deer’s chest, where it vibrated like an arrow that had struck a tree trunk. The doe’s chestnut brown eyes rolled back in agony and terror. Taking no chances, Goron leapt upon it, his weight forcing it to its knees. One crank of the deer’s slender neck, and the animal’s agony ended.
Goron might be living in the forest naked with only an axe, but he wasn’t going to eat his meat and fish raw. Ruinwood was hard to cut and smelled like burning rocks when it was used for firewood. Willow wood, on the other hand, cut easily and gave off a sweet, marshy scent when it burned.
The ancient tree didn’t take long to fell, but he was no woodsman, and it toppled toward the water. Midway the gnarled branches clawed at the air until the trunk splintered from its roots and the old willow splashed into the river it had watched over for centuries. Goron sat on the ringed stump and looked at the knotted boughs as they slowly submerged. No mind, he didn’t need much wood.
As the willow fell, a cry resounded from deep in the forest. The long, mournful sound grew to a piteous wail that rose above the howling of the wind through the trees.
Goron shrugged it off and gutted the doe, flinging its entrails into the river to entice the fish back. They accepted the gift and churned up the water in their feeding frenzy.
The doe’s meat was lean and tender. It would make a delicious meal. He wrapped the fish in the giant leaves of a swamp plant and placed them on the edge of the fire to cook gradually. The deer he skewered with a spit and suspended over the flames. Goron slowly turned the meat. The juices dripped onto the blazing logs, then sputtered into the drifts of fragrant smoke. The skin began to brown and crisp, seared by the flames.
The aroma of cooking meat and fish filled the night air. Blodwen hadn’t returned and Goron could wait no longer. He’d wolfed down the haunches and two of the fish and was tearing the last of the meat from a front leg when Blodwen silently appeared. She stood by the fire and stared down at the roast deer.
Disappointingly she hadn’t brought the promised fruit. He fancied something sweet after so much flesh. “Where are the berries?” His body was smeared with meat juices. He’d have to bathe again before they made love and retired for the night.
Blodwen didn’t reply. She turned her back on the fire. Her shapely buttocks became golden in the firelight—there could be no greater treasure in all the world. Goron’s loins began to stiffen—the bath would have to wait.
She wandered over to the willow tree and traced her finger along the wounds Goron had wrought on the trunk as he severed it. Her finger came away streaked with sticky sap.
“Mm,” Goron said flinging a leg bone into the trees, “you have got to try this meat. It’s so tender it just melts in your mouth. Darndest thing, it was from a young doe, practically let me butcher it.” He stood up and wiped the meat juice from his chin with the back of his forearm then stretched his back with a series of pops and cracks.
“If you don’t fancy the meat, I saved a fish for you.” He gestured with his hand to the leafy package he’d pulled away from the fire. “I’ll catch some more tomorrow and maybe another deer if I’m lucky.”
Blodwen returned to the fire and squatted at its edge. She looked tired, her head was lowered and her shoulders sagged. When she looked up at Goron there were tears streaming down her cheeks.
“The deer was my friend. She felt safe by the tree. No one would dare hurt her there.”
She must be one of those vegetarians, Goron decided. There had been some at the castle who protested outside the butchery on occasion. He met her gaze and squared his shoulders. No one was going to tell him what to eat. In his view, men needed meat with every meal, or they wouldn’t have the strength to swing their axes.
Goron picked a piece of gristle out of his teeth and flicked it away. “Your friend was delicious.” He jutted out his chin and pulled the last leg off the deer with a pop. All this talking had rekindled his appetite, and he crammed as much of the meat into his mouth as he could.
“Her name was Iia. She was a forest nymph.
“Funny looking forest nymph.” Goron glanced at the leg turning it over in his hand. “Looks like a deer to me.”
“How can I make you understand? Maybe if I show you her true form, how I see her.” Goron ripped off another strip of meat and forced it into his mouth.
Blodwen’s lips moved soundlessly. The meat on the spit began to glow with a faint green light and, to Goron’s alarm, so too did the joint of meat in his hand.
The carcass on the spit began to change shape to become the torso of a woman, skin burnt golden brown. The joint of meat transformed into an arm—hand still attached—flesh picked to the bone. Goron let a wad of masticated forest nymph fall from his mouth.
His stomach lurched violently like a boat in a storm.
“She was over two hundred years old. She didn’t deserve to die like this.” Blodwen moved through the flames to the carcass and
