Chapter 622: Chapter 606 – Nature Gives and Nature Takes

“What seems like a curse or a handicap to some might not be seen the same way by others. Most things are subjective, and often depend greatly on the perceiver’s own point of view. Sometimes this plays out to their benefit, at other times their detriment. It depends greatly on the person themselves.” - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.

“Ooh, Cake, Pa? Can I have some?” asked the burly middle-aged man as he brought a steaming kettle to the table and placed it carefully. 

 

“Yes, Niklas, you can have some. Be a dear and pour everyone some tea first, will you?” replied old Erik patiently with a smile on his face. Niklas nodded to his words and set the small wooden bowls he carried on his other hand in front of everyone and poured a measure of hot tea into each, an expression of childlike innocence on his face.

 

Once everyone had a bowl of tea, Erik invited them to enjoy the pie, and everyone took a slice. It was not that much, with each slice only about as wide as one’s thumb by that point, but sweets like those were rare indulgences in the harsh land, so even the children knew to savor it slowly and carefully instead of immediately devouring their share.

 

Aideen also took a bite on the slice of pie she had and found that the filling had set into a thick, custardy mass that had a sweet-sour flavor, likely imparted by the berries mixed into it. The chunks of whole berries incorporated into the filling also provided bursts of tangy juices when she happened to bite into them, and given the minimal ingredients used to make it, the pie was definitely a textbook case of a great cook being able to make delicacies from whatever was at hand.

 

Everybody seemed to enjoy their little slice as well – they understood that Erik likely kept the two larger slices for later, maybe for other members of his household – though they all took dainty little bites to savor the taste more. It was rather adorable to watch the little kids like Leif and Gudrun nibble carefully on their slices even though it was clear that they would have loved to just bite down on the whole thing instead.

 

The tea served was a strong one, but not that bitter. Rather than bitterness, it had more of a floral sweetness and fragrance to it, which mingled well when enjoyed with sweets like they did. Everyone quietly polished off their small slice and emptied their bowl of tea before they continued the conversation from before. 

 

Though not before Erik noticed how Niklas, Gudrun, and Leif looked longingly at the last thin slice of pie on the plate with conflicted expressions on their faces. Erik just laughed and told Niklas to split it between the three of them, which the burly man did as he broke the last slice into three and gave the bigger two pieces to Leif and Gudrun, saving the smallest one for himself.

 

“If you’re done with your snack, can you take Leif and Gudrun to play for a bit, Niklas?” asked Leif after they finished the pie. 

 

“Sure, Pa!” cheerfully replied Niklas as he did just that. 

 

“As you can see, Niklas has always been rather… simple, though he has a good heart and is blessed with a robust physique,” lamented Erik with a wistful sigh after the three went out. “I’m just worried for his well-being after I’m gone. I wish I had another decade or two to take care of him, but alas, I’m nowhere near that lucky.”

 

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“He’s your son?” asked Aideen out of curiosity. There wasn’t much if any family resemblance between Erik and Niklas.

 

“I adopted and raised him. Must’ve been… forty years ago by now? You probably remember it better, Aida. You saw them come home with him in tow back then,” noted Erik as he thought about it. “Back then the hunters found him abandoned in the woods to the south. Niklas was only four or five back then. Apparently his parents deemed him a liability and left him there to die.”

 

“Thirty-eight years ago, Erik,” confirmed Aida. “And yea, I still remember when they brought him home that time. He was such a scrawny kid back then.”

 

“The village he was from was rather… extreme,” said Erik as he answered the unasked question that could obviously be seen on the expression of Kino and the others. “You know how we have no room for people who don’t contribute? They took that to a further extreme and threw out people who they deem lacking. Always with a high-handed attitude, at that. Never got along with those bastards.”

 

“That was when Erik was our town’s representative. They kept calling him a ‘useless cripple’ and that caused more than a few brawls between us and them,” explained Aida. “They’re no longer around, though.”

 

“And how did that come to pass?” asked Eilonwy curiously, who likely guessed that there was some sort of incident that caused it.

 

“It happened during a beast wave around two decades ago. It was a big enough one that even the tribes in the mountains chose to take refuge in our towns as we had better defenses. We worked together with them to repel the beasts at the time,” said Erik with a shake of his head. “The idiots at that village felt that they were good on their own and had no room to take on ‘burdens’ who can’t even defend their own homes.”

 

“Then they got overrun by the beasts?” guessed Kino.

 

“Just so. None of the people from that village survived, as far as we could tell, other than Niklas. In a way, his getting abandoned turned out to be a blessing,” replied Aida with a nod.

 

“He’s a blessing for me, to say the least. Definitely helped make my life much easier. Ask anyone in the village and they’ll all agree that Niklas is a hard and diligent worker who’s always willing to help out when he has time,” boasted old Erik with not a little pride at his adopted son. “Sure, sometimes you got to explain things to him a few times, but that’s a worthwhile trade-off, I’d say.”

 

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