EOCHAID

 EOCHAID

Damp mist rose silently across the bog as the sun edged above the eastern horizon and began to strengthen in intensity.

The silence was deafening as the earth and its innumerable inhabitants slowly awoke to another day. The bog oozed with an ethereal presence as the wind blew gently through the sedge and eased the mist from the water.

Life was slow and time passed at a crepuscular unworldly pace. The abundant minuscule wildlife ambled their inquisitive way through the undergrowth, disturbing no one, and reveling in their silence. 

Dew on the long tufts of grass sparkled in the morning sun throwing a kaleidoscope of colors from their watery refraction, and as the softly spoken Hunter gatherer quietly proceeded through the sedge, the shadow created by his muscular body drifting intermittently and slowly across the serene landscape, enveloping the dewy rainbows and then turning them back on as if a switch was being flicked randomly by some omnipresent presence. 

Butterfly's skipped through the warming air, dancing an elaborate pattern as they fed on the abundance of natures sweet nectar. As the ground slowly warmed, the buzz of crickets began to add to the sweet symphony of nature that filled the air. 

A gentle rustle in the nearby bulrushes announces a water rat exiting its hidden burrow as it searches for food. It freezes stock still and sniffs the warming air, the buzz of dragon flies and insects filling its ever listening ears. 

To be continued......

THE MASTICATION FACTORY

 THE MASTICATION FACTORY 

Lord Tostig of the Horn, loved to masticate.

As a child of the wilderness he was prone to wandering the countryside seeking out items to practice his favourite habit on. His preference was for fresh flesh that had been slowly roasted on an open fire, but this did not halt his rapid consumption of any available morsel. 

At birth he had been blessed with a full set of choppers and made his mothers breastfeeding an unimaginable agony. He was therefore weened at an early age and confidently consumed solids from the age of two months. 

Tostig was introduced to raw meat after stumbling upon the corpse of a fallen warrior who had succumbed to the black death. Although only seven years old, he dismembered the body with his knife and rapidly consumed the flesh and entrails, leaving only the bones for the eagles and vultures to scavenge over.

As a teenager he quickly mastered the profession of animal husbandry and butchery, and within his courtly circle was renowned for his cannibalistic behaviour towards the recently deceased.

Before full puberty, he had obtained the epitaph "Horn", due to his habit of gnawing the horned skulls of rams and bulls and sucking the animals horns to remove any marrowbone residing in the horns. 

By his late teens he was unequalled in his ability to masticate, and was undoubtedly the greatest masticater within the territory he and his extended and ravenous bruderbund inhabited. 

To be continued..........