Ch 15

With the same silence, engrossed in her thoughts followed by her old soldier Chang and the squire Kum, the road to the Sierra of the forest of tears began to travel.

She longed to hear love songs and watch the peasant girls dance. SHe needed to be distracted, his soul soothed.

His grandfather came from northern lands, that's why he was Count, a whole life lost managing an ugly and poor land that who knows how he managed to inherit. Poverty and humiliations passed and she inherited them.

Now she for having dignity, the back and abandonment of an entire kingdom received as payment for her efforts. Life is sometimes difficult to understand and tragic in its painful anxiety. It had elevated her...

The King had humiliated her. He was sending her to choose a husband. He did not assign her one from the royal court...Very few men would accept to be chosen. It was ignoble to do so. He had degraded her to a public woman... Bastard... But with a name... Noble... But a bastard... !How difficult her life would be! Praised by the poor, humiliated by those of royal blood.

Thus they arrived to a dawn in the middle of the mountains in the high dawn. It was a road crossing, a place of rest with food, fatigued, with tired spirit the young woman descended from her black and strong mare, the spoils of her personal victory. Exhausted, she could not take another step.

Two men came out violently through the air, knocking down the door and three others in the middle of the road went to give.

--Do not enter, Excellency. Inside is a demon impossible to control," --exclaimed a traveler in desperation before fleeing in terror.

Baimei ordered his men to stop, and the young woman peeked cautiously and curiously at the door, peering inside.

A terrible scene unfolded before her eyes. A man of more than 2.10 meters, with an immense purple beard, 160 kilos or more, of extraordinary structure, hair shaved to 0, furious look, a strange guttural language showed, rather bear roars seemed to give. With one hand he was drinking a barrel of wine, more than 60 liters without stopping. The clean bones of a whole pig at one end of the table were displayed and half an additional pig had already been eaten.

The floor of the inn was littered with bodies, their wails and groans coming from them, one or the other crawling around trying to escape.

A thin young woman crying at full speed came out and reported to the countess.

--He has forced two maids, also my fragile body wanted to use," --cried the girl crying, losing herself in the darkness.

Baimei carefully entered , quietly at one end of the table sat down . Drawing the monster's attention. It smashed the barrel of wine on the wall, making the dead and wounded magically resurrect, joining, fleeing in terror, leaving the truly examinees motionless with a face of horror to show....

The girl admired, undaunted by the attitude of the monstrous man who, shirtless, showed his torso of immense and stony muscles, sculpted by the force of so much action. He saw her and approached her and sniffed her like an animal in heat.

He made a few guttural grunts that failed to frighten the undaunted young woman, who stared at him, amazed at the color of his beard and his extraordinary musculature, sculpted in iron it seemed.

The sweet and divine scent of the young woman with delight absolved. A strange roar of admiration came again. He wanted to touch with his rough hand the skin of her face, but she with her fragile hand gently prevented it. He saw her headband, saw her simple steel ring, He said again something she did not understand. But a rude compliment no doubt he gave her.

--How can I understand a troll? Witch I am not,"-- said the girl, loud enough to be heard.

She spoke to him in Mandarin, Mongolian, the language of the Han, of the inhabitants of the Mekong, of those of Angkor, of those of the Samurai islands, of the Tartars, and of those of distant Lhasa.

None of these languages was attended to. Of course, neither Hindu, Persian nor Bombay reacted.

The troll succumbed to the effects of the wine, the food or the beauty of the girl. Slowly his face among the remains of flesh sank, giving loud yawns and snores, like an animal slept.

Gradually the dead and wounded pulled out. The owner of the inn before the girl knelt. It was the goddess of the sea in person, loudly proclaimed it. Like the wise saints, she defeated the demon of fire. What great power of persuasion! .

His own room, washed, perfumed with a brand new sheet, was given to the young woman.

He did not want to accept coins and colored flowers for her passage she threw. The goddess of love had arrived. God be praised, what a great power of seduction!

However, the young woman at mid-morning resumed her march. The troll understood that he had a new mistress. Washed in a large tub he bathed and a hammer of more than 250 kilos with ease on his shoulder he carried. Behind the countess's caravan on foot he followed her.

Preceded by songs that told of her adventure to her county she arrived. Great hullabaloo at the passage of the countess developed. For her arrival coincided with the first harvest of cabbages, chickpeas, greens and vegetables. Famine was now a mirage. The village the road to prosperity in the hands of the countess arrived.

Hardly the honors to his authority received.

The burly Mongol gave a great laugh. He spoke to the troll. He understood the guttural roars with which the man expressed himself. He was from the cold lands of the distant Moscow River. A great blacksmith and smith. Swords, armor and daggers of power was his profession to create with hardness and endless edge. Horse hooves, forks, plates and helmets. Coins. It was a magnificent acquisition. For the mute blacksmith of so much work was exhausted.