Lina was swimming calmly in the lake, enjoying the cool water that had refreshed her after a day spent in the sun.
She swam to the shore and closed her eyes. All she could hear was the evening song of the crickets and the sound of the water rippled with her palms. It was slowly getting dark and the last rays of the sun were disappearing between the branches of the trees that formed a green wall around the lake.
Lina lifted herself up a little higher, so that the water now reached halfway up her arms, and she glanced across the opposite shore of the lake. She suddenly froze because she saw a figure watching her from the bushes, or at least that's what it seemed to her.
She quickly sank back into the water up to her chin so as not to give the spy, whoever it was, an unwanted spectacle.
She bounced off and swam as if nothing had happened to the place where her clothes had been laid out. Her eyes were fixed on the figure in the bushes, and she was furious when she realized it was a man.
If it was one of the villagers, then he should not wish for what he would experience, she told herself.
She sank so that he would not see her and swam under the surface to the shore to her clothes. Almost silently she climbed out of the water and pulled on her clothes - a simple beige dress that reached her knees.
She was far enough away from the man to be sure that he would not hear anything, and she could also move very quietly, which was often useful to her.
She crept quietly with light steps to where the spy was. She saw him immediately. He was tall and gave the impression of being powerful, at least compared to her. He was looking at the lake, at the place where she had been just before she had sunk below the surface.
Anger and fury rippled through her. She took two quick steps towards the man. She didn't mind that now he had noticed the sounds of her movement and turned around - it was exactly what she needed.
She clenched her fingers in her palm and, with all her strength, intensified by her anger, she slammed her fist into his jaw.
The blow completely threw him off balance. The heavy war hammer he had was pulling him backwards. Unfortunately for him, there was only the lake behind him. The next thing he remembered was lying in the shallows of the lake, soaking wet.
He struggled to his feet, saying, "What the hell was that for?"
Before he realized that he had been holding a rabbit when he fell, his dinner was bouncing off the trees.
"That's it for dinner," he muttered and began to climb out of the water onto the shore.
Lina stared at him in disbelief.
"Ask more! Do you think it's normal to watch someone while they're bathing?" she shouted at him.
Water dripped from her hair and she hugged her chest tightly with her arms. Her jaw was set and her eyes were flashing.
The man looked her over. She didn't look like anything special. If she tried to attack him, it wouldn't be hard to defend herself. She probably didn't even have a dagger with her, but he had learned from years of fighting not to underestimate anyone.
In terms of appearance, she didn't look so bad. She was of medium height, her brown hair, although wet, waved slightly, her brown, furious eyes were framed by thick eyelashes and arched eyebrows. But he had seen plenty of people like her.
"I didn't know you were here until you climbed ashore. And then you disappeared. People don't just disappear. I couldn't risk you jumping out of nowhere at me with a sword in your hand," he snorted and began to wring water from his brown cloak.
To be sure, if she wanted to attack, he made sure that his dagger hadn't fallen out in the lake. At such a short distance, he wouldn't have been able to get the hammer off his back in time to defend himself with it.
The girl froze for two seconds, having to make sure she hadn't misheard. And although she hadn't intended to, her lips twitched up in amusement. She looked at him and decided that he didn't look crazy.
"You've probably been attacked by a lot of women, haven't you? They were just swimming around, then they came out of the lake, and the first thing they did was jump on you?"
She narrowed her eyes and watched the man wring the water out of his coat. From his demeanor, she could tell he probably didn't mean what she thought, but she was still ready to call for help.
The man stopped wringing his coat for a moment. Her reaction took him by surprise. There was a lot of truth to the teasing - he'd never experienced anything like it. It was just a simple fighting instinct. He might have developed a fair amount of paranoia over the years, but better paranoia than a dagger in the back.
"I've had my share," he grumbled.
He didn't want to admit that she'd hit the nail on the head, why would he? However, her twitching was contagious, and for a brief moment his own twitched too.
He took his hammer off his back and began to examine it. It was battered, very worn, and now covered in mud, but even so, under the familiar weight of the massive weapon, he calmed down and began to remove the mud.
Lina looked at him and realized that he looked rather miserable. As if he had been injured. But judging by the fact that he had taken the greatest care of his clothes and hammer, he was not injured physically. Unless his jaw was bruised and he was just trying to pretend that nothing was wrong.
He was perhaps a head and a half taller than her, his figure was truly massive, at least compared to the men of the village. His hair was short and light brown. His sharply cut face seemed inaccessible and at first glance hard.
Lina didn't know why, but she didn't feel like he wanted to attack her. It occurred to her that maybe he wasn't really spying on her and was in the bushes because of the hare.
She knew it wasn't the smartest idea, but she took a step closer to him, her arms still hugging her chest. She glanced down at the tool in her hand.
"What were you doing with it? Was it hitting iron?" she asked.
The man looked at the unknown girl. Whatever her worst fears had been, they seemed to have vanished.
"Wage war," he answered simply.
He thought of adding that the hammer had shattered more skulls in a single battle than she had experienced in a winter, but that seemed too harsh for someone like her, and he didn't want to sound rude.
Lina wasn't sure if she was surprised or not. From the second glance (the first she had devoted only to focusing on his jaw), he didn't seem like an ordinary villager to her.
She realized that her previous thought that she might bruise his jaw had been completely unnecessary.
She looked into his eyes, which surprised her with their blue color, which was obscured by the darkness of the night. But somewhere further away, she saw something else in his gaze. Something that made her take another step back.
His gaze began to unnerve her. A warrior and she would slap him in the face! If he wanted to, he could send her into a long, if not eternal, sleep with a single blow.
But then she shook her head and her courage spoke within her. If he tried... she certainly wouldn't make it easy for him.
"I'm sorry you… missed dinner," she nodded in the direction the hare had run off. "I won't apologize for that slap, though. Maybe you'll think about the fact that there are fewer women who would throw themselves at you with the intention of killing you."
She didn't know why, but she smiled slightly at him. She still found it amusing that he thought she wanted to kill him.
"I won't starve, I still have some supplies," he responded to her apology about the hare and put the hammer back on his back.
He probably didn't have to fear anything from this girl, but he wasn't going to let his guard down. Words are words and steel is steel, she could still have that dagger somewhere. "As for the slap, I've taken worse wounds. Much worse."
He checked his clothes again. He looked terrible. His clothes were worn out long ago, but they looked downright pathetic now, not to mention the cold wind that had blown in, which couldn't do anyone any good in wet clothes.
"Look, it's getting cold and I'd like to dry off. I'm camping a little way from here and if you want, you can join me. God knows what's lurking in the woods now," he said, and turned to leave.
He was really starting to feel cold. The thought of a warm fire burning a little way away was very pleasant.
The girl winced and widened her eyes at him. She began to wonder in her mind whether she was really mentally well.
Her clothes were starting to feel cold, especially from the way the water dripped from her hair, so that the entire top of her clothes were wet, and she realized that she should have been home a long time ago so that her mother wouldn't worry about her.
"No, thank you. I'd rather go," she replied, and she backed away toward the path that led in the opposite direction from the one the man had taken.
She didn't want to turn her back on him. That was one of the things her father and grandfather kept instilling in her mind. She had barely taken two steps when there was a growl and a big black dog came out of the bushes and charged at the man.
"Adare! No!" Lina shouted, running after him.
The dog was approaching the man with his back to him at lightning speed. However, he heard a growl and the thud of running feet.
His years of experience and perfectly trained reflexes began to work. He made a turn on the spot, but it was too late. There was no time to draw a dagger, let alone a hammer.
The dog jumped and aimed its teeth straight for the neck. The animal had good killer instincts. The only thing the man could do was put his hand in front of him to protect his neck.
The dog bit into his forearm as he flew. A stabbing pain shot through the man's body, but he had learned to suppress it in the fight. Now he had to survive. He made a turn, which directed the dog in flight and threw it a little further.
Thanks to the inertia, the man's hand slipped out of the animal's mouth and landed two meters away. He turned on the spot and prepared for another attack.
The man was already ready. He drew his dagger with his good hand. A hammer was no match for an animal that fast. What could be done, a dagger would do. If the bloodthirsty beast tried again, it would tear it to pieces.
Blood from the wound on the man's injured hand ran down the man's palm and dripped onto the ground.
He wished he had his gear on. His hands were protected by leather gloves with steel backs, his forearms by greaves, his legs by shin guards, and his body by the solid steel of armor. But whatever. With the dagger in his hand, he was more than ready.
The dog growled angrily and the man gripped the dagger's hilt tighter. Man against beast. His lips twisted into a half-satisfied, half-mad smile. This was a challenge. And he liked challenges.
Lina froze in place the moment she saw Adar's teeth clench into the man, but now she was running again and in a moment she was on the beast. She saw that the man was holding a dagger in his hand and was about to attack the dog. The stranger's expression frightened her - he looked like a beast ready to attack.
She was only a short distance from them, but she could already see that it would be enough for them to be together