The House on Two Legs

Ivan Zoh

2010-05-10T23:07:00.004+02:00

With the permission of his father, Jusht, Maiket Zoh married Letibe of the gypsies at the height of summer, and all the farmers congregated in the valley village to witness their vows. For a wedding gift Jusht gave his son four cows and the quarter of his land that bordered a wood, and he built them a small farmhouse at the centre of four fields; two for raising grain, two for grazing livestock. That first year the gypsies gave only their daughter; but from then on, whenever their travels brought them back to the valley they brought strange gifts from the lands they travelled, which in time made the small farm of the Zohs most noteworthy. That autumn Maiket took in the first harvest of his own, which was his gift to her; they gave each other warmth through the long, harsh winter; and in the spring Letibe gave birth to dark, beautiful twins, which was her gift to him.

Ivan Zoh was born a moment before his sister, Ehva, but their parents loved them equally well, as well as a life of hard farm work would allow. They were like one child divided: Ehva's mind held thoughts for two and the tongue in her head would happily speak for them both, but she suffered such lethargies that days might pass without her so much as leaving the family home, let alone the farm itself. Ivan on the other hand had energy to spare and spent his childhood adventuring around the valley at the beck and call of his sister's vivid imagination, though his own was as limited as his vocabulary. He was a watchful boy, inasmuch as his insatiable urge to act would allow.

When Ivan and Ehva were four, their mother gave birth again. From his very first day Sohan was a tricksy boy, difficult to keep an eye on, troublesome when left unwatched, and utterly unafraid of saying or doing whatever took upon him to be said or done, most often at the worst of times. Only his sister had any command over him, for he was devoted to her, and as he grew he found no subject for his slyness more satisfying than his brother, often following him on Ehva's missions either to beat him to the prize or throw unexpected obstacles in his path.

Of course, the duties of the farm called too, and even Ehva's daily quests would have to wait until Maiket judged Ivan's work done. It was a hard life, but Ivan was rewarded for it with strength and a sound knowledge of crops and livestock, they too being relatively simple things, reliable when treated properly. In the autumn of his tenth year, Maiket decided Ivan would help in the fields with the harvest. Ivan was proud that his strength was enough to make him useful in the most important time of the year.

On the morning of the first day of autumn Ivan was up early feeding the animals, while Letibe and Ehva prepared food for the day in the kitchen. Maiket said to little Sohan, "Go to your brother and tell him to join me in the north field when the animals are fed, for I go to begin the harvest."

"I will join you too," said Sohan, but his father shook his head.

"You are too small to work in the fields," he said as he left. "You will stay here and help your mother and sister." Sohan was furious that he wasn't allowed to help with the harvest as well, and he stamped his feet as he went to Ivan.

"Our father orders me to help you in the south field while he works the north alone," said Sohan and Ivan agreed. He and his brother found the south field high with grain, but there were no tools or cord to cut and bind it. "If you pull up the crop with your bare hands I will go and bring what we need," said Sohan and Ivan agreed, bending to the work as his brother left smiling.

All morning Ivan pulled up the grain, laying it in blankets of gold behind him, but Sohan did not return with tools or cord. Still Ivan worked as the sun beat down, long into the afternoon, until he discovered a strange tool abandoned in the field - a straight-bladed sickle of gleaming steel. It cut through the straw beautifully and Ivan was pleased, knowing that he might finish the harvest faster - but hardly had he begun to swing the blade than a voice cried to him from the waves of golden grain.

"I hear the singing of my sword! Who wields it?" Ivan looked at the sword, only now seeing it for a weapon, having never looked upon one before.

"My name is Ivan Zoh," he called. "I work my father's field. Who's sword is this?"

"I am the Tsar's good knight, Dmitri," came the voice. "Swing the sword once more!"

Ivan did, and the falling grain revealed before him a wounded warrior lying hidden in the field, wearing long moustaches, with the blood of his enemies and himself upon his battered armour. He held out his hand for the sword, and though it would have made his task much easier Ivan returned it to its owner. The knight brushed off the straw dust from the blade and sheathed it.

"I was pursued by enemies of the Tsar, and am the last of my company. I was lost in the night and took refuge here to lose them and regain my strength. Am I near to the city?" Ivan had never left the valley, but knew from stories that Dis, the city of the Tsar, lay beyond the mountain to the north, and he said so.

"Bah! I am not strong enough to climb mountains!" Dmitri frowned at the sky. "I need water, food and shelter, and bandages for my injuries. Will you take me to your home?"

Ivan thought, and then he said, "My father sent me here to work. I must finish before I go home. But my brother has not returned with tools, nor the cord to tie the bushels." The knight looked him over; Ivan was both strong and - if simple - determined to do his duty; good qualities in a youngster, he knew.

"If you agree to help me, I have a roll of twine in my pack which you may use to tie the bushels; and I'll loan you my sword for the day to speed the cutting first. What do you say?"

Ivan had liked the feel of the sword in his hand, so he agreed with a wide smile which the knight returned. Swinging the blade he made fast work of the rest of the field, and there was more than enough twine to tie all the bushels when it was done. Before he gave back the sword, he used it to cut a limb from an old tree for a crutch; then, with one arm around the knight's back and a bushel of grain under the other, Ivan helped bring Dmitri back to the farm.

Maiket had been angry all day, thinking Ivan too lazy to work. "I told him to help," said Sohan, who had eaten Ivan's lunch as well as his own when his brother didn't return to the farmhouse at noon. When the dog started barking Maiket stormed out to beat a good lesson into his son, but was much surprised by what he found and bowed to the knight deeply, welcoming him inside.

"Your boy has done you much credit," said the knight. "Your southern crop is harvested and he has been a great aid to me. He has both followed your orders and served an agent of the Tsar. You have raised him as well as the sun raises grain."

"I see that I have, sir knight," said Maiket. "More so than my other son, I suspect," he added, as Sohan ran away to hide in the chicken house, with the dog snapping at his heels all the way. "You are welcome to recover here for as long as it may take."

"Thank you," said Dmitri, "though I cannot rest long as I must bear my message to the Tsar. Perhaps, in a few days when your harvest is done, Ivan could help me finish this task."

Letibe was most concerned, for her first-born had never spent so much as two nights in a row out from under her roof; Ehva was shocked at the notion of her brother embarking on an adventure not of her making; and, had he not been hiding in the stink of the chickens, Sohan would have been outraged at the reward being offered for being tricked so easily - and when he found out the next morning, outraged he certainly was.

But Maiket looked at Ivan and saw a glimmer of light in his eyes that had not been there the day before; he imagined the things the boy would have a chance to see, even if it was only a fleeting glimpse; and he shook the hand of the knight and told Ivan that, if he worked hard to complete the harvest, and if he obeyed the knight's orders without question, and if he promised to bring no shame on the family name, that he may accompany the knight to Dis, the city of the Tsar.

Ivan Zoh promised, and three days later he left the valley for the very first time.

The old tree

2008-05-13T22:57:00.012+02:00

In the winter when Ivan was seven, grandfather Jusht came to their farm and told stories all night, even after Maiket and Letibe had taken little Sohan off to bed and it was only Ivan and Ehva, who were thrilled to be awake in the candlelight, with the night as black as could be all around.

Jusht told them lots of tales, about how his parents came to live in the valley, how the village in the valley came to be, and how the mountain and the valley came to be themselves.

"When I was old enough, I left my father's home to make one of my own, just like Maiket did the summer before you were born," Jusht said, "but for me it was just after the winter and the weather was sharp. My father gave me strong new boots and a coat which had always served him well and kept him warm, and an axe for cutting firewood, or for cutting up wolves if they tried to eat me.

"I walked along the river that runs through the village until I reached the forest - by that I mean the woods right here, although back then they were a forest, all tangled and dark and filled with who knows what. No-one would go through the forest on foot unless they had to, and even the boaters don't like it, though they haven't a choice, but I was young and brave and I wanted to make my home somewhere special, so I decided to walk through the forest and see what was there.

"It was very difficult. Every step would drag at my feet. The trees beside the river were as thick as a wall and I had to move deeper into the forest to continue, until I couldn't hear the running water and had no idea where the river was, or which way to go to get out of the forest at all.

"It was night and I was cold, even with my coat, and if I didn't set a fire I would have frozen solid. I found myself stood beneath an old tree, just as bent and twisted and wrinkled as I am myself right now. So I pulled out my axe, and I picked the best looking branch, and I swung back the axe to chop that branch off.

" 'Don't cut off my arm,' said the old tree.

" 'I need it for my fire,' I replied, 'or I'll freeze harder than the mountain.'

" 'Why are you even here?' asked the old tree. 'This forest is no place for men. Men make their own places. This is a place for the old things to hide in, to hide from the men in.'

" 'I came here to find a good place to live. There are old things here?'

"The old tree looked about. 'No,' it said. 'No, there are no old things living here but myself.'

" 'Maybe it would be best then if I cut you down entirely,' I said. The old tree didn't like that idea at all!

" 'Where is your respect?' it groaned. 'I was the first tree to grow in the valley. I was here before the first house in that little village of men was built. I've lived since before this forest even grew. I looked out over the rolling grasses when there was nothing living here but the wild old things. And now some boy is going to cut me down to build a fire?' "

"Grandfather Jusht?" The old man looked down at the smooth little faces looking up at him.

"Yes, Ehva, my flower."

"This is stupid. Tree's can't talk."

"But this is a tale. You've heard tales before, haven't you?"

"Yes," said Ehva.

"And in tales you've heard of strange monsters, and magic gifts, and talking beasts, haven't you?"

"Yes," chorused Ehva and Ivan.

"So," said Jusht. " 'If you're so old and lonely, what do you have to live for?' I asked the old tree. 'You don't even have a view of the valley, surrounded by this forest.'

" 'I know a good place for you to live,' it said. 'If I was to show you, you would not harm me, yes?'

" 'I would not harm you at all, if it wasn't so very cold,' I replied.

" 'Then cut down that sapling there and make a fire with that,' said the old tree. 'It grows too close to me for comfort in any case, it has no respect either.'

"Well, I set to and cut down the sapling and the effort kept me warm. I chopped it into logs and made a fire and then I settled down against the old tree's trunk and warmed myself by the fire all night, while the old tree told me stories about the strange things it had seen over the long years."

"Grandfather Jusht?" said Ivan, through a yawn.

"Yes, my little soldier."

"I thought you couldn't make new wood burn because it was too green and it would make lots of smoke even if you did."

"This was a special sapling."

"Oh."

"Now, in the morning when my fire was burnt out I got up and said to the old tree, 'Where is this good place for me to live then?'

"The old tree said, 'There was a fine house of strong wood, just around here somewhere. The forest must have grown up around it. I'm sure that, if you were to cut down some of these younger trees, you would find it just as good as new.'

"Well, I was young and strong, and not too bright, so I started cutting down those trees and looking everywhere for that fine house. Soon I'd made a clearing near that old tree, but there was no house I could find. The old tree said, 'Maybe it was a bit further than I remember; it has been many years since I was able to see it, what with all these young trees jumping up everywhere. Keep cutting, keep looking.'

"So I kept cutting down the trees and stacking them up behind me, and the clearing got bigger and bigger and that first old tree got further and further behind me as I went, but still I didn't find any fine house in the forest. And the old tree called to me, 'You'll find it, don't worry, keep cutting, keep looking.'

"Well, I cut down trees all day and the clearing I'd made grew so long and wide that I could hardly see the old tree at the far end of it, and still there was no fine house to be found. And then, when I cut down one more tree, I found myself at the edge of the forest and the view of the valley was stretching out before me in the evening sun, as beautiful as it ever had been.

"It was then that I heard a strange sound from behind me, and when I turned I saw the old tree was weeping. 'I have not seen the valley for so long,' it said, 'for so long. Thank you, thank you.'

" 'There is no fine house, is there?' I said.

" 'Not yet,' said the old tree. 'But you have cut down so many trees that there is enough wood lying here to build yourself a mansion and still have more left over to sell. This old forest is now only a wood, and safe enough that many a man would not hesitate to cross it, so the traders will thank you. If you plant more trees each spring, you could grow enough firewood for yourself and the whole village every winter, so the villagers will thank you. A man could live long and well without ever threatening a fine old tree like myself again.'

"The old tree was right. I built myself a home with the trees I'd cut down, and it is still fine and strong; I sold the rest of the wood in the village, and ever since then I've planted new trees each spring and cut down others each winter and provided fire wood for the whole village, and the oldest part of the wood still stands, and that old tree, which now marks the border of your father's south field, looks out across the valley view and will do for as long as it stands."

Jusht nodded to himself. He looked down at this grandchildren. Ehva was studying him closely. Ivan was fast asleep.

"So," said Ehva, "when you were in the forest you heard a talking tree?"

"Didn't I just say so in the tale?" asked Jusht.

"Yes," said Ehva.

"Well, if it was in a tale, it must have happened," said Jusht. "Now go to sleep."