The hermit was a knobbly old man.

He had a wispy patch of thin gray hairs sticking up from his head, a long wicked nose, and fingers that looked like some old trees gnarled bark.

He was busily gardening when Jorun walked into sight.

He glowered at Jorun, waiting as he approached.

“Hello,” He said as amiably as he could. He couldn’t muster much energy as the man looked like he was ready to bite off Jorun’s head.

“What are you doing out here boy?” He growled.

Jorun just smiled as amiably as he could, “I heard someone lived out here and was just wanting to say hi.”

“Hi. Now beat it.”

Jorun paused. Normally people were friendly and nice. Everyone in the village had made him feel welcome. This response was completely unexpected and he struggled to think of something to say to that.

“Look. I don’t want it. I am fine. Go away.” With that the man resumed hoeing the ground. He was digging a long track in the ground.

“Sure. Do you mind telling me what you are doing?”

The man glanced at Jorun briefly, but didn’t stop chopping the ground with his hoe.

“I am getting ready to grow some tomatoes.”

“What does that have to do with you hitting the ground with a weird shovel?”

The man laughed hard enough to stop working. He glanced at Jorun, “Where did you come from to have never seen a garden, the waste?”

“Oh, someone told you about me? I didn’t think anyone from the village came to visit you.”

The man squinted at Jorun, “Are you seriously from the waste? No one has ever come from there a live.”

“I did. Although,” Here Jorun looked at his badly fitting clothes still hanging off the bone, “I almost didn’t make it. Everyone has been kind enough to look after me since I got here. I didn’t realize how close to dying I got. I’ve only recently been getting around and moving again.”

“I hit the ground to stir the soil. The soil on top is dead. The sun dries it out, making it useless for plants. Older plants, with long roots can survive, but seedlings wont make it. This also kills off any weeds.”

“What’s a weed?”

“Anything that isn’t a tomato plant, when I am planting tomatoes.”

Jorun nodded, “The other plants are bad for tomatoes?”

The man shrugged and resumed his chopping motion, “There is only enough food for a few plants in soil like this. If I am not careful, the other plants will steal all the food that the tomatoes need. If I was planting corn, it would be corn. You really don’t know anything about this?”

Jorun knelt down to look at the dirt, “No one growing up took care of plants. They were all too buy. We only ate what other people gave us.”

“Well this is how you grow food.”

“It’s interesting.”

The old man laughed, “I suppose it is, but I don’t think what I am doing is that impressive. There are people that have actual farms out to the east. This soil is awful for growing in.”

“Bad huh?”

The man didn’t respond, but simply continued chopping away at the ground.

“I wouldn’t mind trying it some time.”

“Gardening?”

Jorun nodded.

“You can’t learn here.” The old man harrumphed.

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It didn’t seem like he would get anywhere with the old man, so he turned and walked away.

“He wasn’t very nice.” Latty snapped.

“It doesn’t matter.”

When he got back to Betty’s home, she was cooking over a small pot, and he had a flashback to the days when his mom would cook something for him. He closed the door as she spoke.

“I hear you went out to see the hermit. Everyone says that you shouldn’t have ever gone to see him, but I wonder what you think?”

Jorun sat down on one of the stools that lined the table. He hadn’t thought that anyone would have been able to tell if he had talked to the old man. Apparently someone in the village had figured out what he had been doing.

“He seemed like he wanted to be left alone.”

“Do you think you will see him again?”

She put down a bowl of soup for Jorun to eat from, “I think so.”

And he had.

The next couple of times he visited the result was more or less the same. The man would grumble and complain, but he would answer a few questions that Jorun asked. After a while, he would just get tired of talking and expect Jorun to go away as he had originally asked.

Even as he complained, Jorun suspected there was a smile in the old man’s squinting eyes.

The villagers, on the other hand, had all sorts of fantastic stories about the hermit.

Some believed he was a bandit hiding from the law.

Some thought he was a demon.

Some thought he had been conjured by the witch.

Never once did Jorun get the impression that the people thought anything good about him.

He thought about the grumpy old man that he had begun getting to know. He just spent all day trying to grow crops in soil that wasn’t really good for growing crops. Jorun knew that much now. The reason that there were only really scraggly plants was because of the soil and weather.

It was too dry.

It had more water than where he had grown up. There were almost no plants at all there. The scraggly trees and bushes weren’t exactly green, but they were definitely more than nothing.

He didn’t seem like a bad person. If Jorun had to guess the main was probably a victim rather than a culprit. The people in the village didn’t really ever talk or interact with him. All they saw was an angry old man who never tried to talk to anyone.

Jorun hated to admit it, but he was coming to like the man.

This would only lead to a problem that Jorun hadn’t expected to deal with.

He had just assumed the same thing that all the villagers thought. If you didn’t bother to get to know the person, you couldn’t ever really understand what they were like or what they wanted out of life.

He lay down after finishing the evening’s meal. Betty was cleaning up, but she had informed him that he couldn’t just spend all day wandering around. He should try to help people out a little, and figure out what he was wanting to do next.

Latty drifted in.

“Latty, do you think anyone is following me when we go out?”

“No, I am pretty sure it is just you.”

“The villagers always seem to know what I have visited the hermit.”

Latty drifted over him like a small colorful cloud, “Worried they will try to stop you?”

She raised a finger, “Or are you worried that they will see your other activities?”

He had made a habit out of visiting the witches cottage and the cemetery at night. He wasn’t carrying a huge supply of energy, but it was definitely growing brighter.

“What do you think?”

“I don’t think anyone is aware of you heading out to the witches cottage.”

“Betty wants me to start working.”

“Are you going to?”

“No.”

“So what will you do?”

“Pay for my food and go live in the witches house. I will pretend like I don’t know there is anything strange about it. That way they will all think I am just looking around for a place to stay. I will ask if anyone ones it, and if they mind me living there and cleaning it up.”

“You have enough money?”

Jorun hadn’t thought he had that much money, but he had discovered that he had more than he had expected it to be, “I should be fine for a while. I just need to figure out what I will be doing in the long run.”

“I suppose you know what you are doing. Just don’t die on me.”

“Alright, alright. Let me get some sleep.”

-------

“Betty,” she looked up from her breakfast porridge.

“Yes?”

“The house on the hill, I was wondering if anyone owned it. I wouldn’t mind cleaning and fixing it up for them.”

“No one owns it, but it is cursed. You really shouldn’t stay there.”

“I don’t mind curses.”

Betty glowered at him, “You should. I’ve seen it drive men mad.”

“I faced the waste. I have seen madness. I know you mean well, but I have to think about where I am going. What path I am going to walk. I can’t let others tell me what to fear and what to face. It’s just me. I am all that is left.”

Betty sighed, “You are getting stronger, and I think you have done the old hermit some good. Just make sure that you take care of yourself properly. So don’t forget to keep with us here.”

Jorun laughed, “I am not planning on being a hermit. Just not going to wander around aimlessly either.”

“I can’t believe I am worried about you. You just wandered in from the waste a couple of days ago. Get out there and do your best, but first you better eat up that food. Can’t have you starving on your first day off on your own.”

Jorun slurped up the food, and went to his room to pack up.

There wasn’t that much he actually cared about. He just needed to go through the motions.

When he was done, he was able to put on his pack and head out for the first time in a long time. It felt great to be on the move again. Even if it was for such a short distance.