Eachtach took one of Diramuid’s spears with her, just in case. The raven took off flying as soon as she took a step against it.

Eachtach was a fast runner, and a sure footed hunter, but she wasn’t able to catch up to the raven. If she didn’t know any better she would think it was messing with her. It always seemed to be flying just out of reach, just slightly too fast for her.

When it finally stopped flying it was on the top of a steep hill, a sídhe as Diarmuid would call it, the mounds that lead to the otherworld, Mag Mell as it was called. Eachtach’s family usually avoided them. Large, unforested, elevated areas were easy to be spotted on.

Eachtach figured just this once it would be safe to climb after it. She couldn’t hear the hunting dogs behind her, so most likely nothing would spot her.

She was carefully scaling the side of the mound, keeping her eyes locked on the raven, when she heard a strange noise behind her.

When Eachtach turned to look at what it was she saw before her a massive tusked creature, easily twice as large as her. It looked like a monster out of Diarmuid’s stories, with spears for teeth and lifeless black eyes. It was at the base of the mound, though it clearly had noticed her. Its strange eyes were fixed on her.

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The raven, now forgotten, took flight. Eachtach felt, for the first time in her life, the beating of its wings echoing in her chest. If this creature resembled a monster from Diarmuid’s stories then perhaps it could be defeated just as easily.

It started to charge, running up the mound towards her.

She lifted her father’s spear against it, and in a single strike the monster was dead at her feet.

Diarmuid called the monster “a boar” and impressed on her the importance of never approaching one again, or at least not until she was much older and better able to defend herself.

He talked at length about the geas against him, how if she had been in danger he wouldn’t have been able to protect her. He explained how he couldn’t kill a boar without activating the geas, how it would bring ruin on him and his entire clan.

Grainne then asked if by “his entire clan” he meant her or the Fianna. Diarmuid didn’t answer, but he also didn’t keep ranting at Eachtach which was good.

Even as Eachtach ran that evening, with the hunting hounds behind her, and Ruchladh tucked safely in her arms, and the aftertaste of pork in her mouth, she could still feel the beating of the raven’s wings in her chest.