“I’ll take her — And every one of her children.” The mountain man’s words stunned the whole town
“I’ll take her — And every one of her children.” The mountain man’s words stunned the whole town
Chapter 1: The Verdict Under the Blizzard
The town of Blackwood nestled in a remote valley, surrounded by ancient pine forests and snow-capped peaks year-round. It was a struggling, impoverished place where people survived by logging and exhausting their labor. The harsh weather seemed to have frozen even the compassion of its inhabitants.
In the center of town stood a large, dilapidated wooden house, its paint peeling, its chimney constantly emitting wisps of smoke. It was the only orphanage in the region.
The caretaker was a woman in her fifties, with a gentle face but deeply etched with the wrinkles of worry. She had neither husband nor children. For the past twenty-five years, she had dedicated her youth, strength, and every penny to caring for abandoned children, unfortunate souls born from the deaths of lumberjacks or the unfortunate fates of prostitutes. To her, they weren’t orphans. They were her children.
But this winter, tragedy struck.
A fire destroyed the town’s largest sawmill, pushing Blackwood’s economy to the brink of bankruptcy. The sawmill owner, who was also the mayor and the town’s biggest creditor, decided to reclaim all loans to cover the losses. The orphanage, burdened with a huge mortgage debt to maintain its food supply, became the first target for foreclosure.
On a bitterly cold December morning, the mayor stood on the porch of Town Hall, followed by the sheriff with a rifle. Below, hundreds of townspeople stood with their arms crossed, their eyes cold and emotionless.
Standing in the midst of the crowd was the woman in charge of the orphanage, her arms outstretched, desperately shielding twenty-two children huddled together, shivering from fear and the cold.
“You don’t have the money to pay your debts. That building now belongs to the town,” the mayor hissed, exhaling smoke from his cigar. “As for these children… the town can’t afford to keep them. We’ll distribute them. Those ten years and older will be sent to farms and coal mines to work to pay off their debts. The younger ones will be sent to the state’s poorhouse three hundred miles away.”
“No! Please!” The woman collapsed onto the freezing snow, tears streaming down her face. She clutched a four-year-old girl who was sobbing uncontrollably. “You can’t tear them apart! They’re brothers! They’re my children! Please give me more time, I’ll work more, I’ll pay them back in full…”
“Time’s up,” the mayor sneered. “And you, a homeless woman, if you don’t want to freeze to death, you’d better leave this town before dark. The distribution begins!”
A few rough miners and farmhands began to approach, snatching the older boys, examining their muscles as if they were livestock. The cries and screams of the children being torn from their mothers’ arms echoed through the valley, creating a heart-wrenching scene.
She frantically clawed and struggled with the large men to protect her children, but only received shoves that sent her tumbling into the snow and mud. Despair enveloped the small figure of the mother, who was not related by blood.
Just then, a sound that shook the entire valley rang out.
Chapter 2: The Intruder from the Wolf’s Tooth Peak
CRASH!
The massive wooden gate of the square was kicked open with terrifying force, shattering into pieces.
The jostling crowd suddenly fell silent. The children’s cries were stifled. All eyes turned toward the gate, and an overwhelming sense of dread quickly spread throughout the City Hall.
Emerging from the blizzard’s mist was a colossal man.
He was over two meters tall, his shoulders as broad as a fortress wall, clad in a magnificent bear skin. Beneath his fur hood, his thick, tangled hair and beard obscured half his face. The other half revealed a network of grotesque, red burn scars stretching from below his ear to his neck. Behind him was a massive, resin-covered axe.
It was “The Savage.” A mountain man lived in seclusion on the summit of Wolf’s Tooth – the most treacherous and frigid peak in the region.
The people of Blackwood whispered terrifying stories about him. They said he was a man-eating monster. That he lived with his wolves and would tear apart anyone who dared trespass into his territory. For decades, he had never set foot in town, only occasionally tossing beautiful animal hides at the edge of the woods in exchange for necessities, without uttering a word.
The miners and ranchers recoiled in fear, releasing their grip on the children. The Sheriff trembled, awkwardly raising his rifle, his hands shaking uncontrollably.
The mountain man took heavy steps, his feet pounding in the snow, and advanced toward the Mayor. He stood towering before him, overwhelming him with a deathly silence.
He thrust his enormous hand, encased in a tattered leather glove, into his coat pocket.
The crowd held their breath, expecting him to draw a gun and slaughter them all.
But no. He tossed a heavy elk leather bag onto the mayor’s wooden desk. The bag slammed open with a loud crash.
Hundreds of gasps erupted. Inside the bag were not tattered banknotes, but solid gold bars, unrefined gold, gleaming and dazzling against the gloomy sky. That amount of gold was enough to buy back the entire town of Blackwood three times its value.
The mayor’s jaw dropped, his eyes wide with disbelief at the pile of gold, then he trembled as he looked up at the colossal savage.
The mountain man slowly began to speak. His voice was hoarse and deep, like the grinding of boulders after years of disuse, yet it resonated with such power that the ground beneath his feet seemed to tremble.
“I will take her—and all her children.”
Thirteen words. A short declaration, yet enough to silence the entire town of Blackwood.
No one dared speak. The mayor, blinded by greed and terror, hastily nodded repeatedly, clutching the bag of gold to his chest. “All right… all right! It’s all yours! Take them! All of them!”
The crowd parted, creating an empty path. The gazes following the mountain man now held a mixture of pity and horror. They were convinced that this monster had spent such a huge amount of gold to take the stewardess and the children up into the mountains as slaves, or to serve the most cruel and barbaric purposes of a man living in isolation from humanity.
The woman trembled, rushing to embrace the huddled children. She looked up at the giant with utter terror, but she had no other choice. If she stayed, her children would be torn apart and tormented everywhere. Following this monster, at least, they would still be together, and she could use her life to protect them until her last breath.
“Let’s go,” the mountain man signaled with a cold nod, then turned and walked towards the three enormous sleds pulled by dogs waiting at the edge of the forest.
Chapter 3: The Journey to Death
The climb to the summit of Wolf’s Tooth was a nightmare. The north wind howled, and the snow fell thickly, obscuring all vision.
Twenty-two children and the woman were wrapped tightly in thick animal skin blankets on the sleds, but the cold and fear still made them shiver. The deeper they went into the forest, the darker it became. The dry pine branches cracked and snapped, the distant howling of wolves made the children cover their faces and sob.
The woman clutched the youngest children tightly to her chest, her eyes fixed on the broad back of the monstrous figure trudging ahead. She closed her eyes, silently praying to God for the strength to fight him if he dared harm a single hair on the children’s heads.
After three hours battling the blizzard, the sleds stopped on a flat expanse of land, hidden behind towering cliffs that shielded them from the wind.
Awe began to overwhelm the woman.
Before her was not the dark, foul-smelling cave she had heard of. It was a massive cedar-wood mansion, built with incredible solidity and exquisite craftsmanship. Bright, warm golden light streamed from dozens of thick glass windows. Smoke rose from three large chimneys, carrying the fragrant aroma of roasted meat and stew.
The mountain man said nothing, but approached and gently lifted the exhausted children from their sleds, his steps as if afraid of hurting them, and placed them on the porch. He flung open the wooden door.
Inside, the warmth of the stone fireplaces instantly dispelled the sub-zero chill. The mansion was covered with soft, clean sheepskin rugs. Long oak tables were laden with freshly baked loaves of bread, pots of venison stew, and baskets of dried wild berries. Around them were dozens of meticulously crafted bunk beds, covered with pristine white quilts.
The children, after overcoming their initial shyness, could not resist the warmth and the aroma of the food. They rushed inside, shouting and sitting around the tables like young birds released from their cages.
But the woman did not enter.
She stood rooted to the spot in the doorway, her face blank, her heart pounding. Her mind reeled at the sight before her. No barbarian or monster would ever prepare a paradise like this for orphans. Everything in this house, from the size of the chairs to the beds, had been meticulously calculated and prepared specifically for dozens of children!
The mountain man stood by the fireplace, slowly removing his fur hood. He took off his enormous coat, revealing a broad shoulder scarred by burns.
He turned, looking directly into the woman’s eyes.
And then, the giant monster, the one who had terrified the entire town of Blackwood, suddenly knelt on one knee on the wooden floor, right before her.
His rough hands…
His two hunched hands slowly rose, pushing aside the unruly strands of hair that obscured half of his scarred face. He looked up at her, his pale brown eyes no longer cold and deadly, but glistening with hot tears.
He spoke, no longer a terrifying growl, but a choked, sobbing, broken voice from the depths of his heart:
“Mother… Don’t you recognize me?”
Chapter 4: The Twist That Tore Through the Night
The woman froze. Her breath caught in her throat. The cloth bag in her hand fell to the ground.
She took a step forward, trembling as she reached out her thin hands to touch the giant man’s face, covered in burn scars. Her gaze met his pale brown eyes, then swept past the small leaf-shaped birthmark hidden beneath the scar on his left ear.
Memories from twenty-five years ago flashed back like a film reel, tearing through all the barriers of time.
Twenty-five years ago, when she first took over the orphanage, there was a seven-year-old boy who was ostracized by the entire town. He was the son of a recently hanged serial killer. The townspeople considered him the seed of evil, constantly beating and ostracizing him. She was the only one who held him close, protecting him from the beatings and malice.
One night, the old orphanage suddenly caught fire. The flames engulfed all escape routes. The townspeople stood outside, preoccupied with putting out their own fires; no one rushed in to help. When she finally got most of the children out, she discovered the seven-year-old boy still trapped in his bedroom.
She plunged back into the flames, clutching him tightly in her arms, using her own body to shield him from the falling burning wood. He survived, but suffered severe burns to half his face and neck.
After the fire, instead of showing compassion, the mayor (then sheriff) blamed the boy for the arson, claiming he inherited his father’s evil nature. He decided to send the boy to a brutal state asylum – a place where children died from experiments and torture.
To save his life, she took an incredibly risky step. Under the cover of darkness, she secretly carried the injured boy out of town, braving a snowstorm, and took him to a shallow cave halfway up Wolf’s Tooth Mountain. She hid him there, personally changing his bandages, applying medicine, and bringing him food and clothes every night. She taught him survival skills, how to gather, and how to hunt.
She lied to the entire town, claiming the boy had run away and had probably frozen to death in the forest.
Ten years passed like that. The boy grew up under her secret protection, becoming a wild, strong teenager deeply connected to the mountains and forests. But one day, when she went to the cave as usual, she found only a note: “I’m old enough now. I can’t let you suffer danger and hunger because of me anymore. I’m going deep into the mountains. I’ll come back when I can build you a castle. I love you.”
Since then, he disappeared. Fifteen years passed without a trace, and she always thought that the unfortunate child had perished in the jaws of wild beasts.
But she was wrong.
“It’s you… Oh God… Is it really you, Thomas?” The woman sobbed, falling to the wooden floor, clutching the enormous head of the mountain man.
“Yes… it’s me, Mother,” the giant hugged her tightly, his shoulders shaking, sobbing like the seven-year-old child he once was. “I found a massive gold vein deep within a cave on the north side of this mountain. I personally chopped every log, built every bed, and constructed this place over the past ten years… I never forgot my promise. I prepared a new, absolutely safe home, where no one will dare bully my mother and siblings anymore.”
The twist of truth exploded, brilliant and overwhelming. It turned out that the bloodthirsty “Wild One” that the entire town feared was none other than the abandoned child from years ago. He didn’t appear at the Town Hall to buy slaves. He came to buy back his family.
He had been watching the town from afar for years. When he learned that the orphanage was being seized for debt, he immediately gathered all the gold he had mined and descended the mountain, using his terrifying image to intimidate and reclaim his foster mother and stepsisters from the most ruthless individuals.
“Oh, my son…” The woman patted his massive back, kissing the crisscrossing burn scars on his face. To her, they weren’t hideous; they were medals of survival, proof of a great heart hidden behind a terrifying exterior.
Chapter 5: The Final Destination
Outside, the blizzard raged, burying Blackwood under the harshest and darkest winter in history. The ruthless men of the valley would face hunger and the cold of greed.
But inside the mansion atop Wolf’s Tooth, spring had bloomed.
The orphans gathered around, curious and admiring, watching the giant “monster” now gently wiping away their mother’s tears. They were no longer afraid. They knew that from now on, they had the greatest older brother in the world to protect them.
The fireplace crackled. Smoke rose in a fragrant aroma.
The woman smiled more radiantly than she had in twenty-five years, looking around the wooden house filled with the laughter of children.
She had once extended her hand to save a life from the ashes, despite the world’s contempt. And that life, after enduring countless storms, had returned, stretching out its mighty shoulders to support her entire world. Amidst the biting cold of the mountaintop, they had found the eternal warmth of kinship.
