Nils and the Swamp Outlaws

The smell of pig shit and urine permeated the air as Nils crept through the sty; his body pressed against the cold, stone wall. He had been there for hours, waiting for the right moment to strike. His mother had sent him on this mission: to kill the boar that threatened her life and that of her family’s.

Nils was but a boy of seven years. His father had died when he was four. Ever since then, he had been helping his mother tend to their small farm, which they had inherited from her deceased parents. Life was hard, but they made do with what they had and took pride in their work. He remembered vividly how he used to help his mother plant their vegetable garden every spring and how their eyes would light up whenever they were able to eat something fresh from their own land. The joy it brought them was short-lived, however; ever since Nils started helping his mother tend to their animals, things went downhill fast.

The two of them were attacked by bandits who lived in the nearby swamps. They fled their home and sought refuge in a nearby village, but word spread fast about the wealthy inheritance Nils' mother now possessed and soon enough, she was under constant threat from the gangs that roamed around the lands. The local militia tried to help protect them but even they could not hold back the vicious tide of villains. When Nils came home one day to find that his mother's house had been burnt down along with all of her prized possessions, he knew that he had no choice but to do what she asked of him: kill the boar that had caused this atrocity.

He saw it now, its silhouette barely visible in the darkness ahead of him; a massive beast whose size far surpassed that of any hog he had seen before. It snorted quietly as it slept, oblivious to its impending fate. Nils steeled himself and readied himself for action; this would be a fight unlike any other he'd experienced before. He held tight onto his leather belt which held his trusty hunting knife and slowly drew closer to the animal until he could see its face clearly in the moonlight shining through one of its windows. Just as he was about to lunge forward with all his might, something caught his eye: an earring glinting softly at its earlobes--an earring identical to one worn by his mother two days earlier, causing him to hesitate for just a split second before lunging forward once again with all his might toward the beast's neck with weapon raised high...