Chapter 3: The Matchmaker

Damon shot up into the mountains, moving far faster than usual, feeling light on his feet. "I've really become an expert! Next time I head into the mountains, I'll be lightning fast. Even my eyes are sharper! Looks like the powers are real." He also wanted to see where that fox demon from a moment ago had vanished.  He searched for her tracks and found nothing. "Arlo really wasn't an ordinary man. I heard he supposedly attained enlightenment and left the mortal world. People used to call him a madman, said he just ran off or died in the wild." Arlo was rich. People said he was a miser. After today, Damon was starting to believe it.  It seemed likely that Arlo had really become an immortal. "So if I train and build my strength, won't I become immortal soon? Then I can fly into the sky." The thought sent his pulse racing.  If he could become immortal, what could stop him then? His spirits lifted.  Before long, he reached one of the spots where he had set a trap.  Unfortunately, no wild boar had come through. Just then, he heard a noise from the opposite hillside. "Wild boar!" Excitement flared.  He sprinted toward the sound, flying over the ground.  With a light push-off, he bounded ten or twelve feet at a time. Sure enough, a boar was digging up roots, about two hundred pounds, big and thick through the shoulders.  It heard Damon moving, glanced back, saw him, and bolted. "Trying to run?" After gaining powers, Damon brimmed with confidence.  He snatched up a stone the size of a bowl and tore after the wild boar.  In the woods, he even outran the boar.  He closed the distance and hurled the rock at its head. Thud! The stone cracked square into the boar's brow.  Its body locked up and toppled where it stood. "That easy?" He stood there, blinking.  A boar that size had hide like armor and thick, ropy muscle.  Even with a leg snapped by a trap, it could still run for a couple of miles.  Yet one thrown stone from Damon had stunned the boar. The strength behind that throw must have been tremendous. "I have to make sure it's dead." Damon grabbed another rock, went over to the boar, and hit it twice.  The boar did not move. It was dead. Only then did he relax.  He hoisted it in a single clean motion.  Two hundred pounds on his shoulder felt like the twenty. Thrilled, he shouldered the boar and headed downhill, swaggering back to the village.  He had no clothes on, just a rucksack tied around his waist.  His clean muscle lines were on full display, like a sculpture. Villagers gaped. A few women thought his body was damn near perfect. Their cheeks flushed. "Damon's not even wearing clothes." "No pants either." Someone shouted, "Damon, did that boar strip the clothes right off you?" Laughter burst out. Damon grinned.  "That's exactly it! A lecherous pig. It saw how handsome I am and wanted to force me into bed. Think I'd let it? I clobbered it to death instead!" More laughter erupted. "That boar has to be two hundred pounds! You're something else!" "Yeah, how are you that strong?" "How did you kill it?" Damon, a little smug, said, "It was lost in lust, so a rock did the trick. Enough talk. I need to get home and put clothes on, then figure out how to haul this boar to town to sell." Folks in the village were poor.  To sell wild boar meat, they had to take it to town. He reached his doorway just as a plump woman waddled up. "Oh my, you must be Damon Barlow! Amazing, truly amazing! A boar this big, this one boar alone is worth more than two months of a city laborer's wages!" She was all smiles. Damon set the boar down at the door and eyed the woman.  "Who are you? I've never seen you." "Me?" She smiled broadly.  "I'm Marie. You must have heard of me." He had heard of Marie, a well-known matchmaker.  She could turn a five-foot man into a six-foot-two with her speech.  A matchmaker's mouth was sugar and smoke, pure trickery. "So it's Mrs. Marie," Damon said, pushing the door open and stepping inside. She hustled after him and lowered her voice conspiratorially.  "Damon, you aren't young anymore, and there's no one to lend a hand at home. Your parents are gone, no brothers, just a younger sister, and the relatives hardly come around, right?" "I have no relatives," he said, voice cool. "Mrs. Marie, I don't have any tea, and I don't even have hot water. If you've got business, say it." Her smile only widened. "Fine, no tea. Your good fortune has come knocking." "With a life this hard, what good fortune do I get?" Damon shook his head.  "Don't try to trick me." "How could I trick you?" Marie laughed.  "Someone's got their eye on you, and she'll even pay to marry you. Isn't that good fortune? And for the introduction, I won't take a single cent from you. Isn't that a deal?" Damon smiled. For another bachelor, maybe it would have been good news.  He was picky with women. Plus, he had gained powers from Arlo. He wouldn't settle for the plain or the odd. "Just say who," he told her. Marie, shameless as ever, kept grinning.  "Astrid from the next village over. Have you heard of her? She lost her husband last year and had to pay out tens of thousands of dollars in compensation. She has a two-year-old daughter. Marry her and you get a woman, money, and a daughter. How perfect is that?" Damon let out a disbelieving laugh.  "I've heard of her. She's ugly, waist thicker than a barrel, with pockmarks all over her face, right?" In truth, he had never met Astrid. He was mouthing off. "What are you talking about?" Marie protested.  "She's pretty, and..." "Enough. I already have someone," Damon cut in.  "Mrs. Marie, please leave. I don't want to hear any more nonsense." He moved to usher her out. Marie's face fell. "Damon Barlow, what do you mean by that? You..." "Get out." Damon's face went cold.  "I don't need your help." Marie lifted a finger and jabbed it at him.  "You are so rude! I get it. You've set your sights on your sister, haven't you? No wonder you dote on her and do whatever she says. She doesn't even have a job. You want to marry your sister, is that it?" "What did you just say?!"  Damon's anger flared. Ailee was his biological sister. "She isn't even your sister. She's just a girl your parents adopted. You plan to marry her, right?" Marie snapped. "What did you say?!" Damon went rigid from head to toe. Ailee was adopted?!