From the time before history began: from the time when the continents were still connected by land: from the harsh climes at the top of the world, a Northish soldier wrapped in a cape of wolfpelts walks south, into the forests of the High Midlands that are now Europe, to find a village cut in two by travelers from the East. Soon, he too is torn - between duty to the lives he has ruined just by finding them, and duty to the hideous murder-god of the Northish wastes and the berserker drugs that are his sacrament...
It seems to be a normal day as Wolfskin walks through the forest. He passes a bear catching fish and lions sleeping beneath the trees when he suddenly hears strange noises around him. Then there are more noises and they seem to be all around him. He puts his hand on his sword and demands that whoever is making the noise come out and face him. In response six men come out into the clearing where Wolfskin stands. Five have swords and one is a Noi man with red-painted face. The men accuse Wolfskin of coming to attack their village under orders of a mysterious other. He denies it and says he'll be on his way if they let him pass. They push the issue, saying there's no way that a strong, middle-aged soldier just happens to be crossing by their village. He again tells them that he'll gladly cross over by the river if they leave him be, but they won't so he tells them to just get it over with. The first man attacks and Wolfskin beheads him with a single swipe of his sword. The others are momentarily stopped and the Noi man sees Wolfskin's other sword. He asks where the Northish man learned to wield two blades and Wolfskin tells the man that another Noi man taught him when he was sixteen. The red-faced man commands the remaining four swordsmen to attack him all at once, but they don't fair any better than way. Wolfskin blocks the blades of two and breaks the leg of a third. He then crushes one's head and disembowels and beheads another. He puts a sword into the shoulder of one and lets the last man cut his own friends head off. Wolfskin finishes off the last man with a toss of his hammer and then turns on the Noi man. The man takes out a gun and keeps Wolfskin away. The Northish man hisses at the weapon and demands that his enemy fight like a human. Machines are for killing without strength or risk or having to look your enemy in the eye, he says. The Noi man again accuses Wolfskin of being sent to kill them by his brother. Wolfskin denies it and when he mentions that all he has is a piece of meat and his blackcap mushrooms, the Noi man finally realizes that he is a Wolfskin. When that realization hits him, the man with the painted face puts down his weapon and invites the Wolfskin to eat with him at his village.
On the way to the village Wolfskin tells the stranger more about the Noi man who taught him when he was just a young man. The Noi was a priest and a swordsman that traveled the world learning about gods and war. He was old when Wolfskin met him but still willing to teach. He taught him to fight with two swords at once. This was something the red-faced Noi had never seen in a Northish. Wolfskin explained that this was because their swords were so heavy, but he had spent at least a year training his right arm just so he could wield the main sword in one had instead of two. Then they spoke of Wolfskins god, Wrod. The Noi man called him a god of death but Wolfskin corrected him saying that he was just a god and like any other god he liked death. He also said that Wrod wouldn't be happy with the deaths he had just given him. The five men he had killed weren't really good enough. The Noi man asked why his god wouldn't be happy, thinking that all Northish gods were basically just invisible animals in the sky. Wolfskin saw that the man was one of the "Tree-Kissing Noi" that believed that the earth gave everything. Wolfskin explained that his god would not be pleased with a Wolfskin like himself killing a few "girl-men". That was like a grown man stepping on ants. They had reached the village and the Noi man said that there were some who might see it differently.
Down in the village the Noi man showed Wolfskin around. He pointed to the other side of the village which was mostly destroyed and said that once the village had been twice as big, but half of it had left to live in the forest. Those in the forest always watched the remaining villagers waiting for a chance to come back and take over. Now that Wolfskin had killed five of the village's warriors, the balance would be upset and the forest-dwellers would have a reason to attack now that they had more fighters. Wolfskin is disgusted by this attempt to guilt him into helping the families of men he killed but the Noi man says it's debt and goes on to show Wolfskin the families. What Wolfskin sees around the village are people who live a hard life, always working and always on guard, wary of attacks that could come any minute. The families women and children, already mourning their husbands and fathers and well aware that without protection they themselves will soon be dead. Wolfskin is at this point really tired of how the Noi man is trying to play him so he takes out his hammer and threatens him, saying that if he doesn't speak directly he's going to knock his brains out. The Noi man really has no choice but to tell him what's going on.
The man and his brother had come to the village back when it was a single community. They had wowed the people there with their black powder "magic" and became their leaders. After twenty years the brothers had a falling out and red-faced one stayed while the other took his people and left. One night the other brother attempted to assassinate his painted sibling and things got worse from there. While the brother was still telling his story Wolfskin interrupted him and told him to stop talking. All was still for a moment and then and then suddenly an arrow flew and Wolfskin caught it right in front of the Noi man. Without a second's pause he turn and threw the arrow back to where it had come from. He then strode through forest after it and came upon a man. The man was an archer and he was stuck to a tree by his own arrow, the one Wolfskin had hurled back. The Noi man identified the assassin as one of his brother's men. Wolfskin pulled out one of his blades and slashed open the assassins stomach. He reached inside and pulled out an organ and tossed it at the Noi man. He commanded him to have one of the village women cook it so he could eat it and think over the problem of protecting the village.
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