*Soleil*
I sit on the bed for a long time. After having slept the fight against the hamram and the trip to the lake with the body just seems like one of my dreams about the monsters. If I get up and walk out the door, will it turn into reality then ? The School, Davina, hormones and boys, those are all real, but the things out there… I can't even find a word to describe it. If that is reality now, if I have to kill werewolves and dump their bodies, how long can I remain Soleil then ? How can I hang with Davina and talk about boys and parties, when a monster can emerge around every corner ? And what about my mother ? How can I go back and live with her, knowing that me being there brings her life in danger too ?
Meeting Tjalfe has convinced me that this is what I want to do. But when I saw the young man lying dead on the ground I realised what the choice will truly mean. It was a coincidence that it ha
*Davina*It is like living a fantasy when the chauffeur picks me up Saturday evening. While the limo drives towards the city, I pour myself a glass of champagne and allow myself to dream of a spot in Lefu's world."When I am a rich and famous designer I so need one of these". I mumble, letting my fingers run over the soft leather seat.The line of cars for the gallery opening started several blocks from the gallery, so we are rolling along slowly behind the others. I sit watching out the window as we get closer. Lefu had not been lying. This is so far above anything I have ever tried. Exactly like in movies a red carpet appears, each side of it lined with shining stanchions holding a red velvet robe. Everywhere there are onlookers, press and photographers, apparently some really big stars are attending.I am about to panic and ask the
*Davina*I am just about ready to get out of the water, when the door finally opens and Lefu steps in. I catch my breath and stare as hypnotized at him. He has lost the jacket and shirt and is only wearing a thin undershirt, pulled halfway out of his pants. His muscles are sinew and well marked over his shoulder and down his arms. His body is a bit wider at the chest area, but otherwise slim. My eyes reach his face and I gasp when I see him looking at me.With a smile he disappears for a moment back into the bedroom, only to return with a chair and sit down next to the tub."I was actually about to get up. The water has turned kind of cold". I look away, a bit embarrassed that he is just looking at me like that."It ran a little longer than expected. I am sorry about that". He says softly, pushing a button on the wall next to the tub.
1 week later*Soleil*"Focus Sol. It is thrust, thrust. shock, rotate, jump, hook". Marta's voice is reverberating in my ears. The heat is unbearable. I wipe the sweat from my brow once again, before rotating the staff and squatting down, keeping my eyes on Gudrun. With a moan I jump up, going through the combo Marta is trying to beat into my head. I rotate, bend my knees and focus all my power into the jump, trying to get as high up as possible.The punishment for not watching my opponent falls swiftly as Gudrun makes a fast attack with her staff. Her thrust goes right through, knocking the air from my lungs. For a second I kind of dangle off the end of her staff, before tumbling down on the ground."Ouch, fuck". I yell angrily. This is enough. How do they expect me to get a black belt in vǫlur staff fighting this fast ? Shouldn't this take like years to
*Soleil*I walk directly to the sink with the fish, trying to find a way to start this conversation, a way to save myself for a serious telling of. Siri is sitting alone at the table, plucking dry flowers off their stems."I caught some fish for dinner". I try and look at Siri. "Well kind of".Siri doesn't answer or look up from her work. And for every second I feel worse and worse about what I did."Grab some rubber gloves and come over here, I could use a hand with this". She finally says.I breathe a sigh of relief and quickly open a cabinet pulling out some rubber gloves. Then I go to sit down, pulling them on."Watch out you don't breathe in too much of the flowers; they are quite poisonous". Siri picks up one of the plants, showing me how to pull off the dr
*Soleil*It takes me all day searching the shore for a branch that are usable for my staff. Tjalfe had told me I would know, that it would stand out from the rest. Problem is, none of them are standing out to me. In the end I give up and start helping the vaetter clean up. Even if Gudrun has told me about other beings than trolls and elves, I almost fall on my but when little beings with big shimmering wings introduces themself as fairies."We are the spirits of the trees and we protect the forest, the animals and the plants. You can call for us by sitting under a tree". One of the fairies says."I am really sorry to have disturbed the balance like this". I apologise, as I drag a heavy branch away to the stack."Well you have made sure there is fire wood for a long time and lots to repair the cabin. It can use it". The fairy explains.
*Soleil*For the first time since I arrived in Scotland I dream. But this is a brand new dream. It is everything mixed together. Warm hazel eyes and a beautiful smile are mixed up with wolves howling. Fairies and trolls show up, twirling me around and beautiful elves try to get me to follow them.A person wearing a vǫlva cape and having a staff in her hand steps up next to me. She turns to look at me … it is me, or me as I can become if I follow that road, the vǫlva me starts to walk. I take a step after the other me, but stops.Behind me the warm eyes have turned into Luca, he is standing on the edge of the forest, reaching for me. Ecstatic I run towards him, wanting to throw myself into his open arms. But for every step I move away from my other self, I feel loss and sorrow. I stop again, caught between the two roads I can take. None of them wants to follow me in
*Soleil*"Okay like that. And now, lift it just a bit". Deeply focused I nod for an answer and slowly lift my hands. "Yeah good there". Tjalfe says. "See if you can make it rotate faster".I groan from the effort and try visionens how the column of wind I have created over the lake spins faster. For a moment it reacts and absorbs water."I can't hear you". He teases me. "You really have to train those pipes if you want some more power behind it".There is a loud splash as the water falls down into the lake and I sink down on the bridge with a sigh."Well that went pretty well". Tjalfe says encouraging. "It has gotten bigger and you can hold it for longer now. With galdr you should be able to boost Your seiðr". He sits down beside me, slapping me on the back."Just
*Soleil*"Here". Gudrun hands me a small drawstring bag made from rabbit fur. "I made it for you".Carefully I open it, pulling out a white piece of fabric. It is a rune cloth like the one Gudrun has. I look at her with surprise. "Is this for me ?"She nods, looking very excited. "You need one for Your runes… you need to make them first though".Then she starts teaching me about the 24 different runes, all taken from the old Nordic alphabet the futhark. How they are separated in 3 different houses and what the different ones represent.After almost an hour Gudrun looks at me. "Are you with me so far ?""Yeah I think so... all those choices and paths, it kind of like with us right…our path, our choices and the things we have to go through to become a vǫlva
*Soleil* "Oh! I never thought we would get away from Scotland”. I kick off my shoes and throw the backpack on the floor. "It was getting cramped up there”. "We're getting ok at it actually”. Luca closes the door to the small apartment and slams the lock. "We handed out some serious ass kicking” I huff. "Yes, we could win every time if you did not try to decide it all”. "You can just accept that I'm always right”. He grins. "I do when you realize that it's not about being right, but about what works !" I star defiantly up at him, but surrender as he pulls me into him. "I'm just happy you came back”. He bends down and kisses me. "So am I". The butterflies flutter joyfully inside me, and I pull him down in a deeper kiss. I twist my fingers into his tousled mocha brown hair and indulge in the feel of his lips and exploratory tongue. “Well, what do you say ? English or history ?” He withdraws and deftly avoids my aggrieved gaze. "Seriously ? You want us to read our hom
*Narrator* “Magnificent !” The lord of the wind's eyes shone with obvious joy. “I could not have done thatbetter myself”. "You were entrusted to bestow on this man your strength, and now this !" The lady of the earth thrust her arm out against a settlement, engulfed in flames. "We were just letting out a little smoke". The lord of the fire grumbled. "We just happened to realise that If humans do not gather as a people, then they will never overcome the brood and not at all the queen”. “It might very well be right. But this is not the solution”. She sighed heavily. “They were meant to live happily, not to be subjected to more tyranny”. A small lake began to trickle up from the ground beneath them and manifested itself in a figure like the other three. "It's over”. The lady of the water said. “There is no hope anymore. Tonight they will gather, and your kinship will be wiped out”. "Oh, I can not get air". The lord of the wind sobbed with laughter. "Very funny !" Snarled the fir
*Tjalfe* The villagers have never seen Hrazgouls so close before. Only a few, fleeting glimpses have been had. They always come after the Bakorshas have finished emptying their prey of blood, to eat the remains. In the morning, when the residents venture out into the daylight, there are only pieces of clothing, shattered bones and stinking piles of entrails left in rust-red stains on the ground. When one of them has tried to escape over the mountains, the remaining ones do not even get to see the Bakorshaer’s servants before the death cry of the fugitive resounds across the valley. Now they come in between the houses. One being more abominable than the next. Giant beasts with luminous, yellow eyes, whose long gaps flashes with large serrated rows of teeth. Their upright bodies were covered with dense coarse fur, while the broad shoulders and long, bulging arms end up in a paw-like hand so large that it could effortlessly crush the skull of a man. In between them comes smaller cre
*Tjalfe* Although darkness reigns behind the houses, it is easy to find the victim. The child’s screams drive Saren forward, and the fire blazes furiously in his hand. He finds the child just as life leaves the body. Like a breastfeeding infant it lays the arms of a Bakorsha, whose teeth sit deeply buried in the child’s thighs. With an insane scream, Saren sends a long beam of fire towards the monster. The heat is so high that it instantly sets both the Bakorsha and the child corpse on fire. When the last rays leave Sarens hand, both fall on the ground, charred and annihilated. The embers reveal the next victim and her assailants. It is the child's mother who lays helplessly on the firewood block while one of the dark ones brutally mates her and rips her flesh to blood with its dirty nails. Three others are biting into her arms and neck, where they greedily empties her of blood. Saren raises his hands to obliterate the creeps and free the woman from her afflictions, but nothing h
*Tjalfe* Malicious laughter and agitated voices intrudes in the dark, first from the west, but gradually the sounds spread until they surround the whole village. Bringing promises of carnage and death. The people flee back out of their houses, and all search for the relative safety of the fire. Quickly they get their torches lit and turn front towards the enemy, who is still hiding in the shelter of the darkness. Only now do they become aware thatthat their medicine man stands among them without a torch. The fear of Bakorsha had for a moment made them forget the new danger that had manifested itself in their midst, but then the burning house begin to give in to the ravaging of the flames, and it seems to dawn on them what they had witnessed as they scouted out the windows. Those closest to the medicine man hurried awayfrom him. This is a mistake and part of me wants to warn them, but it is too late anyway, and a shadow flies past and grabs one of the men. His howl is drowned
*Tjalfe* I am watching from my spot inside the storm, watching as things unfold below me. The people look up at the storm, which suddenly hangs over their heads. Panic and confusion arises in the village. Everyone let go of what they have in their hands and run into the middle of the square to seek shelter around the bonfire. Humans are no longer one, they have been divided by fear, and everyone care only to keep himself and his offspring alive. Everyone pushes and hustles to get closest to the fireplace andfarthest from the edge of the circle, for now that the sun's rays are hidden behind the heavy slate-gray clouds the Bakorshas will arrive prematurely. In the middle of the village a large bonfire is burning, and torches have been laid nearby, so they can be quickly ignited. The people has learned that the Bakorshas are not enthusiastic about fire, and that it sometimes happen that the sharp-toothed monsters will abandon the attack and instead throw themselves at another vict
*Tjalfe* The valley is a beautiful, small oasis between the high mountains, which in its time had attracted the inhabitants. They had lived in peace and perfect harmony. The mountains had shielded them from the worst winds, so the crops were diverse and the people of the city had never experienced distress. The only entrance to the village is an opening to the west where the surrounding mountains remain broken by a narrow passage. The view over the pass makes it possible to detect travelers coming from distant parts of the continent in good time, and show them hospitality. No one knew of anything but tolerance and no one dreamed that travelers could come up with anything but peace. It ended when the dark ones came. From then on, the valley became a prison for the people. During the day they were trapped, and at night they were harvested like grapes on stalks. There was no way out off there, all passable roads were blocked by Hrazgouls, the servants. Many had tried to flee, but eac
*Lefu* A tear rolls down my cheek. "Goodbye, Katje". I whisper softly. "I swear your death will be avenged”. "Now you see what they are capable of”. Strano puts his hands in the pockets of his night-black Armani jacket. "It is only the beginning”. I hiss angrily at him. "How can you choose them over your own ?" "You still do not understand, do you ?" Strano rolls his eyes. “They would not be here if it were not for you. Remember that”. “You knew it all from the start, right ? That there were several dogs and that I knew about them. That's why you did not kill me right away when you came up here and picked me up. That’s the truth right ?" I can’t help but seek assurance that I am right. He gives a small sigh. “I saw an opportunity and I took it. When the girls sacrificed Elisabeth, I could not prove that they were involved. I bet you would throw in the dogs as bait if you got the chance, and that Lyndsey would bite”. "What about her ?" I nodded down toward the figure with the
*Luca* My gaze is fixed as I step forward towards Harry. The dark blonde ulfhedin might be the pack leader, but this is my prey, and I do not shy away from the warning snarl of the alpha. Harry must have come to the same conclusion, for he goes silent and withdraws. I stop in front of the charred statue. My nails slide down the rough surface. Although the texture feels like charred wood, the shell is massive. I withdraw my arm and fire. The charred crust cracks, and I have to strike through once more to penetrate into the goal. When the shell breaks, a rain of coagulated blood sprays over me. I stick my paw into the evil bitch, find what I am looking for, and pull hard. The heart is still pumping weakly as I hold it up in front of the statue. I growl triumphantly and squeezeit in my powerful fist. The heart stops beating, and the red flesh-filled tissue gives way and explodes in a cloud of dust. It is over. "What do we do now ?" Soleil's cousin stands in front of the grotesqu