Dawn crept up on a sleeping couple with limbs and locks intertwined. A line of golden light ran off the blanket of darkness and morning took hold of the sky. The light reached Astrid’s brow line, drawing out an unconscious furrow. The red headed Norn fought the morning by digging her face deep into Arieta’s blonde locks. Her face relaxed as she deeply inhaled the smell of her companion. Astrid tightened her embrace around Arieta before eventually giving in to the call of morning. Then a wolf howled in the distance.
This sound brought Astrid to sitting right up in their furs. Grunting at the pangs in her muscles from yesterday’s training, she scanned about the open area sparsely populated with trees and covered in snow. She sensed no sign of life other than the low snores of her companion and the heavy breathing of a rising and falling mound of brown fur behind them. This sight brought a smile to her face and she shifted her gaze down to Arieta’s sleeping face. She traced the outline of her jaw gently with the back of a finger before shifting her weight to stand, her attention returning to the curious howl. This hadn’t been the first time she’d heard the stray howl, either. The sound seemed to have sounded for the past two mornings, and only at sunrise.
Astrid dressed with purpose, ignoring her sore muscles to her best ability, a twitch slipping here and there. For a little over a month, Astrid had fled to seek out Arieta. At first she claimed to desire physical training, but this was far from her true intentions. Truth be told, she missed Arieta deeply and had been constantly plagued with the confusing emotion that came with being away from her. Since Astrid had caught up to her, the two easily went back to their old routine of spending days and nights together: training, hunting, and thinking on the future. It didn’t take long for Astrid to confess her real reasons for being there, only for Arieta to accept her feelings with open arms.
Slipping her boots on, Astrid heard Arieta mumble and stir in her sleep. She looked back to make sure she hadn’t disturbed her, and the blonde just rolled over in her slumber. Flashing a smile at the Norness, Astrid turned and left their camp to investigate this howl. She knew the area they had been staying at rather well by now, thanks to Arieta making Astrid run up and down a nearby hill, nonstop. The hill provided an amazing view of the area, and to keep the pain of the exercise far from her mind as she trained, Astrid often focused instead on her surroundings.
She stepped out into cold morning, taking in a deep inhale as she began her trek with her sickle at her side and a bow and quiver at her back. As she took her first steps, a low growly bark of disapproval sounded behind her. Astrid stopped in her tracks and affectionately rolled her eyes. A smirk on her face, she turned around to see a nearly-full grown brown bear. “Where do you think you’re going, Barrett?” He gave her a grunt and trudged ahead of her. With a huffed-chuckle, Astrid shook her head and took her place beside him. Resting a hand on his back, the two wandered off into the snow.
Astrid followed what she believed to be the direction of the howl for a good hour. Eventually the pair came upon a small cave cut into a large hill they had partly been trekking around. Inside, they found what appeared to be an abandoned nest that once belonged to some kind of predator. Barrett stuck his nose to the ground and began violently sniffing about, his nose twitching with each abrupt inhale. Astrid did not enter as quickly as Barrett, but she still took his reaction to mean that no one was home.
Dead foliage and debris was scattered about, along with bones and other animal remains. Astrid kicked around some of the rubble before hearing a twig snap at the entrance. Turning around in an instant, she saw an adolescent wolf standing defensively in the entryway to the cave, fear and sadness in his eyes. His lips raised to growl at Astrid and Barrett. Behind her, a low rumble came from the bear.
Holding out her hands to block him from making the first move, she motioned for Barrett to lower himself as she lowered as well. Crouching on the ground, hand hovering over the hilt of her sickle, Astrid attempted to show the young wolf that they were no threat. Slowing her breath as she waited for the tension in the air to settle, the wolf turned tail and ran. Compelled to chase this creature, the pair booked it out of the cave, after him.
The wolf was too fast for Astrid and Barrett to keep up, however, along with his tracks, he left a sparse trail of blood drops halfway down the trail. He must have torn open a wound in his flee. The trail of blood led them farther and farther away from the campsite and deeper into the starts of a snow storm. By this point Astrid had pulled the sickle from its scabbard and was holding it ready.
The pair kept a steady pace as they followed the tracks as thick snow started falling. Eventually, everything ahead of them was blanketed in white. Barrett slowed a few paces behind Astrid to express readiness to give up, but the Norn kept her pace. At least until her foot stuck under something hidden by the snow. She tripped, falling face-first into the snow with a sudden thud. Giving her hair a hard shake, Astrid threw off the snow. Then Barrett once again began to give a low growl from behind. Blinking focus back into her gaze, Astrid realized she was staring face-to-face with the adolescent wolf.
The young wolf did not return the hostilities, instead he laid down before them, in defeat. This behavior confused Astrid. She tilted her head to the side as she studied the wolf. Her green eyes eventually shifted to the small snow-covered mounds scattered about between herself and the wolf. She twitched her foot to feel what it had caught on, and it moved like frozen meat. At this point, she hoisted herself up from her belly and shifted away from whatever had tripped her, but she did not stand. Reaching a hand forward, she brushed the snow from that of a dead wolf. She quickly realized they were surrounded by a pack of wolf carcuses. There were about five surrounding herself and the adolescent wolf. The smell of death had been muted by the frozen air, and it wasn’t until she realized what she had stumbled over before she smelled it.
At this point Barrett had began to walk around everything, his big black nose sifting through the snow and the still fur. He had dropped his growl, but his head was still lowered cautiously. Astrid reached for Barrett when she realized he was heading for the young wolf. However, instead of attacking the weak creature, the young bear just plopped down beside him. She released a sigh of relief at this and returned to standing. Taking this moment to contemplate what had happened to this young wolf’s pack, green eyes carefully examined the scene through the thick blanket of falling snow, looking for any signs of the struggle. However, the snow had made this nearly impossible. Eventually her attention span betrayed her and soon she was dwelling on her own pack.
The images came quick and fast: the battle for Hroth from the grips of the earth elemental, Steinar dancing the night away at the Iron Liver, Gavin nearly slipping from her grasp into the mouth of a mordrem beast, Vaas playing her lute by fireside, Khalid being carried away by the Whispers, Eliza’s face when Astrid asked her to be her Kin. It all rushed over her like a refreshing, but terrifying wave, and settled in the pit of her stomach like a puddle of guilt.
Without wasting much more time, she dressed the young wolf’s wounds and began collecting as many dead branches and logs as she could to prepare a pyre for the deceased pack. She watched her flames as they engulfed the funeral pyre, stealing a moment to say a prayer to Wolf in memory of the fallen pack and in part for her own pack. Once all was said and done, she called for Barrett and the young wolf to follow with a whistle and a snap. Barrett slowly hoisted himself back to all fours to join Astrid. The wolf, on the other hand, held its submissive position and acted as if it had no intentions of leaving his fallen family. Without a falter of respect, Astrid turned back around and left the wolf a few strips of stag jerky and then was on her way.
After about ten minutes, the adolescent wolf caught back up to Astrid and Barrett. Astrid gave a sideways grin to the sad wolf in acknowledgement and continued her way back to Arieta.
It wasn't even another hour before she was back at the camp. Arieta was up and dressed. The smell of cooking dolyak meat filled the area. Astrid stomped her way through the snow and to the clearing, with Barrett and the wolf at her heals. The two animals playfully snipping at each other as they neared the camp, pep now in the wolf’s step. Looking up the pathway, Astrid smiled wide at the sight of Arieta standing tall to greet her.
“I see you two made a friend,” Arieta said in a teasing tone.
Astrid began to remove the items she took with her on the trek, returning them to their spot around the camp. “We made a friend in need,” Astrid took her time fully answering Arieta’s question, enjoying the moment of having her companion’s eyes on her. She made her way to the campfire, carrying up a box of produce she’d picked up from the tent. Eventually taking a seat by the fire she continued, “I had been hearing a wolf howl for the past couple of mornings and today I decided, well, we,” Astrid nodded at the huffing bear, who was now wrestling with the wolf, “decided to seek out the peculiar howl.” Astrid told Arieta of the discovery of the cave, the wolf, and where he had led them all while preparing a pot to cook a stew to go with the dolyak roast.
Arieta had moved to cleaning her large hammer as Astrid caught her up on the morning’s events. Once she was finished with the story, Astrid moved green eyes up to meet her companion’s before ending with, “And it made me think of our pack.”
“You miss being around them, don’t you?”
“Aye,” Astrid sighed as she averted her eyes from Arieta and to the now boiling water. She stirred the stew as she mulled through her thoughts and Arieta went back to preparing for the day. Astrid knew Arieta could not be with their Kin at the moment. She knew the trials Arieta was preparing for could not involve any of them. Trials Arieta felt only she could take on, alone. That word weighed even heavier in her gut than the guilt of missing her kin. Alone. Astrid parted her lips to ask a question, but Arieta beat her to breaking the silence.
“You know we will have to part ways too before I set out for this, right?”
Astrid awkwardly nodded her head, wishing to shake a ‘no’ instead. Arieta had warned her, though.
The blonde Norn slapped her hand on the top of her hammer. “That settles it then! Today’s training shall be to test all that I’ve taught you, all that you’ve trained for. And you do the same for me. Then tomorrow... we part ways.”
The redhead just stared at her companion for a moment, processing it all. None of this was what she had envisioned when she first sought out to find Arieta. She’d hope to find her, help her, and bring her back to the pack. The pack was where Astrid felt she herself belonged, so Arieta belonged there as well. Right? Astrid had failed to prepare herself given that was not the case. At least not yet. “So soon?”
“The sooner the better. The human’s season of the phoenix is waning, and you’ve been away from the Kin for nearly a month now.”
Astrid sighed another, “Aye.”
Arieta began dressing her hands for combat. “Now hurry up with that food, I have just the right test in mind for you today. And you seem to do better with a full belly. Takes you longer to complain about being hungry.”
That helped Astrid crack a smile as she returned her attention to the stew she was preparing. She stood to fetch some thickener and other ingredients, only to feel a playful tug on her long hair. With a bit of playful sass, she rolled her head back and over her shoulder to look back at the blonde Norn, only to be pulled into an embrace and met with a long kiss.
The sun fell and rose again too quickly for Astrid. The next day was starting to reach it’s midway point as the redhead finished gathering her things. She moved carefully not to disturb her aching limbs too much. Once all of her belongings were gathered, Astrid made her way out of their tent. Arieta sat near the campfire finishing up a belt-pack she had been working on for the past week. Stepping up behind her, Astrid laid a hand on the blonde’s shoulder. Meeting Astrid’s hand with her own, Arieta looked back to look on her companion. Both released a quick snicker at each other.
“Sorry for hitting you with my staff. I thought I had better control of it,” Astrid said through the laughter.
Arieta licked her swollen lip and snorted, “You had more control over it than you think. How’s your eye?”
Astrid held a half smile, favoring the right corner of her mouth so it wouldn’t press skin up to her blackened eye. “I’m fine. I’m telling you I didn’t even feel it when you landed the hit.”
“Hard to feel much when you’re knocked out.”
Astrid laughed then winced. The two gave each other’s hand a squeeze before letting go. Heaving a sigh, Astrid added, “I guess I am headed back to see what our pack has been up to.”
“This is for you,” Arieta interjected as she ran a hook-needle through the end of the belt, finishing off its stitching. Astrid stepped to stand beside Arieta to see what she had. Arieta pointed at the bear and wolf heads stitched in the middle and Astrid softened her smile.
“Is that Barrett and his new wolf companion?” Astrid asked, already knowing the answer.
Arieta shook her head and kept silent, as if embarrassed to fully answer. “This is to remind you of what Bear and Wolf can achieve together.”
This brought a widened smile to Astrid’s face. She knelt beside Arieta, to look eye-to-eye with her. “I shall remember it into the Mists.” With those words, Astrid reached forward to touch Arieta’s cheek and to pull her lips to hers. The companions kept their heads together as they said their goodbyes.
Once the moment passed, Astrid tucked her knees together and stood. She took the belt-gift from Arieta and began strapping it to her hip. Once it was secured in place, she stepped back over to the tent and scooped up the strap of a large pack resting against the moosehide wall. Hoisting the pack to her back and weaving her arm through its strap, she turned to Barrett, the young wolf, then to Arieta. “I look forward to the day I see your faces amongst our kin once again.”
Arieta returned a slow nod to Astrid’s words before the redhead turned to make her leave. After taking only a couple steps, Astrid suddenly remembered something. She turned quickly, pulling a folded piece of paper from a pocket sewn to in her skirts. “Arieta, what about the letter?”
With a smirk and a dismissive wave she said, “Hold on to it. I’ll be back for it. But not for a while, so don’t lose it, all right?”
To those words Astrid mimicked Arieta’s previous single nod before turning back around to make the long trek back to Hoelbrak. Arieta watched her as she walked away into the snow.
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