Spirit Warrior - The Son of the North

Son of the Crownsman - II

I sit on the ledge of a cliff, overlooking the ocean. I'm picking apart a piece of grass slowly. There is an ever-so-light breeze every now and then, which makes the grass flow in the wind like waves. The summer is almost over, which means the harsh autumn storms will soon be upon us.

Last year the ocean goddess, Tethys, claimed the lives of five of their stock and two people. It was made clear last year that a sacrifice had to be made this year, but what? Offering a cow or horse wouldn't be near enough to settle the ocean goddess. In the horizon I see the black clouds coming, lingering. In the distance lightning strikes, lighting up the clouds with an unnatural color. The silence here gives me chills; no animals make a sound, not even a little chipper of a bird. The forest is utterly quiet; even the wind has quieted.

I get to my feet and as I walk down the narrow path back to the village I see the commotion. People are running around, trying to prepare for the upcoming storm. I watch the people running around; even the freemen are pacing about.

I lower my head slightly to make it look as though I'm staring at my feet. I angle my head slightly to the side so I can not only hear but also see the person approaching. Out of the corner of my eyes I see Eris skipping closer. "Cay... The Grandmistress has ordered you to prepare the dinghy. She says to prepare for a sacrifice,"

I don't acknowledge her; I just cross my arms over my chest. I hear the gravel crunch beneath her feet as she walks away, leaving me on my own once again.

The offerings always make me uneasy. It's been many years since a human has been sacrificed and few of the elders remember it. It must have been when the Grandmistress was still very young. It seems extremely hard to imagine her looking like anything other than what she looks like now.

I remember when I was little I thought that people never changed, that they always looked the same way; that I would never change, and never age. How wrong I was. I smile lightly when a memory glides over my eyes, just like I'm living it again.

"Eska, why do we age?" I sit in the low grass at Eska's feet. He's sitting on the stone he always sits on, with an apple in one hand, and a small knife in the other. I look on as he peels the skin off the apple. The red skin is forced off; the light pink fruit is revealed underneath. He cuts out a piece for me. I gingerly take it between a pair of dirty fingers. Just the look of it makes my mouth water and as I take a bite, I'm met by both sweet and sour tastes.

"You see, Cay, only gods can live forever," Eska's calm voice says, still focusing on slicing the apple.

"Then gods can't die?" I ask as I take another piece of apple that Eska offers to me.

"Gods can be killed by other gods, or Ettins,"

I munch on the apple quietly waiting for him to continue. "The Ettins is the worst of all creatures. They are the lords of chaos and darkness. They live in Ettinheim; they rarely venture into our world, much less into Galforthr, though sometimes it does happen. It happened to the god Lind. Lind was the kindest god in all of Galforthr. Who would have thought that, with his father being the son of Deus, the god of war. His mother was Edda, goddess of harvest and richness. It is said that she had the most wonderful golden hair; it was given to her by Gorm when she came to Galforthr. She had lived a life as a mortal and therefore could not live in Galforthr because she wasn't dead or dying. Though Deus loved her with all his heart, when Gorm saw the cold-hearted warlords' love for the frail mortal woman he granted her immortality, but for a price. He asked her to cut the raven hair from her head, the hair that Deus loved so much, to prove their love true. Edda didn't hesitate for a second, and paid the price for her immortality. Their love was true and they were wed on Friday. Following tradition, Edda wore a golden bridal crown with flowers woven into it,"