The World-Eater's Eyrie

Words That Shatter Hearts

As the sun rose from his bed beneath the mountains Cerise and Ullr had just reached the outskirts of Falkreath. The trip itself had not been an unpleasant one, regardless of the increasingly colder weather as they hit the densely wooded homeland that Cerise had once called home. The steady clop of horse hooves was the only sound breaking the silence of dawn as Ullr and Cerise continued on their way. That day brought them ever closer to their destination of the Nord huntress' home. It was a peaceful enough ride, but perhaps that was simply due to the earliness of the day.

In truth, the past few days with Cerise had been peaceful in a sense, as if the revelation of the halfling's determination had set the huntress at ease with her company. Perhaps that was  what had happened. That wasn't to say that the other woman was easy to please in any way – Cerise was a tough and demanding mentor.....Very much the same as she typically was. No, the change came in her intentions and the way she dealt with her travel partner. Ullr wasn't treated quite so roughly by her anymore, and what had been cold indifference was now a simple placidity. The orcish halfling felt less like a burden and a bother, and that pleased her greatly.

They spent a good portion of the trip on horseback, stopping a few hours before dusk each day to set camp and prepare Ullr for the journeys to come. The first day or so was spent teaching Ullr to hold a sword, how to move with the metal and avoid exposing viable striking opportunities. The following training periods, Cerise had something a little different in mind for her practice. With time as scarce as it was Cerise only spent time hunting for their own food. Ullr's new training method served two purposes. Cerise had her rigorously chop wood until nightfall, the weighted axe she provided helping tune Ullr's muscles to better hold a weapon and the extra firewood a good trade to sell at nearby inns and farms. Cerise made sure to hunt fatty proteins for her new trainee and by the end of the trip, there was already a noticeable difference in the orcish girl. Training had been going well enough. While Ullr was already strong, to begin with given her orismer heritage, Cerise's exercises *had* made a difference. Where her strength had been clumsy and turbulent before, the girl was beginning to tone up, sharpening her brawn to a refined point. Under the huntress's tutelage, her baby fat had melted away, allowing the halfling to develop the muscle she'd need to master the art of swordsmanship.

Today, however, all of that had been put on the backburner as their group drew closer to Cerise's home. It wouldn't be long before they reached their destination, which Ullr thought might have pleased the huntress. This didn't seem to be the case, and she noticed that something seemed a bit off in regards to her traveling companion. Sigra gave a soft whinny as the group approached the small wooden cabin at the top of the hill. She acted restlessly – worried, even – and that emotion seemingly increased with Sigra's whinny, signaling their arrival. It was a cozy homestead with a large porch and a few pens of livestock. Cerise led the silent group to the backend of the cabin, hitching her horse and stretching her tired legs idly. There was an obvious anxiety of the woman as she spent extra time unsaddling Sigra and removing her bags from the mare's back. Many would run to greet their family after such a long absence but Cerise seemed unpleasantly hesitant.

As each dismounted, Cerise didn't display the usual joy people return home with. Ullr cast her a concerned glance and moved to inquire about the other woman's unease when she was interrupted by a man she could only assume was Cerise's father.

"By the divines, I thought I told you to go away!" A gruff booming baritone froze the huntress and a bustling dark-haired nord barreled through the cabin entrance.

"Cerise?" The woman lifted her chin in response to her name, meeting identical eyes to her own.

He was large and intimidating, a trait that he had passed onto his daughter, and the two shared the same piercing azure gaze. Ullr stood off to the side as they stared, squirming with discomfort at the sheer amount of tension between the two. Of course, she had smiled politely upon being introduced which had felt the same way it had when she'd first met Cerise. Just how alike were these two?

"Father, I'm home." The man twisted the elkhorn mug in his palm before knocking back another swig of what she assumed to be ale.

"Aye, you are. Pity you're too late."

Having missed the emphasis on the last word, Cerise began with her introductions.

"Father, this is Ullr and Bruse. I have some things I need to speak with you about, as well as Ullr." The man responded with a harsh grunt that echoed a true ring to the many times Cerise had responded to Ullr that way.

"How do 'ya do, Ullr?" His response sounded pressured, much like the tight-lipped way Cerise had bared at the beginning of their companionship.

The huntress introduced the nord as Kyadras Stoneheart, Cerise's father.

"Where is Garm? I think he would like Ullr. Is he home?"

With the introductions over, there was still a pressured atmosphere about the huntress and her father, one that only increased with Cerise's prompting to see Garm. There was a resonating silence that bared down on the group that blew the air solemn. Cerise hadn't spoken to Ullr of her strong affections towards her younger brother, but the way her eyes glanced around expectantly would prove how hard the next blow would strike.

The halfling assumed him to be her brother, as Garm was obviously someone the huntress cared greatly for. But with her father's avoidance of the question, the orismer knew Garm's unfortunate fate before the words were even spoken. She was sure Cerise also knew all too well, but that knowledge was clouded with denial. But once the truth of the matter left Kyadras' lips, Garm's death became all too real and could no longer be written off as some nightmare or impossibility.

"You should come inside, Cerise. Let me pour you a mug of ale and we will talk."

Cerise blinked back at him defiantly, a small bubble of panic threatening her airway. There was something odd about his tone, his eyes were also colder than she had remembered.

"I think I'll wait for Garm. He-"

"Garm is dead Cerise. We laid him to rest just last week. I wrote you, but you never came."

Ullr's face fell, and she placed a hesitant hand on her travel companion's arm – the halfling knew that she would be rejected more than likely but desired to make her support known nonetheless. Anything reassurance she thought to offer sounded ake in her head and died on her lips, so she stood silently. As always.