Long ago, when the Nine Worlds were first created, gods roamed the land of Midgard and magic flowed freely from the branches of Yggdrasil. Now, trouble is brewing at the edges of the forest- the humans wish to take the magic for themselves. They've...
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It was the middle of the night, many moons before Ylva ventured into the White Wolf's cave, when a girl with midnight black hair wandered into the village. She looked lost, and seemed to be in a daze. The children noticed her first, and then the adults— what was left of them, at least. A few months before, the men had gone away to help defend a neighboring village that was under attack. They never returned. Now the women of the village bombarded her with questions, asking if she knew where the men had gone, and why she appeared from the forest, where few humans could survive. They even asked if she herself was human, for though her appearance was that of a girl, her behavior was of something far more powerful. Their questions piled up like mountains.
With glittering green eyes and an expressionless face, she would only answer one. "My name is Star."
Star, the villagers would later find, had no memories of life before her tenth birthday, which was just a few months ago. She remembered only dark shadows of people she once knew, and the memories of crimson flames engulfing everything around her. Some villagers couldn't help but wonder if she was indeed from the neighboring village, but no one ever asked. She would only talk to the village elder; a sweet old woman by the name of Olba. Olba had taken Star into her home on the night she arrived, and shielded her from the angry accusations the villagers threw at her. "They're just scared, child," she would say with a smile.
The children in the village eventually accepted Star as their new mother, though at the time she was only a couple years older than most of them. Her cold eyes lit up when she was around them, and it was one of the few times when she would actually smile. The children could sense her kind and caring nature, but they were not sure why she tried to hide her past from them.
Star had some very unique abilities, and because of this fact, the villagers slowly grew accustomed to her presence. While she still talked very little, the villagers who had a chance to hear her said her voice sounded like the wind. The best way to hear her voice was to get sick.
Star had a vast knowledge of different herbs and plants, and could make a remedy for any common illness. Since the village already had a medic, Star mostly just helped gather ingredients from the forest. However, on a rare occasion when the medic did not know what to do, or was sick herself, Star's knowledge truly shined. One winter- an especially cold winter— many of the villagers had become sick and drowsy. Despite the medic's efforts to cure them, their conditions continued to worsen. At this point, the medic called for Star. Star, having noticed that the sick villagers all had the same symptoms, asked to visit the villagers that were healthy. What she found surprised the medic, who never would have thought of such a cause for disease.
It was the wood that the villagers were burning that made them sick. Some wood piles had begun to mold, and the fumes that came from burning this moldy wood was causing the villagers to fall ill. This explained why the villagers could not recover— they were resting right next to the fire.
