username: boss | character name: Hel | gender: female
a little extraso the story goes...There was once a cub born to a tribe living far, far to the west. So proud was her mother,
her first litter, to welcome a daughter into her new life. Her coat like sun-baked river
stones and such an impressively luxurious looking mane, it was clear that this little bundle
would go on to become someone beautiful. However the scale between beauty and usefulness
were not weighed the same in any regard. One’s appearance, while amounting to quite a lot,
was not nearly as coveted as the magic the Pruvian’s were so quick to covet.
Hel, as she was named, was a budding beauty to be sure, but had been dealt a poor hand
in life. When the time came for her to receive her gems, the then juvenile Pruvian had found
it odd that these mystical jewels remained staunchly unresponsive to her. While her year-mates
fumbled and brashly flashed their magic, months came and went without so much as a measly
spark from her, much to Hel's growing frustration. Her mother assured her, in that knowing
tone of hers, that she was merely a late bloomer and that her magic would come with time and
need only be patient.
Summer’s came and went, her days of being considered a juvenile were long gone and she was of
courting age. Still, her jewels remained empty and vacant, much like her hope of ever using her
race’s most treasured skills. As time kept on her once friends had grown distant; the influences of
both their parents and hawk-eyed elders had seen sure enough that she was slowly being pushed
out of their tight-knit society, to the bare outskirts of their social dynamic.
It was crushing…
What broke her resolve to keep trying was when the social pressures began to weigh against her
mother. The aging Pruvian had always been her pillar of strength, the light in dark times, and now
her greatest supporter was being frowned at and belittled for having a talentless daughter. Not
wanting her mother to suffer for her inadequacy, Hel made the decision. In the dead of night, she
left the territory.
The world beyond the safety of her home was… intimidating. The twilight that had once seemed so
serene now loomed overhead, a menacing blackness with the stars glaring down on her from an empty
face. There was no sympathy in this place where she found herself. The boughs provided meager shelter
but no warmth, the grass gave her bedding but no comfort, the wind offered direction but no destination.
The unknown had never felt so foreboding.
The weeks dragged on in this suddenly solitary lifestyle Hel found herself in. The shadows all seemed
to creep closer and closer, the wilds suffocating, becoming too much for her to tolerate and pushing her
even farther from anything familiar until she found herself amid the plains with autumn quickly overtaking
the land. This would be the first winter she would spend outside the protective reach of her pack. Already
she struggled to provide for herself in the months since running away and the task of surviving had steadily
grown less and less appealing.
What use did she have? A Pruvian with no magic was a useless. Unwanted drain on available resources.
Why should she continue to use precious materials to sustain her meager existence?
Such thoughts plagued her since her juvenile years but were felt stronger and gaining ground the harder
life had become. The only thing keeping her resolved to live was knowing that her mother would mourn
even into the afterlife if she were to do anything but keep going.
So on Hel fought, hoping to find the fortitude to keep going even as the winds bore down with the
northern chill. A herd of elk moved through the windswept meadows and she took to following them at
a distance. They did not mind her presence, be it because they sensed she was not a predator or because
they’d previously encountered Pruvian’s and had spoken with them, albeit she could not do the same
without the aid of magic. She shadowed them purely for the protection and the way that they drifted to
the still browning pockets of edible berries scattered about but as winter pressed down in earnest they
moved on, and Hel was reluctant to leave any farther than she already had.
However an odd thing happened in the last days before the herd moved on. Wolves were known predators
and had been sighted around before, ghosting the hoofed animals but not yet so bold to try for them. But
eventually they must have mustered the courage to fight and had attacked them. A watchful group of doe
sounded the alert but the ensuing chaos was something to behold. The wolves ignored her, she wasn’t big
enough to be much of a meal nor was she their target and ignored her in favor of the springing herbivores.
All but one escaped their clutches, a young, blue eyed buck who’d tried to kick out and was tripped for his
efforts. What took hold of her then was anyone guess but she barreled headfirst into the wolf clutching its
leg and whipped her tail into the face of the one clinging to its back, giving the stag just enough leverage
to heft itself up and flee with her hot on his trail.
For whatever reason that buck did not pursue his herd. At first Hel presumed it was because he could not,
a limb having developed in the leg that had been bitten but she’d painstakingly helped to clean it and make
it free of infection with herbs she’d managed to locate. She realized belatedly that he must see her as an
unusual ally and persistently followed her.
Cold scarcely seemed to bother her new companion but even with her thick coat, Hel felt the chill race over
her skin and lodge itself in her bones. Day after day her strength began to wane, and as the snow began to fall
and the meager food she could acquire was all but nonexistent. Hunger was a constant debilitating growth,
expanding and yet hollowing her out until she was a gaunt, ugly little thing. Death would surely come for her
now, she mused amid the ice-coated den she’d dug for herself as a storm raged around her. There was no way
she could keep going, hadn’t an ounce of determination left and her stag friend seemed to know this because he
had left her side. How fitting… she’d left and had been alone, now she would die alone.
Quiet encroached on the noise beyond her soon-to-be tomb; convinced, she presumed death had finally gripped her
and she was losing her senses, but a hard peck and a bloom of pain implied otherwise. Blinking out of a stupor she
stared into the face of a hawk – or at least the bird glowering down into her face down the length of his beak,
looked to be a hawk. It’s feathers all but blended with the blinding white snow but it’s eyes were an angry
crimson and seemed to sear her very soul.
“Get up, girl! My time is precious and spending it here in this blizzard is hardly how I want to spend it!”
Such a surprise to hear what should be angry squawking, be words. Words that she understood as clearly as if
another of her kind were speaking. It was with much effort (mainly due to shock) that she did as ordered and
followed the white hawk beyond her modest hovel. The blizzard raged around them but to her immense
astonishment acted more like a hurricane and they the eye of the storm, blessedly calm and protected from
the wind and sleet whipping up.
“Your cub better be worth it Dainn...” Grumbled the hawk, to which Hel felt the need to correct him that
she was
not a pup of any sort. As if summoned by the name the snowy curtain parted and a large antlered
head emerged into the circular safe zone. The stag before her looked old, so very old that his muzzle – likely
once dark with youth, was completely silver. The elk was the largest she’d ever seen, with a crown of antlers
large enough to make his already massive frame look all the more formidable. But his eyes, the clearest and
most impressive blue.
The buck, who must be Dainn, didn’t answer the hawk’s cross behavior with more than an amiable smile and a
nod of his great head before he was trudging off. Hel, mystified by this turn of events, naturally asked the
hawk for clarification. He didn’t respond to her either, rudely taking off after the silent stag meandering ever
farther from them and to her amazement, the safe zone moved with the hawk, forcing her to fall in line or be
exposed to the storm.
Their trek took them deep into the forest, into thickets she hadn’t dared venture but the predators she knew
would lurk her kept a wide berth from their group. Eventually her well-worn patience snapped and she growled
out her complaints and frustrations. Hunger, exhaustion and the stress of her mind lashed out at the duo,
berating them for keeping her in the dark, refusing to answer her questions and yet demanding her obedience,
for wasting their time with a useless slip of a girl who offered nothing to them in terms of worth or value.
Dainn looked to her, bewildered by her outburst – or at least startled by it as his expression only shifted in
that his eyes widened a fraction. He tilted his head up, shaking the hawk resting on one of his prongs and
giving him a pointed look of disapproval. “Ugh! Really? You gargantuan eyesore, you’d think you’d be more
thorough with this than you’ve been.” The roused bird looked at her with mild affront but quickly stated.
“I am Veðrfölnir, tutor of the wind and translator for this idiot.” A peck to Dainn’ shoulder indicated very
clearly who the ‘idiot’ was. Dainn looked amused. Hel swiftly bombarded him with questions now that
they seemed willing to answer but the hawk cawed shrilly in annoyance. “Woman, I
can’t hear you!
All I see is your muzzle flapping up and down but no sound reaches me and your magic-less state makes it
impossible for use to communicate otherwise.” It was a stinging reminder to the reason for her solitude and
she shrank under his stare. Dainn huffed at the bird and made a halfhearted swipe with his antlers, the hawk
of course avoided but seemed to get the message. “Dainn here is mute, he can’t speak except with his magic.
You just can’t hear him yet. We’re taking you to mother and if I have to answer one more incessant question
I’ll pluck out my tail feathers.”
With that silence fell over them and on they went; Hel truly wished she could have asked who ‘mother’ was.
Two months passed on this seemingly endless journey and Hel was well cared for in that time. Dainn had the
uncanny ability to find morsels for her to eat, berries and wood nuts unaffected by winter’s grip and Hel
consumed them eagerly. Her curiosity hadn’t abated and she found that Veðrfölnir, even while being a taciturn
individual, was easier to speak with over time.
The cold began to sway, giving way to warmth that did not match the very early spring and she was introduced
formally to the reason for this critical shift. Their little band stood before a massive tree, towering above
everything the forest had to offer and glimmering with all manners of aether. It’s trunk and branches were
thicker than Dainn’ midsection and within them were shivering veins of luminescent crystals that pulsed like
a beating heart.
”Can you hear me now? A beat and she looked to her companions in mild fright only to see the buck
smirking at her in that amused way of his.
I take it that you do.” Hel could only nod numbly at the
explanation, looking between her friends and the colossal tree.
”Welcome, child,” Another voice, honestly she feared she was in some hypothermia-induced dream
but it came again, laughing as if it knew her worries.
”Oh but I do, child.” the voice tittered, sounding
so warm and docile that she’d mistake it for her own mother.
”Long have I awaited your coming, Hel. For
another grey soul like your two brothers. A soul with boundless potential… But I get ahead of myself. I am
Yggdrasil. My son’s bring you here in the hope that you will become one of my many blessed children to be of
service to all life that walks beneath my roots.” Hel immediately protested this blessing. She had no worth and was but a humble creature with not a drop of
magic nor wellspring of intelligence like Veðrfölnir nor a titan like Dainn and -
More laughter, soft and assuring.
”I would not choose you if you had nothing to offer this realm, child. Fear not,
for in accepting my light onto thyself, you will gain more than you stand to lose.” Yggdrasil purred but Hel
caught the words. Lose?
“She means a price.” chirped Veðrfölnir shrewdly, “In return for her blessing we must sacrifice something that
we possess. We gain immortal souls, magic keyed to our natural talents, and so on and so forth. Really there’s
little downside in this.” He snorted at her hesitance.
She could have all that she wanted and more, but what was the cost?
”The cost, sweet one, would be physical
and a choice you would make. Rest beneath my roots and dream. If your heart resolves to an answer I will take
care of the rest.”And so Hel slept. She did not know for how long she slept but the fog of her dreams drifted in and out but she
was so tired of feeling inadequate. Magic, she had learned, was not everything, but it was the core of many of her
problems. Would it be dishonest of her to seek it, grasp it in both paws if it were available, if it mean becoming
an undying guardian?
She seized the opportunity… and made her choice.
When Hel awoke it was to blackness, as she was expecting. Carefully she picked her way over roots until she
felt the cool air on her cheeks, the warmth of Yggdrasil’s form emanating around her. She could feel Diann
resting to the left, nestled in a bed of lavender buds. Veðrfölnir was amid the mother tree’s branches, his eyes
on her. “Girl, what did you do?” His voice torn between morbid amusement, horror and disbelief.
“Well… I figured why not complete the set?” Her voice came and she could feel the magic she’d been imbued with
rushing through her throat, and heard the hawk ruffle his feathers at the sound playing through his head. “Ha! So
you would compare us to those apes?” “Monkey’s.” she corrected but he bore on. “Speak no evil, hear no evil, see
no evil… How quaint. But your camaraderie is misplaced. How will you defend yourself if you’ve no eyes to see your
attacker?” Admittedly, she hadn’t thought of that. She’d assumed she’d always be in the company of her new
friends and that no mortal beast would dare strike at them.
”If she is without defense then I will give her my antlers.” Diann spoke, groggily coming awake and joining
the conversation.
”Consider it a… re-birthday gift.” chortled the wizzened stag. His alabaster horns glimmered
before vanishing from him, leaving him looking odd in his now de-antlered state. A sudden weight on her skull
indicated that he had indeed adorned her with his mantle. Veðrfölnir scoffed. “She’s more likely to poke her own
eye out than lose those guady head ornaments.” A beat of wings and she sensed, more than saw, the eagle by her
side. All was quite before she felt him grabbing at her shoulders with his talons, scoring holes and making her hiss,
shaking in an attempt to fling him away. “Pipe down, girl or it’ll not set right. Be grateful, I’ve plucked my most
handsome feathers for you and with time they will become wings capable of carrying you on the lightest breeze
so you can fly to safety instead of trying to butt heads like that neanderthal.”
Yggdrasil’s gentle laugh bounced in her ears.
“It would seem you will be well looked after my dear...”
