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[Random the Navigator]

[OOC:]

We're transferring play of Borderlands to this Board.  For the most part, I was going to summarise past events, but also upload the first chapter file (there are only two) so that anyone who wanted to would be able to read the first gameday of the story as it was written.  But it occurred to us that some things in both chapters - ideas and events critical to the story - might be better off posted verbatim.  I'd hate to leave the memory of these things behind on our other forum!

Sooo...I'll post critical Enya material, as Kiye will for Rowellan and Bjorn.  There will be a proper intro soonish, but in the meantime I'm collecting Enya's VIPs (Very Important Posts) here.

[Update: Intro written; Chapter 1 attached.]


  *~*~*~*

The Setting: A remote corner of the Realm of Midgard.  (Map: The Midgard Borderlands)  There are three such Realms in the known world (well, as much of it as was known until Enya showed up): Midgard, land of the conquering, seafaring Norsefolk; Albion, where knights and castles hold sway; and Hibernia, land of the mystical Celts.  Each Realm is suffused with its People's mythos and magic.  And each Realm possesses one or more sacred Relics given to its People directly by their gods.

These Relics are the subject of seeming centuries of strife.  Kept in the most formidable and well-guarded strongholds, located in the most forbidding landscapes, they are yet vulnerable to being carried off by fighters of the other Realms.  No Realm seems to be content with its own blessings; each believes that its gods will smile upon it even more brightly if it usurps the divine power of another Realm as well.  If the Norse Gods won't bless Albion, well, at least They won't be blessing the Norse while Albion holds Their artifacts captive either...

And so it goes, year after year, the raids of every Realm upon every other to either claim that culture's Relics or reclaim their own.  The raiders, sparing themselves any long marches or sea-voyages, make use of magical portals planted secretly on the outskirts of the Realm being invaded, and these portals are almost as hard to get into as the Relic Keeps.  And the only thing between the raid portals ("Outposts") and the Relic Keeps are the fortifications of the Borderlands, their inhospitable terrain, and the people who man them with might and magic.

Rowellan Stormsverd is one such defender.  An accomplished archer and huntress, she patrols the Midgard Borderlands in search of anything unusual, anything--or anyone--that has no business being there.  Border guards don't like "unusual".  And on this particular sunny yet frigid morning, she has spotted someone quite unusual indeed approaching the Midgard side of the Wall...

The Characters (click names for images):

• Rowellan Stormsverd, Norse huntress
• Enya, Seafolk wanderer and some sort of beastmaster...they think...
• Bjorn Silverhand, Norse Skald...

...and others we've yet to meet.

[IC:]

[Enya, having somehow avoided being skewered long enough to start up a conversation with Rowellan, introduces her companions:]

...she tossed the sphere overhand in a huge arc, at the end of which it seemed to explode or evaporate...and standing where it had last been seen was a huge owl, hooded like a falcon, only that the hood was open-faced and could be drawn closed by its tassels.  The hood was green, the rest of the bird soft brown above and white below, and the way it held its wings shut made them look like a cape going all the way down to its ankles...

...Meanwhile, the sphere which had contained the owl had somehow ended up back in Enya's hand.

"Is Tayu," Enya said, smiling.  "Think you gonna like him the best..."

 [snip]

But she did need [the rest of her team], and she had them, so she showed them.  It didn't actually take a rocket-launcher to get them out of their containers; a soft underhand toss, like a toddler's, was just as effective, as was simply holding the ball and pressing the latch.  Thus did she release a huge dog, big enough to ride, Nordic in form but auburn with tiger-stripes, whose mane and tail flowed like wind-driven fire; a truly gargantuan mud-colored warhorse, who only needed four more legs to be worthy of Odin; a crested silver gryphon; a brass-colored fox of no unusual size, but whose pelt bristled with static until Enya smoothed it again...and from the last orb, the one with the Rock symbol on it, came a disarmingly cute little puppy, all wriggles and kisses and half-tipped ears and big, fluffy plume-tail...but who yet had pebbles of some dark stone embedded in its ruff.

"Is Pepper...  Is Kilvanä...  Is Auryn...  Is 'Iheyu...  Is Wuffels," said Enya proudly, announcing them in order.

  -:-  -:-  -:-


[Enya explains her "Soul-friends" and her religious beliefs...not incidentally shedding light on how Pokémon could work in a fantasy setting:]

"And now," Enya said more seriously, "since have seen much questions in your eyes, I 'splain to you 'bout my Soul-friends.

"My People do believe that 'All are One'--that there be no difference between us, animals, plants, Land and Sea; that all be just forms of Mother-god, and She be all of them at once.  'f you believe that, you know that all have Spirit, and all share same Spirit--is Spirit of Mother-god.  So...do it matter what form She takes?  Do it matter what form we take?  Is all same-same to Her and to me and to my People; we can be Wolf as easy as Forest.  But She made us *us*, from same stuff as Wolf and Forest, so all have Wolf and Forest in them.  And ones like me, we have Wolf and Forest outside too...

"Tayu be my sharpness, my Seeing, my flight.

"Pepper be my fierceness, my fangs, my Fire.

"Kilvanä be my strength, my caring, my holding-steady.

"'Iheyu be my spark, my force, what I put in the world when I feel thundery inside.

"Auryn...ah, Auryn!  He be anything I need him to be, all of me that not be in Tayu or Pepper or Kilvanä or 'Iheyu or even in me, 'cause Spirit be much bigger than Body.

"And Wuffels, she here to remind me that is okay to still be little and sweet."

[Kiyevanie]

"And that's something she's good at," Rowellan smiled, rubbing the pup's ears as she had done with her wolf companion when he had been a cub himself.  "She's adorable - and more!"  She could feel something to Wuffels that wasn't quite the same as an ordinary pup.

Then she frowned, trying to wrap her mind around what Enya had just explained.  Some of it was completely alien - for example the idea of one single mother god; other things sounded familiar.  "We don't have just one god," she explained, "but a whole family of them."  She gave a half-grin.  "Sometimes a rather dysfunctional family, to be honest.  Everyone here deeply respects them, but that doesn't mean we're blind to all the little squabbles and family feuds they're fighting now and then.  Most of us choose one god or goddess we follow along on our journey in life, one we pray to, one that protects us and gives us their strength.  For me that's Skadi - She's got a special place in Her heart for those of us who run in the wild, the archers, the trackers."  She smirked.  "I wonder what She'd make out of Tayu..."

She got serious again.  "But I know what you mean - the gods are around us, everywhere, in the land, in the sky, in the wind that blows, the falling of the snow, the lights in the sky at night, the rolling thunder.  And we all are their children."  She smiled.  "Maybe I get the chance to introduce you to Venn one day - he doesn't like this place here, too many people.  He's a wolf that runs with me now and then when I'm out on patrol - he's not part of me, but when we're out together we share...*something*.  We understand each other."

Again she eyed Enya's group of unbelievable animal Soul-Friends.  "But I think for you it goes deeper, doesn't it?"

[Random the Navigator]

"'What She make of Tayu'?" Enya grinned.  "Prob'ly just what he is: very good at shooting stuff with feathers!"

But at Rowellan's deeper question she grew solemn again.  "Soul-friends and I have seen much, done much," she said quietly.  "Maybe too much for little-kid like me...  Couple years ago, my People did see holes in sky, and grownups not could fix them, so they sent me to close them.  Little-kids with strong Soul-friends, we fix a lotta stuff that grownups can't.  Me, I hadda go through holes to find out what make them.  Did see much beauty, but much scary stuff too.  And monsters...much monsters on other side of that hole, and some fell out onto our side.  But you know what? --They as scared to have holes in their sky as we were to have holes in ours!  They not hurt nobody 'cept 'cause they scared and trying to get back home.  I got strong Soul-friends; do know how it is, animal be scared and not know what be going on; is not his fault.  These ones scared like crazy, lash out at Mother-god's helpers, the Tapu--Tapu be like small gods; got one for each Island--and Tapu not could send monsters home either, and got hurt trying.  So...me and Soul-friends did go through hole, see what was like; then did come back and fight and catch monsters that fell through, and take them home.  Could do this because now did smell like their side of hole, like home.  Because I do this thing, because I help them 'stead of being scared, my home and theirs be always safe from each other now..."

Her epic having been told, she bit her lip, and for the first time all morning she looked her age, as lost and confused as she must have felt back then, and maybe a little haunted too.  It had been a grand adventure, but she hadn't made it home without scars, or a set of memories that she was still trying to assimilate in her spare time.  "But is a lot to ask from little-kid, no?  Go through monster-holes and save small gods?" she ended, her voice wee-small.

[Kiyevanie]

Rowellan's trained senses noticed the sudden change in Enya's voice, the lost and forlorn look in her eyes.  Whatever had been asked from the girl, it had been too much and it had left traces and scars.  It was the first moment that Rowellan completely realized that Enya indeed *was* still a young kid.  It was easy to think otherwise, with Enya being that tall, out on her own that far away from her home, with a really impressive collection of Soul-Friends travelling with her.  But if one looked closer it was clear to see that she was still very young, probably somewhere between ten and twelve Summers.

Of course Rowellan knew that early childhood wasn't a safe protected time. Midgard was a rough land and she, like all the other kids in the village, had to learn from an early age how to defend themselves. But that had always been with the adults around - nobody would have expected a child to do a grown-up's work. If a problem was too big to be solved by an adult, the last thing anyone would have done was call a kid to fix it. At Enya's age she herself had seriously started her training - closely guarded by her father, who made sure that she didn't face anything she couldn't handle and near if things would have gotten out of hand.

"Holes in the sky", with monsters coming through... was that so different from the way the Borderkeeps kept spawning enemy troops? Only that of course those enemy troops wanted to come here. But whatever the motivation of the intruders,  it was something the whole realm dealt with - leaving it all on a child's shoulders sounded more than wrong in the huntress' ears.

Not sure how the stranger thought about physical contact, as this could be so different between the races and cultures - Kobolds hugged all the time while Trolls liked to keep their distance - she cautiously put a hand on the girl's arm, wanting to give comfort somehow.  "No," she said quietly, "this shouldn't have been asked from a child.  It's way too much, I think.  And you and your friends were more than brave to face it all."  She shook her head.  "Saving small gods?  That's a lot to ask for even grown-ups...a whole group of grown-ups."  Actually right now she didn't think much of those 'small gods' if they had to rely on kids saving their sorry asses.

[Random the Navigator]

[Enya: Hug accepted.]

She backed off, then just leaned against the wall watching her companions explore this frigid place.  She giggled at the way the snow melted everywhere Pepper walked, and the way Tayu was being so particular about finding a tree-perch, and the way Wuffels kept tripping Auryn up by gamboling around the wingless Gryphon's taloned forefeet.  Oh, how he danced, trying hard not to step on her!  'Iheyu, the golden fox, slipped off in search of rodents to pounce on.  Only Kilvanä remained where she was, snuffling Enya's beltpouch before lipping up a wisp of her hair.  "Ahh, you big silly!!" Enya squawked; then, to Rowellan, she explained: "Is 'cause she want honey! --Kilvanä, where you think I gonna find honey out here??  Is too cold for flowers!"...whereupon the huge equine decided that the rest of the apple Enya held would do.

Finally, after losing herself in the animals' antics for a while, Enya turned back to the huntress.  "Maybe should 'splain 'bout how things go with kids and Soul-friends," she began.  "Grownups back home, and most places where have said anything to me at all, they know kids--'specially little-kids--got something special they lose as they grow up.  Is that special thing that lets us have Soul-friends.  Maybe 'cause world be simpler for us, or kinder; grownups, they got much worries, even worries for us.  Sometimes do see a grownup with a Soul-friend, but is always one he got as a little-kid.  Soul-friends only come to us while our souls not yet be filled with worries.

"So 'f you need something done that only Soul-friends can do, you gotta ask a kid who has them.  If child be strong, asking be large.  Is huge honor, be asked to do something big.  And they ask me to do the biggest because me and my Soul-friends be the strongest.  Yes, strongest in all the land back home!  Be a long time 'fore they quit talking 'bout Strong Enya.  Gonna be much tale-speaking 'bout her.  Gonna be many people will want to test their strength 'gainst hers.  Think they gonna have to sort that out themselves, since right after I beat ev'rybody I did disappear; I not feel like fighting children after fighting things that hurt the Tapu.  Is no fun, when you that strong and nobody want to challenge you and is nothing new to see if they did.  Hadda go away from all that...

"But do miss when fighting was fun.  When Soul-friends first come, they wee-small like us; Tayu got all he could do to chirp loud enough to scare somebody.  Was no shooting feather-arrows for him back then!  But we have contests with other kids; do call them fights, but is not really, is just to see whose Soul-friends be strongest.  If Tali's Soul-friends beat mine, ya, we both have fun, and my Soul-friends learn something, and his learn something else, and bond between us and our Soul-friends grow stronger, which makes us and them stronger too.  So to say 'Enya be strong' is to say 'Enya and her Soul-friends, they same-same as each other; move and breathe and fight as one; all one thing, and what happens to any of them happens to all.  I not worried 'bout 'Iheyu wandering off.  'f I need her, she be here fast as lightning and strong as thunder."

[Kiyevanie]

[Rowellan listening to Enya's explanations about children, their Soul-Friends and the tasks assigned to them.]

"We had that kind of competitions too when I was a child," she started hesitantly. "Just not with Soul-Friends... but we wanted to find out who's the fastest runner or can climb a tree best. Or shoot best with a bow or fight with a sword. Or who's the best in finding tracks - or in hiding. We did it all the day when we were playing, for fun and for learning from each other." She smiled. "How should the son or daughter of a smith ever find out they're much better in carving wood if they never can try it in a game? And when we grew up and each of us figured out what we were good in, we found out what way in life we want to go - and sooner or later we got tasks to do too, not just for play, but real ones. Hunt for a village feast, make the nails or the logs for a new hut - that kind of thing." She sighed. "Sometimes I miss those days too. When missing a track only meant that we'd eat veggie stew for dinner, without rabbit in it. Or that Sven would rub it in for days, that I again hadn't found him..."

For a moment she was silent, watching the Soul-Friends' antics too, chuckling about Auryn's tries not to step on Wuffels. "And I miss the times when my soul was like that too," she whispered, thinking of all the things she had seen in the years that had passed since those innocent days. "Yes, whatever the differences between your home and mine, that's the same: We lose something when we grow up."

She mulled over the way how Enya's strength was connected to that of her Soul-Friends. That vaguely reminded her of something but she couldn't put her finger on it. Anyway she hoped that Enya's friends would stay around once the girl grew up. Somehow the bond between Enya and her companions seemed too strong to get lost over the years.

[Random the Navigator]

[What happened between the Wall and the Hall:]

 - Tayu chooses a tree near the Wall to settle in; while a seemingly trivial matter and no business but his, Enya explains what he's actually looking for:

"Back home, we got this *huuuuge* Tree.  Is Tree of Mother-god, and is where we go to pray.  But 'All be One', 'member? --So voice of Mother-god Tree is heard many, many places where Mother-god never been at all, or Tapu either.  Tayu can tell if this tree knows that one; if so, place where it stands be home to me."

Rowellan then wonders if Enya's Mother-tree might be Yggdrasil, the Norse Tree of the Worlds; probably not, they conclude, but she offers to take Enya to Yggdrasil Forest, which, while not home to the World Tree, was at least named after it.

 - Rowellan introduces Enya to two of her companions on the Wall: Marble, a Troll Shaman who takes quite a fancy to little Wuffels; and Sammet, a playful and mischievous Kobold thief, to whom Enya takes quite a fancy herself.

 - On the subject of Shamans, Enya has this to say:

"Did meet a few on way here.  They much like Tapus' Kahunas, yes... Is many Islands, and each one got a Tapu who watch over that Island, and each Tapu got a Kahuna who speak to it for my People.  Do wish to be a Kahuna someday.  Is part of why I train so hard with Soul-friends, to show I be strong enough to help protect my Island; and wandering far and coming to places like this does teach me more 'bout world beyond Islands, on this side of Sea, which I think maybe Tapu wanna know 'bout that too.  Shall come to them with gifts of strength and knowledge and wisdom and very strong Soul-friends.  After that, all I gotta do is win fights with every other Kahuna--and have beaten four already!!"

...which explains a lot about why she came to Midgard.

 - Rowellan decides to take Enya along on her patrol, for which Enya is grateful - if nothing else, because staying in motion will keep her from freezing her patuti (hindquarters) off!  But seeing that Enya is going to need a little help in surviving the experience, she lends the Seafolk girl her cloak, which is edged with runes to keep the wind out from underneath it.

 - Their destination for the night: Nottmoor Faste, the nearest actual Keep in the area.  Enya asks if she counts as a border guard.  Hmm, not really; but Rowellan assures her that anyone who's willing to risk their neck out here for the Cause will be treated like one.  Enya, you see, would very much like to be issued a guardsman's cloak of her own...not to mention to be somewhere warm, chow down on something substantial, and give her Soul-friends the chance to do the same!

 - On the way to the Faste, Rowellan describes the more southern parts of the Borderlands, which they will be scouting in the morning.  Two particular delights await the pair in Yggdra Forest: a lake that never freezes, and the Frostfoals that come there to play.  Powered on by the thought of somewhere in this Realm that might be even marginally warmer, Enya picks up the pace...

[Random the Navigator]

[The pair reach the Faste, where Enya quite unexpectedly finds something she has in common with a Dwarven guard at the gate:]

"You like my beard beads?" Haverg asked, literally beaming.  If Enya would have wanted to make friends with the Dwarven guard, she couldn't have found something better than her innocent question.  "See, for our people our beards are very important - no shaving knife has ever touched my face.  Instead we care for them, braid them, decorate them - they show our lives, you know?  Each of 'em has their own story."  He pointed at one copper bead that was almost polished by now but must once have had an intricate decoration.  "This is my first one, given to me by my father when my beard was first long enough to be braided. It was a loooong celebration and the first time I actually got that 'Thor's hammer hit me' head the day after.  This one..." this time it was a greenish carved stone, "was a present from my sister when I got accepted into the army.  And this one comes from Myrun, my wife..."  He pointed at an amber bead that decorated a braided strand close to his heart.

There was no missing the Dwarf's smile when Enya complimented him on his beard decorations, and she was touched at the stories behind them.  That, at least, was so much like home...  "I tell you a secret?" she asked him, then went ahead anyway.  "Is not really a secret, but is more fun to pretend it is...  Seafolk put stories in beads too.  Sometimes in hair or on ears, yes!  But usually in story-strings.  Here; this one be mine, and do add to it when something new happen..."  She fetched a fivefold strand of shells, pearls, bits of local stones and sea-glass out of her ample belt-pouch.  "Start out at home, with stones and shells from home...  This one, this one, this one for first three spirit-animals; do now have six..."  (She didn't say that she was wearing them.)  "Here, from sea; here, from islands I pass in long boat; here, from woods and plains and smoking mountains and spaces between stars...and here, the newest, from this land.  String ties stories together, and stories tie me to every land.  Tapu gonna like that..."

[Random the Navigator]

[Enya recalls her first Pokémon battle:]

-:-

A warm day, a breezy day.  A small but sacred village; the village where the Kahuna lived.  Enya, three years younger, standing on a low wooden platform behind a little owlet who was already ruffling and muttering to himself, whether about having just been released or having been confined to begin with, only he knew.

A friend standing across from her, about to toss his own companion's sphere.  There it went; a sea-lion pup burst out and stood up on its hind-flippers in a 'Ta-daa!' pose before dropping to all fours.

Enya's smile, as she knew already that she had an edge.  Tayu, Grass.  The sea-lion, Water.  Grass absorbs Water.  If the two were equal in strength, which they were, Tayu had the advantage, and not just in speed.

"Tayu!  Growl!"  The little owl did so, now muttering at his challenger as a way of gauging the other animal's courage.  To its credit, the sea-lion didn't flinch.

Its trainer, Hau, a bouncy person to begin with, now sprouted an even bigger smile - a good-natured smile; not cocky, not boastful, just the grin of a boy having a good time.  Then came his command: "Ashimari!  Pound!"  The sea-lion, having already performed its own display of confidence, smacked the bird with a flipper.

Tayu reeled; a bird was more fragile than a mammal...but there were medicines for that.  The real problem was that he was also enraged, popping right back up, talons out, and on the verge of leaping into his opponent's face.  He might or might not follow Enya's next order; and as each contestant was, by custom, limited to four moves, if he gave in to his fury he'd spoil Enya's strategy.

Hau had skipped the preliminaries and already gone physical.  Fine; Enya would do the same...and it'd give Tayu what he wanted, but under control, darn it.  As much as he wanted to charge Hau's Soul-friend, she didn't want him within range of another slap.  But he knew a ranged attack too...  "Tayu!  Leafage!"

Tayu hopped on one foot, then the other, looking disappointed that she hadn't said "Tackle!" instead.  But he leaped up again and shot a stream of leaves from under his wings and throat, looking like an early autumn and driving them along with the gusts of his flapping wings.  The leaves pelted Ashimari, leaving him stunned for a moment until Hau got him to refocus.

"Ashimari!  Water Gun!"  The sea-lion shot a forceful jet of water at Tayu, knocking him back down to the ground.  But other than that, the owlet didn't seem particularly bothered; once grounded, he ruffled his feathers and chuckled as if he were taking a bath in warm rain.

Satisfied that her companion had recovered his composure, Enya now granted him his wish: "Tayu!  Tackle!"  Whereupon he flew right into the mammal's face as hard as he could...which maybe wasn't much, considering he weighed an ounce for the sea-lion's every pound.  But this was followed by a bout of pecking, clawing, and pummelling with wings, Tayu making up in speed and vigor what he lacked in bulk.

Ashimari, still woozy from the Grass attack and having hit Tayu mostly by accident, broke discipline and smacked at his assailant...which of course meant smacking his own forehead, leaving him blinking in confusion.  The slap, requested or not, still counted as his move for that round, so Tayu got a freebie...or would have if he weren't spending the time picking himself up off the ground first.  Neither Hau nor Enya knew whether to laugh or groan...

A lost turn for both of them, then.  But Tayu recovered first, and Enya went for the coup-de-grace:  "Tayu!  Astonish!!"

The little owl, calmly and with as much dignity as anyone could muster who was only a few months out of the nest, turned his back on Hau's Soul-friend, then seemed to gather something from within himself...something a little eerie; something from another world.  And with a backward thrust of his shoulders, he unleashed it: a shockwave of energy from the spirit-realm.

Ashimari reeled, seemingly on the verge of collapse.  Hau, looking chagrined, saved him the embarrassment by recalling him into his orb.

Kahuna Hala smiled.  His grandson's companion had indeed put up a good fight, considering that Water was weak to Grass.  But Enya...Enya had somehow helped Tayu find the Ghost within himself; in Seafolk legends, the Owl had ever been an emissary between Life and Afterlife.

He called the children to the center of the platform, the place where the festivals of Melemele Island were held.  After some formal words about honoring the Tapu through their skills and spirit, he beamed at both of them:  "Not bad for your first real battle, either of you..."

But as they left the dais, Hau punched Enya playfully in the shoulder.  "How'd you get Tayu to do that?  He's not supposed to know that one yet!!"

Enya just smiled...then, their friends' hurts having been seen to, she let Hau cut in front of her for the buffet.

 -:-

[Random the Navigator]

[Rowellan shows Enya to the Great Hall, where a hearty feast awaits.  Her companion is pleased that, for once, she's met a foreigner who wasn't carrying any weapons.  And Enya has a "qweshun" about that...]

...At the mention of sharp and pointy objects, her curiosity about the state of affairs in this new land could no longer be contained.  "Why so many people be sharp and pointy or dressed like lobster-guys [the knights of Albion]?  Why such high walls and strong houses?  Have wandered a long time; do know what have seen...  And when fighting comes to me, is a fun game.  But nobody say what it be about...  'f I gonna let my Soul-friends play or freeze my patuti off on that Wall, be good to know why."

[Kiyevanie]

"Phew!" Rowellan let out a deep breath. Alright, this question had to come up sooner or later, still she suddenly realized that something that was completely natural to her, a knowledge she was literally born with, might not be so easy to explain to a complete foreigner with a completely different culture.

[As this is a question that won't be answered standing out in the cold the two girls go into the Great Hall now, get themselves something to eat and find a quiet table where they can sit down, tucking into their meals as well as into groundshaking questions]

She looked at her plate, still trying to find a good place to start and decided to go with the basics. "This land here - it's divided into three realms. There's Midgard - that's us here. Then we have Albion - the squeaky lobster guys - and finally Hibernia. And somehow those three have been at war for... I don't know, since the beginning of time?" She slightly shook her head. "I don't know a single song or legend talking about more than a shaky armed truce now and then. It's all about the Relics, you know? They were given to us by the Gods themselves and it's our task as People of Midgard to guard them and for that they bless us and our people."

She made a face. "That would all be nice and shiny if not the Albion and Hibernian Gods had given their people sacred Relics too. Sooner or later someone somewhere gets the idea that four Relics are better than two, and six are better than four. That's when everyone is gathering soldiers, sharpening blades, fixing armour, making battle plans and heads off into a neighbouring borderland for a big raid. Sometimes they're even successful and yeah, having more Relics strengthens the Blessing. I have never understood why, maybe it's because our Gods think we have proven ourselves and deserve more of it?" The young huntress shrugged. "But of course that means that the owners of the Relics want theirs back and mount a raid of their own. It's an eternal back and forth in those lands here."

[Random the Navigator]

[To which Enya said...]

"So I helping you steal other guys' stuff and get yours back that they stole?" she finally replied with a smirk.  "Yah, if is holy stuff, can see you want yours back if they take it...but why you then gotta take theirs?  'Cause Blessing feel good, but do want it to feel great?  Good Blessing not enough?

"As long as you got their stuff, 'course they gonna 'feel' where it is, 'cause all be One and be connected.  I know where my feet be, even thought they be farthest from my head.  And if someone take my sacred stuff, if I had any, I follow the feel of it like I follow the feel of the Sea, 'cause is gonna speak to me the same way.  Can even find people that way, you know?  And places, if you know them and they know you; you just keep going towards what feel like them, follow their wanting to see you again...  So you take lobster-guys' stuff, 'course they gonna come here looking for it.  Is important enough to them that they willing to get hurt for it.  'Member those monsters?  They not like having *our* holes in *their* Sky either; is like holes in their Being."

[Kiyevanie]

Listening to Enya's comments and questions Rowellan couldn't help but wince here and there. This newcomer - this tall child - had put, with the clear view that children can have sometimes, her finger on a few sore spots that had cost the huntress a few sleepless nights of her own. She was fiercly loyal to Midgard, loving her land despite its roughness, seeing the beauty in a clear blue winter sky and the rough mountains and deep forests that formed her homeland. And she didn't have much love for Albions or Hibernians, but sometimes, when she watched a beaten-up army trudge home from another fruitless attempt to tear down Midgard walls (not to take Midgard Relics, no, the Gods beware, but to get their own back) she couldn't help but feel a tiny bit sorry for those people. There wey people too, after all. Someone's father, mother, son or daughter. With a family, hopes, dreams, a living they had to make... and without the Gods' blessing that would be a good part harder.

A few battling emotions crossed her face and finally she hung her head with a sigh. "I know...", sie said quietly. "It's always been that way, but that doesn't mean it has to be right. Sometimes I think that by now we fought about it all for so long that we just don't know how to stop it. I seriously can't blame someone for wanting their Relics back - it's their part of what the Gods have given to them, it must hurt their souls to not have them at their home."

She took another sip from her mug. "Maybe a good blessing should be enough", she admitted quietly. "I'd give my life to defend this land here, and our people and of course our Relics, but maybe there could be a different way than stealing other people's sacred things." She paused. "The Gothis say that it's part of a contest we have to win for our Gods. That we have to prove ourselves to be worthy of their Blessing."

[Random the Navigator]

Perhaps unexpectedly, Enya's first response was a gentle smile.  "You understand this thing; is good," she said softly.  "Means others like you can understand it too.  So maybe their heads not fall off, or they not take mine, if I say I got an idea.

"Back home, we also got many Peoples.  Got humans, got Seafolk, got Pelei--be giants from smoking mountains; look kinda like Marble but with black skin and World-fire in the creases.  Got little folk called Menehune--they small and ash-grey, live under stones in forest; be very wise, teach us all 'bout making houses and temples and how to grow own food, and gave us stories about the Tapu.  Menehune were first people on the Islands.  And when we first come, Menehune not very happy to see us!  But after messing up a lot, we finally ask them what be best way to live there, and they see we not wanna take over, but be willing to become more like them.  You did say is nice to learn from someone new 'stead of having to stop them from hurting you.  So maybe I be Menehune for you.

"You got any of lobster-guys' stuff right now? --Send someone to give it back.  Send me.  I not from your lands; got no enemies here; can do this thing without anybody being scared I gonna attack them.  Maybe you want me to say where I got their sacred stuff, and that your people be returning it for yours.  Or maybe we just pretend I snuck their stuff away from you and you guys gonna be coming after me soon, so they feel sorry for me and let me in.  And maybe they give me any of your sacred stuff that they have, or maybe they just toss me out on my patuti and throw small hard things at me to make me go away.  But they'll have their stuff back.  No reason for them to fight you 'cept bad habits.  And if I know my Soul-friends, you gonna get your stuff back too.  Tayu *reeeeal* good at finding things while staying unseen, and if lobster-guys' bosses not give me your sacred stuff, Tayu gonna tell me where it is anyway.  Then me-Tayu can come back to lobster-guys' place, because place and me gonna know each other after first time, and place will let me in even if people don't.

"And why I wanna do this, right? --'Cause grownups be silly and out of touch with own souls, which I think be very sad, and just like you know it 'bout you, inside themselves they know it about them, too, and prob'ly same-same wanna make fighting stop but not know where to begin.  Somebody gotta be first, and it not can be someone from Midgard or Albion."

Then her smile broke into an impish grin.  " 'Sides, I gotta honor my gods with fighting too!  And Tapu gonna looooove this one!"

[Kiyevanie]

Rowellan had just taken another sip of her drink, but at Enya's idea she almost spit the mead allover the table, her eyes getting wide and her jaw everything but hitting the table. "Enya....!", she breathed, "never say such a thing again! Not where anyone can hear you..." Her face turned slightly pale beneath her tan. "This... this would violate every vow I've ever sworn."

She swallowed hard. Enya couldn't know this - coming from so far away, from such a different culture. And Rowellan also knew that Enya meant well, but this... "I'd like the fighting to end, yeah, but your idea - heck, no. I know you mean well, but for anyone of my people even thinking about something like that would be considered High Treason." She reached out to Enya to squeeze her hand. "Don't ever try anything like that", she pleaded. "Anyone of us would have to try to stop you and I don't want that."

[Random the Navigator]

Enya jerked backwards as though she'd been struck, eyes wide and blinking back instant tears.  She'd upset her friend, endangered her friend, made her friend afraid...  Feeling so excited and so clever just a moment ago, now she saw that she couldn't have screwed up any worse here if she'd tried.  "I sorry...!" she winced, ears so low that they looked like they might slide off.  "I not mean to put you in trouble...  Aiee, now do want to make myself wee-small and hide in Wuffels' ball!"

...Finally Enya looked at Rowellan again with a sheepish half-smile.  "Did forget own rule: 'Shut up, Enya, 'till you know where you be and who you be with!'"

[Kiyevanie]

[The next time is spent by sorting out the effects of Enya's Great Idea and Rowellan's panicky reaction to it, changing the mood to a less pleasant one, both girls feeling that something from their initial start had changed. Still they decide to leave the hall and get Enya equipped when all of a sudden ...]

Before they actually could leave a warm, ringing voice came through the hall. "Rowellan! Dare you to leave again without saying hello here!"

The huntress turned around, blinking into the hall, then her face brightened when she spotted a familiar face. "Bjorn", she called back. "Where are you coming from now? Could swear you haven't been in this hall just a moment ago." She turned to Enya. "Talk about coincidences", she said. "That's the very Skald I've been talking about just a moment ago - the one with that loooooong song about soups."

By now the man had come over. He was a Norse like Rowellan, just that his hair was dark, he sported a well-trimmed beard, grey eyes and a scar that ran from his temple down to his jaw - and a merry air and a smile that warmed his eyes when he reached the two girls. He gave Rowellan a warm hug and then turned towards Enya. "And who's this young lady here?", he asked, looking ready to greet her just the same way if they were just properly introduced.

Rowellan smiled. "That's my friend Enya", she introduced the blue girl. "She's a traveller from a seafarer people far, far away. Enya - that's Bjorn Silverhand."

[Random the Navigator]

Something about the newcomer seemed to warm Enya's corner again.  Maybe it was his manner, maybe his voice; maybe the obvious affection between himself and Rowellan--but almost certainly the knowledge that he was the man responsible for the Epic Soup Story.

"Mahalo, Bjorn; I Enya, yes," she greeted pleasantly, making the offering-bowl gesture with her hands.  "Have heard that you know what to put in this..."--she meant her symbolic bowl--"...only for me, fruit if you got it and not too much salt!"  By now she was wearing a genuine smile.

To her shy but susceptible delight, she was not met immediately by a glare.  Maybe this wasn't such an oppressive place; maybe she shouldn't come to conclusions until she met at least a few more people.  What was "same-same" about the inhabitants here, and in what ways did they differ?  What were they comfortable talking about, even joking about?  Chances were she'd find plenty to talk and joke about on those 'safe' subjects too, and then she wouldn't feel she had to hide so much of herself.

All the same, she'd meant what she'd said about her idea.  If she had to disguise it as a story, so be it.  If it was a bad idea, that was all right too; she'd think of something else, something that wouldn't bring Midgard down around her ears.  But people had to feel safe to travel between the Realms; a voyager herself, she felt that more than anybody...

...because while Albion was as closed-off as its canned soldiery, she had friends in Hibernia.  Real ones who understood the ways of animals, nature and the elements in much the same way she did.  People who delighted in having their ideas and preconceptions challenged around the bonfire.  People who didn't blink twice when she told them about Tayu and trees and a Great Mother and navigating the spaces between the stars.

Friends she needed.  Friends she'd wanted along.  Friends she wanted to see again, who worried too much when they found out where she was going next, which way Tayu's spirit-winds would carry her...  Just for that, the fighting had to stop, at least between Midgard and Hibernia.

[Kiyevanie]

"Enya..." The Skald let the name roll over his tongue and it sounded almost musical that way. He answered Enya's genuine smile with one of his own. "Welcome then to Midgard and this sorry heap of stones here. We all might look a bit rough around the edges, as well as our country and climate do, but I hope you'll find a bit more softness inside."

[From there on they all sit down together again, share their meals and some promises of storytelling and tale speaking, starting to get to know each other a bit better, but also planning how to go on from here]

[Random the Navigator]

Enya was in full-on spooning-up-stew mode by now, which was remarkable considering she'd just eaten a full platter of roast and veggies.  "Do normally eat outside back home, but here?" she snorted.  "Bonfire only warm you in front!  Na, I stay in nice warm inside 'til warm go all the way through me.  Here, huts, stable...anywhere out of the wind."

She turned to the Norsewoman who had brought her here.  "Hei, Rowellan!  Where I gonna feed rest of my Soul-friends?  Get all the wrong kinda 'tenshun if I let 'em out in here!"  Then, to Bjorn, she said "You wanna know where my stories start, just ask me 'bout anything I say that you not understand."  She wrinkled her nose playfully.

[Kiyevanie]

"You can bet that I'll do that", Bjorn nodded, making a mental note about the term 'Soul-Friend'. Did Enya mean the fox there - as in: her pets? And how many of them were there if she needed a place out of this huge hall for it? The skald decided to keep this special question down for now and instead just tag along with the two girls for now and find out for himself.

Rowellan, knowing a bit more about Enya's Soul-Friends and especially the size of Kilvanä, rightly guessed that Enya wanted all of her companions to get out of their balls, a bit room for play and some real food. "We best go to the stables then", she suggested. "There's enough space there, it's warm as well, it smells good if you like the scent of fresh hay and horses... I just wonder if we should get a few slabs of meat for Auryn and Pepper first? And how about Tayu?" She tilted her head. "I know you have those poffins for them, but an extra treat won't hurt, no?"

Bjorn's eyes had widened with every name the huntress mentioned and again the question popped up in his head. How many of those Soul-Friends did Enya carry around and - where the heck did the girl keep 'em? By now it would have taken the whole Midgard army to pry the skald away before he found out that secret.

[Random the Navigator]

When Rowellan named and implicitly numbered Enya's Soul-friends, the Seafolk girl scowled at her, looking miffed.  "Hei!!  You did that on purpose!!" she yowped.  "Now he know who and how many--next time I tell whole Hall your closest hiding-place!!"  But the grin that broke out just after she said this made it clear that the threat was made only in play.  Indeed, one of her favorite ways to mess with her buddies' heads back home was to pretend she took what they said absolutely seriously...until she burst out laughing.

"Fiiiiine," she sighed melodramatically, rolling her eyes in mock-surrender.  Then she scowled at Bjorn in his turn: "Talespeaker gonna find out anyways, and he not gonna shut up 'til whole village know it too!!"  She wrinkled her nose at him, and if she hadn't been so (relatively) polite, she might have stuck out her tongue.  But she'd made a promise, so now she had to at least sorta-'splain things...but first she had to figure out how to do so without giving it all away to everyone else in the Hall.

The thing she came up with was dangerous in itself, very much so if anyone but her two companions was paying attention.  But she trusted Rowellan, and Rowellan was obviously old friends with the storyteller, so it should be all right...

She slipped one arm under her cloak again and detached Pepper's sphere.  ~ Aiee, Pepper, always the one to help me 'splain... ~ she mused silently; but the great Fire-dog was the clearest example, and so the easiest to present in whatever form.  Rather than release him, though (she *was* trying to avoid attention), she handed the orb to Bjorn.  Red-dyed and polished, it didn't need the light from the lampstands to look as fiery as its inhabitant.  "Is warm, yes?" she said.  "Is Pepper's ball.  You understand why it be warm when I let him out.  Not gonna happen here.  But feel this inside you, know him like this, and he gonna know you too when he come out, 'least a little bit.  Stables be stone like here, yes? --Is good; we not want him to burn down the barn 'fore we feed him his supper."  She winked.

[Kiyevanie]

Bjorn gave Enya a smirk. "Don't blame her - I would have found out anyway, you got me curious the moment you mentioned your Soul-Friends. But I promise I won't blab out anything if you don't want to - yes, I like to tell a good story, but a skald also has to know when to keep his mouth shut and keep a secret."

"That's true", Rowellan confirmed both things. "He's more curious than is good for him sometimes, but he's also trustworthy and not someone to spread news that shouldn't be spread." She smiled at her old friend and then at Enya. Yes, she knew Enya hadn't meant her 'scolding' for real, but that didn't mean that trust was an issue here. "I'd trust him with my life - Skadi, I have trusted him with my life already and as you can see I'm still here he's been good for that."

In the meantime Bjorn had taken the orb in his hands, taking in the fiery surface, feeling the warmth and... something in there. It wasn't something he could put a finger on. Not quite magic, at least not the kind of magic he knew from the Three Realms, but close. There was life in that ball, that was for sure. Life of an unfamiliar kind, but life nonetheless. And maybe "unfamiliar" was even the wrong world, cause something in that ball was familiar - somehow the vibes skald and huntress got from it weren't too far away from the ones they could get from Enya, hinting on a very close bond between those two.

After a while of taking in Pepper's 'presence' in that orb Rowellan got up from her seat. "Well, he better should get his supper then", she said with a smile. "Yes, the stables are solid, if we stay in an empty one."

[Random the Navigator]

"I not say solid; I say fireproof," Enya corrected. "But 'solid' be good too, 'specially if Kilvanä start kicking!"

She took back Pepper's ball.  "So...we go now?" she asked.  "Or did you-Bjorn wanna tell stories to each other for me?  Did say you not have seen each other for way-long time..."

[Kiyevanie]

For a moment Rowellan and Bjorn shared a look and a short smile, then both nodded.

"I would like that," Rowellan admitted, half turned to Bjorn, half to Enya. "We have a lot to catch up – we haven’t seen each other for years now." And now that she had met the skald again she felt reluctant to end the meeting too soon, she really had missed her friend.

Bjorn sighed. "Yes, and I still feel bad about that. The guild master called me off to that diplomatic emergency mission, giving me barely a chance to say good bye to all of you." He made a face. "And I must have done my job too well, cause that first mission was followed by the next one and another and another -  and from then on I haven’t had a chance for border patrol at all."

Sitting down again Rowellan gave Enya a short explanation. "When Bjorn and me met I was still pretty green behind the ears. Any young one joining the border guards will do their first steps in a group with seasoned warriors – getting our feet wet in shallow waters, kind of. Bjorn was in the group they sent me to and although Bjorn had already travelled with them for a while he and me still were the youngest and least experienced in there." She smirked. "It’s kind of a bonding experience when you both have to do everything under the watchful eyes of an old Dwarven captain. Or, as the youngest, have to keep the graveyard watch most of the nights…"

"After a while we did those watches together," Bjorn added. "Usually nothing happened there and it was more comfortable to join those hours than to freeze your ass off all alone."

"Definitely," Rowellan confirmed. "Those first nights – oh ye gods, was I scared, with everybody else sleeping, out in the wilderness and the possibility of something or someone hostile around the next corner." Now it was her turn to make a face. "I’m not very good at pulling the shadows around me and hiding there, Skadi has different plans for me. But I know what others can do and back then I saw shadows everywhere."

"Actually I’m glad that Skadi has put you on a different way", Bjorn commented. "It saved our asses more than once that you’re one of the few archers who actually know what to do with their swords once they ran out of arrows." He looked at Enya. "It’s not many archers who go through the effort to practice more than with their bows, sneaking and track reading. Rowy here is a bit different – she doesn’t like the sneaking part but instead went through a lot of training with that big knife she’s carrying around." He pointed at the long sword that now was leaning against the table. "I remember that one day when we ran into that group of Albion raiders – if it hadn’t been for you and your sword we would have never held our own until reinforcements showed up. You haven’t earned that name ‘Stormsverd’ for nothing."

Rowellan actually blushed. “Yes, and it was you who came up with it”, she half-scolded. She wasn't the kind to boast with something that to her was nothing special. “Plus, when telling that story you always forget that it was you who had my back that day or we would have been screwed.” She shook her head. “Do you know that nobody ever called me ‘Rowy’ anymore since those days?” There was a certain air of regret and even a bit sadness in her voice and face for a moment, but with a deep breath she shook it off again.  “Anyway, so that’s where you’ve been those last years?”, she asked. “Diplomatic missions?”

“Most of the time”, the skald nodded. “Guess what you once called my ‘silly sweet-talking’ worked on clan leaders as well as diplomats from other realms… so I spent much more time dressed up in uncomfortable fancy clothing in clan halls or on official – and not so official – meetings than out here.” He looked around, taking in his surroundings. “As much fun as that can be, I’ve missed places like this one, and the people here. My old friends… At least everybody here is talking straight to the point, no hidden meanings or stuff like that.” The easy smile came back. “At least now and then I do have a mission that brings me out again, like now, helping me to breathe some fresh air. And how about you? I’ve been keeping my eyes open for you on the few times I was out here, but somehow never saw you.”

“I ran for a while longer with the old group, until our captains seemed me ready to go out on my own. I’ve been doing guard duty on the Albion wall for four years now”, Rowellan explained. “It’s a good crowd out there. Not as tightly knit as our patrol group has been, as many of us like to roam on their own, but I’ve still made friends.” She smiled, thinking of people like Marbles or Sammet. “You’d like them if you ever came by.”

“I’d love to”, Bjorn answered with another sigh. “But for some reason I’m much more involved with Hibernia these days…probably explains too why we never ran into each other before; wrong part of the country.”

One of Rowellan’s brows shot up. “Diplomatic missions with Hibernia? Well, if there’s anyone who might listen and talk instead of peppering you with arrows and fireballs then it’s them, I guess.” She hadn’t heard of such things before, but from her own experiences Hibernians were much less aggressive than Albions.

Bjorn nodded. “I’m not allowed to say much about it – but some of those guys ain’t half bad if you think about it.” He smirked. “They’re sending Bards over too and once the official part was done I’ve got the chance to talk shop for a bit. It’s nice to exchange music that hasn’t been played in every tavern between Jordheim and Gna for centuries.”