Circumnavigating Yggdrasil

The Blue Pendant

Clara's grandmother was an old bird. Her expression screamed, "I've seen it all!" She was a foot smaller than Clara but loved to spoil her by getting treats from the bakery, run by the Barrows. She always loved spending time with her because Harry was almost always away with his friends, and Mia seldom came out of her room. Today she held a small pouch in her fists, and Clara started to hope for sweets by the Barrows. The whole village loved them.

But her grandma just said, "Let us talk after dinner, dear. I am hungry from all the roaming I did today. Come along! Let us go together."

They went to the kitchen where everyone was waiting for the steak, which looked divine, and her mouth started to water.

"Mom! Just serve it already!" Exclaimed Harry. He was nineteen and soon planned to join his father in the family business. Harry was muscular, with honey eyes like his mother, and sandy hair. Mia was honey eyed and sandy-haired like her mother too. Clara, on the other hand, was very different. She had brown eyes with raven black hair and pale skin. Her grandmother always used to say she resembled her grandfather, whose features even her only son did not inherit.

Mrs. Cyan soon served the roast, and the family enjoyed the steak with the occasional town gossip and Harry's gist of the day's events. Harry was a war fanatic and always used to talk about the siege machines and flamethrowers used by the elder civilizations. It sucked because even if she wanted to forget and listen anew, she remembered everything. He sometimes burst into the topic of creating them, which she didn't know why he learned as there was no use of siege machines and other stuff in this time when you could nuke a city without stepping out of your home.

Harry then said, "Hey, dad! Verdale High apparently needs new benches. Principal Whart just came to me and asked me to tell you to set up a meeting. " Principal Wharton was dad's friend since preschool. That was the reason why our school had wooden benches instead of plastic ones. The fact that there was no proper road that connected it to the mainland made her feel like it was the end of the world.

"I'll just call David after dinner. We sure needed a boost in business, for the new road."

The townsfolk were planning to contribute equally to build a road so that the income would be more, and we were the last family who was supposed to complete the balance amount.

After the dinner, Clara said good night to everyone and left with her grandmother to her room, where she changed into her nightgown and crept beside her grandma. "Grandma, what's the story tonight?" she asked. "Well, dear, what story do you want to listen to?"

"Grandma, you never told me why and how grandfather left. Will you tell me that now?"

"Ah, yes, dear. I found something today which relates to this story too. What a good coincidence!"

"Well, start telling it to me already!"

"Alright, dear."

"It was the day of the dead, and me and your grandpa, Erik, came home after paying our respects to the deceased. As I've told you before, your grandpa was an esteemed hunter, who shared my fondness for crystals and used to get me a new one from his hunting expeditions. Those days, these parts were all woods and small huts, and there were often rich people passing through on hunts, looking for guides. That day, your grandpa was requested by a big game hunting party to guide them to the parts full of wild beasts. He agreed as they were willing to pay a higher price than usual. I was sick that day, so he went alone."

"What happened next, grandma?"

"Well, like the wives of the soldiers who went to war, I prayed for his health and safe return for what seemed like hours."

"It was after 2 days somebody knocked on my door."

"It was one of your grandpa's comrades. With a guilty voice, he told me what had transpired."

"The party had gone to a place in the woods where bears roamed, and your grandpa was tracking one. Suddenly, a panther came charging toward him out of nowhere and seized him. With his strength, he tried to fight it, but it was as if it was tasked with taking him. It started dragging him away from there with impossible strength and speed, and that was when your grandfather took a pouch from his pockets, threw it into the hands of his comrades, and gave his last order."

"Make sure that pouch reaches my wife."

"He was not found even after two days of extensive searching. His comrade, a young man in his twenties, gave me the pouch, and the fees for his service, and left."

"Inside the pouch, there was a blue crystal pendant, which shone like a star."

"Filled with the death of my husband, and the prospect of raising my unborn child alone, I buried it under the porch of my hut, and swore never to let it see the light of the day."

"So that's what is in the pouch!"

"Yes, dear. After all this time, looking at you, I see your grandpa, my Erik, looking back at me. You have his eyes, his hair, and even his drive for wilderness and the same reckless sense of adventure. I realized it when you were chased by a wild dog, but you managed to impale it with a tree branch and stayed on top of a tree until help came."

"That was a fluke, grandma. I saw the dog and just acted."

"Many children who are twelve cannot do what you did, Tora. It was a reflex with was innate."

"Can I see the pendant?"

"Yes, dear. I bought it for you today. I thought someone might have dug and discovered it, but there it was, by the ruins of my old hut, in the same place."

She got up and rummaged through her robes, and took the pouch she had seen earlier, and placed it in Clara's hands.

Slowly, Clara unfastened the cords which tied the opening together, when a blue light filled the room. She took the necklace out to examine it.

It was a star-shaped pendant, which was glowing like a diamond.

The pendant was ethereal and gave her a sense of security and peace.

"It's beautiful, grandma. You really want me to have it?"

"Yes, Tora."

"But why don't you wanna wear it?"

"It's my past, Tora. I would give anything in the world to forget that fateful day. But it is your inheritance. Erik would've been proud of you."

"Thank you, grandma. It means a lot to me."

"Now, Now Tora. What kind of a grandma would I be if I didn't give you your inheritance. Wear it always. It contains your grandfather's blessing, and that is all I have left of my life as a huntress. Now sleep."

Clara lay awake thinking about all the fun her grandmother had in her youth. She never imagined anything which she wanted more than to discover new places.

That night, Clara Cyan made up her mind.