Lunansholt: The tale of the beginning of the wolves

CH 10 Introductions

He sighs sitting up taking in all the new sights and smells around him. Having wolf sight and smell definitely will take some getting used to, he thought. His hands move around feeling the soft furs on his bed then they move to his smooth abdomen. He remembers the blade slicing through his body, how easily it sliced right through him, like slicing through butter he thought.

Just as he shakes himself out of that line of thinking his father and Frida walk in. Frida beams and runs towards Leif launching herself in his arms. Knocking Leif down Frida yells "You're awake! Leif you're really awake!" He chuckles and hugs her back, "I'm alright little one." He looks over and Sigurd is smiling at them, Leif gives him a nod to acknowledge him and he replies in kind.

"Father, we need to talk. Alone" Leif looks at him and then at Frida. She pouts "Do you not want me here?" A small tear slides down her cheek and her chin bounces, a sign that her infamous whining was about to make an appearance. He rushes to comfort her, "No no systir it’s not like that I just need to talk to father about what happened and I need to speak to him man to man. It will be very boring, and I know you would rather pick flowers with Gertrud, hm?"

Leif winks at her and she rolls her eyes. She sits up and looks him over then points at him and pokes his chest, "I will allow you two time alone, but I am not a child. Stop treating me as one.” She takes a step but turns back to him pointing a finger at him threatening him, “Don’t disappear after, I still need to have a talk with you and Thorn about letting you get hurt. I’ll be back for the both of you." Leif blinks and then she's gone bouncing to meet her friend waiting at their favorite place.

At the same time Thornben, now in his hut and in his mate’s arms feels a cold chill creeping up his spine. Confused but scared he pulls his mate closer, “Whatever happens to me, just know that I love you and our son.”

Back at the hut Sigurd sits on a stool near the mattress signaling for him to start. Leif adjusts himself and begins, "I have a wolf now." Sigurd nods unsurprised. Leif looks confused but continues, "His name is Skuggi and he was gifted to me only after I proved myself worthy." Leif then waits to see if he reacts at all, but his face shows no emotion, so Leif continues, "He told me more about my past and who my father was. Also, who killed him and who we believe took my mother."

A brief flash of emotion passes his face for a moment before he pushes the emotion quickly away and he sighs, "Well boy are you planning on keeping me in suspense?" Leif chuckles then clears his throat, " Well apparently the God Baldur is my father." Sigurd's eyebrows shoot up and after a few minutes he nods. "He was killed by Loki who envied everything my father had so he took it. The day I was born Loki and his followers went to find her." Sigurd sighs, "So that's how she died. It's good to finally know." He sounds broken Leif thought looking him over noticing his jaw tensing and his eyes flickering to gold. Leif looks away allowing his father to gather himself before continuing, "she isn't dead." The growl that comes out of his father is ferocious.

His gold wolf eyes now blazing as he roars at Leif, "What the f**k do you mean she isn't dead?!" Skuggi pushes himself forward warning Sigurd’s wolf, Gull in a deep sinister voice, "I know Leif has just given you troubling news, but I will not allow you to disrespect me." Gull retreats back into the safety of Sigurd’s mind when Sigurd asks with surprise evident on his face, "Who are you?" Skuggi smiles and retreats as he says, "Leif will explain the rest to you." A moment later Leif returns with confusion on his face looking to his father for guidance. Once realizing why Leif was confused Sigurd laughs, "That was the first time your wolf took over, wasn’t it?" Leif nods adjusting his position and rolling out his shoulders.

"That feeling was your wolf taking over, they are an equal part of us. So, just as they are able to take over and shift into their wolf form pushing us to the back of our mind they are also able to push their conscience up and take over while still in human form. They don’t do it often out of respect for their human half, but they can do it whenever they want." Leif clears his throat and nods again. "Can we stop them from doing so?” Sigurd chuckles and nods, “We can fight back by pushing our conscience back out if you don’t want to give over that power, but it can cause issues with your wolf half.”

After a moment of silence in the room while Leif is clearly deep in thought he clears his throat to continue, “Anyways, as I was saying we believe mother was taken by Loki and that she is still with him. I know nothing more than Skuggi does after being gifted to me by my father, Baldur. He says we need to be trained in combat and to learn to control my powers in order to defeat Loki."

Sigurd looks at him then and says, "You're a demigod." Not as a question more like a statement as realization sets in. Leif nods anyways. He suddenly shoots up from his stool urging Leif to follow him, "We have to go see the seer." Leif surprised at the urgency gets up without any argument and follow. Sigurd leads him and though Leif is taller than his father the speed at which he is traveling through the village causes Leif to quickly start to fall behind and struggle to keep up.

They pass stalls for fishing, where fisherman have hung up their kills shouting at people walking by, “Fish is half off from now until dark. Come get your fresh fish. Caught fresh this morning.” They pass the stalls of hunters selling squirrel and rabbit. Then the huts where those fisherman and hunters live just on the edge of where the river and forest meet. Sigurd keeps going until they reach a hut with bones hanging from the tree branches lodged into the roof of the hut. A raven caws and flies away as they get closer.

Once they reach the door a hoarse female voice rasps out, "Harald you may bring him in." Leif looks at Sigurd but is ignored when he enters acknowledging the crone. When Leif finally looks over and gasps at the sight in front of him. She is small, smaller than all the women in the village, not in size, as she stands at 5’6” but in weight. He can sense she is a wolf as well, but she is frail and looks malnourished. She has long dull brown hair down to her feet with a bone necklace hanging from her neck. She has bones sewn into her long black dress that seems to drown out her already small figure. Although frail she is gorgeous, with a petite button nose glowing slitted green eyes and a perfect full mouth. Odd, Leif thought, her face seems like she is perfectly healthy, but her body looks as if she is starving.

The crone chuckles then clears her throat answering his thoughts with a smooth youthful voice, "I am alone out here and as everyone is scared of the crone I have to hunt for myself. I am not always fortunate enough to catch something every day and so I am not always able to eat. With my power of sight more energy exits than I am able to put back in." Leif shoots a glare at Sigurd but sees confusion on his face as well. "I did not know this. Why didn't you say anything? I hold weekly meetings for village members to fix any issues; you should have brought this to my attention." The crone smiles shaking her head, "The village people already fear me I did not want to scare them anymore than I already do by going into the village." Leif gets up grumbling to himself and stomps off toward the village. Walking straight to the stalls he buys two medium sized rabbits and four small fish. Still grumbling he marches back towards the crone's hut and hands her the food ordering to eat, “We will not continue until you have eaten.” She laughs nodding and grabs the food turning to place the meat onto an already prepared pan in the fire.