Bodil

The woods were quiet and that was something I was thankful for. I had so many thoughts running through my mind about my parents and this twin of mine. Bjorn. Bjorn. The name seemed empty to me. It meant nothing. I never knew this brother.

My other brother, or half brother according to Sullevan, was name Harold after many great kings of the past. My father said his name was strong like our ancestors. Some of my memories of my old life were still strong in my heart. My mother. He hair was blond and long, and her eyes were blue like water. I loved her. I loved all of them. I tried to push them from my mind when I thought I was stuck living as Uri and Helga's slave, but now. I felt a pain in my chest, grief. I took in a deep breath and pushed it down.

"Exactly how long are we going to be travelling until we reach Cinneadh?" Erik asked Sullevan, breaking my thoughts.

"Probably a few days if I have to consistently answer every question that enters your thoughts, Erik."

I couldn't help but laugh, Erik did ask a lot of questions.

"Sullevan, how is it your people have stayed out of sight and unnoticed for all this time? How is it that no one else knows about it?" I asked. It didn't make much sense to me that an entire world of magic and evil coincided with the same world I lived in.

"Who says they don't know about us? People are ignorant, Bodil. If they weren't they wouldn't sit by while families are slaughtered in their own homes." He stopped walking and sighed. "Let's stop here for the night." He walked over to a tree and dropped his side bag. "Gunnar and I grew up together. A lot of awaken children who immigrated back to our land live in our villages. Loosing Gunnar and Ama was..." He stopped talking.

I walked over behind him and placed my hand on his shoulder. " It was like loosing your family." I said softly. I could tell that Sullevan was dealing with his own emotions, I could only assume it was because I reminded him of past times.

Gunnar and Ama. My parents. I repeated their names. Ama. My mother. I wanted to feel something as I thought of her name but I couldn't. I felt nothing. I wasn't without a mother as a young child. The mother I knew, Shea, was kind and caring. I loved her in the time we had together. Nothing could replace that.

"I am fine." Sullevan said and stepped away from me. "I'll start a fire, we should be safe here for the night. I will set up a perimeter." He said walking into the trees.

I started to clear an area to set the fire going in, Erik stood beside me and smiled. "What?" I asked.

"You're running away with me. It makes me happy." He said cheekily.

"I am not running away with you, Erik. I am just... Running away and you happen to be coming along." I said.

"Exactly." He laughed.

"It's not the same." I said.

Erik Shrugged, bent over picked up a hand full of sticks and brought it to Sullevan. He said something I didn't quite hear and disappeared into the trees as he slung his quiver over his shoulder.

"Hunting?" I asked Sullevan.

"Or try to anyways. As I said before, there is a nidhogg is the area, and it's working its way towards you, always." He said.

"A creature or chaos is looking for me, and some evil men are always coming around. I can't help but feel that you know more then you are letting on, Sullevan. Why me?" I asked sternly.

Sullevan gave an impatient sigh. "I'll tell you one thing. You and your twin brother were supposed to have very different lives. Your parents hid you, across an entire county from each other, yet somehow you ended up only miles away living your entire lives unaware of each other." He noticed me about to interrupt and put his hand up, "Your parents separated and hid you because of magic its self. This part I will not tell you about."

"Will I meet my mother and my brother? In Cinneadh I mean." I asked knowing I wouldn't get the answer to the other question.

"I am unsure. Another Ranger was charged with finding Ama and Bjorn. Bodil, we have been looking for you both for a long time." He told me.

Nodding unsure what I was supposed to say I just started to wonder around gathering sticks and other dry leaves to help with the fire.

The fire was burning hot and high we waited for Erik's return, hopefully with a fresh killed rabbit or grouse for supper. While we waited we talked about small things, like berries that Sullevan preferred to the ones that we were currently eating, but only grew on the trees grown in the Dryadalis villages.

"Why is Erik taking so long? I would have expected him to of come back even empty handed by now." I was concerned.

Rain started to fall, just what we needed. Sullevan packed on more wood to the fire to keep it burning, unfortunately with in minutes the rain was falling so thickly that the fire simply had no chance of surviving. I stood up pulling my hood up and started to study the trees for Erik. Sullevan coming up beside me did the same.

"Something is off." He said in a hush. I glanced over to him and nodded. It was hard to hear anything over the pounding of the rain hitting the trees and ground around us. The sky lit up with a bolt of lightning followed by a booming thunder that shook the very ground. "The gods are here." Sullevan whispered.

I could feel that we weren't alone, just like when those Olc Fir turned up at Uri's camp. "Something is coming." I whispered to Sullevan. He looked at me slightly surprised.

"Follow me" He started to walk in the same direction the Erik had previously gone, there was no tracks, or anyway to track him thanks to the rain. I stayed silent as I followed behind Sullevan.

My stomach started to feel like I was going get sick. I grabbed Sullevan forearm to stop him without talking. I shook my head. Something was with us. I knew he understood, he pulled us both to the ground. Crouching I could see he also felt what I could. More lightning was shocking the sky with more thunderous cracks that sent shivers down my back.

From the shadows a monster starting to creep towards us. It was some kind of lizard, the tale swiping side to side as it crawled across the ground from the dark. The elongated face was missing parts of its skin revealing bone and rotting muscle. Its eyes were red and glowing as if two flames were behind them. I couldn't help but gasp a little at the sight as it moved its clawed foot forward for its next step. It froze as it heard me gasp. Its long snake like tongue was slithering in and out of its mouth tasting the air. I tried to hold my breath. Sullevan grabbed my arm gaining my attention away from the beast. I jerked his head in a direction away from the beast, I followed his view. Erik. He was high in a tree with is arrow aimed at the monster. I let the air escape my lungs. I was ready to run when I needed to.

Erik let the arrow loose hitting the beast in the back of the head. It let out a screeching howl of pain as Sullevan and I ran towards the tree with Erik perched in it. He dropped down and the three of us sprinted through the forest as fast as we could as the creature screamed behind us. I couldn't tell if it was chasing us or not. I didn't want to check, I just kept going as fast as I could, Sullevan in front of me, Erik beside me.

"Run! Don't stop! We must get the lake and across before it catches up to us! It won't stop!" Sullevan yelled at us as we ran.

My legs were tired and sore from already running away from the last attackers, I could feel my self slowing. "Don't stop Bodil, Run!" Erik grabbed my hand pulling me along. I could hear the water moving in the lake we were running towards, the splashing against the shore line drew me nearer. Sullevan was ahead of us glancing backwards to make sure we had not fallen behind occasionally. "Run! It wont cross the water! We much reach it!" He urged.

As the waterline came into view I could see two boats sitting on the beach. That is were where Sullevan was headed, seeing the boat gave me a little bit of hope that we may actually, once again, escape death.

Reaching the boat Sullevan was shoving it into the water as we were approaching. "Push! Let's go." He yelled. I turned around to find the beast had not lost interest in us at all and was closer then I had thought. A lump in my throat began to form as I started to panic, helping the two men push the boat into the water. The creature let out a screech of pain once again. We turned at the sound finding a female dryad on the back on the lizard with a sword deep between its shoulders. It thrashed from side to side causing her to fall to the side bringing with you her the sword. Recognizing one of his own Sullevan sprang into action. Now running towards the beast to join the fight. The woman was dodging the lizards tongue as it lashed towards her. She pulled out two daggers and prepared for the next lashing. Sullevan coming up from behind the beast, arrowing flying from his bow faster then I had seen before. Three arrows landed into the creatures head, it turned to see Sullevan coming.

With the beast distracted the woman took her opportunity, her hands giving off a light green glow she raised them towards the sky holding the daggers. As her hands raised so did vines from the ground ensnaring our enemy holding it down. Sullevan and the female both jumped onto the vines and started to stab their swords through the gaps in the vines into the beast. It didn't take long before it stopped screeching and moving. With a sigh Sullevan jumped down and waited for the woman to join him.

As she stood up she smiled at Sullevan her large eyes glinting with happiness. "Why am I not surprised, Sullevan that you have a nidhogg chasing after you?" She laughed and bowed her head to him.

"Ranger Pepper. Thank you. Your arrival is most welcomed." He smiled and bowed his head back to her.

Another ranger. Well after watching them kill that nidhogg and the vines coming from the ground, I couldn't deny that I felt that much safer in the moment. Pepper looked at me and her smile disappeared in that moment.

"You found her, Sullevan?" She asked almost shocked. "I was told she was dead."

"It seems the gods have not abandoned her yet." Sullevan said in his typical uncaring tone. He cleaned off his blade on his cloak as Pepper pushed past him and walked towards me. " Amazing." She said as she looked into my eyes smiling.

Satisfied with studying my face, she turned sharply and walked back to Sullevan she started to speak in a language I did not know.

He looked surprised for just a second. The rain was still falling and I was starting to shiver. Pepper seeing this nodded, "I will go back to my party and bring them here. I left them after seeing the nidhogg, they will be waiting for me." Sullevan nodded and Pepper left.

We secured the row boat so we could wait for Pepper, now that the nidhogg was laying dead in the trees we were no longer in a rush to leave. That beast was not was I envisioned a nidhogg would look like. It was worse and I made a silent plea to Ota that I would never have to see one again.

"Sullevan, why would a nidhogg be coming for us? A creature of chaos." I asked, curious.

"Because killing you would cause a mass amount of chaos in the world right now, Bodil." He said looking into my eye as if to say that was all he was going to tell me. I nodded.

"Patience is something I learned a long time ago, my friend. I am glad for that now." I said to him. He smiled at this.

"You sound like Ama. She was always patient with your father and I, until she wasn't." He told me.

I turned around to scan the tree line for Pepper and her companions. A man appeared first, he was older and looked like he could be one of those grumpier types. He was followed by Pepper who was talking to him about something. And then a face I knew. The man from my dream. Aadi. Aadi was walking towards me. He didn't see me at first but then he stopped.

"Aadi?" I whispered.

Lightning split the sky with a bright crack. The light grew brighter and brighter until I couldn't see any thing. I pressed my arm against my eyes blocking out the light. Then there was nothing. The sound of the rain splashing in the lake water had stopped, it was silent.