Private Tales Falling Snow..

[Ivar]

Willa did not receive and elbow to the ribs, which Ivar thought was a little bit sexist. That complaint however would not be voiced, The Barbarian instead just grimacing as he shook his head and muttered something beneath his breath.

The woman besides him raised a brow, but did not strike him again.

"It is not safe in these woods."

A frown furrowed Ivar's brows for a few seconds, his eyes casting towards Willa in confusion. Not safe? He thought that this was their territory, that they controlled it. His lips thinned for a moment and he wondered if he should have tried grabbing his bow.

Ivar felt regret swirling in his stomach.

The Barbarian couldn't help but blame himself for this. Perhaps he should have let Willa stay in the Inn. Perhaps he shouldn't have dragged her away but just used the silver to put her on a cart safely to Elbion or wherever else she wanted to go.

At least it would have kept her safe.

"Not for you."

The Amazon woman said as they continued their trek. The more they moved the thicker the forest seemed to become, the light of the moon above them eventually fading until it was nearly pitch black.

 

[Willa]

Not for you...

Willa glanced to Ivar and frowned, her icy gaze casting over the wolves and wild women that flanked them. She stopped, a frown on her brow as she looked to the one who had spoken. "What do you mean, not for you?.. she asked quietly. "We seemed safe enough before you showed up." she spoke calmly, glancing at a wolf that growled quietly at her as she spoke.

"I'm not taking another step until you tell me where you are taking us and why." Willa demanded with as much conviction as she could with her broken voice.

 

[Ivar]

The women stopped along with Willa, but as soon as her words echoed out the one whom had been standing closest to Ivar once again slithered towards him with knife drawn. No small amount of unease passed over the Barbarian and briefly he glanced towards Willa.

He thought now that he was standing he had a fair chance of killing at least one or two of these women, but the other four would pose a problem. Not to mention the wolves. It would get very violent very quickly, and Willa would be caught in the middle.

"I told you. We are taking you to our village."

It was the woman who was leading all of this that spoke to Willa, her face more annoyed than anything else.

"There are things in this forest that would eat you and your man both. Others which would drag you to their corpse carts, and still others which would gladly flay your flesh from your bones for the simple sake of amusement."

That seemed to be the only explanation that Willa would receive, and the woman turned to continue their walk through the depths of the shadowed wood. Ivar was content to remain standing, but he felt the sharp end of a knife on his lower back.

He looked down at the girl standing besides him. There was a grin on her lips.

 

[Willa]

Willa met Ivar’s glance and held up a hand reflexively as the woman approached him again. It was difficult to see much, but she caught the glint of steel and frowned “Please, don’t..” she frowned and retuned her attention to the one speaking to her. She could feel her heart thunder in her chest with unease, and she squirmed uncomfortably as she rhymed off everything that would seek to harm them.

It was obvious they’d taken a dislike to Ivar, and by the way the woman had said the very word ‘man’ she was willing to bet it was more of a general hatred than a personal one.

Willa looked back at Ivar, and she could just make out the grin on the woman’s face. She swallowed and stood her ground at the risk of fuelling their annoyance further.. “And what of you? How do we know your intentions are to protect us? So far you haven’t been entirely kind to my companion.. how do I trust that no harm will come to either of us?”.. she asked and squeezed her hands into fists by her sides.

 

[Ivar]

"Your companion is part of the reason there is danger in the first place."

Ivar couldn't keep his mouth shut this time. "I've been on this continent for two weeks."

Surprisingly, that didn't earn him an elbow or a piece of metal in his side, but the woman besides him cast him an angry glance that told more of a story than anything else. The Barbarian thinned his lips, wondering if he was going to get his throat slit even if they didn't mean ill intentions.

Certainly seemed like it.

"No harm will come to you if you respect our rules."

The words were said, and then suddenly the woman switched to an odd foreign tongue that Ivar did not even begin to comprehend. The girl to his side shifted, and then frowned deeply but gave a nod and stepped slightly away from Ivar.

Good sign at least.

"Either that, or you can take your luck in the woods."

Ivar glanced over towards Willa, cocking an eyebrow and shrugging his shoulders. At this point he was not entirely sure what to believe.

 

[Willa]

Willa frowned, her lips parting on the verge of rising to Ivar's defence but he spoke for himself and surprisingly avoided recompense. She watched the women exchange foreign words, but as it seemed the woman next to Ivar had been ordered to back off a little, Willa's brow arched.

"And what are your rules, before we make that decision?.." Her voice was growing a little stronger and with it, Willa grew a little bolder. She had been bold, once, before she'd been reduced to a quivering wreck. It would take her some time to regain the lost confidence but she reminded herself of who's daughter she was and lifted her chin a little.

"We're grateful for your protection, of course, but only a fool would make a deal without knowing the terms."

 

[Ivar]

Ivar had a few questions himself in truth, actually more than a few, but he decided not to push his luck in that moment. It was clear that the women had a dislike for him, and there was no doubt in his mind that one misstep would see him with a knife in his belly.

Orders from the head honcho or not.

"You will cause no violence, Steal nothing, but above all maintain respect."

Ivar opened his mouth to speak, but before he could the woman cut him off. Evidently deciding that she knew exactly what was on his tongue.

"Our grove is sacred, old. Fire is forbidden and balance must be assured. Otherwise the protection we offer would be rendered moot for us as well."

More magic, it seemed.

Ivar frowned for a moment trying to figure out what the hell was going on. He'd had a hard enough figuring out the oddities of Kyslith, yet here they were not even a days march away and there was even more. He didn't understand, and briefly he wished he had the Witch of Kjos to explain things to him.

The barbarian had never been the most clever, hell, he couldn't even read the common tongue. Desperately Ivar hoped that Willa had a bit more understanding of what was going on, but given that she'd had little more explained to him than he did...there was doubt at such a possibility.

 

[Willa]

Willa’s brow knit and she nodded slowly at the rules that were set out, but what she wanted to know was why they had chosen to protect them at all. She figured she had pushed it with the questions already, and she sighed as she looked to Ivar, obviously conflicted. The last thing she wanted to do was refuse protection and risk being torn apart by something or other if the forest was as the woman described.

Then again.. She was finding it particularly difficult to trust these women. For all she knew they were sacrificial offerings. She sighed deeply and nodded. “You have our assurance.” That was, assuming, that they held up their side of the bargain.

 

[Ivar]

Ivar wasn't entirely sure going with these women was the right decision, but he also didn't think it was entirely wrong.

They knew so little about this forest. The city, pretty much...well anything at all. He and Willa both were strangers in a strange land. Half of everything they'd seen had been outright confusing, the other half? Well the other half had been a nightmare.

At least for her.

The barbarian kept his mouth shut as the lead woman Inclined her head and began to move once more. The girl to his side seemed to shift slightly, glancing at him every few seconds and giving him a look that was clearly disapproving. Ivar simply offered her a shrug, then continued on the path.

Eventually the trees began to break and spread out, and a village revealed itself.

It was a small thing, spread apart with perhaps a dozen buildings that had been built in such a way that they blended into their surroundings. Ivar looked around as they wandered in, seeing dozens of women, small girls...and absolutely not a single man.

As they walked he could feel eyes on him, many more than he was comfortable with.

 

[Willa]

Willa let her gaze wander around the little village with curiosity, trying not to appear as timorous and uncomfortable as she felt. She could only imagine how Ivar was feeling, as she was quickly disregarded by the many eyes and they settled instead on him. Some of the children looked terrified, most of the women looked either disgusted or angered as they hid their children behind them.

She moved a little closer to Ivar, her brow furrowed as she stared back at them. If they were forbidden from causing violence, she hoped the same could be said for the residents. She wondered briefly of what men had done to be so loathed by their community..And then she thought of Rhist, and her uncle. She understood, to a degree, but that wasn't all men as Ivar had proven.

"Can you tell them that he means no harm?.." she asked the woman in front of her quietly.

 

[Ivar]

"I don't think they'd much care lass." Ivar said before the other woman could, but as he watched the woman ahead of them he saw the shallow nod that she gave in response.

It was a confirmation of his beliefs.

With the way the women looked at him it was almost a little too obvious that such would be the truth, most appeared decidedly uncomfortable, even full of hatred. A few gave him looks of genuine curiosity, and he supposed that was a marked improvement over the others. He'd rather have someone be curious than want to stab him.

"A good amount of women here are runaways from Kyslith or the outlying villages. Though some were born here."

Ivar frowned but nodded his head.

By his count there were probably a hundred or so villagers, all of them women. The buildings were large enough to house a dozen or more each, and he suspected that these people lived communally as some in the Tundra did. He expected that a family here looked vastly different than what he and Willa were used to.

Oddly enough it reminded him of the Blightlands.

Eventually the woman lead them to one of the smaller buildings. It was modest, built of stone and we'll constructed but clearly intended to be a bit further away from everything else. The woman unlocked the door, then motioned for Ivar and Willa to step inside.

"Please, make yourselves comfortable. The Matron will want to speak with you."

 

[Willa]

Willa looked to Ivar with a soft frown and sighed in resignation. So long as they weren't going to come at them with weapons, she supposed they'd have to deal with it for safety's sake. Her lips pressed thinly as the woman explained where they had all come from and she dropped her gaze to the ground rather than look at them, as though they might notice the pain she carried and see her as one of them.

She frowned as the woman unlocked the door, finding herself wondering why it was locked in the first place, and she glanced to Ivar uncertainly. Trust was clearly not coming easily, and she dearly hoped she wasn't leading them into trouble.

The sound of this Matron didn't fill her with much confidence either, but she stared at the door for a brief moment before taking Ivar's arm and stepping inside.

 

[Ivar]

Ivar stepped through the door and found that the inside of the little hurt was much the same as the outside.

The furniture was nice enough, there were no rooms per say, though some walls that did separate thing. Two beds, a single table, fireplace, and some chests that lined the edges of the room. Ivar couldn't help but be reminded of the hotel room that they had occupied not even a day ago.

"Quaint." Ivar commented as he turned to Willa with a shrug of his shoulders.

He had lived and seen many worse homes, especially in the Blightlands. His head turned and he slowly looked around the small hut.

Ivar glanced back to Willa. "How's your voice"

He asked with a smile.

 

[Willa]

Willa turned back to stare at the door as it closed behind them, her teeth latching onto her lower lip to chew on it anxiously..

"Hm?.." she finally turned as he asked her a question and she let out a breath of a laugh and settled her hand on her throat with a look of consternation.. "Sore, but it works.." her shoulder shrugged and she smiled at him. "I suppose thinking you were about to die was motivation enough." she pondered and rubbed at her throat before letting her hand drop, her brow furrowing as her mind cast a flashback of those awful dreams of Rob and Rand.

"I'm not sure about this place, Ivar, but I don't think we did have any choice." she spoke quietly, partly to prevent anyone overhearing, partly because there was only so loud she could speak at all it seemed.

 

[Ivar]

Ivar shrugged his shoulders. "My heads not on a chopping block."

He left out the "yet".

Oddly enough, he felt a whole lot safer here than he had even standing in a regular Tavern in Kyslith. The people here might stare at him in disgust and hatred, but he did not have that same dark gloomy feeling in the pit of his stomach that the black city had given him.

With a choice of the two, Ivar would take this place any day of the week.

Not to mention that Willa had her voice back. If nothing else that was a positive outcome of all of this. If they managed to make it out of here he would count it as an overall win, and it looked like they'd get to sleep on beds instead of the forest floor.

Another win.

The barbarian let out a sigh though, sitting himself down on a bench in the corner of the room and reaching up to run a hand through his hair.

"I am getting really sick of the south." He murmured, more to himself than Willa.

 

[Willa]

Willa grumbled in agreement to his words and sat down on the edge of one of the beds across from him with a quiet huff, her silvery hair fluttering as she did so. "Me too." she said quietly and hugged her cloak around her.

"Perhaps, we should go home. To the Tundra, at least.. It's a big place. At least it'd feel more like home.. Though.. I suppose you could return to Kjos now, if you wanted to. I doubt my uncle will hold any of my father's grudges." she dropped her gaze and fidgeted with her thumbs.

 

[Ivar]

He frowned for a moment, and then shook his head. "I can't."

Ivar had made a promise, and a man's word was his bond. There was no way that he could return to the Tundra. Not now. Not for another two years at the very least. He and Braum had told one another that they would meet on the Bladefin Isle and return to Kjos together.

The Barbarian could not go before then.

"I made a promise to Braum, we would return together." A frown touched his features for a moment. "But I can get you there, find someone to trust to take you back at least."

His lips thinned. "Maybe to Osar in the South or Fjoll to the east."

They were free settlements, like Kjos, though more focused on trade than Kjos was.

 

[Willa]

Willa couldn't hide her disappointment but she nodded slowly in understanding regardless.

"No.." she answered quietly at his offer. "There is no-one that I would trust. Those cities trade with Kjos, someone would hand me over. I wouldn't live comfortably.." she sighed and her shoulders fell.

"I'll find somewhere safe in the southland where you can leave me.. I, appreciate you helping me this far. You didn't have to do that." she frowned at him, glad to be finally able to verbally express her gratitude.

 

[Ivar]

"Gladly." It was a matter of honor, at least that was what he had told himself.

In truth, he still wasn't entirely sure why he had done what he'd did. Perhaps it was just the disrespect of it, perhaps it was because she'd been in danger. In that moment he'd had no life anyway, so saving her had been the last thing he could do.

A faint smile touched his lips. "It hasn't been so bad."

He told her.

"Better than the Blightlands, and Alliria." Ivar chuckled. "I haven't faced a headsman's ax since we've been together so my situation is improved, I'd say."

 

[Willa]

A warm smile broke her solemn expression as he answered her and she laughed under her breath.. “I suppose not..” she looked down and shrugged, her fingers pulling through the ends of her hair. “My situation has certainly greatly improved..” she nodded slowly, her lips pursing in thought.

Her mind was quick to drift, and she was almost glad of the sound of the door clicking open.

 

[Ivar]

The woman that had lead them here in the first place stepped through the door, her head held high but no one following her this time. Ivar looked at her wearily for a brief moment, frowning as he studied her and tried to see her intent.

She stepped into the room, looking at Ivar and then to Willa.

"You have been invited to dinner by the Matron."​

Dinner? It seemed like it was well passed midnight, now as hardly the time for supper...but that wasn't an argument he was about to make. Instead he looked over towards Willa and shrugged.

They were hardly in a position to say no.

"Sure?" The Barbarian said, as if he wasn't entirely sure of his answer.

 

[Willa]

Willa frowned uncertainly but after a glance to Ivar she gave a brief nod and stood.

"Thank you.." she answered politely, refraining from comment on the lateness of the hour. She moved to Ivar to stay close to him, taking his arm in the fear that whatever awaited them, that they might be separated. She followed the woman from the hut and back through the little village toward the largest of the buildings that sat in the centre surrounded by torches dug into the sand and lined with more wild looking women who stood guard of it.

They stood aside as the three approached, and Willa's fingers tightened on Ivar's arm.

 

[Ivar]

Ivar did not look at anyone or anything too closely, deciding still that he valued his life a little too much to poke any one bear for too long.

Instead he strolled happily alongside Willa, or rather, he tried to look happy. There was no reason to give off an air of being insulted, of anger, of anything of the sort. All that he needed to do was...act nice. At least that was what he figured.

Eventually their path went through the town proper, and the small party found their way to a massive meeting hall.

Two double doors fell open, revealing a long table surrounded by a lush garden. At the head of the table sat a woman whose age Ivar could not have identified had he tried. There was an air about her that marked her as old, yet her features were not a year above Willa's.

Ivar frowned for a moment, glancing at Willa for a moment before he looked to their host.

"Welcome, my honored guests."​

The voice seemed to ring out not in the air, but almost in their skulls.

 

[Willa]

If Willa had any colour to her milky skin it would have drained, but she felt the sensation all the same as she heard the voice in her mind. A militia of chills marched it's way down her spine and she was unable to suppress the shudder that it caused. She stared back at the woman with unease and glanced to Ivar before deciding to approach the table.

Honoured guests?... Willa thought, and then tried to stop herself from thinking, unsure if the woman would hear her inner dialogue.

"Thank you, for your kindness and hospitality, Matron?..." Willa's head tilted, and she took the seat that was pulled out for her with a small dip of her chin in thanks.

 

[Ivar]

"Greetings." Ivar said with a nod of his head, trying to remember...any of the etiquette he had ever been taught.

That knowledge was of course rather scant. Ivar had been brought up as an exile on the outside of civilization and as far away from nobility as anyone could physically be. His fingers tightened for a moment, and he just decided to mimic Willa.

Sliding into his seat Ivar shifted uncomfortably.

"Vela, will do just fine."​

The woman said as she waved her hand. Some food was brought out and placed in front of them, meats and some vegetables that The Barbarian had never seen before. He frowned for a moment, looking down at the food and then over to Willa. "Umm...Vela."

He cleared his throat.

"What is this place?" Ivar asked, figuring it was best to be direct.

"Sanctuary. A place of safety away from the horrors of this world, and those men nearby."​