A Song for Winter: Eventide Interlude

“Daddy!”

 

“Jaina?”

 

“Help me, daddy!”

 

“Jaina!”

 

    William woke with a start, covered in a cold sweat, yelling his daughter’s name. It had been several weeks since he had killed that Bloodfang hunting party and learned that his daughter, Jaina, was still alive. No portal had appeared to take him off of this axis-locked planet, so William accepted his fate of being stuck here for a time. Not knowing much about the magitech of this place and not finding a forge he could use to set up shop, William started hiring himself out to guard relic hunters as they attempted to find their fortune in the crumbling ruins on the dark side of this planet. It wasn’t an ideal situation for him but he was earning a decent amount of money and was learning more about magitech.

 

    Currently, between jobs, William was staying at a cheap inn that he found in the twilight band between the eternally dark side and the perpetual daylight sides of the planet. As he dressed to start his day, there was a flash of light followed by the sound of war horns. Rushing to a window, William saw that a large portal had erupted in the middle of the central street in the twilight band. A full war party of at least a hundred Clan Bloodfang warriors in full war gear poured from the portal. They must’ve found out that William had killed their hunting party and had come for revenge. To William this was fine, he would kill them all the same. As the general of the war party strode from the portal it snapped shut behind him but not before he pulled something small on a chain through behind him.

 

    William rushed towards the door to leave the inn with rage already filling his veins, but was blocked before he could leave. An old man in a ratty old tattered cloak and a missing eye put a hand on William as he reached for the door. Motioning for him to wait a moment, the old man’s touch seemed to dissipate the rage that was just moments before, taking over the folf. Closing his eyes and taking a breath, William realized the old man was right. This was no time for blind rage. If he was going to fight a war party, then he would have to be smart about it. As William turns to thank the old ragged man, he finds that he is gone. With a smirk, William knew what this meant, the Allfather was with him.

 

    As the general of the war party droned on with threats, William took the time to assess the situation. There was about a score of archers, about fifty berserkers, and thirty of what William assumed were some sort of elite guards. This wasn’t an impossible situation for William to win, but it was going to take a measure of cunning strategy to come out on top. After a few moments, he had a plan that he wasn’t sure about how well it would work, but he brought this terror upon the people of this world and he knew it was his responsibility to fix it.

 

    Whistling a long series of notes from the Wintersong, William stepped out on the street in front of the Bloodfang war party. Ignoring shouts from the general he kept whistling as miniature cyclones began to pick up around the archers. Arrows began to float up into the air from their quivers to their amazement. Using his witch knife like a conductor’s baton, William motioned and the arrows spread out across the sky. With a shout, the general dove for cover as he realized what was about to happen. A sharp note and a downward slash of William’s witch knife brought the arrows raining down on the war party. With a third of their part now dead and more injured, the Bloodfang warriors charged the folf. William pulled his sword and activated his blue hard light shield in preparation for the uncommon charge.

 

    The full force of the Bloodfang attack came barreling down upon William, only to find that he had vanished. Using a magitech project from a nearby shop advertisement, he had tricked them all while preparing for his next attack. With more whistled notes, William surrounded a decent-sized chunk of the main attacking force within a windstorm. Still whistling, the folf snuck out of his hiding spot and started killing as many of the warriors outside the windstorm as he could before they noticed him. He got seven before they noticed him and started attacking him. Used to being outnumbered William parried and blocked attacks, striking back when he could. Everything was working out as planned until an ax haft caught him across the face, blooding his lips. Unable to whistle with rapidly swelling lips the wind storm cutting off the main section of the attacking force dissipated. Unable to call on the notes of the Wintersong, William was without magic and this plan was rapidly collapsing. He could try to concentrate on notes in his head to summon bits of magic but there was no way he was going to be able to concentrate hard enough and keep fighting at the same time.

 

    Time slowed as the hoard of Bloodfang warriors all surged at William only to be cut off by a wall of thorns sprouting from the ground. A lioness stepped from the shadows of a nearby building to take her place by William as the thorn vines that made up the wall reached out and started to strangle several of the Bloodfang war party. With one surprised look, William could see that this lioness was his childhood rival, the purple-eyed druid, Violet. She nodded at him before summoning a variety of plants from the ground to attack the warriors as William protected her from any of them that got too close. Poisonous ivies crept across the ground immobilizing those not paying attention where they step, thorns shot out at necks and arms claiming lives and weapons, and full-size trees shoot from the ground in mere seconds throwing combatants across the battleground and creating barriers. William couldn’t help but smile fighting alongside his childhood rival as the battle turned in their favor that was until a shout and a small cry broke through the battle noise. 

 

    The surviving Bloodfangs stopped their attack and parted ways as their general strode forth. In the grizzled old wolf’s hand, he held a child up by the metal collar around her neck. Struggling against the collar was a grey-furred lynx with black spots, wolf fangs and ears, and a fox-like tail. William’s eyes widened as he saw the little girl. She looked exactly like his lost daughter Jaina but this girl looked to be around seven winters old whereas Jaina should only be two winters of age.

 

    “Enough of this nonsense,” the wolf demanded, putting a knife to the little girl’s throat, “surrender or I gut your daughter.”

 

    “Jaina? Is that you,” William asked on the verge of tears. “Why are you older?”

 

    “It’s been five years since we burned your useless clan,” the wolf laughed, “but of course, you may not have noticed if you’ve been portal hopping. They tried to explain to me how time and space work differently between the portals but none of that is important now.”

 

    “I will end you in all the most horrific ways if you hurt her,” William threatened as he tried to figure out how to save his daughter.

 

    Luckily Violet had a plan as she readied her bladed staff for an attack. William and the wolf general continued to exchange threats and vows as Jaina cried. None of them noticed a small thorn vine snaking its way up a nearby wall. Right as the wolf general was losing his patience the vine shot out sinking its thorns into the wolf’s arm causing him to drop his dagger. Following the vine, Violet slammed the butt off her staff into the enemy general’s stomach, staggering him and dropping Jaina into her waiting arms. Seizing the opportunity William roared filled with rage as he leaped into the air tackling the Bloodfang general while dropping his weapons. Violet held the hysterical Jaina close while surrounding the four of them with walls of thorns and poisonous plants. William reigned blows down on his pinned foe with the fury of a hurricane. He stopped to take a look when Violet shouted to him to see a portal tearing itself into existence. That one moment was enough for William to find a blade slid between his ribs. Laughing through a blood-smeared face the Bloodfang general pulled the knife out with a spurt of blood before burying it in William’s right eye. The world fell quiet as William fell to the ground bleeding from his chest with a knife in his eye. Everything was playing out in slow motion as the wolf stood up and started walking toward Violet and Jaina.

 

    “Rest easy champion,” a raven cawed as it landed next to William.

 

    “You have earned your seat,” a second raven said as it landed beside the first.

 

    Beyond the ravens, the old haggard one-eyed form of the Allfather stood in front of a magnificent golden gate. As the gates opened the most beautiful light spilled forth lighting up William’s one eye. Inside the gates, he could see a magnificent feast hall where his father, Odin Drackonas, dressed in resplendent armor waited along with his mother, Katherine Wintersong, dressed in the finest of clothes. This was the Halls of Valhalla, the halls for those judged to be worthy of the Allfather’s eternal army. All William had to do was accept this invitation and he would know nothing but eternal glory. He was about to take it when he saw his late wife, Julia, in the garb of a valkyrie. A tear filled William’s one good eye as he realized that he couldn’t die here, not now.

   

    “Allfather forgive me but I’m not done yet,” William called out in a raspy wheezing voice as he slowly pulled himself to his feet. Pulling the dagger from his now destroyed eye socket, William saw the Gates of Valhalla slam shut before him. Before disappearing with the ravens and gate the Allfather nodded while giving a carry-on hand motion. The wolf general was closing in on Violet and Jaina as the lioness readied herself to fight. With a battle howl, William threw the knife in his hand at the wolf burying it deep in the general’s shoulder. He turned around in time to see William picking up his talisman dagger and readying to fight.

 

    “Violet, please take care of Jaina for me. I promise I will find you again my child,” William vowed as he managed to whistle a single note.

 

    “William no-,” Violet started to yell but a burst of wind blasted her and Jaina through the portal which closed behind her.

 

    Despite his injuries, William moved quickly to close the distance between him and his opponent. Dodging a punch he sliced the wolf’s arm with his witch knife drawing a significant amount of blood. A cut to a leg here and a slice to an ear there as William began to wear down his opponent. Taking a punch to the ribs where he had been stuck with the knife caused the folf to wince in pain but gave him an opening to throw his opponent to the ground. William kicked the Bloodfang general’s head as the downed wolf tried to bite him. Then, with all the force he could muster William brought his hard light shield down upon his fallen foe’s face knocking him into unconsciousness with a sickening crunch.

 

    The Bloodfang general awoke several hours later with pain lancing through his jaw like fire through a dry wood forest. He was tied to a post with his arms outstretched out in some sort of large tent. William walked in front of his bound hostage while sharpening a knife ominously. All the folf’s wounds had been healed except his right eye which was now covered with a black leather eyepatch that bore a white othala rune. With a smirk, William gave his captive a little slap on the face sending a fresh wave of pain through the fallen general’s face.

 

    “Don’t bother trying to talk, your jaw is shattered and useless,” William informed the helpless wolf, “besides I just want you to listen. Your forces were all routed with the help of some other portal hoppers so all that’s left is you. Imprisoning and threatening my daughter is more than enough to earn you a death sentence but then you had to go and take my eye. The doctor’s offered me a new one but I don’t want to offend the Allfather after he allowed me to come back so I refused it. Now I’m going to send you flying to Hel so to speak.”

 

    William proceeded to perform the blood eagle execution with brutal efficiency using little secrets his father taught him to make it hurt more. Pain filled everything for the Bloodfang general as his body was broken but death didn’t come to him. A magic circle at his feet flared to life every time he thought his life would end filling him with renewed vitality. This was a little bit of Wintersong magic that William put in place to make sure his captive didn’t die too soon. Once finished with his bloody task he tore down the tent revealing that they were on the permanently sunny side of the planet. As soon as the magic of the circle ran out then blood loss, pain, the oppressive heat, or a hungry predator would finish the flayed wolf but that wouldn’t be for about a week. William dropped the knife to the ground as he walked away from the post and back towards the twilight band.