A Song for Winter: Enter The Scion

    As the portal from space opened up in front of his house, William stumbled out utterly exhausted. Between the fighting and drinking upon The Harlock, he had no energy left for anything at all. William pushed open his door as he mumbled a greeting to his daughter, Jaina, before the folf retired to his room, stripped off his clothes, and passed out on his bed. Hours passed while he slept none the wiser of how much time had passed. 

 

Suddenly a whistle broke through the darkness of sleep instantly waking William. Somebody was whistling the Winter Song and he had to find out who. Dressing quickly, William rushed outside to find Jaina and Violet standing with a brown-furred lion with a black mane. William recognized this male lion as Archdruid Regalius of the Harvest Druids and Violet’s father. Upon Regalius’s are sat a massive black raven whistling the Winter Song.

 

“Viggo,” William shouted, surprised and excited to see his familiar raven again. The raven flapped over to William’s arm, equally excited to see him again. “It is good to have you back old friend,” William whispered to Viggo before remembering himself and addressing his visitors, “Archdruid Regalius you honor me with your presence.”

 

“Nonsense the honor is mine,” Regalius waved off the greeting, “there’s no need for such pleasantries. Viggo came to us some time ago and we took care of him for you.” Regalius explained that he received William’s messenger requesting an alliance and decided to break his circle’s neutrality stance. Harvest Druid warriors arrived with Regalius and supplies to help the refugees being sheltered in the village. With this news, William called for an immediate feast to be held in honor of their new alliance.

 

The feast started just after noon and went on well into the night. Food and drink flowed as warriors, refugees, and druids ate, drank, laughed, and partied as equals. Entertainers put on shows for one and all for the amusement of all. Contests and feats of strength were performed for prizes and bragging rights were to be had. Not a frown was to be found anywhere in the village.

 

“So William, when are you going to challenge me to a wrestling match for my daughter’s hand in marriage,” Regalius casually inquired between bites of food. William was caught off guard by the question and choked a bit on his food.

 

“Dad! Leave him alone,” Violet scolded her father, “I am not a prize to be won in some sort of contest.”

 

“You're just saying that because my dad can beat your dad,” William’s daughter, Jaina, proclaimed as she leaped up onto her chair to put herself at eye level with Violet. Laughter erupted from everyone at the table as the lioness and the smaller half lynx stared off for a moment. All the merriment was shortly broken as an alarm bell sounded outside.

 

William rushed outside with the lions Violet and Regalius on his heels. Village defenders rushed to get civilians to safety and rally at the eastern gate. Just beyond the gate, a portal had opened up with a lone figure walking away from it towards the village. As this uninvited guest got closer, William mounted the lookout post to see who or what was disturbing the celebration. Once the figure was within the light of the lookout braziers William could see that this figure was wearing the signature red armor the armies of The Matriarch wore, was some sort of canine, and wore a gold mask covering its face. Viggo landed on the tower next to William and gave out a warning call as the gold mask intruder stopped short of the gate.

 

“I’ve come for the child playing at being a savior,” the figure in the gold mask declared loudly as it looked over all the figures on the wall defenses. “I know him as Ragnar, the Bastard Son of Odin but perhaps you call him William.” There was a murmur that shot through the gathered crowd as this was a moniker most of them had never heard before. William took a moment to weigh his options before dismounting the lookout post and opening the gate.

 

“I am the one you seek,” William told the intruder as he signaled for the gate to close behind him. He took a quick look around to make sure he wasn’t about to be ambushed by some hidden army. “Who are you and why have you disrupted my celebration this evening,” William asked unsure as to how to approach this stranger. There was some sort of weird energy in the air around them. 

 

“The Matriarch has entrusted me to lead her armies on her war campaign,” the being in the gold mask explained, “I am her general. Her will is my will. I am her Scion!” At this revelation William drew the hilt of his water sword, freezing the water inside with a whistle as he did so to make his ice blade grow. Everyone on the wall defenses also drew their weapons readying to fight. 

“You can turn right the Hel around and tell that bitch queen of yours that she won’t be taking this planet,” William shouted, shifting to an aggressive stance with both hands on his sword.

 

“I’ve come with a simple deal,” The Scion announced, ignoring William’s declaration. “Duel me, win and I’ll leave and forget the portal network coordinates for this place but if you lose you will surrender yourself to The Matriarch.” William was caught off guard by this proposal from The Scion. He had been challenged to all kinds of duels in his life but none quite this important. This could decide the future of the war in one fell swoop. It could also leave his daughter without a father. “You may use any weapons you wish as it makes no difference to me,” The Scion added, noticing the indecision on William’s face.

 

“Deal, let's do this,” William finally agreed calmly before whistling a few notes. The notes were answered by a cawing from Viggo who promptly took off flapping into the night. Light flashed as The Scion drew two dueling sabers with white metal blades and charged forward. William caught the first saber on his ice blade before quickly drawing his witch knife with his left hand to block the other. He didn’t bother to activate the hard light shield as William felt it was smarter to fight a duel-wielding opponent with two weapons of his own. There was something naggingly familiar about how the Scion fought and as the duel continued the feeling only sunk deeper. 

 

Ice blade and knife met sabers again and again as the two seemed to be able to perfectly anticipate the other’s attacks. As the two locked weapons, The Scion suddenly ducked down before catching William on the chin. Reeling from that attack he was unable to dodge a stomp kick to his right knee. Falling off balance, William whistled a quick series of notes before ducking into a combat roll away from his opponent. A raven’s caw was heard far off in the night sky followed by a few answering notes. Moments later arrows began to fly from the sky, fired by nonexistent bows. Attempting to dodge the hail of arrows left The Scion defenseless as William grabbed his opponent before running his sword through them. As the ice blade was pulled free of his opponent there was no blood on the blade at all. Unfazed by this penetrating attack, The Scion resumed their attack as the arrows stopped falling.

 

Although The Scion was about half a foot shorter than William the pair were about matched on strength. Seeing that he wasn’t going to overpower his opponent with sheer muscle he decided to try magic. Whistling quickly, William tried to change the air pressure around the Scion to weigh them down. As he did so hidden runes on the gold mask flared to life causing William’s magic to dissipate. Now without magic and seeing how The Scion could take fatal wounds like they were nothing made him despair a bit. Launching one last desperate attack, William missed completely as his opponent side stepped it while simultaneously slapping a metal band on his right wrist. His body lurched causing William to drop his weapons as it felt like he was suddenly chained by his wrists to some sort of invisible wall.

 

“I  suggest you yield,” The Scion advised as William struggled against his invisible bonds, “those chains feed on your magic to hold you back.”

 

“I’m not done yet,” William growled as he tried to pull himself free.

 

“Why do you struggle against the inevitable,” The Scion asked, slapping William’s sides with the flat of the sabers, “You are going to die painfully just like your father, your whore mother, and your bitch wife Julia.”

 

“You keep their names out of your mouth,” William snapped at the golden masked Scion. Rage was starting to swell in William as he struggled against his bonds. He couldn’t lose here because if he did it was all over for everyone. Too many people relied on him for him to lose.

 

“Was Julia the one that stung the most,” The Scion asked mockingly? “She fought just like you to save everyone but it wasn’t enough. I killed her and kidnapped your filthy half-breed child.” Tears started flowing down William’s cheeks as the words struck him hard. Relaxing against his bond, William became silent. “What nothing to say? Have you finally given up knowing that I am the one that ruined your family,” The Scion taunted almost laughing?

 

“Allfather,” William shouted as he brought his face up in a snarl, “grant me RAGE!” A deafening crack of thunder was heard by all as a red bolt of light struck William from the sky creating a small crater under him. The othala rune on William’s eyepatch pulsated wicked red energy as he began to snarl like a wild beast. Reason and logical thought were replaced with a singular desire, kill. Pulling hard on his bonds with newfound strength William easily broke free and charged Scion like a wild beast.

 

Punches, kicks, and headbutts flowed from William on instinct alone. There was no thought behind the attacks, just a singular raging thought. The Scion was driven back towards the portal unable to block anything. Each strike lifted the gold mask-wearing opponent off of their feet as they were inched closer and closer to the portal. Within the flurry of blows, William managed to land one attack on his foe’s neck and the other on the golden mask. Fire ripped across William’s flesh as he wretched the mask free of his opponent’s face. Dropping the mask, he could see the face of a female wolf with a hagalaz branded on her face.

 

“You,” William raged, tightening his grip on her throat, “I should have killed you when I had the chance!” 

 

“You really should’ve,” The Scion smirked as she grabbed something from her belt, “we’ll call this one a draw.” With that, The Scion broke what it was holding causing a small bright fiery blast that temporarily blinded William and allowed his quarry to slip free. Once his sight returned William could see that the portal was closed and The Scion was gone. Turning towards the gate his granted rage fled his body. Somebody was rushing out to him but the injuries he had sustained suddenly flared to life with white hot pain. William managed only two words before passing out.

 

“Brianna lives.”