Legendfalls 11: Legends Unveiled
Mar. 13th, 2012 10:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzSince Truestrike is not one to describe events, my report of Legendfalls will be written as a memory of important events. Italics can be seen as current time, regular as the memory as it is being recalled.
Carefully stretching, Truestrike rolled over. Her hair tangled in the brush above her, but she didn't mind. The sun was nice, but shade was even better. She remembered the thick fur, the tufted ears, and the thick short legs and could understand why she had abandoned her spot in the sun for this one in the shade of a shrub. For a moment, she sniffed the air, but it was clear. No more beastkin seemed to be around and there were no wild animals or humani nearby to disturb her slumber. Her eyes lingered on one of the spiritsigns Snow and Suka had made near their hut.
Truestrike had cornered Suka near the humani longhut, the inn. The human woman was a little startled, but not as frightened as Snow seemed to become whenever Truestrike came near. Maedha followed more dignified, her purse clutched under her arm and a soft smile on her face. Maedha never minded translating for Truestrike. It didn't matter much if the elf woman related everything to Tamarr or not. Perhaps he would learn too.
Suka asked something and Truestrike patiently answered. Never mind question hour, for humani it was always question hour. More questions came and Maedha raised her eyebrows at Suka before translating to Truestrike.
"Truestrike tell story." Truestrike said.
"She wants to tell you a story." Maedha translated to humani, more words being added to whatever she said. Truestrike knew the word for story in Humani, but most words still eluded her.
"Yes!" Suka wiggled a bit on the bench, getting ready and settling for the story. But before she started the story, Truestrike bounded over to one of the wood platforms closer to the forest. Maedha and a puzzled Suka followed. "Story not for all." Truestrike explained.
"Ah. She says not everyone should hear the story, it's a very special story." Maedha translated. Suka sat down in a comfortable position and bent forward a bit to better see Truestrike tell her story.
She glossed over some bits, not wanting to divulge all, sometimes unsure what had happened. nowadays, her journey with the dryad seemed so long ago, and these days she called it 'walking with the spirit.' Little would Adriel understand.
When she told of her captivity, she fumbled for words. "Was caught. Brought into dungeon. Many longtime."
After Maedha had translated, Suka asked how long. "Many longtime." Truestrike answered. "Six, maybe seven equinoxes."
"Seven years." Meadha translated. Truestrike didn't know humani, or she would have corrected the elf.
"Then, was freed. Came to clan. Became cub." It was all so clear from then on. Everything from Before was no longer important. Nothing mattered but the Now. The After. After-Before.
She had stuck her nose into a humani tent. They were only humani, after all, and if humani did not have territory, they had no need for the privacy that came natural to Wildlings. RedGwen beckoned her in, haltingly speaking a few words of elvish. At some point, Iris offered Truestrike something that smelled divine.
"Ah, that's a good thought." RedGwen said. Truestrike was sniffing the air hungrily. She took what Iris offered her and sniffed it for two minutes before sticking it into her mouth. It tasted nearly as good as it smelled. In return, she shared her fresh frogs with Iris, who declined.
Before the divine thing was eaten, Iris offered Truestrike more, and she put the first bit into her bag while taking the second. When she bit into it, there was something icky around it, and Iris helped her peel the thing. "Sho-co-la" she said.
"Sho...sholoka!" Truestrike repeated.
"No, sho-co-la."
"Sholoka! Sho-ka." Truestrike said.
Iris sighed.
When Truestrike returned to the Longhut, she let Moonrage and Nightwing sniff her fingers. The shoka was gone, but the smell lingered. Their sensitive noses picked up the scent from her bag, and they bounded after her outside while Truestrike was trying to fend them off long enough so she could retrieve the shoka.
Carefully crawling from the sheep fur under the shrub, Truestrike sat outside, stretching her back and arms. A much better awakening than two nights previous. She had woken in the underground city, deserted and stinky.
After sniffing around, Truestrike returned to the others. None of them seemed very worried about being underground. They were all much more interested in discussing their dreams. Truestrike shook her head, and told Nightwing it was probably better to find a way out first.
Arifa and Cindar were there as well, and the three of them followed the tracks in the dirt and sand back to the surface. Nightwing was still talking quietly to the humani, but she hardly understood a word they were saying. 'Dream' was one word she now recognised, but what they had dreamed about...
Her own dream had been very strange, and once in the open air they sat down to discuss their dreams. Each had dreamed something different, but Elfani said it was probably all related. When Truestrike's turn came, she summarised her dream.
"Was make magic." she said. "Important shield not fail. One die, two die. Important keep doing. Had wife. Maybe see again at Letan. Died."
The humani asked a question, and Elfani translated. They wanted to know if the shield she was making was a green shield, because someone else had dreamed about that. She sneered. "What important, Truestrike make magic. Can't here. In dream, can."
The sun was already low on the horizon, and she could smell the rabbit stew the humani were making in their longhut. Rabbits she had caught, after the kitchen had been set on fire.
"Must hunt." Truestrike explained. "If food all gone, what eat?"
"There's no time. We're going to do a ritual first, to free the Neverborn from the flute." Every humani seemed to say this to her.
"Phaw." she would react. Howcome food was suddenly less important than rituals? Did they not know that rabbits came out of their den as the moon rose? Perhaps not.
In the end, she found two humani, one capable of understanding her, willing to accompany her. One carried two swords, the other no weapons at all. What use they would be, she did not know. She pointed them towards the kafnut trees, but most of the kafnuts had been eaten by squirrels. She found some red spiceroot, and set them to digging them up as she set snares near the rabbit warrens.
"They're called radishes." the humani said, but she shushed him. The other humani had seen something, and her eyes spotted it as well. A rabbit was up early, nibbling on some of the green clover under the trees. She drew an arrow from her quiver.
She offered the heart to the other hunters, and had a part as well. The spirits were good.
Somehow during the hunt, the world seemed to shake. A gust of wind pushed them over, but Truestrike rolled and the humani scrabbled to their feet. When they returned to the village with a number of rabbits from snares and the one she had shot, everyone was bustling about. Gwenyth told her they were inside the dream world.
"How?" Truestrike asked.
"Probably something to do with the ritual. We're not sure. But they're trying to figure out how to get out." the elf replied.
"Nightmares?" Truestrike asked.
"Don't worry. Whether you're in the real world or here, my shield is strong. I will protect you."
Truestrike nodded. She cleaned the rabbits and staked the fur for scraping clean later. Grabbing her bow and arrows, she once more set out into the forest. It wasn't far until she found what she was looking for. The reindeer was quite big, and it hadn't noticed her approach. Its scent was musky, drifting down the wind to her nose. The arrow she loosed at its head killed it instantly.
After thanking the spirits and slowly making her way back to the village, burdened with the large animal on her back, the villagers had smiled at her enthusiasm. "Truestrike knows we're in the dreamworld too." RedGwen had smiled.
Just as Truestrike had lowered her catch to the ground, suddenly she was somewhere else entirely. Her reindeer was gone, and she was with Adriel and Tamarr and a third elf in a clearing.
"This looks familiar." Adriel mused. "We were here before, oh, some few hundred years ago. This is our campsite near the lake."
Tamarr smiled warmly at the female elf. He seemed to know her. They spoke fondly and Adriel joined their conversation. Apparantly, the elf was their sister.
"You probably don't remember our sister, who was known as Lanelle before." Adriel introduced her.
Truestrike let it slide. It was true enough. "Truestrike of Those Who Walk The Leaves." she introduced herself.
"So what happened to you?" the woman asked Truestrike.
"She is now a Wildling." Tamarr explained what that meant and continued into a discussion about Dreamwalking and age and how time was a bit wonky between her world and the world we were now on. When finally the discussion dwindled down, Truestrike spoke again.
"Not understand why here." Truestrike said. "Who control dream? She control dream?"
"I'm not sure I understand what you mean. I was just dreaming." the elf said. "I don't know if I'm even skilled enough to bring you here."
"If she not control dream. Who control dream?" Truestrike continued. "Why control dream?"
Adriel nodded thoughtfully. It wasn't long after they returned to the rest of the humani en elves. Truestrike tested it out: they were still in the dreamworld.
Behind her, a low rumble sounded, and Truestrike suppresed a fanged smile.
She had hunted robbers with Moonrage and Cindar, but they had come upon them from below the wind, hiding in the shadows of the wood. When they finally attacked them, Truestrike had time enough to loose two arrows. One found the swordarm of the man in a metal shirt, the other stuck in the chest of the man who had felled Cindar. The cub was twitching, his throat cut. Moonrage quickly bent over the cub, and sent her to get help. Many came running at her calling, and her legs collapsed beneath her, blood trickling down her bandages. Snow had bound her wounds, growing more relaxed around them, but now Iris had to do it again. But Cindar lived.
She had offered Moonrage a leather cord with a bead from her hair. It was one of very few metal beads she owned, and rare. He nodded, allowing her to tie the cord around the staff he had made. When he bumped the stick on the ground, imitating one of the humani who did this also, the bead rattled against the wood.
At the campfire that evening, Truestrike had very carefully sat down at Moonrage's feet. It was a gamble, but he had accepted the gift. If he didn't want her around, she had no doubt he would make it clear. She pulled her bag off, so it wouldn't hinder her should she need to defend herself.
The status between the Wildlings in this village was unclear as it was. Within a clan, every Wildling knew what his or her standing was, but she didn't know how it went when outside one's own clan. That hardly ever happened anyway, and one in another's territory would always have a lower standing unless they were very honoured guests. As a hunter, Truestrike would probably have a lower status in another clan, but now they were not in Wildling territory, and Truestrike's hunting skills were wasted on a humani settlement that relied on trade. However, Moonrage's clan's territory was nearby, and she was careful not to sit too close to him at first.
Later that evening, they had listened to a story told by Tristan, one of the Red ones. Nightwing translated. Moonrage did not speak humani either, and Truestrike only picked up the odd word or so. The story was very puzzling. He had wanted to become yearmate to a female, but she had not shown up for a ceremony, and so he had drunk too much uishge and taken a dwarf's daughter as yearmate? And they were given round shiny things to sit on a log for two equinoxes? Then they came to a mountain without food and lived there, but how they survived was never told. RedGwen laughed a lot, she knew both languages, but she didn't bother to correct the translation Nightwing gave. Perhaps she thought he did a good job.
Shadowcloud passed by the shrub, averting his eyes. He would not look into the den, even if it wasn't a proper hut, and went on his business. He walked under the branches of the forest, disappearing towards the wild.
At the campfire, Moonrage had flicked a finger against her ear. It annoyed her, but so far he had not chased her off. He did it again, and she returned the gesture. He slapped her hands away, but she was more quick this time. Behind her, Elin snorted.
Truestrike was distracted by another flick against her long ear and pulled away, slapping at Moonrage hands and trying to find an opening to flick his ear instead.
"To be expected." Nightwing said to Elin and Shadowcloud. "Spring coming. Time choose yearmate."
RedGwen giggled from the other side of the fire, but Truestrike didn't bother to look at her. "What?" she stared at Nightwing. Then she stared at Moonrage. "Yearmate?"
"Yearmate?" he replied. A grin appeared on his face. "Into forest?" he asked her.
Truestrike did not need to be asked again. She was already there.
He had chased her through the undergrowth and over fallen logs. He was larger than her, but her skirts snagged on branches.
When he finally caught up with her, she resisted, fought him at first. Nails and fangs found flesh. She was not easily conquered, because that was not the Wildling way. A strong mate was preferred, and he was strong, stronger than her. But even so, they fought for a long time before they stopped fighting and started doing something else...
Truestrike got up from their lounging spot and buckled on her sword belt. Her bow and arrows were next. She wasn't hungry, but there might still be beastkin nearby. If they were, she would smell them before they were close.
The next morning Moonrage had shown her more herbs. Skullcap and Hellbore, Golden Thistle and Mystical Clover. Teaching was easy in the Dreamworld. He could just imagine a herb and it would grow at his feet. Finding the herbs on their own had been difficult. Humani scoured the forest and plucked everything they could find, never so much as thanking the spirits. It was one of the things humani needed to be taught. Even if they didn't listen to Truestrike, they'd have to listen if the herb spirits decided the herbs would not return.
They had hunted together before returning to the village, and Moonrage had spread his sheepskin in the sun. They had lounged together, her arm over his chest, and Truestrike had slept after Gwenyth had given her sleeptea to smell. They were back again in the real world, after the queen of the Neverborn had been set free. Truestrike knew very little about dreams and rituals and the tests they had been given, so she had kept far from it.
A stench had awoken her, something that hurt her nose, and they had found a humani in the woods. Adriel had changed his mind so the humani could no longer remember that he created beastlings, but not before the humani had told them about his experiments.
The beastkin came soon enough, howling for the blood of humani and Wildling alike, completely crazed by their unnatural thoughts. Shadowcloud, Snow, Moonrage, Gwenyth and Elin had been in a ritual, giving their energy to fighting the beastlings. When the battle was over, they fell where they stood, completely drained of energy. But the beastlings were gone for now.
Gwenyth had poked Truestrike. "You should ask Moonrage to take over the shield. He's your yearmate now."
"Yes." Truestrike agreed. It had been very hard to keep the thoughts about her nightmares out while she was prodding the fire the night previous. Stray thoughts could be very dangerous in the Dreamworld.
"I am glad you are sleeping better." Gwenyth said. "But I don't need to pick up on the yearmate part. Ask Moonrage."
When Moonrage woke, Truestrike had already picked out some long branches that had fallen from the trees. The rabbitskins she had gathered so far were only a small start, but soon enough they would have enough skins to cover the branches. Soon enough, they would have a hut.
-----
Legendfalls was good, I had a lot of fun. The tension between Moonrage and Truestrike was just right, and even though my character had very little to do with the overall puzzle plot (not a dreamwalker!) I still had enough on my hands. There were more fights this time and I am very blessed with the other Wildling players.
I also bought Mo's book, which she signed especially for me with a personal message. Her blogspot is here and I hope you can buy the book here
Carefully stretching, Truestrike rolled over. Her hair tangled in the brush above her, but she didn't mind. The sun was nice, but shade was even better. She remembered the thick fur, the tufted ears, and the thick short legs and could understand why she had abandoned her spot in the sun for this one in the shade of a shrub. For a moment, she sniffed the air, but it was clear. No more beastkin seemed to be around and there were no wild animals or humani nearby to disturb her slumber. Her eyes lingered on one of the spiritsigns Snow and Suka had made near their hut.
Truestrike had cornered Suka near the humani longhut, the inn. The human woman was a little startled, but not as frightened as Snow seemed to become whenever Truestrike came near. Maedha followed more dignified, her purse clutched under her arm and a soft smile on her face. Maedha never minded translating for Truestrike. It didn't matter much if the elf woman related everything to Tamarr or not. Perhaps he would learn too.
Suka asked something and Truestrike patiently answered. Never mind question hour, for humani it was always question hour. More questions came and Maedha raised her eyebrows at Suka before translating to Truestrike.
"Truestrike tell story." Truestrike said.
"She wants to tell you a story." Maedha translated to humani, more words being added to whatever she said. Truestrike knew the word for story in Humani, but most words still eluded her.
"Yes!" Suka wiggled a bit on the bench, getting ready and settling for the story. But before she started the story, Truestrike bounded over to one of the wood platforms closer to the forest. Maedha and a puzzled Suka followed. "Story not for all." Truestrike explained.
"Ah. She says not everyone should hear the story, it's a very special story." Maedha translated. Suka sat down in a comfortable position and bent forward a bit to better see Truestrike tell her story.
She glossed over some bits, not wanting to divulge all, sometimes unsure what had happened. nowadays, her journey with the dryad seemed so long ago, and these days she called it 'walking with the spirit.' Little would Adriel understand.
When she told of her captivity, she fumbled for words. "Was caught. Brought into dungeon. Many longtime."
After Maedha had translated, Suka asked how long. "Many longtime." Truestrike answered. "Six, maybe seven equinoxes."
"Seven years." Meadha translated. Truestrike didn't know humani, or she would have corrected the elf.
"Then, was freed. Came to clan. Became cub." It was all so clear from then on. Everything from Before was no longer important. Nothing mattered but the Now. The After. After-Before.
She had stuck her nose into a humani tent. They were only humani, after all, and if humani did not have territory, they had no need for the privacy that came natural to Wildlings. RedGwen beckoned her in, haltingly speaking a few words of elvish. At some point, Iris offered Truestrike something that smelled divine.
"Ah, that's a good thought." RedGwen said. Truestrike was sniffing the air hungrily. She took what Iris offered her and sniffed it for two minutes before sticking it into her mouth. It tasted nearly as good as it smelled. In return, she shared her fresh frogs with Iris, who declined.
Before the divine thing was eaten, Iris offered Truestrike more, and she put the first bit into her bag while taking the second. When she bit into it, there was something icky around it, and Iris helped her peel the thing. "Sho-co-la" she said.
"Sho...sholoka!" Truestrike repeated.
"No, sho-co-la."
"Sholoka! Sho-ka." Truestrike said.
Iris sighed.
When Truestrike returned to the Longhut, she let Moonrage and Nightwing sniff her fingers. The shoka was gone, but the smell lingered. Their sensitive noses picked up the scent from her bag, and they bounded after her outside while Truestrike was trying to fend them off long enough so she could retrieve the shoka.
Carefully crawling from the sheep fur under the shrub, Truestrike sat outside, stretching her back and arms. A much better awakening than two nights previous. She had woken in the underground city, deserted and stinky.
After sniffing around, Truestrike returned to the others. None of them seemed very worried about being underground. They were all much more interested in discussing their dreams. Truestrike shook her head, and told Nightwing it was probably better to find a way out first.
Arifa and Cindar were there as well, and the three of them followed the tracks in the dirt and sand back to the surface. Nightwing was still talking quietly to the humani, but she hardly understood a word they were saying. 'Dream' was one word she now recognised, but what they had dreamed about...
Her own dream had been very strange, and once in the open air they sat down to discuss their dreams. Each had dreamed something different, but Elfani said it was probably all related. When Truestrike's turn came, she summarised her dream.
"Was make magic." she said. "Important shield not fail. One die, two die. Important keep doing. Had wife. Maybe see again at Letan. Died."
The humani asked a question, and Elfani translated. They wanted to know if the shield she was making was a green shield, because someone else had dreamed about that. She sneered. "What important, Truestrike make magic. Can't here. In dream, can."
The sun was already low on the horizon, and she could smell the rabbit stew the humani were making in their longhut. Rabbits she had caught, after the kitchen had been set on fire.
"Must hunt." Truestrike explained. "If food all gone, what eat?"
"There's no time. We're going to do a ritual first, to free the Neverborn from the flute." Every humani seemed to say this to her.
"Phaw." she would react. Howcome food was suddenly less important than rituals? Did they not know that rabbits came out of their den as the moon rose? Perhaps not.
In the end, she found two humani, one capable of understanding her, willing to accompany her. One carried two swords, the other no weapons at all. What use they would be, she did not know. She pointed them towards the kafnut trees, but most of the kafnuts had been eaten by squirrels. She found some red spiceroot, and set them to digging them up as she set snares near the rabbit warrens.
"They're called radishes." the humani said, but she shushed him. The other humani had seen something, and her eyes spotted it as well. A rabbit was up early, nibbling on some of the green clover under the trees. She drew an arrow from her quiver.
She offered the heart to the other hunters, and had a part as well. The spirits were good.
Somehow during the hunt, the world seemed to shake. A gust of wind pushed them over, but Truestrike rolled and the humani scrabbled to their feet. When they returned to the village with a number of rabbits from snares and the one she had shot, everyone was bustling about. Gwenyth told her they were inside the dream world.
"How?" Truestrike asked.
"Probably something to do with the ritual. We're not sure. But they're trying to figure out how to get out." the elf replied.
"Nightmares?" Truestrike asked.
"Don't worry. Whether you're in the real world or here, my shield is strong. I will protect you."
Truestrike nodded. She cleaned the rabbits and staked the fur for scraping clean later. Grabbing her bow and arrows, she once more set out into the forest. It wasn't far until she found what she was looking for. The reindeer was quite big, and it hadn't noticed her approach. Its scent was musky, drifting down the wind to her nose. The arrow she loosed at its head killed it instantly.
After thanking the spirits and slowly making her way back to the village, burdened with the large animal on her back, the villagers had smiled at her enthusiasm. "Truestrike knows we're in the dreamworld too." RedGwen had smiled.
Just as Truestrike had lowered her catch to the ground, suddenly she was somewhere else entirely. Her reindeer was gone, and she was with Adriel and Tamarr and a third elf in a clearing.
"This looks familiar." Adriel mused. "We were here before, oh, some few hundred years ago. This is our campsite near the lake."
Tamarr smiled warmly at the female elf. He seemed to know her. They spoke fondly and Adriel joined their conversation. Apparantly, the elf was their sister.
"You probably don't remember our sister, who was known as Lanelle before." Adriel introduced her.
Truestrike let it slide. It was true enough. "Truestrike of Those Who Walk The Leaves." she introduced herself.
"So what happened to you?" the woman asked Truestrike.
"She is now a Wildling." Tamarr explained what that meant and continued into a discussion about Dreamwalking and age and how time was a bit wonky between her world and the world we were now on. When finally the discussion dwindled down, Truestrike spoke again.
"Not understand why here." Truestrike said. "Who control dream? She control dream?"
"I'm not sure I understand what you mean. I was just dreaming." the elf said. "I don't know if I'm even skilled enough to bring you here."
"If she not control dream. Who control dream?" Truestrike continued. "Why control dream?"
Adriel nodded thoughtfully. It wasn't long after they returned to the rest of the humani en elves. Truestrike tested it out: they were still in the dreamworld.
Behind her, a low rumble sounded, and Truestrike suppresed a fanged smile.
She had hunted robbers with Moonrage and Cindar, but they had come upon them from below the wind, hiding in the shadows of the wood. When they finally attacked them, Truestrike had time enough to loose two arrows. One found the swordarm of the man in a metal shirt, the other stuck in the chest of the man who had felled Cindar. The cub was twitching, his throat cut. Moonrage quickly bent over the cub, and sent her to get help. Many came running at her calling, and her legs collapsed beneath her, blood trickling down her bandages. Snow had bound her wounds, growing more relaxed around them, but now Iris had to do it again. But Cindar lived.
She had offered Moonrage a leather cord with a bead from her hair. It was one of very few metal beads she owned, and rare. He nodded, allowing her to tie the cord around the staff he had made. When he bumped the stick on the ground, imitating one of the humani who did this also, the bead rattled against the wood.
At the campfire that evening, Truestrike had very carefully sat down at Moonrage's feet. It was a gamble, but he had accepted the gift. If he didn't want her around, she had no doubt he would make it clear. She pulled her bag off, so it wouldn't hinder her should she need to defend herself.
The status between the Wildlings in this village was unclear as it was. Within a clan, every Wildling knew what his or her standing was, but she didn't know how it went when outside one's own clan. That hardly ever happened anyway, and one in another's territory would always have a lower standing unless they were very honoured guests. As a hunter, Truestrike would probably have a lower status in another clan, but now they were not in Wildling territory, and Truestrike's hunting skills were wasted on a humani settlement that relied on trade. However, Moonrage's clan's territory was nearby, and she was careful not to sit too close to him at first.
Later that evening, they had listened to a story told by Tristan, one of the Red ones. Nightwing translated. Moonrage did not speak humani either, and Truestrike only picked up the odd word or so. The story was very puzzling. He had wanted to become yearmate to a female, but she had not shown up for a ceremony, and so he had drunk too much uishge and taken a dwarf's daughter as yearmate? And they were given round shiny things to sit on a log for two equinoxes? Then they came to a mountain without food and lived there, but how they survived was never told. RedGwen laughed a lot, she knew both languages, but she didn't bother to correct the translation Nightwing gave. Perhaps she thought he did a good job.
Shadowcloud passed by the shrub, averting his eyes. He would not look into the den, even if it wasn't a proper hut, and went on his business. He walked under the branches of the forest, disappearing towards the wild.
At the campfire, Moonrage had flicked a finger against her ear. It annoyed her, but so far he had not chased her off. He did it again, and she returned the gesture. He slapped her hands away, but she was more quick this time. Behind her, Elin snorted.
Truestrike was distracted by another flick against her long ear and pulled away, slapping at Moonrage hands and trying to find an opening to flick his ear instead.
"To be expected." Nightwing said to Elin and Shadowcloud. "Spring coming. Time choose yearmate."
RedGwen giggled from the other side of the fire, but Truestrike didn't bother to look at her. "What?" she stared at Nightwing. Then she stared at Moonrage. "Yearmate?"
"Yearmate?" he replied. A grin appeared on his face. "Into forest?" he asked her.
Truestrike did not need to be asked again. She was already there.
He had chased her through the undergrowth and over fallen logs. He was larger than her, but her skirts snagged on branches.
When he finally caught up with her, she resisted, fought him at first. Nails and fangs found flesh. She was not easily conquered, because that was not the Wildling way. A strong mate was preferred, and he was strong, stronger than her. But even so, they fought for a long time before they stopped fighting and started doing something else...
Truestrike got up from their lounging spot and buckled on her sword belt. Her bow and arrows were next. She wasn't hungry, but there might still be beastkin nearby. If they were, she would smell them before they were close.
The next morning Moonrage had shown her more herbs. Skullcap and Hellbore, Golden Thistle and Mystical Clover. Teaching was easy in the Dreamworld. He could just imagine a herb and it would grow at his feet. Finding the herbs on their own had been difficult. Humani scoured the forest and plucked everything they could find, never so much as thanking the spirits. It was one of the things humani needed to be taught. Even if they didn't listen to Truestrike, they'd have to listen if the herb spirits decided the herbs would not return.
They had hunted together before returning to the village, and Moonrage had spread his sheepskin in the sun. They had lounged together, her arm over his chest, and Truestrike had slept after Gwenyth had given her sleeptea to smell. They were back again in the real world, after the queen of the Neverborn had been set free. Truestrike knew very little about dreams and rituals and the tests they had been given, so she had kept far from it.
A stench had awoken her, something that hurt her nose, and they had found a humani in the woods. Adriel had changed his mind so the humani could no longer remember that he created beastlings, but not before the humani had told them about his experiments.
The beastkin came soon enough, howling for the blood of humani and Wildling alike, completely crazed by their unnatural thoughts. Shadowcloud, Snow, Moonrage, Gwenyth and Elin had been in a ritual, giving their energy to fighting the beastlings. When the battle was over, they fell where they stood, completely drained of energy. But the beastlings were gone for now.
Gwenyth had poked Truestrike. "You should ask Moonrage to take over the shield. He's your yearmate now."
"Yes." Truestrike agreed. It had been very hard to keep the thoughts about her nightmares out while she was prodding the fire the night previous. Stray thoughts could be very dangerous in the Dreamworld.
"I am glad you are sleeping better." Gwenyth said. "But I don't need to pick up on the yearmate part. Ask Moonrage."
When Moonrage woke, Truestrike had already picked out some long branches that had fallen from the trees. The rabbitskins she had gathered so far were only a small start, but soon enough they would have enough skins to cover the branches. Soon enough, they would have a hut.
-----
Legendfalls was good, I had a lot of fun. The tension between Moonrage and Truestrike was just right, and even though my character had very little to do with the overall puzzle plot (not a dreamwalker!) I still had enough on my hands. There were more fights this time and I am very blessed with the other Wildling players.
I also bought Mo's book, which she signed especially for me with a personal message. Her blogspot is here and I hope you can buy the book here
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-03-15 07:20 pm (UTC)(note to self: Wildlings hebben sterke reuk zin)
O en over dat ritueel om de beastings op hun kop e geven :p Gwenyth stond er ook tussen ;)
no subject
Date: 2012-03-15 08:22 pm (UTC)