Chapter 9 Miria: A Questionable Decision

Sköll heitir ulfr,

er fylgir inu skírleita goði

til varna viðar,

en annarr Hati,

hann er Hróðvitnis sonr,

sá skal fyr heiða brúði himins.

 

The words were as familiar to me as the beating of my heart. They told the story of Skoll and Hati, two wolves who chased the sun and the moon across the sky until the end of the world when they would devour them. It was the opening lines of my favorite story.

Sølvefalske’s Beginning

In the year 1066 A.D. the Dark Ages swept despair across Europe. Skoll watched from the sky as the humans crumpled from disease, war, and famine. Pitying them, he used Odin’s Runestones to create a sanctuary for them that became the Island of Sølvefalske.

To keep the world separate from the despair of Earth, he created a portal which could only be passed through death by the sea. The first to arrive were Norsemen whose vessel had sunk in a storm. As the years went the ocean brought more humans to the world. A kingdom was created, and the people had to decide who would rule them.

Two brothers, Sindri and Brokkr McNeil, fought for the crown, both wanting to rule in different ways. Sindri was twisted and ruthless, and one night he slit his brother’s throat while he slept. The outraged villagers banished him and his followers. Brokkr’s family became the leaders of the island.

The banished villagers wondered the sea for many days before discovering another island, this one made by Hati called The Sutherlands. The land was barren and ugly, with rocky shores and volcanoes that polluted the air: a reminder of the people for their heinous crime.

For a time, the kingdoms rested, but the Sutherlands lust for power was far from over.

The Runestones

After Sindri’s people left, Skoll blessed the people of Sølvefalske with 24 stones, each with a different rune representing a certain power. When the people of the Sutherlands heard of this, they grew jealous and declared war, wanting the magic for themselves. The first war between the kingdoms began.

Sølvefalske used the Runestones to give their greatest Warriors the power to shift into wolves. Using their own, weaker magic, the Sutherland Warriors also had a shapeshifting power that allowed them to shift into crows. Before Sølvefalske could launch another magical attack, the Runestones went missing.

Skoll told the villagers the stones were hidden across the island, to keep them out of the hands of evil. When the time was right, he would send a hero to harness the stone’s power and free the kingdom from war.

By the time I finished reading, the night’s storm was over and the first rays of sunlight bled into the sky, but I was still to jostled to sleep. So, I pulled myself out of bed and decided to do the next best thing: riding.

A sense of calm joy grew in me as I approached my horse’s stall. “Hey Frostbite, my beautiful girl!”

She stuck her white face over her padlock and nickered.

“You feel like going for a ride today? I sure do,” I whispered, stroking her velvety nose.

Something metallic smashed against the wooden floor of the stables, startling the both of us as the echo bounced between the walls. When the silence returned, I called out hoping a guard or a stable worker would answer, but no one did.

Frostbite nervously tossed her head, and I took that as a cue to be nervous as well. Glancing at the doors to the pasture, my heart sunk noticing the absence of guards.

Something dangerous was near, and as a potent young lady with no fighting skills, the smartest thing to do was to get the heck out of there. Unfortunately, the door out was right pass the aisle the noise came from. So I picked up a shovel for self-defense and crept towards the exit.

Carefully, I crept my head around the stall, trying to see who was there, and instead found nothing. I let my guard down as I started walking, and suddenly felt an arm wrap around my throat. A pitiful squeal escaped me as I tried to break free, but my attacker’s grip was stronger. I swung the shovel behind me, but they dodged my poor defense attempts.

“Take her easy, lassie, we’re not here to hurt ya.”

My jaw dropped at the sound of the girl’s voice. “Caoimhe?”

She stepped back from me. “I know this don’t look good, but Chris and I were only grabbing supplies.”

“Damn it, Cao,” Chris says, stepping out from behind a wall. “You gotta bring me down with you?”

“Laddie, if I’m getting dragged off to prison, yer coming along with!”

“What do you mean by ‘grabbing supplies’?” I asked, stabbing the shovel into a nearby bale of hay.

She held up the horseshoes in her hand. “The blacksmith’s workshop was destroyed by Crows. It’ll be fixed soon, but we couldn’t wait. Plus, we thought maybe there were a couple pegasi we could barrow.”

I rolled my eyes. “Well, it’s a shame they're all being used by Warriors, otherwise I would absolutely let you ‘borrow’ them.”

“Well, would it bug ya if we took some equipment for the trip?”

“I guess not,” I said, letting out an exasperated sigh. There was nothing I could do to stop them from taking stuff anyway. “How did you guys get in here?”

“Snuck o’er the fences and gave the guards a pat on the noggin,” Caoimhe replied casually. “Don’t worry, they should wake in a few hours. Farewell, princess.”

I rubbed my forehead. “Attacking guards is a crime worthy of incarceration.”

“You wouldn’t lock us up,” Chris smirked. “We’re the only ones going to look for Ylvana.”

When I told him I could tell on them after they found Ylvana, his stupid smile dropped.

“Miria.” Caoimhe touch my shoulder. “We truly mean no harm. The important thing here is finding Ylvana, so if you want to tell on us, I don’t care.”
“I do,” Chris said.

“Shut up.”

“Ylvana means that much to you?”

Caoimhe nodded. “The world isn’t black and white. To do right, sometimes you have to do wrong.”

For some reason, her words shocked me. A strange sort of panic bubbled inside of me when Caoimhe and Chris started walking away. I felt that something important was about to slip through my fingers.

“Wait!” I called.

“Yea, Princess?”

I licked my suddenly dry lips. “Let me come with you.”