What it Means to Persevere

Wingdings and Amiri

The ringing persisted for the next three days after he had that dream. It distracted him despite his best attempts to ignore it. Grillby knew it just as well. "Dings? Wingdings, whatever is bothering you? You have been rather... rather distracted since Gerson left... you're not thinking of..." Wingdings shook his head quickly. "It's not that, no. It's just... I had a peculiar dream that night. And there has been this... this sharp noise in my head ever sense. I don't... know... what it is or why I hear it, especially considering it's the only thing I hear -" Grillby was curious and weary. "This dream... what was it about? What do you think the noise could be?" Wingdings shrugged before he started to describe the large walls in the woods, the doors with the Delta Rune on it. The whispers he'd heard in his dream and how they seemed to welcome him. Grillby looked thoughtful and sad, uneasy. "Do you feel drawn to this place?" Oh, how Wingdings wanted to say no... but that would've been a lie. Whether the dream was influenced by Gerson's words or not, they both knew there was something deeper to it.

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The world insisted on keeping them apart. The day after, the Fire Elemental and the Skeleton kissed for the final time in a long time. "Are you sure you want me to take Amiri..?" Wingdings asked quietly as Grillby held his baby and kissed her firey little head goodbye. "Yes... if this place is safe, I want her to go as well..." Wingdings nodded in quiet understanding. "What will you do..?" Grillby shrugged. "Perhaps I will visit Rock Bottom again and pick up work there." He replied as they kissed once more, and Grillby handed over Amiri. "I will miss you... and I love you... so, so much... you can still come with..."
"I love you too... but I can't... I can not explain it, but I feel as if I need to go somewhere else..." Grillby took the initiative, pulling away. "Until we meet again..."
"Until we meet again..." Wingdings turned down the road as he tried to hold back tears. They would meet again, though. He knew it. He followed the ring out of the town he had been born and raised into, where Amiri had been born into, and into the woods where his destiny seemed to await.

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The journey became a long one, constantly taking him north by northeast. He was experienced in these things, so camping out and sharing himself and Amiri food was relatively easy. Constantly walking was taxing, though. Always moving forward. Predators were a problem too, sometimes stealing the newly caught prey for a meal or trying to get to his dear Amiri. Sometimes, he felt that she would have been safer with Grillby- but it was good defensive practice. He would need that if and when the war ever did break out, and he needed to defend against humans and protect her. Wingdings thought about Grillby every single day as they walked. He would tell Amiri stories to keep her entertained and so that she would remember her mother, even if they were far apart. Before Wingdings knew it, many months had passed, and Amiri was tottling beside him. He knew that they should have been well into the cold season, but there was no snow around here. He felt that they were getting close. Finally, they were getting somewhere. It's was nearly the afternoon when Wingdings saw the doors. The doors with the Delta Rune.

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Walking through those doors, he couldn't believe his eyes. Skeletons everywhere, tending fields and walking around. There wasn't a single other monster in sight, leading Wingdings to realize that these were the skeletons from Gerson's story. This was Allhalla. A great many skeletons were gathered at one particular building, so that was where Wingdings went, nudging past skeletons to see what was going on. The baby was very small and very round. Wingdings assumed he was crying, but even the ring that had been pestering him all this time was gone. His sockets held big blue irises that carried that newborn innocence that he knew well. He knew the skeleton that was holding him even better. He had seen her many a time over the years, but she had always eluded him despite her old age. She and a few other females shooed the other skeletons out and put the baby bones in his crib before she looked to Wingdings and his daughter. She made a follow gesture to which he reluctantly did. She didn't try to say a thing, further solidifying that she really had been there. She led him along until they stopped at a door. She opened it and gestured for him to go inside. Wingdings complied, stepping into his new life among the skeletons.

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