The Woods Of Yggdra: Book 2

Prologue

"Bow down, thunder's child. Bow to the ground. You soon shall join them in the lady's embrace. The maggot shall rise, and the hound shall roam. The story undone, the story untold. Repeat the tale, thunder's child, through suffering and grief. Complete the circle; finish the tale."

"We watch your fate, bairn of the earth and rain. We see your fate, we see your doom. Do not fight the coming storm; embrace its lies, embrace their doom. You shall see them no more as they were, but as they are. Hate and despise, rage and storm, but the tale has been spun and all must be rectified. Follow the story, and all will be as it was."

"The trunk did not fall; they did let it. Cut it was, the great ash tree. A war was made, all similar to the one meant to be. Ragnarök did not occur, oh child of man; it sundered and fell. All else went according to plan as well as it could, but the circle is broken and must be mended. The serpent sleeps, the wolf slumbers. The giants lay rotting, and fires are dim. Travel back to the underground, child; fulfill the prophecy and see the end... the true end."

The voices twirled and listed in her head; they did not stop their chant. Three shifting women replaced each other's faces, each telling a tale, one she did not fully understand. A circle? What circle did she leave unmended? What story left untold?

She couldn't tell; everything was a whir. Faint memories of her time traveling seemed to dance in her mind. The jaw of a great beast, its teeth jagged and eyes like pearls, with its wings flapping as corpses fell from its gale. A nightmare in her mind whirred as her uncle fell to its claws.

The women watched in their cauldron brew; she too was there, watching the memories unfold. The nightmare of her childhood. Her childhood? She questioned over and over again. Her reflection was not quite the same as she watched herself in these memories. Smaller she was in these memories, tiny, and yet as she looked at her mess of flame-red hair, she did not see herself but another, similar but changed.

"Who are you, earth lass?" the youngest asked, her bright face shrouded in shadow, her body much smaller than her own.

"Who are you, bairn of earth and rain?" the second woman asked, her face a dream, though her face was kindly, a smile painted upon her lips but altogether wrong.

"Who are you, thunder's child?" the eldest asked, a hag in sheep's wool. Her face stern and her jagged claws, gnarled and long.

"Shall you tell the tale?"

"Do you dare?"

She watched the younger two with curious eyes. She didn't remember nodding, or even feel as if she did, but she must have, for they spoke once again.

"Your tale began with adventure, your tale began with a child's eyes. You thought it over, but no, it had just begun. Death occurred, and death, we're afraid, is the tale's remaining verse."

She felt herself shudder, but it was all a dream, so she was never sure if she truly did. Everything was foggy; swirling clouds surrounded the ash tree. The women, runes carved into their skin, the cauldron bubbling, and a tall fourth figure stood shadowed beneath the tree's leaves.

"Do not shudder, oh bairn of earth and rain. You chose this path..."

"Or do you not recall?" the youngest asked, "Yggdrasil survives. The circle..."

"Will start again," all three echoed, a loud gale filling her ears as the women began to laugh, her name echoing in their mouths as she began to scream!

"Jorunn, Jorunn! Jorunn Torleif, Jorunn!"

The tree began to fall, the fog whirring around her as she began to fade in its grey. She could feel the world spinning as the cloaked man approached her. He and she, all that remained of this strange dream, but even that would fade, the darkness closing in.

"Awaken, little thunderer, you have slept enough for one's lifetime."