Norse Worshiper -Closed-

[Perplexia]

Deep in the swamp lands of the Okefenokee Swamp Siw Waaler resided at the tender age of 19. Once they were a mid-sized clan with aunts, uncles and grandparents to pass the ways of their forefathers down the generations. Like her mother, she was to be wed to a member of their clan still living in Norway. They would immigrate and join the community to continue the fellowship of Fenrir the Norse wolf god that was prophesied to kill Odin and be killed by Odins son Vidar..

The Waaler family, and a few others, had cherished the Wolf God who was mainly known for his viciousness. Fenrir was described as a beast and didn’t hold a popular following with those that cherished the other gods, nor did those that prayed to him. But the Waalers believed that wolves were one of the noblest species that existed. They survived with family (in packs), and mated for life. They defended one another to the death with little regard for their own safety. How could a vile creature be responsible for one so noble, was their argument.

Over centuries Christianity made it its mission to let the true gods be forgotten. Even in the civilized time those who didn’t believe in ‘God’ were declared pagans and devil worshipers. They were taunted, humiliated and victims of heinous violence that dwindled their numbers over time. They became target outcasts that sought refuge where they could. For the Waalers it was in the swamp. Prior to the swamp being a protected site they had purchased 100 acres of the 423,000 acre land to isolate themselves from the world of nonbelievers.

They made their living from the land, farming, hunting and selling crafts and furs at the flea markets and developing a few businesses that would purchase their homemade goods. It was a poor living, but it provided them with everything they needed. Siw had heard reference to the way they lived as similar to that of the Amish. There was no electricity, they relied on the land for their food and purchased the few items they needed in town.

She scooped the last bit of dirt over her father’s grave and covered it with stones. Two months prior it had been her brother’s grave, a year before that her mother, five before that her last aunt and so on. Whether it be accidental, or illness, it had now left her alone. Her father had told her that he had heard no response from the clan in Norway a few months prior. It would appear, that they were the last of the believers in Fenrir. Holding her amulet that had been passed down through generations she prayed to Fenrir.

“Father of the wolves, hear my prayers and know that I still remain devout as my kins have since the beginning. I fear I am the last of my family oh reverent one. I am losing faith that there are others that still follow you. Yet until my dying breath I shall remain faithful to your name. “

Taking four fingers she sunk them in the soil and brought them up to her arm marking it with the fait residue of earth. The marking of a paw was its symbolism.
Looking up at the sky she knew she had to take the wares into town and be back for the sun went down.

There hadn’t been any trouble from a clan that followed Vidar in a while. Yet with her father gone, there was no one left to protect her. They had tried prior to get him to agree to join the clans. But her father said that would be blasphemy, how could he join with a clan that had killed the god he followed?.

Wiping her red locks from her face she tied them back with a strand of hide and went to work filling her cart. The trip to town was uneventful, and she filled the cart with supplies she was going to need for the winter. The trip however took longer than she hoped, even as she quickened her pace she knew that she would be caught in the darkness.

 

[KieranSoares]

It was as the sky began to grow orange and the sun bloody red on the horizon beyond the thick trees that the familiar sound of an ATV engine filled the air from ahead of Siw, coming her way. With few vehicles small and powerful enough to navigate the trails, the few folks who lived in the deeper glades and plenty of natives and rice-farmers in the area used quads, dirt bikes, and a few even used horses like Siw's family had. The sound grew and grew til a very familiar camouflage-patterned quad bike with a small, empty trailer came into view, only one of the two headlights shining ahead.

Slowing to a crawl, the ATV got as close to the left edge of the path as the rider could manage, and a male voice called out over the engine, "Oi, wolf girl!" On the quad sat Siw's closest neighbor, if living twenty miles away could be considered 'close.' He was an older fellow, over fifty at least, and quite the homesteader. With long, curly salt-and-pepper hair and a full, scruffy beard to match and wild eyes, he looked like someone who belonged in the Georgia wilds. While Siw's clan had lived near the origin of St. Mary's River in the swamps, this man was a ways up north from them on the very edge of the wildlife reserve. He passed by all the time on his way to the tiny town of Moniac south of the clan's land.

His name was Amhuinn Finnlay MacConnolly, a native Scotsman who'd moved to Georgia in his forties as a widower. Most folks knew him as just 'Finn,' and he was a friendly jack-of-all-trades who often visited his homesteader and farmer neighbors to offer help with odd jobs, or share a meal from a recent catch in the swamps. To the Waalers, he'd been an outsider to be avoided til he'd become their savior one winter when food and money ran out and game was scarce. They'd come to the end of all their jarred and pickled food and had been living off tiny bits of forage for two days when Finn appeared on his signature camo quad and trailer with a white-tail doe, a brace of pheasants, and a young alligator all wrapped up in a neat bundle for them. After that, the Waalers had regularly bartered from him and he'd often drop by to make repairs on their homestead in return for a good meal.

Finn smiled kindly to Siw, having always called her family the 'wolf folks' and been fascinated with what little they told him of their beliefs and traditions. Straightening his wrinkled plaid overshirt and knocking dried mud off his jeans and hunting boots, he stepped off his quad and shut off the engine. "Awful late t'be making a run into town, ey?" He then chuckled at himself. "Then again, I'm the one goin' there now." His heavy accent and deep voice, barrel chest and broad shoulders all gave him an intimidating air, but he was really rather jolly and he liked his share of jokes, some racier than others. But he'd almost always been on good behavior around the Waalers.

 

[Perplexia]

"Hello Finn" she said hearing the familiar voice. "Yes, it's a bit late, but you are fashioned with a vehicle so that does make a bit of a difference. I must make pace to get back, I don't want to step somewhere i shouldn't." she said setting foot into the brush with the intent of crossing through it. She knew the land well, and knew that as long as she could still see she'd be safe taking the off beaten trail. I haven't time to doddle, Pa will be wondering where I be."

She waved and started walking quicker through the brush to the swamp. Pa wasn't going to be wondering, because he was dead. But Finn didn't need to know that. He seemed harmless enough, but it had been instilled in her from an early age that outsiders were just that. Yes they had dealings with him. But he wasn't one of them.
Siw made haste through working her way home as quick as she could. The light was leaving as her cabin came into view.

She put away her goods, and lit the lantern to make the way out to the live stock. The hens were all nested, as she closed their coop. She fed the horses, goats and pigs. Then went inside to make her meal. She looked blankly at the inside of the empty cabin. It was if being alone suddenly dawned upon her. Grabbing her amulet she spoke out loud "oh god of wolves what am i to do?"

 

[KieranSoares]

Silence seemed to be Siw's only answer for a long while, until just as she began to gather ingredients, a commotion reached her from outside. The animals iwere cawing and squealing madly with fear, sounds they only made when in mortal peril. The shrill whinny of a horse, more akin to a scream, sounded over them all until it was cut off very suddenly and all the animals went dead silent.

Outside in the dark, a huge, dark shape was hunched over a dead horse, snapping up flesh and bones with ravenous, starving hunger. It was far too dark to tell what the creature was, but it was far larger than the common coyote. It was more like a small bear, but those beasts didn't inhabit the swamps. Whatever it was, it had been strong enough and smart enough to open the barn door, open the stable, and drag the horse outside into the middle of the barnyard.

 

[Perplexia]

The sudden up roar of the animals startled her, causing her to drop her ceramic mug. 'The animals' she thought, they were her survival, her lively hood. Grabbing the the rifle off the mantle she made her way to the door. Gripping her pendant she said 'Fenrir protect me' Swinging the door open she stared blankly into the darkness. There was silence now. A deafening silence, and the sound of flesh being torn.

Aiming the barrel of the gun high she set off a shot. Hoping to scare off whatever may be lurking. Keeping her back toward the cabin, she edged her way around toward the live stock. The barn doors were they open? or was it a figment of her imagination. She cursed herself as she should have thought to bring a lantern.

"I warn you, I will shoot you dead in your tracks" she said trying to sound more courageous then she was to the darkness. She still had yet to see the fallen horse or the creature that hovered above it. Once again she let off another shot into the darkness, listening for any sound or looking for any movement.

 

[KieranSoares]

In the darkness, the faint starlight reflected in eyes that saw in the dark, and a deep, gutteral growl filled the air. The great furred shape rose up on all fours, bristling and facing the armed girl fearlessly. But with the growl came an oddly human sound, as if a canine and man were snarling at once.

It suddenly leapt forward at blinding speed, knocking into Siw and clamping fangs around the gun stock and her hand supporting it, drawing blood and snorting with anger and wild viciousness.

 

[Perplexia]

It was if time had paused and there was nothing she could do. He hit her before she even saw him. This was a nightmare, she tried to convince herself as she gasped for breath from fear and having the wind knocked out of her. Grabbing her pendant with her hand that wasn't in the jaws of the beast she managed to get out some words. "I am Siw, last of the followers of Fenrir release me!"

This wasn't an ordinary wolf, of that she was sure. She was desperate and would try anything to gain her freedom and save her life. Perhaps it was the mixture of fear, adrenaline, and pain that prompted her to try to order the beast away. She wasn't sure whether this wolf like creature could comprehend her words, or if she would be joining her ancestors.

 

[KieranSoares]

The strange beast suddenly stilled, though it didn't relinquish its hold just yet. It sniffed, pondering over the scent of the girl beneath it. Soon a paw reached up, but it wasn't a paw at all. It was a furred but very recognizable humanoid hand that wrapped around her injured wrist as its jaws opened. Golden eyes stared down at her, and a second hand seized her own which was wrapped around her pendant. Her fingers were pried open, and the golden eyes flashed at the sight of the dimly reflective pendant.

A gravelly, masculine voice murmured, "... Fenrir...?" The beast had spoken. And moreover, it was male and supporting himself on two legs above Siw. He had wolfish footpaws and a bushy tail, and the head of a great wolf, but the rest of him under the dark fur was human-shaped. In the darkness it was hard to tell if his fur was black or just a dark shade of something else, but his eyes had a strange, dim golden glow, flecked with cub-blue.

 

[Perplexia]

When he spoke after prying her fingers open, she was a bit bewildered. As a child she had heard the nursery rhyme of the boy raised by wolves and took on the persona. But there weren't wolves here. Was it possible that he could be one of those?

"Remember Fenrir" she said out loud as the words came into her head with a voice that wasn't her own.

Then she added, "Fenrir, the god of wolves, the one foretold to kill Odin. He remains in the stars.. there.." She said pointing up to the spot where his start should reside. Perhaps it's covered by clouds, she thought.

"Let me go, finish your meal of my horse, and begone and I shall pray to him for you."

Where this bravery was coming from she was uncertain. Perhaps it was over confidence in her belief that Fenrir would protect her. Or perhaps the adrenaline was still in over drive.Regardless even though her fingers had been pried from the amulet she gripped the cord in which it hung from tightly.

 

[KieranSoares]

The beast looked up to where she pointed, but then he snorted darkly, "He fell from the stars long ago." Turning his golden gaze back to her, he looked at the pendant once more and his eyes narrowed as if mulling over the bauble's very existence. He pulled back, leaving her be with her gun and pendant, and returned to his meal muttering, "You're either very brave or very stupid to uphold that name still, girl."

 

[Perplexia]

How dare he speak ill of her God. Yet she was use to people not believing. This man or beast or whatever he was surly had been treated ill in his life.

"One cannot put a price on faith. If you have never believed in something with your entire being then i feel sorry for you. I follow as my kin has for generations." Slowly she rose to her feet cocking the gun and aiming it at him.

"Do not return or I will shoot you" her voice shook slightly as she relayed this as she slowly walked backwards toward the house. Opening the door to the cabin she said loudly for him to hear.

"I am sorry for all you have suffered, but we have all suffered and must do our best to look within ourselves and our gods to find the strength to move forward. Not maim ones horse, and threaten their lives."

With that she closed the door barricading herself inside. Collapsing upon the floor she had her first anxiety attack. The panic finally over taking her and causing her to loose her breath.